My Blog Life and Blogexplosion.

Surfing Blogexplosion, again. Some would say "get a life." But it is addicting! I know lots of people have made posts like this, but here is yet another one on the adventure that is Blogexplosion.
I am now noticing a lot of blogs by kids in school. I didn't notice so many of these before. I have also noticed that these blogs seem to be the hardest for my poor computer to load. It seems like they are always junked up with a lot of crap that takes too long, weather pixie, polls, that kind of stuff.
People, I have dial-up, ok? It takes a long ass time to load this stuff.
I ran across a cool site called Jeni's Journal, Whew! She is a good writer. She has some excerpts from something she has been working on for a few years up there and it had me hooked this morning when I surfed in. I really hope that she posts more soon.
There are the conservative republican weblogs. Pretty much the second I see a Bush-Cheney button on a site, I zone out on banners for the rest of the 30 seconds. I wonder how many people do that when they read Stay At Home Mom on my blog? (" oh crap some more pictures of some losers chubby kid") But anyway. I have to do that, if I don't, my blood pressure goes dangerously high. I can't wait for the election to be over because it has caused me to be more political in my blog than I ever wanted to be.
there is another site that I like to check out and that is Motokis log. I blogged a blurb on it with a link last week. That baby is a cutie pie, and his story is nothing short of amazing. He is almost ready to go home, so I can't wait to read about that. I am so happy for that family. I check it daily. I like the mom blogs; Cranky Mommys Rant Site, and Dooce. I think lots of people read dooce, she has a wide appeal. she has really gotten famous in the world of blogs because of her background story. I didn't forget the dad sites either, like Genuine, and Got Twins? ( actually I surfed into Genuine just now.)
Then there is the couple of dude blogs, as I like to call them . I like one more than the other. They are Niteowl.tv and A View from the Bleachers. Niteowl has a picture that changes on the top of the blog and one of them is a picture of a guy and a girl sitting at a cocktail table in what looks like a bar. The guy is totally ripped and has tattoos. I mean excellent arms and chest. The picture is only from the neck down, so I don't know what the face looks like but, I don't care. his writing is entertaining and makes me feel compelled to comment when I visit or surf in on BE. View From the Bleachers I don't read as much, but is entertaining. Speaking of entertaining, there are two blogs that I enjoy. One is The Impulsive Buy the writer(s) there crack me up. I like to see what they are reviewing, even if I would never buy it in a million years. And finally, there is the blog I found perusing someone else's blogroll. I found it on the blog Haiku of the Day, it was called, Steve don't eat that! I have to admit, my curiosity was piqued so I clicked it. It redirected me to a site called "the Sneeze". I was seriously laughing my ass off at this guy. He eats questionable food and writes about it, taste, smell consistency. He made a BLT out of Beggin' Strips. Yes, the doggie treat Beggin' Strips. Need I say more? I am going to attempt to put links in this post, but I am just not that smart, so sorry if it doesn't work. I am not as crafty blog wise as Jeckles Geek. These are my blogs of note. Most on BE, but some not, check 'em out if you haven't already, and to those of you I mentioned keep up the good work, you all are part of the reason I am soo hooked on BE. That, and the fact I am an insomniac that has a short attention span and likes to read. Oh yeah, did I mention I am a mystery prize junkie? Well that is my post for the day, for once, not about my darling baby boy or that damn election or war.
I'm OUT!

Crying Idiot.

Ok, when did I become such a sap? Last night I was watching ER and crying copiously. I felt awful. The reason I was crying is because the character Abby Lockhart (Maura Tierney, love her.) was doing a rotation thru the NICU. There was a problem with one of her tiny patients and the infant was going to die. She gave the infant to its parents to hold with their small daughter for the last hours of its life. Miserable. It made me want to go and hug my son. The irony here for me is that in my mid 20's, I worked in a NICU in a military hospital. I saw a lot of things. A lot of the things that they talked about in that episode of ER.
Why the hell did it tear me up so bad?
I think that after you have a baby, you automatically turn into a blathering emotional idiot. I mean, I cry every week watching Extreme Home Makeover. My husband even knows this. He asks me, "did you cry during Makeover last night?" My mom got my brother a childrens book that she found at a junk store. She told me that she read the book in the store and was crying in the aisle as she read it. So of course, I have to read it when she got it home. Oh crap, was I crying. It was embarrassing. My throat hurt because I was trying to be a badass and hold it in--which did not work. I wish I could remember the name of it. It was a gratuitous tear-jerker. Is it the hormones? I feel like Carmella Soprano watching that TV commercial in the last season of The Sopranos (or was it the season before?) I just don't really remember ever being this weepy.

