I haven't totally dropped off the planet. But unfortunately, more than a month after we moved into our new place, we still have not managed to get the state-run telephone company to successfully hook up our internet. So I am still on a really slow dial-up account, and I can't even post pictures -- believe me, I tried!! Anyway, we are hopeful to have real internet soon...
Maya has been doing great at school. She loves it! She has gone four times so far, and she has not cried even once when we left, although she was pretty clingy the first three times. Then on day four, she just walked in, saw some other girls, exclaimed "I play my friends", and ran inside. Did I mention that she is going to school with no diapers? That's right! And she has only had one accident at school so far, which I think is terrific!
Also, I am in love with Maya's preschool! I love the age-mixing at the school. I love that it is small and cozy. And I love that it is totally play-based. I also think they organise the activities really well. It is free play when the kids arrive in the morning, but that is also the time they do their art project of the day. So they basically get pulled aside to do art, or do it in a sort of starggered way as kids arrive in the morning. So they seem to get lots of individual attention with the projects. They have also done really cool activities. One morning, the activity was making pancakes. They also did painting, then turned their painting into paper airplanes. Another day they painted pre-made newspaper hats. And they have outdoor time and circle time every day -- or at least that's what we think. Maya seems to think school is a private affair, and when we ask her what she did every day, she just shrugs her shoulders...
What is also cool is that Maya is showing a huge burst of development since going to school also. All of a sudden she is interested in spatial games -- like shape sorting or stacking or puzzles. She previously was never interested in these types of toys, preferring to focus exclusively on her two favorite activities -- sports and talking. So it's been cool to see her expanding her interests since starting school. And she has been wanting to play "teacher" with us at home, which basically amounts to setting up chairs and telling us what to do.
Saturday, 17 May 2008
Monday, 5 May 2008
Just dropped Maya off at preschool
I'm a bit sad about it, but Maya will be OK there. She was delaying getting ready this morning, not wanting to get dressed and saying she wanted to watch Sesame Street instead of getting ready. We bargained with her and let her watch a 5-minute Sesame Street video clip on Mike's computer while eating a yoghurt at the table.
We showed her what we had packed her for lunch, and that she had a little "treat" inside. In a retro baby moment, she then demanded to ride to preschool in her stroller rather than walk.
Once we got to the school, she was a bit nervous and clingy, and was playing with the other kids but also looking back to check that we were still there. After about 10-15 minutes, we told her it was time for us to go, and she walked us to the door and we left. And she was totally fine. No tears or anything! So we'll see how it went this afternoon...
We showed her what we had packed her for lunch, and that she had a little "treat" inside. In a retro baby moment, she then demanded to ride to preschool in her stroller rather than walk.
Once we got to the school, she was a bit nervous and clingy, and was playing with the other kids but also looking back to check that we were still there. After about 10-15 minutes, we told her it was time for us to go, and she walked us to the door and we left. And she was totally fine. No tears or anything! So we'll see how it went this afternoon...
Sunday, 4 May 2008
Starting preschool tomorrow!!
Maya is starting preschool tomorrow, and we're both nervous about it!! Actually I'm sure Maya will be totally fine, but I feel like I am losing my baby girl. Mike and I will walk her to school in the morning, and Tibby will pick her up in the afternoon. We are only doing two days a week for the first year, as we really value the Amharic exposure that Tibby gives her and we don't want to cut back on that more than we have to.
We have to pack a lunch for her tonight, and I don't know what to pack. A Labna sandwich maybe?? (Labna is thick, spreadable Arab bitter yoghurt) That is Maya's current favorite lunch food. Maybe some fruit and a box of skim milk? Maybe some fruity yoghurt? I think I will pack some stickers for her in her lunch box, too!
We have to pack a lunch for her tonight, and I don't know what to pack. A Labna sandwich maybe?? (Labna is thick, spreadable Arab bitter yoghurt) That is Maya's current favorite lunch food. Maybe some fruit and a box of skim milk? Maybe some fruity yoghurt? I think I will pack some stickers for her in her lunch box, too!
Saturday, 3 May 2008
Rainforest Cafe
Today we took Maya to the newly opened Rainforest Cafe at CityStars mall in Cairo. Wow!!! It was incredible and Maya loved it. I can't believe this kind of stuff is available in Cairo! They have life sized animals that move their arms and growl and grumble, a life-sized alligator that hisses and snaps its jaws open and closed. A huge fish tank with lots of little nemos. They even have a mama and baby elephant pair. Maya was in 2-year-old heaven. And the fact that she was still a little bit unsure whether the animals were real meant that we could enjoy our dinner without having to run after a stir-crazy toddler. And the food was pretty good too.
