Potty Training/Transition to a "Big Girl" Bed

A few weeks ago, I got an email from Babycenter about potty training your toddler in three days. The potty training expert said that she preferred to use her method on those 15-28 months because they can become resistant to potty training later on. Crap! (counting up in my head) Leah was going to be 29 months on September 10th. So I decided to start right then.

I woke Leah up that morning and exclaimed to her, "It's naked day!" We played together ALL day long! I didn't leave her side. (Yeah.. not the norm AT ALL.) She would start jumping up and down when she needed to go and say, "Potty!" urgently and then I would sit her on the potty and she would go. It was as easy as that! We had dinner with some friends that evening and were going out, so the diaper went back on.

The second day, I woke her up the same way and she was admittedly less excited about naked day, but I wasn't really giving her a choice. We played inside, we played outside (within the confines of the walls of our villa)... she was doing great!

BUT, I was there at her side every single moment. By the third day, we were both itching to get out of the villa, so I put a dress on her and introduced panties. She picked out some Elmo ones and I just emphasized with her that panties are not a diaper and that she would still need to use the potty. The next day there were several accidents. All of the floors in our villa are hard-surfaced, so it wasn't really a big deal. I kept on enforcing it and reminding her that she had panties on.

Everything was going pretty well and then I landed my surprise job at Friends Nursery. She had only been potty training for 6 days when we both starting going to school for four hours a day. She ended up back in diapers during school and in panties while at home. We did that for about 2 weeks and then had 3 days off of work/school for Eid, a holiday is Islam. I took the opportunity to only do panties the whole time and there were several accidents, but she finally REALLY started to get it. Each accident in her panties reinforced the idea that she needed to start using the potty.

When we started back at school on Sunday this week, I decided that she was ready and sent her to school in panties. The first day, she had an accident, but she has done great days 2-4. She doesn't like to go potty at school and just holds it until we get home... which isn't ideal, but I guess it's working for now.

A couple nights ago, Leah woke me up at midnight and asked to go potty. After going potty, she asked if she could wear panties for the rest of the night and I obliged. When we woke up the next morning, I made the quick decision to convert her crib to a toddler bed. She had a blast jumping in her "new" bed and filling it with toys and stuffed animals.

We went to school that day and when we came back home is was nap time. I was a little nervous that she wouldn't nap, but I just explained to her that she had to stay in her bed during nap time and then I closed the door and posted myself nearby to catch any shenanigans. This is what I found when I snuck in to check on her 30 minutes later.

When she woke up from nap, she wouldn't get out of the bed until I was in there. Last night, I put her to bed as I usually did with the only difference that I told her that she needed to stay in her bed. I heard no complaints and I went to bed as usual. Doug and I stayed up a while longer, but no noises came from her room, so we just went to bed. I woke up around midnight after having the realization that she could work all of the doors in the house and there was nothing keeping her from just waking up and leaving in the middle of the night. She's only every left the villa once without my permission and she was only about 2 feet away, but I still felt a moment of panic.

I was awake in an instant and went to her room to check on her. I quietly and slowly opened the door only to discover her in EXACTLY the same position that I had placed her in to go to bed that night. She was sleeping happily and peacefully.

My little girl is growing up so fast! I took pictures of my class to use for attendance and labeling and such. Here is Leah's... I love her so!

Learned Some Arabic

Today, I was teaching letter sounds in a small group of 3 year olds. We were sitting on floor all gathered around a pocket puppet chart and I was picking up different animals and saying their names emphasizing the first letter sounds as I placed them in the correct pocket. After filling several pockets, I picked up a lion and said, "La la LION... la la la la la." The kids who had been joyfully playing along and holding different puppet animals all dropped their puppets, stopped what they were doing, and looked at me like I was disciplining them. In confusion, I looked back to the other teacher in the room who was laughing at me.

"La" means "No" in Arabic.

My First Week of Work

Today marks exactly a week that I have been back to work. It's been full of ups and downs, but unfortunately it seems like mostly downs. Leah has had difficulty transitioning. I'm not sure if it is more than usual or if I am just feeling serious Mommy Guilt. She is fine about 5 minutes after I am out of the room, but there are meltdowns each time I leave or if I am seen while at school.

I spend half of the day in the 2-3 year old class with Leah, Miss Jane, and our helper. The other half of the day, I am in Miss Lina's 3-4 year old class. I take a break between... I thought it was 30 minutes, but then I found out that everyone else only gets a 15 minute break...  so now I'm a little confused. Let me explain...

Unfortunately racism is pretty rampant here. I expected to encounter lots of diversity, but the racism was definitely a surprise. :/ Here in Abu Dhabi, your salary, your breaks, your job, etc.. all has to do with your nationality. So far as I can tell you're set if you're Arab, American, or European. Labor jobs are usually done by Indians and service jobs like nursing and cleaning are usually done by Filipinos. I'm still trying to figure out where Africans and Asians fit into the "pecking order," but I think a lot of it has to do with the amount of education obtained.