I know I am not the only one. I hope I am not the only one, at least I know my mom is with me, i usually blame this stuff on her menopause. What's my excuse? Anyone have a comment that will help me feel less dippy? God, I hope so.

Try this, It is fun.

Go to Google.
Type in WMD, click I'm feeling lucky
READ the page, it looks like a "page cannot be displayed" but is not. Enjoy.

How pretty

Awww 
Reason #581 Why Ayman will be in therapy.
Shucran Tanta Nancy for teaching my mom how to wrap hijab.

No sports fan.

I am no sports fan by any stretch of the imagination. Having said that I will say this: I am so glad the Red Sox won the World Series. They sooooo needed it! I am glad the curse is broken, and I am betting the absenteeism rate for employers will be skyhigh in Boston tomorrow. Yay Boston!

Baghdad Burning

Baghdad Burning
Want to know what a real live iraqi living in Baghdad thinks of the elections? Click here.

The Sphinx

The Sphinx and Me. 
You have to walk down a huge hill to get to it.. Me being postpartum, and lazy, we decided to take a picture from this spot. By the way, there is a KFC right across the street.

Kufu and the moon

wow 
Ok, if you think of the tip of the pyramid as the center of the clock, you can see a full moon in the sky at about the 8 o'clock position.

Tour raquet

My dear husband and I on a camel. When you go to the pyramids, a bunch of Egyptian guys will stop you on your way up to negotiate a "tour package" with you. The tour package we got included a carraige ride for my husband and I, a horseback ride for my brother-in-law Maged (you can see the back of him riding a horse on the picture below). When you are almmost to kufu they stop you at "the camel guy" this is a guy who has a camel all dressed up with these fancy pompom things on its bridle, they get you to sit on the camel, and your tour guy takes pictures of you on the camel in front of the pyramids (not very good pictures i might add.) But the camel guy costs more money. the bad thing about the tour package is that his doesnt include a ride down to the Sphinx, and it also doesn't include the ride back to where you started. all this for the low low price of 80 Egyptian pounds each. I think, Maged if you are checking this out and i am wrong, let me know.

Kufu

The Great Pyramid Kufu as seen from our horse drawn carriage. 
The guy riding the horse is my brother in law Maged. He was reaaaaalllly good at the horseback riding. Poor guy. It was a fun day and he was a great touring companion for my husband and I. Whats up, Maged!

War in Iraq, This Mothers Opinion

I wrote this in early September. just thought i would repost it since people are actually reading my blog now.

On Monday September 13th, CBS Evening news showed an angry Iraqi crowd holding a dead infant over their heads. The infant died as a direct result of a building collapse, due to military strike on insurgents. CBS also had footage of screaming children in hospital receiving treatment for various wounds.

We have been in Iraq for 18 months. We have captured Saddam Hussein, killed his sons and toppled his regime. We have given Iraq back to the people. At what cost? What cost to the Iraqis, who didn't ASK for liberation? What cost to the American armed forces, with over 1000 lost to date?

We went to Iraq to find weapons of mass destruction, on false information from the CIA, and harsh words and strong language from our president. When the WMD's were not found, the focus became finding Saddam and his sons and bringing them to justice for crimes they committed against the Iraqi people. Then, things changed again, "there is a connection between Saddam and Osama" although no such evidence existed.

Iraq is a mess.

We have lost over 1000 troops. I know, on September 11th, 2001, 4000 Americans died when the twin towers collapsed. Was Iraq and Saddam responsible for those horrific acts? The answer is NO. Did we really have a right to go over there and tear up their country and kill innocent people?

