Dec17: Ali has an “OK to wake” clock that turns from orange to blue at 7:30, which is the wake-up time we’re all aiming for since that’s about when Ayla wakes up and it works for our morning routine and gives us adults a bit more sleep.
When Ali wakes up, no matter the time, he unplugs the clock and comes right down.
Dec19: I am in no way qualified to do this. Skills-wise or temperamentally. But cookies were made today, and they were decorated, with homemade hand-colored buttercream frosting.
I do admit to using a cookie-cutter approach when it came to cutting the cookies.
Dec20: Ali is an engineer. Not will be. Is. He has his Cozy Coup tricked out with a rearview mirror, windshield wipers, and a trunk, among other things. There are new additions every day.
As things fall off or whatever, new ones are added. He’s been trying all day to figure out how to put a super heavy padlock on the door. So he can lock and unlock it.
He’s also a goofball. (He wanted to be a present, and Ahmed had the quick thinking to use a blanket instead of paper.)
Dec20: Fever-y baby wasn’t having mom anywhere but here. All day long. To Do list? For another day.
Dec22: Had fun wandering all around Tulsa Botanic Gardens and millions of colorful sparkling lights. I’m glad Ali picked out that hat — it makes him much easier to spot!
Dec24: Ali went on a treasure hunt today with clues all over the house. He liked the chocolate (cho-law-co-late) coins best.
Dec24: Ayla is such a barefoot bushwhacking goofball. She would have been right at home on my Grandma and Grandpa’s little farm/ranch, tramping around the creek and gathering eggs. Feeling her little feet turn into hobbit feet as they acclimated to the gravel. Playing in the cow’s water trough. Climbing on hay bales, watching for snakes. Delighting in the latest crop of wild kittens. Feeding apples to the horses. Playing dodgeball with rotten plums on the ground. Climbing trees, trying to pick mulberries and put them in buckets and bring them back but just eating them all instead.
Those were such good times.
Dec24: Tonight we made chocolate chip cookies for Santa and opened a Christmas Eve Box from the grandparents. Ali went through it like a Tasmanian devil, throwing things behind him. Ayla laughed a deep-throated, almost evil villain laugh when she saw the candy canes. She was super excited. I opened one of the ‘canes for her, thinking she’d suck it for a while and then put it down and wander off. Nope. She crunched the whole thing right down in record speed.
Dec25: Well, so much for Christmas morning. Ayla woke up early, unhappy about something, and cried for more than an hour. Wasn’t interested in her presents or stocking.
Ali finally woke up at like 8:30 (two hours later) with a fever and apparently had a crap night of sleep, along with his father. (Ahmed slept in the room with Ali to keep him from getting up 80 times in the night, after the second time he got up.)
Ali was excited about presents, though it was muted by feeling bad. He ripped through them fast. The watch was the most wanted gift, and it was opened last, but it was too big. He seemed to like it, though.
Ali then opened his big box gifts, and a little ways into trying to build the new play kitchen, he begged off and now he’s resting on Baba, all pitiful.
Ayla still yells any time I try to give her a gift or her stocking, but she’s playing with Ali’s stuff and the new little Fisher Price play house.
Ho ho ho!
ETA: Ali puked and started to feel a bit better then. He hates the watch. I don’t blame him. I couldn’t find what he asked for and thought I got something “better.” But it’s kinda futzy and complicated. I’ll just go find what he wants when I can. It’s $5.
Ali putting on a brave face and getting started
The aftermath
Ayla feeling a little better. Ali feeling worse.
Just before he puked
Ayla on the warpath again
Ayla opening her mini diapers, finally. She loved stacking them and giving them to Aunt Val and taking them back again. Hasn’t used them as diapers yet. (She normally loves trying to diaper her dolls with normal diapers that are way too big.)
Ayla saying “cheese!”