Wednesday last week was my second day of work. Miss Majdah hired me as the 2-3 year old teacher. The problem was - that I could CLEARLY see - is that there already was a 2-3 year old teacher, Miss Jane from Kenya. I was very concerned, so I asked another person at the nursery in private if Miss Jane was going to lose her job and she assured me that she would not. (Whew!) This person also told me (as nicely as possible) that a big reason I was hired was because I was an American and it is good business for a nursery to be able to say that they have "native English speakers." I've heard that parents here will sign up their kid for a nursery if they see an American (white person) there.

Yep! That's me they're talking about - Native English Teachers. This flyer went out yesterday.

I've been watching (all two days of my employment) trying to learn how the nursery works. I asked Miss Majdah when she would like to have me start writing plans. She said I should start for next week... and plans are due on Thursday, so that meant I'd be writing my first lesson plans during nap time that day.

My first shot at lesson planning for preschool. (Lots of Pinteresting going on!)

Thursday (the start of the weekend here) was interesting.  I had emailed my plans to Miss Majdah prior to coming in and continued to observe and help as I usually do waiting for feedback from her. At one point, I was helping gather the kids in for the 2-3 year old class and I asked Miss Jane, "Is this kid in our class?" She responded, "No, she isn't in MY class." Uhhhh... okay. Then during my break, Miss Majdah hollered up and said that my plans were good and that I would start teaching the 2-3 year old class next week, Oooookay! So it's the afternoon and Leah and I are getting ready to head out when the class newsletters that are sent home each week are dropped off in the room. I scan the newsletter quickly and see that I am introduced and my name is at the top as the teacher. Miss Jane is in the room with me at the time and takes the chance to glance over it as well. She stopped DEAD in her tracks and just sadly stared at the paper in complete shock with my name at the top. I guess no one told her of the change. I felt SO terrible and it was incredibly awkward. During the rest of my time there, I tried to apologize and also to show that I had experience teaching and that I wasn't just some "token American" placement in the school... that I have a teaching degree. It was terrible.

As I was leaving, Miss Majdah comes to me and decides that this is the time to critique my plans. I stopped and listened, welcoming any bit of constructive criticism. I am an elementary school teacher and not a preschool teacher and I am just trying to meet expectations. Her criticism... "You need MORE." Uh, more what? I tried to get clarification, but Leah was pulling on my arm to leave and we had somewhere to go. This working mom thing is going to take some adjusting.

Sunday was my first official day teaching. The whole week prior I had started off the mornings in the older class because the younger class was in Arabic, so I had been planning to have a little prep time during my 30 minute break. Upon arrival Lina explains to me that I will be STARTING the day teaching because they are now going to be alternating days for who has Arabic in morning. I freaked out a little because I wasn't ready. Lina reassured me that everything would be okay and that she would help me cut out what I needed. Then Leah decides to have a HUGE meltdown. She refuses to walk. She is sobbing. I am nervous about teaching a lesson that isn't even ready. It was ugly.

Luckily, this is preschool, the kids don't even understand how school works, and the 2-3 year old class has just as much experience with preschool as Leah and I do. Jane helped me fly by the seat of my pants until we could get things together and it worked. Communication is still very difficult. Leah is the only native English speaker in the whole school. The rest of the students speak Arabic at home. You can't give the kids even the most simple directions because they don't understand you. On top of that they're still learning the game of school - sitting on the carpet for circle time, standing in a line, taking turns - all of it is brand new to them.

Each day has gotten slightly better. I am lucky that the staff so far has been incredibly helpful and nice to me...even though I feel like such an overprivileged American jerk sometimes. I come in and take someone's job. I work 3-4 less hours than everyone. I am probably paid about the same if not more. I get a longer break. I work, not to provide or pay bills, but because I am bored and I want my toddler to be able to socialize with other kids. The list is incriminating.

One of the classroom helpers, a single Filipino mom has a 3 and a 4 year old at home in the Philippines that she hasn't seen in person in more than 2 years that her mother takes care of. She sees them on Skype. The other teacher, Lina, is from Palestine and grew up in the war-torn West Bank and Gaza Strip. She has sons back home in Palestine and lives and works in Abu Dhabi because it is too difficult to find employment back home. I am slowly getting to know everyone and I am interested to learn about different perspectives of the world.

Personally, I am finding it difficult to get back into the groove of working with the addition of being a mom as well. When I taught before, my time away from work was my own. Now, I don't really have "my time" anymore... not that I really have so much as a stay at home mom, but now it just seems like less. I also need to somehow fit in cooking dinner each night, doing laundry, and the general cleaning of the house. We'll get there... at least I'm not bored, right?

