Who's afraid of the Big Bad Vacuum?

For the last couple of months of so (i think it started at 7 months?), hayaa's been scared of a number of different things.. sometimes she gets nervous if i put a load of laundry in the washer, or when the diswasher starts.. and then there was that time she was scared of bath tubs.. but those things came and went, and her fear of the vacuum still remained :p

We've tried a few things to ease her fears though.. for example, when she was scared of the bathtub, it was quite a problem.. i couldn't give her a bath without her screaming and standing up while in her tub, making it dangerous for her, because she could slip.. so our solution? i would put her bath in our bigger bathtub, fill it with water, sit beside it, put her in and give her toys to play with. It took her some time to adjust, but she did alhamdulillah... and there are still some days when the fear creeps up again.

With the vacuum, we've tried a number of different things. The first thing we do is to bring her close to it when it's off, and let her play with it, punch it, touch it etc. Then when I we start it, I usually go to her, hug her close and give her kisses while she's watching hubby do the vacuuming. One time, we were preparing for a party and she was getting scared while he was vacuuming and i was in the kitchen preparing food.. so he put the sling, put her in it and finished up the job.

How do I know she's scared?

She doesn't cry when we start the vacuum, but she gets very hyper all of a sudden and starts behaving wierd. She moves her arms around like a little bird trying to fly (:D) and babbles in her baby language..and shrieks excitedly.. initially we didn't think she was scared, we thought she was just really excited.. hah.. and then once she was sitting and playing with her toys and it started, and she started to shake (my poor baby).. and since then, i run to hold her whenever we start the vacuum, so finds comfort in my arms, even though her attention is totally towards it.

As children grow, they become scared of different things quite suddenly.. sometimes that thing is something they might be doing everyday, but suddenly they'll be scared of it one day (ie. taking a bath), and sometimes they remain scared of it (ie. vacuum), but it's important to understand that it's totally normal, and comfort them in the best way we can :) we are mothers, after all :)

Separation Anxiety Cuteness

.. cuteness and separation anxiety in the same sentence, you ask?

Yes my friends, all supposed 'bad things' do have a silver lining ;)

So with my in laws gone for a week (they'll be returning in 3 days insha'Allah), Hayaa's began to cling on to me even more then before.

The bad : sometimes she's screaming and in tears if i go to the washroom for 5 minutes

The good: when baba comes home from work! It's the cutest thing! she's soo excited to see him and chachu. i love it! As soon as the enter, she freezes for a second and then starts bouncing in excitement. Those are the best moments.. to see Hayaa after a parting. Even when i would return from school, the thing I'll be most looking forward for would be to see Hayaa's face when I'd enter the house.

I soo need to make a video of that, so i remember it afterwards. Time goes by so quick.. there are times when I want to keep hayaa the way she is, but then i'm excited to take her places when she walks, excited to hear her when she speaks, and read her books when she understands.

Tomorrow holds so many beautiful hopes and some little fears (fear that she's not gonna listen to me :( )

.. May Allah swt continue to bless our family, and may He swt guide Hayaa and make her a strong and righteous believer.. and may He swt bless all of Hayaa's little friends and their families. ameen.

thankfulness and co-sleeping

Alhamdulillah! Thank you Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala for everything you've showered on me.

I was speaking to a friend today and she said something interesting.. she said it's funny, many times Allah swt puts us in situations that we've made up our minds to avoid or try our hardest to not be in.. sometimes even make dua that it would not fall in our lot, and yet we are placed in that exact situation which we had hated.

I remember when I was pregnant, I used to make dua that I would not have a baby with colic, but Hayaa did have colic.. and alhamdulillah for everything.. because there's goodness in everything. I also wanted to have another room for her (before she was born), at least have her sleep in the crib.. but Hayaa masha'Allah loves to be close to her mommy and baba and sleep with them... I was always big on quality time with husband, and subhanAllah, whenever we'd have time alone, she'd wake up from her sleep or be fussy about something... and alhamdulillah there is goodness in that too.

