Drinking From My Saucer

I got this poem as an email forward from my mom. I love it and of course it came at the most appropriate time.

I've never made a fortune, and it's probably too late now.
But I don't worry about that much, I'm happy anyhow
And as I go along life's way,
I'm reaping better than I sowed.
I'm drinking from my saucer,
'Cause my cup has overflowed.

Haven't got a lot of riches,
and sometimes the going's tough
But I've got loving ones all around me,
and that makes me rich enough.
I thank GOD for his Blessings,
and the Mercies HE's bestowed.
I'm drinking from my saucer,
'Cause my cup has overflowed.

I remember times when things went wrong,
My faith wore somewhat thin.
But all at once the dark clouds broke,
and the sun peeped through again.

So LORD, help me not to gripe,
about the tough rows I have hoed.
I'm drinking from my saucer,
'Cause my cup has overflowed.

If GOD gives me strength and courage,
When the way grows steep and rough.
I'll not ask for other blessings,
I'm already Blessed enough.

And may I never be too busy,
to help others bear their loads..
Then I'll keep drinking from my saucer,
'Cause my cup has overflowed.

When I think of how many people in this world have it worse
than I do, I realize just how BLESSED WE really are.

Falling Into Fall

So much to catch up on, I don't know where to start! The other weekend we enjoyed an afternoon at the pumpkin patch with our friends Jeff, Amber and Lauren. It was pretty funny right from the start-when we got there and parked, we discovered that Hailey had a dirty diaper-that had leaked. So, we changed her and put her into the backup pants that I keep in my bag, and as Ahmad called them, they were "seafoam green". Oh well, it was just the patch, right? As we were standing in line, Amber called me and said that Lauren threw up when they got there and it was all over her. And they didn't have anything to change her into, what did I have? I had a pair of Miles' pants (size 3T) and one of Hailey's onesies (size 6 months) and Lauren is 19 months old. But it worked! The onesie was amazingly stretchy....! Despite the funny outfits, a good time was had by all.

The other weekend while I was working, Ahmad, Miles, and Hailey were playing outside and Miles wanted to play football. He had his helmet on and was ready-but then he asked Ahmad for another one. When asked why, he said it was for his friend, who was standing right beside him. Miles has an imaginary friend! His name is Joshish and he appears at random times. He was around quite a bit for that week or two, but hasn't been mentioned too often lately. OK, time for a classic Zahler tale-when I was little, probably 3ish, I had an imaginary friend and her name was Sarah Cindy. She lived in this huge pink motel in a nearby (was it nearby? Or was in my town? I'm not really sure) town. My dad tells a story that one time my mom and I got into an argument because I wanted Sarah Cindy to spend the night, but we were having company in for the weekend and my mom said there wouldn't be room. HA! Cracks me up. That's one the first things I told Ahmad when he told me about Joshish-there was always room for him to come over! :)

Miles likes to get in the closet and do "work". He pulls everything out and then has to put it all back. It's very important work!

Hailey is doing so much these days! She's eating everything that we eat and loves it! We only give her water to drink (and breastmilk) and she doesn't get any sweets or other obvious bad foods (i.e. chips that Miles thought she would like), but pretty much, she's eating what we're eating. We've also noticed that she eats with her left hand. Wonder if she'll be a lefty! She still takes baby food at daycare just because we thought nutritionally it was better because for a while, she wasn't eating a very balanced diet. And she still eats it just fine from them, so we stuck with it. We'll see how much longer that goes on though. She's also reciprocating affection! She's trying to kiss us sometimes and is hugging me! I love it. She started doing it when I get up with her at night. I always pick her up and hug her to me and ask her what's wrong, etc etc. She started hugging me back! Now she hugs me often, just presses her little body to me and clings on. Melts my heart.

My Little Pumpkin!

Hailey also did another first-she made her first sign. I've been doing sign language with her pretty much since birth, mainly signing "milk" when I feed her. Once she hit 6 months, I started with other signs and have been waiting for her to catch on. The other night I thought she signed "light" when I did after we finished her night time story, but wasn't sure. Well, the next night, she did it again! Yup, she signed it. I was surprised she didn't sign "milk" first, but then I thought, she gets her point across just fine by sucking on my face or fussing that I know when she wants to eat. Why would she bother signing?! And another first is that she stood up by herself! She was standing up holding on to the stool and let go-and stayed standing! She's done it several more times now and has even done some real standing-using her legs and bending at the knee to lower herself or to stand up. I can't believe it! She'll be walking before we know it!

A drawer Hailey can play in!



All warm and ready for a walk!

