Jumping Through Hoops

       It's been a busy few weeks - we've been house hunting, Will's had a couple of assessments for the PreK program at school next year, we've had friends over for dinner, Nate's been running around Dubai trying to get our required Emirates ID cards, and we have been trying to finish stuff up for school, even though we still have 3 1/2 weeks left and Finley had her 4 month birthday!

       One of my favorite shows in the States is House Hunters - local or international and since we've been here the international version has shown an episode in Dubai and one in Abu Dhabi.  After having Finley, we qualify for a bigger housing allowance and we actually considered calling up HGTV and signing ourselves up.  We decided to go it on our own, without the camera crew, and it's been quite an adventure.  I love seeing the inside of all the apartments and villas around, but it was really hard to find something that met all our needs and wants.  Unoccupied places are often left unlocked so the agents can just get their commission with no more effort than a short phone conversation.  This was nice in that we didn't have someone following us around as we tried to decide if a place would work for us, and it allowed us to see some bigger places than we would ever be able to afford, but it makes us a little unhappy about having to pay the agent fee. 

       Some of the things on our list:  a swimming pool and gym in the building or as part of the complex, a third bedroom, access to outdoor grassy areas for Will to play, a bigger kitchen, more storage, and that we are allowed to keep a grill.  We also wanted to be close enough to where we are now that Calista can still arrange her transportation to get to us so she doesn't have to live in.  I love having her help with the kids and clean, but I'm not ready to share my house with her 24/7- and I don't know if she would want to anyway!  Our favorite neighborhood didn't allow the bbq grills anywhere, and most of the kitchens were really small with built-in tiny appliances.  I lost count of the number of places we looked at, but we had finally narrowed it down to 3 - and after making a list of the pros and cons etc, we had a clear favorite (even though the model we looked at had multiple lizards inside, on the staircase.  I was sure the biggest one was going to fall on my head and I had serious Hawaii flashbacks, Jami.)  But then we found out it has double the security deposit of everything else we had looked at, and since it was already a little over our housing allowance, it fell out of the running.  So we went back on the looking trail and after a story about stray cats that we probably wanted to keep feeding so they would kill the rats, we went back to one of our original favorites - a 2500 square foot, 4 bedroom, two story apartment with awesome views on the 12th and 13th floors of a building right across the street from the neighborhood we originally looked in.  So now we are just waiting on final paperwork and will be moving in a couple of weeks so we can get settled before we go.  Phew - one giant task crossed off our list - but the moving process starts a whole new giant list of things to do!

       My pictures aren't really going to match up, but oh well...  Will had a couple of assessments to see if he is ready to start school in September.  Some of the assessment tasks involved playing with animals and participating in clean up, singing Twinkle Twinkle Little Star, turning in a circle and telling the teacher his name (yes, he does know, and he usually refers to himself as Will), rolling a beach ball back and forth and saying which color was his favorite and jumping through some hoops like a frog.  All of these skills are definitely in his repetoire (except the favorite color part - he knows all the colors, but hasn't narrowed it down to a favorite), however he was a little too shy to show off when he really needed to!  It was a very stressful experience for me, but they let him come back again to give it another go, and even though he didn't follow all the directions because he was too intrigued by watching all the other kids, he "absolutely" passed so I was very relieved. 

      The UAE has instituted some annoying requirements - one of which is that everyone has to get an Emirates ID card, and the deadline is June 30.  If you don't have it by then, you get fined every day.  Apparently, a residence visa and driver's license for adults isn't enough and even Finley and Will have to have ID cards- and pay for them.  There are multiple steps for the whole process and we have really only done the first one, but the kids don't have to do the fingerprinting and eye scan part, so Finley's card is already back.  Nate had to go into downtown Dubai to pick it up the other day.  Unfortunately, each card will probably be ready at a different time so there is really no way to be efficient about it.

    And finally, Finley is 4 months old!  She seems to have had a bit of a regression in her reflux and hasn't gained much weight over the last month and is throwing up a lot again so tomorrow I am taking her back to the doctor to see if she needs to go back on her medication.  But she is really trying to sit up, and is becoming really interactive.  She loves to listen to Will and he can make her laugh just by talking to her.  She also loves to hear Nate's voice and she is very smiley.  Will seems to be getting better about his behavior with her, but the day we kicked him out of the car and made him walk home (I went with him, and it was really only about a block, but man it was hot, I wouldn't carry him and he was in tears by the time we made it into our building and the elevator) made a big impression and he remembers that he doesn't like to walk home... Good times.  But life is good, school's almost over, vacation looms.  See you all soon!