No time to post

Here's a post that I started but never finished:

Well it's clear I've been too busy to write. It doesn't mean Aliyah hasn't been up to anything though. She's so amazing! She is really smart mashaAllah. Her vocabulary is huge. She amazes me with how much she picks up. There's so much to say but I won't do her justice. I guess I'll just list some of the best things.



We have an inside joke (this actually started about two months ago or so). For some reason one night, when I was trying to put her to sleep, she out of the blue says "wall". I thought it was funny because it was so random, so I laughed. "Wall?" I say. "Wall," she says, noticing that it gets a reaction of laughter. "Wall." She says again and laughs. Now whenever I'm trying to put her to sleep and she wants to play, she says "wall" and starts laughing.

Talking and Growing

I haven't written in so long. I've been busy with work (I just started teaching social studies) and it's the month of Ramadan. So much has happened in just the last month or two. Aliyah is talking so much now. She has a very large vocabulary and she even puts words together.

When I put her to sleep she always says "this" and motions to me that she wants me to put my arm around her...so cuddly. She also likes to put her feet against my skin, usually my arm. She says "hug" when she wants me to hug her or pick her up. She also says "up" and "down." If she wants to get out of the stroller she says "walk". When she wants something she says "pease" or "this" or "this one." Sometimes she calls her daddy Amin, his name.

When she wants something she says "this" and nods her heading, pointing to an object. She'll point to something and say "Aliyah's", even if it isn't hers. That either means that it belongs to her or it belongs to someone else but she wants it.

The other day, Amin and Aliyah and I went shopping for Eid gifts. We were in TG Max, looking for clothes for Aliyah. She found a pair of shoes that were for a newborn. She thought they were great. She gives them to her daddy and says "buy. nice." and shakes her head in confirmation. At this age she already knows what she wants and isn't afraid to ask for it.

She really loves books. She also likes watching cartoons. I bought her spot on DVD. She loves it so much! She says "bot" when she wants to watch it.

Another cute thing she says is "oh man." I don't know where she got that. From me? I didn't think I said that.

She like to play in the car. Her daddy lets her go in there a lot. She honks the horn with her whole body, I guess because she doesn't have enough strength to do it with her hands. She leans forward and pushes her stomach into the steering wheel horn. She'll point to the car and say "Mommy's vroom", then point to her tricycle and says "Aliyah's vroom".

She goes up and down stairs like a pro. She loves to make animal noises. She makes the cow noise, sheep, cat, dog, duck, bird, monkey, wolf and owl. She says Allah and prays almost exactly like me now. She almost got through a whole rakat once =)

What are some things she loves...Planes and helicoptors are so exciting. She points and waves and kisses them. "Bye bye." She loves hats, especially daddy's. She wears other things as hats too, like my clothes or her diaper. She loves to steal her anaagee's chair. When she hears/sees her coming down the stairs, she runs and sits in her chair as if to claim it..."Aliyah's," she says. She loves to run. She says "go! go! go!" "run! run! run!" When we take walks though, she seems to get bored and decides to sit down. Then again, she doesn't want to go in the stroller either. She just wants to hang out. She also likes to find an interesting looking driveway and go up and down, walking backwards.

When her grandfather calls her from the top of the stairs he says "BeeBee!" She'll answer "BaaBaa!" They love to hang out together. He plays music for her and she dances on his bed. There's an afghan song for children and it goes "papaeyee papaeyee..." I'm not sure what it's about...walking? Anyways, that's what they call their music and dancing session: "papaeyee."

It's hard to get her to drink milk. The only way I can get her to drink it is to put chocolate syrup in it. She loves her juice though. One night we were eating out with daddy. He had some coke in a cup with a straw. She said "Juice. peaz." He told her it wasn't juice, it was water. She looked at him and said "juice" again as if to say "you can't fool me, daddy."

Well I have to go enjoy her now. Don't be surprised if I don't write for a while. There's too much to enjoy and little time to write about it! I love her!!!!

