Pet Moths

Talia keeps wishing for a pet, especially a horse, but since that's not possible right now, she's been befriending every moth that she sees in the house. 
One day, she had one sitting on her hand and she was talking about how beautiful it was... and then it flew into the bug zapper (because there are so many mosquitoes lately) and she cried: "I loved it and it had died like Uncle L!" I'm not sure how much of that was drama and how much of it was real. Ben tried to be sympathetic, but he couldn't help laughing at the same time just because of the sheer amount of drama in her voice.

For now, we just share our friend's pets. Cats are super abundant and wild here, there is always 4 or 5 sitting outside around our garden, on the walls, in the trash cans or around the gates. They're constantly caterwauling at night making all sorts of interesting music. They're also always reproducing, so the most popular pet seems to be the kittens. (That might be because the dogs are likely to get eaten. Seriously.)

Some people have fish, the fashionable Emirati's have things like lions, tigers and cheetahs, and there are things like foxes at the animal markets (a place many people find cruel and are trying to change.) 

A pet that surprised me were the parrots caught wild here who were eating the sunflower seeds from a friend's sunflowers. Her husband is a capable trapper and was able to catch them. I've never seen wild parrots here, (though I thought there was one in the neighbor's mango tree.) The kids were excited to see the birds here, but I'm not so sure the birds were excited to see them.

I'm not sure that we'll ever get a pet here, since we don't have long term plans to stay and it doesn't make sense if we are just going to leave. It's also difficult to know what to do with one if we have to go to the city or travel home on vacation... but one day, maybe, we will settle in a place where a pet can thrive and who knows? Maybe Talia will get a horse some day.







Then again, we did wake up to this in our garden yesterday morning... maybe we can just have wild, outside pets for now.

Third Culture Kids: Learning Hindi and Arabic

Where we live now, we have the unique opportunity for Talia to attend a school right behind our house where she can learn Hindi and Arabic in addition to normal subjects. With language-lover parents and an interest in learning languages herself, combined with the closeness and super reasonable fees, it was a great opportunity. Hindi and Arabic both use a different alphabet than English, and that is where they are starting.

Talia's first Hindi alphabet lesson

 Many times what can be gained by living in another culture is found within the context of community, a context that can be avoided to a large degree in a land full of many expats. Some tend to stick to communities of people just like themselves and re-create the country they left behind to the best of their abilities. And, of course, time spent with familiar people and languages is definitely refreshing in a sea of unfamiliar languages and customs. However, the unique thing about Abu Dhabi is the immense variety of different cultures that are co-existing with the indigenous one. Most of the time harmoniously.

 Something we have to balance with third-culture kids (children raised outside of their parent's culture where they  have neither the culture of their parents, nor the culture of the land they live in, but rather a combination of both) is providing them with a stable home base and familiarity with the culture from their home country, but also finding ways for them to experience the culture they are living in as well. What's the point of living abroad if you're only going to insulate yourself and re-create something that will never live up to the original in your mind?

It can be challenging, but many times it's mind-stretching, interesting and fun!

Seen in Abu Dhabi 26

Cheese ice cream... Would you try it?

Kids Unscripted: Chapter 25

Talia: "I'm putting lotion on your freckles because I don't want them to go away because I think they're beautiful."
---

Talia: "That was just my unrhymable rhyme..."

---

Elias: "wear pip-pops!" (Flip flops)

---

Talia: "A chin is just a big point growing down your head..."

---

Talia: "I'm a factory lady..."

Me: "What kind of factory?"

Talia: "It's the kind that goes to all of the barber shops and sweeps out all of the hair and turns it into soap! It's really hard and you have to go to school to learn how to do it."

---

Talia: "This is a nice king. He doesn't just sit around and tell people what to do, he actually helps them!"

---
Talia: (to Elias) "I knooooow... if you know it, I know it. In fact, you probably learned it from me to begin with..."
---
Talia: "It's just like normal... except it's different."
---
Elias: "Lid, stucken!" [The lid is stuck.]
---
Talia: "If you want to see if someone is breathing, you could put a harmonica to their mouth. If it doesn't make any sound, they might need to go to the funeral home..."
[She later reassessed this theory since she noticed she had to be breathing fairly strongly to produce sound.]
---

Talia: "Do you have to water your hair if you want it to grow?"

