Can I Have a Favourite Student?

These days I have 16 students.
11 of them live in Evergreen, San Jose
2 of them live in San Diego so I teach them via Skype.
and the rest are adults.

Some of my students make me sleepy, some make me tired and some make me happy and proud :)

Some remind me of my girls & some I pray my girls never turn out to be like as teenagers.
These teenagers are just scary when they fight with their parents in front of me!

There's this particular student whom I love so much...
She makes me laugh.
She is 6 years old and I believe that Salamonti is a copy of her.
Her name is Amani.

She is a great actress, cute, funny, smart, playfull and chubby. Just like Selma!

A few months ago, I called her house. I was trying to reach her mom who never picks up her cell phone...
Amani picked up the phone and started "crying" telling me that she's home alone and that her mom always leaves her home and goes shopping.
The girl -5 years old back then- refused to hang up & kept begging me to keep her company until her mom comes back from "shopping"! She told me that she must not pick up the phone no matter what but that she picked up when I called because she trusts me!

That moment I still remember how horrible I felt. How I kept calming her down and how I asked her to be careful and not to open the door to anyone...
 no matter what...

I then hanged up the phone and called my babysitter who happens to be her aunt. Once I told her the story she started laughing...she said: "You don't know Amani? She is the biggest actress on Earth"!
I couldn't believe my ears until my conversation with the babysitter was interrupted by Amani's home number calling on the other line...

It was the mother begging me to forgive her daughter...
The mother was in the bathroom and when she got out she heard the end of Amani's story while on the phone!

I still can't believe how dump I was for believing her and for allowing her to break my heart.
 Her cries made me cry, almost!
She wasn't a student of mine yet...I was only teaching her older sister back then so I didn't know what kind of a little girl she is.

Now I teach her and I wonder if Selma will turn out to be a second Amani or not...

Today, I was teaching her how to read the word Allah in Arabic.
Facing us is this painting her parent got from Pakistan once. The word Allah with the artists signature at the bottom.

I pointed at it and said:

"Look, this is Allah's name hanging on the wall to make your house look extra beautiful".

She said: "I can see Allah's last name as well!"
"WHERE?" I asked.
"There, down at the bottom".

She made me laugh really hard...

When the Road Takes You to the Ocean...

You become a happier person :)

As for the plan of buying bigger pots for my plants,
It didn't work out this Sunday,
Maybe next next weekend?

The Moment I Wished My Plant Would Die!

I was at the mall's playground watching Selma playing around.
She would play for a couple of minutes then come to me asking for a big hug. She didn't get tired of doing this over and over again and for me it didn't get old :)

An old Asian lady next to me was watching her and laughing. She sweetly said: "Girls are the best!"
"Of course they are :)" I replied.

Salamonti has been having hives since Wednesday morning. They keep coming and going and the doctors couldn't tell what the cause is.
They believe it's an allergy to something unusual she had recently eaten or touched.
They are puzzled though because it's not itching her.
I am puzzled myself because I know I didn't change her diet and I didn't serve her something unusual.

Then last night I googled this:

"My kid chewed on an anthurium plant"

and google said: "These plants are poisonous".

I can't remember the day I decided to take this plant out of my bedroom and display it in the living room.
But one thing I am sure about is that I wished the plant would die once I read about it on google.
I always loved my plants and took good care of them, but now, this particular one is not on the good list anymore...

Why would Selma chew on plants, you may wonder?!
I have no answer.

This morning I didn't see any spots on her body and I was positive it was all gone. But not for long...they are back everywhere now.

My FIL suggests we wait until her system gets rid of it whatever it is and the doctors suggest we do allergy tests for her next week.

I don't want to see them again, I hate them and I pray they'll be gone for good by tomorrow.

Get well soon habeebti Salamonti...

Today, My Princess is HaPpY!

When Mariyah wakes up in the morning, she asks me: "What day is it today?". She knows that:
Monday is: A long day at the daycare.
Tuesday: School and Daycare.
Wednesday: Lilly and Daycare.
Thursday: Sharing a toy at school and a short -junk food- day at daycare.
Friday: A long day at Daycare and a gift from the Treasure Box!
Saturday: Grocery shopping and Target trips and many fun stuff ;)
Sunday: Another fun day that ends with a long bath with lots of Shampoo -her nightmare where she always tries to be brave-.

