Welcome bro...

So "Uncle Dan" is here! Almost as much as I appreciate the great company, I enjoy having a second pair of hands around the house during the day. Dan holds Hafsa while I deal with Maymuna, handles Maymuna while I hold Hafsa, he loads groceries, runs Maymuna to the potty (though he draws the line right about there), and passes me my tea or gets me a cold drink whenever I need one. Plus there's plenty of good conversation and general good humour around here, even when things get frantic. Tonight he offered to watch both kids so that Ozayr and I could go out to dinner. Well, I didn't take him up on it, and perhaps I am a fool, but a singular thought sprang to mind,

"you know not what you do!!"

He babysat Hafsa for us while Maymuna & I picked up Ozayr from the university instead and we are going to work up to the full double babysit. But by golly, I sure do appreciate the offer.

All is well around home tonight. Maymuna is a happy little girl having her uncle to boss around. "Uncle Dan! Uncle Dan!" can be heard throughout the day, along with her orders to play with her, with the kitchen, with the dollies, to read her a book. Luckily Dan's easygoing nature extends to his nieces and I have yet to see him try to get out of anything Maymuna has planned for him.

Maymuna is getting very good at this potty thing, alhamdulillah. I remind her when we go out, "this place has a potty if you need to go, just tell me". I think she is taking this as a challenge, because we have visited the potty in just about every place we've been in the last week. Target, the mall, the grocery store and this morning at the Edina Grill, three times. Sometimes I suspect this is an elaborate ploy for attention or to get out of her highchair... but to be honest, it doesn't matter. If you are potty training and your child yells "POTTY!!" you just can't ignore the call.

Hafsa continues to be a pleasant little thing, machallah. I think she might be teething - I think I feel a tooth under her gums at the bottom front left and she can't keep her hands out of her mouth. Then there's also the fact that the last three nights she has been up most of the night. Last night she woke up every hour from 1 a.m. to 5 a.m. Then she slept until 6:40 a.m. I nursed her again, and then she went down. I slept until 7:15 when Maymuna woke up. I crawled into bed with her. We fell asleep until Hafsa woke for good at 7:45 a.m. Woo-hoo! I can't believe that it has been a whole month since her surgery. And speaking of milestones, it was a year ago that we came to Minneapolis... but that's a whole other post...

Speaking of sleep, I desperately need some... goodnight...