B is for Big Girl

I'll be honest with you, the blog has been in peril more than once recently. I go through these spells where I think I have nothing at all to write about, no inspiration, and certainly no talent. On those days I consider just deleting the whole thing. Then, usually when I am just on the brink of giving it up for good, I get a thought. Something I'd like to write about. Then I have to go to the computer that very moment and write the post immediately. Doesn't matter if I'm on my way to bed - if an idea comes I am pretty much a slave to it. This is why I can't really answer people who ask how I find the 'extra' time to write a blog. It doesn't exactly work that way for me, because often this time is not allotted "blog time". I just find a way to do it while doing other things at the same time. (I'm eating ice cream right now, for instance. Multi-tasking, at its most tasty.)

So, is there any inspiration tonight, you may ask? No, not really. Just a light at the end of the tunnel. We've been home less than 2 weeks and it's been really crazy, finally culminating in a mild body-break-down in the form of a cold for me. I'm taking the sniffles as a sign to slow down a little bit and relax. So I did and tonight is the first night I can handle the thought of getting up and tackling tomorrow. Which makes me also think that the blog will also come around to being something I can handle regularly again soon. Anyway, I know you don't come here to read about me... let's get on to the kids, shall we?

Tonight Maymuna rode her new Big Girl Bike.


She will tell you the first chance she gets that (a) it is purple, (b) it has green frogs on it, and (c) it has a water bottle. The water bottle seems especially important. Little does she know, but the sales clerk also handed me shiny purple tassels to hang from the handlebars. She is so excited about it. Just look at her face!!

We had been promising her a Big Girl Bike once we returned to Minneapolis and we saw this one on clearance at one of the sports stores in Bloomington yesterday. We couldn't pick it up until today so we had planned to go and get it after dinner tonight. However, Maymuna was so excited that we took a special trip out there this afternoon and retrieved it before picking Ozayr up from work instead. Maymuna couldn't decide whether to tell him we had it straight away, or get him to open the trunk and surprise him. In the end she did both, and Ozayr was a very good sport and was surprised both times. We came home and had a very quick dinner and then headed out for a walk with the girls on their bicycles.


Hafsa is thrilled to have inherited Maymuna's old trike. She still has a long way to go until she figures out the actual peddling/steering, but that's good because once she figures it out it's going to be a lot more work for me. For now she's content to be pushed along.

I have to tell you. A strange thing happened to Hafsa. I swear, a week ago, she was a baby. All of the sudden: little girl. She has OPINIONS. This afternoon I tried to put her yellow crocs on her. She looked at me and shook her head, grabbed her white sandals and said "shooooo". I tried the croc again, just to be sure... "Nooo! Shoooo!" again thrusting the white sandal in my face. "She wants to wear the white ones, Mommy" says Maymuna. I guess she does.


Last week I did Hafsa's hair. I rarely have before because she always used the tear the hairclips out and it was a waste of time. But I did it last week when we went to the zoo and she loved it. Two little ponytails on each side. Now every morning since, Hafsa has come to me and pointed her fingers, the pointer fingers from each hand, tapping the top of her head. "Ponytails?" I ask her. She nods.

Her personality is becoming more and more evident now that her vocabulary is starting to expand. No, cup, shoe (shooo), ball (bow), tickle (ticka ticka), push (pshhhhh)... the words are starting to come fast and furious. The other day she learnt "May-may" which was endearing. Startling soon after that came "May-may's" in reference to certain objects around the house. No doubt Maymuna has been doing some vocabulary training of her own.

Now that they are back to being just the two of them most of the time we are back to the sibling issues that naturally arise around this age. Maymuna wants what Hafsa has, Hafsa wants what Maymuna has. It's enough to drive you crazy really... I just want it to pass and get to the part where they are each other's best friends... At the same time I want to press a giant *PAUSE* button because, man, they are a lot of fun right now and growing far too quickly for my liking. Seeing Maymuna on that bike today, her legs and arms seemed so long, she seemed so grown up. It's incredible. Really, where has all the time gone?


Sweet dreams all...