Miles is still motorcycle obsessed. On almost a daily basis we talk about motorcycles and he still insists he wants one and that he's big enough to touch the ground while riding it and therefore should have one. It's a never ending battle. And I probably didn't help much. It was pretty funny. One day when I was talking to my mom, she told me there was an ad in the paper for a powerwheel that sounded like a motocross bike type. She asked if it might be good for Miles for Christmas. I told her it was a good idea, but probably not. They were big and pretty expensive. That evening, I got on Craig's List, which I hardly ever do, and found an ad for a motorcycle powerwheel for $50. It was down the street from my work, so I contacted them and went to see it the next day. It was cute. And I talked them down. I couldn't resist. I brought it home and Miles loved it. :)


The other day when I took him to school, he got upset with me because I didn't turn in the first drive to school. I mean, an all out tantrum-screaming, not walking, crying, hysterical. It was a bit ridiculous I have to admit, but now kind of funny. We've had a talk about how I am the driver and the mommy and I make the decisions about where we drive. I hope that sticks.

Miles playing in my makeup

Miles had a rough few days (like 2-3) the other week and the administration at his preschool decided it was best to move him to a new room. We had briefly talked about it, but I didn't realize that meant the next infraction. Well, it did and he was moved mid-day one day. He's now in the older 4 Pre-K room. He's by far the youngest in the room, but maybe this will be good for him. He's been in there 2 weeks now and has done great. He did learn 1 new bad word, but didn't take it too far. I hope this is a good move for him! We have noticed that he's already learning lots more, which is fantastic. He's sounding out words and is able to identify what letter most of them start with. Maybe he'll be reading soon! And he's working on learning the months in order. He does January and February and then skips to June and can finish out the year. If we get spring in there, he'll be set! Another thing I've noticed in the past week is that he's having a hard time with transitions. Like finishing one thing (TV show, finished playing, putting on jammies, etc) and moving on to the next. We give him plenty of warning-"Miles, almost time for jammies!", "Miles, this is the last show, then jammies", "Miles, 2 more minutes until jammies", "Miles, time for jammies" and he's still have trouble. Really wanting "one more thing" or not wanting to finish playing. We'll keep working on it, but this is definitely something new for him.

Last weekend, we went to South Bend to visit Ahmad's family. We had a great visit! We went over to the Azar's house Friday night and had a nice time. Saturday, Jamal and Tiphanny were headed out of town for the evening, so the kids were at grandma and grandpa's house. We had all the grandkids there! We went to the pumpkin patch and came back and did activities and played. It was great. We definitely decided we don't want 5 kids though! :)

Ramzi

Miles and Tofiq dancing

Mckenzy is all smiles!

"Up Mama!"

I don't know who's sillier!

All smiles with Aunt Tiph!

5 grandkids!

Now we're looking forward to this weekend and hope to have some quality time with the family. As long as the rain holds out tomorrow, we're going to head to Zoo Boo to do some trick or treating. We're all going to dress up this year, so I can't wait to go! Miles is Spiderman (and can't wait to save people), Hailey is a Ladybug, I'm a Princess, and Ahmad is the Red Stripe Man from the Red Stripe beer commercials. It should be a good time!

Nana and Grampie

Last weekend we headed down to my parent's house and had a really nice visit. Dad had just gotten home from a long stay in the hospital and mom's foot was still a bit troublesome, so we were really glad to be there to help out with some things. It was of course also nice to visit! We came in early on Friday, so it felt like we had a whole extra day to have fun! Miles really stole his Nana away and occupied the majority of her time, but I don't think she minded too much! We hung out on Friday and on Saturday, we went to the Harvest Homecoming parade in New Albany. It was a good time and fun to show Ahmad what a small town parade was all about. Then we headed to Gretchen and John's and had a real nice visit with them and their kids, Micah and Abigail. Sunday we celebrated Grampie's birthday a bit early and had a nice brunch and cake. At some point, I pulled out some storage boxes with my name on them and went through a few things. I found all my old dance costumes and had fun reminiscing. Hailey is going to have a ball playing dress up in a few years! We were all sad to see the visit come to an end, but Miles especially was missing his Nana and Grampie and really hated to leave. Hopefully we'll see them again soon!

Miles helping Nana feed the birds

Hanging out with Grampie

Bug-bugs with Nana

Harvest Homecoming Parade

All ready for church!

Playing with Grampie's birthday balloon

Visiting with Micah, Abigail, and the cat-Friday

This week has been back to normal, but kind of busy! The kids are doing great and are always up to something. Miles is still on his motorcycle kick and gets very mope-y at times because he can't ride one. He continually tells me that he can reach, but I remind him he has to be 16, it doesn't matter if he can reach. He even gets teary about it.

When we got back home from my parent's house, they kids started playing-by themselves. We went to see what all the laughter was about and found this scene!

