We're here! In Muscat!

We’ve got a lot to cover today.  I shall attempt to do this chronologically but only time will tell if I can manage.

First, our final day in London was sad but busy.  We spent almost all of the morning at the doctor getting various vaccinations and tests.  Nice to have it all sorted now but it felt like a crappy way to spend our last London day. 

Stats:

Tommy, 47 lbs; 3'10"

Lulu, 26 lbs; just shy of 3' tall

When we finally finished, we rushed around trying to find a lunchbox for Tommy (it is going to be tricky for me to pack his lunch from this temporary flat that has no real kitchen).  He chose a cream colored lunch box with black moose on it.  Eli objected as it is admittedly sort of a weird thing to carry around in this hot place without a moose to be seen, but I think it’s very London and I totally love it.  The shocking thing is that there was a Starwars Angry Birds lunchbox available and he didn’t choose it, as it featured a bad guy.

So Tommy and I went to see Sophia to say goodbye, then Mandy came over to get the Bugaboo and to say goodbye.  It was very emotional for the adults; the kids did not appear to mind one bit.  (It is odd now to look out at Muscat and think that the next person we hire for childcare lives here and we have no idea whom they are.  It’s such a big deal to find a good person to take care of your kids.  I had no idea in my pre-parent days.)

It was sad to give away the buggy as well.  Lulu took a nap in it right after the doctor and it was so bizarre to know that in hours she would be buggy-less.  I know that sounds silly but it’s one of our last baby items.   (Except the biggest freaking carseats in the world and yes, we still carry around two of them with us.)  Anyway, sad, but happy to think of Mandy’s wee one in there.  I can’t wait to know whether it’s a boy or a girl.

Our trip here was great with one huge exception.  That would be the part when the driver accidentally dropped one of our suitcases into dog poop.  I used an entire pack of anti-bacterial wipes on it at the airport but it still stinks.  I proposed throwing away the suitcase; Eli proposed trying febreeze.  So it’s sitting all chemical-ly but at least not reeking in our living room.  AAAAHHHHH.  One could, of course, consider this type of thing to be a bad omen but my friend Vivian assures me that anything to do with dog poop mishaps are very, very good luck.  Also, one could also simply be excited that we moved away from a place where there are jerks who don’t pick up after their dogs.  I hate that about London.

I spent most of the flight feeling tearful – but not so much sad about leaving London as overwhelmed by the fact that we are moving our whole family to a place I’ve never been before.   I did spend a couple of hours watching Moonrise Kingdom and I really loved it, surprisingly especially Ed Norton.  What’s that about?  He’s just sweet in that movie.

So we arrived late last night and finally got our kids calmed down and in bed.  Eli had to hold our sobbing hysterical daughter until she fell asleep – she lost it because we only read one (long) story.  It’s hard to be three.  (It’s also hard to be 36 but nobody really has any sympathy for you when you can’t keep your shit together and you’re properly an adult.) 

This morning, after going to bed at one o’clock, Tommy was the first one up at 7:30.  He refused to rest anymore and played Lego while Eli showered and went to work, and while I continued to doze.  He totally could have started school with the other kids; I’m an idiot.  Lulu, on the other hand, slept until we woke her at 9:15 but she was great when we woke her and didn’t have a fit.  The people in the hotel are very nice and the breakfast is very nice.  You can have olives and feta and hummus but there is a very typical western breakfast as well.  The coffee was not awesome but a healthy caffeine addiction makes pretty much any coffee bearable.  After breakfast, we walked about two blocks but along the side of a road with no sidewalks to the beach.  The kids totally loved the beach but, while the path in front of the beach is really nicely paved with bricks, the beach itself is in pretty bad shape.  Here’s why:  while we were at the beach, a carload of four guys drove onto the beach, ate their lunch and drove away leaving behind them two lunch bags full of garbage.  However, we picked up lots of pretty shells and then played a fun game where you make sand birthday cakes with (sand) roasted, toasted marshmallows on top and then the birthday person picks their age and everybody else sings happy birthday to you.  I was 25, Tommy was 7 and Lulu was 3 but perhaps she didn’t fully understand the game.

We got back to the rooms about noon and Eli came home at 12:30 to drive us around.  First he took us by our future house (let me just tell you, though, that our shipment is still in London so our residence in that house is 3-5 weeks off), then he took us by Tommy’s school, then we went to the mall because the mall has a big grocery store in it.   When we finished our errands, the kids and I played/unpacked for a while.  I promised to take them swimming but when we finally went to the pool at five it quickly became clear that it was WAY TOO COLD to swim.  It was breezy and the water was chilly and so I told them we would watch a Diego if we could please not get in the water.  They were mad but are understanding little children (and also, addicted to television) and so let me out of my promise.

And that’s the news.  I think Muscat is pretty.  The mountains are really lovely and so is the ocean.