Granny Mac

A lot of things that we see, smell, taste, etc are tied up to remind us of things.  They take us to a specific memory or just a quick reminder of someone.  These are the things that when I see, smell, taste, etc my mind goes directly to my Granny Mac.

My Granny Mac is a lady who doesn't need any introductions when she enters a room.  Everyone knows Mac.  Anyone who has gone to her house to have her open the door with a "Hey Hawt! How you doin you little Minnie!" knows about this sassy lady who lights up a room and makes you feel right at home.  For those that do not know Granny Mac, she's my only living grandparent.  All sass, all class and all fun.  An amazing woman who all of her family loves.

So, here are some things that will forever remind me of Granny Mac...

Hydrangeas.  My Granny had the most lush, most beautiful hydrangeas growing in the front of her house.  I never knew what they were growing up, just the big puff balls of gorgeous blue and green in front of her house.  Now that I'm older, and have unsuccessfully tried at least 5xs to grow hydrangeas, I totally appreciate my Granny's green thumb and getting them that big.

Bottled Coke.  Is there anything better than an ice cold bottled coke?  My Granny was the only person who I knew actually had them in her house.  They were the first thing I ran to get after we said our hello's at the door.

A fully stocked Bar.  Something any proper Bridge playing New Orleanian lady must have.  And I'm talking down to the specific brand of pickled green beans and olives.  Traveling with the fully stocked bar is also a must.

Party food.  I joked with my Granny awhile back that her house is full of party food.  I absolutely love that about her.  Digging through her refrigerator is like looking through a fun world of mini food.  Mini pizzas (and her's are delicious), Jezebel Sauce, Cheeses, Pickled Cauliflower, Crackers, Pickles, Summer Sausage and (best of all) Olives.

You have not lived until you have tried a Zatarain's Spiced Olive

Seafood Gumbo.  And I'm talking legit Seafood Gumbo, which I only have had at my Granny's house and will forever be disappointed having anywhere else.  My Granny's Seafood Gumbo is the stuff legends are made of- a gumbo so delicious that even though I have the recipe I'm terrified to make.  Just because it's that good and I'd hate to mess it up.  Nothing like a cold day to visit Granny, nibbling on some cheese crackers then digging into her seafood gumbo.  It has just the right amount of spice, thickness and tons of shrimp and crab.  When I miss home it's the one thing I want the most.

Clinique.  I'd see Clinique bottles in Granny's bathroom and know they were something special because she had them.  Then I'd see a Clinique set up in the mall and know it must be fancy if my Granny used it.

Potpourri. This actually reminds me of Uncle Manny, but Granny was there to save the day and fix him an actual plate of food.  One of those you had to be there sort of things...

Card Games.  Playing Spoons and Fan Tan with these cards with two dogs barking at the moon on the back.  Between card games we would talk and talk and talk.  About anything and everything.

Chocolate.  My Granny is the world's biggest chocoholic.  Going to her house while you're on a diet is an instant cheat hazzard.  If you really want to give her something that she will love get her Cella's Chocolate Covered Cherries or Enstrom Toffee.  

Sheepskin Rugs.  More specifically the feel of a sheepskin rug on your bare feet.  Oh that is heaven.  Granny had one in her bedroom and I would always make a trip up there to walk on it.

Iced Tea.  This is one of her recipes I've tried to make, but it never works out.  Seth just nicely smiles at me when I ask if it's like Granny's.  At Granny's house you say  your hellos and immediately go fix yourself an iced tea in one of her vintage Kentucky Derby glasses.

The Bonnet Care Spillway and Lake Pontchartrain.  It's like Swamp Land to your right and huge ocean like lake to the left.  I'd get excited when we were on it because I knew Granny's house was coming up pretty soon after that.  When I was younger I'd always ask my dad if he thought sharks lived in that water.  He'd always say "they possibly could" and I'd stare out the window trying to look for a shark fin.

