sporty spice

Just back from the Little Gym and she's snacking on some tangerines.

spaghetti night

Always a hit with Aiden and Sky.

Notice Sky's FBI bib. Cool man, cool...



And nothing is easier or quicker to make! Thank god for Prego.

the teasing has started

Aiden likes to tease Sky. He'll do almost anything just to get a rise out of her. He knows how to push her buttons and still look innocent (so he thinks)to Mom and Dad.

"I'm just sharing her juice." (above)

Notice how Sky is just about to realize that Aiden is drinking her juice.

Notice how Aiden's elbow is cocked and ready to block Sky from getting her juice back as soon as she realizes it's her juice he's drinking. And if I know my boy (and believe me, I do) he's not even interested in drinking that juice. Just look at the angle of that cup, he's not drinking that juice! He just knows he'll get a rise out of his sister.

Some other excuses we've heard:

"I was just trying to hug [squeeze] her..."

"I was just looking [grabbing something out of her hand]at her toy."

"I'm just touching [poking] her."

visiting annandale

I took the kids to Annandale today to visit with family. We took a drive around the old neighborhood and couldn't believe how much things have changed over the years.

On the other hand, I can't believe I still live in Northern Virginia. Growing up, I remember thinking I am so outta here after college.

driving record

Our driveway has a nice slope to it so Aiden likes to ride his tricycle down the hill as fast as the wheels will take him. He makes us all very nervous so we make sure he wears his helmet.

Me: If you're going out to ride your bike, you better get your helmet first.

Aiden: I can't find my helmet!

Me: Please look for it. I'm sure its in the garage.

Aiden: How about I ride real slow, Mommy?

Me: No, Aiden. You know the rules. If you don't wear your helmet you're going to get a ticket. And if you get 3 tickets, I'll have to take your bike away for while and you won't get to ride it.

Aiden: How about I just get one ticket today?

my bet is...

...this little girl is going to want a dog for a birthday present one of these years.

Here she is with my brother's dog, Holly.

i'm her comfort pillow

While I was getting Aiden ready for bed last night, I sighed as I looked at his skinny little legs and tight little belly. That damn stomach virus really reamed Aiden this time. He still has dark circles under his eyes and still isn't 100%.

On the other hand, I look at my little Sky and there she is doing somersaults on the living room floor, climbing over the couch, jumping off the coffee table and taking laps around the kitchen as she sings "Dora, Dora, Dora, Dora". I think to myself, man! this little girl is so tough. I'm amazed that she hasn't gotten Aiden's stomach flu.


03:00 AM, Adam and I wake up to Sky calling "Mommy, Mommy, I get out! I get out!" So, I go over and pick her up. We sit in the rocking chair where we cuddle for a couple of minutes. Sometimes she likes to cuddle in the middle of the night and then she goes right back to bed. Suddenly she pushes off, sits up, and with a panicy voice say "no milky!". No milky? Okay, so no milky. Then BLAAAAA she throws up all over me. And that my friends, was the start of stomach virus number 2 in our family this week.


All day today, little Sky was not herself. She just wanted to cuddle next to me on the couch.We must have read thirty books today while sitting on the couch. Every so often she would look up at me with her glassy, fevery eyes and pink cheeks to say "tummy hurts me". The only way she was comfortable is if I let her cuddle up next to me on the couch. I guess, I'm her comfort pillow ; )

I took advantage of my iphone and snapped these pics.

my poop hurts me!!