Found a good deal on a cool play kitchen. They were outgrowing the Facebook freebie I got. But it definitely gave us a lot of fun! And I’ll pass it on
Dec26: The kids are much happier today and playing with all the loot. Ayla has carrying her two ponies around by the manes (oops, I stand corrected, one is a “unitorn”) and Ali is circumnavigating the house pushing his new ferry boat bath toy, making tug boat noises. It has his mini gum ball machine on it.
For my own records:
Both kids got a play kitchen, downhill racetrack, and Fisher Price doll house
Ayla got mini diapers, silly squirt soap, bath toys, ribbon streamers, My Little Pony, talking puppy toy, and small plush unicorn
Ali got a card match game, silly squirt soap, ferry bath toy, ribbon streamers, wooden trapeze to hang somewhere, tea set, and watch (which was the wrong one and he hates it — oops. The one he wants is $5. We’ll find it when we can. Stupid Santa! 😛 )
Dec26: I’m glad my 93-year-old grandma still has cat-like reflexes. Somehow she got sat next to the trash can, and I threw some cardboard toy-packaging innards that caught some air, sailed the wrong way, and would have hit her in the face if she hadn’t punch-blocked it!
Sorry, Grandma.
Otherwise we had a great time in Stigler
Dec26: This photo is called OH NO LEVI IS ON FIRE!!!
Dec28: It’s a “Do 6 loads of laundry and try to put the house back together while the kids run around, eat McDonald’s, and/or watch movies” kind of day.
It still cracks me up how much it cracks Ayla up when the “baby dinodaurs” hatch in the Good Dinosaur movie. She also gets insanely excited and laughs and laughs when the T-rexes lope across the plains. “Dinodaurs running! Dinodaurs running!”
And tomorrow will be another day a lot like today, but with only one load of laundry. Houses (and kids) are demanding beasts.
Dec28: So today was kinda lame, with endless housework and Ali extra sassy with a holiday hangover, especially after staying up late at Grandma’s. Ayla’s been skipping naps for the past week and being a bit friable, too.
A trip to a nature reserve, and a hike in the woods, helped end the day on a good note. Ayla adored playing in the sand and gravel, picking it up and giving it to us or just sifting it through her fingers and cackling like it was the greatest thing ever.
At one point Ayla found a great stick and Ali took it and ran away. Ayla protested loudly.
I said to Ali, “That’s not very nice. Taking a stick from a baby.”
“She’s not a baby,” he said.
I sighed. “Semantics.”
“Yeah,” he agreed. “It’s a man stick.”
I legit would have done a spit take if I’d been drinking something
ETA: Pic of two little kids running off into the woods together. We expected them to come back pretty soon. Who knows how far they would have gone if we hadn’t gone chasing after them! (It was a safe area, a nature reserve. We wouldn’t have let them get lost for real.)
Dec29: Ali just now: “I’m hiccuping. I’m hiccuping. I hicked up.”
Dec30: My kids will have almost nothing to do with non-CGI animation. Old pen-and-ink animation must look like black and white to them.
Dec30: Ayla being cute in her special dress from Grandma. She was captivated by the heavy bocce balls. I let her play, even though I feared for her toes!
Dec30: Little baby Ayla (almost 2) finally moved from the Pack n Play into a toddler bed. She took to it like a champ. Loved playing on it, then when I asked if she wanted to sleep in her Pack n Play or in her new bed, she emphatically said, “New bed!”
She didn’t even want me to rock her to sleep. She wanted to be in bed while I sang her song.
Sweet little moppet! With her (usual) stuffed animals and new pillow and blankets. Sleeping like a queen.
ETA: I couldn’t sleep (still can’t) and checked the monitor around midnight. She was nowhere to be found. I went up to her room. Not there. I was about to consider panicking when I noticed her little fleece nightgown with stars on the floor. She had apparently pushed against the Pack n Play that I pushed against her bed to keep her from falling off, and fallen off. And then just went with it and fell asleep (or stayed asleep) on the floor, half under the bed, wedged against the Pack n Play.
