the globe and mail
a timmy's cup in the trash
a french canadian accent
curling clubs and hockey arenas
sens flags on car windows
coke in glass bottles
roti and samosas
sari biscuits and white cake
grandmothers
great grandmothers
hand-made hats and hand-me-downs
we have arrived
Tuesday, May 15, 2007
Saturday, May 12, 2007
One year of Blogging
So, we've been blogging a whole year now! Woo-hoo! The blog is pretty much the same as it's always been, though I added a few new sidebars recently (see right). There is now a list of categories, so you can search the blog for posts under certain "labels", like parenting, or pictures of the kids. I also made a list of my favourite posts from the blog, some fun memories from the last year.
A year ago all of 4 people checked the blog and now my ramblings reach many more of our friends and family. I am thinking of anonomyzing the blog due to its growing readership, so that our real names won't be in the blogosphere for the whole world to read. So if you arrive one day to find you don't recognize anyone on utica avenue, don't be scared, we're still here, but with cool nicknames!! Please feel free to email me with any suggestions for our aliases!!
It's Mother's Day tomorrow and so here is a list of the 10 best things about being a mom and having these particular children of mine...
1. My kids have great bed-head. I let them keep bed-head all day long in fact. They don't mind and they look cute.
2. I can sit alone in the living room on the floor and in less than a minute someone will be sitting on me. It's like an orbit, or magnetism or something.
3. Saturday night is sleepover night at our house. Saturday nights Maymuna bunks with us and we cuddle all night. When Hafsa is older she can have a night too. I can't wait.
4. I have a family that is content to let the dishes pile up so that I may sit on the floor and play a little longer... I like that. Playing way more important than dishes.
5. I have a daughter who just buckled herself into one of the suitcases sitting open on the floor. Then she called for help saying she was "a little buckle-y over here". Her manner of speaking is something I love. Most people think she's quiet, but in fact she talks all day. If you're quiet, she will speak.
6. We make up songs for each other. Here is the latest one:
"I have a SONG and it goes like THIS,
Hafsa Nur I want a KISS!!"
then the rest of us attack her with smooches.
Fun stuff.
7. My kids have great, no-holds-barred, shrieky laughs. When tickled my girls erupt, overflow and gurgle with laughter. Sometimes you're lucky and get a little snort too. There's nothing like it and I need my fix everyday.
8. Morning snuggles with a baby. Just like when Maymuna was a baby, Hafsa comes into our bed first thing in the morning to nurse and then we spend sometimes a whole hour just playing and cuddling in the bed. This sometimes puts us late for starting the day, but oh man, there's nothing like rolly-polly baby wrestling first thing in the morning. Whatever resentments I had about waking up disappear.
9. Maymuna is becoming a breakfast person. Maymuna used to hate eating in the morning. It's always been my favourite time of the day. Lately though, she and Ozayr make a giant breakfast for everyone and we all sit down together and dig into toast and cereal and yoghurt and tea. It's wonderful.
10. They let me out once in a while. Sunday mornings my husband and children set me free for a little "me-time". Honestly I would not get through the week without it. During the week I don't feel resentment over the things that I wish I were doing instead of laundry or cooking. Instead I think to myself, hey, I'll do that on Sunday. I save up all that reading or writing I wanted to do and head for the local coffee shop bright and early Sunday morning. Somehow only 2 or 3 hours refreshes me and by the time I get into the car to come home I can't wait to feel those little hands around my neck, can't wait to kiss their little noses, or hear their chattering talk. The greatest part about leaving is coming back.
A year ago all of 4 people checked the blog and now my ramblings reach many more of our friends and family. I am thinking of anonomyzing the blog due to its growing readership, so that our real names won't be in the blogosphere for the whole world to read. So if you arrive one day to find you don't recognize anyone on utica avenue, don't be scared, we're still here, but with cool nicknames!! Please feel free to email me with any suggestions for our aliases!!
It's Mother's Day tomorrow and so here is a list of the 10 best things about being a mom and having these particular children of mine...
1. My kids have great bed-head. I let them keep bed-head all day long in fact. They don't mind and they look cute.
2. I can sit alone in the living room on the floor and in less than a minute someone will be sitting on me. It's like an orbit, or magnetism or something.
3. Saturday night is sleepover night at our house. Saturday nights Maymuna bunks with us and we cuddle all night. When Hafsa is older she can have a night too. I can't wait.
