Our new digs

Blech.  We have to move apartments.

Which really sucks because we love our current apartment.  It's actually called a  flat, but I can't call it that even though everyone here does.  Because then I'll get in the habit of calling it a flat thus pulling a Madonna, and calling stuff by its international name.  However tempted to call fries "chips", because I end up having to call them that anyway, I won't do it!

Apartment, not Flat.  Pants, not Trousers.  Fries, not chips.  America, frick yea.

Anyway, since Seth's company has been taken over 100% by another company we are under their rules.  They have a no 1st Floor (but here it's Ground Floor) policy.  There is also a no villa policy, but we couldn't afford to live in a villa anyway.

I went by today because I wanted to see what some of our pictures would look like over there.  That's me, where one (Seth) sees functional space or if there are any gaping holes in the floor, then I'm the one wondering where our Christmas tree will go and where I'll hang our pictures.  Probably while Circus music is playing in my head.

So the pics shown below are our new place.  This is not our furniture due to most places here come fully furnished.  Sometimes you get lucky (like our new place) and sometimes you end up in a place that looks like it was decorated by Liberace:

Seriously. This decor is very popular in Egypt.  Why?  I have no answer.

So here is the new place. (We aren't moved in yet, hopefully by this weekend inshaallah):

View from the front door, right when you walk into the place.

Another view from the living room.  Pretty excited about the wood burning fire place.  Notice the pictures already (kinda) in place.

The kitchen

Benny's room.  I can't tell you how stoked I am that he will have  a bed like this.  And, most importantly, his cool Pottery Barn sheets fit it!

Master Bed Room

Another angle of the living room.

So, so long old place.  You were our first haven here in Egypt.  A spot that we came to really like.

Hello new place.  I'm sure that you'll soon be considered home too.

Our roommate

When we brought Benjamin home for the first time it was really odd to see that all this stuff we got would actually have some sort of use to it.  That cute lamb swing, all those different shaped towels and cloths, all those clothes and the Pack and Play we had set up by our bed, were now being used.  I'd see his baby wash, baby lotion, baby oil  and other baby items mixed with all my stuff.  His clothes were in our laundry loads.  His diapers in our trashcan.  It was odd.  Like we had this new roommate who just blew in the house and took over.  If he was an adult you would have a house meeting to discuss how he was sneaking his clothes in your wash and keeping you up at night...not to mention peeing the bed all the time.

Now, 2 years later, I still stop and realize that our house is consumed with reminders that this isn't just a house for adults.  I realize it when I step on his most favorite "Big Truck" (which is a Hot Wheels Land Rover Discovery- kid has good taste) at 1am, or open our spoon drawer to find the case of his Toy Story DVD mixed in with everything else.

I decided to take some time to capture all the signs of how our home life has changed. And how our 2 year old roommate totally dominates everything.

Our bedside table
Normally by your night stand you would  have the usual things.  Lamp, books, US Weekly...uh, I mean, New York Magazine and The Wall Street Journal.  Not anymore.  Now the books are devoted to Pigeons, Pookies, Good Night to all kinds of places and things, and the ever important "how to raise your 2 year old and reference this to make sure they're normal" guide aka What To Expect.

Our bed
Aaaaaah, bed.  A lovely place to rest your weary head and sleep.  As of November 14, 2009 our bed became something else completely.  Our bed became a pee, poop, puke (the 3 P's of Babies, if you will) collector.  It became a place I'd look at longingly at 2am and try to remember what it was like to sleep through the night.  It became a place where I get into and feel something weird at my feet.  It's normally some kind of truck...

My purse
Do not ever, and I mean ever, leave your house without a snack, several toys (one Monster Truck is a must), and some watered down juice of some sort.  My life revolves around snacks and juice now.  Oh yea, and I guess your wallet and cell phone are important too....but don't you forget that snack!  Take my eyes but not my 2 year old's goldfish!

Wall space is white, thus mus be colored upon
Two year old's can't be trusted with crayons.  Especially mine.  Yea, you get the obligatory coloring on the wall, but we also get the coloring on the gate in front of our house.  How he managed to get out of the house with that one is beyond me.  Then again, I probably figured that tearing it away from him was more trouble than scrubbing it off the gate.

Your light beige chair you loved so much

Rewind to Summer of 2009. A young couple walks (on waddles due to her 7 month pregnant belly) into a furniture store in Houston, Tx.  They decide on a couch set and a nice looking, but comfortable, reclining chair.  The waddler likes this chair because it doesn't look like it would recline.  The walker likes it because he's envisioning watching LSU games and playing Death War 2 or whatever the thing is that he plays on his Xbox.

The couple insist on a dark colored couch set, but somehow think the chair can be any color they choose.  Why would anything happen to this chair?  Not with this $50 extra we're paying for the "no stain" spray that the company will put on it!

Cut to March 2012.  Who knows what's on this chair now.  Juice, Pee, wouldn't surprise me if someone puked on it once or twice.  Was the $50 worth it?  I'll let the picture be the judge of that...

Food consumption.  Often lack thereof 
And then there is eating.  I'm all for my roommate eating, since there is a mini panic that sets in every mother's chest when you realize he hasn't eaten anything all day long. So, in the times when he will actually eat you do a mini dance of joy and happily remove food from your plate to give to him.  Here he is playing sly after he decided to spit out a large wad of chewed up Cinnamon Toast (which he says toast just like me, the way Seth makes fun of, which makes me a little happy on the inside).

So, life has changed to obsessing over what he has eaten, and continuing to eat while there is a gigantic wad of half eaten bread on my plate.  

All good times, and just some ways our lives have changed.  For the best.  Because 1/4 juice 3/4 water concoctions, Goldfish obsessing, Where God? Where is that Monster Truck?!! mini panics and sleeping with your husband, your 2 year old, and his entourage of a monkey, a "biii truck" (big truck) and whatever else is his favorite are now the best times of my life.