And so, the girl is six and a half years old! 78 months of Yaya! [[image:2015-yaya78month-09.jpg:In the sun:center:0]] * Mouse over the pictures for captions January turned out to be a crazy busy month! I started a new project at work and had my first solo trip away from Vin and the kids (to California!) so that was exciting, thrilling, scary, dramatic, disturbing and in the end, not as painful as we anticipated! In the end, the kids are getting older and do not need their Mama around 24/7 any more. However, it was quite an adjustment for everyone. But on top of this, we had Adik’s birthday party, and we spent almost 2 weeks in Ocala, Florida for the new project with side trips to Silver Springs and St. Augustine Beach. So it was a very busy month and also a fun month! Food status – sadly, due to […]
Continue readingTag Archives: Birthday
Also thanks to Cik Emma for the birthday cake
A list of blog posts where BIRTHDAYS were celebrated. Also, lots of food photos..
The one with the no-Graeter’s Ice Cream Cake party
Thirteen days after Adik’s third birthday, we had a small party for friends and neighbors. [[image:2015_adik3rdbday02.jpg:Excited about the party!:center:0]] * Mouse over the pictures for captions In the morning, we take a short break during the frenzied preparation for the party. I had just returned from my first solo trip away from Vin and the kids that Friday night and Sunday afternoon was the party. You can imagine the crazed amount of clean up and food preparation and whatnot that had to happen. [[image:2015_adik3rdbday01.jpg:Happy together during the break:center:0]] And then it was time for the festivities! [[image:2015_adik3rdbday03.jpg:Papa lights the candle:center:0]] [[image:2015_adik3rdbday04.jpg:Happy Adik while we all sing the Happy Birthday song:center:0]] [[image:2015_adik3rdbday05.jpg:Deep breath in!:center:0]] [[image:2015_adik3rdbday06.jpg:The candle was blown out in one go!:center:0]] And if you noticed, this is not our usual Graeter’s ice cream cake. The Graeter’s location in Springboro that had been our usual Graeter’s had been closed down, and […]
Continue readingRafe’s 36 Month Birthday (And he is 3!)
And so, the boy is now 3 years old! Or as he would say it, “thwee” 🙂 [[image:2014-adik36month-32.jpg:A beautiful smile on my not-so-babyish-anymore baby boy:center:0]] * Mouse over the pictures for captions To be in line with how I did Yaya’s blog entries, this will be the final one of Adik’s entries that document how he spent his day. Instead, from next month onwards, Adik’s entries will be more of a round-up of the month with fewer photos taken from the entire month. I feel a little bit sad as I’m writing this, since this will really be the last one of these kinds of entries, but it is time. Adik is three. We will keep to a shorter format with favorite photos from the month. Like Yaya’s entries are now. Second announcement, I suppose as a way of overcompensating for the fact that this will be the final long […]
Continue reading77 Months
77 Yaya-filled months! [[image:2014-yaya77month-05.jpg:Happily making use of her “lumps of coal” Christmas present:center:0]] Unlike some children, Yaya was completely happy to play with her “lumps of coal” Christmas present. She made a drawing of a cat using various charcoal pieces on regular printer paper. * Mouse over the pictures for captions So December was very busy and filled with fun and activities. We did not have to go anywhere for work but Jo, Vin’s sister came to visit and stayed with us for two weeks so we had a ton of fun with her. We took Jo to Elkhart to visit with Becky and her family for a few days and had such a great time. More on that visit and the pictures from it here (stay tuned for an active link). I did have to do some work from home, but I tried to get up early and get […]
Continue readingRafe’s 35 Month Birthday
One more month before Adik is 3! [[image:2014-adik35month-20.jpg:Happily eating Nutella:center:0]] That photo was not taken on Adik’s 35-month birthday but it was so cute I had to include it. The makers of Nutella can feel free to contact us if they want to use that photo. Not! Also, if asked, I will categorically deny that I am writing this entry on the first day of 2015. I deny it, I do! 😉 * Mouse over the pictures for captions So let’s quickly do statuses. Reading: check. Boy is literate. Speech: good. Food: OK. He does gravitate towards toast when we are on the road but will eat all kinds of things at home. He will chow down on roti canai, mama’s “spiky” lunch noodles (“spiky” is how he says “spicy” and he hates non-spicy noodles but doesn’t like it to be too spicy either), Pringles, goldfish crackers, and is following […]
