The park

We took a break from tourism yesterday to go to the park. We were going to take Josh and Avni to Sakkara to see the step pyramid. But the day before, we had gone to Coptic Cairo to see the Hanging church and the Ben Ezra synagogue.The whole time we were there, Maya would look up longingly at us and say: "Playground?!?!?".

So yesterday we gave in to her wishes and had a day just for Maya. We spent the morning at the club, where we ran into her pal S. Maya and S. commandeered a ride-on car and spent the morning pushing each other around the park and fending off other kids who sought to take over their stolen vehicle. I don't know where the owners were. S's dad commented that the two of them were like Bonnie and Clyde. And I have to agree. They like to make trouble together.

After the park, Maya came home and took a nap, and Josh and Avni went off shopping at the Khan el-Khalili bazaar. Then the adults had a nice night out together. On the downside, Maya appears to have caught a cold.

Anyway, these pictures are not from yesterday. I don't have any from yesterday. But to get you in the spirit, here are some pictures of Maya at the park last week, eating a banana on the slide.

Hair victory!!

I am very proud of Maya today. I did her hair from start to finish while she was conscious!! And she was extremely well behaved. She was super and deserves a lot of praise. I put her hair in 16 box braids with nice, straight parts. I know it's not a fancy style like sunburst cornrows (like I did last week during her nap). But it's definitely more than simply four ponytails or two big flat twists, which are 5-minute styles and until today were the fanciest I had ever done from start to finish while Maya was awake. This style today took about 30-40 minutes.

I started realizing she could sit still for styles a couple weeks ago. She was starting to wake up from her nap before I could finish her hair. So I would get the fancy top part done, but generally couldn't finish the back before she woke up. So I was doing small parts of her hair while she was in her groggy post-nap state.

She was quite happy to look at pictures and videos on her daddy's palm pilot while I did her hair. But I think the most important thing is that she actually likes to see the finished product and loves having her hair in braids. Anyway, here are some pictures of the hairstyling process. I still think it will be a while before we do cornrows though.

A Day at the Pyramids

Mike's brother Josh and his wife Avni are visitng. So we took them to the pyramids to see Egypt's most famous attraction. Since Maya was with us, we basically zoomed through the plateau at lightning speed. Think a 5-minute walk by of the great pyramid, another 10 minutes in the solar boat museum, and then a quick walk to the Sphinx, and then back to the car.

We did, however spend quite some time looking at the "neigh neighs", camels and donkeys at the pyramids. So hopefully while Maya was watching the animals Josh and Avni got at least a little time to see the pyramids.

Maya liked the pyramids, and now knows how to make a pyramid sign with her hands by putting the tips of her fingers together. She also understands that pyramids are NOT mountains, or at least I hope she understands that.

She was not impressed by the Sphinx. I think daddy set up unduly high expectations when he told her we were going to see a lion. The whole time we were at the Sphinx, Maya was saying: "Daddy, I want lion". She was not impressed when he kept telling her to look up at the Sphinx to see the lion. Poor Maya.

Christmas Day

Maya had a very nice Christmas Day (and so did her mommy and daddy). When she first came downstairs she was a bit freaked out because she was worried Santa was still in the house, and she didn't really want to see him in person, to put it mildly.We had told her that Santa would probably park his sleigh on our balcony, and she thought he hadn't left yet and refused to be put down. But once she realized Santa was not around, she got excited.

Later in the day we ordered a huge meal from a local Lebanese restaurant of grilled chicken with sweet rice and lots of salads on the side. It was delicious (well, except for the cooked chunks of liver in the rice, which I mistakenly thought was lamb and took abite of... Yuck!).

Here are some pictures from Christmas morning, mostly of Maya opening her stocking.

Christmas Eve Pictures

Here are some matching pictures of the three of us on Christmas Eve, taken by Grandma Jan. It is a real treat to get pictures of all of us together. That doesn't happen too often because we rarely have another person around to take a picture.

Anyway, Christmas Eve was a really nice day. We got invited to a brunch at the Four Seasons hotel with some friends of ours who have a son, S. (I don't want to use his full name because I haven't asked for permission) whose birthday is within three weeks of Maya's birthday, and the two of them are really good friends.