Animal print shoes, belts, hats, coats, anything.  My Granny is one serious hot tamale and animal prints are a common staple in her wardrobe.  Granny hasn't been well for some time and has to go to the doctor a ton.  It takes a lot of effort for her to get ready, but she still puts attention to detail in all of her wardrobe choices.  I once said "Granny, just wear your pajama pants.  They look nice enough to go out in"  I may as well of said "Granny, how about we give dye your hair lime green".  My words did not compute.  I take a ton of pride in my sassy Granny's look.  I've always loved it.

I was missing my Granny today.  I can't wait to see her when we're home for Christmas .

Two year old boy!

Benjamin Truett House, world traveler and the most non stop action packed toddler that ever existed, is now two years old!

One thing I realized was how it really feels like he's two.  I take a lot of joy in that because it reflects how time has slowed down for us, and we're able to be in the thick of it 24/7.  His first year flew by because I was working and stumbling through the dark in this thing called raising a human being.  Also when your life is consumed with getting peed on, you crying, the baby crying, trying to breastfeed, trying to clean bottles and trying to get out the door by 7 after a night of all those things combined then you don't have a lot of time to stop and smell the baby powder.

Benny House, here is your life...

It has been amazing to see you grow from this (just born)

to this (7 months)

to this (12 months)

to this (19 months)

to this (a week before your birthday)

So, to my sweet Benny (who will always be my little baby) here are some things I wanted to list of what your dad and I love about you at 2...

I love taking naps with you.  I'll let you fall asleep in your bed then go get you while you're asleep.  It's just you and me in the cozy bed. 

I love how you get excited to read books.  I love how you point to pictures and either say "Is a ..." then name the picture, or you ask so your daddy or I have to tell you "It's a lion, It's a truck, It's a flower..."  You also like for daddy or I to tell you what the picture is by whispering "Was that?"

I love when you come inside and smell just like how a little boy should smell.  Sweet, sweaty, sunblock and just a touch of good ol dirt.  I know you had a great time when you have that smell. 

I love when I'm cooking dinner and you come in the kitchen wanting to see what I'm doing.  You usually want to stir the boiling pot, so we have to find a way to get you to stir something less dangerous. 

I love how excited you get to help daddy do projects.  You love being by his side when he's fixing his bike or things around the apartment.  Two years old and already daddy's helper.

I love your smile with your mouth full of cute little teeth.  And how your laugh has evolved into a cute chirping sound.

I love how having you made me want to be a better person, to be a great example of what a good human being should be.  To not sweat the small stuff, to look at all points of view before rushing to a conclusion and to try to simply cool out.  I know that at times I've failed miserably at that (I mean, I just picked up the crayons and now you're going to throw them around again!), but when it's quiet and when it's calm I look back on the day and pick out where I can do better for you.  Thank you for giving me that kind of perspective in my life.

So Happy Birthday to our 2 year old boy!  Benjamin House, Benny, Benny Boots, Cub, Cubby, Cubs and Wookie- your Daddy and I love you more than my simple words can express.

The day Dr Khalek came to our house

Tabibi 24/7 is a company here that makes house calls.  I was floored to find this out when we came last year, and was extra floored to find out that they don't just come for emergencies but they also come for vaccinations. 

So, Benjamin got his flu shot today.  No crying ( just a little when he got the shot), no stress, no rushing to get out the house and fight traffic. 

Dr Khalek could not of been nicer, his English was perfect and Benjamin immediately liked him.  He took time to explain their services, the type of vaccine he was going to use and his opinions of how home visits for Pediatrics are the way to go.  He's 100% correct.  Benjamin's first week of life was spent schlepping to Texas Children's Hospital, some lab to get blood work and he Pediatricians office.  We did not spend one day at home relaxing (well, the best you can relax with a newborn baby).  Dr Khalek told me that for new babies he would order blood work from our house and the lab would....wait for it....come to our house!  I mean, I have no words.

You need this to listen to my heart?  Hows about I take it and hit it repeatedly on the table?  You cool with that?