---

Talia: "Do moths say anything or are they shy?"

---
Talia: "Babies are weird: they poop and eat in their sleep and they don't know any words... But they're baby people! I like baby people!" 

---

Elias: "Baby, peepee, diaper. Need prize!" [He was trying to share some of his potty training prize with baby Ezra.]

---

Talia: "Boy babies are cutest kinds of boys."

Seen in Abu Dhabi 25

A camel traffic jam on the way from Ben's work. The handlers finally got them off of the road by luring them with a piece of bread.

Chocolate Muffins

We used this recipe but left out the chocolate chips, which seem difficult for me to find sometimes since I mostly have access to the local market and not the mall very often.

·         2 cups flour

·         1 cup sugar

·         3/4 cup chocolate chips

·         1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa powder 

·         1 teaspoon baking soda  

·         1 teaspoon vanilla extract 

·         1 cup plain yogurt

·         1/2 cup milk

·         1/2 cup oil 

·         1/4 cup chocolate chips

·         1 2-year-old

·         1 6-year-old

 

 1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees F (200 degrees C). Get the 2 year old to grease the muffin cups with the oil and a brush... or line with paper muffin liners.
2. Get the 6-year-old to help the 2-year-old dump flour, sugar, 3/4 cup chocolate chips, cocoa powder, and baking soda in a large bowl.
3. Help them whisk egg, yogurt, milk, and vegetable oil in another bowl until smooth; pour into chocolate mixture and stir until batter is just blended.
4. Fill prepared muffin cups 3/4 full and sprinkle with remaining 1/4 cup chocolate chips.
5. Bake in preheated oven until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean, about 20 minutes or until the 2 year old anxiously waiting by the timer calls "Mama! Cupcake, DING!"
6. Cool in the pans for 10 minutes before removing to cool completely.

Kids Unscripted: Chapter 24

Me: "Talia, can you use 'last but not least' in a sentence?"
Talia: "Putting icing on a cupcake is the last but not least step!"
---
Ben: "what did you do with your beard? Wash it off in the bathtub?"

Elias: (nodding) "yeah!"

---
Elias: (crying and pointing to his top lip) "Elias hurt, mustache!"
---
Elias: (pointing at the window) "Mommy, wet stuff!"
Me: "That's called rain."
Elias: "Rain, like!"
---
Talia: (upset) "My ice wont stay on the bottom of the cup!"
Me: "There's our next science lesson..." (Can you tell we don't have ice often?)
---
Talia: "The dwarves smashed my finger!"
Me: "Dwarves?!"
Talia: "I mean, 'drawers.'"
---
Talia: "Mama, you smell like Temaw..."
Me: "Is that a good thing or a bad thing?"
Talia: "A good thing."
Me: "What does that smell like?"
Talia: "Lotion!"
---
Talia: "When my heart gets full of love, it spills over to my mouth and makes me smile!"
---
Elias: "Mommy: woman. Papi: man. Talia: girl. Elias: GUY!"
---
Talia: (to me) "I'm teaching Elias new sentences, see watch: 'Doughnuts are delicious!'"
Elias: "Doughnuts are li-dicious!"
Talia: "Good boy! I think I'm a good teacher!"
---
Talia: "Mommy, can you check and see if I have any goosebumps?"
Me: "I don't see any..."
Talia: "Maybe it's because I haven't grown up and gotten married yet..."
Me: "Why does getting married give you goosebumps?"
Talia: "Because you fall in love!"
Me: "And falling in love gives you goosebumps?"
Talia: "Yes! Falling in love is where your love cup spills over and you love even more and it gives you goosebumps."
---
Talia: "Papi, you only have two gray hairs in your beard! That means you probably won't die before I'm an adult!"
---

Ezra's Birth Story

April 23, 2014

I woke up to my water breaking around 4:30 a.m. and as soon as I was sure... which only took about a minute, (there was a LOT,) I woke up Ben, who excitedly got up and took a shower. I wasn't having many contractions yet, and was surprised to have things happen in this order. With Elias, I went into labor and my water didn't break until just a little while before the pushing stage. Because of that, we had decided before to go to the hospital when my water broke, but, now I wasn't so sure. I got dressed while Ben was getting ready and called our friend to let her know (thank God for friends you can trust with your kids when you go into labor.) We decided to go ahead and take the kids and then go to the hospital and get through all of the paperwork.