So I can end on a positive note... Leah and I were invited by a friend at church to tea on the observation deck of Etihad Towers which is the highest point in Abu Dhabi. We had a great time and it was nice to be able to do a little touristy stuff even though I am working.

Surprise Return to the Workforce

We've been living in Abu Dhabi now almost two months and I have been feeling a little isolated and bored without a car. I guess I never really appreciated having my own back back in the states. Leah and I were accustomed to going to some sort of playgroup or library 2-3 times a week and here we are in the middle of the desert in Abu Dhabi with no car and no friends. Taxis are pretty inexpensive here, but it is still expensive when you are paying EVERY time you want to go out. We went to visit a friend from church in the neighboring Khalifa City A and it was about 20 USD one way.

Leah and I would go swimming several times a week in the pool in our compound of 50 villas, but there were no other children here. The only exposure Leah had with other children was each Friday (the Sabbath is on Fridays in the United Arab Emirates) and about two play dates. I realized that Leah was starting to feel very lonely as well whenever we went to someone's villa to check out a yard sale item and she had an absolute melt down after we made her leave... There was another little girl around the same age and they had been playing together for about the 10-15 minutes.

Both Mommy and Leah needed friends and socialization STAT!

I was having a particularly rough day on Sunday and I told Doug that evening that I REALLY wanted him to buy me a car and that I was unhappy here without one. It wasn't a pretty discussion.

The next day during nap time I saw a posting for a preschool job on the Abu Dhabi yard sale group that I frequent. When I mapped out the location, it was too far away to commute to. At that point, I decided to do a search for nurseries near where we lived and Friends Nursery popped up in results. 

On a whim, I decided to call and see if they had any part time openings. I explained that I had seven years of elementary school teaching experience and a two year old daughter that I would be interested in enrolling the days that I worked as well. I was transferred to the director and asked if I was available to come in the next morning at 9am and I agreed that I would. That evening, I pushed Leah in the stroller and it only took 5 minutes from doorstep to doorstep... the only catch is that we need to walk through a very dirty and sandy alleyway.

The next morning Leah and I woke up and got there right on time. The receptionist welcomed me in and I met with Majdah, the director, for an interview. What I had in mind, was that I would work 3 days a week as some sort of classroom assistant or clerical worker. Majdah was pretty pretty up front with me in the beginning saying that it is illegal (or something like that) in the UAE to hire someone part time. She said that I could work "full time" 8:30a-12:30p, but that it would need to be five days a week. (The work week here is Sunday thru Thursday.) 

Then after only about 10 minutes of talking to me, she offered me a competitive monthly salary with a 50% discount in tuition for Leah. The offer seemed pretty decent, but we had already purchased tickets to go home over Christmas break for over a month and I would be absent for part of the term. Majdah said that those dates would be fine and that I just shouldn't expect pay during my absences.

She then took my on a tour of the nursery while Leah happily played in the front room with the toys there. We were there for a little under 2 hours and I left telling Majdah that I would get back to her that evening with whether or not I was going to accept the job offer after talking to my husband. 

The only paperwork I would need was a "Certificate of Good Conduct" and my diploma needed to be attested. She had mentioned during the interview that I could take of getting my diploma attested while I was home for Christmas. 

I was feeling pretty good about everything and talking to Doug was only a formality anyways since I knew he would be fine with me working if I wanted to work... so I asked one more question.

     "About when would you like me to start?"

     Tomorrow.

     Uh... Okay! (Wow!!)

So I went from "unemployed" stay at home mom kind of thinking about maybe looking for a part time job on Sunday to I'm-accepting-a-full-time-job-offer on Monday to STARTING WORK on Tuesday. It all was pretty overwhelming.

I didn't sleep much Monday night. I woke up and started researching British Early Years and Montessori because the director is very passionate about Montessori. I then realized that it was also my sweet Leah's first day of preschool tomorrow, so of course I had to still fulfill my mommy obligations of "Pinterest-worthy" first day pictures. I only ended up getting a few hours of sleep and because of that, we SLEPT in Tuesday morning.

We woke up at 8am and needed to get showered, dressed, eat breakfast and pack lunches all by 8:25 in order to get to school on time. My first day "Pinterest-worthy" picture was going to have to wait. By some miracle, we made it on time (without lunches or snack). Luckily, they didn't expect to have me create any lesson plans or anything. I was just observing in two of the classrooms and helping out. Leah and I got home and I decided that I could take a first day picture even if it was after school. I redid her hair, cleaned her face, and handed her a frame off the wall. We sat out on the front steps of our villa and she actually smiled. CHECK! Unfortunately, I don't have Photoshop installed on my computer yet, so it was a ghetto Microsoft Paint job to add text to the frame... but alas, it's done! ..and I think she's adorable!

