16-11-17 JiaJia’s Last Day in Dubai

Thursday 16th November 2017

From the day we arrived back in Dubai Kingsley has been waking between 9:15 and 9:30 am. Today the same. He woke, attempted to get me and his daddy up (zero chance), asked out loud ‘is it time to wake yet?’ I of course answered in the negative and shushed him sternly to get back to sleep. Receiving no attention from his parents the little man leaves us for his next door. I hear him wake her, softly of course, by sidling up in bed all quiet like. In a moment he’s back in our bedroom saying ‘oops; I forgot my pillow’, then taking his little white Emirates Business Class pillow under his arms, leaves for the warmth (and attention) of his JiaJia Dora.

She’s leaving tonight and both will be utterly sad come morning time. He’s used to her presence and besotted by his JiaJia and she openly tells Erroll and I that it’s her grandson she’ll miss; most definitely not us! Kingsley goes down early – by 7 he’s snoring. The adults then enjoy rare adult time. Tonight Erroll is busy preparing for our next international trip – to the States – in a few days time. We sit at the table and reminisce about our extraordinary NiNii sleeping like a cub in our bedroom, then I pull out these two photos taken precisely 9 years apart. Look, I say to him: fresh, line-free, firm skinned and no jowls. All worth it for how we’ve lived, traveled, entertained and brought Linus into the world…