Mama and the Babies 

Twins

 That baby and Daddy in matching outfits. How cute is that? GAG!
Okay, I have turned into "That Mom" the one that dresses up her kid like her husband. Tell me, when exactly did this happen? Oh well, I think I will just roll with it.

Mama bird standing watch

 Babies are too big for Mama to sit so she stands on the edge of the nest. this is the best picture i could get of her.

Hummingbird babies....Bigger.

 There are 2 birds in the nest. They are getting so big the mom can't sit on the nest anymore. Plus you have to be careful when looking at them. the mom will dive bomb you or one of the babies might hoist its ass up like the worlds tiniest cannon and poop on you. This may or may not have happened to me on Tuesday.

Lookin' like my Daddy

 Here we are at Grammas house. Naked.

Striking a pose....

 We were actually trying to get a candid picture of that baby here, but he kept on posing. What a ham. I have no idea where he gets it from.

Baby Hummingbirds

  Here are those baby hummingbirds I was blogging about in the previous post, except as you can see the eggs have hatched. It is hard to get a grip on how small they are. My mom said next time she will use a ruler for comparison. She has to be quick so she doesn't get the mommy bird too mad. I think this is too cool. That nest looks so fake, but it is real. Ahhh, the miracles of nature, Subhan Allah.

I guess I am just tired.

Okay I know that I haven't made a post for a long time. I have no excuses. I am just working a lot right now. Whatever. I also have been watching movies. I got a the first of my Blockbuster movies recently. I would like to share some reviews with you.

First movie received: Saw.
Starring: Cary Elwes, Danny Glover, some other dudes.
Rating: Crap ( I am making up this system as I go along, btw.)

This movie really SUCKED. I don't know if I can be more specific, but I will try: all of it SUCKED. It was slow, the story was crappy. The characters were bad. I don't mean bad as in bad ass, I mean badly written, badly developed and all around poor. I am no Siskel or Ebert but I know a totally bad movie when I see it. Basically I wish it was 100 minutes I could get back. It would have been better spent plucking my eyebrows or cleaning my bathroom. This movie was only slightly less crappy than the all time crappiest scary movie I ever rented: Fear.com.

Second movie: Mean Girls
Starring: Lindsay Lohan, Tina Fey, Rachel McAdams, The janitor from Scrubs.
Rating: Okay

This movie was entertaining, and sometimes amusing. High School was portrayed pretty realistically, in my opinion, aside from the fact that the people were all to pretty. Even the ugly people. I wish there was more of Tina Fey, she is great. This movie also reminded me of how--dare I say it--MEAN girls are when you are growing up. It made me cringe. It made me want to Home school my kids, if not for the stigma attached to that as well. I am still considering it, but By the time my son gets to the second grade he will be passing me up in the math skills department so I better rethink it. Over all I didn't feel like this was a waste of time. It kept my interest, good for teenagers. (although don't totally take my word on that one people, because I can remember how much cursing there is in it.)

Third movie: The Village
Starring: Bryce Dallas Howard, Joaquin Phoenix, William Hurt, Sigourney Weaver.
Rating: Good.

Okay I won't give any spoilers here, so don't worry. You can expect to see the M. Night Shyamalan pool of actors in this movie, which I think is cool. I figured out the twist before it happened so that makes it predictable but I didn't know to what extent it would be, so that kept me from being totally irritated. Adrian Brody plays the --here we go again-- village idiot and I think he over did it a little (ya think?) I just liked it and I think Ron Howards daughter did a good turn in her motion picture debut. (?) This movie definitely wasn't a waste of time because I am in the process of watching it again, like I had to do with The Sixth Sense. I wanted to know more about the characters. That is really my only gripe. That and it was a little slow at the beginning. All in all, I liked it.

Stay tuned for my reviews on Garden State and Napoleon Dynamite. I just have to mail Teletubbies back first. Don't ask. It can't all be about me all the time, right? (hmmmmm)

Quick note. My mom has a hummingbird on her back patio. It has made a nest and is sitting on two eggs the size of jelly Bellies the nest is so neat-- she built it on a wrought iron chandelier. It doesn't even look real. The inside is lined with cat hair. When the bird sits in it she looks al chubby and her beak sticks straight up in the air. She is trying to get pictures of it so if anyone has bird knowledge, specifically, central valley hummingbirds, (the male has a red head.) leave a comment. If you don't leave a comment. Whatever makes y'all happy.