Today is Wednesday and we are back home and I am waiting for Microsoft Office to install on my computer so I can try my best to make my lesson plans for next week. My class consist of ten kids right now. Only one of them speaks English at home... Leah. Heck,.. I can barely pronounce their names correctly - Ahmed, Mariam, Matar, Mezna, Mys, Lilas, Rashed, Fatima, and Khalifa, In my classroom before, you would have maybe 5 or 6 ELL learners, but the other 20 kids in your class spoke English. Now, none of my students speak my language and I don't speak theirs. It should be an interesting challenge. They're all 2 years old and just learning to speak anyway. The director tells me that they will have English down by third term.

My biggest concern about this job right now is my little sweet Leah. She has been having difficulty sharing me with the other kids and has been crying a lot. The other teachers and the director tell me that it is just a transition and that she will be fine soon enough, but I can't help but have this terrible awful feeling in my mommy gut. A part of me is really concerned that she's not READY to go to preschool 5 days a week for 4 hours a day. That's A LOT! She's only two years old. :( I keep on telling myself that the socialization and structure that she is getting will be good for her, but it all just seemed WRONG whenever I heard her sobbing at school and asking to go home today... she's not really much of a crier at all.

When we get home, we just snuggle on the couch, just the two of us and discuss our morning. I guess I'm going to have to pull the band-aid off sometime... and I guess being her preschool teacher is about as transitional as it can possibly get. 

Moving Overseas: A Process

When Doug took the job, we knew we weren't going to have time to get our home in Virginia ready to sell or even ready to rent, so we decided in order to make things less complicated that we would either leave the house vacant or get a house sitter that we could trust.

I happened to know that the mother of a friend of mine in the neighborhood was looking to move to the area to be closer to her grand kids...  and her daughter too. We had probably talked briefly about her mom wanting to move nearby over a year ago, so it was a LONG shot. In mine and Doug's minds, she was the perfect match for a house sitter - no kids, no pets, neat, independent, and on top of all of that, she would be able to go stay in her daughter's house nearby whenever we came home to visit. Now all we needed to do was break the news that we were moving to Abu Dhabi to my friend and see if her mom might be interested. It was a LONG shot, but somehow it ended up working out.

We would leave some furniture, our cars, and other odds and ends, but our house sitter would take over paying any utilities, mow the lawn, and basically keep an eye on the place. We made arrangements with our home and car insurance and everything went smoothly into place.

House sitter... CHECK!

Next on the list - pets. Doug had a saltwater aquarium that he needed to take down and rehome several fish. We also have two cats, Darwin and Lucky. We knew that Lucky would never be able to come with us because he was an outdoor cat. We weren't sure of our future living situation at the time and knew that Lucky would want to be able to roam freely in the woods behind our house. We briefly discussed finding another home for him, but in the end, our house sitter said that she would be more than happy to take care of him.

Lucky's personal romping grounds behind our house.

We figured Darwin would be able to live anywhere with us, even if we ended up in some small city apartment. The next part would be to research relocating a cat to Abu Dhabi. We called around and got some quotes for a professional pet relocation company to do it and our best quote after calling several companies was $4500. Yep... and that didn't include any vet costs. We were devastated. There was no way that we were going to pay that much to move our cat. We had a moving stipend that would cover the costs, but it was only one way and any costs for furnishing our home in Abu Dhabi would be coming out of the same pot.

I was determined to find a cheaper way. I had done my research and decided that I was going to do it all myself. I called the vet and arranged to get him all the required shots that the UAE required. It was going to take multiple appointments and cost several hundred dollars because of ridiculous requirements like a $180 blood test to check for rabies. Once we had our tickets, I called our airline KLM to make reservations for Darwin in manifest cargo since all pets are required to go into the UAE this way. Darwin's ticket was going to be $250, but that included a stay in a "pet hotel" in Amsterdam, so I figured I was still saving a ton. I purchased a special "airline kennel" for $50 that would meet all of the strict IATA requirements. We ended up having to hire a company in Abu Dhabi to handle the import since we couldn't handle translating certain documents into Arabic. The import service was going to be $950... still not $4500, so we figured it was the best we could do.

Leah checking out the sky kennel for Darwin.

We added up all of the expenses and it looked like we were going to be able to do it all for just under $1800... which is STILL A LOT, but a lot less than $5100 it would have been with vet costs included. I had called the airline at least a half a dozen times to confirm Darwin's booking and all seemed to be going smoothly. We were patting ourselves on the back for being able to save so much money.

Pet relocation... CHECK! (or so we thought...more on this later.)