The brunch was fabulous! We all got to sit around and talk while Maya and S. ran around and played on the floor. Plus we did the brunch during off hours, so there were no other people around who the kids would bother. I have never been able to have such a nice, relaxing lunch with Maya around before. It was heaven! And that was despite Maya skipping her nap.

After that, we came home and hung out for a while. We have a Christmas tradition of opening one present on Christmas Eve. So my parents gave us matching red Christmas shirts, which made for some cute matching photographs of us. Anyway, here are some pictures. I'll post more from Christmas Day later.

A little restructuring

Yes,Yes... I will post Christmas pictures soon. But I haven't downloaded them yet so please bear with me.

During Maya's nap today I did a little blog restructuring. I re-organized the links on the right hand side. I added quite a few, especially other adoption blogs of families who have Ethiopian kids, and also some interesting links on race and adoption issues. But I basically just wanted to make the links more accessible.

I hope you all find the links a little more user friendly and accessible now. Does anyone even ever click on them? Do you find the links useful? I really have no idea. But if you do find them useful, I hope they are a little easier to sort through now.

Hair Brag!!

OK, so I am very proud of myself for doing Maya's hair in a cool new cornrow style. These are the smallest rows I have ever made, and I did them in a very cool sunburst style. Maya was very happy with her braids as well.

This afternoon, we took my parents over to Teberh's house for a pre-Christmas meal of Misir Wat (lentils), Doro Wat and collard greens over injera. Yummy! We dressed Maya up very nicely and I had her practice saying: "Mommy did it". (You know, so she could tell Teberh and her roommates who did her hair). Of course, when we got there and I asked Maya what she was supposed to tell Teberh, she just said: "Hello". Oh well, I tried...

Maya had a terrific time at Teberh's. She even tried a cup of Ethiopian coffee, or buna. At first, she gave a horrific grimace after trying the coffee and spit it out. But then later she tried again and decided she liked it.

Here are some pictures of Maya from today, with her braids in and dressed up in a very nice dress for dinner at Teberh's.

First Bubble Bath

Maya had some luxury spa treatment today in the tub. She loved it!

Benefits of Grandpa!

The grandparents have now gone off for a few days to see Petra in Jordan. I think they will have a great time there, and Petra is seriously cool. And now I am back at work for three days so my Muslim colleagues can take some time off for the Eid al-Adha holiday here. But the grandparents will be back in time for Christmas, and I will take some more time off when they get back.

But I wanted to write a note about the benefits of having my dad around. I sent him an e-mail before he came about all the problems in our apartment. And, one by one, he is fixing them for me. He has already fixed the drawer to Maya's dresser, which broke over a year ago when it was shipped to Cairo and which we never had time to fix.

He has also installed new metal slides in the drawers of an Arabsesque cabinet we bought here that had been essentially useless to us because the wooden slides it came with broke the first or second time we used the drawers. It is so nice to be able to use our furniture.

Next on his list is our bed. Maya likes to play this game of "Let's throw Lalla behind the headboard and make mommy or daddy get it". And to get Lalla, we would have to push the bed away from the wall, get the little bunny, and then push the bed back. That seriously weakened the bed joints, and one day the bed collapsed. Mike fixed it, but I have always been slightly wary of the bed since then for fear of collapse. So I am quite happy that my dad is here to fix things for me.

My mom has been quite helpful too. In addition to baking cookies with Maya, she has also volunteered to sew Dora the Explorer's head back on...

Crazy Art

We have been scouring our brains for interesting new things to do with Maya in Cairo, where it seems there is a dearth of good, stimulating activities for the under-four set. Going to the Gezira club every day and music/art toddler classes once or twice a week has been getting too tediously predictable recently. So in advance of the granparents' visit, I was actively searching for new things to do with Maya. My parents have already done the whole Egypt tourist thing, and really this visit is all about family. But I knew they would get pretty tired of just going to the park.

So we heard about a place near the pyramids called Fagnoon (Crazy Art) that was supposed to be really fun for kids. We weren't sure if Maya would be too young to appreciate it, but we decided to give it a try anyway. And we drove out there today.

