Dasha is our youngest daughter and practically a Dubai native. She spent only the first six months of her life near Moscow, mostly travelling in a stroller, while everything she consciously remembers belongs to Dubai. She grows up between Russian and English, the desert sun, and daily conversations with her Filipina nanny, Cindy. A small bilingual girl who confidently explains how the world works — and rarely doubts that she should have the final word
For 1,360 days an old Arab villa in Umm Suqeim raised our children, let rain into the bedroom, broke its air conditioners and sent me onto the roof to retrieve the electricity. In the end it summoned an army of cockroaches and kept half our deposit. We moved to the Palm — grateful, but exhausted.
Not long ago Daria Alexandrovna slept in a pram among the Marina skyscrapers, travelled in my arms and learned the pool under her brothers’ watch. By 8 July, the baby had given way to a young lady with a book, a bow and opinions of her own.
Her first proper class, her first teacher and her first whole-class photograph. After a wonderful time at The Forest Oasis Nursery, Daria begins a new chapter — now at Raffles World Academy alongside her brothers.
Ten minutes between “take shelter now” and “all clear.” These screenshots aren’t stills from a thriller — this is daily life in Dubai, 2026. While the skies decide the fate of regions, we balance work calls and emergency alerts from MOI. Hard? Yes. But people adapt to everything
This time the children themselves and their nanny went to International Day at Raffles World Academy school and I arrived only at the end for a couple of hours and the first quest was to find the children, since they were scattered around the entire perimeter
As soon as you turn away, you come into the garden, and there are children making a fire with all their might, burning wood and paper and cardboard and declaring that they are very happy and they are children and therefore they simply have to light a fire!
Dasha is already asleep, Sanya is as happy as if it were his idea from the very beginning, Kostya holds a strategic position deep in the frame, and we parents have officially lost control of our own bed.
Children are my best UX test, emigration is the main redesign, family is an honest product team. I live between the bay and the desert, children's school and a laptop with Figma. I write about life and design: honestly, with failures and discoveries, without gloss and instructions
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