The Little Parases

snow days and soup

2010-02-10T22:33:00.000-05:00

We've been snowed in for a while now. School has been canceled since last Thursday. Or was it Friday? Who can remember. Work has been shut down for nearly as long. We just had our third storm in the last week today -- a real blizzard that created snow drifts as high as my waist in some places. The kids haven't really minded, although Edward was angstful this evening when he learned that kindergarten had been canceled for the rest of this week. He was really looking forward to the Valentine's party. As for Michelle, she was kind of mad that she had to miss gymnastics and lunch bunch, but she's battling a low-grade illness anyway, so perhaps it's for the best.

So what's a housebound family supposed to do? The kids already spend a lot of time at home, I guess, so it didn't seem to bother them that much. We've been sledding a few times, and yesterday we trekked out to the local shopping center for some treats at Starbucks. Imagine the dismay when we arrived to find the display case completely bereft of treats. I guess the bakery failed to deliver yesterday morning. Happily, we managed to scrounge up some packages of Annie's bunny crackers, and all was good.

We've been playing Hullabaloo. Edward has been building monster trucks out of LEGOs. Michelle helped me bake butter drop cookies today. Both big kids spent time putting together valentines for their classmates. And William has been pulling up on anything within reach. He may be walking inside of a month...

I'm pretty bad at stocking up food, although going back to work has forced me to buy all of my groceries during the weekend. Nevertheless, despite a couple of opportunities to go by the supermarket these past few days, my fridge is starting to look a little bare. Happily, I had enough ingredients to throw together some Turkey Alphabet Soup the other day. (I know I was saving that Christmas turkey in my freezer for some good reason!) The kids -- even Michelle and William -- loved it.

Of course, when I tried to serve it again today (along with leftovers of some pork braised in Riesling I had made over the weekend), Edward commented, "Mom, I don't like to eat the same foods over again. I like to eat different foods." Making me wonder which was better: the kindergarten gourmand or the picky toddler. Luckily, I've got both bases covered.

a long long time

2010-02-08T23:17:00.000-05:00

Okay, so I have been really bad about blogging lately, and I'm not even sure I have any readers left. The last time I took an extended hiatus, it was 2005, and we had left Boston to spend a summer on an island with no Internet access. Unfortunately, nothing quite that wonderful has transpired these past two months...

Not that life hasn't been interesting. Check out Snowy Days for some pictures taken back in early winter when we were reveling in our first snowfall of the season. Then check out Christmas 2009 to see Michelle in one of her new princess outfits, as well as other holiday delights. And as if there haven't been enough snow days already, Mother Nature unleashed Snowmageddon on us.

As for tomorrow? School is closed, and so is the federal government. The roads are a lovely mixture of plowed and unplowed, and I got stuck in a eight inches of slush this afternoon. As I spun my wheels hopelessly, a federal air marshal in a monster Jeep stopped to pull me out. Thank goodness for federal air marshals, keeping the skies and streets safe for the citizens of America.

Edward has really enjoyed the snow, building snowmen and having snowball fights and helping me shovel the walk. Michelle has ventured out a couple of times, but her favorite part is the hot cocoa treat that awaits her back inside. William loves to watch the snow, but getting him into his snowsuit is a bear...

merry christmas to all

2009-12-25T00:02:00.000-05:00

days go by

2009-12-15T01:19:00.000-05:00

Already, it's December. Where does the time go? We had our first big frost and first big snowball, and wow, that snowfall was incredible! Cold rain turned into genuine snow by mid-morning, and it continued to accumulate until late that night. The kids went out and built snowmen, and we bought a little snow shovel for them to assist with clearing the driveway. (Just like the little wheelbarrow we bought that was supposed to assist with the yard work. Ha!)

I've returned to work full time now, and it has been a tremendous adjustment for our family. The days are long, and my time with the kids is shorter. I find myself wanting to maximize the hours that we're together... and getting frustrated when things are less than perfect. I suppose that was something that didn't bother me as much when I stayed at home. But the end of the day is a difficult time for everyone. Sigh.

On the other hand, I'm trying to be more engaged with the kiddos, spending special time with them at night. We play board games some nights -- tonight it was a rocket ship game that Dad brought home from Germany -- and other nights the kids help me cook dinner. Michelle, especially, loves to help stir up stuff in the kitchen.