The company that had hired Doug in Abu Dhabi had provided a nice moving package and we were given an allowance of 9000 pounds to move our stuff overseas. We were warned that it would take around 6 weeks for our stuff to reach Abu Dhabi and then it would need to go through customs. An appointment was made shortly after Doug left and a surveyor from the moving company was supposed to come through our house and estimate the weight and how big of a shipping crate they would need to bring to our house. I read all the fine print and decided that I would type up 8 pages in 12 point font of what we wanted to bring with us as well as calculate replacement costs for insurance. This took several hours and was an interesting way to spend my sleepless nights prior to the move. Deciding what to bring was particularly difficult because we had no clue what kind of place we would be able to get. Doug had been in Abu Dhabi for a couple of weeks at this point and he was having a terribly difficult time finding a place to live within our living allowance provided by the company.  Here is my "Move Inventory." Doesn't it look pretty?

SOOO the day of the move survey came. A guy came to my house and I pointed at what we would be bringing. I asked him if he needed a list of items.. holding my neatly type and categorized inventory proudly in my hands. And NOPE, it wasn't necessary at all. But, at least I knew what we were bringing. So yeah, that was sort of a waste of time, but my OCD self was still somewhat pleased with my 8 pages of spreadsheets, so it was going to be okay. :)

The moving company would be there June 1 to load everything into boxes and into a shipping crate. As it was explained to me by the move surveyor, our stuff would be loaded into a big metal 20 foot shipping crate that would be sealed with a special lock. Then it would be taken to Baltimore and put on a ship that would arrive 5-6 weeks later at a port in the Middle East. The next time my crate would be opened would be at customs clearance in Abu Dhabi. We were given a very non-specific list on what we could and could not bring with us. If we had any questions, we could ask our "personal move coordinator" April. Unfortunately, she was not much help and told me to "refer to the move paperwork" to answer questions which was very frustrating.

Moving day came on June 1st. Our move was different that others that the company does in that we weren't bringing all of our stuff with us. I had spent my time preparing and sorting every inch of my house so that I could clearly show the movers exactly what we would be bringing and NOT bringing. Three moving guys came in a truck and I searched up and down my street for the big 20 foot crate that I was told would be coming. The guys told me that the crate was on it's way from Baltimore harbor and that they were just going to start packing everything up. IT HAPPENED FAST! They carefully wrapped every cup and plate and even emptied my pantry (to my complete surprise). Before I knew it about 80% of home was wrapped or packed in boxes,

Then the head of the moving crew came and casually explained to me that the shipping crate would not be making it to my house that day and that they would just be loading all of our stuff into their truck and then bringing it to a warehouse where it would then be packed into the shipping crate (without me there). I WAS NOT OKAY WITH THAT.

Each time our stuff was moved, there was the possibility of things being dented or broken or lost. Not cool. The moving crew had been fantastic and hardworking and when I kind of freaked out, he mentioned that I may want to call our move coordinator. I called and explained to her that I was not going to let them take a single box out of my house unless it was going into a 20 foot shipping container that was parked directly in front of my home AS PROMISED. She told me that I was mistaken and that no such thing had been told to me. I explained to her that I had been told by the move surveyor, the packing crew, AND BY HER. She denied everything, but I still refused to let the crew move a single box onto their truck, so they went ahead and left for lunch. She said she would work on it, but there were no guarantees.

About 30 to 45 minutes of nail biting later, I received a call back from her with an apology because she reread the email that SHE sent me that told me about the shipping crate. Then magically, she was able to make the shipping crate get to my house. The move was back on.

It was tight, but the packers were able to get everything into the shipping crate. It took some mad Tetris skills, but we got everything in! All in all, we only used about 4500 lbs of our shipping allotment, so we should be able to bring lots of souvenirs home!

Furniture and household goods in shipping crate... CHECK!

Leah and I had 6 weeks of living in our house with basically NO STUFF. It was interesting, but we have great friends and family nearby, so the time flew by!

Yeah. It was empty.

We filled the next 6 weeks with tons of playdates..yes, there was even a baby goat involved!  We took trips to the lake, went swimming almost daily, traveled to Skyline Caverns, went hiking, did fireworks, Leah rode a horse at a birthday party, we went to the carnival... you name it. We stayed BUSY! Now I will assault you with a million pictures. :)

Everything seemed to be going pretty smoothly. I even decided to take upon a home improvement project that I had been thinking about doing. I used gel stain on my builder grade oak bathroom cabinets to make them a dark espresso and I finally got around to painting my white bathroom after living in our house for 7 years. I was going to frame the mirror too, but never got around to it.