Today is Saturday.
When Jeeej took Selma to Trader Joe's and Target, Mariyah walked with me to the hair salon to get her nails polished. Today, she picked the colors: pink, purple and blue.

When we all got home Jeeej asked her to choose between The Pirates movie and the Chimpanzee Disney movie and of course she picked the second one.

When it comes to animals I'm the least interested person on earth.
For Mariyah, Animals are the most beautiful creatures on earth along with Dinosaurs.

When it was time for her to pick a "well behaving" gift from the store later on, she picked this little tiny tiger...

Simply because 4 tigers are not enough.

We kinda have a zoo at home...

Today, I decided to make it extra special for her, I bought some stuff from Michael's and built this cage~farm thingie for her.

It's tiny and doesn't look as great as she'd want it to be, but guess what?
I'm not a perfectionist and she better love it once she finds it wrapped in a gift bag in her room tomorrow morning :D

Her teachers are always impressed by how much she adores animals and the babysitter once asked me: "What did you do to Mariyah? She always wants to play and read about animals! She doesn't enjoy dolls and princesses".

Believe me I did nothing.

No matter what she loves or cares about, she'll always be my little princess :)

The best part of my day is when I kiss her goodnight and she talks to me about what made her happy during the day...

She always starts by: "ماما، أنا كتير مبسوطة منك اليوم، بتعرفي ليش؟؟".

Coming June, Life will Change

In the morning, I rarely go out. I keep myself busy at home until it's time to go to my classes. The girls sleep early at night which makes it easy for me & Jeeej to go out on dates. Sometimes we go out 3 times a week and sometimes we don't at all. It always depends on how tired we are and on my MIL's schedule, she is our #1 babysitter.

Soon in June, She will move, to a far away city. She won't be our close neighbor.
My life will change, FOREVER!
Not really,,,
 but still. It will become different. I will miss this...

Going out with him changes my mood and makes me feel fresh especially the next morning when I wake up.
 I wake up in a great mood and happy to play with my girls.

Mariyah still goes out with him on dates every other weekend and he tells me he can't wait till Selma grows up and starts behaving so he could start taking her everywhere :)

That might make me jealous...
Kind of jealous ;)

My Girls Shake My World

Today, Mariyah was brave.
She fell down at school and her chin bled a lot but when I went to pick her up from school she was reading a book in the office waiting for me. She said -in Arabic- "The teacher said it's a bad cut but I am brave".

Today,
The babysitter told me that Selma is a girl full of surprises.
She is still amazed that Selma is completely potty trained even though she's only 21 months old.

* To them I say, I love you deeply and you girls make me proud.

 الحمد لله :)

** "Let her sleep, for when she wakes, she will shake the world."- Napoleon Bonaparte


*** Our favourite song these days:

Who's the Mother?

On mother's day, my sister Rana posted this picture on my fb wall.
"Arabs celebrate mother's day on the 21st of March".

It made me laugh and I almost cried!
It's an Arabic song I learnt at school in Jordan when I was in 1st or 2nd grade, I can't remember.
What's so funny about it is that my mother's name is Basma wich means "A smile" and since her name is mentioned in the song I thought it's not allowed to say her name just like that...Basma!
"It should be 'ماما أمي سر وجودي' 'My mom, my mother is the secret behind my existane' instead of 'بسمة أمي سر وجودي ' 'My mom's SMILE is the secret behind my existance'" I would say over and over again.
I gave my mom a hard time learning this song simply because I was so respectful and a little bit stubborn.

Now that I'm a mother of Selma, I face the same exact problem, kinda.
You see, Salamonti doesn't say much but when she says something, it makes us laugh, most of the time.
These days she keeps repeating that she is ماما  Mama!!

This is how it goes, over and over again: In Arabic.
Me: "Who are you?"
Selma: "I'm MAMA"!
Me: "No, I'm MAMA"
Selma: "NooOooOo, I'm MAMA"!
Me: "No, I'm MAMA!"
Selma: "NoOOoOO, I'm MAMA"
...........................repeat!

My mom saw me and Selma having this very long conversation on Skype, it made her laugh but she now believes that I am the one teaching Selma how to be stubborn...

What?!
How about being Respectful?

Thank You!

Beyond Crazy

How long could you stand being stuck at home?

As for me, I don't mind it, even if forever, unless I was forced to.

