A glimpse back to our trip to UAE

looking at the photo gallery of my phone I stumbled upon those pics!

the Perfect Traveler :)

enjoying the trip, making new friendships (with hostess of course!)

the relaxed mood at Jumana's 

Love it!

Escape to the coast...

A walk down the new Water front in Beirut

I like the old one with the corn vendors and the direct interaction with waterfront

but 

both are lovely

and will Always be my favorite destination 

to release stress and enjoy the warm sun rays!

TINTIN... Adventures that'd never fade!

A dear Gift from a dear Friend: Zari

Tintin? one of my Favorite characters EVER!

and an amazing memory from childhood!

my older brother had several volumes of Tintin adventures, it was in arabic and I used to read them when I was 8-9

that means more than 20 years ago! 

that means that my kids may have the chance to read them as well!

some things never die

and Tintin is the best proof of that!

 

Random thoughts at the end of January

It's been long time since I posted here.
It's Winter,
It's January...
and it's So cold
but I know this is no Excuse....

The start of this year was accompanied by many heart-pounding challenges.
and I had to take some important decisions related to my career
so this was taking  great time and huge effort.
and now all I can say is that I hope I did the right decision and what is best for me and my family.

January also brought running noses and swollen eyes at home!
I had to give Sary his first Antibiotics 2 weeks ago (this fact is depressing enough) and Ghadi recovered quickly from what seemed like a potential heavy flu (that wiped away the depression!)

meanwhile,
Ghadi seems like he's growing so fast,
it's just getting so fun talking to him, we are having long conversations now,
discussing stuff like why I didn't became an astronaut,
and he's a great brother too! he ENJOYS feeding sary
he does his Best to make him laugh!
they're so cute together!

Sary is standing by his own, holding the edge of a table or the sofa, he sits carefully (after falling several times hitting his head on the floor!)
he enjoys playing hide and seek now and hides his face with any piece of clothes waiting for you to search for him (I'm hiding my face, therefore I don't exist ! :)
he laughs very often and his tiny lower teeth are so cute, especially that there is no sign of any other tooth coming soon!

still one week to end this month, hope it'll bring more fun and joyful moment than the passing ones!

new look, winter look!

Ghadi asked me to shoot him and print the photo to show his teacher that HE IS sleeping alone (with me next to him), in fact in this photo, he was pretending to be asleep,

and another fact: he IS sleeping all by himself! 

he finishes playing, goes to his bed, and sleeps! waw!

my angel while asleep, I spotted him holding his toy, how cute!

define the world!

While driving home yesterday:
- c'est quoi " le Monde" maman?
- Ah mon petit...
  en Arabe, c'est " Al Dunia"
- oui, mais c'est quoi?
-mmmmmm.......

I love my 4 years old-boy's questions!
I mean, when was the last time you were asked to define "the world"????
this is really challenging and cute...
I freak out thinking of way more complicated terms he would ask about...

Topping the list of embarrassing moments offered by my boy!

If I would have a list of the top embarrassing moments my boy has been granting me for four years now, taking aside stories like the usual whining at toy markets, or running and jumping at a book exhibition (three years ago), or even singing children songs loud at a Guggenheim art exhibition (two years ago), all of this would seem normal compared to this one, which would definitely top the list!

This Saturday we were invited to our neighbor's Birthday,
he is turning four
his classmates were invited
and among them a very handsome young boy
who has extremely long eyelashes!
he caught my eyes, I smiled at him then turned towards Ghadi...
he was dancing but then suddenly it was quite, music stopped (what a coincidence!) and Ghadi was standing there, in the middle of the space, waiting for the music to resume his dance,
and...yes,
starring at the boy....
I was between calling him and letting him think and analyse by himself when he suddenly searched for me with his eyes, then yelled at me: "hey mom, look at this!" pointing at the boy...
OMG, that was embarrassing... I didn't have time to think, the boys's moms eyes were slowly turning at me, ( I think everybody were looking at me at that moment)
I was screaming from inside to the mom to help
but this help never came and the following seconds of silence were like heavy rock falling down at me from a high top....
just before the rock hit me, I smiled at Ghadi, and at all the crowd, and I took him gently by his shoulder saying loudly that yes my dear he has such special eyes... and while I was trying to walk away, Ghadi stopped, yelling at me: "Why???"
I looked puzzled at him, my hands pressing his shoulder trying to force him to walk but he just stood there still, asking why!
I said that it is not polite to yell like this... so he approached my head, put his mouth over my ear and whispered: "Why"?
still all ears directed towards me now, I smiled again, saying that it is normal in life that people are not similar
I reminded him that his skin color isn't the same as his nanny's (who is from Africa)...
and that some people have blue eyes while others don't...
then at this point it was crucial I distract him from the whole subject, thinking firmly to myself that I should talk to him later about many issues : manners, talking loudly in a crowd, and above all, explaining to him that pointing at people is NOT allowed under any circumstances!
I think now that I shouldn't have waited for this moment so I explain all this...
I should have foreseen such situations and I should start talking to him about many aspects in life, that would prevent such situations!

