The H1N1 vaccine is finally ready in Canada and it’s getting shipped out to all clinics and I have to make the decision whether to give it to my Girls or not. So I am beyond confused and here is what I got:

- Our family Doctor said, don’t do it, too risky since it was not tested enough
- Every Doctor on TV says, do it , it’s safe, the benefit outweighs the risks by a million
- Most importantly, Dr Hareega says to do it.
- My coworkers sisters brother in law – who is a doctor – says don’t do it.

My question is, are the doctors basing their recommendations on pure science or are they using their personal judgment? Because it seems every doctor is saying something different. Usually doctors agree but it seems they are split right in the middle.

I decided that I am certainly getting it for myself since I get the regular flu shot every year and this shot is no different. Maybe give it to my 5 year old since last year she took the regular flu shot for the first time. But should I give it to the baby? My Husband says he does not want to take it, so if he gets sick he will get the baby sick.

Everybody I know who got the H1N1 Flu  got really sick, thankfully did not have to be hospitalized but still suffered a lot.

What should I do?

Peanut never seizes to amaze me.

At 8 months she was clearly behind on her milestones, no crawling, no standing, no rolling over (that really concerned me, until the doctor told me she was too fat to roll over, HAHAHAHAHA), no teeth.

Nothing.

Nada.

Zilch.

And then when she hit 8.5 months she:

1) Turned over back to front and front to back.

2) Crawled.

3) Stood up unassisted.

4) Sprouted a tooth.

All in one day. ONE!

I think this girl takes after her dad in terms of ambition and drive, either she does nothing or she does it all.

She does not do half ass; oh let me crawl today and then get my teeth tomorrow and then maybe next month I’ll clap my hands and say Dada.

Now my peanut is ten months old and in true peanut fashion she sprouted three teeth yesterday. THREE if you were not paying attention the first time I said it.

She is just growing up too fast. She can climb the stairs now, which gives me anxiety attacks and I cannot leave her alone for one minute, which is steadily and surly making my sanity go away.

She can walk around holding sofas and tables.

She can say baba, mama, dada ,seedo, bird, oh – oh , wow ,  light (but in Arabic) , mum mum for food or drink (I am working on that one) and she can sign more and enough. She waves hello and goodbye and she claps her hands.

And she is sneaky this little one, I have a stack of magazines that she is just obsessed with, I tell her don’t touch, no no, she looks at me, wags her index finger, shakes her head, giggles and grabs them.

And she is officially the Michelin man now, no doubt about it. Seriously, I am embarrassed to tell you how much she weighs. Lets just say, if she could walk and had teeth you would think she’s 2 years old.

My little peanut, a hand-full, with a beautiful sparkle in her eye.

PS: My biceps are just HUGE.

PPS: Seriously, my arms have never been so fit in my life, pays off to carry the Michelin man around.

Here’s an illustration to help you visualize it.

PPPS: I am making rice right now and for some reason it’s just not happening. It’s sticky. But tastes good at least.

The End

I can’t begin to describe how much joy you bring to my life.

You have a sparkle in your eyes that I have never seen in any other human being. It brings so much joy to my life.

I wish I can describe how my heart flutters every time you smile at me and every time you look into my eyes with so much love that I feel my heart is going to burst. You are just precious.

You are turning 8 months tomorrow and I am starting to get to know you better. You are starting to have a personality now. You let me know if you like or dislike something. You let me know if you want to be picked up or not and you let me know if you want to be in my arms if you see a stranger face .

When I enter the room and you see me oh my how your face lights up. You extend your arms , you smile the biggest smile ever, you squeal and then those eyes of yours sparkle. Oh how much I love those eyes. Come think of it oh how much I love those eyes and cheeks and lips and nose. And those little chubby stinky feet.

When you sleep in my arms and then I touch that ticklish spot you smile in your sleep and my heart just stops and it comes back to life.

My little angel , my little heart, my little soul may that sparkle always stay in your eyes.

I love you to the end of the universe and back.

I really wished that would happen, I was even imagining it: Maybe I can melt? Maybe I can become invisible? It was an OMG I wish the earth would just open , right here, right now and swallow me moment.

Little 7aki is turning five soon , oh how time flies, so we are busy setting up her Birthday party, who’s invited, where to do it, what cake to get, etc.

So because I hate it when kids feel left out if part of the class gets invited and the other part doesn’t and they start saying I am invited and you are not blah blah blah I made the decision to invite her whole class, but to keep the numbers in check I didn’t invite the kids that go to school on the days little 7aki is home. You see, she goes to school part time and some of the part timers go on the day’s she’s home.

Anyway, today I went to pick her up later than I would usually do and as we were standing by her school gym it went down like this:

Little 7aki speaking to a kids Mom (Oh yes you guessed it, one of the kids who were not invited) : Hi kid, Hi kids Mom, Kiiiiiiiiiiid, I have a Birthday party and you are NOT invited, yes my Mom said so, you are NOT invited.

