Two very full days

I was simply too tired yesterday to post - so here's a double dose!

Yesterday we had a marathon walking day - I walked and Tara rode on my back in the new child-carry backpack I got from one of the other moms who had 2 of them. It was great as I was able to walk at a nice speed and get around town, though my neck and back were a bit sore. But - it definitely made navigating traffic and bad sidewalks much easier than with the stroller.

During our morning skype - with my sister Debbie - Tara was a bit fussy and wouldn't eat her usual hot rice and milk breakfast. I wasn't sure what was wrong and thought maybe she wasn't fully awake. Well - ended up I had put bad milk in her bowl (only discovered when I added it to my coffee). So my smart little girl knew better than to eat bad food - so I made her a new bowl and she gobbled it down. I found a website with somewhat interactive learn to speak English youtube video clips and she seemed to like them - so we watched a bunch in the morning and we'll see what she picks up. She's really starting to understand me a lot, thought not yet using English words to communicate back unless I prompt her with the word and she repeats it.

We then made our way to Mike's for our daily catch up with other folks and had a nice morning there until nearly noon. Then, on my back, we hiked to the Garden of Dreams because it was a lovely 65+ degree day with sun and Tara needed to run (actually - I needed her to run so she'd sleep well). At the garden she did a lot of running up and down stairs and happy squeeling - and several bathroom trips (she really loves washing her hands - I think it's actually that she likes to play with the tap water). Then we walked into Thamel and met 2 other families for a shopping excursion and late lunch. It was easy to walk around with her on my back and to window shop - I looked at a couple rugs and still deciding if I want to go back. The highlight was ending up at a restaurant called OR2K - an Israeli owned place where the menus were in Hebrew and English and the food was Israeli (i.e. sandwiches with 'Yellow' or 'White' cheese - which basically translates to cheese you slice or cheese you spread) . Cracked me up - even out here, the Israelis can be found with their food! Tara had her first falafel and enjoyed dipping it into the tahini and hummos. It's a good thing she liked it since I guess when I get home I won't be able to send her to school with peanut butter sandwiches because of the general nut bans!! Tara totally enjoyed running around the restaurant with Maya - the little girl she played dress up with the other day. It's so nice to see my little girl basically having friends!

The walk home was uneventful - if you don't count the broken post I walked into tearing my jeans and cutting up my knee. I didn't fall though, so sleeping Tara on my back was not awaken, even after a nice round of swear words came flowing from my mouth!

Then - we had our first dinner party. Another family is now here in the apartments (Larry and his son Cali) and since it was Larry's first night with Cali I invited them up for pasta. I set the table for 4, the kids got water cups and Larry and I got wine - and although both kids were sleepy it was nice. He's a stunning beautiful boy and we'll be seeing him more now that we're neighbors!

Today - we had a skype call with Fernando and Tara was very excited by the rubber duckies that he had bought and showed on the screen. Once prompted, she repeated 'duckies' several times and was full of giggles. She's getting more and more interactive with the skype calls as she gets used to seeing people on the computer and had fun making faces during a call with Debbie this morning as well.

We then hiked over to Mike's and then had a play date with another family - Celia and Chad and their 3-year old daughter Karina. They live in Chicago so we are excited to have our daughters become friends and then visit when we are visiting with my own family. Karina was shy at first - not sure she wanted to share her toys - but after lunch (i.e. after bread was broken) the girls were giggling, happy and goofy - our favorite. They put on their toy filled backpacks and pretended they were going to school! It's good practice, since Tara will start on Sunday and I'm hoping it's not a difficult transition. The adults shared a nice big bottle of beer while the children played - not such a bad day in Kathmandu!


And here's a special shout out to Fernando - Happy Birthday my dear!