As for William, the little guy has taken the absence of Mom in stride. I've been able to maintain the breastfeeding by pumping once during the workday. (I use a handheld Avent pump which works incredibly well.) He consumes about 6 ounces of milk during the day and eats huge amounts of solid food and drinks water from his sippy cup. He's already moved on to table food... eating little slices of banana, pear, and apple as well as grains of rice, bits of noodle, soft veggies, and sweet potatoes. He LOVES sweet potatoes. He even consented to mash up some roast pork the other night. When I come home, he grins the biggest grin a baby could muster up, and he nurses throughout the evening and night. So I've been a bit short on sleep, but I'm happy he's able to stay on breastmilk throughout his first year.

santa's little helpers

2009-11-30T23:24:00.001-05:00

happy thanksgiving

2009-11-27T22:30:00.000-05:00

So Biff turned six months old, among other things. His half-year birthday fell on a Saturday some weeks back. We were on our way home from a week in Florida where we'd attended Jason and Joyce's wedding, enjoyed some days on the beach, and played mini-golf at Disney.

And what a great, big kid he is! He delights in rolling from his back to his tummy with this adorable maneuver whereupon he pulls his knees up, swings them over, then reaches with his arm until he's pushing up on his belly. At his six-month checkup, his height (29 inches) was off the charts. For a while, he had been eying our food, looking as if he wanted to chow on steak and eggs. So one day, we were on the road -- North Carolina, I think it was -- and eating dinner at the Waffle House. It was late, and the babe was squirming and trying to grab at our food. What the heck, I thought, and gave him a mouthful of grits. He gobbled it down and hasn't looked back since. He's eaten rice cereal and oatmeal and applesauce. Last night he chewed ferociously on a pizza crust that he gripped tightly in his fist as if afraid (rightly) that someone would take it from him. And this afternoon at the Thanksgiving feast, he consumed prodigious amounts of sweet potato. The real stuff that we were eating, boiled and mashed sweet potatoes seasoned with cinnamon and butter and the marshmallow topping carefully scraped off.

I remember my slow, slow start on solid foods with Edward. For a long time, he abhorred big boy food, and we were terrified that he would choke on chunks. Of course, babies have a pretty good reflex when it comes to stuff like that and seem to know which pipe to send it down. But we didn't know it back then and resisted giving the boy Cheerios, even. At the pizzeria last night, Edward stared at me in horror as I handed William a three-inch chunk of crust. Well, the little guy was hungry and looked as if he could handle it. And he did: gnawing the bread with his six teeth until it turned to a mash that dribbled down his chin. Maybe some made it into his stomach...

Nowadays, it's Edward who loves to eat and will rival his father when it comes to slices of pizza. He enjoys just about any type of food, provided it tastes good, and has a soft spot for fruit. The days of baby mash are long gone. So I guess you could say that it all evened out in the end and that delaying the solids didn't really seem to matter.

As for Michelle, my early devotee of table food, she blithely informed me at bedtime that she'd neglected to eat the collard greens I put on her plate this evening because she "didn't like them." She's stubborn enough to ignore me when I tell her to do something she doesn't want to do but still innocent enough that her lies are completely transparent. Her favorite part of this evening's feast was the bread roll. So it goes.

planet paras

2009-11-16T22:08:00.004-05:00

does breastfeeding make you skinny?

2009-11-12T23:10:00.003-05:00

I admit I love articles in the New York Times about parenting and babies. I guess lots of other mommies and daddies do, too, judging by the popularity of these stories. Like this one about breastfeeding as a diet tool. It cracked me up -- especially the fact that it was under the Fashion and Style section. Does breastfeeding help a mother lose some of that pregnancy weight? Seems like a reasonable theory.

Anyway, Biff and I are still breastfeeding. (We started calling him Biff a little while back because he's so big. And no, the nickname probably won't stick.) He's just about six months old and subsists on breast milk alone. I breastfeed him on demand -- which is how I fed the other two as well. I have to admit, the weight really melted off this time. Somehow, I'm wearing clothes from before I had Edward. (Sadly, my wardrobe is so pathetic that it was a real boon when I discovered a couple of jeans that had been sitting in storage for the last two years.) But I don't know if breastfeeding alone can explain the weight loss.

