RAIN: Sunday 16 November 2008

For the first time in Anastasia's life, it rained. This is only the third rain we have seen since moving to the UAE and the first time since last January. Needless to say, it was quite exciting and refreshing (not unlike Obama's victory- yes, this is Christine). It only lasted for maybe half an hour, but the streets were flooded until it could all get soaked up. That did not take long :) But, oh, what a beautiful sight and sound!!

We took her for her four-month vaccinations. She is now 11 pounds 6 oz and is 24 inches long. She's in the pathetic 9th percentile for weight and the 50th for height. The doctor encouraged us to go ahead and start feeding her cereal since she's developed issues with anything that is not mama. This is how it went (or rather, didn't go):

In case you can't know her expressions, this is the pathetic "help me" phase that sets in after a good scream. Hopefully, the holiday travels around the US will be good for her growth- as her preferred food will be with her all the time! Looking forward to seeing you all- for some of you it will merely be a matter of 13 days time.

Daddy and daughter

Reading at the beach

Fighting over toys

Election Day Eve (by Randy)

It's the Eve of Election Day in the United States, and yes, it's getting plenty of press overseas as well. However, in Abu Dhabi we've only seen one bumper sticker about the elections, an "Obama 08" sticker. I'll be glad when it's all over, even if--as it would certainly appear--the uber-liberal gets elected.

Meanwhile, we're doing well here, keeping busy with school and a relatively (for new parents) active social life. Last night, though, Christine and I went out on a "date," something just for us (thank you, Joyce, for babysitting!). We went to Finz (I did NOT choose it because of its similarity to the Jimmy Buffett tune--I chose it because it has received top awards and is billed as THE place for outdoor seafood dining in this capital city) and enjoyed some nice seafood (and dessert) overlooking the water and a ton of cranes (it's Abu Dhabi; of course there were cranes!).

Anastasia is doing well. She smiles quite a bit these days, even to strangers (we're hoping she maintains this attitude next month when she hits the United States). Christine takes her for a walk in the Baby Bjorn in the morning, and I do the same in the evening. Somewhere in between, we manage to teach, work on lesson plans, and grade papers. Also, we both have enrolled in distance-learning classes from Colorado State University for teacher recertification credit, and that will take up some of our time as well.

On weekends we take Anastasia to the beach or the park or one of our many malls...she's quite agreeable as long as she's in the Baby Bjorn!

Anyway, we'll be in the United States a month from now. Our schedule tentatively looks something like this:

3 December: Land in Orlando, Florida, and visit with my paternal grandmother, Mom, and Peter;

9 December: Drive up to Beaufort, South Carolina, to see Dad and our Beaufort friends;

17 December: Begin our drive to Indiana, perhaps driving through Asheville (Michelle?) and Knoxville

18 December: Arrive in Dale, Indiana, to see Christine's family

31 December: Fly out of Evansville, Indiana, for home.

Hopefully this summer, I'll get a chance to see the Illinois (maternal) grandparents, aunts, uncle, cousin, etc...

And Becky (the godmother!)...well, she needs to make plans to either come to Beaufort or Indiana to see us! And of course, she still needs to book that flight for Abu Dhabi in January or February...

Take care, everyone...and be sure to vote Libertarian.

Odds and Ends

Here is Month 3's collage. I think my favorite is the Omani dhow workers lazily admiring Anastasia as the rest of the tourist snoozed after a delicious lunch. (FYI: I have a collage for each month at the picasa site.)

Earlier this month, AISA had an Open House. We brought Anastasia along so that colleagues and students could see her. Now cleaning men, the Arab French teachers, and former students always ask about her. Quite a few of the latter took pictures with their cell phones to show to friends that weren't there. One student in particular asks how her baby is doing everytime I see her now.

This week we (the 8th grade staff) pulled a wonderful trick on our students. We planned a forensics unit that involved killing the director of our school. To introduce the project, I took two classes together (the other was the director's wife's) and told them there had been an incident and that Mrs. Pittman-Jones wouldn't be coming to class. I "checked" with a school official in the hall to see how much I could relay to them (aka- recover before I started laughing at their concerned faces) and then returned to inform them that the director had been murdered. They were shocked and brought up the bomb threat of a couple of weeks ago- I believe one quote was "What is going on with our school?!". Some were near tears, many had questions, one was concerned about his mom who also worked at our school. Then Mrs. Pittman-Jones came in looking very upset. She said she didn't want to be alone now and she just wanted to get to the bottom of who did it. But she said we couldn't really do anything now, so let's just try to accomplish some work today, which is when we both started handing out the fat packet of information titled "Death of the Director". You should have seen their bewildered faces!! A few finally caught on, and started crying out about how we got them :) I heard a few of the girls did openly cry. We begin research on some mysterious white powder tomorrow...

Not much going on here. Work. Play with Anastasia. Sleep and do it all over again. Although the little brat did pull a trick on us last Wednesday. She woke up every hour after midnight!! The night before and the one after were normal (one feeding around 2am). I did warn my students that Ms. Meunier may not tolerate as much as normal.

It's just over 6 weeks until we head for home for Christmas. But who's counting :)

Eid Holiday 2008

We were off from 26 September until 4 October to celebrate the end of Ramadan. Kim Asmus Hersey came to share that time with us and to meet Anastasia. In the photo album (if you follow the link), you will see us at Musandam (Oman), Al Ain, the beach along Abu Dhabi's corniche and at Sheikh Zayed's mosque.

Kim's visit to UAE/ Eid Holiday 2008