As a Muslim woman and a mother it breaks my heart to see what I saw on television last night. To me, it really brought home how horrible and senseless this war really is. We have no idea how many innocents have died in this. We know how many soldiers have made the ultimate sacrifice; that is really the only number the media hammers home to us nightly.
(I found out from Iraqibodycount.com that it is over 15K)

I think that it is time that we see the coffins coming home. It is time that we see more of what I saw on CBS last night: injured children in hospitals crying. Mothers wailing over dead children and family members. Without these images we're only seeing a portion of the true Iraq war.

There are some people who say that showing those images would anesthetize the American public. I think we already are anesthetized--this senseless war is still going on. We are being bullied by scare tactics of the Bush administration, in the name of safety and security. How safe are the Iraqis? How secure? How will this situation be resolved? I don't think anyone knows how to resolve the situation. There truly is no end in sight.

This war is good for the president, and good for Dick Cheney and his Halliburton cronies. That seems to be it. Troops are going over there with out proper body armor, Iraqi neighborhoods are being leveled. Our country is billions in debt, and most of the world hates us. How is this war and Bush policy helping us to build "a safer more hopeful America"?

We are due for a change. In November we have the opportunity to let our voices be heard. We need to remove this administration that doesn't have our best interests at heart. So in November remember: Anybody but Bush.

New questions

Please leave a comment.

Are you surfing thru on Blog Explosion?
What type of blogger are you? (political, mom, angsty teen, weirdo)
What is your all time favorite movie?
Your biggest blog pet peeve?

Discuss.

Me:
Not surfing thru, I live here.
Blogging mom, trying to keep my family from slapping me by talking about my son too much, so I do it here.
I think Forrest Gump. ( I was Run-ning!)
Pages that take to long to load, conservative Bush types.

Talk to me people!

Motoki Log

Motoki Log
This is an amazing blog about an amazing boy. Motoki was born 15 weeks premature at only 14 oz. Lots of pictures and stories.

Blog Explosion Surfers

First if you are not on Blog Explosion, and you want traffic, you should be on it.
You can click on the link to the right if you want to go.
If you are on Blog Explosion, can you take a quick second to rate my blog? Let me know what you think.
Thanks!--The Management

Mom 1 Baby 0 (depends on when you started keeping score)

 
I am at that point where I just don't know what to blog about. I am sitting here hoping for an idea to come to me.
Pathetic.
I am seriously multitasking right now. The TV is on: Jimmy Kimmel Live.
I am surfing Blog Explosion.
I am blogging, about nothing.

