I'm back to report more adventures of Baby A. After we opened the Aqeeqah gifts on Tuesday night (June 30), we had a couple more days in Pittsburgh. Mommy, Fu, and Poppy continued to enjoy spending time with Ayla. Baba was still home this week although he wasn't feeling too well.
We put up some of the Aqeeqah pictures on Facebo
ok a
nd received really nice comments about Baby A and the rest of us. Everyone said that we were a cute family. Ayla's sooo cute and we are
having so much fun with her; I wish that she would remember these days. She's getting so much love and having so many adventures. Unfortunately, the time when you are the most carefree, you don't end up remembering!
I think Zaid really enjoyed having Ayla in the house he grew up in! Our little booboo continued to make more and more noises and expressions. Since the TV was not working in the main room these couple of days, Ayla spent a lot of time upstairs with Poppy and Fu watching TV in Mommy and Poppy's room.
On Thursday, July 2, Mommy and I had a nice lunch at Panera and then we visited a family friend to inquire upon the health of their daughter. Ayla stayed at home with the guys. We spent this last evening in Pittsburgh just having fun and talking.
So, I trip to Pittsburgh was winding down. We had so much fun and there were highs and lows. The highs including the Aqeeqah of course, Mommy playing with Ayla first thing every morning when I brought her down. Mommy would spend so much time having cut
e conversations with her. Another high was Poppy taking her outside every evening and walking around with her saying "mini mini coo coo". The lows included Ayla applying fo
r a job working for Chacha Fu (at his invitation!) and then, getting rejected!! I think he said something about her application not being organized and her experience level being "low." Then, just when you thought it would be amicably settled - Fu offered to pay her for some
"work" she did for him - there was still disagreement. Ayla apparently did $4,000 worth of work according to Fu but he decided to pay her $4 million because she is "cute" though Chacha still felt he was doing her a favor.
On Friday, July 3, we returned to VA because my dad was going to be in town for the weekend for the Islamic Society of North America annual convention. We left Pittsburgh around 3 pm and returned home around 8:30 PM. Ayla and I were sad to leave Pittsburgh where we had so much fun. During the ride, Zaid and I realized that we had left one of Ayla's most necessary items in Pittsburgh - her stroller! We lucked out though because one of Zaid's fa
mily friends, Uncle Rizwan, was coming to DC on Saturday to attend ISNA. Whew!!
We saw Dad at night when he returned from and ISNA-related meeting with Uncle Hisham. The last time dad had seen Ayla, she was about 9-10 days old. Now, he was seeing her after she became 11 weeks old. This was the longest period that an immediate family member had gone without seeing Ayla. He was happy to see how much she had grown up and kept saying that she had developed quite a personality.
On Saturday, July 4, Ayla's first Independence Day, we had other plans to celebrate the nation's freedom - going to ISNA. We woke up in the morning and relaxed a bit (it's so great to be home and open the day with a nice breakfast and a warm cup of coffee!). We chatted with Dad further before he went to ISNA. Once we became organized and got Ayla ready, we left for ISNA around 3 PM. We stayed at the conference for about 5 hours (don't worry, we got the stroller back!) and had a lot of fun while meeting some friends. We saw Auntie Tasneem and Abu Bakr from Tampa. Auntie was very excited to finally meet Ayla and gave her some cute, red bangles. And, we saw Aslam Chacha after
many years. It was ve
ry nice to catch up with Chacha and to see the family. Chacha was so happy to see Ayla; it brought tears to his eyes as he also recalled seeing baby Zaid for the first time many years ago. We ran into other friends too - ISNA is a great place to catch up with old acquaintances. We stayed for the main speeches hoping to see a lecture by Hamza Yusuf but he was bumped to the next day instead joining a panel instead. Rather than the lecture by Yusuf, we did see a few really interesting people - Imam Siraj Wahaj, Pastor Rick Warren (spoke at Obama's grad
uation). The panel that Hamza Yusuf sat on also included Yusuf Islam. Zaid, Ayla, and I left around 8:30 because we knew that we were getting close to Ayla's bed-time after a long day. Ayla was calm at times but many times, Zaid and I had to walk around with her to calm her down. Zaid even stood with her like a proud dad behind the ISNA cameras. He looked so adorable holding our little daughter. There were a lot of people and I think, Ayla missed
the comforts of her home :). Everyone we met though, enjoyed meeting her. We saw dad again that night before going to bed.
