Younis is 2!

Yesterday was Younis' 2nd birthday!!! The most exciting part was having Mamou and Papou (my parents) here along with all his Moroccan family to celebrate Younis turning 2. When they arrived a few days ago, Younis had an initial shy moment when he saw his Seattle grandparents, but very quickly fell back into his routine with them and now asks in the morning before we see them "where Mamou go?" and "where Papou go?" And they have been added to the list of people Younis inquires about on a regular basis.

We started out Younis' big day with a tricycle ride at La Bouregreg, a nice promenade that is part of new development in Rabat. We saw a cute boy playing soccer with a bottle cap with his mom. Younis of course was drawn to them right away. Why are we so obsessed with spending so much money on toys in the states, while some of them are great, sometimes just a simple coke bottle cap will do. Imad and Younis eventually started playing with them then they had to leave and left the cap. We looked over and saw Younis running to catch up with the boy to return the bottle cap... such a sweet moment.

Thank god Younis took a 3 hour nap! I always hope that he'll take a long nap at the right moment and it seems to work about the half the time... this was a great nap day. When Younis woke up he was ready to party and that's what we did. We went over to Imad's parent's house and had a very festive birthday celebration with lots of music and dancing. I think Younis didn't really get that it was his birthday until the candles on the cake were lit and the happy birthday singing began. Then he seemed to realize that this party was about him. It's amazing to watch how quickly kids understand the concept of opening presents. Younis was so happy with his new cars, trucks and books. All in all a great birthday and now our little guy is a big 2 year old. Hard to believe and at the same time, he is such a 2 year old.

Some more fun birthday pictures. Thank you Mamie and Papie for decorating your house and hosting Younis 2nd birthday.