Catch up

Well, as I signed in today, it really hit home that I've been a slacker!  This is my first post in 2010?!?  I don't really have much as an excuse...I can't even say that I've been extremely busy. Truthfully our life is pretty boring here.  Do you really want to read about me doing the dishes by hand every day?  Playing with puzzles/legos/books/trains/kitchen with H?  Didn't think so.  Here's my attempt at catching you up on a few interesting things that may have happened in the months since my last update.

January
??  I guess we spent this time preparing for our trip to France.  I know we went to Dubai once to go to the mall.  We bought a couple items at the Columbia store in anticipation of the cold weather.

Oh, other big January news...we found out baby number 2 was another BOY!

February
We spent several weeks in Paris visiting my grandparents.  H and I stayed for 3 weeks, E had to return to Al Ain after 2 weeks (The Employer shortened the vacation by a week in late December).  There was also a "sister reunion."  My little sister flew in from Edinburgh and my older sister flew in from Atlanta to spend time with me and H.  I'll post a few pictures soon.

March
Ummmmm.  I really can't remember anything of much importance happening during the month of March (other than AC's birthday!).

April
I turned 30 on April 1st.  We had a low key dinner with a few of our neighbors/friends.  Hudson broke our camera lens that night so we were camera-less until our recent purchase of a cheapy point and shoot.

H started swimming lessons.  He was really enjoying them until our recent lessons where he has had to put his head underwater.  We have one more lesson left (!!) and he has made quite a bit of progress.  We will try to continue the lessons either this summer in France or when we return in September.  Right now, though, it is very tiring for me (37 1/2 weeks pregnant and all) to participate so they will be on hold for a bit.

May
May is actually turning out to be a busy month!  H's 3rd birthday is on the 23rd, my mom arrives on the 25th, H's birthday party is on the 28th, and my little sis arrives on the 31st.  And baby arrives on????  He is due on June 5th and I'd like him to wait until these events are over but before June 3rd because I do not want to go to my last doctor's appointment (loooooooong story, but overall I am very unimpressed with the medical options here).

I'll do a post on H's birthday party after it occurs.

Coming up next...an apartment tour!  About time you guys get to see where we live, right?  First up will be H's room. : )

Sneak peek:

Oh!  And for those of you who were waiting with bated breath for the result of my last post (re: the pacifier)....as usual, H was super easy.  He cried maybe once or twice for it, but never asked for them after it was explained to him that he no longer needed them.  Transition time: about 2 days.

Out With the Old

H has for the most part been an easy going child from the get go.  He transitioned from bottles to sippy cups in three days, was potty trained at 21 months, and transitioned from crib to big boy bed with absolutely no issues.


But there's one thing we've had trouble getting rid of:

THE PACIFIER.


I know we should have gotten rid of it long ago, but it has been as much a crutch for us as parents as it has been for him.  At least we made sure to adhere to the pediatrician's recommendation of the 3 C's (car, crib, crisis).  But as tomorrow begins a new year, we will begin it as a year with no pacifiers (for this kid anyway).


We'll see how it goes...wish us luck!  Perhaps it will only take 3 days to transition?


As for changes for me, my biggest challenge will be to let go of the frustrations that have plagued me since we've moved here.  It seems that it has been a constant 1 step forward, 10 steps back.  But I'm trying to look forward with a positive attitude for both the known (vacation in Paris, new baby, a trip home!) and the unknown. 


Happy New Year everyone!

Preparing for Christmas a.k.a. "Decorating on the Cheap"

In preparation for the holidays, we purchased a 4 ft. Christmas tree at Lulu Hypermarket for a whopping 39 dirhams.  Add to that a couple of boxes of ornaments (6 dirhams total), lights (16 dirhams), and a tree topper (9 dirhams) and you have our $20 Christmas tree.

H and E set up the tree the day after Thanksgiving.

The final product:

Stockings brought from home (the only Christmas related things we packed):

Close ups of our cheap foil ornaments:

A lot of these broke so if you look closely at the picture of the tree you can see lots of these little "presents" sitting at the base...

Our only "real" ornament and it's not even a real ornament.  It used to be one of H's toys that broke but will now be part of our ornament collection.

I'll post pictures of our Christmas celebration after Friday.  Santa is treating H pretty well this year...all the presents under the tree are for him!  E and I are treating ourselves to a family trip to Paris instead. : )

Halloween 2009

Well, now that Thanksgiving has passed, I figured today would be a good time to post some Halloween pictures (at least it's not December yet!).

We actually celebrated on October 30th (Friday) because someone at the compound decided that celebrating on Halloween would interfere with the beginning of the work week (Sunday-Thursday here).


H dressed up as Iron Man.  It was the only costume I was able to find at Bawadi Mall in his size.  He was not too happy at first with the "muscles."

Eventually he calmed down...

We had a couple of H's friends over for Halloween cupcakes and treats before heading out for trick-or-treating.

These cupcakes looked better in my head than real life.  Baking supplies/equipment are hard to come by.

Hanging out with friends...

And trick-or-treating!  (Notice his nice plastic bag being used as a candy carrier.  I was really on top of things this year.)

Next year, I'll know to be a little more organized regarding costumes, pumpkins, etc. but H had fun regardless.  


Now, on to Christmas!

Thanks Giving

It's been a long time since I've posted.  There was plenty to blog about--furnishing the apartment, setting up TV and internet, dealing with the bank, adjusting to life as a stay-at-home-mom , grocery store experiences--but, frankly, I wasn't up for it.  I have had a hard time adjusting to life here and didn't really want to relieve the trials and tribulations we've been through.  It seemed like for every positive there were 10 negatives following.

