In his head

"I'm Coco," Sami declares. "You're Sami," his brother tells him. "I'm not Sami. I'm Coco," he replies, a little belligerently.
Sami is turning out to have such an imagination. He drives his cars around the house, talking as he goes, apparently creating scenes. Last night in the bath he held the rubber duck up, and said in not quite his voice- "Where's the fish? Oh, there it is." I think the rubber ducky was talking.
Another night, when he hadn't had a bath, I was trying to get his clothes off to put cleans ones on. The pants were easy to get off, but then he said, "No Pants!" and refused to put another pair on.I told him he didn't have to wear pants, and he yelled and carried on about "NO PANTS!!!" It took an age to get his shirt off, and then, again, he wouldn't let me put another one on. "You're naked!" I told him, so he preceded to unhitch his diaper and then he was starkers, except for his little socks. That was lots of fun, apparently, and he ran around enjoying it. I told him he couldn't nurse without a diaper, and finally got one on him. I wrestled him into the shirt, and he was so upset at me. This was after about half an hour of fooling around. I didn't put the pants on him, though, until after he'd gone to sleep.
I told someone that he's hilarious- but for about 5 minutes. Then it gets annoying!
Meanwhile, Leila is rehearsing for the school talent show. She auditioned today and is hoping to get in. Her piano teacher is helping her with the piece, a song from a tv show she likes, which she is singing and playing on the piano. The teacher had her practicing her walk to the piano and her bow ("reverence") as well as the musical part.

Summer Blessings

Yesterday some friends came by to swim. It was rainy and cool, so we sat around the table eating snacks, and G asked us each to answer- "What is your favorite thing so far this summer?"
The kids said things like- "Six Flags," or "Our Trip to San Antonio." Ali chose- "Chiheb"- our friend who was visiting for a month. I thought a lot of those things sounded good.
I've been thinking about this still today. We've had a really blessed summer. I thought June was going to be stay at home and do nothing month, after a busy semester of soccer shuttling, girl scouts, and work. But my brother-in-law had asked us to invite a friend's son to visit, so early June, just before school got out, we greeted a teenager from Algeria at the airport. Right away it was clear he was polite. We soon found out he was also a really great guy. Ali took to him as soon as he found out Chiheb knew about Pokemon. They watched some videos online and hung out. By the end of his 5 week stay, which he had extended by two weeks, he was part of the family. He took the kids out to ride bikes almost every day, and willingly watched them in the pool so I could work. He also joined in with the chore jar, prompting A and L to participate uncomplainingly. He was interested in everything, and learned to make cookies with Leila.
I taught an online class in May and then 2 in June. Usually H is home to help out with Sami, but this year he started working in May when I got out of school. So I got P, a college student from Iran, to come and hang out with Sami in the mornings so I could work. She's been another blessing this summer. Even though I'm home much of the time, she takes Sami for walks and plays with him, and I've been able to get away a couple of times to run errands.
We drove down to San Antonio one weekend to see the Alamo and go to Sea World. Other than traffic that extended the 4.5 hour drive to 7, we had a great trip. The kids went to Six Flags one day with Joy and T, and I hung out with my sister who had flown in for a day. We also went to the mall more times than I've been in the last 10 years- it's one of the things Chiheb really wanted to do. We had friends over for dinner, and went to friends' houses, too, and in between I graded papers like mad.
Sami learned to kiss for real- I got a couple nice ones last night. He's also fallen down or bumped his head frequently enough that his face hasn't been unmarred in weeks.
Ali learned to ride a bike in the Spring with Grandpa's help and using a bike he and Grandma gave him for his birthday. Leila finally learned to at the end of June. It turns out there's a really easy way to do it, which I found on the internet. Go to a grassy hill. Coast down. Repeat. Then start pedaling at some point. Practice, practice, practice. Now the two of them ride up and down our street- which is my biggest blessing this summer.
Before we moved we lived on a busy, busy street with the garages all in front. This in turn means the driveways were in front. Now we live on a very long street with no feed ins, and most of the driveways are in the back. The few in the front are just little curved ones. Although there are busy streets on both ends of our street, people don't really cut through. This means that I feel pretty good about the kids riding around and even walking over to the neighbors across the street to play. As well as being a great biking street, it's been wonderful for Sami to learn to walk. When my parents were here, and now with P, he takes numerous walks down the sidewalk, with no danger from someone backing out of their garage.
Part of the street blessing is our great neighbors. There are lots of little boys Sami's age on the street, and there is a family halfway down the block with 4 kids. One boy matches Ali, the girl matches Leila, and the oldest one enjoys playing with them all. They spend their days together in that magical summer endlessness, riding bikes, hanging out, spying, exploring, and sometimes swimming. The other day the two girls had a lemonade stand- a first for both, and well supervised by the moms because of their dad's protectiveness.
All in all it's been a great summer so far. Now that I've wrapped up my June classes, I'm feeling like my summer has finally started. I'm working on so many things, of course, but I finally feel like I've got some times. Today I spent cooking for tomorrow night's Iftar dinner which we are holding here. Ramadan started last week, and dinner is late- just before 9. Last week we were at a friend's, and this week here. Next week the kids and I will be traveling, so I don't know what goodies they'll enjoy.
I do expect more blessings, though, because the summer is only half way through.