I put her back in bed and wedged something very heavy against the Pack n Play so hopefully now it can actually serve its intended purpose as a bed rail.
P.S. Ali was 22 months when he transitioned from the Pack n Play to a queen mattress. After Ayla came home, he simply refused to set foot in the Pack n Play ever again.
Dec31: Aunt Emily got Ali a VACUUM BLANKET for Christmas. How cool is that?
Dec31: Ahmed is putting together Ali’s new Hot Wheels downhill race track thing.
Ali said encouragingly, “You’re doing it, Baba! You’re the future!”
Dec31: Ayla’s favorite phrase right now: “DIDDA BATUMEE!!!”
(Give it back to me.)
Dec31: It’s been a beautiful and hectic year. We have a new house and a “baby” who narrates the most fascinating stories that no human can understand, sometimes illustrating with interpretive dance. A sweet son who thinks fart jokes are the funniest thing in the world and hide and seek is a kind of heaven, who’s smart enough to give us heck sometimes. (He doesn’t miss anything.)
We had pizza, red wine, and sparkling cider for dinner. The kids had chicken nuggets. So it goes. (Cinnamon rolls for breakfast tomorrow.)
I think the biggest breakthrough I’ve had this year is really getting it through my head that there’s no benefit to beating myself up, even if I’ve screwed up in the same way for the 400th time and feel hopeless. The 401st time (or 447th) is always an opportunity for change and growth, and shame will just make that growth harder. My inner critic is (finally) rather quiet these days, and I’m doing better in a lot of ways than I have in years. I have quiet hope. I am quietly striving. I am doing my best. It is enough.
I’ve been blazing through my year-end To Do list, clearing the deck as well as I can, and I’m hopeful 2022 will be the year I finally finish writing my novel and begin looking for a home for it. I’m grateful I can easily publish it myself if it comes to it. The book wanted to be written. I’m writing it. Its fate will not be simply to sit in a desk drawer, as it may have been in the past if a traditional publisher couldn’t be found. These are wonderful times in many ways.
I wrote a morning mantra of sorts to read every morning when I wake up. (I plan to start waking up an hour before the kids to have time for stuff like this.)
May my morning rituals connect me to higher wisdom so I may embody it through the day.
May my list be tasks to tackle & enjoy, not an excuse to be absent or separate from my life.
May my love radiate from a spirit not preoccupied with getting my own needs met.
May my feet tread in beauty every day on this good earth.
May I make time for and see the value in my heart work.
I originally included these two as well, but they feel internalized enough to leave out for now:
May I not waste energy castigating myself when old stories take over, but gently aim back toward a better path.
May I accept with grace when there genuinely aren’t enough hours in the day. Life is full!
Oh, and I got a Bullet Journal so that my daily To Do list this year will be finite and I’ll have things crossed off at the end of the day instead of deleted into oblivion, making me wonder what the heck I did all day. This year I’ll know.
Give yourself some grace. You would not be here if the universe hadn’t conspired — wildly improbably — to bring you here, including by exploding stars violently to distribute the iron that made its way into your blood.
Every new year starts with such hope. Every new generation brings new hope and carries it forwards. Even if we all screw up in the same way for the 400th time and feel hopeless. The 401st time (or 447th) is always an opportunity for change and growth. Always.
Jan1: Such a fun night of play this evening in the play room. Ali has his new trapeze with yellow grab handles underneath, and he was swinging on it over a Nugget cushion. He was this close to doing his first backflip while holding onto the rings but didn’t quite let himself go all the way over. He did monkey around upside-down for a while.
Ayla is in a phase of loving to carry big and heavy things, and she had fun jumping on the other Nugget cushion, jumping off it, and folding and unfolding it. She also put our big foam blocks in a row and tried to walk across them like a tightrope. It was super difficult and wobbly and she kept falling off (usually falling onto a big foam block) and laughing.
