End of April

More pics

Some favourite rituals:

When i wake the girls up every morning, i lie in bed with them for about fifteen minutes, its really nice... they share a double bed on the floor (and often cuddle up), i re-use the same joke every day pretending to sleep and they both jump on me and say "wake up mummy". Yes, dorky Mum etc.. but it hasn't grown tired yet.

Every weekend Dustin and i take them swimming, this is without a doubt their favourite thing to do.

Every afternoon around 4:30 (used to be earlier but its getting too hot) we take them onto the beach where they play with the other kids or just look for shells.

All time favourite: - At around 6pm, after dinner, baths and teeth brushing, Dustin and i take the girls upstairs and watch a Disney movie, we have two huge leather grandma and grandpa chairs and usually Violet sits with D and i sit with Livi. After about an hour, we take them downstairs, put them to bed and lie in bed with them. Dustin usually reads a book each of their choice then its shut door. Both of them cry for about ten minutes then fall asleep until 7:30am.

The new Year is flying by

I can't believe we are nearly in May. This year has flown by so fast.

Aside from the global recession, this has been one of the best years for us in every way. We have truly been enjoying our time in Dubai, really settling in and enjoying the girls and watching them grow into their little personalities.

Business has been nice and steady, despite the recession, we bought a house on the Palm Jumeirah near the tip of a frond with beautiful ocean views and we're currently renovating it to suit our family.

Dustin has unfortunately had to travel a lot this year, but its all part of a greater plan to wind things up where he isn't so hands-on and can pursue other more stimulating business tasks. In the meantime we are both pursuing our dreams to study, with me carrying out my bach of Science in Psychology and him carrying out some classes at Columbia University in NYC (where we are spending the summer).

Now, on to the girls!
WOW, we couldn't be happier with how well they have developed and turned out. We have two of the most loving, affectionate, well-behaved little 2.5 year olds we could ask for.

Violet is energetic, absolutely loves gymnastics and loves to swing from everything and do acrobatics. She loves books too, and says "you read... please please please"...its so sweet and ultimately results in you dropping whatever you are doing to read Dora's magical adventure for the 34343 time. She loves Dora and Barney but is happy watching just about anything nowadays, in fact i put on my own favourite movie of all time last night "Annie" and they loved it. Violet also loves to swim, and pretty much the only time i hear her cry in a tantrum style is when we take her out of the water.

She is less clingy than Livi and more independent, yet definitely more affectionate. When she hugs you she hugs you so tightly and is so loving with animals and baby dolls. Everything she does she turns to us and says "look Mummy" .. "Look Daddy".... she just wants our approval, its so cute. I took her out by herself the other day in the car and the whole way there she was saying in her sweet voice "bye bye Lili" (still can't get Livi going).

Now on to my little Livi. When Livi looks at us with those huge blue saucer eyes its hard to say no to anything. She is convinced she runs and organises our house. Everything has its place and order and Livi makes sure there is no messing that up. She knows what is Violet's and hers and makes sure that each toy has its place. She will call for Violet if she is lagging behind and if i take something from Violet she says "no Mummy that is Violet's!". She adores her sister. She is just divine and makes us laugh constantly. She has a different sense of humour to Violet completely. She is also more sensitive, if something upsets livi, it really upets her and takes her a little while to get over. She is so smart, she picks up on everything and listens and remembers things that even we forget. She also argues with us "No Mummy, not pink.. red". She learned her colours, shapes and animals with ease and still debates a lobster over a crab. She impressed the other Mums at the park when she pointed at a toy turtle's back and pointed to the shapes on its back and said, oooh "octogon". She cracks me up when she runs, its just so cute.

I think what Dustin and i love about them most is how excited they get with every new experience. It seems they become jaded by nothing. Every afternoon on the beach is as exciting as the day before. Every time they see 'fishies' at the Atlantis resorts its just as cool. The other day we took them to see some sharks and they are still talking about them.

All in all... we really got lucky with these two, and we can't wait to continue to watch them grow. Right now Violet is definitely a Daddy's girl, they have a special bond, and Livi is Mummy's girl through and through (her favourite thing is watching me put on make up and me painting her toenails).

This Summer we are going to NYC for business, i am looking forward to the experience with them there, taking them to Central Park and seeing if their little expatbrat accents (a mixture of just about every nationality possible right now will turn more the way of an American accent).