Giggles and Pouts

So what can I say about this little skinker? She's growing up so fast! She says "I did it" when she accomplishes things. Ha. You don't beleive me? I thought I was just imagining it the first 20 times but it's so consistent that it has to really be what she's saying. I think she's smarter than I give her credit for sometimes. Today, I decided to wash her bottom in the sink like her khala does for her kids. After I finished, she said "I like it." "You like it?", I said. "Yes" she said. Really? She's putting words together at 16 months? Is that normal? MashaAllah. I LOVE HER!

The older she gets, the more stubborn she gets. Hee hee. When we go somewhere, I put her shoes on and we walk to the car together. I start driving and within five minutes, her shoes are off. When we reach our destination, I see what she's done and say "No. We have to go. You need shoes to go." And she looks at me and says "go? shoes?" and proceeds to look for her shoes as if she had nothing to do with it. She knows she's not supposed to take them off. Her dad gets really annoyed when she does it and spent a whole day this weekend trying to teach her to stop. He starts off...two minutes later, the sound of a velcro strap can be heard from back seat..."NO ALIYAH"..."no", she says...ten seconds after that, the velcro is pulled again and this time Aliyah says "no"..."THAT'S RIGHT. NO!" daddy says..."no" she replies. I think you get the pattern. I can't help but just laugh at his futile plight. It's just shoes. I'll choose my battles. Alhamdulillah. =D

One of her favorite things to do is sit on the couch and pile all of the pillows on top of herself. It's extra fun when daddy takes one of the pillows and hits her in the face with it. Giggles fill the room every time. She loves to dance of course and tries to get me to sing to her by saying "mo" and doing the sign for more. I guess I have to teach her the sign for song. Her favorite song is one I made up about a poo poo diaper. It's actually quite catchy.

I've started to wean her and let's just say she's not happy about it. She only nurses in the morning and at night now. I tried so hard to get her to drink vitamin D milk out of a bottle at her nap time but she gets offended when I offer it to her and swats at it with a pouty face. I've tried a sippy cup with identical results. The only way I can get her to drink it is by tricking her into thinking it's something else. I put it into a vanilla milk drink carton that has a straw, sort of like a juice box. The only problem is she won't drink it if there's any mention of going to sleep and she can't drink it laying down. How will I ever eliminate her last two feedings??? She's a determined little thing.

Our air conditioning has been broken for the past few days and honestly, I love it. Aliyah goes to bed wearing just a diaper and in the morning when she hugs me, I get to feel her soft skin. She's so beautiful mashaAllah. She lovingly says "mommy" and kisses me and for that moment, I'm so content, so peaceful, so in love...and then she jumps on me and slaps me in the face until I'm fully awake...kind of like in the movies when someone faints and they try to get them to snap out of it. Yeah like that. Gotta love 'er.

Learnig and growing so fast

So I haven't really played many video games since Aliyah was born, but lately I've been playing a little Super Mario Galaxy with Amin. Aliyah saw us playing and was mesmerized. She wants her own controller and just sits and watches us, very quiet, very content, very intrigued. When we get a star or something else exciting happens, she points to the screen and makes a sound; "wow" or "ooo" or something similar.

Her favorite words are 'no' and 'go'. No is sometimes accompanied by the shaking of her pointer finger and is sometimes annuncicated so much so that it sounds like 'no-a'. 'No' might come out of her mouth because she's protesting something but it's usually because she's acknowledging that something is not okay for her to do or touch. 'Go' is usually makes its appearance when she puts her shoes on (or someone else's shoes), when Dada is going to work, or when she and Mommy are leaving somewhere. Anaagee gave her a purse and she put it on the other day and said "go" and headed for the door. Keys may also come into play in cases like this one. She grabs a set of keys and tries to fit in it the door, saying 'go', with her purse and shoes on of course. This morning, she was eating in her highchair a few minutes after Dada left for work. She started blowing kisses out of the blue "mwaa!" and said "bye-bye Dada Baaba".

When she finally makes it out the door I get nervous that she's going to take off running towards the street, but she's actually quite patient; she takes a few steps and looks back at the door, waiting for me to come out. Once we make it to the car, she tries to persuade me to let her sit and play in the front before getting into her carseat by herself. When we do let her play, she turns all the dials, plays with the wheel, and most importantly, she honks the horn by holding the wheel and using her chest and the weight of her little body to press up against it. She refers to the car as 'beep beep', 'teet teet', or 'toot toot'.