We were having too much fun to get pictures, but I did get a video last night of Ayla narrating — orating? — some huge story about the cars on their new ramp race track. I didn’t get this part on film, but one time she made her point so forcefully she fell backwards onto her butt. After a brief pause, she got straight back up, without even using her hands, and continued without missing a beat. Orating baby ninja.
I love these kids.
Happy New Year ❤
ETA: Here’s 10 seconds of Ayla narrating / orating about her new car ramp. Ten seconds out of several minutes. I’m treated to lots of this (sometimes with interpretive dance), and she’s started orating at strangers as well. Love it
I’m sure she knows exactly what she’s saying. I can’t wait until I can know, too!
Jan3: Ali, bless his heart. He was doing gymnastics on my bed and a flailing foot kicked my computer and cut / bruised my thumb. He felt bad and filled a drawer in my room with bandaids and “blood lotion” (Neosporin) in case I needed it.
Jan3: I think this will help me tremendously with meal planning: A template, instead of an overwhelming blank slate every week.
Monday: crock pot chicken
Tuesday: Monday’s leftovers
Wednesday: Vegetarian
Thursday: pasta
Friday: fish or red meat
Jan4: I’m a bit of a pack horse on school days. I have to simultaneously bring in two kids, two bags with extra clothes and winter apparel, two nap rolls (sleeping bags), two lunches, two water cups, and two loveys (stuffed animals).
More and more Ali will carry his own backpack and Ayla will even carry her nap roll. Other days I’m carrying all the stuff plus Ayla.
Ali’s class announced the phasing out of naps over the holidays. Unable to comprehend the scope of my liberation, I brought his nap roll this morning out of habit, only for it to come back unopened.
Tomorrow and every day thereafter? One less sleeping bag to carry in and out every day. Woo hoo!
Jan4: With both kids dropping their last nap at the same time (yeah, pray for me), I really hate this new earlier bed time. We have dinner, do baths, and just start revving up the fun when it’s time to brush teeth and go to bed, and the kids protest mightily. But any later and they don’t function the next day.
And they won’t nap, period. It’s just not a thing anymore.
Jan9: Any guesses what “dop me now” means in Ayla-speak?
Chocolate milk.
Jan11: Today was/is a good day.
Jan11: I’ve been Home Alone the past couple of nights while Ahmed “drove to Houston real quick” to do some urgent paperwork at the Turkish consulate. (All is well, just workaday stuff.) It’s been hectic, but the kids were kind enough to make it non-miserable.
Ayla tonight was literally eating guacamole with a spoon. That’s. My. Girl.
Last night Ayla tore the last two bells off a jingle bell ornament Ali got somewhere, and I randomly put them down the back of Ayla’s footie pajamas for no reason, and she started running around with her butt jingling.
This inspired Ali and me to sing, “Jingle butt! Jingle butt! Jingle all the way! Oh what fun it is to ride in a one-horse open butt!” over and over and over while Ayla ran around and around, her butt jingling all the way.
Oh what fun.
Jan11: Ten year challenge. In 2012, my only baby was a book called Fast Times in Palestine. Now I have two more babies and another book (perpetually) almost done!
Jan12: Someone in a parenting group asked how to explain to her baffled 5-year-old why he can’t take his penis out in public.
It was a good question. I replied:
“Honestly, it’s healthy for a kid to question why some parts are private.
At the end of the day, it’s simply a cultural norm. One of many kids have to learn to “fit in” in the society they were born into.
Other cultures, and nudist colonies, have different norms.
My son asked me today if dinosaurs were put in boxes when they died. I told him no, that’s just a cultural norm in our society. Honestly, I question that cultural norm. There’s no real reason for dead bodies to be put into giant expensive boxes, etc.
But as for taking penises out in public, that’s one kids just have to accept for now. Because it’s a cultural norm, because it makes people deeply uncomfortable, because grown-ups can be arrested for doing it, etc.
