It Goes Fast

I'm all nostalgic lately. Knowing your are leaving a place does that I think. I've been pausing and paying more attention to the Call to Prayer again when I hear it. I am savouring the foods we are eating more. I am taking many mental pictures as I walk away from a place for the last time. We are saying goodbye to friends. But I am happy that we fly in 5 days!

Here is baby girl above at 20 months when we arrived last September....she already had a thing for dates our first week here. She was still pudgy and had lots of "baby" in her.

And now almost a year later at 2.5 years old this morning....



...She's shot up in height, got more hair (a ponytail even!), sings many songs, knows her ABCs, is more fearless, and has a greater love of books and reading. She just isn't a baby anymore. I have been really impressed with how well she has adapted to her new surroundings here. She's had so many friends. And I know she'll do great coming back home.

I know she is not going to remember a great deal, if anything, of this time abroad in the UAE, but hopefully I've taken enough photos so that she'll be able to see her little self halfway across the world at such a young age. I'm hoping it'll give her an extra dose of curiousity and interest in the world, it's people and other cultures. I hope she'll think her parents were adventurous and brave - and years down the road be as brave herself, well, as brave as her Mama can handle.

Book Babble and Singing

One of my favorite things in the whole wide world is when Eleanor goes off on her own and starts to read to herself. It's funny listening to her book babble--a pre-literacy skill too didn't you know. I had to grab the camera this morning, as well as take some videos. Her songs also been a favorite thing to record. I don't want to forget how she sings now in that cute toddler voice while it's here.


Her favorite song now is May There Always Be Sunshine by Jim Gill, which we have to sing before we go to bed every night. It's taken from a Russian folk song and after you get the basic chorus you just have kids keep adding the things you'd like there to always be. The first chorus is:

May there always be sunshine; may there always be blue skies; may there always be Mama, may there always be me.

We like to often add books, all kinds of animals, naps, hugs, Dada, family, Grandma, friends.....


Favorite books of girlie right now include: It's My Birthday by Helen Oxenbury (who doesn't love a book where a kiddo and his animal friends bring together incredients to make a cake! I do.), Hamish the Highland Cow by Natalie Russell (gifted to us by our Scottish friends before they left, including a stuffed Hamish himself!) and The Very Quiet Click Beetle by Eric Carle. The book pictured here is What Shall We Do With the Boo Hoo Baby? by Cressida Cowell.

Three is the Magic Number

I am stealing this post title from a friend's recent post as I have had this song in my head the last several days since she posted. Have you listened to Elizabeth Mitchell? If you have kiddos under 5 and haven't you must must go to the library, get it from Amazon--whatever, it's just too good. I think I would listen to her even if I didn't have a kiddo. Anyway, this song has been in my head and has been a thought of mine lately as I continue to enjoy this year abroad with lots of family time with Michael, girlie and I.

Today we spent part of the late afternoon at Al Ain Oasis. I've blogged about this beautiful place many times but I can't help it. I love to go there. Today was magic for many reasons.

1. The oasis is a cooler place to go during the hotter summer months here. You feel the cool underneath the canopy of date palms and that alone is a reason to visit.

2. The dates have been growing this last month or so and you can see them high up in the trees in all their glory. When we came in September it was the end of the season, so it's neat to see them up there growing away. I never had a date before this year and I have to say I will miss eating fresh dates terribly. They are so good!

Eleanor was fascinated looking up at the dates. She is always asking to eat them.

3. Eleanor digs this place. She must feel like she's in a jungle with trees to climb, brush to bust through, funny curved sticks that become trumpets....

The slanted based palms are the easiest to climb but note to self - flip flops are not the best things to wear when doing so! Watch out! Eleanor thought this was quite funny while I was happy I regained balance and didn't slap our faces down the trunk! yikes!

4. The oasis has an ancient falaj irrigation system. During our very first trip to the oasis in September when we arrived we had a great time splashing and cooling off in the water that was flowing through it. I captured this treasured photo below from that first visit....

...but then ever since this first visit many many months ago, we've barely seen a lick of water, just empty irrigation or occassional water under areas we can't access. Today I heard the water rushing and was so excited to come upon water gushing through an area of the oasis! It was so cooling and wonderful I can't even begin to describe how awesome it was.

5. After almost a year of having my fancy DSLR camera I am STILL learning to use it. It can be downright frustrating some days when I can't get the settings right. Plus toddlers have to be the most challenging subjects to shoot! I could use automatic more but it's not the same quality and I hate flash!

