Guess who has a solo in his spring concert?

And guess who is OVERTHEMOONEXCITED about that?  I think Tommy found my reaction when he told me very surprising but he decided he liked it as he now reminds me of his solo whenever he thinks of it.  We have of course been practicing it and the way Tommy sings just kills me (it's adorable, but technically horrifying) and so I've been taking lots of videos of it.  Alas, I have yet to find the perfect one to post here so you will have to wait until after the concert next week.

So guess what else? It's finally gotten hot in Oman.  On Tuesday, Tommy vomited at school (due to the heat; it was at recess) and I went to pick him up and ask I packed the kids into the car it the parking lot, I noticed that the breeze just felt like a hair dryer on my body.  When I commented on the fact that it was our first truly hot day to a friend, she said that I should wait until the humidity reaches 85% because it's much worse apparently than the dry heat of this week.  I am officially excited to come be chilly in Seattle (in 29 days!!!! Which also means that in 29 days I am staring down a 14 hour flight with my two children, but let's just think of happy things right now).

Eli goes to London next weekend for work, and the weekend after that we're going on a little trip to Dubai. Eli and I are excited because we're staying in a nice hotel and spending the day at a very fun looking water park.  The weekend after that, we go see the little baby turtles crawling on beach.  That will either be awesome or sort of scary -- I heard from someone that there is ample opportunity to watch predators pick off the little babies and you know, my kids might not like that.  (We need a book on the food chain as every time it comes up my explanations just scare Tommy and Lizzie, "OH NO, the poor little beetle!".)

This is a random picture for this post, but it's cute.

Happy Mother's Day!

I hope everyone has a lovely day.  Let me ask you this question:  if you were me, would you be more excited about your sick three year old's 'gift' of developing hives, OR would you love Tommy's gift best:

Me:  How was swimming today?

Tommy:  It was good.  We did more electric bobs.  [pause] And MOMMY!  I remembered to put my underwear back on!  It's your present for Mother's Day!  I put my underwear back on!  [pulling on the waistband of his shorts] See?

(That's right.  Twice now my kid has come home without his underwear on because, he explained, it's much faster to get dressed when you don't worry about underwear.)

He also wrote this poem for me:

Laura my Mommy

Laura my Mommy

I love my Mommy

How she is nice

I love my Mom

Mommy

I'm thinking poetry is probably not his thing but I know for certain that at least one of his Grandmas will read this and send me an email about how it's much too early to tell.

(Let's all cross our fingers that Lulu feels better soon.  I am almost certain that she has a virus, but am going to sign off and make a detailed list of everything she has eaten today.)

Blowing kisses at hummingbirds

It was my birthday yesterday and for all those interested it was lovely and my husband and children could not have been sweeter to me.  Here is a list of all the adorable things my children said to me about my gifts:

(a) "I tried really hard to catch you a bug for your birthday present but all I could get was an ant."
(b) "We got you a present.  It starts with 'n'."
(c) "We got you a present.  Daddy hid it in that drawer."
(d) [as I'm opening] "That one's a bracelet."
(e) [as I'm opening the next gift] "That one's a necklace."

And as we did the birthday interview, Eli asked Tommy what his favorite thing about me is, and Tommy said, "Mommy is just SO generous and nice...no, no, no."  So it sounded like he meant I'm not nice, and to him I am not always nice so that would be fair, but he clarified that I'm just so many nice things he was having a hard time choosing.  I love that he thinks I'm generous.

Thank you all for your sweet emails.  Some of them actually made me cry they were so thoughtful and while we all know it's stupid that I have such a hard time with my birthday, the fact that so many of you are lovely to me about it just means the world to me.  Hugs and kisses. I can't wait to see so many of you this summer.

Moving on.  It is my grandma's birthday tomorrow and had she lived past the 12th of February she would be turning 93.  I love love love that her birthday is so close to mine because I will never ever forget it.  We have lots of hummingbirds here in Oman and many of them on the patio we see from the area where the kids and I spend lots of our time (our house tour is coming soon, I promise).  The first time I noticed one, I told the kids about how Gigi loves them.  So we decided that we'd blow kisses at them when we see them, and think about all the things we (I) love and miss about my grandma.  As my mother-in-law said, my grandma is one of those people who left a gaping hole when she died and maybe it's just because it's her birthday, but I find myself really wondering how one goes about dealing with such a hole.  And, also, when do I stop forgetting she's not here anymore and I won't see her this summer?

Answer & clarification (edited to answer an additional question)

One of my most faithful readers asked the following question:

"Question for you...I have noticed on your excursions that you are appropriately dressed for hot arse weather, but am wondering how that generally works with your Muslim country lifestyle.  I think a post on that decision-making would be fascinating."

Faithful reader, that is an excellent question and as you know, I love answering questions.  So here goes.

I have a simple rule for what I'm comfortable wearing.  By comfortable, I mostly mean whether or not I am offending anyone.  Because obviously long sleeves and long pants or skirts are not comfortable in our very hot weather.  (But let's be honest, nothing is.)

Here is my rule:  if I am going anywhere where there will be Omanis, I cover up.  But, if I am doing tourist activities and am fairly confident that I will not bump into Omanis, then I wear my board shorts if I might get wet (that's what those blue shorts are that you see everywhere on my blog, and I wear them over my swimsuit and don't take them off).  So, while on the dolphin watching boat, I wore what is essentially my swimsuit because I thought I might get wet, and in the car I had a maxi-skirt and cardigan that I put on immediately when we got back to the car.  The beach that's in our complex (the Wave) is considered to be an expat beach, but I do not sunbathe in my bikini even though you know I totally love to sunbathe in my bikini.  There are Omanis there often.  So, I wear my board shorts over a one piece if I swim, and then cover up when I get out.  Might this attitude change? Sure.  But for now, it's how I feel most comfortable and respectful.  

