Confessions of a Three Year Old

I absolutely love them. I love my little daughter when she comes up to me and starts conversing with me, telling me as an after thought, about something that she did yesterday that she probably shouldn't have, or something that she did today that she probably shouldn't have.

"Mama, I ran to the bathroom because I needed it. I pee'ed in my pants, a little bit."
Me: "What?!"
"Just a little bit, mama, a very little bit."

She tells me the story so matter of factly, so full of confidence, so sure of my love, with no guilt, because she doesn't understand guilt yet, at least not fully.

I was sitting and listening to her chatter away, not really paying attention, till her new train of words caught my attention.

"Mama, yesterday I took that bottle and went into the room, shut the door and put some soap in my hands and my sisters's hands."
Me, "Yes?"
"Then my aunt came in the room and took it from me, and told me this doesn't belong to me."

"Oh, what was it?" Now I'm really paying attention because I realize she's telling me a real life story, and because I'm wondering what the heck she had taken out of the closet.

"That," she points to a bottle of antibacterial soap, a small bottle, the kind you don't have to wash with water.

She tells me this whole story in retrospect, something that happened in her day yesterday. But she's not confessing a sin, she's just telling me her daily happenings. She feels no need to apologize, she feels no need to fear me. And I absolutely love it. I love the fact that she's not scared of telling me, the fact that she isn't waiting for my reaction and fearing it. I love the fact that she's conversing with me, and I almost don't want to say anything, don't want to ruin the moment.

"Sumy, why did you close the door?"
"What?"
"Remember, if I don't see you, Allah SWT sees you. Next time, if you want to see it, just ask me and I'll bring it down." But deep inside I realize that I don't always 'just bring it down.' Maybe I need to do that more often.

I hope I did that right. I hope I am able to keep my lines of communication open with this little treasure of a daughter. I hope she always remains so innocent, even in her mistakes, so free, so trusting, so confident.

Ya Allah, give me wisdom to protect her from everything bad. Ya Allah, keep our babies so wonderful and trusting and sweet and innocent.

Not Regretting It

My husband has a wonderful trait-once he decides on something and goes through with it, he never regrets it. No matter how nagging I can get, asking him if perhaps we should have looked around for a better deal, perhaps we should have waited, perhaps...., he tells me, 'khalass, it's over and I don't regret it.'
And I love this trait about him, b/c it helps me feel better about some decisions I feel I may have forced him into that I later have second thoughts about (like buying our new car).

But two days ago, I did something different. Something that I should have done so many years ago, but practice makes perfect. I thought about why I was going to the inauguration.

I had planned on going months ago, once Obama was elected president. And then the morning of the inauguration, I found myself going by myself, and I wondered if there was any truly 'good' reason for me to go, other than to see something excited, which didn't sound very beneficial to my life and Hereafter.

So I decided that I would go and learn something new from this crowd of 2 million people, and I would at least be a picture for Islam in America for these crowds who might not think Muslims were as interested as they in Obama's inauguration.

And I went. It was cold, crowded, exhausting, and wonderful, and I went alhamdulillah. I was alone the whole time, and I got stuck in unbelievable human traffic afterwards (never ever imagined such a human traffic jam) and it took me 2.5 hours to get home instead of 30 minutes, but alhamdulillah, I did not regret going because I got what I went for, alhamdulillah. People saw me, I gave a 30 second interview on something called Kosher TV, and I saw things that I did not think I'd see (like the Christian fundamentalists with their huge signs, coming to DC with a purpose, and getting booed by the crowd and told to go home (!), and the Buddhist monks walking around the mall to their own drumbeat (so nice!), and some interesting crowd control issues).

Alhamdulillah, it was a learning experience. May God give me the power to think through every action I take.

Vacuuming Empowers Me!

I'm realizing this more and more, I absolutely love vacuuming. In general, I prefer cooking to cleaning any time of day, but there's something absolutely quick and wonderful about a vacuum cleaners powers- how it wipes out dirt and a mess with one swipe, and leaves my living room looking so clean within minutes.
And it's probably the only cleaning I can do with kids running around and not having to worry about them demanding my attention at that time. They either play tag with the vacuum cleaner and I push, or grab their own child size vacuums and clean along.
And I just recently realized the love affair I've had with each vacuum cleaner I bought in the different countries and had to leave behind when I moved. At first I thought it was only this vacuum cleaner or that one that I loved, but then I realized I loved each vacuum cleaner I've chosen (except for my craigslist one-but then again, I didn't choose that one!).

I feel like a child when I say this, but I love vacuuming!

PS: I own a dyson at the moment (one of the lighter ones) and am in love!

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Expanded Post- Water Play-Entertaining Baby!

