The park

We took a break from tourism yesterday to go to the park. We were going to take Josh and Avni to Sakkara to see the step pyramid. But the day before, we had gone to Coptic Cairo to see the Hanging church and the Ben Ezra synagogue.The whole time we were there, Maya would look up longingly at us and say: "Playground?!?!?".

So yesterday we gave in to her wishes and had a day just for Maya. We spent the morning at the club, where we ran into her pal S. Maya and S. commandeered a ride-on car and spent the morning pushing each other around the park and fending off other kids who sought to take over their stolen vehicle. I don't know where the owners were. S's dad commented that the two of them were like Bonnie and Clyde. And I have to agree. They like to make trouble together.

After the park, Maya came home and took a nap, and Josh and Avni went off shopping at the Khan el-Khalili bazaar. Then the adults had a nice night out together. On the downside, Maya appears to have caught a cold.

Anyway, these pictures are not from yesterday. I don't have any from yesterday. But to get you in the spirit, here are some pictures of Maya at the park last week, eating a banana on the slide.

Hair victory!!

I am very proud of Maya today. I did her hair from start to finish while she was conscious!! And she was extremely well behaved. She was super and deserves a lot of praise. I put her hair in 16 box braids with nice, straight parts. I know it's not a fancy style like sunburst cornrows (like I did last week during her nap). But it's definitely more than simply four ponytails or two big flat twists, which are 5-minute styles and until today were the fanciest I had ever done from start to finish while Maya was awake. This style today took about 30-40 minutes.

I started realizing she could sit still for styles a couple weeks ago. She was starting to wake up from her nap before I could finish her hair. So I would get the fancy top part done, but generally couldn't finish the back before she woke up. So I was doing small parts of her hair while she was in her groggy post-nap state.

She was quite happy to look at pictures and videos on her daddy's palm pilot while I did her hair. But I think the most important thing is that she actually likes to see the finished product and loves having her hair in braids. Anyway, here are some pictures of the hairstyling process. I still think it will be a while before we do cornrows though.

A Day at the Pyramids

Mike's brother Josh and his wife Avni are visitng. So we took them to the pyramids to see Egypt's most famous attraction. Since Maya was with us, we basically zoomed through the plateau at lightning speed. Think a 5-minute walk by of the great pyramid, another 10 minutes in the solar boat museum, and then a quick walk to the Sphinx, and then back to the car.

We did, however spend quite some time looking at the "neigh neighs", camels and donkeys at the pyramids. So hopefully while Maya was watching the animals Josh and Avni got at least a little time to see the pyramids.

Maya liked the pyramids, and now knows how to make a pyramid sign with her hands by putting the tips of her fingers together. She also understands that pyramids are NOT mountains, or at least I hope she understands that.

She was not impressed by the Sphinx. I think daddy set up unduly high expectations when he told her we were going to see a lion. The whole time we were at the Sphinx, Maya was saying: "Daddy, I want lion". She was not impressed when he kept telling her to look up at the Sphinx to see the lion. Poor Maya.

Christmas Day

Maya had a very nice Christmas Day (and so did her mommy and daddy). When she first came downstairs she was a bit freaked out because she was worried Santa was still in the house, and she didn't really want to see him in person, to put it mildly.We had told her that Santa would probably park his sleigh on our balcony, and she thought he hadn't left yet and refused to be put down. But once she realized Santa was not around, she got excited.

Later in the day we ordered a huge meal from a local Lebanese restaurant of grilled chicken with sweet rice and lots of salads on the side. It was delicious (well, except for the cooked chunks of liver in the rice, which I mistakenly thought was lamb and took abite of... Yuck!).

Here are some pictures from Christmas morning, mostly of Maya opening her stocking.

Christmas Eve Pictures

Here are some matching pictures of the three of us on Christmas Eve, taken by Grandma Jan. It is a real treat to get pictures of all of us together. That doesn't happen too often because we rarely have another person around to take a picture.

Anyway, Christmas Eve was a really nice day. We got invited to a brunch at the Four Seasons hotel with some friends of ours who have a son, S. (I don't want to use his full name because I haven't asked for permission) whose birthday is within three weeks of Maya's birthday, and the two of them are really good friends.

The brunch was fabulous! We all got to sit around and talk while Maya and S. ran around and played on the floor. Plus we did the brunch during off hours, so there were no other people around who the kids would bother. I have never been able to have such a nice, relaxing lunch with Maya around before. It was heaven! And that was despite Maya skipping her nap.

After that, we came home and hung out for a while. We have a Christmas tradition of opening one present on Christmas Eve. So my parents gave us matching red Christmas shirts, which made for some cute matching photographs of us. Anyway, here are some pictures. I'll post more from Christmas Day later.

A little restructuring

Yes,Yes... I will post Christmas pictures soon. But I haven't downloaded them yet so please bear with me.

During Maya's nap today I did a little blog restructuring. I re-organized the links on the right hand side. I added quite a few, especially other adoption blogs of families who have Ethiopian kids, and also some interesting links on race and adoption issues. But I basically just wanted to make the links more accessible.

I hope you all find the links a little more user friendly and accessible now. Does anyone even ever click on them? Do you find the links useful? I really have no idea. But if you do find them useful, I hope they are a little easier to sort through now.

Hair Brag!!

OK, so I am very proud of myself for doing Maya's hair in a cool new cornrow style. These are the smallest rows I have ever made, and I did them in a very cool sunburst style. Maya was very happy with her braids as well.

This afternoon, we took my parents over to Teberh's house for a pre-Christmas meal of Misir Wat (lentils), Doro Wat and collard greens over injera. Yummy! We dressed Maya up very nicely and I had her practice saying: "Mommy did it". (You know, so she could tell Teberh and her roommates who did her hair). Of course, when we got there and I asked Maya what she was supposed to tell Teberh, she just said: "Hello". Oh well, I tried...

Maya had a terrific time at Teberh's. She even tried a cup of Ethiopian coffee, or buna. At first, she gave a horrific grimace after trying the coffee and spit it out. But then later she tried again and decided she liked it.

Here are some pictures of Maya from today, with her braids in and dressed up in a very nice dress for dinner at Teberh's.