As you see, our vacation had a very water-oriented theme.
Monday, 27 August 2007
Maya in Albany
I woke up from my 3-hour nap that I hope will help fix my jet lag. Hope you enjoy the pictures. These are from Albany.
Back in Cairo
We are back in action in Cairo after a terrific vacation in the US. We are jetlagged. It is circa 4 a.m. and I am wide awake, as are Maya and Mike although the girlie appears to be getting grumpy, which I interpret as a sign of tiredness.
Arriving in Cairo, as we stepped onto the tarmac at the airport to board the bus to passport control, we were hit by that sweet "Cairo" smell that is sort of a mix of sweat, dust, car exhaust and must. I'm sure it isn't great to my body, but it sure did smell like home. And made me smile.
Maya was asleep in my arms and Mike had all our carry-ons, and we rushed in to get ahead of all the tourists who have to buy visa stamps before they can enter the country -- thank God for the benefits of resident visas. We got our bags and proceeded on to customs and the taxi stand. I noticed once again that we have turned into those families that we always gawked at in the past -- the ones piled high with zillions of bags that don't even fit on a cart. We had one cart piled high, plus another big checked bag we were wheeling, plus Maya in her stroller with the basket and handlebars weighted down with all our carry-ons. Okay, so there are still some Egyptian families that have us beat, but we are definitely in the running.
At customs, the guy asked what was in our suitcases. I said clothes.
"Just clothes?" he said. I said: "Mainly clothes."
Then he said: "Are you sure you have nothing to declare?" as he patted a bag that had a bright red "heavy" tag on it. "Nope," I told him, nothing to declare.
According to the customs form I don't think I have to declare anything we brought in with us. It was a lot of stuff, but it is all for our personal consumption. I was thinking about how he would respond to the comforter we got in the U.S for Maya's big girl bed, or the zillions of children's picture books, or the year's worth of Flintstone gummy vitamins in our bags. And I was a little happy that I had taken off the tags from all the new clothes so he wouldn't be able to tell what was new and what was old.
But the agent just took my word for it and waved us through.
To be entirely accurate, I have never actually had my bags searched in Egypt as foreigners appear to be typically immune from such searches due to Egypt's desire to draw in and welcome as many tourists (and their hard currency) as possible. This was the closest I have come.
We took an airport taxi home, and Maya immediately ran to check out all her old toys that she had left behind. She is quite happy to be home and can't wait to see Tiberh. She doesn't understand why we can't go out for a walk, or on the balcony, in the middle of the night though. I think we are going to be seriously sufering from jet lag for a few days.
Mike immediately went to unpack and I put Maya's new comforter on her bed. It looks very nice.
Bye Bye Bottles
On another note, Mike also threw all of Maya's old bottles in the trash as soon as we got home. It marks a very big turning point for us, as we can now say that we successfully gave up the bottle entirely. Yeah! Three cheers for Maya. Now we have to get back into the habit of going to bed by ourselves and continue the struggle to sleep through the night.
Oh yeah, and I will try to post some more details of our trip a little later, as well as some pictures.
Arriving in Cairo, as we stepped onto the tarmac at the airport to board the bus to passport control, we were hit by that sweet "Cairo" smell that is sort of a mix of sweat, dust, car exhaust and must. I'm sure it isn't great to my body, but it sure did smell like home. And made me smile.
Maya was asleep in my arms and Mike had all our carry-ons, and we rushed in to get ahead of all the tourists who have to buy visa stamps before they can enter the country -- thank God for the benefits of resident visas. We got our bags and proceeded on to customs and the taxi stand. I noticed once again that we have turned into those families that we always gawked at in the past -- the ones piled high with zillions of bags that don't even fit on a cart. We had one cart piled high, plus another big checked bag we were wheeling, plus Maya in her stroller with the basket and handlebars weighted down with all our carry-ons. Okay, so there are still some Egyptian families that have us beat, but we are definitely in the running.
At customs, the guy asked what was in our suitcases. I said clothes.
"Just clothes?" he said. I said: "Mainly clothes."
Then he said: "Are you sure you have nothing to declare?" as he patted a bag that had a bright red "heavy" tag on it. "Nope," I told him, nothing to declare.