I'm typing right now and she's busy trying to squeeze by my chair so she can get under the desk and turn off the computer. When I wouldn't let her she said "no!" Now she's saying "hi" for some reason and "mommy". heh heh.

Anyway, another thing she's been doing a lot lately is cooking. She pulls up a stepping stool right beside me while I'm cooking on the stove. I give her an Aliyah-sized pan with a lid and a spoon or something to that effect. Then she stirs and puts the lid on, stirs and puts the lid on. She calls it "cooky". She was hungry today at lunch time and let me know by saying "nyum nyum" and doing the sign for eat (putting the hand to the mouth as if holding food). She then said "cooky" which meant that she wanted me to cook her something to eat.

She knows when I'm asking her a question. Especially "where is ____". If I say "where is your other shoe?", for example, she'll run and find it and give it to me. The other day, we had guests over and she was wearing a little dress that showed her thighs and had thin straps. Sure, she's just a baby, but I can understand why her dad didn't feel comfortable with her wearing it, so I took her to the room to change her outfit. I asked her "Where's your shame?" and she held out her little hands, palms extended in the air, let out a little "uh?" and proceeded to look around for it. You gotta love 'er!

She hits me out of excitement sometimes and I say "ouch" and make a sad face. She then kisses me and hugs me and pats me, trying to make me feel better. She's the sweetest thing in the world! I love her soooooo much! Alhamdulillah =)

So Sweet

I love to be awaken by Aliyah's kisses...and when I'm too tired to get up and she's bored of tearing the bedroom apart, I don't mind being pulled out of bed by my shirt.

Her favorite word is yummy. She woke up this morning from her nap this afternoon saying yummy. She spoke it in her sleep the other night. Her favorite book is yummy YUCKY. She lost her appetite for a few weeks but now it's back again with a vengence. Yesterday, I literally spent most of my day feeding her. She considers some unusual things yummy...like rocks for instance. She dislikes salad and loves ice and the whipped cream from my frappuccinos. Picking strawberries with grandma is very fun and of course yummy.

When I wasn't watching, she got super smart all of a sudden. She understands a lot of what people say to her. She can do things that she's asked like lay down to get her diaper changed, help clean up the condiments after dinner by bringing them one by one to the kitchen, or go put something back where she found it. She talks a lot now and although she doesn't always make sense, she seems to know what she's talking about, responding to questions and shaking her head. She mimics a lot now. I catch her lounging in my chair often, remote control in hand.

She kisses me and hugs me a lot. I love it when she runs to me, hugs me, kisses me and says "ma ma" over and over as she pats me. What a wonderful feeling! It's difficult to get her to sleep in her crib and we usually end up bringing her to bed with us at night. She likes to curl up beside one of us like two spoons, her head resting against her mommy's or daddy's chest. Sometimes she lays on top of me with her face smooshed against my face. Comfort is hardly a priority for me when snuggling is taking place.

I love her dancing. She recently incorporated the twist into her list of dance moves. My favorite, however, would still have to be the "rev your engine." This move starts with a fist extension away from her side. Then a pull back manuvuer. Sort of like the gears that turn the wheels of a train. Heading off forward or spinning in a circle usually accompany this signature Beebee move. We couldn't figure out where she got this from at first. Then, one day when Amin was putting on his spray deodorant and moving his arm to rub it in, Beebee repeated his motion. That's when it hit him that she was imitating him. She must have thought da da was dancing every morning after he sprayed himself.

She has a teddy bear she calls baby. She pats it the way I pat her when I'm trying to comfort her. She's so sweet. She really has a loving and adorable personality. She's also a handfull. She's always on the move. Beebee loves being outside and runs out the door every chance she gets. She has a fascination with her ama's toothbrush and always takes it. She also tries to attack ama's computer when she sees an opportunity when ama isn't watching. She's just a little explorer doing what she does best...explore!

I LOVE HER!!!

Trouble maker

Beebee's favorite new word is no. She says no no no no no all the time. Maybe it's because she's always getting into things she's not supposed to and making me say no. Sometimes she'll point to something she's not supposed to touch and say 'no no no no.'

