Quip

We went to pick up strawberry at the strawberry farm. Nadia and Sam had wonderful time picking the berries together while Aidan was busy eating the strawberry and making strawberry mustache.
Sam never wanted to try strawberries, but Nadia made him try... and he loves them.
We found funny shapes of strawberries and they tasted so good.
Nadia : "Hey, I found this Daddy strawberry.. it's hairy!!"

half japanese

Nadia has been very interested in her racial root.

Ammar and her went to the store, she talked to the cashier and said :

"Hi, my name is Nadia. I am 4 years old, but I am going to be 5 soon. My mom is from Indonesia and my daddy is Syrian, and I AM half japanese."

Such a sweet little girl

Nadia, the more she grows up, she turns out to be such a sweet hearted girl. She would help me out with the diapers, emptying the dish washer, folding laundry, or just kiss me every time I hurt myself. She always says : "You are the best mommy in the whole world!" 

She loves her little brother and always says how sweet Aidan is and how much she loves him.

She loves to write a love letter for her daddy. Her hand writing is rather good, and she loves drawing and playing make believe.

Sometimes I am amazed to see how she grows to be a very cute little girl. I don't consider myself pretty, cute maybe, but not pretty, but Gosh, every time I see her, she looks very pretty.

I hope God will help her, protect her, and bless her whole life. 

She is a precious little girl and I am so blessed to be her mommy, I am so glad that God picked me to spend my time with her, and trust me to take care of her. 

I LOVE YOU SO MUCH, MY LITTLE PRINCESS

Zetta, the new betta

After stopping by at the toy store today, and Nadia got the mozaic craft thingy, she ended up choosing another betta fish. I got her the whole set of aquarium for her. She decided to name the fish Zetta A (with our last name, part of the family, supposedly).

She had a good time today.

Trust

When we got home from vacation, our neighbor, Andrea who took care of Colorfulla (Nadia's fish) came by to tell that the fish just couldn't make it (passed away) the morning when we came back home. For some reason, Ammar told Nadia that morning before we got the news that Colorfulla may not make it... so she was just fine, took the fish from the fish bowl, and chose to flush it down in the toilet for the funeral.

The next morning, Nadia, the chatterbox who woke up 4.30 am for the last 2 days talked to her daddy :

Nadia : "Daddy, do you know that I can trust only Mommy, you and Aidan ? You cannot trust strangers. You can trust Miss Janet (her school teacher), Mommy Melissa (Milla's mom), Mommy Maria (Luca's mom), not people around on the street. I also can trust Colorfulla. "

Ammar: "Colorfulla ?"

Nadia : "Yes, she is my pet, so I can trust her. ... (pause)... Oh no.. I can't trust colorfulla anymore because she is dead. Mommy is going to buy me a new beta fish"

She also been making human body puzzles and wrap them up as presents with bows for her friends at school. Of course, she draws them from my human anatomy book.. the real one. She is so interested in human body. She spent hours working on it.

Smallest brain

Before bed time.

Nadia : "Daddy, do you know who has the smallest brain in our family ?"

Daddy : "Aidan ?

Nadia : "No, Daddy. It's Colourfulla." (PS: Colourfulla is our betta fish)

Quote of the day

Ammar drove Nadia and Aidan to school this morning. He called home and told this :

Ammar : "Should I open the window or put the heating on ?"

Nadia : "Just drive, Daddy!"

Studio Session

Today, she seriously went to her room, got dressed and picked this favorite "princess dress" of hers and wore it. My chance was to take picture of her for the first time in my studio at home.

She definitely look so much bigger than her age in this photo.

Busy watching TV

First day in Canada

It has been a year since Nadia saw her cousins the first time in Syria. She instantly remembered them, Malaka, Noor, and Adnan and happily played with them.

Big Sister

Since we are in the holy month of Ramadan, we learnt our lesson that it is too chaotic to have both kids while we break our fast. The time is around 8.15 pm, pretty late. So Ammar and I decided to have both kids to bed before 8 pm, good thing is that Nadia will have more sleep than she usually does. She usually sleeps around 9pm, sometimes she tries to push it to 10 pm. She quits her naps a long time ago, almost 1 year, so the good night sleep is the only sleeps she got.