Isn’t it wonderful how kids inspire us to question things we take completely for granted?”
Jan13: Ali wants to learn all about “electishutty” and the building where it’s made (power plant).
He’s fascinated by the wires (and agreed the cat bus on Totoro must be magic since he didn’t get shocked when he walked on them).
So. How can I find out where our electricity comes from (as in which building generate’s our area’s power I guess?) and then arrange a tour? Is that a thing?
Last week he wanted to see the building where radio comes from, and we walked into an I Heart Radio office building and up to the 5th floor. Unfortunately all was dark, as apparently everyone’s working from home. He did get a Dum Dum from another random office in the building.
Hoping for a more inspiring field trip next time. (And I’m sure he’d still like to tour a radio station some time!)
Meanwhile Ali’s dreams are haunted by a “bad camel” that keeps trying to eat him. It apparently thinks he is a carrot. (We fed carrots to camels at Pumpkin Town in October. Oops.) It is haunting my nights, too. It takes a long time to fall back asleep after your son wakes up screaming.
Jan14: If Ayla points at the sky and says, “Apple doctor!” she means ‘helicopter’ and she’s probably pointing at an airplane.
Close enough, kid. I get you.
Meanwhile Ali wants his own house where he’s the Baba and Ayla is the Mama and I make babies for them.
Reality TV here we come!
Jan16: My little artists, and my goofball snow bunny with her new duds from Grandma!
Jan17: Feeling a bit sad and frustrated. I’ve been trying all month to work on my novel, and it never makes it to the top of the To Do list. Everything else comes first. Sigh.
Jan17: It’s so unfortunate and one-sided that older people remember being younger, but younger people don’t remember being older.
Jan18: Good news: I was able to work on my novel today.
Bad news: It took up most of the time just to figure out what I need to do next. That’s OK. Part of the process. But dang I wish I had like 10 uninterrupted hours per day. I could blaze through this.
Jan18: Grogu and me
Jan18: Tonight I made for dinner: baked salmon, roasted asparagus, and jasmine rice.
The kids ate: Jello.
I tried.
Jan21: Thank you, everyone, for the birthday wishes. I had a chill day reading old journals, finishing up some projects, and enjoying myself, then picking up the kids and bringing them back to see their visiting grandparents. They all had a great time while Ahmed and I went out to Juniper and had a lovely dinner + drinks.
I’m a very lucky woman and life is good
ETA: My birthday cake was a frozen coconut cream pie perfectly thawed. Easiest thing ever, and so delicious
Jan21: Happy kids on Grandpa’s lap. Happy parents dining downtown!
Jan23: Ali just now: “They letted me into the front seat of the plane when we went to Texas. They just letted me do that. But I didn’t know how to drive the plane yet.”
It was more than two months ago. He remembers everything.
Jan23: Ali has been wanting to ice skate for a long time, and I took him today. I was impressed how well he was able to stay upright, with straight ankles. After a while we found a “walker” thing, a metal frame that he could hold onto while skating. I held it while hovering over him and skated him pretty fast, and he just held his legs and feet straight and enjoyed the ride.
Finally after a while I gave him some space to try on his own and showed him how to put one skate sideways a little bit and push off. He achieved forward motion, which was awesome enough.
“How do you go fast?” he asked.
“Well, that takes some time and practice.”
But he had a need for speed, so he let me skate him around the rest of the time and kept asking me to go faster. I’m going to have a butt of steel if I keep this up.
After public skating was over, Ali was treated to his first Zamboni experience, and afterwards he found the Zamboni guy (a teenager with a mullet) and asked him a few questions. Or at least prompted me to ask the questions, haha.
Then two local hockey teams took to the ice and started playing hockey.
“I want to skate with them,” Ali said.
“We can’t.”
“Why not?” he asked.
