Rafe’s 30 Month Birthday

Adik is two and a half! 30 months old! Happy half birthday, little boy! [[image:2014-adik30month-02.jpg:Innocent and a little amused:center:0]] * Mouse over the pictures for captions As stated in Yaya’s  71 month entry, June was a very quiet month where I just worked to finish out my contract. So we didn’t have many adventures outside the house. Adik however is just growing fast. He sight reads so many words now. He can at least approximate the words based on letter sounds but he doesn’t seem to have to work at it. It seems to come naturally to him to see the letters, make sense of it and just read the word. He seems to have stopped asking how to spell words and just going straight to reading them. He just keeps surprising us with all this reading. He recognizes and reads words that seem to not be part of a […]

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71 Months

71 months! One more month and the girl is six years old! How amazing is that? Where does the time go? [[image:2014-yaya71month-02.jpg:My baby girl:center:0]] * Mouse over the pictures for captions Where May was a very social and filled with travel month, June was quite the opposite. We sat at home while I worked like crazy to finish out my project and deliverables on time (30 June 2014). So I haven’t actually even done any of the extra entries from May and truth be told, am already crazy late for this entry (despite currently being in a period of unemployment for a few weeks in July). It seems I need to have proper deadlines to get anything accomplished. All that is just to say that we didn’t do very much in June, didn’t go anywhere, didn’t see anyone. So the pictures are pretty quiet ones. That said, there has been […]

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Rafe’s 29 Month Birthday

Adik is twenty-nine months old! [[image:2014-adik29month-20.jpg:Sitting in the grass, enjoying the sunshine:center:0]] * Mouse over the pictures for captions What can we say about the boy this month? He seems to just be growing up too quickly! Speech status: Full sentences, singing proper lyrics to songs (more properly than I do), and starting to branch out into other languages. He loves to sing the Alif-ba-ta song that Yaya found on YouTube (super cute video!) and he actually pays attention and gets the names of the letters correct (more so than his sister who glosses over some of the letters in the middle of the song). Adik loves the new flashcards that their Uncle Zarin brought them – flashcards for arabic letters as well as Malay-English / English-Malay vocabulary words. In fact, he started carrying around the letter “mim” and seems to quite like it. So I’m trying to step up […]

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70 Months

And Yaya is now 70 months old! Two more months before the big S-I-X! [[image:2014-yaya70month-05.jpg:Demure young lady:center:0]] * Mouse over the pictures for captions It has been an eventful and social month. Really beginning from being on the east coast in April for two weeks where we saw work friends and relatives. Zarin stayed with us for almost 10 days in May (see pictures of that visit in another entry to be written later), and then we went on vacation to Orange Beach and New Orleans (separate blog entries for those as well). Food status: some exciting news! Yaya ate seven disc-shaped pieces of carrot (chewed, swallowed, and enjoyed!). She also tried celery, but did not like it. She also ate bits of apple (not a resounding success like the carrot pieces were). So we are pleased! Yaya has earned some new toys/games now! Reading status: still the same. She […]

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Rafe’s 28 Month Birthday

28 months old! [[image:2014-adik28month-24.jpg:Yaya is holding my eaw!:center:0]] Caveat: this entry (for April) was written in June. Thank goodness for backdated entries! Also, we kind of forgot to take pictures of the boy to document his day any of those days in April. So this month’s entry will be a roundup of my favorite pictures taken in the last month. * Mouse over the pictures for captions Speech status: Still advanced. He is expressing ideas in full sentences, and is very obsessed with AC/DC’s TNT. I know. So appropriate for a two year old. 😉 Bedtimes: back to a better schedule of going to bed between 9:30-10 PM with no naps. If he does accidentally get in a nap, the bedtime is definitely pushed back almost two hours, despite it only being a 30-minute nap. So from my point of view (being the one who has to get him to […]

