Firsts

Now that it's August again, I suppose it's a good time to talk about "firsts" . . . first birthday, first ice cream cone (Mom's note: literally; no ice cream yet, just the cone), first trip to a park here in Jordan, first word, first steps . . . yeah, I guess I've been a bit busy. 

My first cone at Gerard's
on Rainbow St.

Mom hasn't been able to catch me talking or walking yet, so you'll just have to believe me when I say that I do talk: "hot" is what I've been working on recently--there's definitely a pretty clear meaning there, as I discovered first hand the other day when I touched the stove while Mom was baking something in it. Ouch!

And as far as walking is concerned, well . . . I can stand OK, and I do see the benefit to that: it frees both my hands when I need them to explore something. And when someone is holding one or both of my hands, then walking is great--I'm even in to running, jumping, etc. But by myself . . . yeah, I can do a few steps, but then it's just much easier to sit down and crawl away. I'm guessing some day I'll choose to do more of this walking stuff, but for now I'm pretty happy crawling. Of course, it is pretty funny to watch how excited Mom & Dad get when I do walk a few steps. Might as well draw that out as long as I can!

I got a birthday card in the
mail from Grandma Ginna
& Gran-Tom!!

My first birthday actually turned out to be fun: and because Mom didn't get together a huge blow-out party with fancy cake and party favors, we ended up celebrating for about a week (maybe Mom & Dad felt guilty?), which was a heck of a lot better!

It started with a trip downtown to Hashem Restaurant for foul, hommous, and falafel with Mom & Dad's friends, Steve & Lisa, & their (big) son Mitchell. We also went across the street so they could eat kabab, but I mostly just walked around and visited with all the shopkeepers nearby.

Pumpkin Pie . . .

The next day, which actually was my birthday, we just hung out at home as a family, and I got to eat my birthday pie--pumpkin (Mom decided it was really important to "go healthy" and not feed me a lot of refined sugar, so she made tofu pumpkin pie sweetened with maple syrup . . . not bad).

All gone!

Fortunately, the next day some of our neighbors came over to celebrate my birthday, and Mom decided they didn't have to eat healthy . . . which means I got in on the fun as well :) We built a fire and barbecued hamburgers and hot dogs, but I focused on the Cheetos. Now that's good stuff! Mom also let me pick out the kind of cupcakes I wanted her to make, so we had pink ones. Well, they had pink ones. After all those Cheetos, I decided to skip the cake. And then Mom spent the next week trying to get rid of the rest of the cupcakes so that I wouldn't eat them!

The fire Daddy built
for my birthday party

Elia and I . . . and the Cheetos!

This is Jad, Elia's older brother.

Keeping an eye on things . . . 

Laila and her Mommy at the park

In the last few weeks, I also got to go to my first park here in Jordan. Mom was pretty excited about it: after coming back from America where there's so much grass and so many trees and parks, she was a little sad that there weren't parks here. But then Laila's Mommy told us about a great park, and we got to go play there. There were riding toys, climbing toys, swings, a sand box, even drums to play on! Mom keeps telling me we'll go back soon . . . and I can't wait!

Jad and his Mommy at
the park

These tunnel things
are pretty cool!

See y'all later!

Summer Vacation IV: Heading Home

Yes, I realize that, compared to the rest of the trip, the way home really didn't take all that long. But that doesn't mean there aren't pictures to share, stories to tell!

First off, there's this place called Cracker Barrell or something like that. Not sure why: I didn't eat crackers, and I don't remember seeing any barrells. But they've got great food, so we stopped there and did our "Three Bears" imitation (you know, big chair, medium chair, little chair?).

That night we stayed in a hotel near the Chicago airport, and since they had a swimming pool, Mom & Dad decided it was high time I experienced the whole concept of swimming (yes, Jordan is a water scarce country, and there aren't all that many pools in my life over there).

It was't bad . . . kind-of like a big bath with clothes on, maybe?

And then it was packing . . . and shopping . . . and then packing some more. I made sure to get right in there and help whenever I could.

The actual airplane ride home was pretty uneventful. I slept a bit, played a bit, walked a bit . . . and then we were home! I've got to say . . . America was great, and the time with friends was even better . . . but dare I join Dorothy in saying "there's no place like home?"

Ahhh . . . dirt!

Our first night home, we had
Iftar dinner down at Hashem,
a famous hommous shop.

Summer Vacation III: Madison

For the second part of our vacation, we headed up to Madison, Wisconsin, where Daddy graduated from college. Again, one of the main highlights was friends (some of them Dad has known since he was in college!!), but the second highlight was definitely playing . . . especially with Louie!

This is Melissa, the daughter of Daddy's
college friends

Two hints about Louie: you see a mini
version of him in this picture--
and this is one of the things
we did together

And here's Louie--and his mommy, Heidi 

Like I said, we did a lot of the same things.
Here, he let me play with his bone
while he chewed on one of my toys!

This is Paul, Louie's Daddy.
He was a lot of fun to play with, too! 

We got to visit Audra and her family--she'll
be coming to Jordan next week!

And there were also times for us to play
as a family. This is when Daddy took a nap
on the courtyard lawn in Madison.

Summer Vacation II: Chicago

OK, I know that those of you from the Chicago area might want to clarify that we actually spent most of our time up in the northern suburbs (Deerfield, to be precise), but for the rest of the world, saying that we spent about a week in "Chicago" should be enough. 

We definitely had highlights while we were there--the two main ones being "friends" and "water" (Lake Michigan, to be precise. Some of the friends we saw were "old" friends (old meaning that Daddy has known them for a long time, not necessarily that they are old), while some were new. I pretty much enjoyed them all--friends are friends, and I loved having so much people time!!

And as for Lake Michigan . . . well, it was fun to hang out with Mommy & Daddy, and the rocks were fun to chew and suck on, though Mommy kept taking them out of my mouth. The water was pretty nice as well. . . but I think I liked the sand more than anything!

Thai food with Elizabeth in downtown Chicago.
Daddy has known her since she was just
a little girl.

We had dinner at Nia and Daniel's house,
and I loved playing with them!

I also got to meet some of Mom's friends from
when she was little (well, junior high)

And Louise came to visit us in the
garden of the house we were staying at.

There are a lot more trees and water in Chicago
than there are in Jordan. In this picture, we are looking
out at Lake Michigan.

Of course, on the first day we visited Lake Michigan,
I wasn't feeling all that great, so it was nice
just to hang out in Daddy's arms.

The next time I visited Lake Michigan, though,
I got to play in the rocks!

Enjoying the beach with Mommy!

And yes, I even got to go in the water!
I actually liked it a lot better than it looks.

The best part, though, was the pretzel
Mom & Dad gave me afterwards!