On Sunday, all 3 of us slept until 2pm. Oops! After "breakfast" we packed up Colin and headed to Ikea in the Festival City area of Dubai. I was so excited because, well, who doesn't love Ikea?!? Everyone in Dubai appears to love Ikea. The sheer volume of people in that place was quite impressive. Now I understand why Joe would be so stressed out every time he shopped there.Moving around inside of a store is really tricky here in the Middle East. Their method of crowd control is quite different than it is in the US. As a generalization, people at home will let you pass by, then go back to what they were doing. Here, people seem kind of oblivious to their fellow shoppers. I got stuck in the middle of a family speaking Arabic and showing each other placemats. I was seriously right in the middle of them and no one would let me out! I had to accidentally undo the velco of my pop-up hamper that was accidentally aimed in their direction and then apologize profusely while I shuffled between two startled women.
The good thing is that we bought a wardrobe, changing table, toy shelf, chair covers, and some other small things, so it was well worth the trip. Colin thought so, too, since I bribed him with ice cream.
Then we came home and had a nice KFC dinner with Pete & Simone, the couple that Joe met when he moved here in March. They are a lovely pair. We won't get to see them for the next two weeks because they are headed to New Zealand to visit with Pete's family.
This morning the Ikea delivery people brought our furniture and put it together for us. Everyone delivers here, it's grand! Colin's room is now pretty much finished, so I thought I'd post some pictures. My cousins (the Haviland Jacksons) sent some great Thomas the Train appliques for the wall so I put those up this morning. I think they turned out pretty great.
This is the other side of the room, with a cheap but efficient changing station, a panda-themed trash bin that I bought by accident at Geant, and the black-out curtains that help Colin sleep 'til 2pm.
Of note, the closets here are really awesome.
For lunch today, we went down to The Walk at Jumeirah Beach Residence in the Marina which is about a block from our apartment. Pete & Simone live in JBR which is oceanfront. We had lunch at El Chico. Who would have thought that you can get sensational Mexican food in the Middle East? (If you look closely, you can see our reflections in the doors) 
The Walk is really beautiful, and is full of great restaurants and stores.
Tonight we went shopping at Carrefour, another French hypermarket. This one is better than Geant, but a little further away. It's inside the Mall of the Emirates. Having a grocery store inside the mall means that you walk through the mall with your cart full of food. Strange concept, right? You put a dirham into the cart when you pick it up, and when you put it back, you get your dirham back. It's the same concept as Aldi. We stood in line for at least 20-30 minutes to check out, so Colin needed a snack.
While in line I spotted this display of dates, any way you want them. Very popular here, and used to break your fast for Ramadan each night.
I'm not sure if this picture does it justice, but the checkout lines here are a serious bottleneck. People pack in like sardines.
I was super happy to find a Carter's in the Emirates mall! AND they are having a sale! Wonder if they take American coupons?!?
Colin did as well as can be expected on our 13.5 hour plane flight. He moved from his car seat to our laps to perching in front of the emergency exit door. This was a popular place for figety toddlers. I happened to meet a nice lady from NJ whose son is 6 days younger than Colin, but we failed to meet up again to exchange contact information. She was so nice and offered to help me get oriented. Maybe I'll run into her again! We also met a couple at baggage claim from Atlanta. They seem to be about our ages, and moved to Dubai in January this year. They were impressed with how well Colin did on the plane! He only slept for about 4 hours the whole flight, so we had our hands full!
We used the in-flight games to entertain Colin a lot, and they had map and flight information available which was neat. One of the screens was the Mecca screen. At one point I thought a man was praying to Mecca at the emergency exit, but it turns out he was just stretching his back - haha. The flight was huge, full, and dark for most of the trip. We got three meals and they left snacks and water out for us the whole time. The flight attendants slept in this tiny little box. It was like watching clowns come out of a clown car. I couldn't believe how they fit that many in one place. Anyway, I digress. Once we (FINALLY) landed, customs went over without a hitch and we loaded our 8 million bags into a minivan taxi, finally made it to the apartment, ordered a pizza, gave Colin a bath, and went to bed. We watched Employee of the Month with Arabic subtitles which is weird.
Colin slept from midnight until I woke him up at 10:30am, and only woke up crying once. This morning he ate his breakfast in our bed and watched one of his movies. 
Then, we went shopping at Baby Center at the Oasis Centre. Joe calls this location the "Mecca" of baby products in Dubai. It's basically Babies R Us but doesn't carry the same brands and specialty items. The good thing is the playroom! Colin really enjoyed it.
We got lots of important baby things, most noteably, a high chair. The brand Juniors is popular here, but I can't seem to find it on the Internet. We also got Colin a rocking horse which he loves :)
Here's our car, a Nissan Sunny. It's pretty much a Sentra. We have a designated spot in the parking garage of the apartment. To get there, you type in -2 (negative 2) at the elevator (lift) and then the correct elevator letter (A, B, or C) shows up so you'll know which one to go to. Kind of nice! To get to our floor, you just press our floor number and it does the same thing to take you there. 
This sign in the parking garage makes me laugh: If you're going to run...run HERE. (My iPhone takes crappy pics in dark places)
After nap we went shopping at 
We bought grapes from the U.S.A. (DH = dirham = AED = approximately 27 US cents)
Want spices? This is how you get them.
Geant is in the nearby mall Ibn Battuta ("ee-ben ba-toota"). That's the fountain at one of the entrances. The mall is incredibly ornamental and was INCREDIBLY busy because of 
We had McDonald's for dinner (I'm amused with the Arabic writing on everything) and now we're at home watching the UGA game on slingbox. 