Continue reading76 Months
76 months of Yaya! [[image:2014-yaya76month-01.jpg:Bloooooooooooood:center:0]] * Mouse over the pictures for captions OK since it is almost January as I sit to write this entry, I feel like I can barely remember what November was like. It was busy. We spent two weeks in Tampa, Florida (including another quick Clearwater Beach getaway), then it was Thanksgiving and we had a houseguest and went to Elkhart, Indiana. So it was a busy busy month. Reading status: no change. Still the same. We are still trying to gently encourage her. She does like it when we read to her. It will come together for her, inshallah. Food status: Yaya tried a few more things in November. This includes:* croissants (she’d tried this before but for breakfast at the Hilton Clearwater Beach, she ate them like crazy, dipped in butter)* fresh juiced orange juice (Becky has a juicer and Yaya helped prepare the […]
Continue readingRafe’s 34 Month Birthday
Two more months until Adik turns 3! He is now at his 34th month! Whee! [[image:2014-adik34month-01.jpg:Adik loves the Nutella jar!:center:0]] * Mouse over the pictures for captions Adik’s reading skills just seem to keep improving. He is retaining words and recognizing them again. He is also able to approximate the sounds of words that he is not familiar with by looking at the letters. We are constantly amazed by the words that he knows. He loves reading the names of the authors and titles of my books, for instance, and so it did amuse me when he read “The Causal Angel” by “Hannu Rajaniemi” with no issues when I pulled it out of the amazon box. Speech-wise, Adik continues to speak in complete sentences and is more and more expressing his own ideas. He now joins in our conversations about the dreams we had at night (sometimes what he says […]
Continue reading75 Months
75 months of the girl! [[image:2014-yaya75month-09.jpg:Yaya smiles in the shadows and light:center:0]] * Mouse over the pictures for captions October has been pretty action packed. We have been back and forth to and from the new gig (Tampa, Florida) twice in October, and everyone is pretty much travel weary by now. But Yaya and the Adik have done well, despite all the carting around. We managed a weekend getaway to the beach (more later), Vin attended a wedding and we saw some friends, and of course there was Halloween. Busy month all around. In the food status section, Yaya has also had an action filled month of trying new foods! She tried: * Superman flavored ice-cream (red / yellow / blue kind of berry or tutti frutti sort of flavor)* Blueberry pie (she liked mostly the filling but was surprisingly not fond of the crust)* Fresh Blueberry (she did not […]
Continue readingRafe’s 33 Month Birthday
We are 3 months away from Adik’s third birthday. 33 months old! 2.75 years old! [[image:2014-adik33month-12.jpg:My beautiful baby boy:center:0]] * Mouse over the pictures for captions Adik just loves to read. He is obsessed with the written word. He knows most of the Arabic letters now and reads English easily at a first grade level I think. He loves to read the names of the authors of the books that Vin and I are reading, and also the titles. He enjoys being read to but he mostly does the reading so really, he’s reading to us. But he likes the company and guidance. His book tastes run from actual simple story books (he does not seem to follow the plots of the novels that Yaya and I are reading, for example, although he does know the names of the characters and some of the scenes) to board books, and flap […]
Continue reading74 Months
74 months of Yaya! [[image:2014-yaya74month-07.jpg:Let’s make funny faces!:center:0]] * Mouse over the pictures for captions September had its quiet and un-quiet moments. Vin had to go away for a few days to attend a funeral, leaving me and the kids home alone for the first time. Then we had to go to Tampa, Florida for the new project. All in all, it was a good month, albeit exhausting at the end of the month. In the food status section, Yaya ate a couple of new things:* lime-ade popsicle* sno-cone (blue) at the circus Oh yeah, we took the kids to the circus! It was fun. More on that later. Reading status: still the same. The switch has yet to turn on completely so we just have to keep on keeping on. Yaya still is very into doing artwork and enjoying art in all different media. She still enjoys being read […]