Shout out to Kari Anne at Haiku of the Day for hooking me up with the Gmail invite, I really like it a lot.

Thats it, I'm out. Time to sleep. Finally, I get a day off I worked 6 out of 7 days this week.

Happy Little Dude

 This is a happy baby. Last night we were at my Moms'. I love her camera. I am gonna have to put one on lay away one of these days. He is so sweet. of course, i have no bias whatsoever.

I Love Laziness.

Well, I finally did it. I let go of some of that hard earned cash and spent it on a subscription to Entertainment Weekly and Blockbuster.com. I am so excited. I also went out with my mom today and we looked at furniture. I am happy to announce that when we move from the ghetto, we will be doing it with new furniture. I found a very nice NEW couch, in a forgiving color, (Sagegreeny-brownish I think that I may order it in a hunter green though) It is very deep with big soft pillows in a nice floraly print. I am also getting a big chair and ottoman to go along with it, the same style. NEW FURNITURE, PEOPLE. I have never had new furniture. I decided with the new job I would furnish the new place to my hearts desire, and get digital cable and broadband for the computer. The dream ist starting to come to fruition. WOO HOO! Now hopefully they will have the duplex I want available for when we want to move. Now I need to find a dresser and twin bed for the baby's room, and a couple of armoires for televisions and a dining room set. Gee, looking at it seems like a lot. I guess it is. Did I mention that my mom is the best BARGAIN SHOPPER EVER? Dude, she cant get the stuff so cheap. I mean cheeeeeeeep.

So I got that goin' for me.

So, before I got sidetracked I was talking about Blockbuster.com, now I have to say that I hate blockbuster. But I hate not getting the best deal more. Netflix was a little too much and Wal-mart.com only lets you have 2 at a time for 12.97, so that is out.
Blockbuster.com it is. I have like 3 on the way and 25 more in queue, woo hoo. I am going to be goggled out on the DVD's. Totally looking forward to it. I also got my EW subscription for the low low price of 38.95! Yes, I said 38.95! Which is really cool, because as you can probably see from the name of the magazine, it is a WEEKLY. I got 56 issues for that price, oh the joy of internet shopping. If you can't tell I have never done it before. BTW, the site I got that cherry price at was Magazines.com.

Ok, and a blurb here on Florida. I have expressed my concerns before on the state of affairs of that state before. HELLO? The safe haven law allows you to drop off a baby at a police, fire station or hospital, NO QUESTIONS ASKED. Why would you have to concoct a story about someone throwing the child out of a car window? Total wackjobs over there, I tell ya. Whatever folks I am out of here for now, Hope you all had a romantic valentines day, I know I will have a belated one with Naveen Andrews and Kama Sutra: A Tale of Love. when it gets here. Grrrrrwwwwlllllll Speaking of which Lost is on tonight, even more grrrrrroooowwwlllll.

P.S. If you are living in Florida, and not a wackjob, sorry. But, you have to admit some crazy crap goes on in your state.

The REAL reason Brad and Jen Broke up....NOT.

 OK, The young lady in the picture has asked that I not publish her name. I CAN tell you that I know her very well, She is happily married to a great guy and NOT dating Brad Pitt. I also have pictures of her with 60 % of Duran Duran and Julie Andrews. She made me wait to post this because she didn't want to end up in The Enquirer. So what does that mean to you Dear Family? (my real family who stops by here and knows the young lady, I mean.) Don't blow it and use her name in the comments, OK?

She has the coolest job. And Congrats to her and her hubby, She and her husband will be getting their daughter at the end of the month. I am so excited for them.