THEN 9 DAYS BEFORE mine and Leah's flight was to leave, the crap hit the fan. We just just had our last appointment with the vet to get the health certificate, a document required for you pet to travel. In everywhere else in the world, you are required to have it completed within 10 days of travel. Once the vet checks over your cat, you must send the documents express mail to the nearest USDA office in your state for a stamp and then have it sent back express mail to reach you prior to flying. The import company in Abu Dhabi informed us (just 9 days before leaving) that the UAE requires health certificates to be completed 6 days within flying.. oh and the USDA endorsement would need to be less than 48 hours old. WHAT?! I was almost at my wits end at this point, but I rescheduled with the vet to come again to redo the health certificate in a few days so that it would be within the proper window and then Leah and I would drive 3 hours down to Richmond the day before we flew in order to get the USDA endorsement. Everything was going to work out.

THEN 3 DAYS BEFORE we were supposed to fly, we found out that Darwin was booked improperly on the flight to Abu Dhabi. He was supposed to be booked as "manifest cargo" as I had requested, but apparently he was booked as "in the hold." (Fun Fact: The ONLY difference between flying manifest cargo and in the hold is basically some paperwork.) We were told by the import company that there would be at least a $1000 fine if he came to the UAE this way. I was told to call KLM cargo in order to book him. I called KLM cargo to find out that it was against policy for any "private person" to arrange booking for a pet and that we were REQUIRED to hire a company to oversee the process. I about lost it here, but calmly asked for numbers of such companies in the area, I called and found out that it would be an additional $1500... not $250 to fly Darwin. I called Doug in tears. He said that we would have to leave Darwin behind and eat the $1800 that we had already spent because we were at the breaking point.

I was stressed. I sobbed. I was done.

During this whole process, Doug had been working on getting an increased allotment for housing since we were having such trouble finding a place that would fit our stuff in the shipping crate which was already in route... so no going back. In this process, it came to Doug's attention that HR somehow had a old version of his resume that had left off over 10 years of work experience. Doug was able to get the housing allowance plus other allowances adjusted. This included an increase in the allowance for pet relocation and literally last minute... Darwin was able to come!

So on July 15th, Leah and I were finally able to get on a plane to Abu Dhabi to join Doug!

We're Moving to Abu Dhabi

So we've been here in Abu Dhabi a little over a month and I now have my computer set up so it's time to start blogging again! I'll start at the beginning... the VERY beginning. How we got here...

Doug's government job back in Virginia had always involved a lot of travel. While traveling Doug was frequently given offers of employment, so he decided to start shopping around a little. This started probably back in November of 2014. We were seriously considering a job in Florida and I had even started researching the real estate market there finding the best schools and such. I even went as far as to invite a realtor on a walk through of our house to get started in the process. Gossip spread and Doug started getting other job offers that he was looking into. I believe he was traveling at the time when I received the following text message.

It really surprised me. I didn't even know where Abu Dhabi was. I quickly Googled it and found out that it was smack dab in the middle of the Middle East! There was NO WAY that I was going to wear some burka wherever I went. That was about as much research as I did and figured it wasn't ACTUALLY going to happen. 

Then, Doug started talking more and more about the job opportunity and that the guy that was recruiting him really actually liked it there and it was safe and... and... SO I decided to actually do some REAL research and what I found actually excited me.

• I wouldn't need to wear any kind of special dress or coverings as a woman.
• The city of Abu Dhabi is incredibly safe. 
• Everything is modern in city of Abu Dhabi... it's just an hour from Dubai which I had heard of.
• The people there speak English.
• Abu Dhabi is very family-centric.

The more I read, the better I felt about it. I told Doug that night before bed that I would be okay with moving to Abu Dhabi. He seemed very surprised and said okay, but that he had a lot of other job opportunities to consider before moving our family all the way to the Middle East. I told him I thought it would be an adventure and that Leah and I were up for it!! He chuckled. We went to bed.

Over the space of several months of looking, we had decided that the job offer in Florida that we had been seriously considering was not the right fit for Doug at the time. Several other job offers came and went, but none of them promised the salary and benefits of the one in Abu Dhabi. 

Fast forward to April 2015, Doug came home and said that he filled out the paperwork and was going to mail it and accept the job. He only needed to mail it!

A part of me still didn't believe he was actually going to mail it and it actually sat on the couch for probably 2-3 days. It was Thursday, April 21st and I was driving when I got the call. He mailed it.

We were moving... to ABU DHABI!! 

...and his start date was supposed to be in TWO WEEKS.

We were able to get his start date pushed back another week and a half. Whew! We called family and close friends and then we made it "Facebook Official."

In one very short month, Doug was headed to Abu Dhabi to start his new job and Leah and I would follow less than two months later.

Foreign Hospital Trip BTW We moved to Abu Dhabi

So I've been a little bad about blogging, but now that we have moved into our new place and settled in a little I should be a little better. We've moved to Abu Dhabi in the United Arab Emirates for my husband's job. More on that in another post.

We've been living in the UAE for almost a month now. About a week ago Leah started coming down with a congested cough. I'm not a person to freak out about a little cough, but it got progressively worse. I had been putting off going go the doctor because our residency visas are still in process and insurance can be tricky without them.