Frankly, I think these articles (and the cult surrounding celebrity yummy-mummies like Rebecca Romijn and Angelina Jolie) delude regular women into thinking that they can and should achieve a certain size after pregnancy. Hello! There's a reason Rebecca and Angelina are freakin' celebrity movie stars. They have perfect bodies that are genetically predisposed to maintain that shape. To suggest that a woman has complete control over her postpartum body is really unfair. Sure, breastfeeding might help you lose a few pounds. But it probably helps some women a lot more than it helps others, and metabolism and genetics likely play the most important role.

So I wish I could take credit for the weight loss. But it probably has everything to do with DNA and nothing to do with willpower or healthy eating or breastfeeding on demand. Sorry, Biff.

And now I've got to check out that article about chocolate milk reducing inflammation. Does Nesquik count?

right where we left off

2009-11-06T11:33:00.001-05:00

Who knew there were so many bands that sounded exactly like Coldplay? I guess that's what happens when you enter "Clocks" into the search engine over at Pandora Radio. I returned to my favorite internet radio station since Monkey Radio this evening and found that, after a two year hiatus, my information was still stored, all of my old stations sitting right where I'd left them, waiting for me...

Writing to my friend in Abu Dhabi a while back, I remarked that the these past couple of years have seemed like a dream to me. I look at Edward and wonder if he feels the same way. Since returning, he has hardly referred to Abu Dhabi or indicated in any way whatsoever that he misses it. Instead, he has thrown himself into his new life in Virginia without a backward glance. Were those last two years so terrible for him? Did he dream them, too?

halloween pictures

2009-11-02T23:35:00.000-05:00

happy halloween!

2009-10-31T17:28:00.002-04:00

Halloween. The calm before the storm. Actually, it's storming a little bit right now outside. Edward just discovered Mario Kart Wii. Michelle is cavorting with William. We spent the afternoon meeting new neighbors at a front lawn party. There are tons of families and kids in our 'hood, and everyone is so friendly! The previous owners were well known for their meticulousness with the house, and one person remarked on how lovely their deck always looked with the potted plants and flowers... Umm... I'm sure she was too polite to say that it looks like crap now with a perpetually water logged plastic table and chair sitting forlornly out there.

The girl was a princess, of course. She was looking cute in her Ariel costume. And Edward was a NASCAR driver. We dressed William up in Edward's old chicken suit. He's really the spitting image of his big brother these days...

Anyway, the kids are so excited to be going trick-or-treating. They've got their bags ready. And I'm armed with about seven pounds of candy for anyone who wanders our way. A mother at the party said that one year she got 110 kids...

Pictures and movies to follow. Happy Halloween to everyone!

weekend up north

2009-10-23T20:47:00.000-04:00

starting a business

2009-10-13T00:41:00.003-04:00

Not me, of course. I'm talking about Edward, our little entrepreneur. From that fantastic series that gave us Can You Feel the Force came Show Me the Money, a book about business and finance for the elementary school set. We got it for Edward a few months back, and he was immediately intrigued. (We also got the Berenstain Bears book about money around the same time, too.) After a few days of reading and pondering, he decided he wanted to start a business.

It took a while to get it off the ground. Edward and Dad worked on it during the weekends, nurturing the idea through several creative brainstorming sessions at Starbucks with crayons and markers. What emerged was the Virginia Orange Juice Company. Edward had visions of delivery service and talked about the different vehicles he was going to use to peddle his orange juice. We brought it back to the basics: a wooden table in the yard, a cooler for the OJ, and a few handwritten signs. By the time he was ready to start selling, the weather had turned a bit cool. Nevertheless, there were takers. Fifty cents for a small cup and a dollar for a large. He even made up a business plan somewhere in there and gave a short presentation to Mom and Dad before bedtime one evening in an effort to woo us as investors. (We listened and then promptly loaned him twenty bucks to get some capital equipment.)

Anyway, it's been a great experiment. He loves selling orange juice. Okay, I think in truth he loves making money. But he is willing to sit at his stand for an hour or two at a time and to interact with complete strangers. And he's learning about saving, we hope, as half of his profit has to go into his piggy bank.

