Hadeeqa!

That means "park" in Arabic.

Tonight we went to a park with some of our friends/classmates. It was about 8 when we got there and it was packed with locals! (We were the only non-locals I saw: 5 Americans & 3 Koreans!) It was wonderful! It had grass and big sand covered play areas with slides and swings and all the fun things kids have to play on. Lucy was amazed, needless to say. She had a great time walking around and just watching other kids. She didn't really play a lot with others; she's still in that 'play next to others' rather than 'play with others' phase. No worries. She'll get it.

The weather was great tonight. It could be a few degrees cooler, but it was so nice! And sitting on the grass was great! I miss it! AND I walked around barefoot most of the night, too! (Which probably got me some stares...but it was so worth it!) It was probably in the high 80s, low 90s, but it felt wonderful! I actually wore Jeans! Which, for those of you that know me really well, will know this is huge for me cause I HATE being hot in jeans and refuse to wear them at all in the summer!

The cutest part of the night was when Choo-Ha (our Korean friends' daughter) and Lucy held hands and walked around the park. Choo-Ha is 6 months older than Lucy. We've tried to get them to play together before and were unsuccessful. Tonight was better. I now need to figure out how to say THEY ARE SO STINKING PRECIOUS in Arabic! :)

Most of the time we were there, though, Lucy played in the sand by herself...Much to the chagrin of the local mamas who wanted me to watch out for ants that could bite her or just to get her out of the dirt altogether. Craziness. Kids gotta play in dirt! Lucy loves dirt/sand/whatever! By the end of the night, she was actually rolling in it! I mean, not over and over and over, but from tummy to back, for sure! (She brought home quite a bit of that sand in her shoes, clothes, diaper, hair... and got a nice bath... where she left it all in the bathtub for Mommy to wash out.)

Can you see how tired her eyes are in this picture?

It was a great night and I think we all made some new local friends! We got several invitations to homes... hopefully, some will pan out!