Maya turns 3

Today is Maya's third birthday. She is growing up so fast. I have to say that my main emotion today was one of sadness, for Maya's birth mother. I wonder what she is thinking today, if she remembers that today is Maya's birthday. If she is thinking about her. I know in my heart that she must be. And I am sad that we have not been allowed by our adoption agency to maintain contact with her because of what I believe is a horribly misguided policy. I wonder if Maya's birth mother has been able to see any of the pictures or the letter that we sent long ago before contact was stopped. I am sad for Maya that it has been so long without contact. It is a tragedy for us, really, but mainly a tragedy for Maya.

We didn't do anything to mark Maya's birthday today because she is having a big party at the club on Friday with a bouncy castle and face painting and a Dora the Explorer cake. I am not sure how exactly we wound up giving her such a big party, as I always vowed to follow the one-child-per-age-of-birthday-girl routine. But, alas, Maya is a social being and there was just no way we could limit her to three friends...

Maya is also much more conscious this year of her birthday and has very clear ideas of what she wants. As in: "I want a bouncy castle and face painting and party hats and goody bags and a happy birthday cake and my dance teacher to teach dancing." Well, she is not getting her dance teacher but the rest are all there... She was very specific.

She also has ideas on what she wants for her birthday. She hasn't gotten any significant new toys since last December, so we will be stocking up a bit as she has outgrown a lot of her old toys. She is getting (actually already has gotten) a trike. And she will get an easel. We were also planning to get her a couple puzzles because the ones she has are too young for her. But she has other ideas. She says she wants a computer. "A yellow one!" Yikes!! How did she go from being a little toddler to knowing exactly what she wants.

Happy Birthday Mommy!

Mike took Maya to the party store in our neighbourhood and let her pick out some stuff for my birthday. I got birthday candles with little horses on them, pink princess plates for the cake, a coke can with wet wipes inside and kitchy candle in the shape of a purse. Fun!

Then we went to City Stars Mall (the nice expensive glitzy mall) and ate at Ruby Tuesdays for dinner. Ruby Tuesdays just opened in Cairo, and I was craving good American food!

After Fagnoon...

We changed out of our painting clothes and went to Andrea's for lunch. Andrea's is a really cool garden restaurant with nice outdoor tables and a playground for kids. They serve grilled chicken, which is cooked over an open-air rotisserie grill that you pass as you enter. And they cook their own pocket bread. And there was a dog with puppies in the garden.

Going to the Soukermarket!

It is so funny to watch Maya develop language. In both Arabic and Amharic, a market is a souk. Therefore, Maya thinks that a supermarket is actually a "soukermarket", and that's what she calls it. Too funny.

She also has a new phrase she likes to use, when looking for approval: "Mommy, I'm a good jobber!"It's so cute. She also tells me that I am a good jobber when I do things that she thinks merit praise.

Maya is also a birthday party crasher. Yesterday, she went to three birthday parties, and the first one she was not exactly invited to. (The other two she was invited). The non-invited party was at our club, and had a huge bouncy castle and ball pit, which she played in. I actually don't usually try to prevent her from doing this because, well, it's a small club and in order to keep her out of the bouncy, we'd have to leave the club. And since there are parties every weekend, that's not really workable for us. Plus, people are generally not that possessive of bouncy castles at our club.

But I generally try to prevent Maya from asking for birthday cake or doing the organised games at these parties. Yesterday, however, when Mike tried to remove her from the party as the kids were sitting down for cake, he was reprimanded by a set of about 3-4 moms who told him it would be cruel to make her leave. I don't know how she always manages to get people to be so nice to her. Nobody (other than her parents) ever says no to this little girl. She had a great time at all three parties, though.

Riding the Donkey

Oh yeah, and we also saw a camel and some goats. The kids were offered a camel ride ... but they declined.

New Maya pics

It is finally cool enough to go back to Fagnoon. We went last week with Maya's friends Sam and Kestas (and their families), and I think we are going to be spending a lot of time at Fagnoon this winter!!

The kids played on the grass, did some pottery on old fashioned wheels, and painted. Kestas's mom brought a neat rocket-shooter toy, so the kids shot off some rockets in the grass. And we brought snacks and ate them at picnic tables. And they were making bread in a traditional oven, so we bought some. And the kids rode on a donkey.

The coolest thing is that apparently on most days, they will actually let the kids work with the dough and "make" their own traditional pocket bread. We couldn't do it the day we went because it was a national holiday so they weren't doing that activity. But they said most other days of the year they will. So I can't wait to go back!

I'm back!

Sorry for the blog absence. I've been working a lot at work recently due to recent news events, and Maya has been preventing me from sleeping at night, so I've been going to bed at 9 p.m. or so to catch up on sleep (and therefore not blogging). Plus we've had a busy social life on top of that as all our friends who were out of town this summer are now back in full force. Pictures coming soon.