The stomach flu attacked my family this week. Last Saturday for no apparent reason, Aiden threw up after drinking a cup of juice. I got suspicious but I tried to be positive and talked myself into believing that he must have been running on a full stomach. But what happened two hours later, I could not dismiss. Little man had explosive diarrhea and I mean EXPLOSIVE diarrhea (sorry to you non-parents that get squeamish during poop talk). I could hear his stomach twisting and turning from five feet away as he sat on the toilet. He was crying out "Mommy, Mommy, my poop is hurting me. Ouuuuch!!!" Long story short; we went through four days of diarrhea, vomiting, fever, crying, and general fussiness. Finally, he was able to hold down a handful of of cheerios last (Tuesday) night for dinner and I jumped for joy. I had complained to my pediatrician about his lack of appetite and asked for her advise on getting him to eat and she was all "oh don't worry about he'll eat eventually." EVENTUALLY??? Is that the best she could give me? Eventually? Easy for her to say, it's not her kid withering away! I could see the bones in his face. Aiden tends to lose weight very quickly when he's sick. I'm not exaggerating when I say, I agonized over every stinkin' ounce that boy lost in the past couple of days. Hey, I come from a long line of traditional Afghan moms that obsess over feeding their kids. We're also pretty dramatic too. ; )

I took the picture above with my iphone this evening before bed. You see how skinny he got in just a couple of days???

read mommy, read

Sky's favorite activities these days is reading. She loves to be read to all the time. She grabs a book off her shelf, sits on the couch and pats the spot next to her motioning to me to come over and read to her "read, mommy, red".

adventure with Daddy

Adam has been taking Aiden and Sky for long "adventure" walks in the woods behind our house. The three of them can easily spend an hour or two out there alone. They've spotted the fox that hangs out in our backyard. They've witnessed the red-tailed hawk fly off with a mouse. They've climbed over fallen trees, played in the creek, collected interesting rocks, and even found a golf ball!

I'm lucky to be your mommy

Aiden,

I am so lucky to be your mommy. I count my blessings every day and I thank god for the opportunity to be your mommy. You are a very special boy and your potential and limitless. I know someday you'll cure a disease, or solve the energy problem, or be the president of free the world. I will all that I can to to support you in whatever you decide to do. You will always be loved unconditionally and I will always be your number one fan.

I love you, Foos.

- Mommy

just one more?

Aiden was busy playing with his train in the family room. Sky and I went to the playroom. I had some spongy bunny and Easter eggs stickers that Laila said could put on the windows in there.

Sky watched carefully as I carefully took a sticker off the card and stuck it onto the window. Sky did one, and then quickly did two, and three. She was proud of her work.

“Do you want to get Aiden to help us?” I asked.

“No,” she said and continued to pry a purple egg off the card.

“Here’s a boy bunny, do you think we should save this for Aiden?” I asked.

“No,” she said seriously not wanting to interrupt her work.



The third time I asked about including her brother she decided it might be a good idea to bring him in. Sky ran to the playroom door, hesitated, and turned back to me raising her pointer
finger.

“One more,” she said as she ran back to get another bunny and fit it into the perfect place. She smiled, satisfied, and ran off.

When Aiden came and saw the stickers he immediately tried to take one off the window.

Sky wedged herself between the window and her brother and yelled “Mine!”

So I gave Aiden a sticker and asked him if he could put his on a high spot on another window.

Gleefully he ran across the room, stood on a chair and put his too high for anyone to mess with. Sky didn’t care because her sticker creations were safe and she could rearrange them at will.

Sky knows how to share, but sometimes a girl needs to be alone with her Nana.

- Nana Beth

eleuthera

how to eat a cupcake

Sky demonstrates how to savor a cupcake...you start with the icing of course and you use just one finger.

Thank you to Nana Beth for the cupcake!

twenty months old today!

At twenty months, this little girl is full of life. She's smart, independent, and very vocal. She knows what she wants and stands her ground with anyone.

On the other hand, she's very sweet and gentle. Sometimes she'll be in the middle of playing and she'll suddenly get up, run over to me and grab my arm and kiss it.

When she wakes up in the morning she runs over to our room to see if Daddy's awake. If he's a wake, she climbs on the bed and gives him a kiss. If Daddy's still sleeping she whispers and puts her little finger over her lips and says "shhh Daddy sleeping".

no bite Sky!