For sure, he's learning about spending his hard-earned bucks. It's his favorite part of the whole process. But he's not a complete workaholic. Early in the process, he informed us gravely that he would work at his business during the week but close it on the weekends so that he could ride his run bike... Could a five year old have this whole work-life balance thing figured out?

apple poms

2009-09-24T23:25:00.003-04:00

The other day, Michelle informed me that they had read "apple poms" at school.

Huh?

Apple poms, Mom.

Huh?

So she explained what a pom was: "What Daddy and Edward and me did at Starbucks. Only we didn't write them down at school. The teacher read them to us."

Oh, poems.

Yes, Mommy, poms...

[...]

I wish I knew where she gets her accent. She has the cutest, most unusual way of talking, and when she's on a roll, she's a non-stop chatterbox. Most of the time, Edward is around, and he tends to dominate the conversation. But when we're out in public, he tends to clam up, so she steps into the verbal limelight.

It's interesting to hear her speak. Sometimes, she treads carefully around a word, unsure of how it's supposed to be pronounced. She remembers meanings of words better than she can remember their pronunciation, and she'll frequently have a word in mind without knowing how to utter it. In truth, she learned to speak in a very different way from Edward, who from the very beginning copied sounds, intonations, whole sentences, and advanced vocabulary from the world around him. He clung to his American accent through two years of exposure to British, Arabic, and Tagalog-inflected English.

But Michelle... her British teachers at Montessori used to ask me what her accent was, and tho' it's growing more American by the day, there are still little quirks to her speech that continue to confound and delight us.

Apple poms, indeed. I tried to get her to relay one to me, but she couldn't do it. "I don't want to, Mama," she said and ran off to play.

school signs

2009-09-24T13:26:00.003-04:00

The Scene. At the breakfast table before school.

Edward: Mom, there's a sign in the front of school that says, "Love games, enjoy snacks, laugh a lot." But I don't think that's right because there's nothing at school that's funny. There's nothing at school that would make you laugh.

(The sign actually refers to the upcoming Fall Festival.)

a couple of weeks

2009-09-14T22:04:00.004-04:00

So it's been a while since I last weighed in about the little ones. Something about this home ownership business and the never-ending tasks associated with settling in and cleaning up. Or maybe it's the three kids.

(Speaking of three kids, it's interesting to note that two is normal, three is definitely eyebrow raising. Sometimes, I'm out in the world with just William in tow, and people strike up conversations. (Interestingly, the baby attracts much more attention when he's alone than when he's part of a threesome.) I get lots of sweet, well-intentioned advice from other ladies who assume I'm a first-time mom, and when I mention that he's my third... well, it's sort of like what fundamentalist church do you belong to?)

Anyway, it's been an eventful couple of weeks. William celebrates his four-month birthday today. And he just started being able to support himself in a sitting position. Granted, it's only for several seconds, and his posture is terrible, but he's well on his way to being one of those upright monkeys! And he even rolled over again this afternoon, much to his delight. He tries to "swim" on his tummy, head upright, arms and legs flailing, and whenever he can get anything near his mouth, it gets gummed with alarming ferocity. We've been enjoying each other's company these last few days with the older kids in school.

And school! Edward started kindergarten last Tuesday. We have the pictures somewhere and I promise I'll upload them. But for now, just imagine this serious-looking boy with a mop of dark brown hair and brown eyes, towing a Spiderman 3 rolling backpack behind him, walking resolutely down the hall to his classroom without a backward glance. Eric and I and the rest of the family walked him to Mrs. R's class on his first day and watched as his confidently found his desk. Since then, he's bade me farewell at the door to the school. He loves kindergarten: the rules, the structure, the endless succession of learning-related activities. And it only lasts three hours, after which I bring him home for lunch and an afternoon of LEGOs and riding his brand new run bike through piles of leaves and along the sloping driveway outside...

Michelle, too, started her new preschool with great aplomb. She brings home wonderful art projects and thrills to talk about the various snacks she's been fed. Today, the class made apple prints, using halved apples dipped in paint. When I drop her off, she walks into the classroom and tells me goodbye without a hint of distress. It's also just three hours long, but it's a good fit. She loves her teacher, Mrs. B, and I think she'll thrive there.

