Here there be dragons

Phoebe got to use her metro card for the first time this afternoon!

We had been running a bit late this morning so we decided to take an Uber in to campus, which Phoebe found terribly disappointing because it meant she wouldn't get to use her metro card. We promised we would take the metro home...and then Andrew got that call from Al Jazeera and Phoebe began to feel a little nervous that the metro was about to be yanked away from her again.

She has big plans now that she's five. 

She was overjoyed when I proposed still taking the kids to the suq by myself, leaping about (nearly clicking her heels with joy) as we walked down the walkway toward the metro.

She placed her card over the reader like an old pro (she has been scanning my card quite a lot when we go through together) and then...froze. The gates opened and she just...stood there...gulping like a goldfish. 

"Go through! Go through!" I prompted her, eventually just...pushing her through the gate...before it could slam shut with her on the wrong side. 

"I did it!" she cheered.

I have no idea why she froze like that, but...we got past it...and all made it to the suq.

Our first item of business was to find some thobes for Alexander, which we succeeded in doing (though I'm not quite sure he's so fond of the neckline—I think he would like thobes with collars that button up like his original one...these new ones are more open and...anyway)...

The suq is strange because it's new-but-old. It was mostly built in the 2000s based on traditional architecture. But it certainly has some traditional suq charm if you look for it...

The suq really seems to come alive at night so finding a store that was open this early in the afternoon was tricky (more than half were closed), but we managed to find an abaya store that was open as well. Phoebe has been hankering for an abaya. 

"Oh, look—this store even has little abayas right outside," I observed. "I wonder how much they..."

"Well," Phoebe said, resolutely throwing her shoulders back and lifting her chin into the air. "I'm the one who wants one so I'll be brave and go ask!"

And with that she marched herself through the door into the depths of the store. She walked right up to the storekeeper, who was busy with another patron inside, patted his leg, and said with a big smile, "Excuse me, sir, but do you have any abayas for children like me?"

"Yes, yes!" the man said. "You want an abaya so small for you? Just one minute..."

He turned to help the other woman with something, then picked out an abaya for Phoebe to look at. I helped her try it on. 

"She is so cute," the woman whispered. 

"Perhaps one size bigger," the shopkeeper suggested. 

He grabbed a larger abaya and then finished ringing up the other woman. In the end we decided on the bigger abaya so she could grow into it a little bit. 

We spent a while longer looking around the suq—I found this corner that I saw online and asked Andrew and Miriam why we'd never seen this corner of the suq before. They told me to note the "AI content" alert on the material, but...I dunno. Sometimes that is on there when there's a filter applied to things. But here it is...this corner of the market:

I posted earlier about how many pigeons there are in the suq, but we usually go at night (when the stores are open and the place is bustling) and pigeons are notoriously diurnal, so we don't see so many birds out and about. But they were out in full force this afternoon!

We grabbed some regag before heading home:

Some of us ended up a little messy...so we definitely found the restroom to have a little rinse off after eating.

And then we thought we might take a trip to the art gallery...but got distracted by the bird suq where we found ourselves surrounded by squawking parrots, chirping zebra finches, quacking ducklings, and so forth. Phoebe was delighted and begged to have a ducking. When I hedged a firm "no" answer (e.g. "Oh, I dunno...") she said, "Well, I'm the one who wants one so I'll be brave and..."

"No, no, no!" I said. "I don't even think we need to talk to a storekeeper about it."

That might work on abayas, little one, but not on living creatures!

There were also turtles and fish and sugar gliders (which caused Phoebe to say, "Aw, cute! They have tiny cats!") and other various creatures. 

"Whoa, Mom!" Phoebe suddenly yelled. "They have dragons!"

She reads...but apparently not all the time...because these dragons were merely iguanas.

We never made it to the art gallery, but we did spend quite a bit of time in a shop looking at bowls and jewelry boxes (and I did end up buying a bowl for our "landing pad" (a little place near the door to drop keys, loose change, and other paraphernalia when you walk in the door) because apparently we didn't bring our old "landing pad" bowl with us).

Phoebe was excited to ride the metro home, I finished the eighth book in the Emma M Lion series, and we walked home accompanied by the most beautiful sunset.

Several women we passed commented on how adorable Phoebe was in her abaya:

And she was super cute!

It was a good day for this freshly minted five year old!