Mike's off to the country next door

Mike left this morning for a 6-day business trip to the country up north. Maya is sad. Mommy is sad. But I hope Maya will have a good week with me and Tibby. I think she is going to spend a lot of time at the park. And she might go up to hang at our new club in our new neighbourhood as well, which is a much more friendly and relaxing place.

And then when Mike gets back, it will be almost time to move into our new place. We will have a free weekend, and then the movers will come. Maya's pal S.'s mom, on hearing we were planning to stay in a hotel for a few days, graciously invited us to sleep in their spare bedroom. So we are lucky we won't have to go to a hotel. And Maya and S. will have a blast together. And we have floated the idea of a mom's night out while Mike watches the kids.

Also, we discovered a new kid activity for the upcoming hot summer months. In our new ultracool neighbourhood, there is a mall that has a little amusement center. We went shopping in the mall there once or twice about a year ago, and took a quick peek in the kiddie area, and were generally not impressed.

But yesterday, we decided to check out the mall again, and we looked in the kiddie area. We discovered there is a preschooler adventure playground in there!! It is the first time I have seen something like this in Cairo. And it only costs like $1.50 for an hour of play. So we sent Maya in. She was a bit scared at first as she was the only kid there and it freaked her out. But then Mike climbed in with her and they explored it, and she LOVED it! We are definitely going to take her there in the summer when it's too hot to play outside!