Hailey continues to crack me up! Sometimes when she's nursing, she'll make a "MM!" sound, almost like a little grunt. I do it back at her and we go back and forth. It cracks her up. Miles also cracks her up and we're sure she's going to get him in trouble at some point. She just laughs and laughs at him and his crazy antics-more motivation for him to be silly! It's also fun now at bedtime because we've gotten into a good routine. I ask her if she's ready for Nite-Nite and she smiles or otherwise indicates 'yes', so we kiss Miles and Daddy goodnight and go to her room. I ask her if she wants to read a book and she looks over at her books. She loves her books, especially the ones where she can touch the fuzzy animals or look in the mirrors. In the mirror books, she often turns the book over to try to look for that baby she saw! She's also trying to turn the pages while we read. We read a quick book and then put it away and I sign All Done Book. Then I sign Light and tell her we're going to turn it off and she looks at the light switch. She cracks up as we turn it off and head back to the chair to nurse and snuggle and sing. Except for tonight of course! Tonight she was completely off and had a hard time going to bed-I actually had to walk her around her room and it took her about an hour to go down. I hope that phase is short lived!

A Face of Innocence

Born to Ride

Miles being a fireman

So much happening lately, where to start?! Miles is hilarious these days. He's gone from pretending he's a kitten to pretending he's a monster! But, he's a nice monster and usually a baby monster. He crawls around "roaring" and then sometimes I'll roar back at him and he calls me Mommy Monster. And Hailey is the little bitty baby monster. Ahmad doesn't usually get into the monster act. :) He's also taken to acting like Mommy and instructing me to act like Miles. It's kind of entertaining to see what he comes up with. Usually he wants me to be in trouble and he puts me in time out, only to tell me to talk or try to get up so he can tell me I'm in big trouble. Or he wants me to need something, like a snack, so he can get it for me. I don't mind the role play-I think it gives him a chance to be in control of a situation, something that rarely happens for him. And he doesn't do anything too extreme.

Miles went to play in his room with some loud toys while Hailey napped in her swing. We spied some guitar action!

All dressed up for church

Hailey is doing awesome! I cannot believe how big she's getting-she'll be 8 months this week! She's all over the place and loves to explore. We've gotten into a good routine for bedtime and I usually go to put her down while Miles watches his show before bed. We read a book, turn out the lights, sing and usually nurse. Then she's down and out! I've been working on signing with her pretty much since birth. We've been doing "milk" since birth and have been adding more things since. She reacts to most signs as if she knows what they are, but isn't really signing too much back yet. She does the "milk" sign sometimes, but doesn't really distinguish that it means milk, rather it means she wants something. When I sign "book" before bed, she seems to understand; when I sign "light" after our book, she looks to the light switch because she knows we're going to go turn it off. When I sign "all done" after she eats, she smiles and laughs.

Just hanging out looking cute

Hailey likes to put things her her mouth and just leave them there

Hailey is eating really well too and loves table food! She's been killing a pork tenderloin that Ahmad made the other night. I can't believe how fast she eats it! She's still on baby food at daycare, mainly because she's still eating it. But at home, she pretty much refuses any bay food, so we've moved on. She's napping a bit better at daycare as well, but still doesn't get a ton of sleep. They're trying to get her on a regular schedule.

Getting ready for Halloween

Looking cute again!

The other weekend Miles was helping Ahmad out in the yard and Ahmad was wearing his work gloves. So, of course Miles had to get some work gloves (which were really just a pair of winter gloves). He wore them pretty much all week and even wore them to school a few days. He kept finding "work" to do in the house and did some things in the bathroom (I'm still not sure what he was doing!) and also began "cleaning" out the closet in the front hall. He takes everything out and then...is done! We've had to work on the putting it all back again. :)

Hailey loves her bath!

Miles' new favorite thing is to play Mario Kart on the Wii. He even invited Elliott over one evening to play with him (totally his idea), which was hilarious to us.

Wearing a barrette that stayed!

Last week, we all were sick in one way or the other. Ahmad started it and was in bed for 3 days with a 102 fever. Then Hailey started a fever and throwing up for 3 days. Miles threw up once and was done. I was in the bathroom for a day and then better. All in all, Hailey ended up going to work with me for a day and a half and then I stayed home with her one day. I was sure glad when we were all doing better! Thankfully Miles wasn't sick that long and he got to enjoy our a birthday party for our neighbors, Elliott and Meredith. They rented a bounce house in their backyard, and Miles had a blast!

I had to work last Saturday, so Ahmad took the kids to a festival on the canal complete with basketball, football and a bounce house.

Miles is so into motorcycles these days. He talks about them all the time and swears he's big enough to ride one because he thinks he can reach. We had the idea to take him to a Harley Davidson store and finally were able to get there tonight. He LOVED it! He walked around and around looking at all the bikes. We asked one staff if he could sit on one and he said no. After about 30 more minutes, I asked someone else and he said yes. Miles was in heaven. Definitely a good reward to keep in mind.

This was one of his favorites-he kept coming back to it and looking at it.

He loved the scooter and said that was his favorite

We're heading to my parent's house this weekend for a quick visit. Dad's been in the hospital for the last 2 weeks and I'm hopeful that he's home before we get there. We'll see! Mom has also had trouble with her foot, so hopefully we'll be able to help out with some things for them while we're in. But most of all, we're looking forward to visiting with them!