She woke up twice last night crying (not a normal thing at all) and then this morning started clutching her chest saying, "Hurt!" each time that she coughed. She was feverish, lethargic, and wouldn't even eat her breakfast, so I made the decision to leave right then. I called a new local friend from church that gave me directions to the nearest clinic (only about 5-7 minutes of walking) and we headed off with Leah in the jogging stroller.

There's the medical center in the distance.. just a few minutes away from our villa. Sooo sandy here!

I arrived at the clinic quickly and easily after navigating the sandy terrain here, but had no clue what to do upon arrival. As I came up to the building, I noticed that there were separate labeled entrances for women and men. I went in the correct entrance and then just stood in the lobby in complete confusion for a few moments. I was approached by a very kind woman in traditional clothing (a niqab in this instance) and given directions on how to take a number from a little computer on my left. I sat in the chair waiting and worrying about our lack of visas and lack of passports (because they are being used to process of our residency visas)... and of course worrying about Leah who was clutching her chest and coughing.

After a short wait, we were seen by the receptionist who asked to see passports (of course) and then Leah's insurance card which I actually had! It turns out that our private insurance was not taken at that particular clinic and we were told to go elsewhere. I almost panicked and started crying (but was able to stay calm) and told them I didn't know any other places to go. They told me to call taxi and they would help tell the driver where to take us. I explained that if was my first time calling a taxi and they were very helpful. 

A new friend out here had given me the number of a taxi company which I had programmed into my phone. She also had explained the weird system where you will get a call afterwards from the driver but sometimes they will just hang up without talking and then you should call the number back. The reason they do that is because cell phone minutes here are only charged to the originator of the call. 

So I called the taxi company and they got me a driver who then immediately called me and hung up. I called back and was able to tell him where to come get us.

While we waited in the lobby for the taxi, Leah started a huge coughing fit and was crying. They had a nurse there take her temperature which was told to me in Celsius...and I was like, "Is that high? I only know Fahrenheit." It was high so they wiped her down with a cold washcloth to try to bring down her fever.

The taxi arrived moments later and they helped explain our destination to the driver and helped me get the stroller into the trunk. As we drove off, all three women that had helped me stood there on the sidewalk and wished us well. As soon as we pulled away, the driver asked me if that was the hospital I really wanted to go to. I figured it was because the hospital was in Mussafah which is basically the ghetto here... completely safe, but ghetto. I just told him to take me where the nurses and receptionist told him to take us. I was nervous about the cost because I only had 55 dirhams on me which I'd the equivalent of about $15 USD. I was also nervous because there was no car seat in the taxi. (They don't really use them here.)

Leah in the taxi on the way to the hospital. She's ticked and a little wet after our visit to the first clinic.

We arrived safely at the Al Noor Hospital in Mussafah and the ride was only 10.75 dirhams. The taxi driver was nice and actually gave me change. When we arrived, someone at the hospital took the stroller out for us. The hospital was about 5 stories high and there was a dirt road in front of it. I was assisted into the door and up the ramp by three guys. I didn't even have to push the elevator button. We arrived in pediatrics and we're seen within five minutes of coming through the door. Leah was seen by a nurse and had her temperature, weight, and height taken... all in units that I was unfamiliar with. 

We were then seen immediately by a doctor across the hall. Her desk was in the room where she examined Leah. She asked me some simple questions about the symptoms and then ordered a chest x-ray. 

We were seen immediately at x-ray which was outside the building and next door. Leah was terrified, but stayed pretty still for her x-rays. It only took a few moments and then we were back in the doctor's office next door. The x-rays confirmed that Leah has bronchitis. She needs to get nebulizer treatments at the hospital twice a day for at least the next three days. 

We started the first treatment right there. Leah let the nurse put on the mask, but panicked as soon as the nurse left. I got her to sit still and soon she was sleeping in her stroller through the whole treatment.  We were also given four prescriptions to pick up at the pharmacy which was outside and next door to xray. We only waited about 2 minutes for the pharmacist to get all the medicines together and then he explained very clearly in good English about doses and frequency by marking the boxes.

Poor baby fell asleep during he nebulizer treatment; she was so tired after sleeping so poorly last night.

After getting Leah's prescriptions, we called a taxi and waited for the driver to arrive. There were a few taxis that came at the same, but the one that I talked to matched the name od the driver I was supposed to take. (The taxi company sends you a text with the phone and id of the taxi driver that will be picking you up.) He was there within 5 minutes or so. I explained where we lived and he looked confused, but just started driving. I explained that we lived near a certain mosque and he seemed more sure. I pulled up Google Maps on my phone to see where we were driving. We neared our villa compound, but then he stopped (MID ROUNDABOUT!) and asked where he should go. I tried to show him the map on my phone and it didn't help at all so I just ended up giving him directions. We made it home and the taxi ride was 14.75 dirhams. I gave the driver 15 and he actually gave me change back.