According to the customs form I don't think I have to declare anything we brought in with us. It was a lot of stuff, but it is all for our personal consumption. I was thinking about how he would respond to the comforter we got in the U.S for Maya's big girl bed, or the zillions of children's picture books, or the year's worth of Flintstone gummy vitamins in our bags. And I was a little happy that I had taken off the tags from all the new clothes so he wouldn't be able to tell what was new and what was old.
But the agent just took my word for it and waved us through.
To be entirely accurate, I have never actually had my bags searched in Egypt as foreigners appear to be typically immune from such searches due to Egypt's desire to draw in and welcome as many tourists (and their hard currency) as possible. This was the closest I have come.
We took an airport taxi home, and Maya immediately ran to check out all her old toys that she had left behind. She is quite happy to be home and can't wait to see Tiberh. She doesn't understand why we can't go out for a walk, or on the balcony, in the middle of the night though. I think we are going to be seriously sufering from jet lag for a few days.
Mike immediately went to unpack and I put Maya's new comforter on her bed. It looks very nice.
Bye Bye Bottles
On another note, Mike also threw all of Maya's old bottles in the trash as soon as we got home. It marks a very big turning point for us, as we can now say that we successfully gave up the bottle entirely. Yeah! Three cheers for Maya. Now we have to get back into the habit of going to bed by ourselves and continue the struggle to sleep through the night.
Oh yeah, and I will try to post some more details of our trip a little later, as well as some pictures.
Sunday, 19 August 2007
Sushi!!
Mike requested that I add to the blog another pronouncement from the doctor's office. Mike wanted to know at what age could we give Maya sushi, so he asked the doctor at our appointment. Apparently, we were the first parents to ask such a question, but our doctor took a poll of his colleagues and the results came back at between 2 and 3. Yeah!
The doctor didn't seem bothered by the question, but was curious if we could get good sushi in Cairo. And the answer is: Yes!! We have great sushi in Cairo, and in a couple months when Maya turns 2, she can eat it too.
The doctor didn't seem bothered by the question, but was curious if we could get good sushi in Cairo. And the answer is: Yes!! We have great sushi in Cairo, and in a couple months when Maya turns 2, she can eat it too.
Friday, 17 August 2007
Bungalee, Blinklink and hitting the 50th percentile
Stop the presses! Maya has finally hit the 50th percentile for both height and weight. She had a checkup today in Seattle and she is doing great. At a few days shy of 22 months, she weighs 26 pounds and is 33 inches long. That puts her smack in the middle of the percentile charts for American baby girls. Not that we were worried about her growth, but previously her height and weight were never at the same level. At her last check at 18 months she was just over 22 pounds and I think this checkup came on the tail-end of a growth spurt, as she has had a ravenous appetite over the past few weeks.
Being in the U.S. for a couple weeks with grandparents has also paid off in terms of her speaking skills. She is really talking great now. Last night she told us: "I no like da dark". It made us do a double take, but then fortunately she repeated herself about five times so we had no doubt what she was saying.
Maya also has a very creative touch with words. Sometimes we have to hear them 100 times before it finally clicks what she is saying. Here is a sample Maya dictionary:
1) Bungalee: A balcony, or really any place near your house where you can go outside, including the front yard at grandma and grandpa's. Can you tell she's a city girl?
2) Blinklink: A blanket. At bedtime she asks for her blinklink.
3) Moneymoney: Watermelon. As in "Cut moneymoney".
4) Gammies: Berries. We are not clear on the origin of this one.
5) Boomba: As in "Look, Mommy boomba" when I tripped over my feet and fell flat on my face today on the Seattle ferry while chasing Maya. Accompanied by deep belly laughs of course.
6) Baboo: Belly Button.
Other amusing things. Maya calls phones 'pones' and says giraffe with a hard 'g'. It's as if she knows how the words are spelled. How does she know???
Being in the U.S. for a couple weeks with grandparents has also paid off in terms of her speaking skills. She is really talking great now. Last night she told us: "I no like da dark". It made us do a double take, but then fortunately she repeated herself about five times so we had no doubt what she was saying.
Maya also has a very creative touch with words. Sometimes we have to hear them 100 times before it finally clicks what she is saying. Here is a sample Maya dictionary:
1) Bungalee: A balcony, or really any place near your house where you can go outside, including the front yard at grandma and grandpa's. Can you tell she's a city girl?
2) Blinklink: A blanket. At bedtime she asks for her blinklink.
3) Moneymoney: Watermelon. As in "Cut moneymoney".
4) Gammies: Berries. We are not clear on the origin of this one.
