Prayers.

Actually, I wanted to share our Eid story here. But then I stumbled upon this site, and decided to share it here. The blog tells us the experience of a little boy, fighting for his life. I wish I could reach out to his mom and hold her hand, and just spend a few moments with her.
To Alexander, his mom and dad:
I am here for you.
Aisha is here for you.
We are here for you.
We pray for you.
We love you.
Please support them with your kind words and loving thoughts.

On your feet..get set...

Reaching for the heights.

Just got time to click a snap before she wobbled and fell down...

Growing Fast.

It was a very busy weekend, doing Eid shopping and Aisha becomes more naughty on weekends - she knows dad is here to pamper her. She learns everything faster now-a-days and her developments have become quicker.
She knows to kiss. She gives a big SMooooooooooooCH *for mom & dad only*.
She is trying to stand up, holding on to furniture. Staggers and falls, sometimes banging her head on to something. Mom has to be alert 24x7!
Aisha waggles her head when she hears music, Mom singing or any rhythmic sound (including Mom's drum beats).

Aisha loves to point her forefinger while I read the BIG alphabets in the newspapers or magazines.
Her nursing habit has changed. I think, as a to-be women, she too has learned the art of multitasking. Its like sip a little milk- take a look at my hair clip - sip - pull my ear - sip - pull out a few strands of my hair - sip - play with my zip -sip - poke my eyes - sip - squeeze my nose - sip - explore my mouth - sip - .... Her ten minutes feeding time has now turned into half an hour time.
Aisha knows to switch on the music on her walker.
I wish she becomes more social too!!! Tomorrow we have got an iftaar party with hubby's colleagues and their family. I have stopped planning for parties now, with Aisha's stranger anxiety growing worse each day. I earnestly pray that everything goes alright.

The unfriendly girl.

We had two iftaar parties last week, one at my cousin's and the other at our relatives. I badly wanted a break, after sitting home all week, and I was really happy to go to the parties and meet some people. I was excited and Aisha was too, she began to laugh loud when I stepped out of the house. But Aisha's mood changed when we reached the party. The hosts, some of them seeing Aisha for the first time,  came to play with her and I think she got frightened. She began to cry. Aisha has become more unsocial now, because its been only 'Mom, Dad and Me' since we reached Dubai. Aisha gets fussy when someone else tries to grab her attention.
To conclude the story - it had a bad ending. My break of the week was a flop. Aisha was crying all time that I had to carry her in my arms. My arms went sore by the time I reached home. I couldn't have a peaceful chat with the relatives, nor was I able to enjoy the dinner with Aisha squirming and whining in my lap.
The good part is that, as soon as we departed and got into the car, Aisha was all smiling and shouting again. Her world has now converged into three of us. I wonder what will it be like when her Baba, Chachi and Deedi comes here after their vacation.

The bottle-wall to keep her away from the kitchen.

Aisha has also started picking particles from the floor and mouthing it - paper being her favorite. Its unbelievable - she can grab even the tiniest particle, a piece of thread or a strand of hair or anything small. Today she pulled open the kitchen cabinet, tore a piece of plastic from the food wrapper and swallowed it. I tried to snatch it from her mouth but she started yelling. I was afraid if it would get stuck in her throat, so I decided not to grasp it. I gave a lot of water to drink so that the piece of the plastic paper would go down to her belly.
She whimpers when we say a soft 'No'  to her mischief. She shrieks when we snatch anything from her hand, and yells when we say a stern 'No' to her or calls her name in fury. She repeats her mischief and when we give her a second warning, she starts crying, with the tears cascading down her cheeks. Our anger gets evaporated at her tears ( and I think she knows it), so we take her and cuddle her.
She loves to play with water, even if its a drop of it. She spreads that on the floor with her tiny fingers. She pees, and instead of crying like she did earlier, now she sits up and plays in it. I have to be alert all time. Silence means trouble.
Bath time is now war time. She wants the cup, soap, soap box, hand shower, towel, bottle of oil etc etc. The other day, while I was pouring oil into my palm, Aisha tried to snatch the bottle and the oil dropped into her eyes. I cleaned her eyes with a lot of water, and thank God, her eyes were alright. Alhamdulillah, she still enjoys her bath.

Iftaar and Suhoor for Aisha.

The full moon above us, reminding that Ramadan is half over.

There is a big change in Aisha's eating and sleeping habits now, I think its because she is confused with the fasting trends. She goes to bed lately these days at 11:30 pm or 12 am, contrary to the pre-Ramadan days when she slept by 8 pm. She then wakes up for Suhoor, at around 3 am.

At Suhoor

For Suhoor, I creep out of my bed as silently as I can, goes to kitchen to re-heat the cooked food, and by the time I wake Dad, Aisha will be all fresh and alive! I feed her with our Suhoor dishes, which consists mainly of red parboiled (matta) rice, a vegetable curry, sauteed vegetables and fish fry (seldom), so that she too gets the reward for this Sunnah. After Suhoor, Aisha sleeps by 5 am, when we go to bed after the Fajr prayers.
Its a long sleep afterwards, waking up again only by 10 am or 11 am, sometimes even going beyond that. With breakfast at 11 am, her lunch automatically gets late, sometimes at 2 pm and her evening snack *breast milk* is at iftaar time. So, I nurse her and break my fast *multitasking* at the same time. I give her the dates and other fruits when we break our fast, and completely avoid the fried snacks. Aisha leans to take the snacks, and I have to push her away from it. I think the old rule, deny it and they will demand it, applies here too.