So that's us in a very small nutshell. The days are long, but life is splendid here. It's good to be home.

monsters don't come in

2009-09-06T00:41:00.002-04:00

Little Michelle... she talks so fast and furiously and keeps right up with Edward. It's easy to forget that she's only three years old. She's still trying to figure out the world and isn't always quite sure where to draw the line between the real and the imagined.

Take monsters, for instance. The other day, she started asking me a number of questions about monsters. She wanted to know if they were real. I told her that they were not, but she wasn't quite convinced. Finally, she urged me to put up a sign.

"What should it say?" I asked.

"Monsters don't come in. Takin' a nap," she declared. And she told me to put it on the door.

sunset in the suburbs

2009-09-02T22:18:00.002-04:00

Okay, so I never imagined I would be here, living the suburban dream. But here it is. We have the SUV. (Actually, in keeping with the times, we have the late '00s version of the SUV, the crossover Chrysler Pacifica, but it is really a fantastic car with comfortable seating for six.) We have the lawn. The big house. The wooden deck. The 2.5 children (does baby William really count as a whole child yet?). I have become the Stepford Wife.

Ha. Not really. And this community is cool. Our neighbors are super friendly, and we will have a Labor Day BBQ with our closest neighbors this Sunday. Kids abound... this community was built in the mid-1980s, and there are still many of the original families around. However, the neighborhood is undergoing a revival with empty-nesters giving way to couples with young children. In the late afternoon, the sidewalks are filled with jogging strollers and kids on bicycles.

And we really live in a great, great, great location. There is your standard shopping center at the edge of our neighborhood... anchored by the typical supermarket and the usual assortment of shoppes, restaurants, and services (a dry cleaners, a barber shop). There's also a Baskin Robbins and Starbucks. Yay! The best part is the fact that we are well within walking distance of this suburban mecca. Okay, so it's not U Street or Harvard Square, but hey, it's Starbucks and Baskin Robbins!

So tonight, after dinner, we strolled out en famille to get some ice cream for dessert. The kids were revved up by the idea of a special outing, and they couldn't contain their glee when we revealed our destination. Edward hooted, "Best outing!" as he skipped down the sidewalk, and Michelle chattered happily beside me. (They ordered rainbow sherbet and cotton candy ice cream.) The weather was gorgeous, and we got to enjoy the sunset and moonrise.

In a few weeks, the weather will probably turn too cold for many more evening outings. (Plus, it's dark in the suburbs!) But we'll discover other pleasures, I'm sure. The kids are already thrilled at the idea of a jack-o-lantern (Edward wants it to be SCARY), and there's the first snowfall to look forward to. Sadly, all the kids have for comparison is Ski Dubai...

late summer

2009-08-30T23:32:00.003-04:00

Edward and Michelle lay down next to William on his playmat the other day and took him on an adventure. There was a lot of giggling as they pretended to drive their baby brother around town, and he laughed and smiled up a storm, deliriously happy to be the center of their attention.

So this is what life is like as the summer winds to a close. The kids run shrieking up and down the stairs, playing pretend with their dolls and animal friends. We venture outdoors to the playground or pool and sometimes even our own backyard.

Admittedly, our backyard is a bit under-utilized at the moment. It's a great place but prone to mosquitoes. Not a big deal, I suppose. But for kids who've gone all their lives without a genuine yard, there's little appeal. The deck is fantastic, and there's grass out back. There are beautiful trees, and this afternoon, I dragged all three of them out there to help me clear some dead branches I had pruned the day before. Edward took the job with enthusiasm. (Really, he just wanted to push the big plastic garbage can around.) But he grabbed big handfuls of branches and shoved them into the bin.

Afterwards, we collected leaves from some of the trees and brought them inside to identify. Michelle pleaded indifference and began munching on some leftover Cheerios from her snack bag. Edward took some paper and traced one of the leaves. William chomped angrily on his shirt from the corner. I consulted Trees: A Guide to Familiar American Trees, a small paperback book with a cover price of $1.25. (Sure, it was published in 1952, but I trust the trees haven't mutated too much since then.)

Three leaves and some spirited debate yielded these conclusions: Mulberry, Norway Maple, and Sweetbay.

