a perfect park day

It has been the most beautiful day in Minneapolis today. It's sunny but cool with the slightest wind. We spent the morning at the park with our friends. I think we were only planning to go for an hour or so, but even the grown-ups couldn't be torn away. Here are some pictures of Maymuna and Hafsa with their Kang counterparts, Julie and Sophie :)

This is a video I took with my Canon on the front lawn before we left for the park. Maymuna and Julie were really happy to see each other. When Julie emerged from her car Maymuna cried "Julie!" and Julie cheered "Maymuna!" and they ran towards each other. Not knowing exactly what to do next (hug? shake hands?) they kind of ran around each other and then started running circles around Hafsa. Much joy all round.



Here is a closer picture of Hafsa with her new hairstyle. This, to me, is how Hafsa was always meant to look. The little ponytails out the side are adorable and impish at the same time - the essence of Hafsa-ness.


At the park both girls are getting more and more adventurous. As you will see, Hafsa climbs the play structure and goes down the little slide on her own now. Maymuna climbs up the crazy ladders on the "big girl" side and goes down the twisty slide. This is our local park and it's the perfect scale for me. Just big enough that there is something for each girl to do, but small enough that I can see them both at all times and we are never too far away from one another.





Despite whatever new challenges the girls undertake, it's clear that their true love lies with the swings. Maymuna sometimes goes to the park and does nothing else. I wonder if Hafsa truly loves swinging as much, or whether she just wants to be where her big sister is. Either way it keeps them quiet and content indefinitely. This is the Saloojee-Kang clan monopolizing the swing set...


Turns out that Maymuna should always wear white. With her dark hair and olive complexion, the white in her outfit just glowed on her today...


After some serious playing the girls sat down at the mini-picnic table for a snack. It was pretty cute to see all four of them sitting together, so civilized. After the older girls took off Sophie and Hafsa sat there together, every few minutes getting up and switching seats.


One last turn on the swings and it was time to head home for lunch. What a gorgeous morning...



Edited to add:

All day long Hafsa has been saying Sophie's name, it's so cute! "So-wee!" It was a little tentative at first, but by this evening she was saying it with a big broad smile. Tonight Ozayr asked her if she went to the park with Sophie and Julie and she said "SO-WEE!!" Now we better start working on the grandparents' names... ;)

Add a little cute to your day

Sleepy kitten rocks! I've made Ozayr watch this a thousand times. Whenever I feel like a pick-me-up I go and look it up. You have to watch it at least twice. :)

Top Five Frustrations (Aug 19-25 Edition)

Things in the past week that frustrated me so much that I had to laugh:

1. Sitting a restaurant (a real treat for us these days) and waiting SO LONG for our food that the manager came by and asked "so, how was everything?", assuming we were finished.

2. Trying to set up online banking for my checking account online, which didn't work. Going to my bank's branch for assistance. Being told they couldn't help, being sent home with a 1-800 number. On the phone being told that I had to go back to the branch. [Did I say these had to be funny? No! FRUSTRATING, yes.]

3. Trying to sort out some fall clothing for the kids with Maymuna and Hafsa 'helping' me. Maymuna bringing out her dress-up clothes to add to the mix. Accidentally dressing Hafsa like a leprechaun for a trip to the mall. Finding tulle and princess slippers everywhere.

4. Making dinner for my family and having my 18 month old refuse to eat, pointing at me instead, chanting "MILK! MILK! MILK!" while the rest of us tried to eat.

5. Construction on the neighbour's house is so disconcerting to Maymuna that we are forbidden from opening any of the blinds on the south side. Living in semi-darkness.

State Fair 2007

We are home, safe and sweaty, from the Minnesota State Fair. If I had more energy I would write more and use less pictures... but I have a feeling you'll enjoy the photos anyway...

Driving along the road to the fair I am always fascinated by the people who live locally who rent out their front lawn for parking or chip vans. We saw one house directly across the street from the entrance selling a parking spot for $20.