Whenever she has something she knows she's not supposed to, she's on heightened alert. Any little noise will make her flinch. If I say "uh oh," she'll quickly take the object and run the other direction because she knows I'm going to take it away.

Usually, when I try to put her in her high chair or car seat, she'll act possessed, crying and arching her back with all the strength in her body. Then when she's in there, she makes the sign for 'all finished' before anything has even begun. Today, I caught her throwing carrots across the room. Wonderful. But at least this coincides with her desire to "clean up"...she takes a tissue or diaper or similar object and wipes the floor or table with it. Heh heh heh. I love her =)

Aliyah creates her own post

cb vvvvv m m n bn nnnnnn b b vb mn jnm mm mn mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmn bbbb n bnnnnnn nb

Aliyah just somehow managed to create a new post and typed that while I was busy praying =)

Rambunctious. Beautiful. Awesome.

Every morning, I wake up to the loving little kisses of my baby. She presses her lips on my face and then lifts them, making half of a puckering noise along with a "ma ma." She gives me several ma ma kisses before smiling, giggling, and crawling away. What a wonderful way to wake up.

Needless to say, Aliyah has finally associated "ma ma" with me =) She actually started saying ma ma the same day I posted the last entry. She also picked up several other words including "da(t)" for "cat", "dal da" for "Yelda", "bi(r)h" for "bird", "haah" for "hot", and "gha ghaa" for "yucky (diaper)/clean diaper/anything dirty." "Num na" is still my favorite sound that she makes =)

This little girl is really getting to be a handful. She climbs on everything and gets into every drawer, cabinet, and curiousity-inspiring crevice. Now that she's walking, or should I say running, she can't be stopped. Amin and I took her to the mall this past weekend and after we finished shopping, we let her out of the stroller to stretch her legs. She was so excited, to say the least. She laughed and ran one way...then made a u-turn after crossing the threshold of a store and back again. Over and over and over, nearly crashing into several passers-by. Then she took off down the hall, her little bootie struggling to keep up with her sprinting toes. 'Plop'...on the floor...back up and in business...u-turn, squeal, wave, shreik, sprint, 'what's that?', slobber on railing as she gazes at the human traffic below...and off again towards Dada with Mama in tow. In the words of her ama, "she's rambunctious, that one".

She has lots of energy and no fear; the best combination. Did I just say best? She likes to explore and she sometimes manages to get away from parental eyes for a moment. I've found her in the laundry room, the storage room, the bathroom, all in the pitch black. She doesn't seem to mind the darkness and just somehow manages to go straight for the things she'd been eyeing earlier.

In my dua while pregnant with her, I asked Allah to make her outgoing and loving, just like her ama. She certainly is. When it comes to being outgoing, she is sometimes shy as all small children are, but for the most part she loves people. She waves to everyone and smiles at strangers. All depending on her mood of course, she may cry if around strangers or not wave until the person is already gone. Some people are scarier than others and kids are always welcomed instantly. I took her to the masjid one day and this older uncle was talking to her in farsi. He told her to be like a lion because she was scared of him. heh heh.

She's also extremely affectionate. She kisses me and hugs me constantly. I love it when she comes to me wanting to be picked up and then, in my arms, squeezes me and pats me affectionately, sometimes with a "ma ma." She always greets her cousins with hugs and kisses and squeals of excitement. She also gets so excited to see her da da and kisses him. She loves to blow kisses when da da or anyone leaves.

When I take her out, it seems like every five minutes someone says how beautiful and cute she is or what big, beautiful eyes she has. Today I counted seven in a span of about an hour and that doesn't include pointing and smiling from others. A random girl came and asked if she could hold her and then took a picture of her. That's actually the second time a random person asked to take her picture.

For almost a month now, Aliyah has been praying. She raises her hands as if she's beginning the prayer. She knows this as 'Allahu akbar.' She also makes ruku (bowing) and sujood (prostrating). Her sujood is basically kneeling and putting her head down on the ground, with her cheek touching the floor. She loves it when other people are praying and has caused me and Yelda to laugh during prayer so we had to start over. She comes over and tilts her head and bends slightly to come to my eye level (when I'm in a sitting position), and grins and sometimes giggles, as if she's trying to get me to notice her. She also likes to climb on me or hit me when I'm making sujood. She's such a cutie.

