We spent the past three years buckling Maya into her carseat using the seatbelt attachment because we believed Toyota had not installed Latch above the seat, which we were annoyed about.
But then the other day Mike "discovered" that Latch actually is in our car if you pry up a cover that is hiding it out of site. So now, three years after we bought our car from a shady dealer in Cairo, Maya's car seat is attached with Latch. Woops!
Wednesday, 29 July 2009
Monday, 27 July 2009
Bumblebee
Maya had a dance recital at the beginning of the summer for her preschool ballet class. She is very serious about ballet and loves .. I mean really LOVES ... her dance teacher. She is being promoted to the 4/5 class when we get back from our home leave in September. She is good at all things sporty. The girl has some serious coordination!!
The recital was a big deal for Maya. They had it at the British school. Tibby came to watch and brought Maya flowers. And a gaggle of high school girls watched the little kids backstage until it was their turn to perform. They taught Maya how to play 'Duck, Duck, Goose.' She was in heaven.
Hope you like the recital pictures.
Sunday, 26 July 2009
Flower girl
Maya's nanny Tibby got married two weeks ago and Maya was the flower girl in the wedding. She was a little nervous when we first got there, and seemed also a bit fearful of losing Tibby to her new husband, E. But she quickly warmed up in time to walk down the aisle. Mike signed the wedding contract as a witness and walked Tibby down the aisle.
Later, Maya found a couple of girls her age and they played, danced, went up on the stage with the bride, and fed each other wedding cake (after watching Tibby and E feed each other). Maya chattered away with the girls in Amharic, although Tibby says she thought they only speak Tigrinya. But Maya didn't have any difficulties communicating with them. I guess they may have known a little, and Maya also may know some Tigrinya words from hearing Tibby talk on the phone. Who knows. Maybe 3-year-olds don't really need a common language to communicate. Anyway, they got along great.
We also had a fantastic buffet with traditional food -- yummy wats and soft drinks in glass bottles.
It was a really great wedding with Tibby and E smiling and whispering to each other on the stage. They are very cute together. Tibby wore a really beautiful white wedding dress. And the whole community was there -- all dressed up. It turned out we knew quite a few of the guests, although it was hard to recognise people in formal dresses with their hair done up. I did a few double takes. Guests were dressed beautifully.
It was also really cool to see Maya interacting with the Ethiopian/Horn of Africa community. They really accept her so completely and draw her into the community. They ALL know her, and they are really nice to her. (Actually I think she gets a bit of special treatment!). It was so nice to see Maya feel totally at home in the community at the wedding, collecting bottle caps strewn on the floor after dinner with the other kids, running up and down the aisle, getting scolded by the women for being rowdy (along with all the other kids), oohing and aahing as the vats of yummy wat and huge plates of injera were carried in to the hall for the buffet.
I posted some pictures. I don't want to post pictures of Tibby or E online, although I would be happy to share pictures with those of you who know her. (No, the pictures with the orange beads were Maya trying on her flower girl dress at home. She had white beads tied back for the wedding -- but the pictures from home are cute so I'm posting them)
I posted some pictures. I don't want to post pictures of Tibby or E online, although I would be happy to share pictures with those of you who know her. (No, the pictures with the orange beads were Maya trying on her flower girl dress at home. She had white beads tied back for the wedding -- but the pictures from home are cute so I'm posting them)
Thursday, 23 July 2009
Growth spurt!
We just did a wall measurement of Maya and she has grown 3/4 of an inch in one month to 38-3/4 inches! That puts her at 41st percentile for height -- the highest she's ever been on the charts!! Go Maya Go!
She is now fitting into her 4T clothes! Woo Hoo! Guess we'll have to do some shopping in America this summer for 4T clothes! Now her size is coming close to meeting the measurements of her huge feet -- size 11 and growing!
She is now fitting into her 4T clothes! Woo Hoo! Guess we'll have to do some shopping in America this summer for 4T clothes! Now her size is coming close to meeting the measurements of her huge feet -- size 11 and growing!
Friday, 3 July 2009
Going to the Dentist
Maya had her first visit to the dentist today. We have a very good dentist on the ground floor of our building where lots of wealthy Egyptians and expats go. How lucky is that! And right next door is a good pediatrician as well. So convenient that we don't have to leave our building for dental and medical care!
Anyway, I had gone to the dentist last week and the dentist wanted to seal one of my teeth. So I made an appointment for Maya as well, thinking she could watch me get my tooth sealed and then have the dentist check out her mouth as well. The dentist, Dr. Hossam, said he would just look in her mouth to check it out but wouldn't actually do a cleaning or fix any problems because he just wanted her to be comfortable with him at first. Sounded like a good idea to me.
As luck would have it, I got some sort of bug and was feeling really bad this morning after spending the past week psyching Maya up to go to the dentist. So Mike decided to go and take my appointment slot and then have Maya go after him.
