Eurasian collared dove

	A eurasian collared dove is at home in a nest made on a cloth stand in the balcony of a flat at Discovery Gardens. - KT photo by Rahul Gajjar

Heather's new phrase

I can't believe Heather's new phrase today was "Mommy where are you"? You can't be talking like this already. You are only 20 months old.

Resale bargin from one villa to another

One of the best things about people moving here is they sale so much stuff before they move. Yesterday I got some plants from a neighbor since mine died over the summer and I didn't have to go far it was down the street from our villa. The front of our villa looks better already and I didn't have to go to the port to get them.  I got one bougainvillaea pink and white with a trellis in a clay pot, two clay pots one round and one square of Moss Rose and one free since it was seedlings from another plant called the Geiger Tree and it will have orange flower's I hope.   All for $40.84.  

Nursery for Heather

Heather started nursery last week and she would cry at first, but I hear she is doing really well.  She will be going three days a week Monday, Wednesday and Thursday.  I hope she makes a lot of new friends and enjoys being in nursery.  It is hard to believe she is old enough for nursery, but I hope with her starting earlier she will break her separation anxiety.  Heather comes home with purple fingers today because she was finger painting and I can't wait to see her art work.

Currency

Abu Dhabi currency is in fact known as the United Arab Emirates Dirham. (AED) There are 100 fils in one Dirham. The UAE Dirham is closely linked to the US Dollar.

There are Dirham notes in the following denominations: 5, 10, 20, 50, 100, 200, 500 and 1000. Coins can be found in the following denominations: 1 AED, 50 fils, 25 fils, 10 fils and 5 fils.

Back to school 2012

Sydney started school today and her bus went from a baby van to a big bus.  The bus monitor said they have 15 or 16 kids this year on the bus, wow.  I can't wait to see how her first day went.  I am said to say that Mrs. Thomas is no longer her teacher.  She resigned, but she has Mrs. Duffield until Sunday and she is over Head of Student Support Services.  Sydney's new teacher will start on Sunday her name is Carmel Lundy and Paul just loves her first name. :)  She has 27 years of teaching experience and I hope is she good as she sounds.  Since Sydney loves the bus so much she is riding to school and home from school.  I am sad I am not picking her up, but it will allow Heather to sleep better during nap time.

Summer 2012

Our summer vacation to the US began on July 1 and ends on Aug. 16.  I packed up the girls and myself and headed to the wonderful state of West Virginia to spend a month with my parents.  While we were there we spent time with family and friends and even manged to go camping with the girls.  The highlight was fishing, roosting marshmallows and feeding the swans.  While I was there Heather fractured her arm and had to wear an ace bandage for two weeks.  Poor baby!

After a month Paul came over so we could spend time with his family on Aug. 2.  While we were in Texas we spent time with family and watched the girls play.  We even headed to Aunt Kathy's and Uncle Jimmy's house The Resort.  We also went to the Gulf Coast Bird Observatory and got to see a couple of birds and two butterfly's, but I think we would have seen more if it wasn't so hot.

We left the US on Aug. 16 my grandma's birthday and we flow to Frankfurt, Germany where we planed on visiting the Römerberg old town Frankfurt.  We are only staying a day and a half and we hope to see some friends from Abu Dhabi.  Shavon and her family came up for the afternoon for a visit and we got to walk around the streets of Germany around our hotel and saw some amazing sights.  We even got to eat some Bratwurst aka Sausage.

I have enjoyed being home, but I am ready to go back and have Sydney start school and hope to have Heather start nursery in September as well.  Time goes by so fast that I can't believe Heather will be 20 months old in September.  I hope they both have a wonderful school year.