Aliyah loves to mimic people. One of her favorite things to copy is brushing her hair. She tries to take the comb from me. I've caught her a couple of times using a fork to stroke her bob. She also likes to try to put her barrettes in her hair. She'll hold it up to her head and expects it to stick there but it just falls to the floor. I'm adicted to cute barrettes and have managed to acquire quite the cutie collection.

One of my favorite things Aliyah does lately is when she wants something, ususally food, she'll point to it and shake her head. She really likes ice. She points to my glass and shakes her head and says num na. I think there may be a connection between her love of ice and her teething. She has three teeth fully in and two partially in. The bottom two came in first and are named Franc and Franc. The top left came in next, it's name, Bruno. I got the names from the French pastry team in this pastry challenge show on Food Network. The tooth to the left of the front top tooth made its way in fourth. It's name is Tootsie. Now Bertha, the front right tooth is on the way. She loves to 'brush her teeth' and smiles so big as she watches me brush mine. She sometimes makes a noise and sort of spits to mimic me.

Since the weather has been warmer and she has started walking, we've been going outside a lot. She really loves being outdoors. She helped me plant strawberries with Amin this weekend. She tried to get into the hole I had dug as if she wanted to plant herself. Then she picked up a rock and said 'num na?' No! please don't eat that Beebee...or dirt...or that grass. heh heh heh

I think if I wrote everything cute that she did I would never stop writing. I LOVE HER! =D Alhamdulillah =)

One Year Old!!!

One year old! She's so amazing. She started off as a champion and she has never relented. She lost interest in walking for a while so I tried to encourage her to practice. She's been practicing a little for a few weeks but still seemed a bit apprehensive about the whole thing. This past week she practiced standing a lot. Then suddenly, on her birthday, she decided to walk half the day...the next day, she was walking like a pro! She walked more than she crawled. I would say even 90% of the day. I love her walk! She looks like a little penguin. I get so happy watching her. I also get a little sad because she's growing up and I don't want to lose her. She's going to move out and get her own apartment, get married and have her own kids and forget all about me! Waaaa. Oh wait, she's still nursing. Ok I guess she still needs her mommy for a bit longer.

She has her two bottom front teeth and one of her top front teeth. It seems like several others are on their way. Amin and Yelda call her snaggletooth >=/ I don't like it. She looks so cute with the one top tooth when she smiles =)

She says ba ba for everything. She knows her dad is ba ba but everything else seems to get the same honor. She also likes ka ka, farsi for uncle. Still no ma ma. I think she's withholding it from me on purpose! No she just doesn't like making that noise I guess. Well she's said it a few times but she doesn't say it often. It's really cute how she looks outside and says ba ba. I think it's because Amin has been working outside with his dad a lot lately. She also points to the bedroom and says it as if he's sleeping. Every time he gets ready for work and puts his jacket on she starts blowing him kisses. And she gets so happy when she hears him on the phone.

I love it when she lets me know she wants to eat. I can't really describe the noise that she makes but it's sort of a munching sound. She opens and closes her mouth. She also says num num if she wants to eat or drink. I love it!

She's been shaking her head for a couple of weeks now. One time she did it I responded by nodding my head. Now it's become a game. I'll nod yes and she'll shake no. Then we'll switch. She's so smart and has such a great sense of humor. I love her!!!!

She's really interested in sign language. She does "all finished", "milk", "bath", and "i want it" and she understands several other signs and words but can't mimic them herself.