Should we keep a nature journal? Create a tree map for our yard? Maybe something as simple as setting up a table and chairs outside and having our afternoon snack in the sun will tempt these housebound children outdoors.

new house, new life

2009-08-27T09:42:00.006-04:00

So we haven't dropped off the edge of the earth or died or anything like that, but we did live without internet for several weeks, which is kind of the same thing. After a few weeks of nomadic vacationing, we moved into our new home (new home!) in the DC suburbs and have slowly, slowly been settling in.

It's wonderful here. There are trees all over our yard. We can walk to the pool and the playground, and Edward can walk to school. In a few days, he'll start kindergarten. (How did this happen?? I remember when a friend of mine got married a couple of years ago. The father of the bride evoked at the wedding reception the moment when his little girl headed off to school for the very first time. You could tell that it was as clear to him as the wedding itself.) The boy received an extensive school supply list, and we've purchased most of the goodies -- with the exception of fat pencils -- and outfitted his Spiderman backpack. (Where does one find fat pencils??) He has a brand new Lightning McQueen lunchbox, and he asks us everyday, with equal parts excitement and trepidation, to describe kindergarten.

For her part, Michelle chatters excitedly about preschool and runs enthusiastically throughout the house during the day. But she's anxious about life in this new land. She wants me to sleep with her for "a few minutes" every night after stories and cries when I leave her side. In the middle of the night she runs into our bed. When we moved to Abu Dhabi, Edward had the same set of fears, and we console her in much the same way. She longs for the familiarity of our house in Goldenfish and misses her friends Henry and Patrick. So we comfort her and remind her that there will be new friends to make and a new house to explore.

A few days ago, Eric took the kids to Starbucks for a snack, and while they were there, he stirred up a poetry competition. It wasn't quite a poetry slam, but here is the poem that Michelle composed, as dictated verbatim to Dad.

Once there was two cherries
they went out to a garden
and they played flower-poem
and then they went back home
and played the garden nice coffee game

It was a nice game
but I don't know what it was.
I know what it is
but I skipped it.
I already did it.

They went to play muffin eater
and after muffin eater
they went to play garden ball.
And they wanted to stay at Abu Dhabi.
The end.

a day of travel

2009-07-14T14:29:00.005-04:00

The kids were super excited about returning to America -- which made things a little bit easier on the 24-hour journey from Abu Dhabi to DC. A little bit, anyway. Our flight left Abu Dhabi airport at 00:50 early Monday morning, and we finally reached our hotel in Ashburn around 4:30 pm, local time on Monday. (Add 8 hours to account for the time difference, and you've got 24 hours.)

I can't say the first flight was bad... six hours to Frankfurt passed relatively quickly. William slept in his car seat, and the big kids slept as well. To be sure, the little guy woke a couple of times to be nursed, but he was definitely tired. Each time, he settled quite easily back into his chair.

Then we arrived in Frankfurt for a 6-hour layover. Okay, so that sounds bad, but it wasn't terrible. We had access to a very nice lounge with snacks and goodies that were phenomenal. We ate a leisurely breakfast with a view upon the runway, and afterwards, the kids settled into some comfy chairs for playing and coloring. William continued to sleep and sleep and sleep.

Unfortunately, he was awake by the time the second flight rolled around. Eight hours from Frankfurt to DC. The big kids managed relatively well. They napped, ate, and played fitfully and consented to watch the kids programming on TV. William, however, never wanted to sit in his car seat. Not for eight hours. So... there was lots of rocking, holding, and walking with the little one. He can't sit up on his own yet, nor can he be propped up. He slept in fits and starts and seemed pretty discontent with things. Sigh. I guess you can't win them all. After we arrived, however, he settled down and was very happy for the rest of the day...

So we rented our van -- yes, that's right, a van -- dropped Xena off at the kennel, and found our hotel. The kids were super excited. They made themselves right at home, and Mom and Dad tried to take a breather too. We realized that William's pack-n-play had somehow gotten left behind... at the Abu Dhabi airport, most likely, but at least it wasn't a kid.

Anyway, we're back in the home of the brave, land of the free. It's not like Abu Dhabi at all. While we were waiting in the rental car parking lot, Edward checked out the cars and marveled at the possibility of upgrading to a Camaro. A Cadillac parked nearby had its engine running and sound system blaring some sort of easy rock. Michelle looked around after a while, wondering at the music, and asked if it was a "mosque song."