We decided to take Aiden and Sky to the National Zoo for the first time EVER on Sunday. Turns out, we weren't the only ones that had that bright idea. We were one of thousands of families with toddlers, young kids, parents, grandparents, uncles, aunts, and cousins. There were stroller traffic jams, screaming kid, and frustrated parents.Despite the crowds, we all had fun at the zoo. Sky went from cage to cage telling animals not to bite her.

"Hi lion. No bite Sy."

"Hi elephant. No bite Sy!"

"Hi snake. No bite Sy!"

Aiden was amazed to see all the animals he's read about in books standing there in real life.


Both kids enjoyed seeing the elephants the most. They were actually the most active animals we saw that day. The lions and tigers were busy taking their afternoon naps and couldn't even be disturbed by thousands of screaming kids.


Group hug and kiss.


I wonder what he's thinking about.


No, Grandma! Don't throw me into the elephant cage!



Aiden sitting on a statue of a silverback gorilla.

Uncle Caleb and a hippie compound leader once fought like two silverback gorillas.


If Sky could have it her way, she'd have this statue in our backyard.


Sky avoided the crowds by riding up high on Bobba's shoulders.


"Nakalie" and Sky looking at the anaconda.



Sky LOVED this gorilla statue for some reason. She kept giving it hugs and standing next to it.

Looks like even monkey families use Time-out as a discipline technique.


Sky's new friends.

here comes trouble

Miss Mischief is up to something again. In this case, she noticed that my car door was left open and that if she hurried up, she might be able to climb into the front seat before someone noticed her.  The kid loves to sit in the driver's seat and pretend that she's driving.

not yet scooterin' girl

Sky getting ready to go for a ride on her scooter. 

Sky: Watch this Daddy! Watch this!

Now what do I do with this thing?

scooterin' boy

Uncle Dullah gave Aiden and Sky a set of scooters. 

It took Aiden about 15 minutes to learn to how to ride his scooter. 

He knows how to push and he glides for about 4 to 5 seconds at a time.

He knows how turn and how to slow down.

Most importantly, he knows my # 1 - helmets are a must.

christmas all over again

Auntie Sam and Uncle Henry gave Aiden and Sky a huge train set for Christmas last year.  Since they both received a ton of presents, we put some of the bigger items away for a rainy day.  Last week we brought out the train set out for Aiden and Sky to play with.  People, I am not kidding, the smile on Aiden's face went from ear to ear. He couldn't believe his eyes.

Daddy and Sky enjoyed themselves too. 

Aiden: Sky, you have to be careful. Don't touch the train, okay? It will crash if you touch it.

Sky: I touch it. (big grin on her face)

Aiden spending quality time with Daddy.

Hey, you may think that trains aren't for girl but this little girl will NOT be left out of anything. 

my sunshine

I still have a baby monitor in Sky's room. I had it on today during her afternoon nap. I was working at my computer when I heard her stirring in her crib. Then I heard a soft little voice singing and it sounded something like this:

"sunshine, my on' sunshine, make me haaaapyyyy...en sy gray. Love youuuuu...ah ha ha"

Now, we do sing this song together from time-to-time but to hear her sing it by herself so softly was a treat.

Is this kid for real? I couldn't make this up people!

dishwashers

You can never have too many trained dishwasher in a household. But they do give a whole new meaning to the phrase "dishwasher safe".

for Daddy

Aiden taking advantage of a snow day to finally get around to painting a figurine for Daddy's desk at the office. It's a little wooden airplane. If you haven't heard, Daddy is working his pilots' license.

snow day stuff

I put her hair up this morning. She was surprisingly patient with me experimenting with her hair.

What a nice guy.

You'd never guess that just twenty minutes before he was driving her crazy chasing her around the house pretending to be a monster with a blanket over his head. Sky hates that partly because it scares her but also because he does it incessantly...and he's so loud.


Sky giving herself a pedicure.