I can tell you that as a mom, I am going crazy these last two days. My darling boy has decided that sleeping in his crib is not for him. Last night he was up until 2:30 am. Yep, you heard right. 2:30 am. No problem. If you read my blog you can see that I post around that time, but do you have any idea how HARD it is to blog when your son is screaming hysterically from his crib in the next room?
I got a headache, took three Advils, with no results. I needed a cigarette, but that isn't my bag anymore. Bummer. Nonetheless, that baby woke up at 11am. I was kind of looking forward to him sleeping later since he went to bed later, but I guess I was smoking crack or something. No such luck.
Typically, the baby needs a nap about two hours after he wakes up. So, I tried to lay him down at 1:30 pm today. Mind you, he was in his bouncer, bouncing with his eyes closed. I put him in the crib. You would have thought pinched him or something. He cried and cried and CRIED.
Crap, I thought we went through this last night.
So I thought, you know what? It is 1:30 in the afternoon. He is not sick, he is tired, and dammit, SO AM I. I will lay down in my bedroom with the door closed, and he can CRY IT OUT.
Yes, I said cry it out.
Yes, I know I have spoke of this before, We have tried this before, my husband and I, but today is different. It is just me. I can deal with it without being nervous about Amr not being able to sleep. I will have the baby CRY IT OUT.
So I did.
And he did.
It took an hour and 15 minutes of intermittent crying but he went to sleep. Apparently, he plopped over from a sitting position and passed out. It was weird. I feel like I really accomplished something. I also feel like the Worlds Meanest Mommy.
At 2:33 I looked at my alarm clock after about 20 minutes of trying to tune the boy out. I was startled really, not realizing that I had fallen asleep. He was still crying. WAAAAAAAAAAuh-huh-uh-huh-uh-huh WAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA.....
Okay I thought, fine, cry all you want, I can tune it out.
Can it be possible that my angel is testing me at the tender age of 10 months?
I think that may just be what is going on over here.
My husband says it is because I let him stay up too late. I don't totally buy that. I know how important it is to have a baby on a schedule, blah , blah, blah. His schedule is the same way it was two weeks ago, just kicked up 2 hours. Everything that happened before, still happens, in the same order. It just happens two hours later.
BABIES CAN"T TELL TIME!
So anyway, when Daddy is home, crying it out lasts until the first shriek. Moms, you know what I am talking about. The point where an unanswered cry turns into that shriek. The one that puts your hairs on end, the one that if you didn't know your angel was fine, just throwing a fit in the crib, you would run to them because it sounds scary. At that point, my darling husband thinks he will not calm down, and goes in there to get him.
Today, I didn't do that.
It is mommys watch.
We do things mommys way.
I only heard him shriek 3 times.
Then, the door to my room opened, the baby came walking in, and hopped into bed with me.
I jolted awake.
It was 3:15
It was quiet in the apartment.
The baby doesn't know how to walk, let alone hop.
WE HAD CRIED IT OUT! YAY! I HAD BEATEN THE 10 MONTH OLD!(not literally folks, don't call child welfare)
I WON!
So, of course, I had to check on him to make sure he was still breathing, and not lying on the floor unconscious, next to his crib. That is the disturbing part of me, I am always imagining the Stephen King angle of things. Some terrible demise. So much so, that I have to go in and check. Someone tell me I am not the only one who has pulled their car over to check on an ominously quiet baby in a rear-facing carseat, actually thinking he had choked on something or worse, (what I ask?) only to see that yes, he is sleeping? I could go into detail, these brief flashes.But honestly, they freak me out too much. Half the time, I don't even allow myself to finish thinking them.
Like I said, he was sleeping. Soundly.
Chalk one up for mommy.
Thankfully, I think he cried the fight out of himself today, he went to bed with no objections.
Right now he is sleeping.
Like a baby.

Snuggly

*Sigh*....I love to cuddle with Grampa. 

I wanna hear from you.

So what do you all think of John Kerrys chances in the election anyway?
How about Sinclair broadcast changing their tune about "Stolen Honor"?
Ben Affleck: Better with J.Lo or no?
Let me know.

Suave and Debonair

Thank you Grampa, for my new pjs! 

Naked Dinner

Bare skin on plastic, with a side of peas, please. 

What diaper?

I think I feel a breeze.... 

Super Wal-Mart

Tonight was preview Night in the brand spankin' new, one and only, Northern California Wal-mart Supercenter right here in good ole' Stockton, Ca. This place is enormous. It has its own weather systems. Someone got lost when we were there and they had to send out dogs and a rescue chopper to find them. No, just kidding, but the place is soooo big. I want to do my shopping there. I don't want to hear all the bullcrap about how huge corporate superstores are squeezing out the little guy. I think that is a load of crap. It is a huge beautiful store, and we will see how long it stays that way before the ghetto Stockton natives turn it to crap. We can never have anything nice for long. But basically that is all I have to say for now, so, I'm out!

The Sneeze - Half zine. Half blog. Half not good with fractions.

The Sneeze - Half zine. Half blog. Half not good with fractions.
Okay this guy eats things, and writes about it. Pork rinds, Potted meat, Breastmilk, BEGGIN' STRIPS. I was laughing so hard when i read his reviews i was crying. too Funny. Check it out.

View from the Cairo Tower

Giza , the Nile and Cairo. 
as seen from the Cairo Tower. This tourist spot was built by Nasr in the 60's. It is about 15 stories high, or at least that is what the elevator buttons said, I am guessing more like 30 stories. You can see all around, but unfortunately Egypt has some wicked bad smog (air quality regulations? What for?) Had the day not been so polluted I could have photographed the pyramids from there as well.

King Tutankhamen at the Egyptian Museum

 
In King Tuts room there are Egyptian policemen there to tell you "NO FLASH" so you cant take pictures with a flash, DUH. I enhanced the photo of Amr and the second sarcophagus (I think) on its right you can see a larger outer sarcophagus. The mummy of Tut and the inner inner sarcophagus is still in Luxor.