Meanwhile, the weather is beautiful. Clear skies, bright sunshine, a wonderful 82°F. We wandered out into this bliss today around noon to get our lunch. Accustomed to 113°F weather and wilting heat, Michelle commented brightly, "It's not so sunny!"

packed out

2009-07-08T15:49:00.003-04:00

So our time is really, really drawing to a close. We packed out on Sunday. The movers were fiendishly efficient. Five guys showed up and stuffed 3000 kilos worth of goods (who knew we'd accumulated that much stuff!?!) into 120 boxes. It took them about eight hours. The next day, they did the inventory and weight and then sat around for a few hours playing cards while they waited for the truck to show up. It eventually did around 3 pm, and then there was this incredibly flurry of activity. Two hours later, it was just us and the dust bunnies.

So now we're alone in this big empty house. It's like summer 2007 all over again. Except that things are a bit different. To be sure, the kids are going bonkers. They fight all the time and the slightest thing might set them off. We have meltdowns a couple times a day now, and Edward seems to struggle with anger, lashing out at whomever happens to be nearby. (Usually, it's Michelle.) Their routine had been precious to them, and now everything familiar has vanished.

Nevertheless, they've managed without their toys quite well. Once they've gotten over their hurt feelings, Edward and Michelle manage to collaborate on some pretty cute playworlds. There's Red Valley, this ongoing imaginary world that they created in their bedroom several weeks ago. Adults aren't quite sure what goes on in Red Valley, but there seems to be vast consumptions of "magical cheese" in the form of wooden Melissa and Doug sandwich fixings.

Since the packout, Red Valley has become the Hiltonia. We packed away the car bed, so the bedroom now has a regular bed and a mattress on the floor. We pulled the second mattress onto the floor so that the kids could sleep on the same level as one another, and they've taken to jumping off the box spring onto the mattresses below... it's their swimming pool... hence the Hiltonia reference. Sigh.

Lately, I've been playing pretend doctor as the kids bring me their stuffed animals and dolls. (Well, just one stuffed animal and one doll.) Their favorite pretend ailment is "bugs" in the tummy. But they've taken the "bug" expression quite literally. I've been presented with caterpillars in the brain and snakes in the stomach and flies in the butt. My pretend medical skills have been stretched to the limit during these sessions.

And so the kids amuse each other quite sweetly when they aren't driving everyone (including themselves) crazy. We've just a couple more days left, and we can't wait to get on the plane. As Edward's best friend said the other night as they left our house after a farewell dinner, "See you in North America!"

the long goodbye

2009-06-28T15:21:00.003-04:00

We've been saying goodbye to our friends and acquaintances one by one. Yesterday, one of the very first people I met here in Abu Dhabi had us over to her house for lunch. It was a really lovely afternoon. We hadn't seen each other in months. Frequent get-togethers during our first year dwindled to two or three this past year. And so we sat across from one another in their familiar, spacious living room, chatting as casually as if we would meet again -- next month, perhaps, at a subsequent lunch party.

It's been like that lately, this prolonged farewell to close friends. The kids ended school last Thursday with a party. Edward dressed as a pirate and Michelle donned her fairy butterfly costume. I picked them up at the end of the morning and saw the teachers sitting in a circle around the room. We gave everyone a little picture to remember us by, and there were tears. Already, many of their classmates had gone. Abu Dhabi isn't a terribly hospitable place in the summer, and so families trickle away as the schools draw to a close.

The French family across the street moved away after eight years in this town. I watched the moving truck come by one day. More poignantly, our next door neighbors with whom we've been so close bade us farewell last week as they headed to Europe for the summer. The older daughter might have been Edward's first crush. We had spent many happy afternoons in their company, the kids playing on the beach or in the pool or at one of our houses. We vowed to keep in touch. They will continue their Middle Eastern adventure long after we've moved away.

