Fun in the pool

Dad is away for a day and two nights...

It's girls' time again in our household.

 “I cannot endure to waste anything so precious as autumnal sunshine by staying in the house."

To KinderGarden today!

3.5 years, 2 countries, 3 schools, 10 plus teachers, 4 languages....!! Liya's eventful schooling is finally entering the much awaited next stage- K1! For the past one month we have been eagerly waiting for this day, to reunite with her dearest friends and loving teachers...

So here we continue our "No textbooks / slate / pen / homework / punishments / compulsions" pre-schooling!! Wish us good luck!!

3 years:: Where does she stand?

On 11th Oct 2012, Liya completed 3 years on planet earth. Needless to say, it's been an awesome journey, parenting a little girl, by learning, unlearning and re-learning, everyday. Thank God for each and every moment!! And today, we complete 5 years of our married life!! How awesome is that! Thank God!

It's been such a long since my last Liya update. So much had happened since then. Given the fact that pre schoolers learn quickly, last few months have been rapid 'development' time for her too.

Drawing/Coloring: 

She has always been crazy fan of drawing and coloring and the same goes on. Now, she can color almost neatly and inside the picture. She draws many pictures and all coming from her imagination.

Dated august 2012 

Pink Eye!

Yesterday, as Liya got back home from daycare, she gave me below piece of paper- a note from her teachers.

She was absolutely fine when she left for daycare, but came back with a red color on left most side of her left eye (conjunctivitis). Probably, she got it from there only. She was rubbing and scratching. We immediately called her primary care Doc but he wasn't available. The itching and scratching was increasing and so we took her into an emergency care. They gave an eye drop. She stopped rubbing and slept well, Alhamdulillah.*All Praise to Almighty*

First Day At Daycare!

Beginning of the day: 

She was all thrilled to head to school. She had a nice bath, yummy break fast and dressed up really quick. *Kids are well disciplined and obedient if they smell the delight of going out.* As we stepped into the school, her eyes were sparkling with inquisitiveness. I took her around the room, she was ecstatic to see a lot of toys and bunches of friends. But she got a whiff of eccentric happenings around her and wanted to snuggle into my arms. Her little hands slowly clung to my thighs and did not let me move.

The big day for little girl!

Did I share with you the big news? Yesterday was little Liya's first ever day at school. Yes, she is too small for schooling hence I enrolled her in a daycare. So, two days in a week are gonna be much different than usual for both mom and girl.

All set for a first day!

7 Random FACTS about MOI..!

I am glad that I have been awarded by a fellow blogger  Spicy Sweet. Thank you so much for choosing me. This is the first award for 'Princess Liya' and it is my pleasure to pass this award to few fellow bloggers too.

stylish blogger award

Following the tradition of this award, here comes 7 Random FACTS about myself.

☺ Clicked a photograph☺

Liya's first ever click!

Today, I clicked a photograph. I swear, mamma or pappa didn't help me. In fact, they did not even know that I had grabbed camera from drawer. I saw many buttons, pressed randomly, it somehow  turned ON, then I clicked on many tiny buttons. It was nice to do continuous clicks. Many things happened on the screen. It somehow reached in black and white mode and then I saw a big button, and clicked on it. It flashed and I could see the first ever photograph clicked by myself- little Liya. Did you like it?

An evening walk

At last, looks like spring has already reached in Buffalo. All snow heaps melted away, weather is getting better everyday. People started coming out from houses for after noon walks, kids are coming to play area. I saw lots of kids playing in the play area, thought it would be good idea to take Liya for a walk.

First hair styling..!

Liya had her head baring many times in a years time. As I mentioned earlier, the first one was precisely on 7th day of her birth, according to Islamic teaching. She doesn't have a dense strong hair pattern. It is kinda of sparse and feeble. I have done quite lot of experiments on her hair, to make it lustrous and bushy- but did not succeed so far. In rural India, it is a common belief that if you shave off baby's hair it grows thicker, but there is no scientific evidence to support this  OR no doctors agree to this myth either.

Memoir for first hair cut!

First snow fall ever

Today Liya and I watched snow fall for the first time ever in our life. It is really beautiful, words, photos or even videos can never tell you how beautiful it is. Indeed a wonderful experience. One should 'experience' it to know the beauty and beast in it. The greenish lawns, roads, steps, pathways, withered trees...all turned white in few minutes.

                                                 

 
Photos just before snow fall

Day 1 in Buffalo

The day one was much better than I anticipated. Liya was kind of tired due to travel and jet lag. She did not like the sudden change in her sleeping, playing and eating timings. The climate was suddenly gone bad and had fallen into -3 to -5 range.