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69 Months

Here are the 69 month photos! [[image:2014-yaya69month-10.jpg:Yaya and her mouse:center:0]] * Mouse over the pictures for captions So here’s the deal. This entry was written practically in June. So I will try to be brief and let the photos speak for themselves. Food status: no change. Nothing new was consumed in April. Reading status: same as last month. But we had a busy month of April, being out in Pennsylvania for two weeks. We also saw family during the Easter weekend. Let’s get to the pictures! Here are some of Yaya at play: [[image:2014-yaya69month-01.jpg:Playing outside:center:0]] [[image:2014-yaya69month-02.jpg:Playing inside:center:0]] [[image:2014-yaya69month-04.jpg:Blowing bubbles at Aunt Joan’s:center:0]] [[image:2014-yaya69month-05.jpg:Dying easter eggs with cousins Barb and Claire:center:0]] [[image:2014-yaya69month-12.jpg:First Easter egg hunt for the kids:center:0]] In Pennsylvania, we got to see Melissa and went out to dinner with her a few times: [[image:2014-yaya69month-03.jpg:Love this shot!:center:0]] Also some shots of the kids having fun at the new ducky hotel: […]

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Rafe’s 27 Month Birthday

Twenty-seven months old now! [[image:2014-adik27month-03.jpg:Ooo-chak! Peekaboo!:center:0]] * Mouse over the pictures for comments Speech status: There is nothing this child can’t say. He does have trouble with Malay or Spanish though, but English, he’s good. He speaks in full sentences. He does, adorably, sound like Ming Ming saying his Ls and Rs exactly like she does. Is this a symptom of watching too much Wonder Pets during my pregnancy? Perhaps. I love how he says “Bradley” (the name of his stuffed bearcat). It ends up being “Byadyey”. For whatever reason, this just makes me laugh and laugh. He is also learning to introduce himself. “Hi, my name’s Adik” (or sometimes Rafiq or Rafe). Shakes hands. He also loves pretending we have different names. “Mama, your name Siwa?” I say Yes, Adik. My name is Sila. He says “Not! MY name is Siwa!” And he laughs at his own joke, and […]

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68 Months

68 months now! Five and 2/3 years old! Whee! [[image:2014-yaya68month-13.jpg:Chuffed about something!:center:0]] * Mouse over the pictures for captions Food status: nothing new. She is still eating our homemade bread. I am thinking I should talk to her pediatrician and perhaps sneak in some vitamins in powder form (hopefully some kind of no-taste thingy) into the bread. We will see. We were on the road for two weeks out of the past month so while on the road, Yaya subsisted on circle toast (cinnamon raisin english muffins), green chips (Lay’s Sour Cream n Onion potato chips) and milk. Some mornings she ate bagels. Sometimes she ate pizza. But she ate so much circle toast that she did confess to missing Mama’s bread at home. 🙂 Reading status: same as last month. Still progressing. However, my friend Amy posted this article that made me feel much better. Yaya cannot sit still […]

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Rafe’s 26 Month Birthday

And now the boy is twenty-six months old! [[image:2014-adik26month-23.jpg:Happily gnoming on goldfish crackers:center:0]] * Mouse over the pictures for captions Speech status: as with last month, Adik is very verbal and loves to use his words. Here are some of his (and my) favorite phrases this past month* I don’t KNOW!!!* Oh my goodness! He has also been obsessed with Jason Mraz’s “I’m Yours” which he sings to (with or without piano accompaniment, youtube or mikes). He listened to this song enough times that he knows most of the words to it (which is more than I can say for myself). He also loves “Hey Soul Sister” by Train. It is very funny when he breaks into song apropo of nothing. The boy loves his youtube music videos. He has also taken a shine to classic rock – AC/DC and Queen. It’s really funny to see him dance and sing […]

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67 Months

Another month! 67 months old! [[image:2014-yaya67month-06.jpg:Yaya the butterfly (note the antennae):center:0]] * Mouse over the pictures for captions Food status: Yaya has been eating home made bread. Mostly the Cuban Bread (which looks and tastes like her favorite bread from Dorothy Lane Market, the french boule), but she did gobble up the schiacciata, which contained molasses and was brown. So that counts as a new food and she did get a new toy for that (the Peppa Pig ball, see below). Also she had a few licks of vanilla ice cream and an actual spoonful of it. Unfortunately she needed three mouthfuls to qualify for a new game/toy, and she refused to go to 3 mouthfuls, so she did not get anything for that. Now she declares vanilla ice cream her favorite (she had 1 taste of it and refused any more). What can we say? Reading status: same as […]