The timing was perfect, Ben's alarm was set to get up and go to work just a few minutes after my water broke, if it had broken any later, he'd have probably been gone and had to drive back. It was a good day for him to be off, and happened where he was able to be with me three days and get the weekend in the middle of that as well. It was good timing for the kids to go to someone's house at the beginning of the day where they could go back to bed and everyone start on a sort of normal schedule. Our friend's car was in the shop at this time also, so not being in an emergency to get the kids there before going to the hospital was a blessing.

At the hospital there were so many ways I could see answered prayers. There were a million little ways every decision could have gone a completely different way and I could have been forced into something like induction, Cesarian, shots or other medications, and it didn't happen. I was able to refuse everything and sign waivers, not really what you want to deal with in labor, but much better than having no choice. The more nervous midwife who was having trouble letting me walk around and labor in peace went off shift and was replaced with a much more relaxed one. The doctors left me alone to labor for the most part except for a few instances and I was able to do it within the hospital's 6-12 hour policy for after water breaks. (Elias' labor was much longer than 6 hours, Ezra's was almost 6 exactly.)

Ezra was born at 10:45 a.m. and was 7 lbs, 12 oz and 19 inches long.

We practiced nursing all evening and he did really well… and apparently had at least 3 diaper’s full of green goo to show for it. I didn’t have the intense shaking like after Elias, just a little bit. The next day the pediatrician said Ezra was OK to go. The doctor released me as well, so 24 hours after delivering him, we were leaving. (The nurses acted surprised by that, but I’m not sure why.) I just know I felt like I was escaping jail as I left and the relief of not having anything else to refuse was intense. Recovery has been much easier than with either of my other births, and I'm so thankful for that.

So, now I have had a medicated, vaginal hospital birth with Talia, a natural homebirth with Elias and an unmedicated, vaginal hospital birth with Ezra. If given the choice, I would choose a homebirth again without hesitation. I’m thankful that this one went as well as it did and I'm so thankful for many answered prayers.   

Ezra is healthily beautiful and tiny (after being with Elias) and full of grins and cute noises.We're so happy to welcome him to our family!

Pregnancy and the Mirage of Control

There are several ways this third pregnancy has been different from my first two. The biggest difference has been the constant contractions from early on, that have gradually intensified the further along I've gotten. Many of the other differences are mental things compounded by our location.


The hardest part of this pregnancy,  in addition to being away from friends and family and especially my midwife, is how the nature of pregnancy has so much of it out of my control: I can’t be sure I will go into labor when Ben is home, I can’t be sure that I can give birth without complications, my preferred method of birth (out of a hospital) is illegal here... Nothing that I feel responsible for is really within my control- which are reasons that were true with the first two, but being surrounded by a network of people I trusted made that easier. This time I can’t even take care of my own kids well when I go into labor, and this was the part that made me feel the most desperate.  I’m thankful that God has provided someone I feel I can trust  with my kids (which, trust is also hard to do) long enough to have this new one. With that major concern out of the way, there are only a dozen others to constantly give back to the one with ultimate control. I’m having to learn a lot about letting go and realizing that my "control" is really a mirage to begin with and that God really does order our steps if we let Him, even when everything feels so wrong and I would do it all a completely different way if I possibly could. I can’t have this baby at home, though (unless he just comes really fast, but still going for a completely natural birth, supposedly made easier in the British model approach to maternity care in this hospital...) I can’t change my location and I’m not in charge of the timing of the birth of this baby ultimately.

I've been pregnant the whole time we've been in Ruwais, since we first moved in here in October, so after the major hot months coming up (right after the baby is due,) I'm looking forward to getting back into running and other physical things. As with Elias, I haven't even reached my pre-pregnancy weight that I had with Talia though I'm in my 39th week now, and that's something that reminds me that though there may be many things I can't control, the things that I can, do make a difference.