For Aidan, sleeping at the same time, seeing his sister in bed at the same time he is sent to bed helps. But tonight, he still wanted to play with Daddy, he cried in his crib. I told Nadia to talk to Aidan while she is in bed, while the connecting doors between their bedrooms were open.

While we were eating, we enjoyed our time listening to the monitor in Aidan's room. Nadia ended up talking with Aidan in HIS room, she was so sweet to him, and she asked lots of questions which most of the time he answered : "NO". Unlike Nadia at her age, Aidan doesn't speak much. He is interested more to the physical, motoric, and problem solving more than saying "eyes, ears, car, etc". He just says things he really needs, like "More, Nana (banana), Nani (nadia), Mommy/mama, daddy/Dada, Andrea (his teacher), No, hi and bye"

Since Aidan kept saying "NO", Nadia sweetly replied : "Uh......... (Daddy's way)"

After a while she came down, asking us what to do with him, because he kept asking Nadia to play with him in his bedroom. We asked him to pretend that she was Aidan's mom.

She came back to his room and said : "I love you, Aidan" and start talking again.

15 minutes later, we didn't hear anything in that room. After eat, I checked on him, tuck him in his blanket, then I noticed, Nadia was sleeping in the twin size bed in Aidan's room (used to be my bed when Aidan was so small), she fell asleep waiting Aidan to fall asleep.

Before bed we discussed how much we are touched by Nadia's reliability, love and care for Aidan. We are so proud of her.

After bath

Crazy 'bout Frog

Nadia the Belle

My first chromakey background and studio light photo

Today is the happiest day of my photographic life. I finally opened up my boxes, the studio light and the chromakey background. For those who don't know what chromakey is, it is the color of the background (blue or green) which was originally used in the TV for weather channel, so if you had gone to NYC and had a tour at NBC TV station, they explain everything about chromakeys, so the weatherman/woman will be shot in front of green background, and the green background will be digitally changed to the map, etc. Now you know why the weather man never wears any green color clothing article of having green eyes.. because with the software they are using, the green eye will look transparent.... hahaha.

So my kids were the first model for me to try the first shots of my studio lighting. 

After extracting the background and change it to the brown muslin background.. here it is.. it's very cool.

Indonesian's Independence Day

Nocturnal

I have been very happy with Nadia's and Aidan's Montessori School which is located 2 minutes away from our home and which Nadia has been attending for the last 1.5 years.

She learned so much about space, continents, world, animals, plants, flowers, math, reading, drawing, crafts, etc.

Sometimes she just came up with something like this :

Nadia : Daddy, do you know what nocturnal is ?

Daddy : What ?

Nadia : Nocturnal is when the animals are so active at night only, like owls, wolves, bats.

Daddy : Where did you know something like that ?

Nadia : From Miss Janet. She knows everything and she teaches us everything.

Daddy : That's cool. Do you know anything about Nocturnal Urination ?

Nadia : No.. what is that ?

Daddy : That's a disease sometimes it happens with kids, when they keep wetting their bed, pee in their pants at night. Thanks God you have been so wonderful never wetting your bed.

Nadia : I am so good, Daddy!

Finally

Nadia has been very very sweet with Aidan for the last 4 months, since Aidan is playable with.

She usually tells stories to him, gives him kisses, hugs him, and reporting to me if Aidan doing something bad/dangerous, following my request to 'drag' him from dangerous thing, etc.

I over heard her saying : "I am finally in love with you, A!!" 

I laughed and said... " After all this time ?"

My little helper

This morning, Nadia asked me if I do everything.. I said yes... and she said to me that she will do everything, too so I could just relax.

After dinner, she offered me to empty the dishwasher and put all the dishes back to the cabinet.. On the top of it, she rinsed all the dishes and pans and I helped her put them out in the dishwasher.

She told me : "Mommy, don't worry, just sit and drink your tea, relax, and I will just do this for you. I will do everything. And when I grow up, I will be a very good mom, just like you and taking care of my kids"

Nadia was 4 years 4 months when she helped me in the kitchen with the help of the chair to make her higher.

Do you like my 'goatie'?