Iftaar Preparation.

I finish my Iftaar, dinner and suhoor cooking before Iftaar. I feel very tired after Iftaar (that's usual with me, I fell more tiresome after a meal), and all I want will be a place to rest, although rest has been out of my dictionary for the past 10 months. I love it that way though. Dinner time is after the Taraweeh prayer ( I don't go for it now with Aisha). Aisha will want to sleep, but she doesn't go to sleep. She waits patiently for us until the dinner is over - all tired and rubbing her eyes, but never sleeps or frets. It sometimes makes me sad to see the otherwise restless girl, all calm and quiet.

Enjoying the beauty of her cousin Neha Deedi's ring.

Some not so good updates.

There are a couple things about Aisha that worries me. I don't know if its common-normal or if its a rare-normal behavior. I thought I would share it, and if there is anyone who goes through the same conditions, we can at least give it a break - I'm not alone.

Aisha doesn't suck her feeding bottle. I don't know why she doesn't do it, but from day one of her weaning, she never sucked any liquid from her feeding bottle. What I do is, I take liquids in a small weaning bottle, put a nipple to it, and squeeze the contents to her mouth. How long will I have to wait until she learns sucking the nipple of her feeding bottle? She sucks alright when I nurse her.

Aisha is allergic to eggs. When I first gave Aisha the egg yolks from India, she ate it and was fine. I gave it for three consecutive days and then stopped. Aisha seemed alright. But on the day when we came to Dubai, Aisha vomited a lot after I gave her the egg yolk. I blamed on the long journey. I gave her an egg yolk again, after one month of reaching here. She vomited again. After much pondering about it, I found out that when Aisha vomited both the times, I have given her the egg yolk in the evening. So,  may be the evening factor is the reason, I thought. The other day, I made tomato-egg rice for me and plain rice for Aisha. I felt sort of guilty for making a good meal for myself and giving Aisha only plain rice. So I added a spoon of my rice with Aisha's. That was at noon time. At around 5 pm, Aisha started vomiting! That makes the egg the culprit. So, NO more eggs to Aisha. But every one says you should give kids eggs, right? What shall I do?

Breast Feeding Week

Thankyou sister Salma for reminding me about the breast feeding week. For everyone else, please visit Chasing Rainbow to know more about breast feeding and breast feeding week. I would like to put my breast feeding experiences here.
Breast feeding is not the easiest way, rather it is the tough solution. Yo have to wake up every hour at night, search for a private room when you go shopping and miss some of the nice events at a party when your baby is hungry. But if you want the best for your baby, then the toughest seems easier. So I chose breastfeeding for my munchkin.
I plan to breastfeed her for at least two years, insha Allah, and may be some four to six months more if I can. Till she reached six months, her menu consisted only of breast milk. I started her weaning when she was six months old. I'm now giving the priority for breast milk, and will do the same until she is one year old, insha Allah.
As a mom, I enjoy breast feeding. There are other advantages too. I can eat fatty and sweet food without worrying about my cholesterol or blood sugar levels. I used to avoid such foods earlier, as a precaution. When planning a diet, I don't have to worry about my size, 'coz breast feeding will always keep you in figure. And some studies say moms who breast feed their kids for long are less prone to breast cancer.
As a muslim, Allah has bestowed His mercy upon Aisha in the form of breast milk, and what does it mean if I deny it to her? I'm denying one of Allah's mercies to her. Doesn't it mean that I'm a bad mom, to deny God's mercies to my child? Allah has even made the fasting optional for lactating women. Fasting is an important pillar of Islam, and isn't it one of His greatest mercies to the babies to make the fasting nonobligatory for the nursing moms? If Allah is so merciful, shouldn't we, mothers, be also merciful to our kids? I don't fast on all days of Ramadan now, even though I want to. When Allah has put an option for the benefit of my baby, why shouldn't I go for it? I fast for two to three consecutive days, and then take a break for a day.
Have you thought about the moms who don't have enough breast milk to feed their babies?
I would also like to take this chance to support all nursing moms. Please do not stop breast feeding your kid for your easy life or at the words of others, and do remember to give your baby the best - Breast Milk is the BEST.

Click on the button below to know more about breast feeding week.

Aisha sits.

Yesterday Aisha sat all by herself! It was surprising, as I have never her seen trying to sit. So it was totally unexpected. I once read about my friend's little love standing on her feet unexpected, and so I knew kids always did the unexpected. But I never thought it would come this soon.

We bought a new walker for Aisha, and me and hubby were installing it. Aisha wanted to 'join' in but as there were many screws, nuts and blots included, we put her off. She started fussing and then suddenly - she sat up!

When she saw our excitement, she was also amused.  She started laughing.

On her new walker, she runs around the home!!

Aisha's first Ramadan.

Everything has got a 'first', isn't it? This was Aish'a first ramadan, and may be the longest one. After much thought, I've decided to fast. Lactation and fasting doesn't always go together, does it? Lets see. I didn't feel much tired, I cooked iftar and suhoor, with a little help from hubby and his brother. Hubby's brother made the Water melon juice and hubby helped me in cooking the rice pan cake.
Aisha didn't make much fuss, and she loves it when I'm in the kitchen. There's a lot of things to explore in the kitchen. She was also thrilled to see her Dad and Baba home early, Ramadan office timing is from 8 am to 2 pm in Dubai. She was also confused with the iftar. Nobody eats at that time except in Ramadan. She loved the Water melon juice.