“Well, we didn’t join a team, pay our dues, get the equipment, and get a uniform.”
”I want you to do that next time,” he said.
Sure thing, kid. I’m sure they’ll take a 42-year-old woman and a 4-year-old kid and put them on the team next week.
Now he’s in the car crying because he wants to go back.
Jan25: I made crock pot chicken and dumplings last night with cut Italian green beans.
The kids ate yogurt.
I really thought the recipe would be kid-friendly, but the biscuits turned weird and the chicken had no flavor, even though the “gravy” (more like soup) around the chicken was delicious.
I don’t seem to be very good at crock pot chicken. It was similar last time. The sauce was good, the chicken was boring. (Whole breasts.) Sigh. It sucks to not really want to do something anyway and then be bad at it.
Jan27: Ayla had so much fun at the new Discovery Lab she completely exhausted herself, cried hysterically when we had to leave, fell asleep in the car on the way home, refused lunch, and is also refusing her nap, haha. I guess we’re going to have to get an annual pass so that she doesn’t feel like she has to fit everything in in one or two visits!
I wish I had a video of her playing with the giant scarves in the wind tunnel — a large area surrounded by powerful fans that created an updraft vortex. Pure joy on her face. She picked everything up so quickly. And she loved the tube that vacuumed up ball pit balls, and I’m sure Ali will, too! (The whole ball area is loads of fun.) We also played with some parachutes, some giant foam blocks, and tunnels and a slide made out of plastic tape.
Her next year, going from age 2 to 3, is an in between time, when the “baby” era fades away for good and the “little kid” era starts. I’m so excited to see her say and do more and more.
ETA: I took Ali after school, and he loved it, too! Especially the ball vacuum. He loved the flying scarves as well. He fought me all the way out the door and to the car wanting to go back.
Jan27: I dreamed last night that I was roller skating (I think) and Neil Gorsuch was in the middle of the rink, and I kept trying to talk to him, to tell him Brett Kavanaugh was an unqualified, entitled joke, to get him to come around and help get him out of SCOTUS. (Yeah, right. I know. Shows how powerless I feel.)
All three of Trump’s picks are problematic. Gorsuch came after Republicans delayed for MONTHS and wouldn’t confirm anyone under Obama. Kavanaugh is an unqualified, entitled joke who repeatedly lied under oath. Amy Coney Barrett was rushed through DAYS before an election after a legendary justice finally lost her life, exhausted to her last breath by trying to outlast a shamelessly antidemocratic political party’s hold on power.
I am sad and angry about that. Even in my dreams.
Jan29: There was a little construction paper animal picture on a construction paper package. Ayla pointed to it, and I said, “What is that? Is it a hedgehog? A porcupine?”
“Mouse,” she said.
“Oh, it’s a mouse?” I said.
“No, it’s not,” Ali said authoritatively. “It’s a head chalk.” [hedgehog]
Jan30: We don’t stress manners in this house, assuming the kids will pick it up authentically when they are ready.
Today Ayla asked me for apple juice, and I filled a straw cup for her (about 15% juice, the rest water) and handed it to her.
For the first time, she looked me in the eye and said sweetly, “You’re welcome.”
Jan30: I’m not the world’s craftiest person, but I saw curtain ties similar to this on Amazon and thought, “I can do better than that.” With Michael’s having so many beads on clearance, I can make them for all the curtains in the house with plenty left over for Ali to have fun with.
Jan31: Looks like Ayla is going to have another sleety day like when she was born, when she turns 2 on Friday.
Dead-of-winter birthdays are the worst. (Mine’s January 21.) Sorry, baby. I did not plan it this way, haha.
I’ve always wished I could have an honorary birthday in May or June or something, but the hope/idea never really went anywhere.
Jan31: Be still my heart
Jan31: They have little lists sometimes of what the kids said that day to a question at my son’s preschool. Everyone said something they learned about penguins, and Ali’s entry was, “They eat worms.”