Leah actually ate a little bit of scrambled eggs and cereal and then took all four of her medicines. She didn't want to swallow, but did do when I bribed her with M&Ms. She tried to sleep in her crib for a while, but woke up coughing and crying. I took her out of her crib and gave her a bath to try to cool her down. She just laid in the tub and fell asleep as I poured water over her for about 30 minutes. She wanted to get back into bed with me so we're here now and she's laying on my chest trying to get some sleep.

Poor kid! I love her! I hope all these meds help her lungs heal quickly.

Second Birthday Party

I was having difficulty coming up with what we would do as a theme for Leah's second birthday party. It was about a month before her birthday and our next door neighbor had given us this mega blocks table. I was making breakfast the next morning before we had even gotten a chance to play with it when I witnessed this from the kitchen. Leah had been picking up blocks one by one and sorting them out by color into their matching places. (I was beaming!) She picked up the purple piece and hesitated for a while. Finally, she threw the block down and went over and grabbed a book instead. Where does the purple one go?

It was at this moment that I decided that we needed to do a colors themed party. My daughter has somehow inherited my love of color coding. It was perfect! She was also into coloring, so I figured we would do a rainbow/coloring themed birthday party. It wasn't exactly original, but it seemed easy and doable. Pinterest to the rescue! Here's my board of yummy appetizer ideas, birthday invite layouts, activities, party favors, and of course THE CAKE!

I was mostly excited about the cake... I mean... look at that thing. It's amazing! The two invitation seemed easy enough. I googled how to make an easy chevron print background in Photoshop and the rest was just deciding on a color scheme and fun fonts. I even came up with an original little rhyme that wasn't on Pinterest.. all of that reading of Dr. Seuss is finally paying off!

As you may recall, last year I went a little overboard for the party favors. This year, I was trying to tone it down. I wanted to make something useful that the kids would possibly use in the future. Pinterest came in handy once again and I decided to make a crayon wallet. I was able to get all the materials I needed for under $10 - two yards of fabric, some elastic, and a box of assorted crayons. It's really easy to embroider things with my mom's machine, so I went ahead and did that too. The hardest part was finding two coordinating fabrics that I liked.

We had lots of yummy food - all recipes from Pinterest. The pizza puffs went quickly, the meatballs were a cinch, and the bacon-wrapped little sausages were so tasty. On top of these little appetizers we had a ton of colorful fruit. I think everyone left with their bellies full.

We started at 11 am and I just had a bunch of toys set up to play with inside. It warmed up a bit, so we decided to head out in front of the house and do sidewalk chalk, bubbles, and play with ride on toys. Around noon, we headed back in to eat. After the kids were finished eating, they wanted to go outside and play again, so we headed back out for present opening and play... and an attempt at getting a group picture.

Playing inside while moms catch up and we wait for the weather to warm up a little.

This little blocked road in front of my house is perfect for sidewalk chalk and outside play. 

The birthday girl with her birthday presents!

Group picture?

This year she actually opened them and said, "Oooh! Wow!" :-)

After opening presents we went inside to sing Happy Birthday and eat CAKE!!! This was the moment I was looking forward to... cutting the cake... Oh and watching Leah blow out the candles OF COURSE. ;) I had stayed up all night long working on the cake. The layered colors part was a cinch. The only problem I ran into was while I was icing it. I ran out of icing midway through and so I ended up having to make another batch. I put the icing in the sleeve and started tying to decorate the cake again, but the consistency was too thick and I could barely get it out of the tip, so I put it back in the mixer and added some milk and loaded the icing back into the sleeve AGAIN. I started decorating the cake again... but then the frosting was too runny. Eek! (This was around 2 am.) The third time was luckily the charm and I was able to finish icing the cake. I then decided to throw some sprinkles on the cake. Evenly distributing them and getting them to stick was interesting. I ended up with sprinkles all over my kitchen because I was literally having to launch them at the cake. :)

Cake Process Pictures! It was very easy to do! I followed this tutorial.

These are the after pictures of my kitchen. :)

Leah has been practicing blowing out candles with scented candles around the house, so she was ready when cake time came.

The cake was too tall and she couldn't blow out the candles.

Luckily a friend of mine stepped in to help so I could take pictures. :)

The colorful inside... and oh it was SOO tasty. It's making me really hungry just looking at these pictures!

Leah took a nice long nap after everyone went home.  When she woke up, she wanted cake, so I went ahead and did a cake smash photo shoot with her. She enjoyed it.

"How about you get me some more of the cake over there?"

"All Done!!"

A comparison picture of last year versus this year. My little girl LOVES her cake!

Happy 2nd Birthday my dear sweet Leah!