5) Boomba: As in "Look, Mommy boomba" when I tripped over my feet and fell flat on my face today on the Seattle ferry while chasing Maya. Accompanied by deep belly laughs of course.
6) Baboo: Belly Button.
Other amusing things. Maya calls phones 'pones' and says giraffe with a hard 'g'. It's as if she knows how the words are spelled. How does she know???
Sunday, 12 August 2007
Maya's super vacation!
Maya has been having a super vacation so far.
She has gone to a farm to see a donkey and feed her donkey obsession -- and she watched us feed the donkey corn husks. She was a little worried about doing it herself. She also watched us feed and pet a goat. She saw sheep and chickens and roosters and peacocks, and two little bunnies.
She has also discovered the joy of slides -- in grandma and grandpa's backyard and at the park. She ran through sprinklers in the front yard and went swimming at the local pool -- which is WAY cooler than the pool at the marriott in Cairo. The pool near grandma and grandpa's house has a toddler section with sprinklers and sprayers and buckets that fill with water and dump them on your head from above -- Maya successfully avoided that one!
Maya also got to try blueberries for the first time -- since they are not available in Egypt. And she loved them. She also "helped" make chocolate chip cookies and "painted" with chocolate pudding. She learned the joys of drawing with sidewalk chalk on grandma and grandpa's driveway and even had her body traced.
All in all, she is having a fantastic time!
More importantly, we have abandoned the nighttime bottle on this trip and for the past three nights she has not had milk or any other beverage after bedtime. This is a major victory for us. Does it mean she is sleeping through the night? Sadly, no. But at least we are making progress. And more importantly when Maya has her doctor's appointment in Seattle we will not have to sheepishly admit that our almost 2-year-old is still on a bottle...
In a couple days we are going to Seattle for more fun and games!
She has gone to a farm to see a donkey and feed her donkey obsession -- and she watched us feed the donkey corn husks. She was a little worried about doing it herself. She also watched us feed and pet a goat. She saw sheep and chickens and roosters and peacocks, and two little bunnies.
She has also discovered the joy of slides -- in grandma and grandpa's backyard and at the park. She ran through sprinklers in the front yard and went swimming at the local pool -- which is WAY cooler than the pool at the marriott in Cairo. The pool near grandma and grandpa's house has a toddler section with sprinklers and sprayers and buckets that fill with water and dump them on your head from above -- Maya successfully avoided that one!
Maya also got to try blueberries for the first time -- since they are not available in Egypt. And she loved them. She also "helped" make chocolate chip cookies and "painted" with chocolate pudding. She learned the joys of drawing with sidewalk chalk on grandma and grandpa's driveway and even had her body traced.
All in all, she is having a fantastic time!
More importantly, we have abandoned the nighttime bottle on this trip and for the past three nights she has not had milk or any other beverage after bedtime. This is a major victory for us. Does it mean she is sleeping through the night? Sadly, no. But at least we are making progress. And more importantly when Maya has her doctor's appointment in Seattle we will not have to sheepishly admit that our almost 2-year-old is still on a bottle...
In a couple days we are going to Seattle for more fun and games!
Friday, 3 August 2007
Times when it is not cool to be a transracial adoption "poster family"
Hmmm. Let me think about this. How about when your baby is screaming her head off on a transcontinental flight and people on the flight, who were staring at you out of curiosity when you got on the plane, are now all GLARING at you. And those eyes continue to watch you as you walk her up and down the plane, desperately trying to get her to stop screaming.
So, can you tell our flight did not go well? It went horribly! And that is despite Maya being an experienced world traveller with six transcontinental flights already under her belt, which all went totally smoothly, by the way. Not to mention the gazillions of other non-trancontinental flights she's been on. Plus, we were so well prepared for this trip. She had her own personal backpack -- with a cute kitty sewn onto it. And we filled her backpack with little goodies that she had never seen before -- a little shape sorter, a magnadoodle, stickers, a couple matchbox airplanes, a Little People car, some cute bandaids to play "ouchie" with, plus a paint-by-water book and a paintbrush. We brought her Pooh bear and Lalla, of course. We brought snacks. We brought her two favorite board books. But it was still a total disaster. Here's what happened.
The first flight to Paris went pretty well. Maya was happy and contented and played with her toys. We held out most of the new toys for the second leg, knowing it would be longer. We told Maya that after we got off the flight we would have some time to run around and then we would get onto another flight. And when that flight landed, we would see grandma.