Continue reading
A Birthday Once More
It’s Irfan’s 12th birthday. We were supposed to set something up for him, like allowing him to invite his friends over. But because of low resources, we had to cancel. But Cikma and Ayah Cik The Younger came with a cake anyway, so we held a small gathering. I was not even in the right frame of mind to take photographs so we do not have photos of the cake. The GOKL group did pass the gift they bought for Irfan, which was the boardgame Tsuro. I did however take a picture of Irfan unboxing and playing Tsuro. We love you Irfan. It’s been a rough year what with – among others – the UPSR fiasco and the absolute unreliability of this country’s education system at this point in time, but we will strive for a better year for you next year. Also, many thanks to everyone who wished him […]
Continue readingRafe’s 32 Month Birthday
32 months old now! Only four months (less than that, given the actual date I’m writing this entry) until the boy is three years old! [[image:2014-adik32month-02.jpg:Love this big smile:center:0]] * Mouse over the pictures for captions As mentioned before, August was a quiet month where I worked from home and finished out a contract. It was a good month in that we got a lot of family togetherness. Adik continues to develop into a beautiful little reader. He asks us what a word is that he sees (in a book, on TV, on a billboard, on the computer) if he doesn’t know it. We help him to read it and he will usually remember it for the next time. He is also showing a lot of interest in the flash cards that Zarin brought for them. So he knows almost all the Arabic letters now, and keeps bringing me the […]
Continue reading73 Months
73 months old now! Please don’t mind the belatedness (and backdated-ness) of the entry. [[image:2014-yaya73month-04.jpg:Happy Yaya!:center:0]] * Mouse over the pictures for captions August was a quiet month again – I worked from home the entire time and there was very little drama, etc. We did have Yaya’s birthday party (10 August) so that was definitely fun. A small affair with neighbors and family. Many of the pictures from this month will be related to the party and the presents that came for Yaya from near and far (what a lucky little girl). Also we went to an Eid gathering which was super fun. Let’s get to the usual monthly roundup. Food status: some more progress: * lemonade (from the farmer’s market)* lemonade (made at home – judged to be inferior to farmer’s market lemonade as I am apparently stingy with the sugar syrup)* 14 slices of carrot in one […]
Continue readingRafe’s 31 Month Birthday
And the boy is 31 months old! [[image:2014-adik31month-11.jpg:Happy boy:center:0]] * Mouse over the pictures for captions Like Yaya’s 6th birthday, we were in Minneapolis for Adik’s 31-month birthday. It has definitely been a busy and social month, despite it being Ramadan and me being in between projects (or unemployed) for almost 3 weeks. Adik is happily reading away, and his recognition of words is just amazing. When we read together, he wants to read to me and not the other way round. He will say “you read it” if he encounters a word that he doesn’t know. Then he will re-read the sentence and say the word again and be very pleased with himself. Chances are, when he comes across this word again later, he will recognize it. I think he is already starting to do what we all do, which is to say, he looks at a word’s beginning […]
Continue reading72 Months (a.k.a the sixth birthday!)
And so the girl is now six years old! 72 months old! Hurrah!! [[image:2014-yaya72month-33.jpg:My big six-year-old:center:0]] * Mouse over the pictures for captions Apparently we are feast or famine type people. After the end of June (and the end of my contract), a month where we did not do anything at all – did not go anywhere or do anything much – July has been very very active and social. I had a 20-day break before the start of my next contract, and since it was Ramadhan and the days were ridiculously long, you would have thought that we would have just holed up and done nothing. Nope, we were not going to waste the beautiful summer days where I didn’t have to work! We had a trip to Elkhart to see Becky and her family, and my next contract dictated that we be in Minneapolis on July 21st. So […]
Continue readingRafe’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 […]
Continue reading