Any Random Weekend

Any random weekend might find us roaming the streets of Ampang (our neighborhood), or visiting Tia, TTmouz and Avi... or it might find us moseying our way over to Scott and Rebecca's house. A while back TTmouz had asked Rebecca, after Amalia (or was it Irini) had demanded a huge hug from her, if Rebecca was some sort of cousin of ours. She replied that no, not in blood-related terms, but certainly a member of the family none-the-less. So, one a Saturday (we think it was) we headed out to visit them. The visit began, as it always does, with a happy set of hugs and high pitched cries from Amalia, then settled into the customary roaming of the living room, then the dining room, then the wooden stairs leading to the upper floor. Once at the top we go through a small ritual of running in and out and back again through the hanging fabric the provides a partial cover to Lizzie's bedroom. We walk though for the final assault and a set of "no, don't touch that... put that down... no, no, then, led by hand, we go back through and down (usually with a wide wide smile) and out to the garden.

On this day the garden too was not enough, so down the street we went to see what the neighborhood had it store. Soon enough (was it just a few houses down?) there was a cat, somewhat calico in coloring, which garnered out attention. The girls sat there looking down to the open drain where the cat has scurried to when confronted with the two visiting toddlers. A while later they continued down the street to look for other things. Irini, noticing that her father had his hands free, decided that it might be a good time to get on his shoulders and be carried. Laurence, always happy to oblige, picked her up and in one big swoop had her sitting on his shoulders. They two of them hummed a spontaneous (and not particularly impressive) hum as they crossed the road to the playground on the other side.

Once there the swings were an immediate success (Irini insists on being pushed as high as possible - what we refer to as "boom"). It was followed by some climbing around, a visit to the see-saw and some playing house at a small slide and supporting structure. The adults worried about the mosquitos, as did Irini. Amalia paid no attention to that, but wanted to make sure that she was being entertained as much as possible. When the time was filled and the adults were ready to return home they had to be creatively persuasive to get the girls to follow, returning to the comfort of the living room again where, almost instantly, the girls (Amalia first, then Irini) decided that pretending to fall asleep on the pillows on the floor was a fun game to play. They did as the adults, sitting on various couches and steps surrounding them, giggled and took pictures.

How children make life so much more meaningful! Why even a walk down the street becomes news to write about. :-)