Hello from Cairo

You guys, we are having such a great time.  I am going to tell you briefly what we've been doing in this post so that I can keep track.  It is possible that more photos will be posted but dudes I cannot make any more promises about photos and then break them.  If you read faithfully you understand.

DAY ONE:  On the first day in Cairo, Hanh had to work and she arranged for a guide to come and take us to the National Museum.  We saw mummies, quite a lot of them.  The very first one we saw apparently had 'heavy battle wounds' so his face was completely crazy looking and I had a panic that we had paid quite a lot of money for our tickets and that in return we would have a five-year-old with nightmares.  BUT he did not care one bit.  We also saw the contents of King Tut's tomb and that was my favorite part of the day.  I mean, my god you guys this stuff was amazing and intricate and makes me feel like a TOTAL SLACKER.  Then, after Tommy begged for about an hour, we bought him a pen and left the museum.

Friends, I have learned about ambitious travel with children.  It ought not be attempted.

The outside of the National Museum (no cameras are allowed inside):

 Outside our car window:

 The kids at home in the evening (right before Eleanor fell off, totally Eli's fault):

DAY TWO:  Eleanor's nanny took care of Lizzie and Tommy (they got to go to a friend's house with a big trampoline), and Hanh, Eli and I went with the same guide to Islamic Cairo.  This pretty much means we saw the Citadel, the huge market, and three mosques (we skipped the rest of them, there are many, many mosques here).  It was really interesting but it was also really sandy and dirty feeling and I freaked out a tiny bit when a dog brushed up against me which is not how I normally feel about dogs but stray dogs in Egypt freak me out.  (A side note:  there are TONS of stray cats and kittens here and my children love them but do seem to understand how serious I am about touching them and how it is very, very forbidden.)

Citadel:

 Inside one of the mosques:

 Eleanor in Tommy's crocs, she loves shoes:

DAY THREE:  Today, we went to the pyramids at Giza.  They were impressive except the roads were tough between a couple of them and at the end of the ride both kids were threatening to throw up and Hanh didn't feel well either.  The pyramids were amazing but after hiking to the entrance of one of them, carrying Lizzie the whole way, I opted OUT because it creeped me out.

We saw some protesters on our way to the National Museum in front of the Supreme Court (or Constitutional Court?) and the police outnumbered them easily.

And she is THREE YEARS OLD...

What, doesn't everyone sing Happy Birthday to themselves?  (She sang 'Lizzie' for those curious.)

She likes cake, and this was her second!

Mommy trying to set up the playmobil.

YOU GUYS.  She is THREE and as if on cue her tantrums have become much worse.  Today she was unhappy with an answer I gave her so she violently threw the item she was holding at the wall.  And about one minute later sweetly apologised...

Lizzie has started to talk a lot and especially likes to ask "why"?  I am not quite ready to scream 'because' at her but one of these days it will happen.  She sings all the time and loves, loves, loves to hear songs she knows when we are out and about (happens quite frequently now that we're in Christmas month) and gets very excited:  "MOMMY!  I know this one!"

She still prefers to be carried, which obviously is something my back needs me to work on, but when I refuse her request to be carried, it usually ends in a stand off with Lizzie screaming at the top or bottom of a staircase with me at the other end, alternating between coaxing her to come with me and threatening to leave her behind.  (This is something you could never have convinced me I would do before I had children.  My old self would report my current self to CPS.)

She described something (watermelon) to me as 'juicy' yesterday and I complimented her for knowing that word.

She tells a joke:

-knock knock
-who's there?
-cash
-cash who
-no thanks, but I'd like a peanut!

Lizzie still loves animals and will describe any animal at all as ''reawy cuuuute."  She asks both Eli and me to play with her and read to her if we look at all like we might have some time.

As I told her today, she is absolutely my favorite daughter.

(I owe you more photos.)

Oh my god

So while it is obvious that the post I should be writing at this moment is that detailing the third birthday of Little Miss Important (as a friend so perfectly described her), I am compelled to comment on two awful things from yesterday.

FIRST, oh my god can we get some meaningful gun control in this crazy country? I have been thinking about those TINY CHILDREN non-stop and anybody who signs up to take on the NRA has my vote.  I used to work with a bunch of lawyers who lived through an angry ex-client shooting up their law firm and so I used to give money to the charity they started to work on gun control but I haven't since we lived in San Francisco and I guess this is some wake up call.

Second, before I learned about all those little children, I was walking on Fulham Road and heard a crash, and saw that a lady on a vespa had been hit and pushed across the road by an SUV.  I didn't see the accident, but I heard it and so I ran over.  Another guy had called the ambulance so I bent down and asked the lady if there was anything I could do to make her more comfortable.  It was cold and dark and she was on the ground, obviously.  She immediately said, "just talk to me" and so I took her hand and asked her her name (Olga) and we were off.  I asked her where it hurt and she really couldn't tell me (my arms and legs and hip) but pointed under her ribs.  She started violently shaking and I asked if she was cold and she said that she was not but a shop owner brought over some blankets anyway.  And then finally (maybe ten minutes later) the ambulance arrived and I told her I'd be thinking about her but that I was sure she would be okay.  So I carried on with my errands.  

Last Day

The walk to Tommy's school...

 The last chat with Miss Lorna (she is likely somewhat relieved about that, especially given that I was teary)...

 Tommy's school on the way out of the gate...

At Parsons Green waiting for the train into work.

 The walk from Temple to my office.

 Pausing like a tourist so you can see how pretty my walk really is.  Was.

In front of my office.

It was a very nice day at work.  I had a 'leaving presentation' (it's an English thing) and the head of the department said many nice things about me.  And I genuinely think that people are sad that I'm going which is very touching considering I felt like an alien for the first few months in that office.  (One of the stories told about me was that I'd never seen a christmas cracker before coming to England.  I refrained from listing all the other things I'd never seen before my time in London.)  It was a sweet day, and I am sad to be done with that chapter.  

BUT, my next post will be about how the LULA is THREE TODAY.  She has opened her presents and had a fit about eating breakfast and is now plopped in front of the television (it's her day, after all) and will shortly be getting ready to go to Winter Wonderland.  

See you later.                        

Two Lulu stories

First, Lulu says something really cute -- almost always to her brother -- these days.  She says, "I got a goodea, Tommy!"  Goodea = good + idea

Second, this morning Lulu explained to me that the lamp in the kids' room is broken.  I said, "yes, I know, you and Tommy and Daddy and Uncle Brett broke it while you were playing, didn't you."  And she said, "yes ... shit."

I'm sure this is what Daddy and Uncle Brett said when the lightbulb broke.  I instructed her to say "darn" instead.

Garden: Then and Now

May 2010:

 December 2012:

A comparison...

Lulu, scooting in October 2012:

 Me, in February 1979 (yes, I'm quite old), before helmets were chic.