Making Popsicles

As the temperature has started creeping up again, we've been enjoying making popsicles.

They're pretty simple: We started with two ripe bananas.

Added a cup of plain yogurt.

And some blueberries that we found for a decent price at the mall, YAY!

Poured it into some (sorta small) silicone molds and froze it.

Elias was apparently paying close attention because when those were gone he tried to make his own before I found him in the kitchen with the hot cocoa mix (left from introducing "winter" traditions)  trying to make chocolate popsicles:

We did make chocolate ones, with the same ingredients plus the addition of two tablespoons of this drinking chocolate mixture. It's probably better this way than as hot chocolate in this weather, after all.

Playing with Colors

Things for kids to do here include driving to the beach, going to the park, going to the Lady's Club which has an inside swing set and toys, going to the mall, going to a friend's house, mostly things that involve a car or walking a ways. We usually walk everywhere with no problem, but the further into the third trimester that I get, the more contractions this causes, so after homeschooling, at-home activities have included a lot of reading, making cards and letters to mail family, spraying the gardens, building with blocks, puzzles and a lot of art. Talia and Elias especially like playing with colors. So far we've been....

Finger painting:

Drawing: (Here, a girl running away from an apple tree because they apples were falling on her head.)

"Writing":

Making Papi and "I love you" card that's supposed to be a fox made out of hearts:

Gardening in the Desert: Tomatoes

Living in a place with a small patch of dirt instead of an apartment means we have enough room to grow something, especially in the "winter," which is really the best growing season for many things, like tomatoes.

The kids like helping water the plants with their spray bottles (and it keeps them occupied for a long time and can be a cooler activity in hot weather because it usually doesn't stay aimed at the plants...)

The tomato plants have gotten really big!

Here is our first tomato:

Seen in Abu Dhabi 24: Camels in the Western Region

Ben had a chance to visit one of his student's camel training sessions for races. The visit included a nice tea break in the tent and some good memories from the Western Region.

Sweet Potato Streusel Muffins

With the new mall in Ruwais, an option I finally have again is sweet potatoes! One of our favorite ways to use them besides regular mashed or baked potatoes is to make sweet potato streusel muffins.

Seen in Abu Dhabi: 23

Kithul treacle:

"Kitul treacle is made from sap extracted from the inflorescence of the kitul palm, Caryota urens, which grows in Sri Lanka. The treacle is made from pure sap boiled down to a sweet, dark brown syrup, thick and sweet in flavour, with a taste resembling dates with a slight hint of caramel. It is traditionally eaten with curd, a traditional Sri Lankan buffalo yogurt. When the sap is cooked, it also produces a crude sugar called jaggery."

Kids Unscripted: Chapter 23

Elias: (dropping toys in the bucket and mostly missing and making a mess) "Mama, mess!"
Me: "Did you make a mess?"
Elias: *nods*
Me: "Go pick it up..."
Elias: "Mommy's turn!"
Me: "I don't think so!"
---
Talia: "The thing about this paper airplane is that I know it doesn't have any feelings, but it sure is acting tired."
---
Talia: "If I draw 'x's side by side and make them hold hands at the top and the bottom they make beautiful diamond shapes!"
---
 Talia: (with a measuring tape) "Is this a cillimeter?"
---
Talia: "I'm going to make frog dressing, like flies grinded up: the kind of dressing frogs eat... so that when I get a pet frog he can eat it! I bet frogs would like fly pies, too."
---
Talia: "Understanding means just not dis-understanding..."
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Talia: "How do you know if it's a fig tree or a maple tree, because both have 5 points on their leaves?"
---
Talia: "Mommy, do you want me to tell you a kindful story?"
---
Me: "Elias, what did you do with the blueberries?"
Elias: "Round and round!" [blender]
Me: "What are you going to make with them?"
Elias: "Pockles!" [popsicles]
---
Talia: "If, when I grow up someone asks me to be queen, I will be a queen of discipline instead of violence."
---
Ben: (to me) "Mama, don't tell Talia, but I love her a LOT!"
Talia: "Why would you tell Mama not to tell me?! That's a lovely thing to say!"
---
Elias: "Lias, monkey!"
Me: "Elias is a monkey?"
Elias: "Yeah! Mommy, bear!"
Me: "Mommy is a bear? What's Talia?"
Elias: "Cracker!"
Me: "What's Papi?"
Elias: "Banana!"
---
Me: (to Talia) "Thank you for eating your supper even though you didn't like it."
Talia: "Yeah... I think the only way to fix that one is to just not make it."
---
Me: "Elias, did you poot?"
Elias: (shaking his head no) "Cat poot!"
(We don't have a cat...)

