2012

January 13th: Visiting Atlanta, and the family did an early fourth birthday for Ilana - Aden and Rabia came too, and he was so sweet and loving with the girls, as always 💕

May 29th: Family beach trip! They rented a house on Navarre Beach, and as usual the kids had an amazing time together. They played on the beach, took adorable photos, Aden and Rabia came to our house to swim, Aden and Ilana took the kids electric car out for a drive, we went to Bippy's for fro yo, and generally had an awesome, amazing time!

September 18th: On Saturday, the kids put on their play that they had been working on, which was adorable! Humera went all out with props and costumes, and the kids knew their lines so well :) Naya ambled in to get in on the action, and everyone just went with it. Afterwards, Lani and Aden were so excited that they kept planning more performances and coming back to show us :) And Naya kept hiding behind the mural/curtain and rushing out laughing. It was really a perfect evening! We had a belated Eid dinner with Indian food and cupcakes, and presents for the kids - Naya was thrilled with her 2 Super Why DVDs, and Ilana and Aden got a boatload of gifts.

October 29th: Ilana's so excited that Aden's joining us in Atlanta for Halloween. Humera's going to take the kids around her neighborhood first, and then we'll see what to do next - it's really cold! Well, for Atlanta.

November 2nd: Rabia and Aden came here on Wednesday afternoon (Halloween day), so the kids could go together, which was so great - I'm so happy they got to have that experience together! Aden was going to be Flynn Rider to Ilana's Rapunzel, but she brought her flimsy Rapunzel costume and then declared that she wanted to wear a fancy Belle dress she'd gotten from the Disney store earlier that day, so we dressed her as Rapunzel for some pics with Aden, then changed her. When I had put Naya in her costume the first time, before Ilana's school Halloween party, and taken pictures, she had refused to let me put her in it again when we arrived at Ilana's school. This time around too, as soon as I started putting on the costume she said "nooooo." But I was determined to at least take some pics, so I put her in it anyway, and thankfully she didn't seem to mind it as much, and was running and laughing along with Aden and Ilana. This was the first visit where I feel as though Naya played along with the two of them just like a kid rather than a baby :)

Naya had enjoyed trick-or-treating last year, and definitely got into it this year too, although she tends to try to grab her own handfuls of candy from people's buckets! We took the kids to Humera's neighborhood, where Lani's long costume required Rabia or Humera to carry her up all steps, which I'm sure she loved. Naya loved the whole scene, although occasionally we would hear "Oh noooo! Shoooe!" and her shoe would be off, or "Oh noooo! Heh!" and her hair band was on the street. The kids looked so adorable, and got so much attention :) Naya would occasionally get a piece of candy and just toss it into Ilana or Aden's buckets

. I think her favorite part of the evening was going to Humera's house, because there are so many toys there - we got back there and Naya immediately propped herself up at the dining table with several Strawberry Shortcake toys and played and played while Lani and Aden attacked their candy in the next room!