Mommy daughter time

Leila and I went for our trail ride today. We were the first ride of the day, with two other mom/daughter pairs, so we termed it a mother-daughter ride. The fun thing about being first was that we got to help groom the horses. One of them had rolled in mud, so Leila and I gave him a "cowboy" grooming- that is, we cleaned him up where the saddle was going to touch.
I got up on the horse, and then suddenly wondered what I was doing. I quickly got my horse legs, though, and we had a good ride. I even managed some pictures, which I'll have to post later.
Driving back to town, Leila and I had a nice chat. We often listen to books on cd in the car, which helps my brain in the morning so I don't have to deal with so much chatter, but sometimes it's good to just talk.
She told me a couple of interesting things. For example, once she saw a taco bell commercial, a stool softener commercial, and a toilet paper commercial all in a row. She thought that was funny. Then we got to talking about the bears in the Charmin commercial, and how the mom holds up a pair of underwear to show that they are clean- but the bears don't even wear underwear. This led to talking about Donald Duck and his lack of pants. He just wears a shirt. One time he lost that shirt, however, and instead of trying to cover his chest, he did the classic naked pose and "covered the place where his pants would be." "Disney Logic," she said.
Isn't she smart? Apparently she and a friend had been talking about "human logic" where you cut down a tree to make paper to write about not cutting down trees. Or, you cut down a tree, where a bird lives, and make wood, and make a bird house for the bird to live in. See how it works?
Maybe kids SHOULD run the world.

Riders

Saturday we finally went and redeemed our Plum District Voucher to Broken Bow Ranch. I had given the horse riding lessons to Leila for her birthday, back in April!

She had a great time- well worth the almost hour's drive. And when they found out Sami had never been on a horse, they put him up for a short ride, too! Looks like a real Texan, don't ya think?
I also heard him say "Hi" to the horse- first time I've heard such a definite greeting from him.

Ali stayed at a friend's house to play- and the best part, when we went to pick him up, they invited us in for delicious couscous. Yum!

Next week Leila decided to go on a trail ride instead of a second lesson- so I'm going to go too! I'm already dreading Sunday*!

Sami still refuses to walk, though he did take a quick step when I put him on his feet the other day. Meanwhile, he's found another way to carry his noisemakers as he crawls around. And no, we don't feed him in this pan!

 *The trail ride is Saturday- the sore legs are Sunday.

Cleanliness

Ali was doing some nose picking on the bed tonight and I told him to go and get a tissue and wash his hands. "Why does everyone have to be so clean all the time!" he complained, but complied.
Last night the hot water heater somehow got turned down to low, and when we got home from Tae Kwon Do, I told Ali to hustle into the shower, but warned him it would be cold. I guess it wasn't too bad, and he enjoyed it as much as he enjoys any shower, I guess. (Though it might have been a bit shorter than normal!)
Leila then insisted on taking a shower to wash her hair, today being picture day. It confused her- just turning on the hot water and not needing to add any cold, but she figured it out. Afterwards she confessed that she'd only washed her hair- not the rest of her- because it was way too cold! But I realized, she's going to one of those that's willing to suffer for beauty.
This morning I went to the assembly at school because Ali got a Very Major Award for being such a great kid at school.

"A surprise announcement will free you."

