Last night I stayed up with our hostess drinking champagne, eating cookies, watching Modern Family and chatting until 2:30 when our oldest woke up and had trouble getting back to sleep. We made him toast with Nutella and then decided to call it a night.
This morning I was expecting to pay the price of the champagne, but I am feeling fantastic, not even jet lagged! Yippee!
Later today we are going snow skiing. In a mall. In Dubai.
I haven’t been snow skiing since 2000, and that was a one-day experience while we were in New Zealand. The time before that was in 1993, and I had two runs down the bunny slopes before my dad broke his collar bone. The time before that was in eighth grade.
My point? I don’t think I’m going to be that great on the skis, but I am determined to try. We have already signed the kids up for lessons, so they won’t get to experience my miserable failure if it happens because they’ll be busy whizzing by me… Or a least that’s what I hope!
Gulp.
I promise to report back.
Much Later in the Day…
Jet Lag
I have a sheet pulled over my head, containing the light from my iPad as I type. I’ve heard stirring from the boys and don’t want them to wake. It’s the middle of the night, or very early in the morning, depending how you want to look at it. G and I woke up, chatted a bit and he decided he couldn’t get back to sleep so he’s in another room reading. I know I should sleep, but I also felt the urge to write. So, here I am, dealing with jet lag in a way.
As a group we seem to have fared quite well in terms of jet lag, with a few snags here and there.
Just to set the stage, our flight lasted nearly 15 hours and we are in a time zone which is 10 hours ahead of our home. So, by the clock, we arrived 24 hours after our flight took off from Houston. Our bodies and minds are not quite together on what time it is.
We arrived at night, stayed up later than we normally would at home and then went to bed. The next morning my husband (G) was up early and he started to get the kids up early, too, but I discouraged that in favor of a longer, more solid sleep for them and me. We got up at about 11 am and then did pretty well all day.
That night we got the kids to bed at about 9:30 pm, and the adults stayed up visiting for quite awhile. Surprisingly, though, my husband went to bed before I did, which rarely happens. I stayed up until 2:30 with our hostess. This also very rarely happens. Actually, I was reminded to go to bed as my nine-year-old son woke and came to find me. I explained that there was still quite a bit of night yet and that he needed to go back to sleep. I gave him a snack, put him to bed and tried go to sleep myself.
For the next several hours, though, he made noises and simply could not get to sleep.
I heard him whisper. So I got up, walked over and whispered back, explaining it was time go go to sleep.
Then I heard him tapping on the bed. I got up, walked over and whispered for him to stop.
Then I heard him whistling so I sat up and hissed at him to go to sleep.
Then he made more noises and I told him he didn’t have to sleep, but he did have to sit there quietly in the dark on his bed. I’m not sure if he ever fell asleep or not, but I did. Or at least I mostly did.
He was a little cranky later in the day, and I grew more tired in the afternoon myself. After our mall/ skiing adventure I took a bit of a nap.
That evening, G and his mom went out for dinner. I got the kids to bed and they immediately fell asleep. Soon after G and his mom returned, G went to bed which, again, is not like him, and I stayed up to visit.
But now here we are, 4:30-ish in the morning and he cannot sleep. And so I’m awake, too. And I hear my son stirring again. We have got to finish nipping this jet lag in the bud. We have done so well, and we are almost there and it has to go.
So I’m off to try and close my eyes and sleep and not think about all the things I’d love to write.
You might have noticed that I haven’t shared about the snow skiing yet. But I had to nap today. I hope to share about that later. It was a scream to be snow skiing in general, but especially in a mall. With other skiiers in traditional Arabic dress. More later.
**This post was recorded last week. We are now back home. More stories to come!**
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