While Mike was getting his teeth cleaned and checked out, Maya went out to the waiting room. By the time Mike was done with his appointment, Maya had already visited the dentist herself voluntarily and got her teeth checked out unbeknownst to Mike.
She has all 20 teeth and her teeth are in good shape. No cavities. She told the dentist that she brushes her teeth twice a week. WHAT?!?!?!? I'm not sure where she got that idea, but that is what she told him. He told her to brush her teeth twice a day.
Maya also got a goodie bag that included a bunch of balloons, a toothbrush, and glow-in-the-dark stars to put on the ceiling.
*******************
In other news, Maya now has descriptions for her parents. She tells people she has a "jokey daddy" and a "sweetie pie" mommy. How nice is that!
Anyway, I had gone to the dentist last week and the dentist wanted to seal one of my teeth. So I made an appointment for Maya as well, thinking she could watch me get my tooth sealed and then have the dentist check out her mouth as well. The dentist, Dr. Hossam, said he would just look in her mouth to check it out but wouldn't actually do a cleaning or fix any problems because he just wanted her to be comfortable with him at first. Sounded like a good idea to me.
As luck would have it, I got some sort of bug and was feeling really bad this morning after spending the past week psyching Maya up to go to the dentist. So Mike decided to go and take my appointment slot and then have Maya go after him.
While Mike was getting his teeth cleaned and checked out, Maya went out to the waiting room. By the time Mike was done with his appointment, Maya had already visited the dentist herself voluntarily and got her teeth checked out unbeknownst to Mike.
She has all 20 teeth and her teeth are in good shape. No cavities. She told the dentist that she brushes her teeth twice a week. WHAT?!?!?!? I'm not sure where she got that idea, but that is what she told him. He told her to brush her teeth twice a day.
Maya also got a goodie bag that included a bunch of balloons, a toothbrush, and glow-in-the-dark stars to put on the ceiling.
*******************
In other news, Maya now has descriptions for her parents. She tells people she has a "jokey daddy" and a "sweetie pie" mommy. How nice is that!
Wednesday, 17 June 2009
Tamiflu
With swine flu on the loose in the American community in Egypt, everyone we know has been stocking up on Tamiflu just in case. Everyone except us, that is...
Basically, if you are unlucky enough to get swine flu (now renamed H1N1) in Egypt, you get the pleasure of being quarantined in the Fever Hospital. That is apparently the only place authorised to hand out Tamiflu. And if this virus gets out of hand in Egypt, I'm not sure there's any guarantee we would get any.
Not that we hadn't been trying to get our hands on some anyway. We thought maybe the embassy could help us. But they said they will not be giving drugs to the community. I called and emailed my health insurance company, and they were beyond unhelpful.
But slowly, we noticed all of our friends -- both foreign and Egyptian -- had their own personal stocks of Tamiflu. And we started to get a little nervous. H1N1 turned up in a nursery school several of Maya's friends go to. And in the building where someone I know works. Many of those who have been diagnosed with the virus recently returned from the US, and it is "home leave" season right now, so...
We started calling pharmacies. They told us they didn't have any. Every pharmacy we called. But somehow our friends were still managing to get some. They were all going in person. Strange, I know. But then yesterday we decided to try it out. And guess what. It worked at the first pharmacy we went to. We now have three adult doses and have put a deposit down for a child dose that we should get in a couple days.
Our plan now if we get flu symptoms: Call a doctor outside of Egypt by phone, and then medicate if needed.
Basically, if you are unlucky enough to get swine flu (now renamed H1N1) in Egypt, you get the pleasure of being quarantined in the Fever Hospital. That is apparently the only place authorised to hand out Tamiflu. And if this virus gets out of hand in Egypt, I'm not sure there's any guarantee we would get any.
Not that we hadn't been trying to get our hands on some anyway. We thought maybe the embassy could help us. But they said they will not be giving drugs to the community. I called and emailed my health insurance company, and they were beyond unhelpful.
But slowly, we noticed all of our friends -- both foreign and Egyptian -- had their own personal stocks of Tamiflu. And we started to get a little nervous. H1N1 turned up in a nursery school several of Maya's friends go to. And in the building where someone I know works. Many of those who have been diagnosed with the virus recently returned from the US, and it is "home leave" season right now, so...
We started calling pharmacies. They told us they didn't have any. Every pharmacy we called. But somehow our friends were still managing to get some. They were all going in person. Strange, I know. But then yesterday we decided to try it out. And guess what. It worked at the first pharmacy we went to. We now have three adult doses and have put a deposit down for a child dose that we should get in a couple days.
Our plan now if we get flu symptoms: Call a doctor outside of Egypt by phone, and then medicate if needed.