I'm watching Baby Einstein, doc.  You go right on ahead with what you have to do here.

Booh-Bai*

*Dubai as said by a 23 month old

Seth had a training in Dubai this past week, so Benjamin and I accompanied him.

We headed out on Saturday, October 15th to the Cairo Airport.  The streets were quiet, so traffic wasn't bad at all.  A trip to the airport can either take 20 min or 3-4 hours depending on when you leave.  Seth flew back to the US on the first day of Eid last year and it took him 3 hours, poor guy.  Driving past The Citadel and Mokattam without the tons of Mini Busses, guys on scooters and pedestrians dodging cars is a bit eerie.

Benjamin is in a "what's that?" phase (wass-thaa?), so you're constantly saying things like "that's a mosque", "that's a car" and (especially in Cairo) "that's a donkey".  He will then repeat what the thing is, which is really cute. We play the wass-thaa game a lot in the car and on the plane.

TWCW (Travelling While Clearly Western) will get you some special VIP treatment in the Cairo airport.  For example, you're singled out at the airport by the porters, and they cut you in front of people waiting to get through security.  On this trip two guys took our suitcases and put them on the belt for us while other people were waiting in line.  And by "other people waiting in line" I mean one person, and their family, and possibly their neighbors all going to the airport to see one person off; meanwhile looking like they're standing in line.  The people who will get you up front don't just do this out of the kindness of their heart.  They expect backsheesh for their help, and we're happy to oblige.

Looking at the air-panes with dad

So off we head to Dubai.  We were on a brand new Egypt Air plane which had tons of leg room. Benjamin was actually really great on this leg of the trip.  The plane was basically empty and we were right next to the bathrooms and access to juice ("joooce", sometimes extra o's are added depending on how badly he'd like the juice).  He put his head down in my lap and drifted off into a nice nap.  It was heaven.  Egypt Air, the airline we flew, is great to use with little ones.  Egyptians love children, and know that they're going to act out.  They really don't fret over kids being loud, spilling stuff, and all the things that go along with having a small child on a plane.  I can take the dry flight (no alcohol served) and the bad movie selection (like straight to DVD movies from the US) for a flight attendant staff that's kind and patient with my little guy.

Pretending his remote is a phone.  He made sure to order cookies and some juice.

Arrived in Dubai and loving this new concept of moving but not having to do any physical work to move.

The coolest part about the plane trip to Dubai was getting to see the Sinai Peninsula  from above.  It looks amazing and the coast on the Red Sea looks gorgeous.  A trip to there is in the works.  Then you go from an amazing view of the Red Sea to Saudi Arabia, which looks like a barren waste land of heat and nada.  Not one city could be seen from above, just desert.  

Here is where I'll mention how I didn't take many pictures while we were outside in Dubai.  Two main reasons being 1.  You can't take pictures of things and watch a toddler run around at the same time and 2.  Dubai had this thick haze in the sky.  Is it sand? Is it humidity?  No idea, so due to those things your view of outdoor scenery is pretty limited.

So, here is a picture of a terminal in the Dubai Airport (used from Google Images):

The airport was our first taste of what was to come in Dubai.  The airport was clean, really cool looking, and you didn't sit back and wonder how in the heck the thing actually ran. The Dubai staff was actually doing their jobs, and not in what looks like some heated brawl with a traveler.

We were picked up to head to our hotel in a Range Rover.  I told Seth "this is my next car" and he just gave me in your dreams,woman look.  It felt very luxurious to be driven in not only such a cool car, but also a brand new one. In my taxi trips out of the hotel Benjamin and I rode in top of the line Camry's- and that's a taxi.  We're not in Cairo anymore...


First impressions of Dubai en route to the hotel were: What's this haze in the sky?  I can't see anything.
They have grass and beautiful landscaped scenes on the side of the highway and exits. That actually deserves some serious reflection.  Dubai is in the desert.  Like desert-desert, and they have a system set up to water grass and trees along the interstate.  There is some serious planning and serious cash going into everything in Dubai.  Also, there isn't a speck of trash to be seen anywhere, nobody is trying to cross 6 lanes of speeding traffic (on foot) with a baby and 5 other people; and every car is brand new and doesn't have a scratch on it.

