Back in Holland

We had a crazy day yesterday leaving Spain.
We had a very big delay and arrived in Holland 3 hours later. My brother picked us up and then we drove to my moms house for some dinner. The weather was very warm so we sat outside. Omar had a good time. We then drove to my brother's house and Omar slept the whole way, we got there around 10.30pm. We went to bed right away, and this morning when we woke up Omar was very excited to see his aunt Vera. He even went upstairs to wake uncle Jeffrey. We had a nice breakfast outside and then Vera took Omar for a long walk to the park. He took an hour nap and then we went to a friends house for a birthday.Omar really enjoyed himself, there were three other little kids there and a kids pool! He was exhausted on the way home and fell asleep in the car. Tomorrow is my last day here and then we will be coming back to the US to see Ramy! We are going to a big play area for kids in the morning and in the afternoon I have to do some last minute shopping. Omar and I are spending the night at my dads house as we have to leave for the airport at 4am. I will miss Holland and the lovely food but I can't wait to see Ramy and I know Omar can't wait either!

Last night in Spain

The time has come to say goodbye, I am feeling sad but also happy I got to experience this. It has been an interesting week, with good things and bad. Tomorrow we have to leave the house at 9am, our flight to Holland is a little after 12pm. We had a nice day today, went to the beach in Nerja in the morning, I took Omar in the ocean, and he loved it. There were a lot of jelly fish though so we had to be very careful. All the Spanish old ladies kept coming over to tell us about the jelly fish and to be extra careful with our little ones. We then walked into town and had some pastries. After driving back to the house Omar didn’t want to nap so we went shopping and he slept for two hours in the stroller. We got back later in the afternoon and drove to the board walk for some food. The waiter was very rude, and when we were paying he actually yelled at us and started throwing things. We just smiled at him and thanked him for the great service which made him more mad. The food and drinks were really good though. Omar played a little on the beach, had some ice cream and we drove back to the house. We went for a swim in the pool and then Omar went to bed. I just finished packing, and about to go to bed myself. Our last night in Spain...

Update

August 3, 12.46am
The days have gone by really fast. We only have tomorrow left and then we leave. I guess the saying ‘time flies when you are having fun’ is true. The last couple of days we’ve been at the pool, exploring different towns, and just relaxing. I am sad the week is almost over and that I might not see my old friends for a while. I hope of course we can do this reunion every year, but who knows, a year is a long time and lives go on. I really hope we don’t lose touch of each other, as it was wonderful getting to know everyone again. Omar has made good friends with Benjamin and I know he will miss him. As I am typing this I am looking out of the window in my room at the moon and the spectacular view. The nights are wonderful here. Tomorrow we are going to the town Nerja and spend our last time at the beach. After that we don’t have any plans, there is a mall nearby where I would like to go to for a little bit, and hopefully I get to spend some time at the pool when Omar takes his nap. He is finally back on schedule after almost a week.. I wonder how he will do once we get back to the US. I like Spain, it is pretty here, and the people are very nice.

Spain day 4

We got up early to go to the market, unfortunately it was not there so we decided to just keep driving to the next town. We stopped at a small town called Nerja. It was pretty, especially the beach side. We are planning to return there for a swim sometime this week. Today was the hottest day of this week, and we really felt it. We spend most of the day in the pool, it was so hot Omar couldn’t take his nap until late afternoon. I had a really hard time getting him to sleep tonight as our room is boiling. He was drenched in sweat. Poor kid, I gave him a glass of water which he drank within seconds. I then put him in my friends stroller which fully reclines and has a bug cover. We walked around outside for about 45 minutes, until he fell asleep. I just checked the room but it is still so hot, so we are all outside now, Omar in the stroller and everyone else is in the pool. My friend brought a fan and I wish I had too. I still don’t understand why there are no fans in this house. Hopefully it will be a bit more windy tomorrow so the house can air out a bit. I think tomorrow we are driving to one of the nearby towns to do some sight seeing. Should be fun!

Spain day 3

We had a pretty lousy night again, Omar woke up around 5am screaming and crying, he must’ve had a bad dream. It went on for an hour or so and woke up some of the people in the house. He did manage to fall asleep again for an hour before waking up for the day. I think he was over heated as he felt hot and had a rash. I gave him a cool shower and he was better after that. We then headed to the beach. As it was early it was deserted. We rented a couple of chairs and umbrellas, and the kids were loving the water. Both boys are fearless and kept going in the ocean and then the waves would knock them over. They thought it was so funny! The beach is with a lot of stones and pebbles, not white and soft with shells. Omar really liked it though, he kept collecting the stones and there were some really pretty ones there. He cried a lot when we had to leave but he was very tired and hungry. He cried all the way back to the house, and went straight to sleep when we got there. There is a huge market further down and I really want to go check it out. Hopefully it will be there again sometime this week. It is very hard to find fresh fruits and vegetables and even meat in the stores. Some of the girls went out looking for a big supermarket. I hope they find one so maybe we can do some grilling tonight!