King Tut

The boy king and me....kinda 
A very famous piece of the collection. I was so excited to see this. I mean, you see it in history books, and things like that when you are a kid. Never in a million years did I ever expect to be standing right there, in the room devoted entirely to the treasures of Tutankhamens tomb, in Egypt. Wow.

a bunch of Mummies and a mommy.

 
Still at the Egyptian Museum, they have a whole bunch of cases like these with mummies in them. These are the less famous mummies, hence the barracks-style casing.

Crash and Burn

 
Tonight was another one of those hellish I-refuse-to-go-to-sleep nights. Once again I attempted "cry it out" it did not work but, did succeed in working him up into a truly historic hissy. I gave up and let him play for a while. I noticed he kept putting his head down on my husbands prayer rug. Then I had a brilliant idea-- what if I put a pillow and his blanket on the rug? Well this is what happens (above photo) It took about 2 minutes. I don't know how he got so stubborn.

I love you, pacifier

It's all about the bzaza, baby. 

Pacifier Appreciation

My son has been a pacifier fan since way back. When he was born he had to spend 3 days in neonatal intensive care because my water had been broken for too long. They started giving him a pacifier there, when they would start his IV . I wasn't happy about it, but how can you argue with a cranky NICU nurse who says, "It is comforting him, but if you don't want that, we wont give it to him." I always said that when his top teeth started coming in, (they have not yet) I would start weaning him from it. I am starting to think that will be easier said than done. When he was an infant my mom and I had what we would call "Pacifier Appreciation" he would cry, we would give him the pacifier, and if you didn't physically hold it in his mouth, he would spit it out and the crying would begin all over again. So I would take it away, hoping that he would "appreciate" it more when he got it back. Now, it make no sense to me whatsoever, because I am a more informed mommy. The pacifier was too large. It was a size for a six month old, and I didn't know it. Hell, I didn't know they made them in sizes until I had to buy a replacement set and found out all along the darn thing was too big for his mouth during those days of Pacifier Appreciation . Eventually, he grew into the pacifier (which around my house is called a Bzaza, the Arabic word for it. Actually, it is the Arabic word for bottle, but hey, I don't speak Arabic and it stuck. It is pronounced as it looks--bZA-ZA) As I was saying, I think weaning him from bzaza is going to be hard. Today it really hit home when I noticed the baby taking a few leisurely steps crawling, stop, and sit, pull his bzaza out of his mouth and look at it. He looked at thing with such love. He would turn it over and over, and kind of wave it around a little, then put it back in his mouth. I observed this about three times today. Then fear struck in my heart.....My son graduating college, walking across the stage at graduation, taking his diploma from an important looking faculty member, and turning to wave at his father and I. Stuck in his mouth is his favorite baby blue bzaza.
Yikes, somebody is going to have issues with this for sure. I think it is probably going to be me.

Aymans First Big-Boy Dinner

Mmmm, rigatoni and peas. My mom is an excellent cook. 

Adventures of a 10 month old

Ayman is usually corralled in the living room. He has his toys there, there is nothing dangerous, and it is easy to keep an eye on him from the kitchen. Tonight I left a large space between the ottoman and chair that serves as his corral fence. He got stuck and pitched a hissy, so, feeling guilty, I opened it up and let him roam.

First stop: Oscillating Fan Land
Mommy: "NO NOOOOO!"
Ayman: "Uhhh!" (translation: whatever, there are other things to mess with)

Next stop: Bookshelf Boulevard, here the traveled baby picks up some reading materials. His likes are:
Making Faces by Kevin Aucoin, The Complete Mother Goose, and a collection of Islamic teachings on cassette by Sharawi. He browses but does not buy.

Third and final stop: the less frequently traveled Outer Kitchen Region. Here the adventurous tyke stops to observe the microwave, refrigerator and dishwasher in their native habitats. Then it is on to the mysterious Beneath the Sink Cabinet with its motherlode: the garbage can. Still unsure of the cabinets, the 10 Month Old stops to manipulate it, in hopes of catching a glimpse of the elusive trashcan. After several minutes, he gives up, defeated, and starts to cry. This is my cue to send reinforcements of blanky and bzaza (his pacifier)in. The journey is over he returns to the safety of his mothers lap and chair. He is soothed and medicated with Pediacare. (he is sick people, I didn't do it to knock him out. There is whiskey for that.)