Anyway, today was one of those days when the natural lighting was premo and my camera settings worked out pretty much and there was magic I captured.

So induldge me in this post with many many photos. I can see several of these framed up in our house when we get home (we fly 8 weeks exactly from today!). I love that Eleanor has these photos of this time here in the UAE to look back on when she was a wee one.

Catching Up

I haven't been snapping any pictures lately. I went into my folders to see when was the last time and gasped to realize it's been over a month and a half! eeek. How did that happen? So I snapped some of girlie today and thought I would share a few - I'm sure my Mom will appreciate this. Girlie was sick for a few days, so it's extra great to see her eating, smiling, and being silly again.


On a sad note, we said goodbye to a few great friends this past week. This is the time of year many expats start to take off for summer holidays back to their home countries or wherever they fancy to see family and escape the heat. Most friends are leaving end of June, but sadly our little friend Maddy (and baby sis Ailsa) and her mom, Lorraine, took off for Scotland. We will miss them. I promised Lorraine that sometime in the next 10 years (being realistic!) we'll come visit them in Scotland. This is one of the hard things about expat living - saying goodbye on many fronts....


We'll miss you! xx

It's Getting Hot Again....

Do I mention the weather here too much? I swear it's always what people are asking about - so I'm just pleasing some of the people I tell you! It is getting hot here again. It's been up in the 90s all week. It's nice now. Sundresses, sandals, and shorts (for Eleanor) are out. We've been doing lots of swimming. But I know it's going to get intensely, unbearably hot soon enough and we'll be changing things up a bit--doing the park at nights like other families here, finding more and more indoor activites to keep up busy, and continuing to have lots of playdates and such. One of the great things about being here is malls are very child-friendly and there are always areas of rides and activites to keep little ones happy.

We just got Eleanor her first play-doh! I forgot how much I love the smell of it. She's been having a ball and we haven't even started using stamps and shapes on it. Remember that thing that you push it through that makes spaghetti or hair? ha!

So what ideas do you have for us?


We've been drawing, coloring, doing play-doh, making paper tissue collages....Wondering if she'll like paper dolls? She might be too young though. But the dollhouse we got for her has been the best toy she's ever had.

And I need to make some more flannel stories for her. Those are great.

Weekend

So what are your plans this weekend? We have a birthday party (followed by another on Monday) and a playdate but nothing much else, which sounds nice right about now. I might watch Spanglish again--one of my favorite movies, read, and listen to some more David Bowie.

And Michael and I are going to listen to an episode of This American Life tonight. Do you listen to it? There is something very special about listening to a radio program and they are the best. I feel like I am being read to which is always a different experience then reading yourself or watching something. I love they are all online now that we can't hear it back home on NPR. Check it out. Once I get more and more submerged in past episodes I'll have to share my favorites. Do you have any?

this photo was taken on top of Jebel Hafeet (mountain)

Smattering of Pictures from Family Visit

One of the best mornings we had during our family visit was when my mother-in-law and I got out on our own for some coffee. It was interesting talking to her and seeing our new home through her eyes. It made me realize there are things I am still myself adjusting too and things I don't even notice so much anymore.

She was fascinated by all the different people here, the different types of dress, and the faith displayed by Muslims around us. I was glad she could hear the Call to Prayer that we hear five times a day and to notice that mosques are everywhere and there are even prayer rooms in every mall. She is a devout Catholic and that impressed her. I was happy she saw the aspects of Islam you don't see or hear at home. Of course she also saw the crazy driving here, honking, pushiness and overall arrogance too balancing it all out!

I think one of the things she enjoyed more than anything was the weather we had during her visit. The sunny 70s we experienced so much better than the frigid cold and snow back home in Ohio. We're enjoying this paradise of weather too as we know before long it'll start to really heat up around here! We are just abouts back into swimming weather and flip flops which sounds nice though.

Best Friends

Who doesn't love best friends, chocolate cupcakes, jumping on the couch, tutus, funny faces, reading and running around like toddler hullabaloos? Our playdate this morning was fun! One of the great things about being here is all the wonderful friends we have met. It really makes this whole expat things work. There are some weeks that we have so many playgroups and playdates it makes me laugh.

Eleanor cracks me up whenever she gives a little friend a kiss. It's usually on the mouth and often with cupping their face or grabbing their chin. All this bff love is reminding me to work on Valentine's for our little friends :)