J's friends (Amit and Mansoor) took us to Walmart  for our quick shoppings and then we went to rent a car. Liya did not seem to be comfortable in her new car seat. She was crying terribly. Amit had to park car many times in between the travel. Looks like she was caught by jetlag badly.

Flying to US: Part 1

At last the most awaited day-29th Oct 2010 - the long journey to US - reached and I must say that I was very much anxious about hundred things around Liya and could not actually enjoy the excitement. I could not anticipate how my little girl would handle the 18 hours long flight journey, the waiting in the airports, immigration lines etc. But, thank god, it turned out to be a wonderful trip, she enjoyed sleeping in the basinet, and I could kill my time looking at her innocent face..:)

Liya's first ever google search..:)

For the first time ever in her lifetime, she did a google search yesterday, obviously by mistake. See the screen shot below.

Liya takes her first step

Yesterday night it was almost 11.00 pm, when J and I were doing long night prayers (as it is Ramadan) the little naughty bubbly girl was all awake and playful. During the breaks between the prayer she threw her toys off and rushed to us and got into standing position without support for long time. She was getting into standing position really quick that I felt she would fall down and get hurt. As she was standing all happy and excited, we showed our hands sitting a bit away from her and encouraged her to move. The enthusiastic girl put forward her right feet and fell down within few seconds. She was very excited and suddenly got up and tried again and again.

That was her first ever independent step. I am quite happy for her determination and hard work.

Liya's first Ramdan, even though she doesn't fast.. :)

Ramdan, the holy month has started few days back.

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"Ramdan is the 9th month of Islamic Calender (Hijra Calender), and is the month in which the first verses of the Holy Qur'an were revealed to the Prophet Muhammad. It is the month of fasting, in which muslims round the globe refrain from eating and drinking from dawn until sunset. Fasting is intended to teach Muslims about patience, humility, and spirituality. Muslims offer more prayer than usual, pray for guidance and help in refraining from everyday evils, ask forgiveness for past sins, increase charity etc."

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Weaning Day

9th April 2010, the first 'remarkable' step towards Liya's independence- weaning. She was completely on breast milk for last 6 months. She was NOT even given few droplet f any other solids/water/juice, till now. Even though I had lot of pressure from family and people around me, I was stern about my decision.

I decided to start her with solids and prepared Kanji (brown broken rice prepared and served along with water). I had powdered the rice and prepared the food. She was given it in thinner form of it, thats too only 2 spoons. She ate it with no refusal, did not spit it either.

Good start and well done my girl! Long way to go, fighting over food..:)

Calicut -->> Bangalore

Liya was 3 months and 4 days old, when we decided to travel back to Hyderabad, where both myself and her dad live and work. I had already got back to work after my maternity leave. We decided to drive down to Hyderabad, from Kerala. Of course it was a tough decision as the road distance was almost 1000 Kms. We believed that we can take frequent breaks while traveling and which would make her more comfortable.

We started our journey early morning 6.00 am on 16th Jan '10. She was quite sleepy, but I managed to get her bathed and dressed in her traveling suit. I wonder how happy and excited she should have been if she was able to understand that she was to start a long journey, crossing 2 states. She is too young to watch and enjoy the mind-blowing sceneries, three states of the country she was traveling through in 2 days, and the change in language, culture, habits, food...

She had nothing to worry about..nothing to watch or enjoy other than sleeping and having her tiny tommy full of milk whenever hungry..

My first ever Eid

After returning from Eid Gah, in my Eid dress

Eid- ul- Adha (Barkid)- The 'festival of sacrifice', was on  48th day of my birth. My first ever eid, I celebrated at my dad's house with paternal grandparents, my parents and my uncle.

Eid ul Adha, commemorate the willingness of Prophet Ibrahim to sacrifice his son as an act of obedience to God, but instead was able to sacrifice a ram (by God's command). Each capable family would sacrifice a domestic animal, such as a sheep, goat, cow, or camel. The meat would then be divided into three equal parts to be distributed to others. The family can take one third, another third is given to other relatives, friends or neighbours, and the other third is given to the poor as a gift.  Eid is also about spending time with family and friends, renewing relationships..

At my dad's house

At my dad's house..

I landed my paternal home on 45th day on my life on planet earth and didn't know show any disturbances of place change. I spent almost a week there. Lots of people visited me during the days I spent over there. People over there surrounded me with tremendous love and care. My aunt's 3 year old daughter- my deedi- Diya was also there at home. We both had a good time together. She sang lots of rhymes for me.. I didn't know to sing, but I did enjoy. I made my special noises like 'aaa, oohh,' to show my happiness. I cooed along with her song. She was really happy to see that I enjoy her singing and so she sang very often for me.