Monday, August 17 was a very busy day! In the morning, Ayla's mommy had to go to the dentist. Not something that mommy loves to do but it has to be done. Whenever I have to go to a doctor's appointment of any kind, I usually can't take Ayla so I have to have Zaid stay home and watch her. Zaid usually works it out so that he can stay at home with his sweetie - he's such a lifesaver!! So, while I went to the appointment, Baba and baby got to spend time together. When I got home, I had to rush and get Ayla ready and prepare her bag because we had a lunch date!! Yesterday, my supervisor at work invited Ayla and I to join my team for lunch at a local restaurant. And, it was supposed to be a surprise for the rest of the team. When Ayla and I walked in, my boss was so happy to see me and the team was very surprised! We had a great catch-up lunch. Ayla was in the hands of one of my colleagues the whole time because she thought that Ayla was so cute, she could not let her go! Ayla was wearing a cute little black dress outfit. The whole time, she kept standing, drooling, and trying to grab things from the table. Our little baby turned 4 months old yesterday and is showing increased liveliness as usual, constantly surprising us with new moves. My boss was seeing Ayla for the first time because we could never pick a mutually-convenient time to meet. He was nice enough to give us yet another cute gift for Ayla - a cute little chair, built perfectly for a princess. After we left, I was full of happiness that my whole team finally got a chance to see Ayla :) The other thought I had, after an hour of hearing about my colleagues' work issues, was that I was glad I was not at work these days :)
After lunch, Ayla and I had to rush to get ready for her 4 month old doctor's appointme
nt. This was a big-time appointment! Ayla was promoted to solid foods - she was asked to start rice cereal. Our little baby is growing so fast - I mean what a huge step, moving past only liquids! Ayla also gets to wear sunblock now when she's out in the sun. Wow, our little angel has gone beach mode! She also got some vaccines today and, like before, I got tears in my eyes watching her cry. For some reason, I didn't want Ayla to think I betrayed her and let her get the shots! As usual, our little sunshine started smiling and jumping when she saw her pediatrician. And, the doctor enjoyed playing with her. Today, our little girl weighed in at 11 pounds and 14 ounces and, she measured 23 1/2 inches in length! I guess our girl isn't so little anymore :) She jumped in percentiles for both weight and height and most importantly, remains very healthy mashallah!
Tuesday, August 18, was not a great day for Ayla. She was feeling a little unwell from getting the shots yesterday. She cried a lot due to the pain and she had a slight fever. I was going to have Imran Mamoo and family visit today but we decided to wait until tomorrow when Ayla might be feeling better. So, the rest of the day was spent taking care of Ayla and doing a few tasks at home.
Wednesday, August 19 is Ayla's Khala Sarah and Khalu Samer's wedding anniversary. It's been three wonderful years for them and this year, they got best wishes from their niece :) Ayla was feeling a little better today so Imran Mamoo and family paid a visit. Although they stayed for about 2 hours, in this time, Ayla went through all possible moods! She was happy and drooling. She cried sometime due to teething pain or pain from the shots. Zara and Maha were so excited to see Ayla play in her activity center and Zara seemed to be really impressed with the toy! They took a lot of wonderful pictures. And, Ayla received some very cute gifts - a pair of nice, gold earrings and a wonderful framed picture of embroidery containing Ayla's name, birthdate, and weight. The picture is sooo cute and now hangs in Ayla's room! Adnan Chacha
also arrived toward the end of the visit and stayed until dinner. It was sooo cute to see him spend time with Ayla. He definitely has the loving touch with her.