This week, as Thanksgiving approached, I tried thinking mostly about the positives.  Most of them don't have much to do with life in the UAE, though I may eventually revisit some of the things I mentioned above to really let you know what we've been through.

So today I celebrate Thanksgiving with my thanks giving:

*I am thankful for the health of my family both here and abroad.

*I am thankful for my wonderfully supportive husband, who has tolerated my "grumpiness" over the past few months.

*I am thankful for my sweet H, who is so smart, funny, helpful, and who tells me every day "I love my Mommy."

*I am thankful for baby number two we are expecting next year and for a (so far) easy pregnancy.

*I am thankful for being in the final stages of setting things up here in Al Ain so that we can finally concentrate on the goals we came here to achieve: furthering E's education and saving money.

So, from here in our little "oasis," I wish you all (all three of you?) a Happy Thanksgiving!

Apartment

Good news!  We finally received the keys to our apartment on Tuesday evening.  In the usual fashion to which we have not yet become accustomed, everything was fairly disorganized, confusing, and--as a tease to keep you coming back for more--good.


The first thing they did was hold a meeting to tell which individuals/families would be receiving keys...which ended up being almost everyone.  Then there was the usual gripe session, where everyone huddles around the representative to voice their individual complaints.  Finally, after two hours of waiting, a bus arrived to take us to the apartments.  And we were pleasantly surprised.


We have a nice two bedroom, two and a half bath apartment.  Is it what we would normally pick out?  No.  But we have no complaints as it is free, big, and free.


I took a few pictures but apparently, capturing wide spaces from various angles is not my strong suit.

Living area

Bedroom 1

Bedroom 2

Kitchen

One of the bathrooms

Two of the three bathrooms have some decorative tiling that say "Romantic" and have a violin next to them.  The cabinets are plastic made to look like wood.  But again: FREE.  No complaints here!


As you can see, it's pretty bare.  No closets, no appliances.  We ordered our stove, fridge, and washer on Wednesday night, had our bed and mattress delivered yesterday, and are heading to IKEA tomorrow to furnish the rest of the place.


In other good news, E finally received his passport from The Employer, which will make getting other things accomplished a little bit easier.


We will be without internet access for I'm not sure how long but I will post again as soon as I can!

Border Crossing

Tuesday marked our 30th day in the UAE.  Normally, this would not be much of a milestone.  I'm still waiting to tell you some of the big milestones we are still waiting on...we are moving into our apartment, we bought a car, we furnished our apartment, etc.  Sigh.


But back to Tuesday.  When we arrived in Abu Dhabi on August 30th, we received a 30 day visitor visa which we have to keep valid until E can sponsor us for our residency visa.  And since E has yet to even received his residency visa, as of Wednesday we would be in the country illegally. 


We spoke to several people about our options for extending our visas:


1.  Go to the immigration office and pay 500 dirhams each
or
2.  Cross the border into Oman and re-enter the UAE on another 30 day visitor visa.


I wasn't thrilled with the first--that's a lot of money!  E wasn't thrilled with the second.  Understandably, he was not overly happy about sending his wife and child to another country without being able to accompany us (E's employer has been holding onto all of the employees' passports while they take care of the residency visas for them...and that headache is a whole other story).


Anyway, we started talking to other people in the same situation last Saturday.  What were they going to do?  Had they heard of any problems with the border crossing?  Had they heard the immigration office was a hassle?


Once again, as has been the case with everything since we arrived, the rumor mill was in full force...


...I would not be able to cross the border with a child without permission from the father...


...I would have no problem crossing the border as a woman...


...the border crossing would take all day because you have to drive 80 kilometers into Oman...


...the border crossing would be simple and easy and take less than 2 hours...


...I would have to spend the night in Oman...


...the immigration office was worthless because they would make you pay the money and then tell you to do the border crossing anyway...


...the immigration office was easy, all I had to do was fill our a form and pay some money...


Confused yet?  We certainly were.  We didn't know what to think or what to do and much to my dismay no decision was made by Tuesday.  So now, on top of dealing with this, we would have to pay a fine for staying in the country after our visa had expired.  Argh!  I was completely frustrated.


Finally, E asked his co-worker who already has his residency visa and a car to take us across the border on Wednesday.  And after all that, it was super easy and simple.  Nothing to worry about!


Five of us piled into Andy's car on Wednesday afternoon.  He drove us towards the border and our first stop was exiting the UAE.  We went into a building, filled out a form, paid 25 dirhams each, and received our exit stamp.  First step accomplished!


Second, we had to drive about 10 kilometers into Oman to their border crossing.  We went into a building, filled out another form, paid 60 dirhams each, received an entry AND an exit stamp into and out of Oman.  They then handed us a piece of paper, which we would have to hand to the officer as we were exiting Oman.  So we got back in the car, drove to the gate, handed the piece of paper, and headed back towards the UAE.


As we neared the UAE border we saw a sign that said "No Wine" and "No Guns."  Check and check.  We stopped once again, received new 30 visitor visa stamps and were on our merry way.


Well, this boring post is almost over.  Hopefully I'll have more exciting news to share soon.  But for now it's back to waiting around for things to happen and hanging out by the pool with lots of sunscreen (see below).

Isn't he the cutest?  He likes to apply the sunscreen himself and runs away if I try to do it (as captured above).