On Sunday, July 5, Dad left early to attend ISNA. Zaid, Ayla and I got up, took it easy, did a few errands before Dad, Sarah, Samer, and Waheeda returned. We hung out for a while and then, Zaid dropped off Waheeda and took Dad to the airport. It was nice to see Dad though it was for a short period, we knew we would see dad again in FL on July 11. Later that night, we returned to ISNA to see if we could catch Auntie Tasneem and Chacha again in addition to meeting a few other friends. First, we went to the bazaar but we didn't get through all the aisles because along the way, we kept bumping in to people. Then, we met Auntie and Chacha. After about 2 hours however, we left for home. All in all, it was a fun weekend and Ayla was exposed to a big, national conference environment! And, I'll always remember the look on Zaid's face throughout the conference - one of beaming joy as he showed off his baby to family and friends :)
On Monday, Ayla and I were back in our home routine. My day was made much easier by the fact that Zaid decided to work from home. This allowed me to run a few errands in addition to attending to some tasks and starting preparations for FL. Having Zaid at home is great because this allows me to get a few things
done. Without him, my typical day involves doing all my tasks with my cutie pie Ayla on my left arm! She loves when I walk around and hold her. This allows her to sleep and/or bury her face in my chest. Whenever I put her down, if she is not sleepy, she's restless unless I pick her up again. I must admit however that though it's difficult to get things done,
nothing makes me happier than the feeling that my baby needs me to hold her :) With Zaid at home, I was able to take a much needed trip to the mall and able to get groceries for the rest of the week. However, Ayla is a load for Zaid when he's working from home! Though he loves spending time with her, he has to multi-task - like feeding her and taking conference calls or putting her on his shoulders while he sends emails! Zaid is an incredible dad - Ayla and I love him so much :) :) :)
Tuesday, Ayla and I remained in our home routine but this day was historical as far I was concerned. Today was Michael Jackson's memorial service at the Staples Center. It was a fitting tribute to a man who left the world a better place. I could barely keep my composure - I frequently cried through the 2-hour memorial. During this time however, I noticed that Ayla was sniffling, sneezing and coughing a so I called her doctor.
Wednesday, Ayla's little
cold had gotten worse so I scheduled an appointment with her doctor who confirmed that she just had a cold and recommended that we take a few actions to help her get better. Ayla's too young for any medicine so we had to beat the cold the old-fashioned way - sitting in a steamy room and using a humidifier. At the doctor, Ayla weighed in at 10 lbs, 5 oz. Mashallah, my little darling continues to grow so fast!! When I came in, I told Dr. Lee that Ayla was not feeling well - lots of restlessness, crying, sneezing, coughing, and sniffling. However, as soon as Ayla saw Dr. Lee, she started smiling, making cute noises and giggling. She showed up her own mom! Dr. Lee was joking with her and saying "Your mom says you are being fussy but you look so playful!" The doctor also gave me some advice for Ayla's upcoming trip to Tampa.
When I returned home, I finally completed my first batch of Thank You cards - for the gifts received during my April 6 baby shower at Exxon Mobil. This shower was actually the only one I ended up having because the shower that Weedy, Sarah, and Samer were going to throw for me in late-March was cancelled due to my bed rest :( Though I completed this batch of thank you cards, there are still many more to go!
Later on that evening, Khala Sarah dropped by for a visit because she wanted to see our cutie before Ayla went to FL. Sarah spent time with her in the nursery and apparently the two of them came up with another game, "block, block, choo choo, block." I hope to tell you more about this in the coming days...
I'll be back soon, Saadia
beautiful post! love and miss both of you...
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