"SIDS" or "Why I hate My Job Tonight"

I just got off of work. Tonight was the hardest night ever. It wasn't busy in the hospital, but that doesn't matter. It is what is really going on.
It is my turn to work in the emergency room at my hospital. You get your assortment of calls. I was paged and told that we had a Code 3 coming in, so I would need to stand by along with all the other departments, respiratory, xray.... We were all there. A few minutes later, I found out that it was going to be a 3 month old baby. OK, that changes things right there.
There is nothing that prepares you for this once you are a MOM. I was a corpsman in the navy. I worked in the NICU I have seen my share of infants in distress. I have been in on "codes". I didn't realize that once you have carried, delivered, nursed and otherwise mothered a child, all of that really goes out the window where children are concerned, what I mean to say is that I get UPSET now, when I never used to. Put an IV in a newborn? SURE, put a rubberband around his/her head and lets find that vein. Vitamin K injection? Hep B vaccine? Go Get 'em tiger. But now.... I digress.
They brought this tiny three month old infant into the emergency room doing CPR on her. I watched as the Dr. and then the RT got her intubated, all the while chest compressions going on her tiny red body. She was stiff. It was bad, people. While it was going on I kept thinking, "ok here goes the epi, that oughta do it.... ok more epi, c'mon girl...Alright here goes the third dose..." Nothing.
The doctor called the code.
She was gone.
Later, I found out that she was born prematurely. This was a classic case of SIDS. All I could think about was that her parents would have to be told. A mom that went to work that night, and a dad that went to sleep that night with a daughter, now didn't have her anymore. Those poor people. God help them through this horrible time.
I held myself together long enough to get back down to the lab, then I lost it. I wanted to get in my car, go home and wake my son up and hold him forever.
that happened when I still had 5 hours to go in my shift. In and out of the emergency room I went, having to pass the family of this infant every time. I hated seeing the look on the fathers face. He had a vacant devastated look, that I have a hard time finding words to describe. The mother had to drive in from an hour and a half away to find out that she had lost her daughter that came in to this world a little to early to begin with. Now she has left too early as well.
It is hard to even begin to think of the horror that the father must have felt to find his infant the way he did. God I am so dwelling on this. I am sorry folks, but if I don't write about this, I think I will dream about it and I just DON'T WANT TO DO THAT.
So that was my night. How was yours?

Infant Geographia

 Here we have the human baby, Egyptian-Portugese variety, out of his natural habitat, at a a celebration of Xmas. The infant is out of his comfort zone--his element, and does not yet understand the gathering. He appears confused and scared, as he reaches for the comfort of something he recognizes from home-- the television remote control.

This is That Baby at his Great Uncle Gary and Aunt Gails house for Xmas this year. He was in rare form people, lemme tell ya.

Malek Today

She got so big! Wow. You just don't picture it. I mean, I know my son got bigger, so logically so did Malek, but it is hard to grip until you see it.

Ayman and Malek

 A year ago we were in Egypt. My sister in law has two daughters, Nada and Malek, and a son , Ahmed. Malek is the youngest, about 1.5 months older than my son. We took these pictures of the two babies. As you can see my son was a lot skinnier in Egypt. I think he was like, 12 pounds while we were there. When his daddy came home a month after us, the baby had gained 3 lbs. I blame it on formula. The little fart started refusing to breastfeed on the right breast while we were in Egypt, then refused the left when we got got home. I tried pumping and supplemental feeding because my production went down while I was there. It didn't work except to damage my breasts with the pump. I gave up in April or so, trying to get him to nurse and continued giving him breast milk in bottles with formula. It is funny, how bummed out I got when I stopped trying to get him to nurse. I was hurt. My feelings were hurt . I was so upset that he didn't want to nurse from me anymore. I still have dreams of nursing him and I swear I won't be taking a trip to Egypt in the formative breastfeeding months of babyhood. Long story short: hungry crying baby+demolished nipples+70 cent Enfamil+nipple refusal=chunky monkey.

Please let me add that I know the benefits of breastfeeding, I knew how to breastfeed. There was a series of unfortunate events that led to me *gasp* giving my son a bottle. Let us suffice it to say that I have suffered through guilt from this and don't really welcome any reprimanding emails in regard to this post.

That's a great look for you.

 
I guess I just need to make posts that can be read in the 20-30 seconds it takes to get a credit on BlogExplosion, Blogclicker and the less famous, (but generous, you get 250 credits for signing up right now)Blogcrowd. This is irritating. Of course, I haven't been surfing too much this week so that probably explains the low traffic.

People, come back to me, I miss you.

I went to this awesome "Oriental Buffet" Last night. They have a ton of sea food, a choose your own stirfry bar and fresh sushi bar.

