Bucket list updates.

There is nothing much to cross off from the list. The truth is, I have been a bit busy to put up updates of Aisha.
Aisha can now speak a few words now. She can mimic the mewing of a cat, clucking of a hen and crowing of a crow.
I'm crossing off a few of her updates- playing with mud and her first dance steps. You can visit her project 2012 list to read or watch her updates.
Thanks for visiting and have a good week ahead.

Play time.

Helping hands - moving a watermelon all by herself.

She loves spinach. So I pluck a few leaves from them everyday to mix it with her rice. Today, she is doing the  job.

Just Dance

Watch her dance...

The free spin, the rocking and the sitting half way down... I wonder how she learned all these steps. Might be from me. I love to dance with her, to rhymes and songs. She can now enact a few rhymes.

Anklets

Aisha now knows the art of doing a mischief silently, so that no one will notice her. The other day, she went upstairs by pushing away the barricades I've put at its entrance. I searched for her everywhere and was a little tensed when I could not find her. Then I saw the chair (obstacle) moved and guessed where she has gone. I could see tow eyes popping out from the top of the staircase! So, to easily  find out where Aisha is, I bought a pair of silver anklets for her - anklets that jingles a lot.

Updates.

Anyone want to know the success of my potty training? Aisha now knows to wipe the floor after peeing! She takes the washed and folded bedsheet, my hijab or shawl, Mom's bath towel or anything she can get to wipe out the mess. The point is, should I applause her for her help or should I shout at her for messing with the clothes? No idea!
Alhamdulillah, Aisha has put on some weight. I hope her eating habits stay with her. Usually, she starts eating normally for some days, and then gets sick. I hope she never gets sick again.
Aisha is enjoying the spring now- with the shivering cold gone. The sun has got its warmth now. There are a lot of butterflies in our garden, Aisha is thrilled.

Licking a bone.

Learning arabic.

Playing with tender coconut.

World Pediatric Cancer Day

Today is the world pediatric cancer day. Praying for all the little ones around the world for a better and healthier tomorrow. Praying for the families, who suffer physically, mentally and financially, to bring back the apple of their eyes to a healthy life... Prayers for all of you.
Cancer, from what I have learned in my high school biology, is an uncontrolled growth of our cells. All of us have inactive cancer cells in our body. although the reason for cancer is not yet fully known, some list it as

• Chemicals around us, like smokes from Cigarette and factory emissions.
• Food with a lot of artificial ingredients in it.
• Radiation (even mobile, laptop and TV radiations).
• Hereditary and through pregnancy.

Although prevention from this disease cannot be completely attained, we can take certain measures to reduce the risk of getting infected.

• The most important thing is to avoid smoking. Smoking not only puts your life at risk, but also affects those of your kith and kin, the passive smokers.
• Avoid eating fast food. Even though it is impossible, try to stick to organic foods as much as you can.
• Never allow your little ones to play with anything that emit radiations.

May Allah bless us and our kids, and may He save us from deathly diseases. Ameen.

In leaves no step had trodden black.

An evening walk through the grassy path of our land. The path leads to my uncle's house.

Yet knowing how way leads on to way.

I took the one less traveled by.

Islam never wants hardship.

This is another story of potty training. I never used any diaper for Aisha, except when she gets sick (when she doesn't have the energy to sit on her potty) and during a journey. So, you can guess it, sometimes its a mess in our home. I always plan to make her pee every two hours, but at some intervals, I forget my plans. Or sometimes I am too busy to care for her. When I get back to her, she will be in a pool of urine. Earlier she used to slap and play in it, but now she wipes it with any cloth she finds. I will run to hold her and stop her from making the mess worse, and I will also get drenched in it.
As a muslim, I pray (namaz or salat) five times a day. For praying, I should make my body, dress and pray-area clean. But with little Aisha it was always a tough job. I changed my clothes every time, sometimes, I have to wash my body too - when she pees in my lap. It was really difficult.
I was ignorant about how Allah has made things easier for me, until recently, when I read about a Hadith. The hadith said that mothers with little kids can combine the number of their prayers*, reduce it to three times. I was relieved.
Now I bath at noon and perform my Duhr and Asr prayers. I clean myself at night again, after I put Aisha to sleep, and then perform my Magrib and Isha prayers. In the dawn, I pray Subh, before Aisha wakes up. So easy. I never knew Allah loved the mothers so much, that He even changed the prayer timings for us! Subhanallah.