This was yesterday's fortune- and it was true- sort of. I was supposed to facilitate a workshop in the afternoon, but my co-facilitator canceled, freeing me up, to!
I had a headache when I woke up. I looked around at the mess we'd made from the house and all the stuff needing to be put away from our trip- ughhh. The phone rang. It was the real estate showing service. Could we show the house in 45 minutes? No Way! My realtor quickly called to reschedule- how about in 2 hours? Luckily I had already unpacked and put a lot of things away. With H's help, we managed to get the house pretty spotless, and were almost out the door when the people showed up.
For his Eid present, Ali had gotten a new DSi chip, but Leila told her dad she just wanted love for Eid. (She's very non-materialistic).
I decided she should at least get some new clothes. She doesn't really need much, but it's fun to have some new things for school, and she's been wanting to go clothes shopping at the mall. After a food court lunch, we went into H & M and she got a couple of new outfits. Then we stopped in Macy's and got her the LOVE t-shirt we'd seen on the way in. After all, Love was her request for Eid.  She'd already chosen a first day outfit from her closet, but I think it's been usurped by something we picked up.
(I did go to work yesterday- we had evening meetings.)
Today we're going swimming with girl scout friends.
I hope today's fortune "A long, lost love will cross your path," won't come true, unless it's something like a food or activity I have forgotten.

"The light of a hundred stars cannot equal the light of the moon."

I've always loved the moon- it pulls me.
The kids saw a movie yesterday- Brave- where someone sweeps all the extra stars up into a crescent moon.
I married a man from Ksar Hellal-the castle of the crescent moon- sounds romantic, doesn't it? Reality, of course, is rather different. When he first took me to Tunisia, he talked the guards into letting us into the ruins of ancient Carthage after dark. As we walked in, the moon was just rising, bathing the fallen columns in silver. We had five enchanted minutes before the guard turned on all the lights.
As a child I watched the golden moon paint our lake gold, then silver as it rose higher. Sometimes we swam out the path it made for us.
It became Leila's dream to see the moon rise like this, spurred partly by her obsession with mermaids. My parents fulfilled this on an RV trip this summer, parking one night by a lake where the clouds held back long enough for her to experience the magic. (I warned her not to go swimming, though, as I didn't want her sprouting a tail everytime she gets wet, a la H2O.)
I had wanted to give her the middle name of Lua, but H wouldn't go with that. Instead, she's named for wisdom.

Current obsessions.

And I mean, OBSESSIONS!!!
Ali- Pokemon. At a friend's birthday party at a jump house, he spent a long time talking Pokemon to the teenager tending the trampolines. Anyone with the slightest knowledge of Pokemon has his/her brain picked clean, and he spends hours with his friends playing on the ds, or playing with the figurines, or looking at cards. His were very organized until they fell on the floor. I would know more about them but I kind of tune out Pokemon information, just "uh-huing" at the right moment. A friend from Sweden was visiting with his family, and when Ali found out his son used to love Pokemon, he immediately latched onto him.
Leila- mermaids. She's watched every episode of an Australian show called H20, in which three girls happen upon a magical pool and become mermaids. In every episode they get wet, transform, and have to avoid detection. Today she wanted the scales off the Salmon* I was preparing for dinner in the hopes that by applying them to her legs she would one day just start growing a tail.
She also wants to buy a mermaid tail and/or find a magical pool.
Sami- the telephone. I'm afraid one day he's going to dial 911. He still loves the remote control, too. I got him his own cell phone and remote, but they are bright colored and clearly kids' toys. He wants the real thing. He also likes cords, and like everything else, they go straight to his mouth.
*Salmon deserves to be capitalized. Even on sale it's expensive!

"Money is the root of all evil. And man needs roots."

These are just getting ridiculous! I'm not even a man!
But speaking of money- the kids are a bit funny with this. Leila has several gift cards for Target, and some cash, but she doesn't really think about spending it. Ali, on the other hand, gets an idea of something he'd like to buy, and then that's all he can think about. Last week he was trying to earn a couple more dollars to up his total to $30, which is what he thought a Pokemon DS game would cost him. I owed him some allowance, so he had enough. But then he found a stuffed Snivey (Pokemon) and decided he wanted that too. He has no concept of saving for the future, so he spent more money on that, even though I warned him he might want to spend that money on something else, later.
Sami would probably just eat any money given to him.

