Mariyah and Thanksgiving!

Mariyah woke up in a very good mood,

just like every morning...

Later on, she decided it's about time she accepts Jiddo's friendship...

Simply because he is so sweet, he offered her a box of berries!

Berries are her LOVE!

An uncle joined in...

It was OK! Mariyah is the fastest in eating berries!


And then another uncle joined...

IT WAS NOT GOOD!

Finally, she got to finish the whole box and Jiddo became a BFF!

Then she offered to give uncle Laz a class in playing the Piano, for free :)

She's the Best teacher ever!

And I'm the proudest mom ever :)

Sometime after the sun set, Thanksgiving Dinner was ALMOST ready...
The Turkey Jeeej made mmmmmmmmmm was ready and waiting for the rest ;)

It got so busy in the kitchen...

So busy...everyone went crazy :D

Dinner was Fantastico...

Mariyah had sweet potatoes, mashed potatoes,

Broccoli and asparagus!

Then she fell asleep :)

At the end...It was time to relax...

Eat persimmon cake and drink Chai :)

Boiling Hot in Seattle!

It's freezing outside...compared to the weather in Santa Clara when we left it yesterday.

But inside the house, it's extremely hot!!

I wonder...

Is it the unconditional love around the house?...

The heaters downstairs?!

Or maybe the heat coming out of the servers upstairs!!!

The Qwaiders...

Thanks for having me and Mariyah as your guests for the weekend :)

Next time...hope we'll meet in CA ;)

Guess Who's Here?!?!

Now that he lives in Portland, Oregon, his visits to our area are less and more special!

Having him here means so much fun for Mariyah, for she'll be followed by him carrying his crazy camera shooting priceless pictures of her :)

We went to San Francisco with him and we had a really short hike at Muir Woods because it started raining, and we were not ready for that! But it was a beautiful trip...Maybe because everybody loves the city ;)

Dear Uncle Laz, OR as Mariyah likes to call you "Amo Zaaaaaz"

Thank you so much for visiting us! You added more fun to our 2 days off this week...You will leave us tomorrow, and we can't wait to see you again on Thanksgiving dinner :)

Not that we didn't have a Thanksgiving dinner yet :p

Your visit to Santa Clara, was special too, because your mom decided to make a great dinner for all of us! An early one this time...

Today, we'll make Mansaf for you...

Hope it will taste as good as the last one you've had in Jordan, year 1999!!!!

Love,

Jeeej, Nido, Mariyah & Baby Y!

Some things never change:)

This video was taken last year while visiting in Amman. Mariyah was only 5 months old.

I watched it with her today when we were having breakfast :)

She couldn't believe her eyes and got so excited about it!

My heart loves her laughs !

Sometimes...

Sometimes I don't cook during the week

Because Sometimes I'm either too tired, or just because...

Sometimes Jeeej asks me where I want to go eat.

Sometimes I say Cheese Cake Factory!

Sometimes he says: SURE!! :)

*Today I'm invited to Joe's farewell party, I am making Lasagna. It's 10:15 am right now and it's cooking in the oven :)

I took a picture of it before cooking it, because I don't want to uncover it once it's done. But sometime soon I will post about my famous Lasagna on my cooking blog :)

More LOVE...

IS ON THE WAY :))

Inshallah!

Between Arabic & English.

Before Mariyah was born, Jeeej and I decided that her first language should be Arabic. That we'll always speak to her in Arabic. Because we know for sure that once she goes to preschool, she'll learn English in no time.

I see a lot of Asian kids speaking their language fluently with their parents. Some of my Pakistani students speak fluent Urdu too.

As for most of the Arabs I know here, if not all, their kids understand most of the Arabic language but can barely build a whole right sentence on their own.

The first kid in the family is always better then the rest, because more attention is paid to communicating with him/her in Arabic.

Once this kid goes to preschool, he'll/she'll learn English and start talking to the next child in English, so the second child's Arabic is worse.

Something else I notice here is that most Arab parents insist on speaking English to their kids even though their English is so weak and the fake American accent makes the whole thing worse!

We speak to Mariyah in Arabic. At the Pakistani day care, English is the language they use. My In Laws speak to her in English too. I see it confusing, but I still believe that our decision is for her own good.

Mariyah loves books, her first books were easy to read in Arabic. Just point at the picture and say the word in Arabic. The new books she is getting have longer sentences and translating the words into Arabic makes it sound stupid and boring too :p Today was the first time I read to her in English! I felt more relaxed and she was enjoying it too!

I think I will keep doing that when it comes to reading.

Actually I'm planning to teach her how to read Arabic once she becomes 3 years old. Just like I do with my students...I will use the same book and the same way...because it's actually working ;)

Dear Jeeej,

This morning, you left us and went to Vegas. To attend an Auto show or something like that.

You left us without kissing us goodbye. Your reason: I was running late!!!!

When Mariyah woke up around 7 am, she didn't ask for you! She said KiKi right away...and I took her to kiss him good morning!!

I think she forgot about you,,,simply because you didn't kiss her goodbye!