*http://muttaqun.com/pregnancy.html fiqh 2.118

The Hanbali school is the most accommodating as it allows one to combine the prayers, at the time of the early or later salah, for one who is ill as well as for the woman who is breast-feeding and will face hardship in cleaning her dress for every salah, for the woman who is plagued by a prolonged flow of blood, for the person who cannot control his urine, and for one who cannot purify himself or herself, and for the one who fears for his life, property, or family.

Going back to childhood.

Yummy mud cake.

Sometimes children brings backs your childhood to you. It was such a moment for me when I made a 'coconut shell mud cake' for Aisha. In our early childhood days, we used to play 'home', by making mud cakes, fried stones, leafy salads and flower deserts for the meals. The meal was served in banana leaves or yam leaves with spoons made of jack-fruit tree leaves. There were kids of all ages in our joint family. The older ones acted as the Mom and Dad, the younger ones were their kids. We used to build small homes between trees, with newspapers and banana leaves as roof and walls.The place would be bustling with noises- yells, whimpers, giggles, whispers etc.
For Aisha, she had none of these. It was only Aisha and me. I silently made a cake, while Aisha watched. The only sound was my 'NO's to Aisha when she came to destroy the cake - a piece of my childhood.

Watching...

... and destroying.

I'm sure Aisha will never have a childhood like mine, but I wish she would also enjoy her childhood. I want her to have some moments in her life which she can share with her kids... like setting up a mud cake meal!

Some forgotten Updates.

In my last post, I forgot one important update - her adamant NO. Ask her if she wants a meal, her answer will be a ummm-ummm... and she turns her head away. Ask her if she wants to sleep, again its the same answer with the same gesture.

Domestic Helper.

Updates

Aisha still staggers when she walks. Although she hasn't become more sure on her feet, she tries to run the moment she stands. The result will be a slip and fall. Sometimes, when she is walking in our compound, she falls and hurts herself. Once she had bruises on her knee. She never cried though. 

Ummee's little girl is brave and bold! Well, not really. When she wants us to take her, attract us or when she is in a bad mood, she just drops down, imitating a fall, and then cries. 

 The furniture of our home has become alive, no they don't reproduce or consume anything, but they have started moving. The chairs and stool are no longer where we put them. With prankish kids, I wonder if there will be anything in your home that sits idle!

Giving water to her teddy.

Updates:

• Aisha says tu-ttu-tty for a butterfly, aaa-iii-aaa for Aisha and daa-daa for Daddy, her granddad.
• She has got her third teeth popping out. More pain for Mamma during the feeds.
• Aisha can act sneezing, yawning, blowing her nose and catching a mosquito.
• Aisha prostrates, folds her arms in takbir and moves her lips as if making a dua while I'm praying.
• Aisha loves to eat alone, creating a big mess for Mamma to clean.
• She can enact many nursery rhymes, both English and Malayalam. 'Chubby cheeks' is her favorite.
• When asked, "where is Aisha?" she points to herself.
• She knows she should wear a shoe to go out. She points to her shoes, making it clear that she wants to go outdoors.
• She loves to help Mamma in kitchen- she wants the spoon to stir, the knife to cut veggies and she loves the serving part.
• She doesn't like her toys for more than a couple of minutes.
• She reads the A in her alphabet book.
• She can lock a door using a sliding bolt lock - one day she locked Mamma out!

Potty training during night is not working for Aisha now. She never used to wet her bed except when she was sick, but now everything has changed. She pees in her sleep. Earlier, I used to put her on a potty during her sleep, but now she screams aloud. For a few days I tried holding her above a basin, in my hands, when she pees, but that didn't work fine. Sometimes I got all wet, and sometimes even the bed got messed up. So I stopped taking her to pee. Now she pees in her sleep, on her bed-sheet and the waterproof sheet under it. I have to change her pyjamas and the sheets at night and wash her sheets everyday. I don't why these changes are happening.
Aisha has also started eating veggies, fish, egg and chicken again, alhamdulillah. She crossed out all of these fro her menu some few months back, when she got fever for the first time. I believe everything is going to get better, and hope she gains some weight too.
Thats all for now. Wish you all a very happy week and weekend. I don't know when I'll put my next post - may be some 2 or three weeks later. Till then, good bye.
(Please forgive the spelling mistakes in my posts, if there are any, my eyes are half closed and my brain is on low battery - its 3 am!)