Our Cyprus Vacation

We went on holiday last week to the island of Cyprus.  Cyprus is famous for the birth place of Aphrodite, the Goddess of Love.  It was lovely to get away from Saudi and Ramadan going on here.  Cyprus was a nice island, we didn't know what to expect, never having heard much about it.  Unfortunately we didn't get to tour about at all, we pretty much stuck to the hotel area because of Lily.  

It was great to see people wearing clothes instead of abayas, and to be able to have bacon and sausage, and drink real beer and wine.  Well Greg drank the beer and wine, I had a few sips.  We learnt a lot on this vacation, mostly about traveling with babies.  One, that you spend a lot more time in the hotel room, and two that it isn't as relaxing as you would like because you are always entertaining the baby.  We spent a lot of time at the hotel pool, not a lot of time at the beach, Lily was not very keen on the little waves or the salt water.  Greg thinks she is spoiled from the pool, I told him we would just have to visit the beach here more often to get her used to it.  Lily still napped in the morning and afternoon, when Greg and I would read and play cards on the balcony waiting for her to wake up again.  We walked out of the hotel and ate at local places once a day, which was a nice change of pace.  

One of the nice things about a vacation is coming home, and this was no exception.  We were glad to get back into our beds, and Lily was happy so see her toy boxes and to be able to crawl around and not be corralled as much.  

Lily in her buggy on the way back to the hotel from the beach, she looks a little sunkissed

Chelsi and Greg enjoying the sun.

Chelsi and Lily having some strawberry icecream in the pool.

Lily walking in the baby pool

The view from our hotel.

We made it

Just wanted to let everyone know that we made the trip. It was a long haul, but over all I think that we all did fine with it. Lily slept through most of the night last night, she woke up at about 4 this morning. We hope that this is a good sign that she will be fully back on US time soon. As for Greg and I, we could very happily still be sleeping, but we had some good sleep last night that was very needed.
Our trip didn't start off very well, I am glad that all the problems were in the beginning though. We had ordered a driver to take us over to Bahrain, and he showed up on time and we left the house at the time we had wanted to. Everything seemed to be going good. We get halfway to Bahrain, over the causeway, and the driver doesn't have updated paperwork to leave the country! So we had to wait for another guy to come and take us the rest of the way. So we finally get to the airport, and security in Bahrain is almost nonexistant it is so easy, so we breeze through the priliminary to get to the desks to check in, here is where the biggest problem happened. They have Greg and I, but not Lily, and we can't get her a ticket here. When I ordered the plain tickets I was worried about this, KLM wouldn't let me buy Lilys ticket online or over the phone when I bought my ticket. They said that she was booked on the flight, hooked to my name, but that we would have to actually perchase the ticket in Bahrain at the airport. So Greg and I were checked in, but not Lily, because they couldn't even find mention of it. I was very upset, and still am, because according to the representative we spoke to there this never should have happened, I should have been able to buy her ticket with mine. Almost two hours later (with calls for our flight to board) Greg has finally got it sorted out and we get to go through security, run to grab some food, and board the plane. Luckily the plane wasn't full, and it still left early.
We arrived in Amsterdam almost an hour early, to tack that onto the 7.5 hour layover we already have there! We took the opportunity to leave the airport and walk around the city. At 6 we got on a train-Lily's first train ride-and rode into the city, Nothing in the city is open before 8 though, so we just walked around until we found a breakfast spot that opened at 7:30, finally we had real bacon, eggs and coffee, a great breakfast! We walked around for a bit more, almost got hit by countless bikes, and decided to call it a day and head back tot he airport. It was wonderful to be able to leave the airport for a few hours and walk around outside to get refreshed. I will post pictures later today of Lily in Amsterdam. The Amsterdam airport is awonderful place to have such a long layover, they have many options for things to do, even a baby lounge where you can go with your baby and hang out. This was wonderful, they have these pod things in this room, each curtained off from the others, and inside was seating and a crib for the baby. We put Lily in the crib so she could have her own space to safely stretch out and play for awhile. Awesome. While I was out checking out the shops Greg and Lily got interveiwed about the lounge, and are going to be on a commercial or something. When we find out when it is done we will try and link it to the blog for everyone. So all in all Amserdam was a great esperience, and a great place to have such a long layover.
We boarded our plane for what we called phase 4 of our trip, the 7 hour flight to Boston. This flight wasn't packed, but it was full, so we stayed in our bulkhead area for the most part. Lily is too big for the baby bassinet, so we had to hold her or she could play on the floor. We were sitting next to another baby who was in a car seat. All things considered this flight went very well, Lily fell asleep on me for almost half the trip, so I couldn't move, but thats okay. So we made it, and are going to be hanging out with Nana and Papa today, oh and Rocky and Rado too.

We have a tooth!!

Last night one of Lily's front teeth popped out!  Finally!!  I have been waiting a month for this.  That is one of the biggest surprises for me, I thought that teething was a few days long, continuously, but it is not, it lasts forever, and we go through phases when Lily is feeling the pain and is crabby.  I knew that this tooth was going to pop soon, yesterday I could feel it, some little sharp ridges, and she had periods where she just cried for a while and then she would be perfectly fine again.  I looked this morning when she woke up, and there it was, the tiny top of a tooth.  I was very excited and called Greg right away.  Our first tooth.  I think that the second one will join it soon.

Lily is in a big learning phase right now.  We have taught her the 'so big' gesture.  where you say how big is Lily and she puts her arms up and you say so big!  She thinks that is fun and once you get started she wants to keep going.  She is also learning to clap when you clap, and we are working on the more gesture for when we are eating.  She doesn't get the gesture for food or hungry at all yet.  

For the most part she is still a very happy girl, she is very talkative right now as well.  We bought her a tunnel and tent thing, and she likes to go over there and play in it, which is great. Another thing she loves to do is pull her toys out of the cabinet where they stay.  

Today Lily and I are going to be busy cleaning the house, doing laundry and starting the packing process.  We are very excited for the trip home, well maybe not the trip itself which will take upwards of 26 hours from the time we leave the house tomorrow night.  We are excited to get there and see everyone, and (for me) to have some freedom again.  I am also looking forward to sharing Lily with everyone, so they can see her in this new phase of her life.  Just beware, she is into everything, and her reach gets longer and longer, I really need to watch her.  Greg and I are looking forward to maybe having a date night and going to a movie!  (anyone want to babysit?)  

I might blog again tomorrow, if not then the next post will be in a few days when we are state side again.

Leaving on a jet plane...

We have our leave date!  I am very excited to get over to Saudi and see what it is going to be like, and (more importantly) to see Greg.  We are leaving the Houston airport on Thursday, to land in Dubai on Friday, it is a 16 hour flight, but I opted for it, this way I know exactly what I am getting into!  Hopefully Lily will do her normal trick and sleep 11 hours of it, as we are flying at night.  Greg is going to meet us in Dubai, and we are going to spend the night there and then fly on to Bahrain in the morning.  This is only an hour and fifteen minute flight, which will be nothing compared to the day before!  When we land we will drive over the causeway into Saudi Arabia, and hopefully be in our new home soon.  I will try to blog one more time before we leave, and then I don't know when I will have Internet connectivity again, but I will blog as soon as I can to let everyone know how the trip went.