I am having some serious trouble getting behind the sushi. I figure, if I am going to try sushi, it is when I have choices of other food just to be safe. So I went for it last night.
EWWWWWW
Right off the bat, I hate the seaweed. CACK! And why is it so fishy tasting? OK, I know it is FISH. But I had this one piece that had some pinkish mousse-y looking stuff in side it with a piece of green stuff in there. I had to spit this piece back in my napkin because I thought it would start swimming in my mouth. Then I tried this piece that looked like a little food present. It was a retangular piece of imitation crabmeat, sitting on a neat square of rice with a narrow band of seaweed holding it all together. Not so good. I think it has to do with the imitation crabmeat. And here is the big surprise of this sushi extravaganza: there was a piece with a huge pink piece of fish, sitting on a wad of rice. I bit into this huge piece of raw fish with my napkin at the ready, and it was tasty. With no ginger or wasabi. I was pleasantly surprised
I guess to sum up we can say it wasn't a terrible experience, but I went back to the teriyaki chicken skewers and sweet and sour chicken. All in all not a bad deal for 10 bucks a person, all you can eat.

Eid, baby advice, and John Henson not in that particular order.

Daddy and That Baby. 
okay, I am making this post in the notepad right now because Blogger is messed up and I can't even log into it right now. I have also had a ton of problems with my ISP. I can't wait to get broadband. And an apartment with two bathrooms. The only time I really think of it is when my husband is in the bathroom and I am having a bowel crisis.

Speaking of my husband, I have an adorable picture of him and that baby from last night that I really want to post, but of course, Blogger is down. Okay, I posted the picture. By the time I get this posted it is all going to be together. But at least now I can ping Blog rolling, which I forgot to do yesterday when I wrote a much longer post. (rereading this post they may be about the same size. I am long winded)

Today I am fasting, because tomorrow is the Islamic holiday of Eid (Kol senna winta tayeb). I need to go to wal-mart today. I will take that baby and we will pop in on Gramma at Wally World. I am going to make shawerma tonight, but it never turns out as good as the ones from Truly Mediterranean In San Francisco. I love that shawerma.
If you are wondering what a shawerma is, it is a middle eastern burrito, basically. Lamb or beef, wrapped in lavosh bread with a tahina sauce and some butt burner red sauce, with parsley, potato (in my case because I don't like the tomato) it is sooooo yummy, it is a little bit of heaven wrapped up in the yummy goodness of fresh lavosh bread with the delight of tahina thrown in for good measure. MMMMM food. I can tell I am fasting today, I am like plexing on the food I can't eat.

moving On.

That reminds me (the 'Moving On' part) Do you guys remember the show Talk Soup? It was on the E channel. I loved that show when John Henson was hosting it. He was hilarious. I was always hoping he would move on to bigger things, ala Greg Kinnear when he left the show, but he didn't really. I saw he had his own show on Spike TV, but I don't even think there is that anymore, and well, Talk Soup wasn't the same after he left, so much so, that I think it went away for a while and then came back as a show called 'The Soup' with this other dude hosting. It is still a funny show, I just miss the Skunk Boy is all. He was funny. And, apparently I am a geek because I just Went on about John Henson for a paragraph. I was bummed out recently that he is now hosting during the 8 o'clock hour on the TV Guide Channel. Is that TV purgatory? What is Skunk Boy doing there? He is way to good (and funny ) for that. Oh well what can you do? GET A BETTER AGENT JOHN HENSON! Enough of that.

Moving on. (again)

In the baby department I have some advice.... Many of you will not need it. I feel the need to post it so all of you can learn from my mistakes. If you have to go out of town to go shopping, make sure you have stuck to your baby sleeping schedule, OR ELSE. Else what you ask? ( or may not have too....) Well, I will tell you. Let your son sleep until say 1245, and then wake him up, feed him and run to Sacramento-- Fine. Don't lay him down for 3 o'clock nap? Not wise. I thought he was good on sleep yesterday. I was so wrong. He was very tired and cranky. I gave him a bath and laid him down forty minutes earlier than usual. Then he proceeded to wake up every hour and a half ....ALL NIGHT LONG. So there you have it folks, heed my cautionary tale. Don't deprive your baby terrorris- I mean angel of his naps or suffer the consequences.

Well that oughta do 'er for now.....heh heh heh.

