Qisat ashab-ul-kahf

Maha gave me this idea of telling Nusayba stories from the Qur'an and specifically reciting some verses as I narrate the story. About five days ago Nusayba asked me to tell her "qisa min al-Qur'an" (a story from the Qur'an) so we sat down and I tried to narrate the story of "ashab-ul-kahf" (the people of the cave). Today, Friday, Allaedin took the girls out in the car and was reciting surat-ul-kahf. He said that when he got to certain verses Nusayba wouldn't let him continue and kept shouting "qisat ashab-ul-kahf, qisat ashab-ul-kahf!" over and over.

Masha'Allah, her ability to retain information never ceases to amaze me.

The ultrasound

Alhamdulillah I had my ultrasound a few weeks ago and we decided to find out the gender of the baby this time. I'll let Nusayba tell you what we're expecting inshaa Allah...

We didn't open the topic of names in front of her once!

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!