1.06am They did manage to find a regular supermarket and we got to eat some fresh food tonight. I got the grill ready and the others got the meat marinated and so forth. The grilling area is nice, it is all stone, I really enjoyed grilling on there and the food came out perfect. Omar and I were so hungry. We both haven’t eaten much since we got to Spain, the food hasn’t been very good. We spend most of the afternoon in the pool, Omar practiced swimming back and forth for so long his hands looked liked dried prunes. He is getting better and better and he is loving it. After dinner he had a long bath, I was trying to get the last remnants of sand off of him and to soak the blisters on his feet he had gotten from the friction of the sand in his pool shoes. He stayed up for quite a while, it took me a good hour to get him to sleep, it is just so hot in the house. We then all got together and took out our pictures from 1996 and had a good laugh. It was really so much fun looking back and sharing memories. Tomorrow we are going to see if the market is there again, and after that we don’t really have any plans.

Spain day 2

After a restless night, Omar and I got up around 8am. It was already very hot as the sun had been shining for a couple of hours. The shower felt great but after getting out I was already wet with sweat. We decided to go to the supermarket to pick up some things. We were lucky to find one that was open on a Sunday. We then went into the pool. Omar had a great time, I put these arm floats on him and he swam by himself all the way to the other side of the pool where the beach balls were. I am very proud of him! Now he refuses to sit in a regular float. He was exhausted after being in the pool for over an hour and took a three hour nap. I actually fell asleep with him and I didn’t know we slept that long. It was really nice and we both needed it. We drove to the board walk and walked around until we found a nice looking restaurant for dinner. Omar was very excited to see the beach and the ocean an it was hard to keep him on the board walk with me. I had ordered fish for us, and he ate the whole thing, he was so hungry. After dinner we did a bit more walking got some ice cream and went back to the house. The boys played a bit and we watched the sun set which was breath taking. Omar asked to go to sleep around 10.30pm so we are slowly getting him back into routine. Tomorrow we will go to the beach early in the morning as it is so hot. That is it for now:)

Arrived in Spain

We have arrived in Malaga Spain. The flight was okay. It was packed and the seats were tiny. Omar was good though, he sat on my lap for the three hours, and he let me sleep for a bit. I had 3 hours of sleep the previous night, and I am still exhausted. We got out of the plane to find my stroller was at baggage claim. We had to walk so far to get there, with me carrying an overtired toddler, two bags and portable seat. We got the stroller and the travel bag but the stroller is missing its cupholde now, what a bummer. I tried waiting to see if it would show up but Omar was falling to pieces. It was awful. I finally got him calmed down a bit in the bathroom and into the stroller and he fell asleep right away. I can’t figure this airport out, it is a lot different then described on the net. There is one hall for luggage and a café. I can’t find the rest of the airport. It is also wonderful that nobody speaks (or is willing to speak) english. I am at the café right now having some juice and a really old sandwich which cost eight dollars. I hope when we get into town it will be less expensive. I have to wait now for my friend Nina so we can rent a car and go to the house. Later tonight the rest of the gang will arrive and then the reunion will start. It will be very strange to see everyone after 11 years, but I am looking forward to it. There will be one little boy Omar’s age so I am very glad he will have someone to play with.
Although I haven’t gone out of the airport yet, I don’t think there is air conditioning in here as it is very hot and muggy. I think I have to change out of my clothes to shorts before we leave the airport.
I don’t have much to report other than that. Omar is still sleeping very poorly at night. We were up the previous night until 1am again, my dad and his wife came and we all went into town, did a little shopping and sat in a coffeeshop/bakery and had some wonderful coffee with pastries. Boy, how I am going to miss that. Omar and I haven’t been eating much, not really had an appetite for some reason, I hope that will change when we get back to Holland after Spain, as there are still so many things I want to taste before I go back home to the US.
My brother drove us to the airport this morning and Omar had a hard time saying goodbye to him. He kept giving him kisses and was waving a lot. He will be so surprised to see him again next week.
Will write more later tonight, I can’t wait to see what the house looks like. I hope it is nice, or at least clean...