Quoting his favorite book, The Going To Bed Book, by Susan Boynton: "the moon is high, the sea is deep, they rock and rock and rock to sleep"

Eureka! I have found it!

Fun With Cabinets Part I 

Mmmm...Geeeerrrrrmmmmsss

Fun With Cabinets Part II 

Birthday Girl!

Happy Birthday Auntie Renee! 
We Love You!

What fresh Hell is this?

Last night at around ten I decided to put my son down for the night. He was displaying all the Ayman "tired "signs: earpulling, laying down on me, hugging his blanket. Since I wanted to watch NYPD Blue, I thought it the perfect idea.
I was wrong
Shortly after I laid him down, we can say like 45 minutes, he decided he was going to wake up--and stay up. I want to him in his room, and held him for a minute, gave him back his pacifier, and laid him down. I had no sooner left then he started to cry. Half-heartedly at first, but the guy was crying. I told my husband I thought we should let him cry it out.
Bad decision.
After about three minutes of crying, that had started at half-hearted, and become full-blast, my husband got up and told me " I am just going to give him his pacifier". Me totally being a fan of non-nutritive sucking, ok'd this plan. Daddy went into the room and baby's cries got louder. Then turned to shrieks when he realized daddy was not there to let him out of his DaVinci prison. At that point Amr picked him up and rocked him like a good daddy. Enter Mommy. That baby started shrieking like someone was pinching him! My husband took him into the front room. Maybe he had a belly ache. I decided to bust out the magic elixr we brought back from Egypt: Gripe Water. I gave him some and it didn't seem to help, and now every time the baby looks at me, he screams. I mean really screams. I had to go into the bedroom and shut the door, because he could still see me sitting on the bed.
We laid him down once more with a bottle and it seemed to take. Then at 1115 he woke up again. More shrieking baby.
I don't want bore you with all the details (too late) but my son finally went to bed--at one a.m., cranky, complaining and exhausted.

Iraq Veterans Against the War

Iraq Veterans Against the War
This group was formed by an Iraqi war veteran.

Sorry I brainfarted.

I finally posted some more pictures from Egypt and will continue to post once a week.
I went to the pyramids, that will come later.

Ayman and Daddy On the beach at Sharm el Sheikh 

Outside the Egyptian Museum 

Mosque minarets at Khan al Khalili 

Unfiltered Blog

Unfiltered Blog

Air America has these links and stories on the entries of 10/11.
read on! be enlightened!

Democrats Seek Probe of Anti-Kerry Broadcast (washingtonpost.com)

Democrats Seek Probe of Anti-Kerry Broadcast (washingtonpost.com)

Seriously? what is up with this company?

Dude, you have to vote.

This Sinclair Broadcast is totally pissing me off. I am working on a rant about it now, but I have some links on stories to check out to get people to speed who don't know what is up.

Full of beans

My son is strange. He has been cranky/whiny all day long. My father came over for dinner and he was very cute, sitting in his high chair, eating the mahshi that I made. What a mess. Then after dinner he got a bath, still very cute, and normal. Then after the bath he was totally bonkers. Crawling this way, crawling that way, standup here, crawl and stand up there, play with two toys at once, climb on daddy--all this for like an hour. Then when it is mommy decompression time he wants to be difficult. I let him do this in his crib, and went into the bedroom to blog. Ten minutes ago he woke up--inconsolable. It was early for his bottle but I gave it to him anyway. Now I am listening to the domestic violence couple across the way, and my son-- thanks god-- is asleep.
Ahh.... The sound of silence. Delicious.

Puppy or Baby?