Any suggestions?

End of Year Vacation with 2 boys! Part 2

30/12/2011

the Global village

and the fancy JBR/Dubai DT

My brother in law spent the day with us,

 it was great since that he is always good humored and made this day sooooo special!

End of Year Vacation with 2 boys! Part 1

This is my first post in 2012
I have so many thoughts...which I am unable to express...
No resolutions for this year... I have the feeling I'll be achieving many things.
I am SO grateful and happy to have my kids around me, to have my jamil, my family, my friends,
my job and my hobbies...
2011 couldn't have been better...
and couldn't have ended better...
spending the new year eve with my both sisters... I can not recall when was the last time we were together on a new year's eve!

Here is a brief summary of the best Vacation ever in UAE, with 2 boys, and surrounded by my mom, the best sisters and my adorable nieces/nephew...

23/12/2011

We celebrated Riad's Birthday on our arrival's evening... He is turning to be a great young man, 

he is more responsible, helped me loads with the boys, accompanied me to the mall and made my trip much more comfortable!

thank you my dear!

A story that will never end...

Ghadi and his cars is an endless story, a post that will keep repeating year after year! :)

I love the fact that he loves playing with his cars.

it's stimulating and way better then watching TV or jumping on my bed...

but the amazing fact is what i discovered lately,

the fact that he has a very precise memory about every car, its color, model,

so if u closed his eyes and took away one of these, 

in one look, he'll tell you which one is missing!

I think this is normal for his age...

and I think it's awesome!

ready for the Grand Prix!

Three in a Bubble!

About how to please kids and Bad Decisions

Sometimes we tend to please our kids

We THINK we are doing the thing they mostly like

We ASSUME it IS what they will enjoy…

Well, sometimes we think wrong…

During my parenting years, it has happened several times

and too bad it is still happening

(hope this will stop someday and I will become emotionally smart enough to undertsand their needs and what would REALLY make their day)

The origin of this post is what has happened yesterday.

It was holiday, we were at home, ghadi playing with his cars…

After lunch, I insisted that i want to take him to a nearby mall where they were displaying real sizs Flash-Macqueen

Yes, the real car coming all the way from disney (that was was written in the Ad)

I KNEW he’ll be thrilled.

And above that, I convinced our neighbors to come with us so the it’ll b more fun for all kids!

As we saw the car, Ghadi was thrilled ...

for like 5 seconds…

No, thrilled is too much...

he was like standing there, looking at something new, but NO signs of excitement or fun or a WAW expression…

I was qeen to take a picture

He was unwilling to stand and rest…

And then it happened…

Behind the car

There was a full stand of Disney toys, with all kinds and all sizes of CARS characters, in huge boxes with remote controls!

Kids ran to the stand and Ghadi was standing there, seeing tens of Francesco and lightning Macqueen and other racing cars

photo credit

And

Yes!

He simply wanted to have them all,

To open all boxes,

Play with all the cars…

and I discovered how naiive I was

And how easily we can be driven to just commercial attraction…

Ghadi isnn’t the kind of boy who likes to manipulate cars from distance… he loves rolling cars with his own hands…

And from my experience with cars with remote control,  I knew that buying him such expensive one is meaningless, it’ll only last few minutes before he starts rolling it with his hands

As he had done in many cases before…

Besides, I felt angry at Disney because this stand shoudn’t be there at first place…

I mean many people came to this public place to show their kids the real-size car with no intention to spend money or to put their kids in front of such seducing stand! It was there just to force parents to get a car any kid wouldn’t resist!

 So,  It took me a HUGE effort to convince him not to buy one

And another huge effort to convince him to go back home…

On the way back, Y.B insisted Ghadi should come play with him in his house…

I agreed… and their laughs was filling the house in no time…

And I looked at them and saw how happy they were …without Huge cars, or the Mall frustrations, or the temptation of expensive toys… or all those “NOs” and “PLEASE HOLD MY HAND”s and “DON’T RUN AWAY”s and all other expressions I had to repeat 100 times whenever I go to the mall with ghadi!

And I realized I should be smarter in the future and do the things he would REALLY appreciate and enjoy…

 

after one hour playing at our neighbor's house,

again,

one last HUGE effort to convince him to go back home… 

***end of a combo-frustrating-Macqueen-ish-day***

The Perfect Trio!

How many times am I gonna say this:

these are my favorite trio!

I love every bit of  them

ah So many cheeks to eat! :)