Anyway -- Sorry for taking so long to update this, i'm a big Facebooker now... but dont want to let this blog fall by the wayside.

the blog

I'm not sure if anybody reads the blog anymore (since i'm more inclined to update facebook, faster load), but i'm going to try to keep it updated as much as i can, so that the girls have a cool timeline to look back on .. and those of you who still check in once and a while get an update.

Election Day Pictures

In honour of our new president Obama:-)...here are some pictures of the girlies.

Violet as you can see is very happy at the results, as she's always been a liberal left-winger, she see's that Obama will bring the much needed change to the US, a break from the stuffy good ol' boys club from yesterday, a breath of fresh air she feels. She commented.. that with Biden as his running mate there is a nice balance of demographics..She can't stand those crazy right-wingers who define hypocrisy when it comes to morals.... . Livi of course is a staunch right-wing republican and is afraid for the future of America, whilst she didn't like Sarah Palin and her ultra-conservative views on abortion and gay-rights and lack of experience in general..and of course. she felt that 2 years as a governor of Alaska does not a potential president make), however she felt McCain may have more experience in terms of foreign policy negoations and more experience in order to ultimately solve the world financial crisis.. she said shes not rapt about the newly imposed taxes by Obama, although this is her greed speaking because she secretly knows its probably better to make things more even.... Although she is concerned that this may limit the infusion of business investment into the economy... . and add to the downward spiral .... Its mixed feelings in the Hamilton household today!!
They're tired of debating, so we just put on the Wiggles to diffuse the mood...

Mummy and Daddy are very pleased with the results.. Bring on the change!



I can't stress enough that Violet's hairdo is not a mullet... its all about her baby fine hair and the angle.

2 year old princesses

The girls had an amazing 2nd birthday.

Mum and Dad visited us from AU, and Dustin's Mom all the way from Vegas for a week. So the girls got showered with attention, which they lapped up.

On their actual birthday we took them to Atlantis underwater world, and they just loved seeing all the fish and coral. Then we took them home for naps before their birthday party. At 4pm we had about 10 friends come over and we cut their princess cake (which was a bit of a disaster...long story)... Everyone stayed til late and the girls loved it.

Mum and Dads visit

A few pics

Nowadays i tend to update my facebook more than the blog... sorry for all those non-facebookers!! hence my slackness on the blog though. It took Dustin's Aunty Darlene to send me an email telling me to pull my socks up... so here is an update.

The girlies are growing soooo fast and loving life in the ME. Of course it will be nice when its starts to cool off, but luckily they've been easy to entertain indoors this summer, next year we think we'll probably get out though.

They are such happy, fun little girls. Their list of favourite things to do (in this order) is: 1. Dress up in costumes, funny hats/shoes and fairy dresses, 2. Watch Wiggles ("guggles" as they pronounce it). 3. Play Dough ("Day Dough" as they say it). 4. Earth Quake (its when Dustin shakes their house while they're in it and they crash into the walls.. they can't get enough and long after he has stopped shaking the house, they continue to stumble around and pretend its still going. 5th. Anything in water, swimming or bath time.. they repeat "water splash splash' over and over... So cute.

visit from Avril and Juliet

Had a playdate with a few Mums and babies.. pic here of our friends Avril and Juliet who came around to say goodbye to the girls, as they head back to Ireland for the Summer. Can't wait til they get back in eight weeks, can't blame them for choofing off... the heat is getting rather putrid!!

D's family have arrived

Its only been two days and D's family (Wade, Marlene, Britney and Brandon) are making the most of their vacation. They are staying in the JBH hotel (which shares the beach with Burj and Madinat) so its non-stop swimming/beach/water sport activities.

Yesterday we all went to the pool in the morning, then shopping and ice-creams at Madinat, then after some play with the babies and putting them to bed, we all went out to the desert to Bab Al Shams. This was the restaurant D and i first went to when we visited Dubai in Feb 05. It had changed a bit (the week we went it had only been opened a week or so and we were the only ones there), but they added a lot of great stuff, including some cool camel and horse shows. They still had the same belly dancers though.

The food, drinks and shishas were amazing. They really enjoyed the camel riding.

On the way out there, we were in the middle of nowhere, with nothing but sand dunes surrounding us, Marlene joked it would be funny if we ran out of petrol, so then Dustin enlightened us that we were nearly on Empty, with our phones out of range... Luckily we made it to the resort and they kindly gave us some petrol to get us home. Crisis averted.


Anyway, on to the pics so far.