Amalia Antics!

 

This post is merely to share the types of things that our little one does nearly every day. Not many words necessary, but a true sense of joy and fun in everything she does. Love to this family, and to all. Oh, and happy birthday too!

Happy 11 to our little one!

Time keeps on ticking. As much as you try to hold into it it just keeps on ticking. As much as you try to at least elongate the moment it keeps on ticking. And some ticks change the special numbers that you hold on to. In this case the tick brought with it the number 11. Eleven years of wonder and that extra sense of a complete family love. Eleven years of growing independence. Eleven years of giggles and laughter, of silliness and wonder. Eleven years of self-initiated interest in discovery of new things, of being outdoors in wanting to spread and develop creativity. Eleven years of a complete family with this little one.... our not-so-little one. 

As is now customary in our family a birthday brings with it a wake up and made-for-the-day indicators of the day ahead (as well as a path to the presents that wait). This time Amalia's birthday had been filled with weeks of events largely due to her friend Eva visitng from Vienna for over a month!  But on "the day" Eva was already back home and this was the 'just the family' version of the birthday... the subdued - but love filled - final chapter of the series of special events. It included, of course, the pancake requirement and also a new cookbook that she had wanted: Eat Meatless by Jane Goodall (one of her heroes). And also a small blue hand-made card. And in it was a little statement... something about a surfing class. Her eyes brightened up. Her smile widened. Surfing has been "on the list" for quite some time and now, here it is!  

As the clock keeps ticking - sometimes from friends from far away, sometimes with friends from closer to home, sometimes with family - it keeps adding to the wonder of a life filled with everything worth celebrating. We love you, Amalia, sooooooo much!  Happy birthday, our beautiful girl!

New Heights!

Let it be known:  April 7, 2021 was the day that, indisputably, Irini moved into second place on the height classifications in the family. 

Of course we've been seeing her grow for years but the past nine months of so we've noticed it a bit more obviously. Then there was that "is it true?" period where it might have been but maybe it was the shoes, or the angle, or whatever. And then, on this day, daddy looked over at the two of them working on preparing a meal, roaming around between and among the kitchen equipment, and said, "stop... come over here... stand here..." and then he took this picture. Undisputed proof. Our little girls isn't so little anymore. 

And with every inch she's grown so too has our love for her... to her height and onward... to the moon, and back. :-)

One more Camping 'first'...

 ... just before leaving the adults took a look around the place and realized that there was a whole lot of space to run, to walk, to explore or perhaps... to learn to drive!  Irini and Amalia were thrilled to take up the offer. And while Amalia sat on daddy's lap to to go through the basics Irini was able to take the wheel and begin a new chapter of her life!  With daddy sitting right next to her (much as he had done with pappou when we was younger - though on a stick shift) she learned about brakes, and gas and turning and neutral before smiling broadly and stepping on the pedal, just a little cautiously, for the very first time. It appears we might have a new driver-in-training in our midsts!

Camping with Friends

We love camping but we're not the 'leaders in camping' types, really. We love tagging along and going with the flow (whatever that might look like) and we like being part of larger groups of friends who decide, for one reason or another, to venture into the desert to spend the night or the weekend. And so it was with this outing. We linked up with our neighborhood friends and, taking advantage of the "stay in the UAE" spring break we headed out to Al Bateah, a location that was new for us. It was quite different from the camping in Wadi Shawka that we had gone to earlier. More sand dunes to deal with. More space to settle in and more dune climbing. 

We got there in the late afternoon and had to make some last minute adjustments due to other groups having already staked a claim in other parts of the area. But we found a nice flat area, easy to access but sitting that foot of some rather large sand dunes... which attracted the kids nearly immediately. Within minutes, and as the adults started setting up their tents, the kids were already out of site, having climbed up the nearest dune. Mommy followed them to get some photos as the rest of the group quickly set up camp and followed suit, in time for sunset. It wasn't until we got to the top that we realized that the dunes just kept on going.... and the kids had gone with them!  Playing, running up and down. Giggling away. 

So we took photos of them, of each other, or the photographers taking pictures of other photographers taking pictures of the sunset. Later, as darkness arrived, we went back down for dinner, for songs and chats and stories... and to discover little friends with pointy tails rummaging around. Our first direct exposure to scorpions!  We were apprehensive at first but equally as interested in getting to know them. All in all we found four of them moving around, some with more energy than others, before calling it a night and hoping that one of them found their way inside any tents. By the next morning one of our scorpion friends was roaming around but the rest had returned to their underground dens. 

With the sun, and the heat, steadily climbing we packed things up and get the cars ready. But there was just enough time for one more thing...