And she runs along leaving me standing next to the kids mom.

Me: Heheheh, ahem, hahaha, hoohoohoohoo. ( OMG KILL ME NOW I WANT MY LIFE TO END RIGHT NOW)

I can’t even remember what I said to the mom, it was all a blur, I was sooooo embarrassed. Of all the kids and of all the Moms why did we have to run into her? I have NOT seen her in the hallway for like 6 months!!!

So anyway we go to the car and I tell little 7aki:

Me: Why did you say that to the kid and his mom? Why did you tell him he was not invited to your party?

Little 7aki (very matter of fact) : Well he isn’t invited to my party.

Me: But you shouldn’t tell him that, you might hurt his feelings. How would you feel if someone told you that you are not invited to their party? I am sure you would feel hurt wouldn’t you.

Little 7aki: Yes I would feel hurt but he might not feel hurt, we are different people right?

Well she could not understand why she should not tell him that because, after all, she said the truth, he is not invited so she had to tell him, what’s the big deal Moooooooooooooom. LOL.

Sigh.

The End

PS: Peanut has fat cheeks.

PPS: Seriously they are HUGE.

PPPS: She is going to be 7 months in a couple of days , YIKES, that means 5 months and I go to work. Did I say YIKES?

Honest to God baby food tastes soooooo good.

I have been steaming veggies for peanut and adding nothing to them, just steaming them and then blending them, with a hand blender, speaking of hand blenders: I want to hug , kiss, marry and worship whoever invented them.

Hand blender creator inventor, will you marry me? I really love you.

But I digress…

Real vegetables that were untouched by butter or oil or salt which were steamed, meaning all the goodness is still in them and they have not been boiled to hell, taste sooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo good.

I never thought I would say it but fresh bought vegetables that were steamed are better than butter, yes I said it, better than BUTTER.

.
I can’t believe I fed little 7aki when she was a baby the jarred shit! I mean I used to cringe when I opened the jars for her so NEVER AGAIN. I WILL NOT buy jarred food for peanut, I WILL NOT I SAID and I will keep saying it until I burst. I WILL NOT BUY JARRED FOOD FOR PEANUT. Even if I am up at midnight steaming food and freezing it I WILL NOT buy the jarred grossness so help me God ( Or higher being) .

Another thing I want to add, Avocados, will you marry me?

…. the gums.

Peanuts Gums

I LOVE children’s books. Even before I had my little 7aki I was drawn to these books and I loved reading them.

Here are some of my favorite children’s books in no particular order.

They are for different ages, from toddler to Teenager.

1) Goodnight Moon by Margaret Wise Brown and illustrated by Clement Hurd.

Such a cute book where the little reader gets to say goodnight to everything in the room , from the picture frame to the brush and the comb ,makes for a very good bedtime ritual.

As a bonus, there’s a little mouse that keeps moving around and is in a different spot on every page, it’s a lot of fun for your child to find it.

2) I Love You Through and Through by Bernadette Rossetti-Shustak
illustrated by Caroline Jayne Church.

Oh how I LOVE this book. You get to read it to your child and point to everything you love about them, from their head to their toes.

3) Green Eggs and Ham by  Dr. Seuss.

 The rhyming, the illustrations and the suspense while Sam is trying to convince the thing to try the Green Eggs and Ham makes the children listening to the story mesmerised. Does he try them? Does he not?

And because of the rhyming and the word repetition, it’s great for beginner readers.

No wonder it’s the fourth best selling English-language children’s hardcover book of all time.

More recommendations to come.

Peanut turned 4 months a couple of days ago.

Oh my how time flies!

She can grab things now with her little tiny hands and guide them to her mouth.

She can squeal and kick her feet with excitement.

She still drools like it’s her bidness (for real she drools a lot, like A LOT).

She has a ticklish spot where I am guaranteed to make her laugh ( on her sides, she goes nuts).

She is one plump monkey (for real, think of  her as in on her way to becoming a Michelin (wo)man) ( knock on wood y’all).

She looks me in the eye when I sing to her and coos with delight.

When I yell at her sister (little 7aki is driving me NUTS)  while she sits on my lap she smiles thinking I am talking to her. Ilhabla, only if she knew what in store for her, LOL.

She has a completely bald spot on the back of her head, HILARIOUS. Like TOTALLY bald. I like to sniff it and kiss it.

Her feet are still stinky, HAHAHAHAHA.

And the list goes on and on.

I can’t believe how much I  am enjoying peanut and little 7aki.

I love them so much that my heart swells when I watch them sleep. Yeah I watch them sleep like a stalker, especially little 7aki, she is growing (four) and I miss her already.I am terrified of the day she will want to be independent, I want my baby back .