She's soooo smart masha'Allah. Perhaps too much for her own good. She figures out ways to get to things now by climbing on the furniture. She seems to understand a lot of the world around her. She loves to explore. She also loves people and waves to everyone. Just like I asked for in my dua! Alhumdulillah =)

I love her so much that I say it a billion times a day. I can't stop myself. I also can't help kissing her. Today, I changed her diaper and was carrying her out to the living room when she started patting my arms the way she does so lovingly sometimes. Then she gave me a kiss on the lips (no longer an open mouth by the way...she's been practicing). Then she pat me again and kissed me again. She's so sweet! AAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!! I LOVE HER!!! =)

Dance Dance Dance

Aliyah wakes up and calls for me. When I see her and get up, she does a dance. When I'm feeding her milk, her little hand dances for me. She dances to horrible singers on American Idol and to the theme song of Dragon Tales. She dances when she sees someone at the top of the stairs and waves bye and her hand dances as she's carried upstairs. She dances out of the blue when there's no music or any apparent reason. She's so happy!

I think it's safe to say that Aliyah's first word is 'wow'. She sort of says 'wa' sometimes but other times she distinctly says 'wow' and she always says it when something is exciting. She also says BaaBaa when she sees her Daddy in the morning. She loves balloons and every time she sees one she points and say 'oh! wow!'

I get lots of kisses all the time. It's the most wonderful feeling in the world when Beebee holds my face with both hands and pulls me and then eats my face (well that's how she kisses). I love it when I'm doing my daily stretches on the floor and she excitedly crawls over to me and kisses me and then crawls off again. It's a drive-by kissing!

She loves her two baby cousins, Aaron and Ali. I could have sworn she said baby once. She always kisses them and squeels with delight when she sees them. She also loves her bigger cousins so much. They're so sweet to her. Aliyah is so friendly now more than ever and waves to strangers and flirts with them. She doesn't get scared as much unless someone approaches her when she's not ready for it. She needs her personal space.

Right now, Aliyah's in her climbing stage. She tries to climb everything...even when there's no chance she can do it, she puts her leg up as if she's going to try anyway. She climbs the stairs, she climbs on the mini furniture at doctors' offices, she climbs on people, she climbs on boxes and anything she can find that might give her leverage. She has also been moving furniture...everything is a walker, from her clean diaper bin to her swing to the laundry baskets to small tables. Amin watched her one day as she maneuvered the diaper bin around to get the right angle and then began to push it and walk with it.

She's such a smartie. She tries to plug electronics into the wall socket (yikes...I have to watch this one). She takes my brush and puts it to her head, trying to brush her hair. She takes my toothbrush and puts it in her mouth and watches intently as I brush my teeth. She tries to take out the babies' pacifiers and put them back in. She tries to put keys into their holes. She takes the remote control and points it at the television, pressing buttons. Sometimes she's successful at these things and more. She's very observant and curious of the world around her. I try to give her an opportunity to explore without causing too much chaos. I let her turn off light switches, press buttons, feed me, and play and experiment with everything. She's so much fun to watch.

There hasn't been much progress with her walking. She's not very interested in it, but she does practice standing and is getting very good at balancing herself. I think once she perfects her standing she'll practice walking again.

Still no teeth yet but she manages to eat most things by smooshing it with her gums. She loves Afghan food and most things that she can feed herself. She likes to eat other people's food and seems to think the food is always better on Anaagee's or Mommy's plate.

I guess that's all for now. =D

Walking Beebee!

So Beebee has been standing alone for a few seconds for about two or three weeks now. This past Friday, she was practicing with Daddy and decided to take a step towards him! I was there to witness it also =) Then on Sunday, she walked four little baby steps towards me! And then several other times she did the same. Once she realizes she can do something, she takes off with it.

She likes to climb the stairs and if someone is helping her, she puts one foot on each step like she's grown. She seems to think there's always something exciting going on upstairs. Whenever she hears Anaagee moving around up there, she stands at the bottom of the steps and calls to her, "baa baa! ah baa!" We have something there, blocking her from getting up. When someone forgets to put it back, she darts towards the stairs, panting as if she's running a marathon.



Whenever she hears music or when someone sings or claps their hands for her, Aliyah dances. She has the cutest little moves! She sways her hips, bends her knee/knees, extends her hand/hands and squeels. She's so much fun! She'll even plays the drums with her hands on a table. Baby likes to yodel. She says "yol yol yol" and moves her little tongue to give a yodeling effect.

Oh my baby is growing up so fast! Baby cake, don't get married and leave me and your Daddy so soon, okay?