Not to sick to Rant

I love Cassie. 
Okay, I had to jump on the band wagon really quick. I signed up for Blogclicker.com. It looks like there is another exchange site as well called Blogcrowd, so I think I will check that out before I bust this post so I can do a link. It is nice to see that some readers are slowly coming back after my long absence. I have missed everybody. It took me like two hours to go thru all the blogs on my blogroll to check on everyone and see how they have been doing.
I have to say something here, and if I get the hate mail comments, Oh well. I have been lightly following the story of a three year old boy that is being taken away from the only parents he has ever known, because the wack-job biological mother has changed her mind. From the best that I can gather this said wackjob contested the adoption because the birthfather decided to jump in the picture as well. I don't know all the details of this but I have to say what I do know really sucks, in my opinion. (that's right, folks, my blog, MY OPINION, that is what it is here for) I was watching the today show yesterday after I got off of work. They had video of the parents (the only ones he has ever really known, the adoptive ones) tell this poor boy that he has to go live with his adoptive mommy from now on. This poor little boy was crying, kicking and screaming, while his parents just tried to hold on to him for the last bit of time they had. And when the little boy noticed that his father was crying, he said "Don't cry Daddy"
Okay, I lost it right there.
This situation is f-ed up on so many different levels it is hard to even start to express my feelings except to lay in my bed and bawl for this family and little boy.
Then shortly after she had her biological son returned to her, said wackjob mother came out of her home to announce that her son was "so happy to be home"
Give. Me. A. Freaking. Break.
He did not look happy at all when the people were peeling him out of his mother and fathers arms to put him in a van with his "mother" ( wackjob). Where did the system fail these people? Is it exploitive that they taped their last bit of time with the boy? The adoptive parents said that they did it so that the boy would know later in life if he chose to learn that none of it was his fault and that his mom and dad loved him very much and didn't want it to happen at all.
Last, week leading up to the day that this boy had to be given back to wackjob, they had the parents of Baby Jessica on TV as well. They have some sort of advocacy program or something. These poor people were in the same exact situation. They have not seen or heard from the girl they raised for the first 3 years of her life for like, 11 years. What a heartbreak. It is disturbing.
Does anyone else have an opinion on this? Am I just being a cranky, hormonal bitch? It seems to me that it should stand for something that these people raised the boy in a loving family home since birth and are responsible for the happy little boy he was (before he got taken away from his mommy and daddy?)?
Again it goes to show that Florida HAS ISSUES.

Ok, thanks people for reading my bitchery.

On a lighter note, My cold never got as bad as I thought. I must have a great immune system (thanks god!) Now I just have a little teensy bit of congestion left with cough, but this too, will pass. Ilhamdulillah.
Thanks for reading, and remember: comments always appreciated.

I just want to know one thing really? How in the heck do you get to work a banner ad? I mean if you have one, and I think I have a generic one, how do you get it to work? upload it to my server? How do I do that? Who is that ? I am computer stupid, in fact I can't believe I figured out how to put things in the side bar of my blog on Blogger.

Illness haiku

Nose like a faucet
Copius mucous flows free
Need Puffs with lotion

I don't feel like I have a cold. I am just sneezing alot. With the sneezing comes the snot. MMMMMM, snot. Although, I do have to say, if I blow my nose really hard, I get a funny dizzy feeling. It is kinda cool. (cheap thrills!) Of course the best time to get a cold/or allergy attack, whatever it is, is at the beginning of your three day stretch of graveyard shifts at work. Looks like I am gonna be wearing a mask all night. Crap.

P.S. If you enjoy haiku, and hey, who doesn't? check out Haiku Of the Day

UGH.

I started Curves this week finally. I like it. It is fast, gives me a decent workout and I only have to walk across the street to get there. I have decided to workout at 6am. This works for me because I am always awake then. If I am working, I get off at 530 am. If I am at home the baby wakes up around then with a tremendously pissy diaper and a need for a bottle. So, Curves it is. I have gone three days now. I am hoping to go tomorrow. This weekend I don't think I will make it, they open late for me on Saturday, and are closed on Sunday. Here is something that I would like to share. My second cousin, lost like 200 lbs going to curves and cutting fat from her diet. That is like 2 skinny people or 1.3 average ones! It is amazing. I think it has taken her about 18 months. It is great and Congrats to her for doing it. My mom has also started a regimen, she goes to the gym at her apartment after work. She is lucky because th complex is brand spankin new and the gym is really nice. Speaking of my mom, did I mention that she got a face lift during my extended absence? My son and I stayed with her for a week to take care of her. Since she said she didn't care I think I will post a before and after picture of her. My be before during and after. I have a feeling she is going to have a minor hissy, but hey, I got permission. YOU SAID YOU DIDN'T CARE REMEMBER? Okay, well, that is all for now I need to post some pictures.

