Our Amazing, Wonderful, Hilarious Poloo

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 r...

February 11th: Ilana’s 3 rd birthday weekend, so Rabia and Aden came up Saturday and we had a Hello Kitty party at the house. A few hours later, I forced Ilana into another outfit for the other party we were going to - she just wanted to play with Aden, so I had to drag her physically out of the house. At the non-family party at Darvish (a Princess Jasmine theme), other kids started trickling in, although Lani still spent most of the party playing and fighting with Aden! March 8th: Ilana did better than I expected during Aden's birthday celebrations. Rabia had it here, and it was a beach theme, and for the most part Lani let the day really be about Aden :) She did shout out in the middle of the birthday song, that it should be sung to them both; did blow out the candles; and did "help" - i.e. snatch - with the unwrapping of the gifts, but did pretty well overall! Aden was very sweet and gracious through it all! Later it was storming and the kids were with Nano in the ...

May 12th: Shaheen threw Ilana a beautiful Big Sister Party on May 2nd, and our lovely friends and their beautiful children showed up to help us celebrate! In true toddler style, Ilana threw a fit in the hour leading up to us going, first refusing to get dressed, then screaming that she didn't want to wear a dress, then refusing to get in the car. One problem was that up until that morning, Ilana and Aden both thought he'd be going as well, but that morning Rabia wasn't feeling well and wanted to get back to Columbus while she was still in good enough condition to drive :( Ilana and Aden were inseparable - and pure chaos - during his visits to Atlanta while we were there. They'd hold hands and run around together, chase each other around, and generally wreak havoc. Ilana was very bossy with him, but then would also listen to him when he told her to not do something. It was a sweet and hectic time! June 27th: Ilana’s so excited about Rabia and Aden coming at the time th...

March 7th: We went to Columbus the last weekend of February for a joint birthday party for her and Aden. I switched her to a forward facing carseat just the day before, which wasn't the miraculous experience for her that I'd hoped - she slept the way there, but was intensely active on the way back. Mom had to entertain her for 2 hours straight, although she of course somehow managed to see that as Ilana being "sweet and good-natured." Ilana LOVES Rabia's house. Aden has every imaginable toy for boys or girls, and Ilana was in love with a play kitchen they have set up. She loved it there so much, but doesn't sleep well there, so our Columbus time is necessarily limited :( Rabia had a Dora & Diego themed party for them :) The kids were so cute and so happy, with each other and surrounded by the family!  May 7th: The last week of April was the annual beach trip, this year to Alys Beach (rather than Seaside.) The area was beautiful, and the house was t...

March 14th: Up until this point, almost her 6 week mark, pretty much all of the clothes I've used for Ilana have been hand-me-downs from her our sweet Aden, who turns a whopping 5 years old next Thursday! Not that she doesn't have her own royal wardrobe, but she's so tiny that none of that fits! Thankfully, Rabia had sent a box of his clothes beforehand, so Ilana's been wearing his tiny little cotton shirts, his sleepsack, and his tiny organic kimonos for weeks. I love the historical connection (if a 5-year-old and a 5-week-old can be said to participate in anything historical!) Mama was telling me that she loves her Trader Joe's trips with Aden so much - they'll get there, and she'll have a cart, Rabia will have a cart, and Aden will have a little cart. When he wants something that he knows Rabia won't agree to, he runs and puts it in mama's cart! He also will go over an aisle and then call "grandma!" over and over, and mama thinks he ju...

April 11th:  Aden’s talking a lot more now 😊 He calls me kikaa and sometimes “thadia”, and he calls mama “Mommy Amo” in the sweetest voice imaginable. May: I left for California and already miss Aden terribly! Rabia is keeping me updated via email and with adorable photos. He has such a busy summer ahead - he's going to be in gymnastics once a week, speech 2-3 times/week, the playgroup that Rabia's putting together 3 times a week, and they heard of an Indian musician in the area who teaches kids tabla, harmonium, and singing, so Rabia is going to have Aden test those out too! July: Aden's super into water toys, so Rabia got him a water slide, so when I went to Columbus, I took a bathing suit :) We had such an awesome time playing! August 23rd: Aden had his "meet and greet" at school today. Apparently, he barely acknowledged the teachers or other kids but was really excited about his classroom that has a little kitchen center in it! Maybe he'll be a ...

February 15th: My baby is still an angel. So sweet, so cute, so smart. They were here Friday-Sunday. He loves feeding us pills, but won’t open the bottle or touch the pills – he knows to let us do that. He loved my Cape Cod white cheddar cheese popcorn, so I fed him a lot of those! He can also recognize his name, and spell it out with letters. Aden’s obsessed with opening and closing my makeup, and if he’s with Shoaib he also seems to want to destroy the contents! February 26th: Aden’s was here for the day, keeping us occupied in every adorable way imaginable. Aden kisses mama and daddy’s photos that Humera keeps in her room – he really puckers up, which he never does! For his last visit, we took him to the aquarium, where he didn’t seem particularly interested in the fish. He was such a well-behaved angel in the food court – I’m always amazed by his perfect manners! He looooved the gift shop, and became particularly enamored of a blue rubber mug. He clutched the bag with the mug in ...