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A Return to Bread

So it has been a very long time since I baked bread. My old toy‘s motor died in 2007 or early 2008 (after 3 years of weekly bread baking). Despite looking around for a handyman or an appliance repairer, we were unable to find one who would work on my poor mixer. Apparently, people no longer repair small appliances, they just go out and buy a new one! And then we were distracted by the arrival of a certain cantankerous addition to our home, and then another. So there was never any time to actually bake bread. But now that the baby is two years old, and his sister is a toastivore, we decided it was time to go back to baking our own bread. And, since we couldn’t get the old mixer fixed (I am still sad about that), we got a replacement for it. [[image:2014_breadjanfeb01.jpg:Unpacking the box together:center:0]] […]

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Rafe’s 25 Month Birthday

The boy is twenty-five months old now! [[image:2014_0129_rafe02.jpg:Happy Adik!:center:0]] * Mouse over the pictures for captions Speech status: it is unbelievable how many words the boy can say. He is also formulating his own sentences and is a master of imitation. For instance, when we need to give Yaya a time out, we tell her to be quiet and to go sit on the sofa (her time-out area). Adik might run behind her, saying “be quiet, Yaya. Sit onna sofa!” and laughing. He is starting to talk back when he is being scolded. If we tell him “no, you can’t do [XYZ]”, he responds with “YES I CAN!!!”. In fact, “Yes I can” is his answer to every negative response that he receives, on some days. No Adik, don’t stand on the chair. Yes I can! No Adik, stop running with that stick in your hand. Yes I can! Adik, […]

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66 Months

66 months! Five and a half years old! Whee! [[image:2014-yaya66month-02.jpg:My baby girl!:center:0]] * Mouse over the pictures for captions Food status: No real new foods this month. I forgot to report that last month she also tried a candy cane. This month, she took a small finger taste of the frosting on my birthday cake, but she didn’t go back for seconds. And she has tried the frosting before, so it wasn’t completely new. But that was it for new foods. She claims she will eat chocolate cake with chocolate frosting. So we will have to make it sometime. Unfortunately we still have too much birthday cake in the freezer so I’m not really feeling like I need to bake us yet another cake! Reading status: same as last month. Baby steps in getting her confident. I’m trying to just include it in every day life – e.g., if we […]

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The One with the Party and the Forgotten Cake

So two weeks after Adik turned two, we had a small gathering at our house with friends and neighbors. [[image:2014_adik2ndbday07.jpg:Birthday boy happily riding Rocky the Rocking Giraffe:center:0]] * Mouse over the pictures for captions It was a fun time and we got to hang out and catch up with people. Adik had had a good 2-year checkup, weighing 29 lbs 4 oz (75th percentile), and measuring 36 3/4 inches tall (99th percentile). So anyways, here are some pictures at the party:  [[image:2014_adik2ndbday01.jpg:Presents!:center:0]] [[image:2014_adik2ndbday03.jpg:Starting to open the presents:center:0]] [[image:2014_adik2ndbday02.jpg:The guys:center:0]] [[image:2014_adik2ndbday06.jpg:Yaya chatting with the ladies:center:0]]  The kids do not wait to play with the presents: [[image:2014_adik2ndbday04.jpg:Adik rides Benny the Bull in his new Mickey Mouse slippers:center:0]] [[image:2014_adik2ndbday05.jpg:Yay! Rocking giraffe!:center:0]] [[image:2014_adik2ndbday08.jpg:The kids with the 11th Doctor Who Mr Potato Head:center:0]] So, you ask, where are the pictures of the children crowded around a birthday cake with lit candles? Where are the adorable […]

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Rafe’s 24 Month Birthday (aka Second Birthday)

And so the boy is now two years old! The big T-W-O! Twenty-four months have passed so quickly! [[image:2013_1229_rafe03.jpg:Angel baby:center:0]] * Mouse over the pictures for captions So I was looking at Yaya’s 24 month entry to see what kind of things she was up to, and to see pictures of her as a two-year-old. One thing jumped right out – Yaya only had eleven teeth at age 2. Very different from her little brother who probably has close to his quota of twenty milk teeth! It really is interesting to note the differences between the children, both in physical developments as well as interests. Speech status: Adik is trying to speak in full sentences more and more. For example, he has changed from just saying “Have it?” to ask for something to now saying “Let me have it”. We hear “No, YA-YA!!” all the time and he now thinks […]

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