Thursday, August 20, Khala Waheeda paid us a visit. She had just returned from a nice long summer vacation in Florida. Boy, was her visit essential and timely because it allowed me to run to Target and get much-needed things for Ayla. Plus, I got Weedy's valuable opinions. I bought some toys to keep precious Ayla entertained and busy because she is growing so fast, she's getting bored with the basic rattles. I also got her some cute one-piece sleepwear sets. We also bought Baby Einstein lullabies and playtime music which should set th
e right moods for Ayla! While we were shopping, Khala Weeda wanted to hold Ayla the whole time because she missed her ever since we left Florida. It was so cute because eventhough her arms were getting tired, she wouldn't put her little "bear" in the stroller. Weedy ended up staying the night so we got a good chance to catch up on all things Tampa- and Mom and Dad-related and she got some valuable time with her little niece. Zaid was very amused to see the stuff that we bought little restless Ayla :)
Friday, August 21, is the last day before Ramadan this year. It was a low-key day with us doing some last-minute Ramadan-related tasks and errands. However, there was one very, very important development today! Ayla ate her first solid food ever - I mean ever!! Since she was going to eat solid food for the first time, I brought down her high chair for the first time. It's this precious, colorful chair called Fisher-Price Precious Planet High Chair. Ayla was so cute in her chair because she was so small compared to her chair. As usual, she was mad because whenever their are straps, she feels confined. Then, when I started to feed her from her little Disney bowl (has a picture of Sleeping Beauty, Princess Jasmine, and Cinderella on it) and her little pink and blue Munchkin spoon, she made that "What the heck is this stuff?" face :) Although it was a big milestone day, our baby spit up most of the food. She had the cutest face - with formula and cereal running down her face. And boy, was it messy! The food was everywhere - on her outfit, her bib, and on her highchair tray. It was the cutest thing ever!! So, we ended our first day of solid food with most of the food outside her mouth. I tried to capture the moments on video camera and camera but it was so hard to do so while feeding her :)
It was the first time in our life that we set the alarm for sehri thinking how much time do we need for sehri considering that Ayla may wake up at the same time for her bottle? For me, I think this Ramadan might be easier because at least I won't be working so I won't have to wake up early but then again, how would things be considering Ayla has her own "unique" sleeping schedule and I can't get rid of the sleepiness with coffee? And, for Zaid, he was thinking, how will I get any sleep before going to work between sehri and Ayla's nighttime feedings? We were about to find out :)
Saturday, August 22, is the first day of Ramadan. Ayla's parents woke up this morning at about 4:30 and boy, were they tired because they didn't wake up until noon after going back to sleep following sehri. After I fed her rice cereal again (she kept more of the cereal in her tummy and spit up a lot again) and prepared a to-go bag for her, we went to Ashburn to buy some Ramadan essentials (sehri and iftar food that we can't live without!). That night when we broke fast, I must admit, it wasn't too bad but then again, we were starting Ramadan in the weekend! The main adjustment was breaking fast and then soon afterwards, feeding Ayla. Our little darling's schedule is our schedule!
Sunday, August 23 was the classic lazy Ramadan weekend day. We stayed at home hanging out with Chachas Adnan and Fawad, who was visiting from New York. Fu was excited to see how much Ayla had grown since the last time he had seen her since her first Pittsburgh trip. There was of course, lots of cuddling and picture-taking. Since we were all tired from fasting, Ayla was the only one keeping our energy up. I would say the highlight was witnessing Adnan and Fawad see Ayla in her high chair eating eating her rice cereal. And, she rewarded their excitement by eating more cereal than ever. Oh, and they were so amused to see Ayla play in her activity center. This self-sustaining toy amuses everyone :) The rest of the time until iftar we just kind of chill as reality of Ramadan tiredness dawned on us! Unfortunately, the Chachas couldn't stay for iftar because Adnan had to drop off Fawad to the bus station to take his bus to New York. After iftar, we made a critical decision after deliberating over the past 2 weeks. We decided to pick Ayla's daycare specialist! I said Bismillah and called her hoping to Allah that we were picking the right person. And the day care provider for her part, was so happy that we had chosen her admitting that secretly, since she had met Ayla, she wanted us to pick her. She even held off on her other interviews hoping to hear from us first :)
Talk to you again soon, Saadia
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