"You will say yes when you should say no."

Oddly enough, this isn't entirely true of me. Well, I do say yes too much, but I also am willing to say no, especially about work things. This is strangely intimidating to some people.
One of my tactics is to let other people who have a tendency to say yes say it first. Sometimes this works.
I actually need to work on saying "yes" more to the kids. That's what some moms do. I also, incidentally, need to take them bowling. (Did you click on that link?)
Yesterday I said "yes" to taking Ali to the store to buy a new Pokemon game. You'd have thought it was Christmas. He woke up excited, and when he'd picked out the game, even thought it wasn't the exact one he'd gone in for, he thanked the store clerk "very much" and very enthusiastically.
Leila got a new Monster High doll. The only one of this doll had chewing gum on the plastic packaging, and had obviously been opened, though nothing was missing. When we checked out, we asked for, and got, a nice discount. (Christmas indeed!)
Sami's yes is the freedom to crawl around as he likes, with the occasional rescue from under a chair.

"him with his foot in his mouth"

What we've done

Sami has been working on his sitting skills. He's gotten really good!

 He attends soccer games and works on his charm skills. Here he's smiling like Uncle Serge.

 He's also been teething like mad. 4 months of drooling have finally resulted in one bottom tooth popping out. It's jagged and sharp, and has been used as a weapon. Here he is enacting the "great white hunter" and eating a giraffe. (Sophie, from France, not Africa).

I've been doing yoga, but my "Happy Baby" pose is nowhere near as good as his, nor am I as limber. I wonder if he hurts his foot when he bites it with that one tooth?

 Leila turned nine. We celebrated with an enormous sleepover that went from applying makeup... (these two weren't interested in applying it properly!)

...to gathering bugs in the yard. This is such a great age! Only one girl cried, and it was her older sister, who had come along as a chaperone, who caused it, so it doesn't count.

13 girls (2 older sisters) were there for the evening, and 9 spent the night. Not a one had to go home during the night, and though I didn't make them sleep until midnight, they were all wide awake at 6:40.

Later that morning Leila had a soccer game. The season is winding down, much to my relief. I love that they play, and value it, but 3 different practices a week and two games at a field on the other side of town on Saturdays during high allergy season is a little much. The weather has been lovely- I just wish I could enjoy it. I also wish that the kids could win at least one game! It's hard getting beaten every week- but they are improving.

Ali has been working on his DS skills, and now that the kids got a Wii for their birthdays, playing on that. My folks came for a few days and played with the kids and helped organize the house.

Ali also got behind the wheel of a very slow go-cart at the party of a friend. When they offered him another ride for free, he refused. I don't know why. I guess "slow and steady wins the race" for him.

That pretty much sums up April. I've been grading like mad and trying to finish up some PhD readings, as well as working on the house. We want to put it on the market by the end of May.

Dinner table sillies

Last night we were getting silly at the dinner table, talking about the problems with counting sheep.
You know, like you are counting all these white sheep, and then a black one comes along and messes you up. Or you are counting: sheep, sheep, sheep, sheep, goat... what????
Then we started talking about vegetarians, and what they might count- I said onions. Leila said, "but they will make you cry! But then you'll cry yourself to sleep."
Oh, the depths of that humor!
When I was in third grade, I played an onion in a play- The part of my speech I remember is: "Just because I make you cry, you leave me behind! I come in all different colors...."
Today is Leila's 9th birthday. Or, as I like to call it, my 10th momaversary! But really, it's all about celebrating her today. I woke up and heard a faint singing of "Rumor has it.." Leila was outside, swinging and listening to her ipod.
For breakfast, she got pancakes and sausages. Tonight she's requested chicken and dumplings and chocolate pie. She likes all pies, but she knows her brother doesn't, so she's being thoughtful. She also requested that she get to help me make the pie- so that's on today's schedule.