Before

Mom before surgery. 

Day of Surgery

 My brother Alex and I thought she looked like Beetlejuice. They rubberbanded her hair in sections and she had 2 drains sticking out of her head that i had to change every hour for the first 6 hours then at mealtimes in the days after that. I also had her pretty doped up on the vicodin for the first 2 days post surgery.

Just too Cute

 Ayman sits with his gramma as she brushes her teeth. They has both just woken up. I think this was like the second day after surgery.

After

 Since my mom also got the eye lift, she can't wear her contact lenses just yet....She also had her mole removed from her left cheek. I think she looks great but she did before the surgery. I am just glad she went ahead and did it. Now i don't have to watch her pull her skin back and say "see how much difference it would make if i got the surgery?" woo hoo, that's overwith! I love you mommy!

I hope you observed yesterdays post.

 
Here is a picture of the repair. Yes, I said REPAIR. I don't think that baby is very happy about it either. My husband and I have agreed that he will never cut his hair again.

Observe the hair

 
My son is adorable (Not biased! mesha'allah) Take in the hair. Sure it is out growing the hair cut, not a problem. A normal person would take their child in for a cut. An experienced barber or stylist would cut it. And now I have found that an Egyptian Accountant would cut it too. Crap. Tomorrow I will post the doctored results of said haircut. I had to take the baby in to get it fixed after my husband decided he needed to cut his hair one night this week, but didn't realize he would flip out. Needless to say the end result of hubbys haircut was choppy to say the least, but according to him "the best haircut he ever got."
Riiiiggght.
Tune in tomorrow for "bowl haircut repair"

Home from work

Well I guess here is where my stuff gets boring. The only thing cool about work tonight happened when I was leaving. I met another Muslim woman tonight and she is so nice and cool. I don't meet that many Muslims around here, let alone ones that are Arabic. She does study groups and can help me to fine tune my Arabic, since I have like the most terrible English accent ever when I speak (what little I know) in Arabic. So, in case you weren't listening, FBI, I will be going to Islamic religious meetings with OTHER Muslim people, so if you don't have gps on my car, now is the time! Woo Hoo!
And from the "working mom" files my son was chasing me down on the way to the door tonight when I was trying to leave for work. He was crying when I left. HELLO, GUILT! However, I was informed by my DH that he stopped approximately 2 seconds after the door shut behind me when he discovered a stray cheerio on the floor. Thanks God.

I'm out!

Unhappy camper. 

Happy Camper 

excuse me? 

MMMMM...cake. 

Here I Am!

I am back, people. Finally I sucked it up and got internet service back. It took me a while, but I did it. Here are some new things that happened since I had no internet: (wrongful termination of services, November 12th, 2003)

1. I turned 33 on November 15th. I got a sonicare toothbrush and a 3 month membership to curves. I got a cool hello Kitty watch too. (how old did I say I was?)

2. I started my job at a hospital here in Stockton on December 6th. I work the graveyard shift in the lab, they call me a vampire. Whatever, the pay is good.

3. My son turned one year old on December 9th. We had a birthday party for him on the 28th of November.

Ok, so that is about it for now. I have to get back into the swing of the blogging. I have been dying to check out some web sites and blogs that I haven't looked at in a while, not to mention surfin' blog explosion.

I'd like to hear from my peeps, what was the worst holiday present any of you got this year? The best? As for me, I cant say that there was a worst, because there wasn't one. I got too many things, that were great. I will mention that my mom got a Sony cybershot camera for xmas and now I realize just how much my slow assed-shutter-speed-Kodak sucks. I will have to get a new one with some of that sweet cash from my new job.

I guess I am not a SAHM anymore we can call me a SSAHM Somewhat Stay At Home Mom. Since my son doesn't even realize that I am gone I don't think I and damaging his little psyche (sp?).

Love to hear fro you all.

I'M BAAAAAA-AAAAACK......