This week I decided I'm not leaving the house. Neither is Selma.

Poor girl, she goes crazy when the door opens, but no...Not yet my baby. The project is not complete yet and we can make it. I will take you everywhere this weekend. Just be patient :)

 I try to entertain her as much as I can. I let Mariyah paint her face, she actually loves it.

Scary Cat

 Then I let Mariyah paint her own face!

The tiger TRYING to scare the cat!

I know the girls are bored. But I keep promising myself that I need to make it up for them, Soon InshaAllah :)

I cheat though.
I mean, I stay home all day long with Selma, but I leave the house at night while she's in dreamland ;)
Yesterday, Jeeej and I watched Salmon Fishing in the Yemen. An amazing movie, about Yemen, Fish and Faith.

Speaking of Yemen, have I ever told you that my sister is Married to a wonderful Yemeni guy?
If you'd like to meet hime, visit his photography page on fb. You can simply click on the link I have for his page on my blog. I can't but love every single picture he takes!

On a side note,

Mariyah had a wonderful weekend with Jeeej. He took her on a very special trip to visit his family for 2 nights. She came back home after a 3 hours drive with many beautiful pictures, gifts and memories :)

Family Spice

We enjoy our life as a family because we have a routine. Now when the routine breaks, we don't mind, because most of the time it's broken by family visits :)

Now I almost gave up on this post simply because I was waiting for my sister in law to send me some pictures of her visit a couple of weeks ago from Alabama. She finally posted some on her fb wall.

When family visit, it means a lot of laughter, childhood memories -my favourite!-, movies, beautiful gifts, good food, shopping, board games and above all,
A Mariyah going crazy enjoying being spoiled :)

Thank You Majdaleen, for spoiling my Mariyah and for showering Salamonti with lots of kisses. We miss you so much and we can't wait to see you along with your kids.

Visit us again, soon xoxo

My Favourite Flowers This Season

Mariyah's teacher asked me to get her a red top for the spring party this month. When I got her a plain one from Michael's she didn't like it. I took her there with me and asked her to pick flowers so we could add a nice touch to the top and then pray she'd like it. She picked these red flowers. I put one on her top and the other on an old hair clip. I didn't do a good job with the one on the top, so she still didn't like it...

                                           

 I almost gave up but then I dressed her in her beautiful red skirt she got from her Amtou once then I fixed her hair and then we watched flamenco dancing and we danced together.

Now she loves her top :)

My flamenco dancer

 I love these lilies Jeeej got me from Trader Joe's this weekend :)

 I loved these tulips too but they fell apart sooner than I thought...It's OK I took a picture of them with my precious flower Selma.

 I love you Salamonti especially when you do this if I asked you to close your eyes :)

Not A Typical Weekend

Have I ever told you how much I love weekends?
How I start the countdown once I wake up every Wednesday?

This week our weekend started on Friday.
With sudden plans to start house hunting after Joma' prayer, so i didn't cook. I fed the girls their lunch while in the car and when the hunting was not a success at all Jeeej realised he couldn't get back to work for some reason and then my babysitter told/texted me that she won't be able to babysit my girls that day so I had to cancel my classes.

So Our weekend started :)

Catfish for Lunch at the Cheesecake Factory

Ice Cream and cheesecake for dessert

Burnt the calories at the park until sunset

 On Saturday, I cooked Friday's lunch, Msakhan Rolls and then headed to the 1st Arab Ladies Bazaar in Saratoga. I spent some really great time -kids free- shopping for yummi traditional food from Palestine, Jordan, Libya and Syria  :)

At night me and Jeeej went to see Wrath of the Titans and we both loved it...

The girls allowed us to sleep until 8 am this Sunday morning and as a reward we took them out for lunch

Burgers and pasta at cafe epi, Palo Alto

Children museum, Palo Alto

Palo Alto zoo

To kiss this beautiful weekend Goodbye we went to get some ice cream from my favourite place in Palo Alto and after we ordered and actually started eating Jeeej realized he doesn't have his wallet and I didn't have money on me!
We couldn't find it and so we couldn't pay! One of the most embarrassing moments of my life.

We had to finish the ice cream in the car on our way back home praying to find the wallet somewhere there...

And we found it :)

I hope your weekend was sent from heaven just like ours :)
Minus the embarrassment, of course!