July 29, 12.08am I am glad to say we are settled and Omar has finally fallen asleep about 5 minutes ago. This has been such a long day, my friend Nina came out an hour later so we waited for 4 hours. Then we had to take a bus to the car rental, from the car rental we had to drive to the meeting point for the house. It didn’t take us long to get there, but the person meeting us didn’t speak a single word of English. Although I did bring a translator he didn’t have the patience for it. Finally we understood to follow him to the house. We drove through town, which was beautiful, then we took a turn on some dirt road, and I thought that was a bit odd. We kept on going until we took another turn on what didn’t even look like a road to me, heading into the mountains. I told Nina to lock all doors just in case. It was all so weird. The ‘road’ was very scary as there were ravines on both sides, I was very nervous, but we took it slow. We finally got to the house, which is beautiful but lays in the middle of no where. There is no street, just that path. If I would have known I would not have picked the house. It took us another hour and a half to converse with the man and get directions to the supermarket etc. Then it was time to pick up the rest of the girls at the airport. We made a quick trip to the supermarket then I stayed at the house to feed and change Omar. He totally had it. We both hadn’t eaten, well, Omar had a muffin in the morning and we both lived off of teddy grahams and water. The trip to the airport took a long time due to heavy traffic, so I didn’t get to see the girls until after 9pm. Two of them went back out to get dinner and I got reacquainted with the rest. It is funny, but it seems it has only been a couple of weeks instead of 11 years. Everybody looks the pretty much the same except we are not girls anymore, but women. Omar was very excited to have a friend to play with. The other two girls came back with pizza around 11pm and it tasted so good! Omar was still awake of course, he didn’t even seem tired. We have a big pool in the back yard and Omar keeps trying to go in it. I have to keep a real close eye on him as it is not fenced in. Tomorrow we are finally going to go for a swim and explore town. I can’t wait! I am really excited! I have to go to bed now as it is 12.30am and I really need to catch up on some sleep. Oh, and it is hot here, 91 degrees with not a cloud in the sky. The house has no air conditioning so you can imagine how hot it is right now.

On our way to Amsterdam

July 24, 9.23pm
Well, we are on our way to Amsterdam, it is 9.24pm. Omar only slept 45 minutes throughout the whole day which is really unusual for him. I took him to the doctor before we left because he has been having diarrhea for 5 days now. They said it should clear on its own. I thought for sure he would nap in the car, but he didn’t. He was a wreck by the time we got to the airport. I was so relieved Ramy parked and came in to help with the luggage and Omar. The security line was huge but also thanks to Ramy he had given us his miles and we got to fly world business class, that meant we got to skip the security line!
All went well, Omar fussed and fussed though, until I got us dinner, he cried hysterically for about two minutes until he tasted the food, and then he was happy. I took my time with Omar so we were about the last to board. As we had good seats I wasn’t worried about it. We got an isle seat but I really wanted a window seat as Omar was on my lap. I asked to move, and then they moved us to a row where Omar got his own seat! This is my first time flying first class, and let me tell you, it is awesome. We get almost anything we want, the seats recline completely to a bed, and it gives massage. We have so much room, we had a three course meal which was delicious. (Airplane food that is delicious can you believe it?)
We also have an extensive tv menu, with a gazillion movies, tv shows, kids shows, games etc.
Right now I am lounging in my seat with the massage on and Omar is hanging out in his seat, playing with everything and nothing. I am so incredibly tired though and want to go to sleep but it seems Omar is completely wired and the darker it gets the more rambunctious he gets.
Well, I am going to try to get him to settle, so will write more when we actually get to Amsterdam.

July 25, (6.11pm local time)
We made it to Amsterdam safely. We arrived a bit earlier, Omar didn’t fall asleep until an hour before the plane landed. The stewardesses were really nice and I sat and waited in the plane for my stroller to come so I could get Omar in it while he was still sleeping. Even though I was the last one to leave the plane, we got through security and picked up our luggage within 5 minutes. My dad hadn’t even gotten there yet, so I went to the café and got a cup of tea. Omar woke up when we went outside to the car as it is cold here! Brrr. Pants weather. He fell asleep on the way to my grandmother where I put him in her bed, and we all had breakfast. It was really nice but I was so tired as I only slept 1 hour. On the way to my brother’s house Omar and I both fell asleep and had about an hour nap. When Omar woke up he was very excited to see everyone and of course never went back to sleep. In all he has had 6 hours of sleep in two days. I am typing this from the car as Omar fell asleep on the way back from the supermarket. I hope he will wake up for dinner and then go straight to bed.
It is really nice to be back in Holland, I have not eaten much since we’ve been here but I did manage to have a couple of incredibly good cookies! I am not sure what we are doing the remainder two days before we go to Spain as I am too tired to think of it now, but will keep you updated! All I really want right now is to go to bed.