O.K., last night when we got home from our long short trip, I fed the baby, and my husband took him out of the high chair, and took off his sleeper and diaper, as we were drawing his bath. Ayman loves this state of nakedness and my husband calls this "freestyle". Well, I was sitting on the chair and noticed Ayman in front of the fireplace on all fours with his head down, suspiciously still. He crawled two steps forward and stopped again, this time he made a suspect "unghh" noise. This prompted me to become very suspicious.
"What are you doing?" I asked him, as if he would answer. At this point I realized there was a large steamy turd behind him on the carpet, and upon further inspection, a smaller one hanging from his crack. My husband and I are both, at the same time, making noises like "ehh-ehh stop stop!" so he went from a more carpet friendly position of all-fours, to the ground-in-poop position of square-on-his- cheeks. My husband picked him up, Ayman started to cry from all the noise, and we put him in the bath. Poor little guy didn't totally know what was up. Needless to say, I was laughing toooo hard.
The clean up was a snap, actually easier than a diaper change.
Ahhh the pitfalls of first-time-parenting.

Bay Area Visit

On Saturday, we packed up the rugrat and went to the bay area to visit some friends. I got to see my friend Heba, who is going to be going to Egypt with her son Tameem. She is going for the month of Ramadan and with stay through until the Eid kabir, which is 70 days after Ramadan ends. So it will be a loong trip for her. She is also expecting her second child due in April which is so nice.
I Stayed over at Hebas' house with the baby and the two kids got to play. Her son is nine months older than mine. They had a lot of fun and at the end of the stay Tameem was upset that his new friend was leaving. I will miss Heba when she is gone. She cracks me up.
After my husband and I wee done with that visit, we went over to Magdy and Liz's house for a crab dinner it was very yummy, they were most hospitable and I got to visit with some folks I haven seen in a while. Today was a gorgeous Bay Area Day, not too cold and the sun was shining, I really enjoyed it.

How you doin'? 

Officially Sick.

I guess it had to happen sometime, I mean the kid is 10 months old. I just wasn't prepared for it. I guess I was in denial last night in Wal-Mart when I had the opportunity to buy decongestant and didn't. Thanks God for aunties. Much thanks Auntie Renee for getting Aymans' medicine, and to Aunt Bunny for giving me the dosage advice and warning signs. That damn pediatrician never called back.
The poor little guy is really cranky and just isn't himself. I just wanna hold him all the time. You can tell he is sick because he falls asleep on me again. He had stopped doing that like a month ago. Of course there is nothing to do but give him medicine and keep an eye on things. Hopefully (inshaallah) he will be better soon. He has a little tiny fever-99.1 so I gave him the Tylenol, and he feels better. What can ya do, huh?

My son has a snotty nose.

That baby has a snotty nose. I knew I should have taken him home yesterday as soon as I saw that little boy playing near him with the five inch rope of snot hanging from his nose. I swear if he gets sick, well, I don't know what. What kind of idiot mom brings their kid to a mall play area with a horrendously snotty nose? No Kleenex even. Keep your son, and his colonies of cooties at HOME. Cripes.

Last night DH and I had dinner with the baby at IHOP. Ayman was happily playing with anything he could get his hands on in reach. So, I slid a lemon wedge in his area. He picked the lemon up and as I suspected, put it in his mouth. Then he dropped it. Not because it was sour, he just isn't that coordinated yet. I was bummed thinking I wasn't going to see lemon face, then BAM! My son made a face like Bill the Cat from the Bloom County (Country?) comics. I was laughing so had I couldn't speak and the baby just kept on eating cheerios. Cheap thrills. Am I bad?
Will he be relaying this story to a therapist in 20 years? Hmmm I will have to ponder that. Tell me what you all think.

Good times go bad with SAHM

Yesterday we had a SAHM meet -up at the Weberstown Mall. (you can read about it if you scroll down) Today I check out the message boards and there is total drama from one member of the group. I don't know what is up with this chick. She got all nasty on the message boards, someone called her on it and then everyone kissed and made up. Then today she decides everyone thinks she is "the bad guy" and left the group. She also stated that she was uncomfortable because she was the only person of color (or something to that effect) in the group. Apparently we didn't make her feel welcome. Mind you this was the first meet-up, so it was sort of a clusterf**k anyway, but she sat as far away from all of us as she could and made no effort to talk to anyone. I know you cant please everyone, but throw me a bone here, huh? This girl has removed herself from the meet-up group and can no longer be contacted. What is a real bummer is, online she was so friendly, and I am sure she was friendly in person, she just didn't give it a chance.
Whatever, I'm not in high school anymore. I just want my son to make some friends.

Amr: Extreme close-up.