First, we got completely lost. We basically drove all around Giza for 3 hours (not kidding here), but we were determined to find it. Once we finally arrived -- after multiplephone calls for directions, taking the wrong turn like 3 million times, and then getting stuck twice behind the world's most slow moving piece of machinery -- it was well past Maya's naptime. But we decided to just stop for a quick visit to stretch our legs and get a sense of the place.

It was AWESOME! Can I just repeat myself -- awesome! Maya had a terrific time painting. She painted the walls, floor, table, benches, cardboard and best of all, herself. It is a really laid back place where they basically encourage kids to be as creative as they want to be and to decide themselves how they want to do art. When Maya was literally pouring the paint out on the floor, the staff were encouraging her to experiment with it, touch it, smear it, etc.

They also have goats that you can feed, and a donkey that you can ride -- though Maya was too scared of the animals to get that close. But she did like to look. We will definitely be going back to this place again. And it looked like there are lots farm-style Egyptian restaurants nearby that serve country-style food in an open-air atmosphere. We didn't have time to try them today, but maybe next time. Hope you like the pictures.

Pomegranate pizza!

Here's how I know my 2-year-old really is NOT being raised in the USA. Her food preferences are hilarious, and also very Mediterranean. Last night, Mike and I went out for a nice date and left Maya at home with her visiting grandparents. We decided to order pizza for them to eat while we were out. So Mike got out the pizza menu, and the following is the conversation:

Mike: Maya, I'm going to order pizza for you and grandma and grandpa.
Maya: (Smiling) Pizza!
Mike: What do you want on your pizza? Cheese?
Maya: No cheese! (wrinkles nose) Cheese spicy...
Mike: Hmmm. OK, well do you want vegetable on your pizza?
Maya: (wrinkles nose) No vegetables!
Mike: OK, well what do you want on your pizza?
Maya: Pomegranate!
Mike: You want pomegranates on your pizza?
Maya: Yes. Pomegranate!
Mike: (wrinkling his nose) A pomegranate pizza?
Maya: Yes! Pomegranate pizza!
Mike: Well, I don't think that the pizza place has pomegranates to put on pizza. Sorry...

Getting Ready for Christmas

Here are some photos of Maya getting ready for Christmas. She had a big day yesterday. We went to the park with grandma and grandpa, then came home and decorated the Christmas tree, then made Christmas cookies.

Maya loved making Christmas cookies. We gave her her own piece of dough, which she rolled, cut, smeared, licked and tasted. Fun! Meanwhile Grandma Jan and I actually made the cookies. Maya got to decorate them later with some frosting we had found at the grocery store.

Speaking of decorations, we had a terrible time finding stuff to decorate the cookies with. We called the local grocery to see if they could deliver us some decorations. We asked if they had either sprinkles or food coloring so we could make some colored sugar. They said they had white sprinkles and coloring for food. So we said, OK great, please deliver. What actually came to our door was white asparagus (the white "sprinkles") and turmeric powder (the "coloring for food").

Meanwhile, I had gone to the big grocery store by myself. I couldn't find any sprinkles or food coloring. But I did find some frosting in a tube. So that's what we used to decorate the cookies.

Newsflash!!!

Hold the presses! The Saudi-produced Pampers active baby cloth-like diapers are back in Egypt!!They just magically reappeared on the shelves of our favorite supermarket. No explanation for their LONG and mysterious absence. Just all of a sudden back on the shelves. Thank you!!

Next on my Cairo wish list of things that I have seen in Egypt but which are currently not available: Dryer sheets and Flintstones gummy vitamins.

Making Latkes

Today after work, Mike and I made latkes with Maya for Hanukkah. Maya had a fabulous time! She put the potatoes and onion in the blender, commented on the "noise" when Mike turned it on, and then sat in the kitchen and pretended to "cook" on the counter with a rubber spatula while Mike was frying the latkes in the frying pan.

She even got into the sugar bowl on the counter, and we got a few pouts when we took it away from her. I was reminded that there is a reason we don't allow chairs in the kitchen!! Too easy to get at the good stuff!