What i'm trying to say is.. Allahu'alam.. sometimes we think that we are 'this type of person' or want something very bad and even may obsess over it, but Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala challenges our belief and shows us that it's really not a big deal. Yes, you can sleep with the baby at night... it's not a big deal. Yes, you can have a baby with colic.. it's ok... you'll get through it.. and that's life :)

Today, we joined Hayaa's crib with our bed (have one side open, so i'm still sleeping beside her). I was fighting this in my mind for so long.. i wanted her to be able to sleep in her crib.. wanted to have space for hubby and i.. wanted a baby free space where i can be a grownup again..read my book in peace, sip some chai and chill while she sleeps in her little crib on the opposite side of the room.. but after joining the crib now, and accepting her the way she is, it feels better actually. I realize, i was totally making this a big deal in my mind when it's really not.

.. and i think this works for other things in our life too.. obstacles we place in our mind, when it's nothing but in our head.. and shaytans whisperings. Next time I get ahead of myself being unthankful for what Allah has given me... wishing that things were a certain way and not the way they are, i need to just step back and realize, it's not a big deal.. and allahu'alam, this is the best place for me.. and the best planning.

No, life is not perfect.. but it would be a shallow person indeed if he only concentrated on the little specs of dirt at the top of the ocean and not look at the splendidness of the rest and of it's beauty.. and realize that this is all from his Most kind and powerful Creator, walhamdulillah. and so this is life; with little specs here and there; obstacles placed around us, but as a whole, Allah has been showering us constantly with riches and blessings.. when we complain, out loud or in our mind, we have forgotten the blessings He's given us.

teething = separation anxiety?

Hayaa's been teething on and off since she was 6 months old, going on 7 (now she's almost 10 months masha'Allah). It's resulted in many many sleepless nights, and drool filled shirts. We've all sort of noticed a pattern with what tends to happen when a new tooth is about to come..

1) the drooling gets really bad.. it remains throughout but it gets really bad initially. Her clothes get sooked at the top and i have to continuously change them. One day I was going through her drawers and found some undershirts.. so i started to put those on her so it would be less clothes changing for me.

2) the runny nose.. so the combination of drool and runny nose is just gross.. especially when it goes in their mouth. yuk. But, yeah like i said, while the drooling continues, the runny nose occurs for 2 weeks or so.. and then it stops alhamdulillah. I always have to remind my MIL that it's not because of a cold that she's getting it, she'll be sprouting another one soon.

3) the sleepless/ disturbed night: alhamdulillah the real sleeplessness only happens at max 2 days in a row.. but you'll find the disturbed sleep will happen quite often :( Hubby and I always joke that Hayaa is dr. jakyll during the day and mr. hyde at night ;)

4) serious 'chipku-ness' as my husband calls it.. the separation anxiety

5) the tooth, finally!

so yesterday was one of those days.. i had school but my father in law told me after i returned that she was missing me a lot

Hubby offered to put Hayaa to sleep, but she started screaming when he turned off the light.. then my MIL tried (Hayaa's better with her then anyone else - me), but she would still not sleep.. she drank her whole bottle but refused to go to sleep. Then I took her from them and rocked her to sleep, and she slept.. almost within 10 minutes. she was soo tired.. but she did not want me to leave her. Whenever i would move my hand from under her head, she would cry (while her eyes were closed), hug me and go back to sleep. I did give her some teething meds before she went to sleep, so i wasn't sure what it was all about.. but khair.. after like +- half hour of sleeping in my arms, she went to sleep properly without me.

annywhoo.. on another note..umm.. i have to admit that i havne't been good with my diet :( it's tooo hard.. and there are too many temptations. i will try again.. but i'm so bad at it *ashamed*

ok.. gotta go and work on some school work.. which is what i was supposed to do in the first place, but i started blogging :p