Good Company

Buckets

It's hard to be a girl in third grade. Leila comes home with various dramas throughout the week, and the emotions spill over into attitude and disrespect at home, and it usually all comes out after she's gotten in trouble for something. A friend at school isn't forgiving her even though she apologized, or someone isn't including her in play and the like. I advised her to be kind and do something nice for her friend who isn't being very friendly back, and she told me about a book they had read about buckets, and filling other people's buckets, and how filling someone else's bucket also fills your bucket. (The bucket is full of happiness, I think.)
The next day, Ali said to me, "You look nice today, Mommy." I asked, "Why do you say that Ali?" "Because I want to fill your bucket."
So it sounds like lots of people are reading this book at school.
I was really wondering why he thought I looked nice, so I asked him, and he said, "You look nice to me. You probably look nice to other people, too."
A little later I heard him talking about the buckets to H. Then, "Do I fill up your bucket, daddy?" "Yes, Ali." "Oh. You fill up my bucket, too."
This morning he said to Leila, "You look nice today." Ali doesn't like to diversify in his bucket filling technique, though when I said this afternoon that I needed my bucket filled, he said, "I can help with that," and came over and gave me a big hug.
I told them yesterday that words weren't the only way of filling the bucket, and I think we'll do a bucket project over spring break next week. I'm going to cut some bucket shapes out of construction paper and put them on the pantry door. When someone does something nice for us, we'll put a sticker or comment on their bucket. When all the buckets are full, a trip to the yogurt shop would be appropriate- don't you think?

Four Weeks

Sami has been in our lives for four weeks, which have just sped by. Last Saturday we had a "Sip and See" for him- a Southern tradition where people drop by to take a gander at the new child. A lot of folks came, and it was great fun to catch up with people from all areas of my life, some of whom I hadn't seen in quite a while. Sami was passed from person to person- he loved being held and slept through most of it. H was in the kitchen making pizza, and those who didn't leave early got some of that yumminess.
The kids mostly played outside, with excursions to the table for brownies, snickerdoodles, chex mix, and mini pumpkin muffins. The cake read- "Welcome Sami!"
Leila told one friend that she was going to skip puberty and go straight to adulthood. I asked her about that later, and she explained that puberty sounded to scary- I assured her that it wasn't too bad if one did it right- which meant talking to her mom. I hope that works for her!
My folks, who had been here for almost 3 weeks, left the next day, leaving us to deal with laundry, school age kids, and cooking on our own. Luckily it was Thanksgiving week- and my mom cooked us Thanksgiving dinner on Friday night before they left.
Thanksgiving holidays weren't that much fun for the kids. We did go to friends for dinner on Thursday night, and to the local paint your pottery place on Friday, and the library on Saturday. Tonight some other friends brought a delicious Chicken Masala dinner and tomorrow it's back to school. The laundry is part way done, the house is a mess, but Sami is asleep at the breast, despite my typing with the arm that is holding him.

Doing it right- I guess.

The other day, Leila told me that if people could choose their parents, she would choose us. She actually said- she was glad we are her parents- but that's what she meant.
She was thinking of this while looking at Sami.
I'm glad she's my daughter, too, however crazy she drives me on occasion.

In the right place

Ali wanted to know what was going to happen when the baby was born, so I explained who would take care of them and where he and Leila would be. "Where are you going to be?" he asked me. "At a special place to have the baby." "Where is Baba going to be?" "With me," I told him. "Where is God going to be?" "He's going to be with all of us," for which I am devoutly grateful. Then he asked "Where are the neighbors going to be?" I told him it was none of my business. (Unless they are the ones taking care of the kids!)

He was worried that the baby might come on Halloween- so am I! I told him Grandma and Grandpa were going to be here when the baby comes, and we would call them to come in from the camper. Leila thought they would like that, as the camper will be cold. But at the rate we're going with Texas weather, it'll just be too hot!

Tummy time

Yesterday Leila told me that my growing belly doesn't seem that big or that odd to her. "Maybe it's because Baba's belly was that big for a while!"
Good thing she didn't say my belly was already big before I was pregnant!

Leila's 8th Birthday

Almost a month after, I'm finally getting around to posting about this. Leila had a fun party this year- we did a Movie Star Mystery from Dramatic Fanatic. 12 of her friends joined us for a red carpet walk and an award ceremony in the back yard. It wasn't quite as exhausting as usual- and having Grandma and Grandpa there was a big help.

On the day of she requested pie instead of cake.  Ali's gift was a gift card to Burger King- and a crown to go with it. He was going to get her a Sonic gift card, but we drove past it and found BK instead, and he REALLY liked that idea.