Saturday, 16 May 2009
Sporty
Sorry for being MIA. A lot going on recently and been crazy busy at work and needed a break from blogging.
Maya has recently been emerging as a little sports fiend, and we have been indulging her sports desires through a bit of overprogramming.
She has been pining away for gymnastics since we lived in Zamalek, where there was a huge gymnastics program at the Gazeera Club, which we are no longer members of. I hadn't been able to find any equivalent classes here that would take a child only three years old. But with her dance classes ending for the season, I knew she needed another activity to keep her busy this summer.
I heard that there was an Olympic training center near our neighborhood where some expats use the pool. So I found their phone number and called them, and they said they had "gumbaz" classes for kids age 4-6. Gumbaz is more like tumbling classes, or so I found out after I looked it up in the dictionary, since I had no idea what they were talking about on the phone.
On Friday, we went with a friend to check out the classes. I was worried they wouldn't let Maya in since she's only 3, but they never even asked me how old she was. The center has a full gymnastic training gym and then a huge padded tumbling room for the class for little kids. The class was two hours long, and had about 35 kids and two instructors.
Basically, the kids run around for the first hour doing various types of warmups. Jumping like a frog, crawling races, skipping, hopping and so on. Then they split off by gender and do the fun stuff -- learning somersaults and cartwheels and handstands. The class is all in Arabic. But Maya doesn't seem to notice the language difference at all.
Maya really loved the class. The only downside is the center administrators kept trying to kick all the parents out of the room during the class, which was really annoying and made Maya a bit nervous. Hopefully she will be OK next week.
On top of that, we signed Maya up for tennis lessons, which she started today. She also loves tennis, and she can already hit the ball. How she can do this at age 3, I really don't understand. She's just sporty. Plus today in her swimming lessons (right after her hour-long tennis lesson), she swam the entire LENGTH of the pool without stopping. How does she do it?
Honestly, just thinking about her activity level makes me feel exhausted.
Yesterday we had: Gymnastics class (2 hours). Then lunch, where she barely ate anything. Then dance recital. Then several hours of play on the playground. Then an outdoor kids movie at our club. But of course Maya decided to keep playing rather than watch.
Today we had: Birthday party with bouncy castle for a friend, followed by swimming in the pool for two hours, followed by a snack, followed by 45 minutes of playground time, followed by an hour tennis lesson, followed by an hour swim lesson. Then she played on the playground for another hour and had half a kids' hamburger and then complained when we said it was time to go home.
Is this level of activity normal for a 3-year-old?????
Maya has recently been emerging as a little sports fiend, and we have been indulging her sports desires through a bit of overprogramming.
She has been pining away for gymnastics since we lived in Zamalek, where there was a huge gymnastics program at the Gazeera Club, which we are no longer members of. I hadn't been able to find any equivalent classes here that would take a child only three years old. But with her dance classes ending for the season, I knew she needed another activity to keep her busy this summer.
I heard that there was an Olympic training center near our neighborhood where some expats use the pool. So I found their phone number and called them, and they said they had "gumbaz" classes for kids age 4-6. Gumbaz is more like tumbling classes, or so I found out after I looked it up in the dictionary, since I had no idea what they were talking about on the phone.
On Friday, we went with a friend to check out the classes. I was worried they wouldn't let Maya in since she's only 3, but they never even asked me how old she was. The center has a full gymnastic training gym and then a huge padded tumbling room for the class for little kids. The class was two hours long, and had about 35 kids and two instructors.
Basically, the kids run around for the first hour doing various types of warmups. Jumping like a frog, crawling races, skipping, hopping and so on. Then they split off by gender and do the fun stuff -- learning somersaults and cartwheels and handstands. The class is all in Arabic. But Maya doesn't seem to notice the language difference at all.
Maya really loved the class. The only downside is the center administrators kept trying to kick all the parents out of the room during the class, which was really annoying and made Maya a bit nervous. Hopefully she will be OK next week.
On top of that, we signed Maya up for tennis lessons, which she started today. She also loves tennis, and she can already hit the ball. How she can do this at age 3, I really don't understand. She's just sporty. Plus today in her swimming lessons (right after her hour-long tennis lesson), she swam the entire LENGTH of the pool without stopping. How does she do it?
Honestly, just thinking about her activity level makes me feel exhausted.
Yesterday we had: Gymnastics class (2 hours). Then lunch, where she barely ate anything. Then dance recital. Then several hours of play on the playground. Then an outdoor kids movie at our club. But of course Maya decided to keep playing rather than watch.
Today we had: Birthday party with bouncy castle for a friend, followed by swimming in the pool for two hours, followed by a snack, followed by 45 minutes of playground time, followed by an hour tennis lesson, followed by an hour swim lesson. Then she played on the playground for another hour and had half a kids' hamburger and then complained when we said it was time to go home.
Is this level of activity normal for a 3-year-old?????
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