4. I have a family that is content to let the dishes pile up so that I may sit on the floor and play a little longer... I like that. Playing way more important than dishes.
5. I have a daughter who just buckled herself into one of the suitcases sitting open on the floor. Then she called for help saying she was "a little buckle-y over here". Her manner of speaking is something I love. Most people think she's quiet, but in fact she talks all day. If you're quiet, she will speak.
6. We make up songs for each other. Here is the latest one:
"I have a SONG and it goes like THIS,
Hafsa Nur I want a KISS!!"
then the rest of us attack her with smooches.
Fun stuff.
7. My kids have great, no-holds-barred, shrieky laughs. When tickled my girls erupt, overflow and gurgle with laughter. Sometimes you're lucky and get a little snort too. There's nothing like it and I need my fix everyday.
8. Morning snuggles with a baby. Just like when Maymuna was a baby, Hafsa comes into our bed first thing in the morning to nurse and then we spend sometimes a whole hour just playing and cuddling in the bed. This sometimes puts us late for starting the day, but oh man, there's nothing like rolly-polly baby wrestling first thing in the morning. Whatever resentments I had about waking up disappear.
9. Maymuna is becoming a breakfast person. Maymuna used to hate eating in the morning. It's always been my favourite time of the day. Lately though, she and Ozayr make a giant breakfast for everyone and we all sit down together and dig into toast and cereal and yoghurt and tea. It's wonderful.
10. They let me out once in a while. Sunday mornings my husband and children set me free for a little "me-time". Honestly I would not get through the week without it. During the week I don't feel resentment over the things that I wish I were doing instead of laundry or cooking. Instead I think to myself, hey, I'll do that on Sunday. I save up all that reading or writing I wanted to do and head for the local coffee shop bright and early Sunday morning. Somehow only 2 or 3 hours refreshes me and by the time I get into the car to come home I can't wait to feel those little hands around my neck, can't wait to kiss their little noses, or hear their chattering talk. The greatest part about leaving is coming back.
Monday, May 07, 2007
So which is it?
When Ozayr takes off Maymuna's night pull-up diaper in the morning, he often puts it in the bathroom garbage can. But the bathroom garbage only gets emptied once a week and it stinks the place up, so I ask, again and again, if he could please make the long trek with the diaper to the kitchen garbage, which, probably due to the sheer number of diapers, gets emptied every day or two. I try not to be the nagging sort, but I have had to ask several times... It's becoming one of those pet peeves, you know.
Upon finding another diaper in the garbage yesterday I walked past him with the diaper in hand (on the way to the kitchen to dispose of it) and said "hey, you left another diaper in the bathroom garbage!" Maymuna beside me parroted away "yeah! diapers go in the kitchen garbage!" (thank you sergeant sweetcheeks) He stands up and walks over, and says "I'm sorry my love, I left another diaper in the bathroom garbage. I hope it doesn't overshadow my better qualities." Gives me a kiss and walks away.
I think he is either the sweetest husband on the planet... or he's playing mind games with me.
Upon finding another diaper in the garbage yesterday I walked past him with the diaper in hand (on the way to the kitchen to dispose of it) and said "hey, you left another diaper in the bathroom garbage!" Maymuna beside me parroted away "yeah! diapers go in the kitchen garbage!" (thank you sergeant sweetcheeks) He stands up and walks over, and says "I'm sorry my love, I left another diaper in the bathroom garbage. I hope it doesn't overshadow my better qualities." Gives me a kiss and walks away.
I think he is either the sweetest husband on the planet... or he's playing mind games with me.
Sunday, May 06, 2007
The Lanyard
It's Mother's Day next weekend, but I couldn't wait a whole week to post this lovely poem which I heard today on NPR (National Public Radio). As a child I never wove a lanyard for my mother, but I did make and create thousands of other ugly things which I presented to her with a holy reverance - ashtrays and sad, stunted little pots. Daniel was the king of the painted figurine. This poem reminds me a little bit of him as a boy, since it is from a male perspective, but it was me as well. And probably every young child. Please enjoy...
"The Lanyard" by Billy Collins
The other day I was ricocheting slowly
off the blue walls of this room,
moving as if underwater from typewriter to piano,
from bookshelf to an envelope lying on the floor,
when I found myself in the L section of the dictionary
where my eyes fell upon the word lanyard.
No cookie nibbled by a French novelist
could send one into the past more suddenly—
a past where I sat at a workbench at a camp
by a deep Adirondack lake
learning how to braid long thin plastic strips
into a lanyard, a gift for my mother.