We got to our room and decided to leave the site seeing for the next day.  I was fading fast due to my Dramamine coma and Benjamin was in a cranky mood.  Plus, and I can't believe I forgot to mention this, it's really. freaking. hot.  and really. freaking. humid.  You think it's humid living in the Gulf South.  You only think you know heat and humidity.  It's nothing, no exaggeration, nothing like Dubai.  So we ordered some burgers for us and chicken nuggets for Benjamin and turned in pretty early.

Cool buildings across the highway from our hotel.

Room Service is something that's just necessary when you have kids.  You pay way too much for the food, but the convenience of not having to chase your kid around a restaurant or have them scream because you took a steak knife away from them is worth every penny.

Dad, thanks for the dinner roll.  It's tasty.

I'm just going to go ahead and toss it on the floor.  

What is the name of that fruit? Lychee?  Whatever it is it's really good.

Day #2 of the trip has us ready to see the sites.  We took the Dubai Metro this day.  It cost 16 dhs = 5 usd for a day pass.   It was probably the cheapest thing we bought the whole time we were there. The Metro is brand spanking new, everything in Dubai is brand and spanking new.  The stations area really cool looking too:

They have air conditioning in the metro cars, which is highly appreciated and necessary.  They're also really clean.  This couldn't be more the opposite of the Cairo Metro.


First we went to the Dubai Mall.  Any ounce of being homesick for the US went away when we stepped indoors and into wonderful, lovely air conditioning.  Have I mentioned the heat yet?  Just so you don't forget...it's super hot in Dubai.  They have every brand of clothing you could possibly want here.  There were honestly times when I forgot where we were and thought we were in the Houston Galleria.  We went to The Gap, Gymboree and the other usual places you go when you're at a mall.  There are also cool stores like Dean and Delucca (a place I've always wondered about thanks to it being in the background on The Today Show) and Bloomingdale's.  We got cupcakes from the Magnolia Bakery  at Bloomingdale's which was just about the only thing we could afford to buy there anyway.  They were great.  They also have a Hamley's which is a toy shop in London that has been open for 250 years.  Wook and I did some damage to Dad's credit card there.  We also took the opportunity to play on their displays...

This is probably not encouraged.  I've been in Egypt too long.

The Dubai Mall also has the Dubai Aquarium.  It's the largest suspended aquarium in the world.  Benjamin loved looking at the fish ("fees"), so he and I spent a great amount of time there.  Like every day.  Because it's seriously hot outside.  It's also next to H&M, so that's a win for mom.

Dad and Benny in front of the largest viewing panel in the world

In the tunnel

Checking out the colorful fish

According to Benjamin that corn looking thing on the door was the best thing in the aquarium. He loved that.

Another view of the largest viewing panel in the world

Next was our trip to the Mall of Emirates which has the famed Ski Dubai...

Little kids going to ski school

One huge downer of the trip was that Benjamin got sick.  I don't know if it was his body going "what the frick with this water in the air?" or if he was getting sick right before we got on the plane.  So due to his being sick we really didn't hit the town as much as I would of liked to have done.  It was also really hot.  Really hot (just in case you forgot), so it was unbearable to do outdoor things.  We didn't go to the beach or the top of the Burj Khalifa.  We really hung out at the Dubai Mall (which was really close to our hotel) and stuck to the indoors.  Cause the heat, man.  My God, the heat!  Actually, much to our ignorance we thought you just walked into The Burj and hopped on an elevator to take you to the top.  Uh, no!  You have to get tickets and most times that we could make were sold out.  It's also $80 for one ticket. Just so you know it's not like you just walk up there like you own the place (like we thought).

