All she wants for Christmas ...

... is a PINK GUITAR!

Yassy was very certain about what she wanted. "A guitar ... a pink guitar!", she excitedly told me one day and when we sat down to write our letters to Santa one afternoon, she had eagerly drawn a pink guitar. Sera asked for a flute ... ??? I asked her WHY a flute and she simply said, "it's pretty and it makes a nice sound." Okay. Sera doesn't have big requests, I have to admit. Before this flute, she had asked for a pull-along luggage.  She had explained that she wanted to have her own luggage whenever we travelled. Yes, she is practical ... guess she gets that from Johan.

 

Yassy singing from Que Sera Sera on Vimeo.

Zuma

We have a new addition to the family ... a Mexican orange tabby that we adopted the weekend we returned. Sera had asked for a kitty for her birthday. Hmm. Johan and I discussed and mulled over it for a while. We didn't bring the topic up either, thinking (maybe hoping) she'd think of another present but she never let this one go. So we finally agreed but only to adopt a cat, not to buy one from a pet store. 

So with Zuma, we kind of knew he was going to be the one, the minute we laid our eyes on him. Sera had in her mind, a white fluffy kitty. She always a real version of the white cuddly one that auntie Sue Lyn had given her a few years ago. But she wanted Zuma when she saw him. It wasn't a very straight forward adoption process. It took a couple of days. We had to fill out a form, give a sketch of our apartment and finally Johan had to go for an interview with the veterinarian. We waited, anxiously, for a few days and we were allowed to adopt Zuma. We never had a cat before, only dogs, and we felt really 'green' about it. But with some advice from the vet and a lot from Sue Lyn, we are doing so ok with Zuma. Cats are, so far, so much easier than dogs! Hahaha.

Sera has been pretty good with helping take care of Zuma, and if she slacks a little ... I'd be very quick to remind her. Yassy is getting along, better these days, with Zuma. In the beginning, they had a little 'battle' of territory ... guess they're about the same age. Haha.  

By the way, Zuma  is short for Moctezuma, who was one of the greatest Aztec leaders, or if you like, it also means 'peace' in Arabic. 

Our first meeting!

First day back with us ... he very quickly found all his favorite spots

Happiness!

They're still working on their relationship ... haha, but it's getting better everyday

This is what he does best

Our summer

Coming back to this blog, I almost feel nervous because being absent for a while, I have lot to catch up. Like overdue homework! But it's never too late in this case. Our 7 weeks away went by really fast. After flying over 20,000km to Singapore with a 5 hour layover in Charles de Gaulle, the girls and I were more than ready to stay put for a while. We did for about 4 weeks, had a good time just hanging out with grandpa and grandpa. After Singapore, we went to Vietnam for 2 weeks. We started from Hanoi, did a boat trip at Halong Bay, flew to Saigon, took a 5 hour bus ride to Mui Ne where we had total relaxation for 5 days and then back to Saigon. The girls did so well during the trip so in the end, it was another satisfying holiday.

Another 20,000km and we're back home. To be honest, it is good to be back in a routine and now both girls are in the same school. I'm 'forced' to do the school runs since kinder 1 students are not allowed on the school buses as yet. In fact, Sera and Yassy are in some kind of a 'probation' until the approving party give the green light that they are ready for the bus. That is, Sera is mature enough to take care of Yassy in the bus, walk her to her classroom, walk herself back to her own classroom and finally, take care of Yassy on the journey back home. We think they'd do fine but we will wait ... patiently.

We have a new addition to our family and that is a little (well he's actually growing fast) orange tabby. We have named him Zuma. In Arab, it means 'peace' and in Mexican it actually derives from the name Moctezuma, who was one of the greatest ruler of the Aztec empire. Now what a good name hey. More about him in the next post. 

We sneaked in an early birthday celebration for Yassy just before her school term ended

Yassy with her auntie Rachel

Sera at art camp

What a glorious mess!

We baked a cake for grandpa's 69th

Celebrating Rachel's 3rd

Sera just hanging at the fish farm

Johan and girls on a morning kayak ride

Our boat for 3 days, Halong Bay

At Mui Ne, our little hotel was on the beach

We got all nicely tanned

Staying in the pool ALL DAY

And playing on the beach

Blending in, Saigon

Back home to rain and cold!

El verano se acerca!

At the moment, the shared mood at home is one of lethargy. It could be the hotter temperatures and the fact that it is taking eternity for the guys to fix the ventilators. I am not kidding, one ventilator in two days. The one in the master bedroom is hanging, for show apparently, and in the girls' room, well there is a gaping hole in the ceiling. Nowadays, I'm learning, against my will, to expect (and accept) nothing and everything. So it is 8 days to summer break and away with the routine which always gets tiresome after a while. I say this now, but ask me again after a week off from school! So here is a little snapshot of our what we have been up to ...

Yassy oh Yassy, she is fast growing up to be quite The Character. She has the ability to make me laugh and cry at the same time.