Maya was a bit freaked by the "leopard", actually a jaguar, which I think decided to wake from sleep and roar at her just as she was passing by.
We learned from our waiter that the Cairo Rainforest Cafe was the first branch to open in the Middle East, and even beat out Dubai -- though our waiter says one will be opening there too.
One really interesting cultural tidbit about restaurants here is that somehow culturally restaurants feel they have to bring the children their food first, then wait until the kids are pretty much finished eating to serve the parents. It's pretty much a standard practice in a lot of places. I personally think it is because lots of Egyptians (the ones who can afford to eat at nice restaurants) will bring their kids with a nanny. The kids eat first and then the nanny takes them outside so the parents can enjoy a nice quiet meal. But if you are not with a nanny, it is super annoying when your 2-year-old's pizza arrives a full half an hour before your meal. It means that once the parents' food comes, you have about1.5 seconds to scarf down your meal because otherwise your child is going to decide dinner's over and time to go.
Now most restaurants here we know enough to ask in advance that all the food be brought to the table at the same time -- a technique that works only about half the time. But somehow we neglected to ask today at Rainforest. I think I had the idea that a Western chain would have Western food-serving customs. Woops! My mistake. Next time we'll remember to ask for all the food together!
P.S. - Did I mention they sell American-style lunch boxes?? And Maya is starting school soon! How could I resist?
Maya was a bit freaked by the "leopard", actually a jaguar, which I think decided to wake from sleep and roar at her just as she was passing by.
We learned from our waiter that the Cairo Rainforest Cafe was the first branch to open in the Middle East, and even beat out Dubai -- though our waiter says one will be opening there too.
One really interesting cultural tidbit about restaurants here is that somehow culturally restaurants feel they have to bring the children their food first, then wait until the kids are pretty much finished eating to serve the parents. It's pretty much a standard practice in a lot of places. I personally think it is because lots of Egyptians (the ones who can afford to eat at nice restaurants) will bring their kids with a nanny. The kids eat first and then the nanny takes them outside so the parents can enjoy a nice quiet meal. But if you are not with a nanny, it is super annoying when your 2-year-old's pizza arrives a full half an hour before your meal. It means that once the parents' food comes, you have about1.5 seconds to scarf down your meal because otherwise your child is going to decide dinner's over and time to go.
Now most restaurants here we know enough to ask in advance that all the food be brought to the table at the same time -- a technique that works only about half the time. But somehow we neglected to ask today at Rainforest. I think I had the idea that a Western chain would have Western food-serving customs. Woops! My mistake. Next time we'll remember to ask for all the food together!
P.S. - Did I mention they sell American-style lunch boxes?? And Maya is starting school soon! How could I resist?
Tuesday, 29 April 2008
In other news, a decision on preschool
We have decided to send Maya to preschool number 1 for two days a week. Instead of starting in September, we are hoping to start when the preschool's summer session begins. We have been talking about preschool with Maya, have shown her a get-ready-for-school episode of Sesame Street, and have taken her on several walks to see her new school.
Of course, we still have to actually make the call to enrol her, but the preschool director said there is plenty of space. So it shouldn't be a problem.
It is amazing how hard a decision it actually is on where to send a child for preschool. And in some bizarre way, the fact that preschool 2 had a waiting list to get in actually made me doubt our initial reaction that preschool 1 was the best fit for us. I mean, if people are waiting to get in, then surely the school must be the best, right? Even if our instincts tell us otherwise.
What swayed us is that we saw the kids at preschool 1 playing together peacefully. We saw them eagerly accept our daughter into their group, with the teacher's encouragement. When Maya was trying to grab a toy from another child, we saw the teachers pause to see if the two kids would work it out, and then comment: "Look, they're negotiating over it." And we decided that our priority for school right now is not learning "school stuff", but learning self-awareness and kindness and sharing. So preschool 1 it is!
Of course, we still have to actually make the call to enrol her, but the preschool director said there is plenty of space. So it shouldn't be a problem.
It is amazing how hard a decision it actually is on where to send a child for preschool. And in some bizarre way, the fact that preschool 2 had a waiting list to get in actually made me doubt our initial reaction that preschool 1 was the best fit for us. I mean, if people are waiting to get in, then surely the school must be the best, right? Even if our instincts tell us otherwise.
