More diaper drama

The quest for cloth-like Pampers continues in Egypt. The Saudi-produced diapers we like still haven't returned to Egypt. We are super depressed about it. Fortunately, we found some imported U.S. and European replacement Pampers at a big mall in Heliopolis, hidden in a corner. We have just under two packs left and then we will be out. Aaah.

So yesterday we went to our neighbourhood pharmacy to ask the pharmacist when he expects the Saudi-produced Pampers to be back in Egypt. He said two weeks. So we hope we will make it until then. (Yes, diapers are sold in pharmacies here)

But then there was a lady (a customer) at the pharmacy who railed at us for not buying Egyptian-made Pampers, which by the way are plastic and leak like crazy. Plus they cause diaper rash and are really bulky, so it is not as nice for Maya when she is running around. So we told this lady that we just prefer the cloth-like Pampers as they are softer on Maya's skin and she doesn't get diaper rash as much, and that the cloth-like diapers are easier for an active toddler to run around in.

So then she said: "Well you could just put vaseline (yuck!) on her. All Egyptian kids use Egyptian diapers. These diapers are good enough for all Egyptian kids."

We just sort of stared at her, and she then told us if we wanted cloth-like Pampers we should just go get them at the embassy. Huh???

Okay so when we left I was really angry. First of all, I am not rejecting diapers because they are Egyptian. I don't care where they are made. If the Pampers factory in Egypt made good diapers, I would totally buy them. In fact, I would prefer that because it would be cheaper than buying imported Saudi-made diapers. It is not my fault the Pampers corporation chooses to produce awful, leaky plastic diapers at its factory in Egypt.

And it seemed like she thought I was saying my daughter is better than Egyptian kids because I want to use a better diaper. That is reading WAAAYYY too much into things. Just because I don't want her to have wet pajamas in the middle of the night??? Plus, Pampers is not an Egyptian company anyway. It is a western company -- a western company that is choosing to produce lower quality diapers in a developing country. If she is mad at anybody, maybe it should be the Pampers company for deciding that poor kids get plastic...

Anyway, enough of a rant. I am really crossing my fingers that the cloth-like Pampers will be back in Egypt soon. Otherwise we will have to potty train fast!

Happy Birthday Maya!

Maya is now officially two years old. She had a party with a real cake with Winnie the Pooh on it -- yes, she outgrew that wheat allergy from babyhood so we were super excited to get her a true birthday cake. She had a terrific time at her party. Her friends Bug and Giggle (who Maya seriously LOVES and who are also adopted from Ethiopia) came over to wish her Happy Birthday, as did our friend Elna and her family, and Teberh as well.

Maya was so wired by the end of the evening. After everyone left and we asked her about her day, she told us: "I made a birthday". When we asked what she did for her birthday, she said she played and shared with her friends. (Well actually I'm not sure she was really sharing, but who's splitting hairs here??) It's so great to see her having such a great time playing with other kids, and she is finally at the age where she is starting to have actual friendships. Very cool!

Then and Now...

Maya turns two!! Here are some photos of her on her last day as a 1-year-old, some of the first few weeks we had with her in Ethiopia, and a few more of the first day we met her (the ones of her in a checked dress).

Last day of being 1

Here are some pictures of Maya in her last hours of being one year old. She already got her big birthday gifts, since they were delivered on Thursday and we had the delivery guy put them together. She is enjoying daddy's old office as a new playroom!!

We are having a small birthday party with cake and a barbecue tomorrow. Maya should have a good time!

A new color for a new year!

Maya turns two tomorrow and I am giving her blog a birthday makeover. What does everyone think of the new color scheme. A few more changes may still come. I am not done tinkering....

You know you're not in the U.S. when...

You order pizza and pasta for delivery for dinner, then when it comes there are little red packets of ketchup in the bag. You think: Yuck. But your daughter, who has a plate of spiral pasta and Calzone pieces, demands: Ketchup, ketchup!

Then, she grabs a ketchup and actually succeeds in opening it and starts to drip it on her pasta and calzone. You take it away, because, well, yuck! But then she screams at you: "Ketchup, ketchup, ketchup" and refuses to eat until you apply it to her calzone and pasta.

Then your husband groans and says (about Maya's eating habits): Can you just kill me now!

Tag! I'm It

OK, I'll play! I was tagged by Mama Papaya (mom to another Maia).

Jobs I've held

1) Journalist
2) Day care worker
3) Mr. Peanut - yes, I dressed up as a peanut and handed out free samples
4) I inputed Arabic book titles into the university library computer system in grad school

Places I've lived (most recently, anyway)

1) Cairo
2) Jerusalem
3) Beirut
4) London
5) Just to keep it interesting, I have also lived in Evanston, IL; Racine, WI; Ann Arbor, MI; and Torrance, CA

Food I love

1) Doro Wat or basically any Ethiopian food
2) Kebab wa Muhammar (a really great kebab with sweet marinated rice that Mike makes)
3) Diet Coke
4) Kibbe Naye (that's Arab style raw meat with tasty garlic paste -- YUMMY!)

Places I would rather be

1) On home leave in the US
2) At the beach in Sharm el-Sheikh
3) On my annual vacation -- tentatively planned for South Africa next year
4) At the park with Maya

Movies I love

1) Any mindless action movie
2) Hotel Rwanda
3) Million Dollar baby
4) Did I mention any mindless action movie

TV shows I watch

1) CSI
2) Criminal minds
3) The Unit
4) Without a Trace

Friends I am tagging

1) egypt4 (maybe already tagged but...)
2) Jen
3) Cindy
4) Tesi

Back from the beach!