Entertaining Baby
I'm reading this book that has been giving me the simplest yet most brilliant ideas for entertaining my toddlers. Basically, kids like to do so many things, and the only reason we stop them is because it's an inconvenience to us-changing their wet clothes, bathing them, whatever. But what is a wet t-shirt, a wet bathroom floor, some spilled dry beans on a carpet? Five minutes of extra cleaning on my part and hours! of entertainment for her!
So the other day, I opened the bathroom door, pulled up a step to the sink, filled it with water and bubbles and gave my 2 1/2 year old a couple of measuring cups. She was in there for at least 1 1/2 hours, and fully enjoying herself. Brilliant! Let her play with water! She enjoys it, and all I do is change her afterwards and wipe the floor.
Another idea that holds great favor in our household:

• Setting up a dry bean station: I fill a jar with dry white beans and place it on a flat pan along with empty jars of all sizes, and a couple of measuring spoons/cups. My kids fully enjoy spilling it all over the floor and elsewhere, but they also come up with the most amazing , creative concoctions, including white bean tea! It's amazing, but you have to watch out for the hungry 18 month old child who you think is old enough, and smart enough to know not to eat this tasteless treat. No matter how vigilant you might be, their appetite will be smaller that day, their mood will change around evening time and their diaper that night will be *full* of dry beans!
• Putting on some kid songs: I put on some anasheed with kids singing and a nice beat. My daughters insist on wearing their 'dancing' outfits (skirts which are 3 sizes too large for them) and twirling around!
• Good ole' play-dough: I set my daugthers up either on the floor or on their little table with a clump of play-dough and a couple of rolling pins, cookie cutters and measuring spoons. Lately, I've also added a store-bough play-dough squeezer to the fun. My three year old especially enjoys this (putting the dough in the contraption and squeezing it out through a shaper to look like thin spaghetti, thick pasta, stars, crescents, etc).
  
• Bath time! With lots of bubbles, plastic cups, and a spray bottle! Oh yes, and much patience for me! Perhaps cleaning up the bathroom sink at the same time would be a useful endeavor for me.
  

Please share your toddler fun ideas!

Discovering My Child

As a parent, I am slowly seeing that I should discover my child, so that I may help her reach her potential.
We were in NYC this weekend with my husband's cousin, showing him a part of America and seeing it ourselves in a new light. We went to the Madam Tassauds wax museum as part of our tour. Not something that I would ever have done on my own, or that I would do again, but it gave me a deeper glimpse into my three year old's abilities, and now I'm trying to discover how to build on that momentum.
In the wax museum, there is an 'American Idol' station where visitors can try there luck in singing. We were sitting at the cafeteria for a short break, and saw two different visitors perform. After the second one finished her performance, Sumy hesitated for about two seconds, and shyly ran up to the lady for the microphone. I was so impressed with her bravery and her jur'ah. She definitely gets that side from her father. It was so cute how she looked kind of shy, but her eagerness to sing overrode her tiny bit of shyness (she's not a very shy kid, usually).
She got up on stage and sang the two lines she knew from "Twinkle Twinkle Little Star" with the prompter helping her along. And she finished the whole song and came off stage.

So now, I need to figure out what that tells me about Sumy's abilities/personality and build on it. Any help would be appreciated. :)

But this is what I'm thinking: I've always wished I had a nice voice to sing in public, for performances, Eid celebrations, weddings, etc. But I have no such talent. So, I might teach Sumy a few songs in Arabic and English so that she can entertain people. "The Blue Sky is Blue Like Blue Bubblegum", etc. I believe that putting happiness into ppl's hearts by singing is a great asset, and maybe she can do that a bit.
What else? Hmmm, need to develop her outgoing personality and not clamp it down. More on that in another post inshaallah.

Playing With Beans

Yesterday, I decided that my 18 month old is old enough to understand that she can't eat raw beans, or that she'd taste one, not like it, and continue playing with them. I was optimistic.
I give her and her older sister a couple of empty jars, spice jars, measuring cups, etc, and let them play with the dry white beans for a while, until my living room carpet was covered with beans, and they were ready for their nap.
Shifaa woke up a couple of hours later and didn't eat much for lunch. We went to mama's for iftar/dinner, and again she didn't have an appetite. I know you've guessed the reason, but I didn't have the forecasting that you have, and so I wondered why she was acting so spoiled and crying over everything. I attributed it to her teeth, and went on with life.
She refused to eat dinner, and I refused to give her anything else that she thought she could get (yes, I was being heartless).
Than night, right before her bath, she pooped. I changed her diaper and laughed. It was absolutely filled with dry white beans. Eeeeewwww! I know, I'm sorry for the details, but it made me smile, b/c I finally understood why she had a 'full' stomach all day, and I guess now I knew why she was acting so 'bratty' all day!

I'll have to watch her better next time. Yes, there will be a next time!