I had never seen anyone use a lanyard
or wear one, if that’s what you did with them,
but that did not keep me from crossing
strand over strand again and again
until I had made a boxy
red and white lanyard for my mother.
She gave me life and milk from her breasts,
and I gave her a lanyard.
She nursed me in many a sick room,
lifted spoons of medicine to my lips,
laid cold face-cloths on my forehead,
and then led me out into the airy light
and taught me to walk and swim,
and I, in turn, presented her with a lanyard.
Here are thousands of meals, she said,
and here is clothing and a good education.
And here is your lanyard, I replied,
which I made with a little help from a counselor.
Here is a breathing body and a beating heart,
strong legs, bones and teeth,
and two clear eyes to read the world, she whispered,
and here, I said, is the lanyard I made at camp.
And here, I wish to say to her now,
is a smaller gift—not the worn truth
that you can never repay your mother,
but the rueful admission that when she took
the two-tone lanyard from my hand,
I was as sure as a boy could be
that this useless, worthless thing I wove
out of boredom would be enough to make us even.
"The Lanyard" by Billy Collins
The other day I was ricocheting slowly
off the blue walls of this room,
moving as if underwater from typewriter to piano,
from bookshelf to an envelope lying on the floor,
when I found myself in the L section of the dictionary
where my eyes fell upon the word lanyard.
No cookie nibbled by a French novelist
could send one into the past more suddenly—
a past where I sat at a workbench at a camp
by a deep Adirondack lake
learning how to braid long thin plastic strips
into a lanyard, a gift for my mother.
I had never seen anyone use a lanyard
or wear one, if that’s what you did with them,
but that did not keep me from crossing
strand over strand again and again
until I had made a boxy
red and white lanyard for my mother.
She gave me life and milk from her breasts,
and I gave her a lanyard.
She nursed me in many a sick room,
lifted spoons of medicine to my lips,
laid cold face-cloths on my forehead,
and then led me out into the airy light
and taught me to walk and swim,
and I, in turn, presented her with a lanyard.
Here are thousands of meals, she said,
and here is clothing and a good education.
And here is your lanyard, I replied,
which I made with a little help from a counselor.
Here is a breathing body and a beating heart,
strong legs, bones and teeth,
and two clear eyes to read the world, she whispered,
and here, I said, is the lanyard I made at camp.
And here, I wish to say to her now,
is a smaller gift—not the worn truth
that you can never repay your mother,
but the rueful admission that when she took
the two-tone lanyard from my hand,
I was as sure as a boy could be
that this useless, worthless thing I wove
out of boredom would be enough to make us even.
Friday, May 04, 2007
Maymuna & Julie BFF (best friends forever)
I had some pretty serious topics in mind for the blog the last few days, but somehow I just don't feel like serious blogging today. I feel like silly stuff today. Here's a little silliness for you, of the Ozayr variety. This is his latest trick...
You know, I think life would be a lot more interesting for the girls if Ozayr was the one who stayed home with them all day. I would never think of putting a child in a tote bag and carrying her around, but she loves it.
Today was our last day hanging out with our friends, the Kangs, for a while. They're going on a trip, then we're going on a trip... So we did a few things to commemorate the day...
First we dressed our children identically:
Honestly this is the best picture that I got of all four of them. I'm hoping Shelly managed to snap some better pics. I'm just happy that all four of them are in the picture at all. With some strategic cropping I managed to get some decent partial shots:
I swear Maymuna is not trying to punch Julie in the mouth here. It was a very friendly photo shoot. There was even a quasi-headlock situation which was very peaceable. As far as headlocks go.
I planned a secret arts-and-crafts project for the girls. Here they are working on it in their little art smocks...
I planned a secret arts-and-crafts project for the girls. Here they are working on it in their little art smocks...
And here's the finished result!!
Now they each have a little framed picture to remember each other by! Well, it's not that long that we'll be apart, but Shelly and I are definitely mourning the mommy-chat-chai time. We've had a play-date almost every week for the last year... it's going to seem strange not seeing each other for so long.
After I got over our sentimental parting, I had a sudden realization. We leave soon. I've got lots and lots and lots to do. I made FIVE lists this afternoon in a panic.
Panic will likely continue well into tomorrow.
After I got over our sentimental parting, I had a sudden realization. We leave soon. I've got lots and lots and lots to do. I made FIVE lists this afternoon in a panic.
Panic will likely continue well into tomorrow.
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