I thought, “Oh, that’s cute, he thought they eat worms because they’re birds and birds eat worms. But there aren’t any worms at the South Pole.”
But I asked him about it, and he seemed pretty sure of his answer. So I kept my thoughts to myself and googled it.
Silly mama. Some penguins do eat worms. And not all penguins live at the South Pole! I’ve seen tropical penguins myself (at the Galapagos Islands).
Ali 1, Mama 0
Feb1: And suddenly (3 days before she turns 2), Ayla is talking in complete sentences. Especially when she’s upset. (Kind of like how my Russian gets better when I’m drinking. I worry less about perfection and just go for it.)
“Hey, Mama, where you going?”
“Why did you throw that?”
“I don’t want to go to bed!”
Feb1: This is me trying to clean my house:
I need to clean the counters. But first I need to empty the dishwasher so I can put the other dishes in. But really I should vacuum first, because the vacuum will run out of charge and then be ready to vacuum another room later. OK, I’ll listen to an audiobook while I do that. Oops, I don’t really want to listen to any of the audiobooks I have. OK, I have some credits. I’ll check out the wish list. Hm, I don’t really want to listen to any of those, either. OK, I’ll check my Amazon wish list for other books I keep meaning to read / listen to. Uh oh, Ayla wants some jello.
Half an hour later, I haven’t unloaded a single dish or turned the vacuum on.
Feb1: When Ali is “wasting” wipes or tape or something, it helps to think of them as “art supplies.”
Feb2: Finally got rid of the Christmas tree yesterday #NoRules
Feb2: Ali said he’s learning about ocean life now at preschool, and after talking about it for a while, I said, “You know, I can scuba dive. I have a license.”
“Scuba dive?”
“I can put a mask and tank on and breathe underwater like a fish. Play on the bottom of the ocean.”
“Where is it?”
“What?”
“The mask.”
“Oh, I can rent those when I go to a place where I can scuba dive.”
“Like where?”
“Oh, like Egypt, Croatia, Arkansas…”
“I want to do that.”
“Sure! When you’re a little older…”
“No, I want to do it right now. With a mask for a 3-year-old.”
OK, now I have to google if 3-year-olds can scuba dive… Nope. 10 years old is the absolute youngest.
But if any 3-year-old could do it…
Ayla is deep into her Moana phase, and I’m not mad. Ali was deep into it when Ayla was born, and it brings back sweet, if exhausting, memories.
I wonder if the people who made the movie knew they were making it specifically for just-turned-two-year-olds.
Also, this soup [pressure cooker ribollita] is spectacular. And Ali wanted to make “chocolate eggs” (he saw it on Leo the Truck), so I gathered ingredients for vegan truffles (since I can’t do dairy) with coconut milk and finely chopped cashews. Alas, they were too bitter for Ali. I will have to use lower-quality chocolate next time.
Ahmed and I like them just fine.
Preschool was canceled today due to bad weather, and then nothing happened whatsoever. Oh well. Cozy day in.
Feb3: Ali finally “slept in” this morning until 7:30 and didn’t wake poor Ayla up at the crack of dawn. She slept until well after 8. Cozy little moppet. Even though when Ali did finally wake up, he started yelling like crazy about the snow.
Meanwhile it’s a Snow Week pretty much. Day care noped out. Just entertaining kids and catching up on housework since I had a dairy allergy attack that took me out from anything but minimal effort for a week.
Next time I see something labeled “Milk Candy,” I’m going to take it seriously. I assumed it was just milk-flavored, and below the threshold for affecting me badly, but it turned out to be a sinus-seeking ballistic nuclear dairy missile.
Feb3: Tomorrow is also Ali’s two year anniversary of being a big brother. Ayla is older now than Ali was when Ayla was born. Such a tiny thing!
Feb3: Ali just found our empty Blue Apron box, filled it with plastic vegetables, taped it up, and delivered it to me in the kitchen.
