Nusayba's mapping

Nusayba's having fun with this map of the world. Subha'a Allah, children are such sponges and have amazing memory...speaking of memory, she'd go to sleep and I'd promise her that when she woke up we'd do a specific activity or I'd give her something and the first thing she does when she opens her eyes is remind me of my promise!

Trip to Hungary

These are long overdue -- my apologies.

We had a wonderful time in Hungary with the family. The girls finally got to meet one set of their grandparents and Nusayba knows exactly who we're talking about when we say Nana and Jady Abdullah :)

The public transportation in Hungary is absolutely amazing--they say the best in Europe. The only problem we faced was communication! Surprisingly, not many people speak or understand English. We were able to do a lot of sight-seeing between the museum, zoo, boat cruise and of course shopping:)

I placed the camera on the stroller so the picture is nice and slanted:)

We did a lot of waiting at bus stops. Here is Alaa's brother (Siraj), father and uncle (Abdurrazzaq) who flew from England and of cours Nusayba:)

Khala Asmaa really didn't want 'Amu Abdullah to wear that hat--it's Alaa's.

Because the public transportation is everywhere, between buses, trolley's, metros and light rails we couldn't always find pedestrian crossing at the traffic lights and had to lift both strollers to the underground crossing. I don't think a person in wheel chairs could survive in Hungary--you'd rarely find any elevators, but plenty of stairs and escalators. Even to get on the buses you have to lift the stroller at least two steps!

khala Asmaa really pampered us during this visit--I didn't cook once in two weeks!




Ahmad, Alaa's younger brother that's in California wasn't able to join us during this visit and made sure to emphasize that I was to take pictures at every moment of the trip. He sent his father a gift and we wanted to make sure we got that on tape--but I only remembered to video tape the moment after 'Alaa already gave him the gift so we did another take just for Ahmad:)

During the evening boat cruise

Reciting Qur'an

A walking Asmaa

Asmaa's been walking for a while now (since she's been about 10.5 months) so she's a lot more steady now, but here are her first few steps:

Asmaa is really starting to show an interest in books. She'll grab a book and sit down (in the same spot) for a few minutes. Then when Nusayba notices, she goes and sits next to her.

No mistaking me for a boy now--I got my ears pierced!

In hijab for two weeks

For about two weeks Nusayba refused to go out of the house without her hijab. I'd be combing her hair and she would say, "ummi, la ureedu toka--ureedu hijab methluki" (mother, I do not want a headband, I want a hijab like you).

We went to school with it, to our MAS meetings and even an entire day at the children's discovery museum!

Getting ready for Iman's visit

The evening Iman (and family) were supposed to arrive, Nusayba was so excited. We've been marking the calendar and doing a count down for two weeks. So on that evening, Nusayba was preparing Iman's bed....

Nicolas and the slug

Sorry I haven't posted anything in a while--I've been so lazy, busy and tired.

I thought this would make up for it--enjoy!

The slug is really sleeping--like, forever!

ps: Nicolas is our next door neighbor.