Here are our tickets and parking!! We're on the way to the fair!!


30 minutes later we've finally parked the car and are walking into the fair...


We thought we were getting ahead of the crowds, but this is what it was like by 11 o'clock:



We headed for the Kidway first, for rides... Maymuna enjoyed several of them:

She and Ozayr even went on the ferris wheel for a great view of the fair (they are in bucket #12).



We went to the Little Hands Farm... which turned out to be one giant John Deere advertising session. Check it out and tell me if you don't feel the sudden urge to go out and buy a tractor or something... Oh look! There's a deer(e)!!




Here they are with their buckets of corn to "feed" the "chickens" and collect the "eggs". (None of which are actually REAL. Except the corn.)


By then we were kind of hungry for some food... Here's some of what we had to pick from:




We settled on some fries and tried to find a quiet place to sit and eat.


Which turned out to be a median.



Funny thing is that the Kang family, our good friends, were actually sitting and eating their lunch at the other end of the exact same median. Hope you guys had fun!!

I had suggested getting the kids faces painted earlier in the day, and all of the sudden Maymuna thought it was a great idea, so we headed back towards the kiddy rides...



Our last stop was to see some animals for Hafsa... Some little ducks... a little pony... and one excited little girl...


Maymuna rode out of the fair in the stroller, exhausted. Hafsa pranced out, refusing to be carried, completely unconcerned about being bumped or stepped on...


A good time was had by all.

Product Review: Love it!

I ran to the bank this morning and could not resist popping into the new shop in Edina, Sur La Table. As the name suggests, SLT sells lots of gorgeous cooking and baking stuff. It was highly motivating actually, I felt inspired to become the next Rachael Ray... don't worry, it passed quickly. It helps that everything is so expensive, all the pretty stuff anyway. I loved, in particular, these beautiful casserole dishes, these adorable aprons and a great colander that I covet in lime green. Like I need a green colander, but anyway. I did however find something that moved me to open my wallet and shell out a whole 4 dollars.


These are labeled as "bar boards", I guess for bartenders who need to slice up a quick lime for a martini or something. They are just thin plastic cutting mats, with a silicone coating on one side so that it doesn't slide on your counter. This is EXACTLY what we need, because about 100 times a day we grab a piece of fruit and sit down at the table to share it, cutting it up into tiny little pieces for Hafsa. Each time I either (a) drag out a full size cutting board or (b) cut it up on a paper towel on the counter to save the cumbersome cutting board washing up. THESE things are light weight, do the job AND will rinse up in a jiffy. NICE. Used it at lunch actually. Love it!

Team spirit

This is the sweater that warned of things to come.


In the fall of 2004 Ozayr applied, on a whim, for a job at the University of Minnesota. He'd met a few professors from the U of M in Chicago at a conference. They told him that the school was hiring and that he should apply. It wasn't anything that either of us took very seriously at the time. We never really planned on leaving Ottawa in all truth. When possibilities in other cities came up (ever so distant ones, like Montreal or Toronto) we would discount them entirely based on the fact that we would have to leave. When Ozayr was shortlisted for the position I think we were both surprised. Not because he wasn't perfectly qualified of course, but because we'd never truly considered living in Minneapolis as something we would want to do. In fact we didn't even know where Minneapolis was. At one point we estimated it to be south of Edmonton. (Winnipeg is more accurate.)

Ozayr flew out a couple of weeks later for an interview and about 3 days of touring the Twin Cities. Like a dutiful husband and father, he brought us back gifts. A University of Minnesota t-shirt for me and this hoody sweatshirt for Maymuna, who was maybe 18 months at the time. Well, when I laid my eyes upon these gifts he had brought back for us I thought to myself, uh oh. Not a trinket from the airport or a tacky souvenir (cherry on a spoon snowglobe, anyone?). No, he had brought us U of M paraphernalia, and clothing items at that - like we were already part of the team. That's the very first moment when I realized that a change was coming. He must've liked Minneapolis, I thought to myself.