Maya had a super time in Hurghada. We swam in the beach, played in the sand, swam in the adult pool, jumped around and splashed in the kiddie pool and played in the playgorund. Maya had a blast!

She met two new friends, Alina and Alisa, both from Moscow and about her age. Alina came to play with her sand toys at the beach, and they fought over them, and then Maya decided they would be friends and they played together. We met Alisa at the playground. She was painfully shy but Maya won her over!! It seems most of the people at our hotel were Russian package tourists.

I also got a pedicure -- Auntie Michelle you must be so proud of me!! It was cool! And the woman who did the pedicure also was offering to braid hair and she showed me how to put extensions in Maya's hair. Well, I don't plan on doing that for many years, but it was cool to find out how it is done. And I got a foot massage as well. Mike got a back massage.

It was really hot in Hurghada. Almost too hot! And all the Russian tourists got majorly sunburned. But not us. We put on our SPF 35 sunscreen, and Maya wore her protective rash guard swim shirt. And after Mike started feeling a bit red on the second day, we switched (mostly) to the indoor pool. The Russian tourists thought we were crazy, but we also thought they were crazy for sending their pale complexioned kids out into the sun in just their underwear with no sunscreen on at all!!

Did I mention the topless sunbathing that was going on at the resort? Unbelievable!! We had seen it before on a much lower level in Sharm el-Sheikh, but there was A LOT of it going on at our hotel in Hurghada. And the women just seemed to be totally clueless at how much they were bein gawked at by the staff. Or maybe they did notice but didn't care. I think it is actually illegal in Egypt, but I guess the law is not enforced.

That's all for now. I'll post more later. Meanwhile, here are some pictures from the trip.

Off to the beach!!

We are off to the beach for five days starting tomorrow morning. We are going to Hurghada on the Red Sea coast to spent the Eid holiday in a beach resort with a nice sandy beach, a playground for Maya and a couple of pools. It should be really nice.

We will be driving there from Cairo, and we are not quite packed yet due to Maya messing up her nap schedule today and refusing to go to bed. Grrr..... But since we're driving, I hope it won't be a big deal and we can just throw some stuff together in the morning.

Maya is very excited. She totally gets it that we are going on a trip to the beach. Tonight at bedtime she asked for "Shoes on, go swim" and cried hysterically when we told her we weren't going to the beach until the morning. I hope she does OK on the drive!

New Maya pictures

Here are some new pictures of Maya at home and at the Gezira club playground taken today. As you can see, I haven't done her hair yet in the pictures, although I did braid it during her nap. So maybe tomorrow I will take some new ones of her with her hair braided in diagonal braids.

The Gezira Club

Well, we finally decided to take the plunge and join a club in Cairo. After endless red tape and abbreviated office hours for Ramadan that delayed submitting our membership application, we are now members of the Gezira club in Zamalek.

We had resisted joining for the past year because the Gezira club has such a bourgeois, upper class exclusive reputation. And it definitely is bourgeois and exclusive and upper class. The type of place we normally would steer well clear of. Especially since they require a letter of recommendation from my employer -- a requirement that appears aimed at keeping out the riffraff who I'm sure could never afford to join anyway. And they also make nannies wear really annoying checkered shirts. And yes, we told Tibi she doesn't have to wear it!

But the point was that it is a really nice club and Maya and Tiberh were going there several times a week anyway and shelling out a day rate of 30 pounds (about $5.50) each time. So we figured we might as well join since we were using the club anyway.

After we finally finished all the paperwork required to join, we spent this morning at the club. It was really nice. They have two pools -- one for playing and one that seems to be for lap swimming. Plus they have a huge playground, really inexpensive restaurants, basketball and tennis courts, and just generally lots of space for kids to run around.

It is really nice now to have multiple places to take Maya to on the weekend. Last year it was al-Azhar park every weekend -- and that did get boring. But now we have the option of the new kids playground in Maadi, the Gezira Club and al-Azhar. So our weekends should have a little less monotony this year. Maybe we'll even brave the Cairo zoo -- though not until after the holidays!

Watering the plants

Here are some new pictures of Maya watering the plants on our balcony after breakfast. They are taken using my cool new camera that Mike got me for my birthday, which is today. Yes, I'm 32 today... or as Mike would say: "You're Maya plus 30".

Baby Lulu

Maya has a new friend in her life -- but it's not a human friend. It's Baby Lulu!

Maya started talking about Baby Lulu a couple days ago while Mike was in Geneva. Every night at bedtime she would tell me about her daily capers with Baby Lulu. She told me how Baby Lulu went in the car, Baby Lulu played with her, Baby Lulu got scared of something (or maybe Baby Lulu was scary -- hard to tell), Baby Lulu had dinner, Baby Lulu went night night, etc. Maya was clearly infatuated with baby Lulu, but I had no idea who Baby Lulu was.

For a while I thought Baby Lulu might be her one white baby doll, the one our previous neighbour's daughter in Jerusalem gave her. She has been carrying that doll around recently after finding it at the bottom of her toy bin. But when I asked who the dolly was, Maya said: Baby. I said: Baby Lulu? And Maya said: No, Baby!

OK, so we still didn't have a clue who baby Lulu was until yesterday at bedtime when we asked Maya if she wanted to sleep with a different baby doll -- a black doll that sings twinkle twinkle little star and had also previously been known simply as "Baby". Maya saw the doll, smiled and shouted: "Aaaaah! Baby Lulu!

The name is a bit ironic. Lulu is actually the name of Maya's teacher at music class. So I think Maya named the doll after her. I also think the name bears a certain resemblance to another fuzzy friend -- her bunny Lalla.