But the Paris airport is a nightmare!! Even though we had a 2-hour layover, and our flight from Cairo landed on time, we still nearly missed our flight to New York. We actually had to take three separate buses inside the airport to get to our gate.
First, we took a flight from our plane to the gate. Flights from Egypt never get to go direct to the skyways -- because European immigration officials feel they have to check passports as people get off the plane to block "asylum seekers". And they had also previously "disinfected" our plane in Cairo WHILE WE WERE ON BOARD!! They sprayed a chemical into the air that smelled awful and made Maya cough. I guess they think that coming from Egypt we must be "dirty". I could write a whole post about how offensive that is!!
Anyway, of course we had been seated at the back of the plane and had Maya so we were almost the last ones off. And since they were checking passports it took forever to get inside the airport. As soon as we got inside we checked our gate for the next flight and were directed to take a bus to a different terminal. We went down to wait for the bus, but of course we missed the first three buses because there were so many people waiting. Finally we got on a bus and had to circle the entire airport, dropping people off at their "stops" before we got to our terminal. By this time we were starting to feel pressed for time, but weren't too worried. So we went to looking for our gate, following the signs, which led us to a security point. We went through security and found ourselves waiting for yet another bus, which was empty. But the driver didn't want to leave until the bus was full. By this time we had only 15 minutes until take-off and were in a dead panic. Finally the bus left, going past all the same places we passed on our previous bus ride. We reached our destination and ran off the bus, scrambled up the escalator, and finally reached our gate. We got to the gate just two minutes before our scheduled takeoff time, and were pretty much the last passengers to board the plane. It was unbelievable.
Maya of course was mad because we had told her she would have some time to run around at the airport, and instead she just got rushed around in our arms -- since we had checked our stroller all the way through to New York.
So anyway, Maya was at first content to play with the touchpad screen on the seatback in front of us to make the pictures change, and to move the little cupholder back and forth. But then the evil lady in front of us gave Maya an evil little look and complained that "your child is pushing my seat". B****!! Please, I mean it's not like she was kicking the seat or anything, and it was a touchpad screen and Maya was not pressing it that hard. I was so irritated. I should have just ignored that stupid lady and let Maya continue to play with the screen, but of course I told Maya "No". Well, shortly after that Maya started crying hysterically and that lasted for at least four hours. Seriously if anyone complains again about that, I'm going to tell them that if they don't want to be bothered by a child sitting behind them then maybe they should buy a business class seat where the distance between the seats is enough that you don't have to restrain your child in a straitjacket to get them to not touch the seat!
Anyway, Maya was crying and would not stop. And she kept shouting: "Plane down". She wanted to get off the plane so badly and there was just nothing we could do to calm her down. Eventually we just took her to the back of the plane and held her because she would not tolerate being in the seat.
Finally she calmed down a little and fell asleep for about an hour. Then woke up and started screaming all over again that she wanted "down, down, down". Then about 3 hours before we landed she all of a sudden decided that she was going to stop screaming, and she played happily with her little bag until falling asleep about a half hour before landing.
But the whole time was just awful. I really felt like people thought that Maya didn't know us, we were kidnappers who had stolen her from her rightful parents -- because she was screaming so much and a "real" parent should be able to calm their child. I felt like people thought we were bad parents, parents who can't control their child, etc. Or that we should have drugged her to make her sleep, or who knows what else. Plus even before the screaming started, everybody was already staring at us and I felt so self conscious. Aaaah!
Nobody was sympathetic at all except one of the flight attendants who told us she also had a two-year-old and so could relate, and gave Maya like 15 toys to try to calm her down.
Anyway, Maya is a happy little baby today in Albany -- you'd never know it was the same child. She is taking a mid-morning nap and has already had tons of fun playing outside on very cool climbing toys that were waiting for her. And this afternoon she is going to bake some cookies with grandma.
So, can you tell our flight did not go well? It went horribly! And that is despite Maya being an experienced world traveller with six transcontinental flights already under her belt, which all went totally smoothly, by the way. Not to mention the gazillions of other non-trancontinental flights she's been on. Plus, we were so well prepared for this trip. She had her own personal backpack -- with a cute kitty sewn onto it. And we filled her backpack with little goodies that she had never seen before -- a little shape sorter, a magnadoodle, stickers, a couple matchbox airplanes, a Little People car, some cute bandaids to play "ouchie" with, plus a paint-by-water book and a paintbrush. We brought her Pooh bear and Lalla, of course. We brought snacks. We brought her two favorite board books. But it was still a total disaster. Here's what happened.