***

And now for the clarification.  I believe that I may have given the impression in my post about driving that I took a proper driving/vision test in order to get my license, the one taken by all drivers on the road.  This is not the case.  Because I had a valid license from another country, I did not take a test at all other than the (abbreviated?) vision test (my US license clearly states that I wear corrective lenses, of course).  So, I have hope that most people who have driving licenses here can see properly.  

***

Finally.  We are getting VERY CLOSE on our house and God-willing (or inshallah) I will be posting a home tour very shortly!  (Everyone here says inshallah, about everything, and I think it's cute except when they are saying it to excuse not having their children in a carseat or even a seatbelt. Luckily nobody has ever said it to me in this context or I would have had to forcibly put them in my car and take them to the mall to buy the child a carseat. I cannot express the rage I now feel when I see toddlers dancing around in cars going 120 km/hr.  It was initially confusing and I was much happier and peaceful then.)

***

One reader is curious about liquor here.  And luckily, expats CAN buy alcohol!  One gets a license from the government which allows the purchase of a particular amount (in rials) of alcohol per month.  We pay quite a lot, are only permitted to consume it in our homes, must keep it covered in the car and must drive directly from the liquor store to our houses, but one can indeed buy alcohol here.  Thank goodness!!

Two "pwincess outfits" in one day

The pwincesses have taken over Lizzie.  Today she did not want the dress I selected for her; she wanted to dress like a pwincess.  After she put it on, she turned to her brother and said, "See Tommy? I'm pretty!"  So I put my hands over my ears and ran screaming from the room.  (Not really.)

This first outfit was ruined when she spilled chocolate milk on it.  Because would a pwincess really wear a shirt with a spot on it? Hardly.

 This second outfit - the back up shall we call it - was only borderline acceptable.  "I don't like white."
"Why not?" "It's too different."  (Meaning:  it's not pink.)  Thankfully, yesterday, she was happy as a clam in this "outfit", playing Lego:

Dolphin watching - the kind where you don't see any dolphins

Yesterday morning we woke up at the usual time as that's plenty early for us to get dressed, eat breakfast, make snacks and get on the road by 6:56. (I am sick of waking up so early and will be purchasing black out blinds for the kids' room.) Anyway, I had also convinced my friend Leigh to bring her family on the dolphin watching excursion, and we all met at Marina Al Bandar Rowdha at 7:45. The trip started wonderfully.  We were excited to be out on the water and it was a pretty morning and we all felt good. About ten minutes in to the excursion, it became clear that Tommy gets seasick. About an hour in, nobody felt too hot. And while we saw a sea turtle and some very pretty views of the coast and mountains, we did not see any dolphins, not even one (well, Leigh and Grace saw one but it was fleeting).

Definitely not the best thing we've done in Oman. But, we can't go into the wadis right now due to flooding.  Here are some cute photos, however.

Lulu was nervous on the boat and commented that we were in the middle of the ocean and away from the land.

This is from the end of the trip after we got closer to shore.  Oman is SO pretty.

You Can Drive My Car. Really. Please.

I have been meaning to do a post about driving in Oman, but first I must mention that it was my mom's birthday on the 28th.  I think it would be rude to say how old she is but she was 30 when I was born, so if you know how old I am, you can do the math.  We made her a banner and a video that blogger declined to upload for some unknown reason.  You might all be happy not to see it, though, as it ends with a very loud "HAPPY BIRTHDAY GRANDMA PEE-PEE" from my daughter.  She has learned potty humor from her older brother and now inserts it everywhere, effortlessly.  However, she finds it very offensive when Tommy mentions poo so the truth is that potty humor is even more irritating to me than I imagined it would be.

So.  The roads have been a little nuts out there.  On Saturday morning, Eli and I went with an Omani guy (hired by the project to help employees get through the government processes we must complete in order to stay here) to get my driving license and to get Eli's liquor license (so you don't need a liquor license to be able to stay here in the legal sense, but you sort of do need it).  On our way to get the liquor license, we watched a guy tailgate (at a distance closer than you would be able to believe, I'm going to guess about six inches) an oblivious lady while going at least 120 km/hr.  He flashed his lights at her and was probably yelling in his car but of course I have no idea, and finally he saw that he could change two lanes to the right and get around her.  As he pulled in front of her, he actually bumped her car with his car.  On purpose.  Still driving at least 120km/hr.  And the Omani guy who was sitting in the front seat beside Eli got very upset and started saying horrible things about Omani drivers.

I had to take a 'vision test' to get my driving license.  It consisted of correctly identifying two letters that were up on the screen while I waited for the officer to get his papers organized and do my test.  Of course, I did not study the letters as I did not believe those would be the letters used for my test.  Because don't they have to switch them?  No.  Anyway, ever since I went to the best optometrist in the world, I know that my eyes are really, really horrible and while I can normally see fine, when I am presented with a vision test, I get a little bit worried.  And this time, that worry was for no reason because guess what?  I missed one of my two left-eye letters so he asked another one and I got it right. No problem.  Drive on!

This is last week, in front of one of the three grocery stores I visit regularly.

I took this while Eli was driving, but I'm so sad I didn't get a photo the day before when there were some laborers in there, trying to unclog it.  The water hit them at mid-thigh.  It was CRAZY.  But I was driving, so no photo.

This is one of the worst places I drive.  Everyone in the far right lane is trying to get into the left lane to get onto the highway.  I was stopped at a light here.