Thursday, July 10, 2008

strange encounters of the Arab kind ...

Went grocery shopping ... had a difficult time with the K-man who really does not want to sit in the little chair in the front of the trolley, no, it's much more fun standing up, pointing at everything and going "BA! BA! BAAAA!!!!" at the top of your voice and then promptly throw a tantrum when mommy doesn't want to give you even one of the "BA's", whichever one it was that took your fancy that particular nano-second. Seriously, it could be anything, from hairspray to toilet paper to dog food (actually the dog food is quite the treat at the moment, lol!).

So, after this, I was rather tired and I dug deep for some sense and patience when, as we were leaving, on our way down the escalator (It's a funky angled one, not one with steps. So cool, it works with magnets, where you can park the trolley on it, and it's at such and angle that the trolley doesn't tip and the magnets keep it in place!) I digress, on our way down, at the top of the escalator I find an Arab lady, I always wait for them to go before me, the majority will push in front of you anyway, but this particular lady says "No, no, you have baby, you go first!" <- um, ok WOW I think, that was very nice of her, I say "shukran", standing behind the trolley, trying to keep the boy occupied, well, the next moment, out the corner of my eye, I just see flaring fabrics as nice Arab lady lunges towards Kaydin, grabs his face in both her hands and proceeds to give him big smooches and with exclamations of " HABIBI!!!!, SUCH a beautiful boy, ah hamdullah! may he grow to be big and strong, mashallah!!" Kaydin, being his charming self (quite forgetting at this point to "BA!") just gives her a million dollar smile and a belly-giggle and she starts all over again! By the time we get to the bottom, I say Shukran Habibti for the kind comments and what does mashallah mean? she's very impressed that I ask, and firstly ask me, where we're from, I reply South Africa, she says, oh, ok it's like when you would say "touch wood". Next thing you know, I know that she has three children, the youngest is 11 and I must take her cell number, "cause I must see this beautiful boy again" :) Her name is Feda and please I must call her :)

I've not called her, mainly because I've not been back to that part of town, I did however send her a sms to thank her for the kind words, and so that she can have my number as well :) She hasn't replied, I think she may not be able to read English, though she speaks it really well. Even more interesting, Feda was completely covered, abaya, sheila and a little string that connected the sheila to the cover for her mouth, I could only see her eyes.

Saturday, July 5, 2008

okie ... dokie .....

Good news!!! I have my laptop back!! YEAH!!! Have had it back for a while already actually, just been otherwise occupied {read: too lazy and just uninspired} to actually blog Happy

Thanks to an enormous guilt-trip brought along by quite a not so subtle email from a certain grandpa, here I am Winking

 

So, straight to the Kaydin update, the boy is being really, really, really cute! Starting to imitate what we do and making some new sounds. Recently, whenever he puts something in his mouth that we don't want, we say to him to spit it out, it's "gaga" (the guttural-g sound as in "loch", as in Loch Ness Monster, ok I could go places with that too, but I digress)  he then started to say "ghagha" with the g pronounced as in gross. Too cute! He can now also point to his eyes, nose, mouth and ears!

Right, now to the new toys ... the Gideons bought remote control cars because, well, one's toy collection is obviously incomplete without a remote car. Happy It's a whole undertaking, they have tools and spares and special petrol, I seem to  remember the word nitrogen (!)being used and special batteries, I obviously don't get just how serious this is ... nope, I'm constantly slightly amused by the whole venture, especially when they get up at stupid 'o clock to go play ... Here then are some pictures of the cars in action:

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The one thing that's really amazing though, is how the K-man is picking up on things. Daddy's play-car must be started in a special way, where he puts a stick in a hole, pushes a button and the car starts, ok, I'll get him to explain it properly Happy  The totally adorable thing though is, that when Kaydin got his own remote car to play with, what is the first thing he did with the remote aerial? Yip, tried to find a whole to stick the wire into, lol!!! Like so:

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and here are some more Kaydin pics for all you fan club members Applause

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and a rare quite moment:

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The weather is wholly crappy with temps right up into 47C degrees!! Oh, it was called a heat wave, lol!!!!! Yes, that amused me no-end. I get that they called it that because the temps rose so rapidly, it's just funny though that when normal day temps for summer is round 47 - 50C with about 60% humidity, we were somehow in the midst of a heat wave ... at least we have a pool!! YEAH!! which, last night at 30C was too cold for me! seriously, I need it to be about 33C, that's just comfy Happy

No much other news, except that Ouma Hettie may be coming for a visit near the end of July (she said she's brave, we have aircon, so ja, she can definitely come for a visit), we're coming to SA in September for a wedding!! Terribly exciting as my slightly-demented friend (the bride) asked me to be their wedding photographer ... Ja, I'm quite nervous, yet very excited! We're then going to SA again, in December! YEAH!!!! haul out the champers people, christmas at home!!!!! It's gonna be cool Happy

 

We send much love!