Picture post

It's been a busy week since our return to Minn. We've been keeping the girls very busy so that they don't miss their Canadian cousins too much. We've hit the zoo, the coffee shop, 3 parks and the mall for haircuts in the last 5 days. In the midst of all this some things have cropped up that are preoccupying me - hence the lack of blog posts! I will offer you some adorable children's pictures to compensate :)

What summer is all about...

The call of the wild

Ozayr's cousin forwarded me this video, and I watched the whole thing with my mouth wide open. It's video taken from Kruger National Park in South Africa. Ozayr has often told me about their trips there as a family when they lived in SA, so I was curious to watch it. It's about 8 minutes long and it was AMAZING, but you have to watch it to the very end!! (thanks for the forward F!)

home sweet home

I started a whole introspective post last night about how I feel about being back in our little home away from home... It was long and rambling and ultimately didn't make much sense (I was a wee bit tired). In the end I deleted it. It is what it is. For better or for worse, for a long time or a short time, WE ARE BACK.

This is how our day went yesterday.

9:00 a.m. say goodbye to Ozayr's family.
10:00 a.m. say goodbye to my mom.
10:45 a.m. say goodbye to Ozayr's dad at the pharmacy.
11:15 a.m. check in 8 pieces of luggage at the airport.
11:30 a.m. say goodbye to my dad, Ozayr's cousin.
11:35 a.m. security. Ozayr patted down.
12:00 p.m. lunch in the departures lounge.
1:00 p.m. flight to Toronto.
2:00 p.m. arrive in Toronto, go to retrieve bags. find 7. keep waiting.
2:45 p.m. inquire as to missing suitcase. it's en route to Edmonton. Gotcha.
3:00 p.m. line up for customs. entertain 2 tired children for 20 minutes while standing in line.
3:20 p.m. meet customs officer, declare, explain, etc.
3:40 p.m. re-check bags to final destination.
3:55 p.m. go through security again. Ozayr pattted down.
4:10 p.m. take a shuttle bus to our departure gate. carrying 2 children and 4 carry-on items.
4:25 p.m. last minute diaper changes, potty stop.
4:35 p.m. board plane.
6:30 p.m. arrive in Minnesota. [Switcheroo! That's actually 5:30 p.m. MN time.]
5:35 p.m. find our remaining luggage.
5:45 p.m. file claim with Air Canada for missing suitcase.
6:00 p.m. go to car rental.
6:30 p.m. leave in rental van with all children and bags.
7:00 p.m. go to grocery store and get milk etc.
7:30 p.m. arrive at home, see a bunch of neighbours outside
8:00 p.m. enter the actual house, bring in bags.

We're home! (9:00 p.m. Ottawa time)

So that was yesterday. That's what I say to people who say "oh, Minn is only about 3 hours away by plane right? That's not far!"

Getting back to the house was surprisingly nice. Our neighbours came out and met us on the driveway. Some good friends of ours made sure that we felt welcome by decorating our driveway and path with sidewalk chalk (thanks Shelly!)... It was a far cry from those first few trips we made to Canada when we knew no one here, and coming back was so depressing. It was nice for me to see how far we've come.



This morning we've unpacked all the bags that actually made it to Minnesota. We're missing just 1 piece out of the 8 we brought back with us so I am counting myself quite lucky. It is tagged, so hopefully it will be retrieved sometime soon and sent back to us. I am trying to emotionally detach myself from the contents of the bag, which would be easy... except for one item... the Turkish carpet that Ozayr bought for me from Istanbul. I heard him on the phone earlier talking to someone with the airline, "it's got a carpet inside... an embroidered carpet... it's dark red, with a diamond design..." I am really hoping that it makes it back.

Yesterday was a long day, and I think we are still pretty tired today. The girls have been playing with their old toys as if they are brand new again, so that's always good to keep them entertained the first day or two. Thanks for everyone back home, we had a great trip... Have an ice cap for me today...

My life's calling

I don't know why I didn't think of this before. My life's calling is to CREATE MY OWN STATIONARY LINE. It's all so clear to me now. Why else would God have made my husband an artist??? Hello?!

I can tell you that I definitely have a thing for paper, as most of you well know, and it hasn't died down one bit. I took Sunday morning off this week and went to peruse one of the finer paper stores in Ottawa, and came home with a fair bit of loot. While browsing, however, I noticed that many of the more artsy (read EXPENSIVE) greeting cards were incredibly simple. Most of them just had a simple concept and an appealing design. Well, I can do that!!!