Feb4: Two years ago at 5:59pm, this tough, funny, chill, cuddly yet independent sweetheart joined our family and world. Happy Birthday, sweet Ayla!
Feb4: WHOAH. I just realized our baby shower for Ali was on February 4. Which turned out to be his sister’s birthday!
Feb4: Ali today playing in the snow: “Do we have a dasher through the snower?”
Feb4: I had to “dash through the snow” (seriously, the roads here are terrible — more like creeping along the snowy roads and still briefly losing traction at least once) to get ingredients for Ayla’s strawberry birthday cake with chocolate frosting. Ali “helped” me make and decorate it. And licked plenty of batter and frosting along the way.
Ayla ignored the cake; she only had eyes for the $2 “Widda Boony” (little pony) cake topper, which she soon realized was also a “Unitorn.” Eventually we caught her attention with the Happy Birthday song, which she sat through rather skeptically. We tried to tell her / show her how to blow out her candle, but she didn’t quite get it. So Baba blew it out and re-lit it. Then she got it and, after 3 tries, blew it out herself. And earned some fist-bumps all around.
Then we traded her a piece of cake for her Widda Boony, and she ate happily. Ali had 3 big pieces. The only thing he had for dinner tonight was 1.5 ears of corn even though I made romesco chicken with poblano peppers, cous cous, and labneh. Oh well. Ayla refused all food for dinner, as she has been often lately and just wanting “Top me now” (chocolate milk). Teething?
Meanwhile Ali and Ahmed’s snow man is slowly and dramatically dying. It’s still cold but sunny.
We haven’t even given her her presents yet: a balance bike, magnetic face-maker game, wooden scoops and pea gravel sensory bin. Plus a card from Great Grandma Pat. She talked with family in Turkey (boy did she talk!), and she’s still randomly singing, “Happy bowday, Ayla!”
Feb5: Welp. Ayla’s balance bike was too big for her. So I guess Ali got a balance bike for Ayla’s birthday. He loves it!
Feb6: Ali found some dental floss in a drawer, and it’s amazing how much fun two kids can have with a bunch of floss. Running around with big ropes of it dangling from their mouths (tow ropes, apparently) while the cat chases it — that’s just the beginning. I don’t even know all the worlds they are passing through with those big white strings.
Feb7: Ayla woke up at 6:08am, almost an hour and a half early, saying, “Mama, Mama, Mama…”
I went in there and she stood up and looked at me and said, “Maui take the heart.”
Maybe she’s seen Moana just a few too many times…
Feb7: Does anyone else find it distracting that Pixar makes the characters’ cheeks puff out slightly when they pronounce the P sound, even though real people’s cheeks don’t do that (because we tense slightly to prevent it)?
No? Just me? OK.
Feb8: Ayla is a happy camper. Guess what the song’s gonna be for her class’s dance recital? “How Far I’ll Go” from Moana!
(It’s Ali’s dance class, too, and he likes the song, too, but he’s past his “totally obsessed with Moana” phase. Though he is starting to understand its moral shades of grey — how Maui isn’t all good or all bad, and he makes bad decisions sometimes because he’s scared and insecure, etc.)
Feb8: The cutest little girl at Ali’s preschool, named Lenox, always lights up and says, “Hi, Ali!” every time she sees him. It’s the most adorable thing in the world.
He usually kind of stiffens and looks somewhere else or just ignores her and keeps doing what he’s doing.
I’m sure it’s a typical-ish thing for both of them to be doing. But I can’t help but hope he doesn’t end up as socially awkward as I am.
ETA: OK, so there’s a hilarious coda to the Ali story about the girl who always says Hi to him.
The Valentine-themed question for the class today was, “Who do you love?”
Ali’s answer: Lenox!
Lenox’s answer: Momma!
Feb11: Some cousins stopped by!
Feb12: It must be a universal human instinct