Pinatas! Not a fiesta without it. Yassy looks tiny beside this one and has yet to learn the art of hitting it. "Dale, dale, dale ... "

Saturday market, at our favourite fish taco shop

Pescado frito ... muy rico

I took this photo last Saturday and was so pleased with it because finally, a photo where two of them are smiling nicely


Sera had her sports day this week. I was biting my nails a bit because Sera does not rise to any competition (at the moment) but she did well and had lots of fun with her friends

El Centro

Finally after almost 5 months, we visited El Centro, the historical part of DF and within it still stands beautiful architecture from its colonial days. Walking on cobbled streets, between old and new buildings, I couldn't help but feel like I was walking back in time, into colonial Mexico, named 'Nueva Espana' back then. We started our little centro immersion by going up the Torre de Latinoamerica. It was once the tallest building in Mexico. Up there, we got a bird's eye view of the city in all its chaos and glory. We could see as far as the smog allowed us and Sera had a fun trying to identify buildings and structures from a given map of the city in all 4 directions.

We visited the Nacional Museo de Artes, a little bit of art exposure for our girls who were only fascinated by one exhibit, a moving projection of birds flying. As you can imagine, they were trying to chase the birds much to the disapproval of the museum guardians. They settled down for a while when we entered an art room where they made crafts using glue and feathers.

We lunched at the famous Sanborn's restaurant. The restaurant is beautiful. The walls are high and painted with colourful images reminiscent of old Mexico. There is natural light coming through the roof that simply highlights every detail of the restaurant - the tiles on the floors, the intricate carvings of the stairs and even the toilets were not spared. However one very important detail was sadly overlooked - the food. Ha ha. All I can say is we didn't even dare stay for dessert.

El Centro is one place in DF we will return many times over. It's a place to walk, discover, people watch, to visit the many museums and get my fix on cheap bargains. More to come!

On the 37th floor of Torre de Latinoamerica. Girls were thrilled and didn't seemed to be scared of the height, especially Yassy who crawled all around the tower on that ledge!


Just a part of the city and you already get a good sense of how densely crowded it is!


View of Palacio de las Bellas Artes to the right and the road in front of it is Benito Juarez and it is closed for cyclists till 2pm on Sundays

Inside the Post Office

Nacional Museo de Artes

Pit stop

The exterior (back side) of one of many Sanborns all over Mexico. This one is the most special in terms of architecture.

Top view of the restaurant

Stairs up

Pedestrian mall

And we stopped for dessert!

Little moments

I share my days with the girls and there are often instances like this one, goofing around on the monkey bar, where I just stand there and literally laugh out loud! Sera and Yasmin, as siblings, are very close. Sera for the most part takes on her role as big sister very seriously and Yassy looks up to Sera, adoringly. But it doesn't always go this way. Both girls have been blessed with very strong characters and inevitably, fiery tempers. On bad days, our home sounds very similar to the likes of a fish market. But we always strive for good, happy days!

So yesterday, walking back together from Sera's bus stop, Yassy starts hoping on one leg. She is thrilled and can't stop her one-legged hop. We're all clapping and encouraging her. Sera joins in too. But ... plop, Yassy trips and on her knees she goes. Opps! The end of that happy discovery. But she can hop on one leg ... now that's a big deal.

Yassy has been trying to go on the monkey bar since she watched her sister breeze through it

But so far, she only collapses on her sister ... well at least Sera always catches her in time

Recuperate!

The girls started the weekend feeling under the weather. Sera skipped school on Thursday and then, Yassy skipped school on Friday. Sniffling noses and weepy eyes. Johan returned from Manzanillo on Friday past midnight, exhausted. So we welcomed Saturday with some lethargy. And the family that rests together, recuperates together. On Sunday morning, we were up early and raring to go for a cycle on the Reforma. We almost made it to the Zocalo but the kids got distracted by a huge carousel along the way and anyway, it was time for a pit stop. The kids did well, and I think the biggest applause goes to Yassy who was on her bike all the way.

Saturday

Before the start line

Slow and steady

Pit stop

The girls can never resist a carousel ride

A typical manifestation on Reforma

Back home and bikes in the bodega

Back on the couch

Harvest time

Yesterday, we left the comforts of the city (well ... ), drove 2.5 hours on very winding roads to Coatepec Harinas (I hope I got the name right?) to harvest PEACHES. Well, at least all of us like peaches so that was a big incentive for the girls and it was a lot of fun. Gare, our lovely Spanish teacher, invited us to her father's peach plantation. There was also an impressive tomato and chili farm, but the big draw were the peaches. The girls spent at least an hour looking for 'amarillo' peaches and yes, many peaches went straight into their mouths as well!

The plantation

The girls couldn't wait to harvest!

How pretty!

Haha, harvesters complete with the hats!

Sera knew to pluck the deep orange ones but ...

like Yassy, they don't eat tomatoes unless in a sauce!

The harvest