Not forgotten, just not blogged.
Maysoon started walking in February.
Jenin visited the library for the first time in September. This one deserves an explanation so that you don’t think I’m a horrible mother. Since Jenin was born, my husband has insisted that I speak to Jenin only in Arabic, including reading her stories. With my very limited Arabic I tried my hardest to make up stories to go along with the books she has. (Just because we weren’t going to the library, doesn’t mean she didn’t have books. Sheesh, I’m not a horrible mother.) I never felt like the stories were exciting for her when I kept having to describe everything as “hilew”, literally meaning “sweet”. Soon nice, fun, amazing, charming, pretty, wonderful, fantastic, magical, incredible, adventurous, etc., became hilew. There was no excitement in the words, no rhyming sentences, no imagination provoking lines. Once Jenin started preschool, she was introduced to a world of new words but she had a hard time really understanding them and appreciating what they can do for a story. Finally, I put my foot down and told Rami that the time has come to read to Jenin in English. She adores books and I want to keep that love in her forever. When I read to her now, she has memorized some of the pages. She never ceases to amaze me with how much she notices and observes from the stories. We’ve started going to the library regularly and I’m definitely making up for lost time.
I love when the house is quite and I automatically suspect that she’s up to no good, only to find her quietly enthralled in a book. Melts my heart.
Maysoon has had some serious hair issues since she was a newborn. When she was first born she had a beautiful head of hair. But slowly with each few days, she started balding on the top of her head. Soon she had a completely bald head, save for a few hairs here and there, and a half circle of hair around the bottom of her head. My baby girl looked like my dad. So we shaved her head. I thought for sure her hair would grow back thick and even. Instead she got a mullet. Business in the front, party in the back.
Everyone kept telling me to cut it, but I just couldn’t do it. So Jenin did it for me. Yes, you read that right. My sweet little J used her “safety” scissors and cut a snippet of Maysoon’s mullet. Jenin claims she was “doing a project”. Hello Future Crafter. So I finished it off. Wish I did it months ago.
Jenin with Maysoon’s birthday cake, a pictorial story.
My dear, dear readers, you now understand the phenomenon that is Jenin.
Maysoon’s revenge.
A very spontaneous trip to Disneyland with our very best friends. Yes, this is the Nada! Such a wonderful and memorable trip. Hopefully a yearly tradition.
Twirling.
Used this site to create the gif animations. So easy.
Beautiful, beautiful girls. Loving those gifs =)
Asalaamu Alaikum
I love the pic where she's reading with her little feet on the wall, priceless.
Your girls are precious Mashallah!
I think that's one thing I'm thinking about regarding language as well. I can speak urdu, but sometimes it's very limited and I do want to maintain a second language when I marry and Inshallah have kids, but I do worry about maintaining it when my own language skills are so limited!
How do you deal with that?
@Hum
Before I had my girls, my Arabic was horrible. The things I have said are absolutely incredible (and no one will let me live them down). Rami absolutely insisted that I speak Arabic, no matter what. It's very easy to speak to a baby in broken Arabic, as she has no idea what's being said or the mistakes being made.
Though I wasn't exactly fluent, I understood everything. So when I found myself saying a word that didn't sound right, I'd repeat it again and again and again until it finally came out the way I hear it when others say it. Does that make sense? I forced my brain to put the letters and sounds correctly together. I also started paying closer attention to the way people spoke and the placement of words.
Originally I was speaking Arabic in English. When you speak in Arabic, the placement of words is backwards. Example: In Arabic 35 is "Khamsa" (five) "wa thalatheen" (and thirty). When I first visited Palestine, I wanted to buy a pair of pants that were marked "35". When I went to the register to pay I thought that they were ripping me off because they knew I was from America. I told them that I knew the price was "thalaatha" (three) "wa khamseen" (and fifty). I thought you say the three before the five. I couldn't believe they wanted to charge me "53" for it. My goodness, the looks on their faces. {sigh} Needless to say, lesson learned.
To make a long explination even longer and not even sure if I answered your question, I just forced myself to do it! Now some people think I've been speaking Arabic my whole life. My sister's constantly tease me, they can't believe that out of all of them, I'm the one with kids that speak Arabic.
They're soo cute!
MashaAllah they're so cute. I love the gifs too, I've got to try that. I'm also really proud when they read, it's such a great feeling.
I think I'm in love… with your blog.
Looks like Jenin has inherited your creative groove lol. And is it normal for kids to get all dressed up for Disneyland? That's so cool!
Thanks Amnah. Yes, I got what you were trying to say, and it gives me hope that Inshallah, I'll be able to do it too.
Thanks for replying!
Thanks everyone for your sweet comment about the girls. Me and Rami still don't understand how such cute girls came from us, lol.
@Shahirah, You'll find a lot of kids dress up for Disneyland. It's their chance to meet their favorite princess, so they typically dress up like her. Some parents go all out. It's crazy (and expensive).
@Hum, Don't worry. If I could do it, anyone can.