Ruwais Mall

When you move to a new place, I've found that it's usually best to try to live within what the culture has available rather than constantly trying to recreate things from home without the right ingredients. This is what we do most of the time, with the occasional special treat of making things like flour tortillas or other things we miss from Texas and Guatemala. What we've been able to experience this way, as a bonus, is one of the best parts of travel abroad: the local cuisine. In a multicultural place like Abu Dhabi, this has meant  a combination of Filipino, Indian, and a variety of Middle Eastern foods.

In Ruwais, especially, this has been the experience since the variety found in the many-malled area of Abu Dhabi is not available in this desert town a good 2.5 hours away, so finding something we missed from home even for special occasions was either a "see if someone feels like mailing it" or "just do without" thing. Part of this has changed with the new Ruwais Mall.

Some of the main things found at the mall that were difficult to get otherwise are flour tortillas, sour cream and salsa, some of our most missed and not-easy-to-make items. We still will only get them for special occasions, but it's nice to have the option!  Some other ways this will add variety to Ruwais, (soon, since all of the shops are not open yet) will include restaurants beyond the Indian/Arabic food option available, a wider variety of clothes and office/school supplies, baby supply shop and even a nutrition shop that might have more natural options for things like toothpaste, deodorant and coconut oil. That's what is important  to me... I know many of the other ladies are excited about a beauty salon and cinema.

I don't even know half of the new options this is going to provide, there's not too much I miss besides people and certain foods (I'm sure there's a connection there...) and I generally don't like malls, but just adding another air conditioned option for walking around during the the 100-125 degree months is a welcome diversion here.

Learning to make flour tortillas: I miss TexMex food!

One type of food that's really hard to get in Abu Dhabi and especially the Western Region, is any sort of Latin American food. Corn flour, (actual corn flour, because what is labeled "corn flour" here is really just corn starch) which could be used to make masa for corn tortillas and many other things is almost impossible to find except every once in a while in the capital. I never could find it there either. So finding a good flour tortilla recipe was nice! This recipe was easy and they turned out soft and pliable just like they're supposed to. Previous attempts had suffered in this area. ;)

We made beef and bean burritos with chopped tomatoes, cilantro, mozzarella (hard to find cheddar) and a little yogurt to substitute for hard-to-find sour cream. They were yummy.

It's also hard to find good tomatoes or tomato products in this part of the desert also, so salsa is another thing I'm trying to figure out, if you have any good recipes for when we DO have good tomatoes.

Seen in Abu Dhabi: 22

A grape the size of a small plum. I couldn't find a label to tell where it was grown...

"Winter" Crafts and Traditions

Since this is one of the first winter breaks spent with just immediate family instead visiting relatives in the States, we've had the chance to think about  traditions we'd like to have of our own. I have to admit, it was really nice to be completely separated from the consumerism of December in the States. It was like any other day in the U.A.E. except temperatures have been in the 60-70 degree range instead of 100's.

While it may not get super cold, it does get chilly enough at night to make and enjoy hot cocoa occasionally. Both kids were a fan of that!

They were also a fan of roasted marshmallows. My favorite are the black ones...

Talia made the characters act out the story Papi read.

It may not snow here, but we made cut out snowflakes... but a colorful version. A penguin family made from footprints also migrated to our wall to visit. Talia mentioned that we had left out the baby, so we added a little penguin egg later.

Cinnamon-raisin bread: it tastes like a cinnamon roll, but you slice it as you go. It was delicious.