Then I came home and did a little more research... Ever heard of Etsy online? It's a shop my friend Shelly uses to sell her yarn (she's SOLD OUT by the way, but if you are ever interested in some gorgeous hand-dyed yarn check back HERE for some really cool stuff like this). I went back to it for a second look, and there are tons of really cute things there and it would be an absolutely perfect online store. In fact there's lots of paper goods for sale there already. And AGAIN I am noticing that some of their ideas are pretty simple, but honestly there's stuff I would definitely buy myself. Now I just need to evaluate my strengths (and well frankly, Ozayr's strengths seeing as this will probably involve him in one way or another) and brainstorm on some ideas for a creative line of notecards...

I think this could be a fun little on-the-side husband-and-wife business/hobby for us! I can't wait to tell him... ;)

Happy Co-Dependence Day

It's the 4th of July and coincidentally, our wedding anniversary. Of course we married in Canada, 8 years ago, without really thinking twice about it. Since moving to the U.S. we have come to realize that our anniversary is going to be a complete bust as long as we continue to live there - we have very little hope of ever getting (a) a restaurant reservation, or (b) a babysitter. But there you go, I think it's the price I have to pay for being lucky enough to have an entire nation remind my husband that he needs to buy roses that day (or rather, he better have bought them the day before because all the shops will be closed on the 4th). And while we live in the U.S.A. Ozayr will always have the day off work. So it has its perks also.

I don't know what commemorates an 8th wedding anniversary. Not gold, not diamonds, maybe pewter? or tin? If I could pick something for us I think I would say software (for Ozayr) and paper for me every year. Okay... I've googled it now - it's BRONZE. Yikes, not good. I can't think of a single thing that is good in bronze. Bronze is what I always used to get in my Canada Fitness tests as a kid. Not-so-great memories of panting around the track field on the deadly "endurance run" (I have no endurance as it turns out). So far on the anniversary list we've passed paper, cotton, leather, linen, wood, iron, and wool. Well, frankly I'm glad that men don't know about these things, otherwise Ozayr would have a sad list of gifts to his credit. He does much better left to his own devices.

Happy anniversary my love... here are 8 miscellaneous things I love about being married to you:

1. You like big breakfast in the morning. Me too. But I can't stand the smell of eggs and I've never made you eggs in the last 8 years but you're okay with that and you make your own.

2. You like talk radio in the car. Me too. And we like the same radio personalities and we think the same ones are crazy.

3. You teach me things about architecture, like "spatial" or "addressing the corner." (though I think that is all I know after 8 whole years... shall we move on?)

4. You put up with happy morning-person me, even though I know it almost killed you the first year. Wanna know something weird though? I think you are a morning-person now too...

5. You maybe don't consider this among the forefront of your qualities, but you are pretty freakin' funny. I laugh every day and so do our kids. And the fact that you still use insults from the 1980's cracks me up to no end. You are the only person I've heard call someone else "gomer" in the last 15 years.

6. You have fashion sense. I haven't taken a girlfriend shopping in years, I don't need to.

7. You are equal parts sophisticated academic and immature 13 year-old boy (case and point, your bookmarks include this AND this.)

8. You don't take yourself (or me) too seriously. And while the fact that you may smile (or even laugh) in the face of my seething anger, or frustration over something, may not seem like it's going over all that well... it probably also saves our marriage, and my sanity.

And thank you for that. Lob joo.

Oh, Canada

It's been a fun weekend up north, filled with all those things a Canadian holiday should have, plus a few rain showers and mosquitos thrown in, to keep it real. While I would love to write a reflective post about Canada and how I feel about the country I have briefly left, I am entirely too exhausted (see two previous posts). I will go to bed and leave you with a few pictures of the kids enjoying their weekend instead...

Maymuna on the merry-go-round

Hafsa spots her sister!

Ozayr and Maymuna go on the ferris wheel! (so proud of Muna...)

It's not a proper Canada Day without a BBQ at a friend's house...

...where Maymuna and Hafsa found lots of other kids to run around with...

Heading home to bed, happy and tired.

And Maymuna saw her first rainbow on the way home!

Happy Canada Day!