Unfortunately, we couldn't get Maya to actually eat the latkes. I couldn't believe it. We loaded her dinner plate up with latkes and topped them with a dollop of apple sauce. Then we added in some green salad. She chose the salad and left the latkes completely untouched. She is apparently having a veggie craving day.

Anyway, here are some pictures. Hope you enjoy them.

Mike the electrician

I know I mentioned previously that last night, after Maya went to bed, the lights flickered, we heard a pop, and the heater sighed to a slow stop. Did I mention that it is cold in Cairo?? I know we are acclimatised, but still, we do actually need heat in the winter.

We didn't want to call the electrician for various reasons. So Mike hiked down to 26th of July street during Maya's nap, found an electrical supply shop, and bought a new switch. Then he came home and replaced the fuse in the switch, and now we have heat again. Thank God!!

Maya the city girl!

Maya has developed some very urban habits. For example, she can hail a cab on the street and tell it where to go, Cairo style. Here's how she does it. When she sees a taxi on the street, she leans forward, waves her arm, and shouts: Gabalaya, Gabalaya. (That's the name of our street)

Of course, Maya does this even when we don't need to get a taxi. So today when we were downtown and crossing the very busy Tahrir square, Maya was trying to stand up in her stroller and shouting: Gabalaya, Gabalayato about a million passing taxis.

Anyway, last night we had some friends over who told us about a European Christmas bazaar where we could buy imported European wine and chocolate. And since it is not easy to get imported alcohol in Egypt, Mike decided he wanted to go to the bazaar. It was at the Nile Hilton hotel, and began at 9:30 a.m. It was a serious mob scene. By the time we got there by about 10:30 a.m., almost all the alcohol had been sold and expats were leaving the hotel with huge boxes and bags full of booze.

We didn't leave completely empty handed. Sure, we couldn't get any French or Italian wine. But we did manage to snag a couple of the last bottles of sparkling wine from the Hungarian booth, and from a couple of other lesser known European countries. I think we scavanged up some Maltese wine, for example. And there was a lot left at the Armenian booth. I hope it's good.

Maya also got to see Santa up close, as he paid a visit. But she was absolutely terrified of him and would screech if we got within a 5-meter radius. She also demanded to be carried the whole time we were there because, as she put it, "Santa scary".

Anyway, now we are yet again trying to solve an annoying apartment problem. An electrical surge blew out the switch on our heater in the living room and we need to get it fixed. It is COLD in our apartment right now!

Happy Hanukkah!

Sorry for going awol for a while. I have been super busy.

Anyway, I thought I would post a few pictures of Maya at Hanukkah. On the first day, we scouted down a donut shop in Cairo because Mike thought we should have jelly donuts. I know of a place called Dar Donut, the Cairo version of Dunkin Donuts, if you can call it that.

I became acquainted with Dar Donut (House of Donuts) in 1995 as a study abroad student when, in a fit of homesickness, I decided along with some friends of mine that I needed a donut. It was comfort food. It would remind me of home. We went out to Mohandiseen across the river and bought donuts at Dar Donut. We took them back to our dorm and ate them. And guess what. They were rancid!!

Needless to say, I haven't had a donut in the Middle East since. But I consented to try them out again. So we piled in the car and drove to that same street corner on Mohandiseen to Dar Donut. Inside, we had a few basic choices of donuts: Chocolate frosted, glazed, sugared, jelly, cinnamon, vanilla frosted or cherry frosted. Not bad for Cairo! We bought our donuts and headed home.

At home, Maya was very excited to try the donuts. And to my serious relief they were not rancid this time! Not great. Not Dunkin Donuts. But not bad either. I tried to get Maya to try a jelly donut, but she rejected that in favour of taking a little lick off a vanilla frosted, which she then rejected for a sugar coated donut.

Then we gave Maya her first round of Hannukah presents from Grandma Laura and Grandpa Rick. She is seriously speedy at unwrapping presents. Anyway, hope you all enjoy the pictures! Sometime this weekend we are supposed to be making latkes. But Mike is in charge of that. We'll post pictures when we have them