Pink and Pink make... Pink Pink!

It's hard to keep track of the daily dealings and the little things - hardly perceptible sometimes - that take place and would indicate to a proud parent that one's child is growing and maturing. Irini now comes home each and every day with a book. It's a book that she has to read to mommy and daddy, not the other way around. Sometimes with help she goes through the words, sometimes perfectly and other times missing in her 'educated guesses' altogether, but she's reading! The excitement - not at that time, but later, when she looks at completely different book and announces something along the lines of "the cat", I can read that!" - is pretty heartwarming and it seems like, day by day and week by week, she is growing cognitively. Just yesterday she brought home her first homework that actually had the feel of homework. It's probably the first of a very looooong list of worksheets that she will be asked to complete in her life. This one was for math, and had questions like "What numbers is between six and eight?" or "How much is eight plus two?". She wrote the answers down next to each line and, understandably, was delighted when she got it right the first time. She was even excited that, on several questions, she didn't even have to count on her fingers. How cool is that?!

In other places we see the growth too. Amalia decided this past week that she's good enough to dive to the bottom of the pool and swim while weighed down with weighted rings. Both girls help around the house too, setting up the table for dinner or helping to prepare the food. This morning Amalia walked in to her sleeping daddy holding a baking pan (?). She announced it was banana cake "with banana and flour and chocolate chips, and we put it all in and we mixed it up". Daddy smiled as Amalia showed him what she was talking about: A beautiful looking cake ready for baking. 

When Irini was doing the "homework" above Amalia was there to add her two cents worth to the discussion, to the answering, to the reading. But she is also a lover of sport (she was batting the ball daddy was pitching to her today quite well) and art. A while back she happily ran over to us and said "blue and yellow make green!". Daddy, surprised at the level of analysis it takes to recognize that, was understandably impressed. Since then, both Amalia and Irini (but mostly Amalia) come up with similar statements. Two days ago it was "yellow and red makes orange!" as they mixed and matched their colors. And today, as mommy and daddy nibbled on some remaining breakfast (it was that same banana bread), far in the back of the apartment, from her room, a little voice proudly announced, "pink and pink make pink pink!". 

Smiles all over. Our little beauties aren't quite so little any more. But the love is bigger and brighter than it's ever been.

Irini's Day, Take 6.1

Irini's day was not over just because the date itself happened to pass on by. As it turns out, though we decided to spend most of our time at home for the vacation, most of our friends were off and gone when the day itself came and went. Our little girl was given the choice of either enjoying her actual birthday with anyone and everyone who happened to be here on her day, or wait a bit and enjoy it with her close friends a bit later on. Later on won. 

Of course, we had the traditional birthday pool party, with bathing suits and ready to go!  Mommy and daddy were working away doing what they do. Daddy ran back and forth making sure that everything was set up. Tables, check. Coolers, check. Birthday table cloth, check. Plates and toys, check. Mommy was even busier. Cake, check. Snacks, check. Presents wrapped, check. Invitations sent, check.  All checks were finalized just moments before the first visitors arrived.

Friends came and fun was had. They colored their own masks, cut them out, strapped a rubber band around them and used them in tag. They jumped, of course, in the pool. They ate heartily. They enjoyed the day. And when the moment came for the birthday song?  Well, none was sung. Irini was near tears as she always gets when everyone's eyes are upon her in this type of setting. But once the cake was cut it was another story. She joyously cut the pieces and happily took a plate to each and every person. Equilibrium had been restored. When the day was done, and our little girl (and her sweet sister too) was exhasted on the couch, she was happy as can be. 

Irini's Day, Take 6

 

In Greece, on Irini's birthday, they celebrate Epiphany. When there, we explain to her that it's almost like the whole country is celebrating her, but in Malaysia things are not so simple. Most of our friends this time around were on their way back from their respective vacations when "the day" came around. Our plans to have a party with her friends, frustratingly, backfired as only one - Tara - was able to attend the festivities on the day. 

Unabated, and insisting that the princess tiara be put to good use, we came up with a plan B. Irini woke to a number of colored papers, each emblazoned with a large "6" on it, pointed the way from her bed to the living room and small table where her first present awaited. It was a CD of the soundtrack to 'Frozen' (her new favorite). This began a day of color and smiles as broad as a rainbow. The CD plays continually, even as we write this post and the girls run around the house adding their voices to the crescendos and refrains. After a wonderful breakfast with Tia and Avi, Tara came over, and spent close to five hours at our place. Between that and the weekly Capoeira session (a snipet of which is below) the day was eventful, entertaining and filled with positive energy and love. Irini was in a spectacularly good mood throughout (as was Amalia) and the day included presents from the family, swimming, the making of pasta necklesses and painting finger and toe nails, and indulging in a freshly made chocolate fudge brownie (a big hit!) with the family.  

After the Capoeira was over, it was back home for dinner with the Colombian gang. As the above-10-years-old crowd chatted and shared stories and kept on nibbling away, the little ones meandered their way to the living room and disappeared from sight. They were still there, but it was strangely quiet. When we peeked over each had taken over a couch and had fallen sound asleep.  Irini could not have been a better day apart, perhaps, from having a few more friends around. More on that to come though!

Christmas Time, Family Time.

A while back there we had a wonderful Christmas season. Do we remember?  Yes, even as time races and life gets in the way or neural connections, we certainly remember. There was something about decorating the tree, or adding our own artwork to it (of the little kiddie variety) and then the presents, of course. There were the lights flickering away and the popcorn streamers winding their way down the sides and across, every which way. Oh yes, we had popped so much more popcorn that we had actually put up. The rest settled into our collective bellies that day. It was a wonderful day. 

And then there were the letters to Santa and the leaving of the "reigndeer food" outside on the balcony, an addition brought home from school by the girls. Then, as they slept, Santa arrived to place the presents under the tree. Those, along with the variety of presents, friends and  relatives (thank you Aleko, Anna, Vincent and Sammy!) provided the motivation for an early morning wake up. Too bad the wrapping, which was so delicately placed in just the right manner, was torn apart within just a few seconds. The girls, not concerning themselves particularly with the lovely designs and patterns on the paper, tore into the presents one by one in a frenzy. The smiles and giggles were all worth it, even if daddy sat there and wondered (to himself) if the use of paper is worth the 0.43 seconds that it takes to tare it all apart and scatter it about the floor.

But really, most importantly, it was about family. It was about enjoying the time we have with Tia, TTmouz and Avi and of making the best of it together. A post-Christmas trip to Pangkor (as you now know), a Christmas dinner and lunch, a number of daily dealings with the Colombian-Greek family clan and all in all we'd have to call it a pretty successful vacation!  After all, vacations and presents are all fine and dandy, but we all know that the real present is the loving interactions of family on special days.