July 26

Omar is really having a hard time adjusting to the new time, he woke up after his nap in the car and didn't go back to sleep until 2am! As you can imagine, I am still very tired, Omar seems to be fine though, too much going on for him. We had a quiet day. Went into town for a bit, got some beach toys for Spain and we went out to eat. Afterwards we went to see the deer. Omar loved it, he got to feed them bread and they nibbled on his fingers which he thought was hilarious. Although it was raining, he didn't seem to care. The weather is quite cold, no shorts, and it rains a lot too. I hope the weather is nicer in Spain.

On a date

Ramy and I had our first date today in two years! We haven't been out together since I was in my last trimester of pregnancy and on bed rest. We have been out of course, but it has always been with Omar. Finally Ramy's tournament season ended and he got Sunday off. I asked one of our students, whom I love and trust, to come watch Omar. It also helped that Omar likes her and she is certified in CPR and first aid. That last one really made the decision. (After the strawberry incident)

Omar had taken a very short nap and has been having diarrhea, (I think from the shot he got at the doctor) so he was not in a good mood. I was nervous about leaving him with a sitter, as I never had a sitter before. She came, I showed her where everything was and then we all went down in the basement where Omar wanted to watch his Arabic dance videos and play with his toys. Ramy and I said good bye to him and we left. We went bowling which was a lot of fun. Of course I lost twice, but it didn't dampen the mood at all. I felt like we were back in time when we were dating! After bowling we went to the Mediterranean Grill and had appetizers and then went for a smoothie afterwards. We stayed out about 3 hours and called home twice to make sure everything was okay. And it was! Omar didn't fuss, didn't cry nothing! I couldn't believe it. This is the same child that cries non stop when I leave for only one minute. Omar had a great time with her, she said he only asked for us once. I am so proud of Omar, and already looking forward to the next date with my husband. Yay for Omar :)

A good ending to a stressful week

This past week has had its ups and downs. Ramy had been in California for 8 whole days which was pretty hard for us. Not just that we missed him but also we missed the extra help, the company, the conversation, you know. On top of that Omar really really missed him. We had crying bouts asking about daddy. Looking for daddy in the house, and after a couple of days any man with black hair became daddy.

I don't know if that caused the restless nights and lack of sleep we've been having, but I could definitely tell by the end of the week it was taking a toll on both of us. I was cranky and so was Omar. As I tried to entertain him as much as possible, some days all I really wanted to do is crawl into bed and sleep. Of course Omar would not have that. On Saturday we went to Baker park for a summer concert. It was supposed to be with big dinosaur puppets so I thought Omar would love it. We got there early as to get a good seat, but it was boiling hot, so we got up after 10 minutes and went into the shade and played in the park instead. I thought the show was really boring and Omar did too. He had a good time playing in the park with all the other kids, and I enjoyed seeing Omar so happy. Later on we went out to eat and they had a play area there, so Omar had even more of a good time. We got home rather late, but that was okay. Omar was happy. That night we didn't get much sleep either, and on Sunday we just hung around the house doing nothing all day. We got invited to a picnic in the afternoon by one of our play group friends as a thank you for making them dinner and such when their son was born. We arrived just about an hour late.

Omar was exhausted and although his favorite little friends were there, he didn't seem to enjoy himself. It was quite stressful running after him in the heat while trying to get him to eat and feed myself. Not until the end of the picnic when the kids were playing with the water Omar started to have fun.

It was a lovely picnic, they really outdid themselves, the food was fantastic and it was so nice just to hang out with everyone. I hope next time we have a get together Ramy can actually be there with us.

We got home a little before seven and Omar went straight to bed. He was so tired! I was hoping he would sleep in but really, who am I kidding? We were up at 5am again. He was really good though and entertained himself for a quite a while. Later that day we went to the airport to pick up Ramy, I told him daddy was coming home in a big airplane and Omar was so excited! While waiting for Ramy to come out Omar was checking out all the big airplanes through the windows, I was wondering if he was trying to locate Ramy. As the wait seemed like forever, Ramy finally walked out of the plane and the look on Omar's face was priceless. It was by far the best feeling I have had all week seeing that little face light up. I am so happy Ramy is back, and I know Omar will get up super early tomorrow so he can play with his daddy!