It's Friday morning, 5.30am to be exact. I was tired when I opened my eyes at 5.30am, having slept another night with Sera ... yet again. She has been waking up every night for, I would say, the past week or more, insisting that either one of us attend to her. That would basically entail lying beside her and patting her shoulder or stroking her back to sleep. Johan and I have not even tried to analyse why she is doing this, because with Sera, we have learned that her strong but quirky sense of her own being just rules. So for the past week, I've just crawled into bed with her, no questions asked.
Aside from the our interrupted slumber, it has been a good week. School has been closed for a week due to the Eid holidays, thus Sera has been with me 24/7. Yes, I have actually appreciated the few hours of break I get when she is at school three times a week, but surprisingly no meltdowns this week. She has been a sweetheart and I've just been thrilled to spend so much time with her. The weather has improved a lot. It has been hovering between 33 to 36 degrees this week so that meant we have been outdoors a lot. And that makes this mama and her daughter very happy, indeed. Here's a quick (yah, maybe not) flashback ...
Flashback one
So everyday after breakfast, Sera and I have spent our mornings in our garden at the front. I've opened up this, I call it, sand and water table thing (kindly passed on by my neighbour) so that she can fiddle around with it. But she doesn't usually stay put, instead she'd wander around the garden patch or play with the cracks in the asphalt pavement or jump in the murky puddles of water. I, on the other hand, was just horrified at how ugly the small garden patch have become. I mean, so embarrassing that I wanted to run into the house, grab a bed sheet to cover it. Anyway I was determined to do something about it ... where were the compound the gardeners?
I found the trio of gardeners cleaning the tennis court. They also double up as the compound cleaners. I cornered one of them, and explained through mostly very exaggerated and comical hand (and body) gestures what I wanted to do with my garden patch. He, I think, got it and promised to return the next morning to repair the damage. He did return the next morning and together (ahem, I supervised), we cleared out the ugliness from the garden patch. Sera had a great time - lugging water in her little pail, pretending to rake the garden and talking to the still standing but very shrivelled cacti. As for the garden, most of the ugliness has been weeded out but it's now really 'naked'. Maybe I'll add some plants to it ... err, on second thoughts, maybe I'll just wait for my mom in law (who's endowed with the green thumb) to better the garden. So that was my little accomplishment ... ha ha.
Flashback two
We also tried to go to the local zoo one of the mornings but it was closed contrary to what the newspaper said. So, we, with four other parents and their two sons, ended up at Villagio, this strange looking themed-mall that has fake blue skies, a badly imitated Italian Venetian interior, complete with a meandering river canal, bridges and motorised gondolas. Oh there's also an ice skating ring within the madness. Despite the very strange setting, we managed to effortlessly spent about four hours in that mall.
Flashback three
Since last Friday, Sera can now imitate five animal sounds. Ha ha. No, I didn't record it on video (I still can't get that silly thing to work! Okay, okay, I'm the silly one). So just use your imagination a bit.
Me: "Sera, what does a horse say?"
Sera: "hmm ... mmm .... mmm ... mm" (from a descending high pitch)
Me: "Sera, what does a cat say?"
Sera: "M .... yeowwww" (this one she complements with a hand action that resembles a paw of a cat scratching)
Me: "Sera, what does a duck say?"
Sera: "C-ark, c-aark, c-aark." (for 'quack, quack' ... )
Me: "Sera, what does a cow say?"
Sera: "Moooo .... mmm ...mmm (it usually ends up sounding like her horse)
Me: "And Sera ... what does a dog say?"
Sera: "W-uurf, w-uuurf!" (this animal sound is spot on!)
Aside from this Q&A exercise we've been doing, she can also spot the animals from her animal book and even on the Animal Planet channel. Ok, I know, all kids go through this phase, it's cute, fascinating ... but it's our TURN and we're enjoying it!
So that were some highlights for the week. More to come ...
Sera playing at the water and sand table ... 
She's had a really good week, playing outdoors in the mornings and the late afternoons, hanging out with the kids within the compound
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