I want “baby” little 7aki back who used to say bubooz (bubbles) .

She now drinks hot (HOT) chocolate and and she tells me ” chill mom”  (CHILL?????)  and and and she she she gives me back massages (well, ok,  I like this part, hehehehe) and she says “This meal is scrumptious” ( like, who says that???). And and she tells me ” Moooooom, why are you not leaving, goooooooooo” when the baby sitter shows up when baba 7aki and I are going out.

I want my baby back

Sigh.

On a lighter note, because little 7aki loves peanut so much and I don’t know why it is when you love something  so much you just want to squeeze it (fa3es). Little 7aki says, “I can’t taaaaaaaaaaaaaake it I want to squeeze her little head”. So we came up with a solution. Every-time peanut looks cute we would squeeze each other, HAHAHAHAHA. I squeeze little 7aki and she squeezes me.

I guess peanut has been too cute lately cos my cheeks hurt peoples!

I don’t know about any of you but the year 2008 was a tough one, many deaths, many dear people to me got ill , my pregnancy was very hard and work was soooo boring and I hated it which is a first becaue I always loved my job and  many other difficulties.

But there was one thing that made all of that float away.

Behold the toes:

They are kinda stinky, like the year 2008.

Although the year was bad it is one of my favouritess because peanut came along and I love her to death. She drools like it’s her business.

I don’t have any resolutions cos as I said earlier I like to make my resolutions in the summer when I am more likely to fulfill them (never, hehehe) but I wish you all a happy, successful and fun year!

Happy new year everyone.

…. to why I love 7aki peanut , I mean bateekha. Biddi akolhom AKEL

I want to eat them up . nom nom nom

So Obama won the election eh? I got goose bumps and all.

And baby peanut (knock on wood) is all cheeks, I think I need to call her baby watermelon now (bateekha) .

And check it, check it, my sister wrote her first post here, go show her some love . The post is actually good, I mean, imagine if I am selling her post and I tell you to go check her out and she sucked? Won’t be a good thing.

Otherwise I am chilling, eating mansaf and stuffed cabbage leaves and karawyah, man I had so much karawyah I am going to regret it later. Just to give you a picture, I lost all the pregnancy weight and then some by my 2nd week after birth, and then after the 6th week I gave birth I am gaining weight, not baby wieght but FAT weight, hmmm gotta cut down on the mansaf and karawyah or I will go back to work fatter than when I was pregers, LOOOOOL.

Oh oh speaking of Mansaf, baba 7aki let baby peanut lick a spoon that had a little bit of mansaf on it, thus initiating her in the Jordanian society, hahahahaha, she loved it, we were concerned that she would not like breast milk after she had her first taste of the intoxicating stuff.

Also in other news little 7aki got a new bedroom set and OMG it looks sooooooooooooo cute, she arranged her books on her desk , she makes the bed EVERYDAY without me asking, I swear, and she designated a drawer in her night table for all the treasures she collects, for example, a pine-cone we got when we went hiking in the park by the creek, her costume jewlery and also a piece of Styrofoam that was part of the bedroom packaging. Why , you might ask, she thinks it’s a treasure? Because she likes the sound it makes when she rubs it . FA3EEEEEEEEEEEEEES.

And that’s all she wrote.

See ya later people .

Yup, I can’t hide it anymore, I am addicted, BIG TIME. I can’t stop so shoot me.

I am addicted to sniffing her all over; her little neck and her little toes (sometimes they smell funny, hahaha) and her hair and OH MY GOD everything.

I can’t get enough all day and night.

Well I am not addicted to her poop, nope. And I wouldn’t mind sleeping at night. And my boobs hurt like a MOFO.

BUT sniff sniff sniff ALL DAY.

FA3EEEEEEEESSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS.

OK so I fa3asetha the other day and little 7aki came running and said stop, don’t be so rough, hehehe, but I couldn’t help it I had to. And then I kissed her really hard and little 7aki yanked my face away, HAHAHAHAHA.

I think little 7aki will be the protective older sister.

God I love my girls.

They say be careful what you wish for, in my last post I was telling peanut to come out already and guess what? She did!

Baby peanut came out 15 days early on Sept 23rd and I am in loooooove.

She weighed 7 pounds 13 ounces. Pretty good size for an early baby. Imagine if she was full term, she would have been a big baby since they gain half a pound a week.

I lucked out since my mom got her on Saturday, just in the nick of time, her flight was supposed to be on the 26th but she managed to find an early booking on the 20th.

Little 7aki is over the moon, she loves her baby sister soooo much that she stopped hugging and kissing me and reserves all her hugs and kisses to baby.

Peanut is doing great, eating and pooping non stop. Yes, pooping a lot is good, lol.

Anyways, talk to you later guys, baby needs to eat.