Also, Dubai isn't a great place for toddler tourists.  There isn't much to do with them there.  It's kid friendly, no doubt.  A ton of cool once in a lifetime things to do with a 6 year old+ are over there.  But, with a toddler who hates swimming, is sick and being grouchy, you pretty much stick to strolling him around a mall and checking out fish.

And hanging out in The Rainforest Cafe, first milkshake

Despite Benjamin being sick we did have a great time.  I was able to go to Ikea and get some much needed storage items, we got Benjamin's 2nd Birthday presents, Seth got to get much needed things for his bike, and I got to treat myself to some things at H&M.

Also, the fountain show in front of the Burj Khalifa is pretty cool...

What the area looks like in the day.  Instead of dark and extremely hot it's daytime and extremely  extremely hot

Some things we liked about Dubai:
It's amazingly clean
Everything seems brand new
The buildings are amazing, such attention to detail and cool designs
The cabs are very clean
Everyone speaks English, so you don't feel stressed to get around
Tons of American brands and easy access to get them
New roads
Everyone obeys traffic laws and lights
Ikea! (the one in Cairo was supposed to be finished Spring 2011- as of Summer 2013 it's still being built)


Some things we didn't like about Dubai:
It's gross hot
It's stupid humid
Yes, the American brands (Gap! Gymboree!) are there, but you're paying a lot more for them
Locals are not very friendly (I don't think anyone is as friendly as the Egyptian locals)
It's very expensive

We arrived to Cairo and got right back into the swing of things.  Me getting the "rapist stare" from locals, people going out of their way to say hello and be kind to Benjamin and people trying to hustle Seth into getting a cab, a limo, whatever.  Plus, as we stepped outside we were greeted with absolutely beautiful weather.  Dry, cool and windy.  Plus the Cairo smell that I actually love.  It's a mix of spices and sand that I've grown to really love.

The best part of arriving home was the surprise that Sara left for us.  On the stove was a pot of duro wot, in the fridge was some freshly made injera and on our table were some beautiful roses.  It was such a nice way to come home.

Now we're sitting in our flat in Maadi.  It's 11:30 am and we're still in our pajamas.  Benjamin is watching Elmo, Seth is on his pad thingy and I'm at the computer.  All recovering from our travel and drinking a lot of water.  Windows open to let in the gorgeous cool weather in the place we now call home.

Thanks Dubai, we had a great time.  Mumkin, inshaallah, we'll see you again.

What's in a name?

I had an interesting conversation with some expat moms one night about different issues with living an expat life.  One thing they brought up, and it's something I'd never think of, was what to name your child when you don't live in your country of origin.  You can name your child something that means something totally different in another language, and for all you know you'll end up living there.  You could of named your child something that is very status quo for your country then to find out it means thief in another language.  The best example I heard was one of the mom's names.  Her name is Nicole, most people call her Nikki...used to be called Nick.  Nick in Arabic means, well, it means to have sex.  The wake up the entire neighborhood kind of sex.  Needless to say she doesn't go by Nick while living in Egypt. 

  I'll honestly admit that I was worried that Benjamin's name is  Hebrew and we were moving to a Muslim country.  One that doesn't love its Hebrew neighbors so much...

Suprisingly, and much to my relief, it's the total opposite.  People claim the name Benjamin all the time.

Typical conversations regarding Benjamin's name:

Us walking
Men on street talking
Men: snaps fingers, whistles at Benjamin  Hi, Hi
Benjamin: Hi
Men: What is your name?
Me: Benjamin
Men: Aaaaahhhh Benjamin.  In Egypt is Ben-ya-meen.  Is Egyptian name.
Me: smiles politely

Egyptian name...okaaaayyy

French lady: Ahhh, Benjamin, Is French name

Spanish lady: Ahhhh, Benjamin, Is Spanish name

German  lady: (you guessed it), Is German name


So, we picked a good name for our little critter.  It's conflict free, everyone says Is a (insert country here) name, and suits it him very well. 

The man was going to be Benjamin long before this picture was even taken.