What swayed us is that we saw the kids at preschool 1 playing together peacefully. We saw them eagerly accept our daughter into their group, with the teacher's encouragement. When Maya was trying to grab a toy from another child, we saw the teachers pause to see if the two kids would work it out, and then comment: "Look, they're negotiating over it." And we decided that our priority for school right now is not learning "school stuff", but learning self-awareness and kindness and sharing. So preschool 1 it is!
More annoyances
So we ordered curtains for our new apartment out of very nice handmade Egyptian fabric. We wouldn't normally do something like this, but it is so inexpensive by Western standards for something that will really make our apartment nice. We selected the fabric ourselves, and had the fabric store custom-make the curtains and provide rods to measurements we provided. Only they didn't...
The curtains -- supposed to be the final touches on our apartment -- arrived today. First, the rods were the wrong length. They still fit, but they don't quite reach to the end of the windowframes, when we had ordered them to be 10 centimetres longer than the ends of the frames. And the curtains themselves -- well, they are also quite a bit shy of the size we ordered. I mean, we can MAKE them work. But it is really disappointing. Mike is going to ask them to redo the rods, but the fabric is not cheap, and it's kind of hard to ask them to redo the curtains as well. So we are feeling a bit frustrated.
Plus after only two weeks in the new apartment, the dishwasher has already started tripping the fuse every time we run it. So now we have to have an electrician come to try to figure out what the problem is. Plus Maya had a major meltdown this evening because she was angry we didn't pay enough attention to her, since we were dealing with the curtain people. And after being almost completely potty trained a week ago she has now completely decided to cease all efforts to go in the potty...
The curtains -- supposed to be the final touches on our apartment -- arrived today. First, the rods were the wrong length. They still fit, but they don't quite reach to the end of the windowframes, when we had ordered them to be 10 centimetres longer than the ends of the frames. And the curtains themselves -- well, they are also quite a bit shy of the size we ordered. I mean, we can MAKE them work. But it is really disappointing. Mike is going to ask them to redo the rods, but the fabric is not cheap, and it's kind of hard to ask them to redo the curtains as well. So we are feeling a bit frustrated.
Plus after only two weeks in the new apartment, the dishwasher has already started tripping the fuse every time we run it. So now we have to have an electrician come to try to figure out what the problem is. Plus Maya had a major meltdown this evening because she was angry we didn't pay enough attention to her, since we were dealing with the curtain people. And after being almost completely potty trained a week ago she has now completely decided to cease all efforts to go in the potty...
Dial-up Hell (and Egyptian bureaucracy)
We have been in our new apartment for two weeks. But do we have wireless internet? Nope!! Not for lack of trying though. First we tried to transfer our account from our old line in Zamalek to our new house, as we had a month remaining on the account already paid for that we didn't want to lose. But it became very clear very quickly -- through requests for neverending pieces of stamped papers -- that that path was more trouble than it was worth.
So we embarked on a new path of simply ignoring the fact that we already had an account, and simply opening a new account on the new line. But it turned out that the previous tenants had an ADSL account with a separate company, and that company had not released the line when the account was cancelled. We managed to get all the required bureaucracy, including a confirmation number for the cancellation of the leased line, but we still don't have a high speed internet connection. Aaaaaahhhhh!
So we are working on a free dialup connection, which is not bad speedwise. I guess no one uses dialup anymore so that's why it's fast. But unfortunately it is not fast enough for me to upload pictures. Believe me. I tried!! I am hearing that it could still be two more weeks before our high speed connection is up and running (I know, I can't believe it either!)
The interesting thing we found is that Mike's new bought-in-Cairo Apple laptop does not have a place for a phone jack to go. So he can't do even dialup on his computer. Nananaa nananaa! I guess even in Egypt dialup is obsolete. And to think I was jealous of his new computer!!
So we embarked on a new path of simply ignoring the fact that we already had an account, and simply opening a new account on the new line. But it turned out that the previous tenants had an ADSL account with a separate company, and that company had not released the line when the account was cancelled. We managed to get all the required bureaucracy, including a confirmation number for the cancellation of the leased line, but we still don't have a high speed internet connection. Aaaaaahhhhh!
So we are working on a free dialup connection, which is not bad speedwise. I guess no one uses dialup anymore so that's why it's fast. But unfortunately it is not fast enough for me to upload pictures. Believe me. I tried!! I am hearing that it could still be two more weeks before our high speed connection is up and running (I know, I can't believe it either!)
The interesting thing we found is that Mike's new bought-in-Cairo Apple laptop does not have a place for a phone jack to go. So he can't do even dialup on his computer. Nananaa nananaa! I guess even in Egypt dialup is obsolete. And to think I was jealous of his new computer!!
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