Curiously, we've grown fond of our life here in Abu Dhabi. The city that seemed so forbidding when we first arrived has become familiar. We've made strong friendships here and know that some of these goodbyes will certainly be forever. We will miss the Corniche Beach, its pirate ship playground, manicured paths, and white sand. Several weeks ago, we took a stroll there with all of the kids, not realizing it would be for the last time. Since then, the heat has crushed any desire to venture anywhere on foot. And so it goes.

Goodbye to International Montessori Nursery. Goodbye to dear friends. Goodbye to the Women and Children's playground, to Family Park, and to Marina Mall. Goodbye to nights on the town and dinners at the Shangri-La. We won't be able to afford those back home. Goodbye to the Land Rover.

Eric asked the boy one day what he would miss most in the UAE. "Dubai Mall," he said after some reflection. Which says something about this place, after all, and about us, too, and it's a good thing we're going home. Goodbye Abu Dhabi and Dubai. It was nice to have known you.

kid tough going on five years

2009-06-25T15:01:00.004-04:00

I thought this picture was kind of cool. Someone took it with the Kid Tough camera. It might've been Edward. It might've been 'Chelle. It might've been one of the 12 kids we had over for Edward's fifth birthday party a few weeks ago. The camera was lying about, and it proved to be a huge hit.

Which just goes to show, you never know what's going to be popular at a preschooler's party.

We made it NASCAR themed. (Edward's choice, of course.) I photocopied pictures out of his DK Eyewitness NASCAR book to make the invitations. Edward addressed the cards himself. At first, he only wanted to invite his closest friends -- our two sets of neighbors and a family from the Embassy. But one of his teachers encouraged me to invite a few other kids from school and mentioned one or two boys he had been playing with recently. I asked him, and after a day or two, he expanded his list to include about six other children. Sigh.

Last year, the party was a free-for-all. What do you expect with four-year-olds? But this year, I was determined to give it a bit of structure. Not that free-for-all is bad. It's just... loud. Really loud.

The first step was remodeling the play zone, which ordinarily is packed to the rafters with every single toy imaginable. We have a play kitchen with play food and two tea sets. There is an enormous train set in one corner -- GeoTrax, incredibly cool, and absolutely irresistible to children. We have a couple hundred Matchbox/Hot Wheels cars. We have bigger cars. Remote controlled cars. There are about a dozen dolls. There's a doll house, a farm, and a huge rocket ship. There are Cranium games. A cabinet full of board games and flashcards. A spinner full of markers. Melissa & Doug sandwich set. Melissa & Doug pizza set. Melissa & Doug birthday cake. Automoblox. Wooden blocks, two sets. A bin of Duplo LEGOs. A box of small LEGOs. Yet another, bigger box crammed with LEGOs used to make wheeled vehicles. Doll accessories of every stripe (baby bottles, baby potty, random clothing, plastic jars, spoons, bibs, towels, and on and on). Doctor items. Tool box. Lincoln Logs. Cash register with play money. Dozens of stuffed animals.

Okay, I didn't mean to list every single toy the kids own. (Did I forget the tricycles?) Anyway, I relocated everything that was not a car upstairs. Afterwards, the place was refreshingly minimalist. It was very automobile. It was almost like Rainbow Sheikh's Car Museum. If the kids were going to wreak havoc with toys, at least it was going to be car-related.

We had a couple of games. "Road Sign Musical Chairs" and "Pin the Wheel on the Camaro." With fun prizes for winners and losers. I had explained the games to Edward beforehand, and he really got into it for his own party. When he goes to other birthday parties, he always avoids the games, but I think knowing what to expect and being given a role in leading the games really gave him confidence. He showed the kids what to do when the different road signs were held up and nearly came out the winner. Of course, a couple of older girls nudged him out, and he was crestfallen...

On the wall, I put up pictures of the boy from every year of his short life. (A Montessori thing: during their birthday celebration, the child shows his classmates pictures of himself at a younger age.)

And the food? Several pies from Pizza Hut. The Australian and British moms said to me in amazement, "What a wonderful idea!" I guess the pizza party truly is an American invention.

When it came time for the cake, Edward instructed everyone not to sing the Happy Birthday Song. Fair enough. It was his party. We wished him a non-musical Happy Birthday, and he blew out his candle. I made his cake: chocolate, car-shaped, no cream. I think, in the end, he had a pretty good day.

roar!

2009-06-23T14:32:00.003-04:00