I pulled this little sweater out of storage yesterday, for Hafsa to wear. Of course we are part of the team now and Hafsa is almost the same age Maymuna was when we moved here. I have tried to find a picture of Maymuna wearing it, but I can find not a single one. Somehow I don't think I could bring myself to snap the shot. I think by the time I was reconciled to the idea of moving and fully grasped the benefits for us in Minneapolis, I think she had outgrown it.

Now of course I truly like this city (I would say 'love' if they weren't so many Canadians reading) so I can't wait for Hafsa to wear it. Maybe we'll even take her to a Gophers game.

Daily Dose

My blog is threatened daily by the presence of Facebook in my life. FB is so easy to use and requires much less creativity, while still getting across my general status and cute pictures of the kids (formerly the main purpose of this blog.) As a renewed commitment to the blog, I have decided to try to post something every day for the next 2 weeks. Of course, we'll probably go from long, detailed blog entries to posts that are somewhat shorter and less exciting - how's that for a trade-off? I am hoping that it gives me a renewed sense of enjoyment for actually writing something, instead of taking the easier way out.

See you TOMORROW. (i.A. heh heh heh)

10 months

Both of these shots of Hafsa were taken at the exact same place at the Children's Museum.


Heart warming and heart wrenching simultaneously, no?

Rain, sun and a good friend

At a quarter to five today, on the fourth straight day of rain, the sun came out. We ran outside only to quickly realize that it was actually still raining. I nipped back in for raincoats and we stayed out, the children laughing, getting wet in the rain and dancing in the sun. The rain made the sand that perfect consistency for holding shape and form, so we baked cakes and built castles for a while. It was nice.

Before the rain came we had some of the nicest weather we've had all summer. Three cool, sunny days that were perfect for being outside. They were made even more enjoyable by the presence of our friend K, a lifelong friend of mine.

K has been to Minneapolis once before this visit, just after Hafsa was born. I had to admit to her that I remember very little of her stay with us last year. It must have been the sleep deprivation because I recall only three specific details: (1) the parking ticket machine was broken leaving the airport, (2) that I drove her through downtown on the way home from the airport, and (3) that we shopped at the Mall of America on the way to the airport to drop her off and she almost missed her flight. I vowed that this trip would be different and that K would get to see EVERYTHING in Minneapolis (and not from the car window this time).

We went to the sculpture garden and saw some perplexing art, including the famous spoon/cherry sculpture which is practically a trademark of this city.


The next day we went for a walk across the Stone Arch Bridge, one of my favourite spots in Minneapolis. (yes, she dared cross a bridge in Minneapolis) That's the best view of the city I've come across, so I like to take visitors there.


When we picked Ozayr up from work later that day we explored the Weisman Gallery on campus, designed by Frank Gehry.


That night we went to a show at the Guthrie Theater. It had been so long since I'd been to the theater that I was inwardly shocked when the curtain went up and the set was 3-D instead of a flat screen. It was a lot of fun to get dressed up and go somewhere with NO KIDS!

On Friday we did lots of stuff just FOR the kids, like the Minnesota Children's Museum!

Where we slid,

sold,

ducked,

jumped,

painted,

and PLAYED


our brains out!!

The kids love the MCM and K left us with a year's membership to enjoy - thank you!

Saturday was the first day of rain and so we hit the Walker Art Gallery for the Picasso exhibit in the morning. In the afternoon K and I got some grown-up time for lunch and shopping at the MOA. Where we spent a good hour in Sephora trying on cosmetics like the teenage girls we once were. Ahhhh...

The last time I saw my friend K, she was in the longest, slowest airport line ever, where she was to be perpetually delayed because of the bad weather. I think she eventually reached home at 2 in the morning. Thanks for coming K, it was so wonderful having you near us. xo