and more paris pics...

I gave up last night trying to post the rest of the images from our Paris trip, I'll give it another try now...

Did I mention Paris?

After seven years of marriage [although we managed to pull off a wedding in under two weeks time the honeymoon was an oversight] Shady and I finally got to take a dream trip to Paris. Ahh, the city of lights, it lived up to its reputation.

I know most of you are here to see photos of the kiddos, but humor me as I share some pics of our trip.

Our first day there we went straight to the Eiffel Tower. We arrived in the afternoon and stayed up top for a few hours watching the city buildings go from white stone to pink and crimson as the sun set. At dark the tower was lit up like a christmas tree.


I can't say that the pyramid was very impressive, but cool nonetheless. I was impressed by the gold-topped obelisk in the roundabout facing the Louvre, now that was neat. Too bad we can't have something like that in Midan Tahrir.

Off the beaten track, the medieval garden at Cluny Museum was amazing and though we just passed through we couldn't resist stopping for the photo together.

Our favorite spot of the week was the Rodin gardens. Amazing. It probably helped that this was one of the sunnier days of the trip. I think that if it had been overcast Rodin's dark, brooding statues would have been a bit harder to take.

All in all, a wonderful trip I will long treasure. This was only our second non-family related travel together--our first trip was to Lebanon in 2004, but I was 5 months pregnant so we were slowed down a bit--so fun to explore, enjoy, and discover together!

Favorite moments:

• reveling in the gardens at the Rodin mansion
• Shady deciding that Picasso was just a cook
• huddling under an umbrella as we ran through the rain
• riding the bus
• Arc de Triomph at night
• Feeling like real Cairenes as we dodged Paris traffic
• the artists at Sacre Cour
• skipping the line at the newly opened l'Orangerie museum
• Shady ordering raw meat for lunch
• being slightly surprised at the smallish size of the Mona Lisa
• wine with dinner
• wandering through the many rooms at d'Orsay...
• and the list goes on.

Stir Crazy

We went a bit stir crazy this week at home--six whole days. Most of the country was visiting kinfolk, we did have some friends over for a pancake breakfast on Tuesday morning (yay corrie and matt) and on Friday did the traditional after-marriage-visit to Shady's cousin who was married last month. Other than that we were indoors.

Here we are reading "I love you THIS much", a favorite bunny story.

Because of the holiday our favorite getaway at the red sea (gotta love stella di mare) was double the usual price, and anywhere in the city was chock full of all the other folks who can't afford holiday rates. So we didn't even venture out once. I was more than ready to go to work today; days like these make me realize that I don't have what it takes to be a stay-at-home mom, even with as good of kids as we are lucky enough to have. Yay for careers.

Comments on the pics:
Mark sitting pretty for his breakfast, isn't he lovely? Hi latest trick is that he brings me his bib when he's hungry. Smart kiddo.


Karina had just gotten out of the bath here so her curls are soft and natural, if you could smell the photo you'd get the sweet baby shampoo scent. This photo shows that my firstborn baby is quickly becoming a little girl and so much less of a toddler!

Lights and lanterns

This week the country is celebrating the end of Ramadan so we are off work.

Here is a shot of traditional lanterns and colorful strings of flags, typical decorations during this period. Our street doesn't look like this but more conservative and poorer areas are all strung up in this fashion.

Folks use this time to visit relatives and friends for feasting at large after the month-long fast.

Monday night Mark was quite ill with asthma, so much so that we had to have grandpa come over at 1am to give Mark a Cortisone shot. Thankfully, he is much improved since yesterday and up to his usually antics today.

Slow Start

So I don't claim that this is going to be a regular project but I'll do my best and we'll see if this is a good way to share images and updates on the kids.

Our princess Karina is 3.5 already. Who woudn't thunk it. When I look back at her baby pictures with her incredible cheeks and eatable mounth I can't believe she is such a girl now.

Karina can write all of our names and is quite the budding artist, always surprising us. Yesterday she drew flowers and a rainbow. I'd never seen her draw them before but she did it as if she's been drawing rainbown for tears.

Mark is our cherub. He's such a pleasant and beautiful boy. He is now [finally] walking very well. He has the Arabic word for no down pat, a resounding la'a! This morning he started saying uh-oh.

One of his favorite activities is to bug his sister, he's found that pulling hair is sure to get a reaction. Actually, they both do really well together and we are constantly entertained by their interaction. Karina is ever watchful and Mark truly misses her and can't help but jump up and down when she comes home after daycare.