The first flight to Paris went pretty well. Maya was happy and contented and played with her toys. We held out most of the new toys for the second leg, knowing it would be longer. We told Maya that after we got off the flight we would have some time to run around and then we would get onto another flight. And when that flight landed, we would see grandma.
But the Paris airport is a nightmare!! Even though we had a 2-hour layover, and our flight from Cairo landed on time, we still nearly missed our flight to New York. We actually had to take three separate buses inside the airport to get to our gate.
First, we took a flight from our plane to the gate. Flights from Egypt never get to go direct to the skyways -- because European immigration officials feel they have to check passports as people get off the plane to block "asylum seekers". And they had also previously "disinfected" our plane in Cairo WHILE WE WERE ON BOARD!! They sprayed a chemical into the air that smelled awful and made Maya cough. I guess they think that coming from Egypt we must be "dirty". I could write a whole post about how offensive that is!!
Anyway, of course we had been seated at the back of the plane and had Maya so we were almost the last ones off. And since they were checking passports it took forever to get inside the airport. As soon as we got inside we checked our gate for the next flight and were directed to take a bus to a different terminal. We went down to wait for the bus, but of course we missed the first three buses because there were so many people waiting. Finally we got on a bus and had to circle the entire airport, dropping people off at their "stops" before we got to our terminal. By this time we were starting to feel pressed for time, but weren't too worried. So we went to looking for our gate, following the signs, which led us to a security point. We went through security and found ourselves waiting for yet another bus, which was empty. But the driver didn't want to leave until the bus was full. By this time we had only 15 minutes until take-off and were in a dead panic. Finally the bus left, going past all the same places we passed on our previous bus ride. We reached our destination and ran off the bus, scrambled up the escalator, and finally reached our gate. We got to the gate just two minutes before our scheduled takeoff time, and were pretty much the last passengers to board the plane. It was unbelievable.
Maya of course was mad because we had told her she would have some time to run around at the airport, and instead she just got rushed around in our arms -- since we had checked our stroller all the way through to New York.
So anyway, Maya was at first content to play with the touchpad screen on the seatback in front of us to make the pictures change, and to move the little cupholder back and forth. But then the evil lady in front of us gave Maya an evil little look and complained that "your child is pushing my seat". B****!! Please, I mean it's not like she was kicking the seat or anything, and it was a touchpad screen and Maya was not pressing it that hard. I was so irritated. I should have just ignored that stupid lady and let Maya continue to play with the screen, but of course I told Maya "No". Well, shortly after that Maya started crying hysterically and that lasted for at least four hours. Seriously if anyone complains again about that, I'm going to tell them that if they don't want to be bothered by a child sitting behind them then maybe they should buy a business class seat where the distance between the seats is enough that you don't have to restrain your child in a straitjacket to get them to not touch the seat!
Anyway, Maya was crying and would not stop. And she kept shouting: "Plane down". She wanted to get off the plane so badly and there was just nothing we could do to calm her down. Eventually we just took her to the back of the plane and held her because she would not tolerate being in the seat.
Finally she calmed down a little and fell asleep for about an hour. Then woke up and started screaming all over again that she wanted "down, down, down". Then about 3 hours before we landed she all of a sudden decided that she was going to stop screaming, and she played happily with her little bag until falling asleep about a half hour before landing.
But the whole time was just awful. I really felt like people thought that Maya didn't know us, we were kidnappers who had stolen her from her rightful parents -- because she was screaming so much and a "real" parent should be able to calm their child. I felt like people thought we were bad parents, parents who can't control their child, etc. Or that we should have drugged her to make her sleep, or who knows what else. Plus even before the screaming started, everybody was already staring at us and I felt so self conscious. Aaaah!
Nobody was sympathetic at all except one of the flight attendants who told us she also had a two-year-old and so could relate, and gave Maya like 15 toys to try to calm her down.
Anyway, Maya is a happy little baby today in Albany -- you'd never know it was the same child. She is taking a mid-morning nap and has already had tons of fun playing outside on very cool climbing toys that were waiting for her. And this afternoon she is going to bake some cookies with grandma.
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