Kaniz & Abbas +2

Ok, so you probably thought that Samarah didn't survive the ear piercing as we haven't posted in so long, but she did! Her ears are healing very nicely and she already got her first new pair of earrings. We can't put them in for another 5 weeks though. 2 weeks ago, we took Samarah downtown for a fun filled day in the sun. It's so hard to keep her shaded though (and no sunscreen for another 2 months). We met Lauranna at Saving Grace for a delicious breakfast (my new favorite spot) and then we walked around Trinity Bellwoods. We then headed down to the Harbourfront Centre with Pratiksha and Rahul for Samarah's first summer festival, Beats, Breaks and Culture. Half way through the break dancing competition, her and I left Daddy and went to browse through the clothing and jewelry stalls - man that girl loves to shop! The next weekend Maria came to visit us from NY and we went to Livia's baby shower. Abbas and I volunteered to help make the favours so we decided...

Last Friday, as we're heading to my parents' place, Kaniz announces that after the visit, we were going to a mall and getting Samarah's ears pierced.. although I wasn't sure about getting this done so soon, Kaniz persuaded me that now was the best time, before Samarah is really even aware of her ears.. so off we went to Claire's at Yorkdale Mall to get the ordeal over with. As usual, Kaniz was well prepared - she brought a numbing cream for Samarah's ears as well as some baby Tylenol. The plan was to give her some Tylenol a half hour before and numb her earlobes to ease the (eventual) pain. So far, so good. Except, as soon as we got in the store, Samarah must have felt something was up and started fussing and crying, which is quite unusual for her. We first tried to have Kaniz hold Samarah while her ears were being pierced, but Samarah kept moving too much, so I had to do it. Having to restrain my wailing baby while willingly letting someone hurt her was quite d...

The days are flying by.. so much so that we almost missed Samarah turning 100 days old! She passed that milestone on June 30th, and we didn't realize it until the day was nearly over.. so alas, no picture of our little cutie on her big day.  In our defense, we've been pretty active and Samarah has been learning new tricks almost every day, such as: Giggling fits! If you get her in the right mood, she can't stop laughing.. it really is the sweetest thing, and hearing her laughter cracks us up, which in turn makes Samarah laugh even more. Sitting up.. well, not quite on her own, but she can sit quite comfortably in her Bumbo chair (thanks Safiyya). Surfing on her tummy time board. We've been doing tummy time with her for a while now, but she hasn't had a lot of staying power until recently. As you'll see in the photos, she's gotten quite comfortable on her tummy. Soothing herself with her hands. She's been doing this for a while, but it's been very con...

Our first family roadtrip continued from Ottawa to Quebec City - a distance of about 450km (~300 miles). We decided to take the back-roads rather than the main highway, and while it took us a little longer to get to our destination, the drive was quite scenic (and fun!). As usual, Samarah was perfect! We stayed at the Chateau Frontenac for our first night in QC - I had earned a free night through the Fairmont loyalty program. While the historic hotel's decor and ambience isn't our style, it's hard to argue with free. Even our dinner was on the house, but the most memorable moment of the evening was probably when Samarah had a major diaper leak and we had to hose her off in the bathroom sink. For the next two nights, we checked into Hotel 71, another boutique hotel, located in QC's Old Port neighbourhood. We had a really nice room with modern, minimalist decor, 14' ceilings and a rain shower. Some other highlights of our stay in QC: Samarah rolling from her tummy to ...

One of my good friends from university tied the knot on Saturday, June 21st (congrats Namgyal & Jeff!) in Batawa, an interesting little town north of Trenton, about 2 hours from Toronto, so Kaniz, Samarah and I decided to turn our trip east into a week-long roadtrip. Packing for the trip was quite interesting. Since the stroller takes up most of the trunk space, we had to bring along a lot of small bags rather than 1 or 2 suitcases. In the end, we probably overpacked, but better than running out of diapers in the middle of the night, I suppose. After attending the reception, we drove straight to Ottawa and got to our hotel (Arc) around 12:30am. Samarah did very well in the first leg of our trip and our first night in the hotel which was encouraging for Kaniz and I. The Arc Hotel is a little boutique hotel in downtown Ottawa, and while it isn't necessarily baby-friendly (e.g. had to carry the stroller up several stairs to the lobby, the staff were very helpful and our rooms were...

Me, Mommy that is. Abbas has been working hard at keeping the blog up to date (even though we're behind) and I haven't posted in months! Months...I can't believe 3 have passed since Samarah's birth. It's just crazy how quickly time flies. I'm already thinking about the fact that I have to go back to work - and dreading it! Anyhow, let me fill you in on what I've /we've been up to. I discovered that the community centre across the street from our house has caregiver/baby classes as well as fitness classes. It's so convenient and it makes it alot easier to get motivated to exercise. Baby weight still present...we're working on it! So I've taken a muscle conditioning and pilates class. In a few weeks I start aerobics and yoga. Samarah has been busy too. We go to baby time at the North York Centre library which is really fun, even though she sometimes sleeps through the session. We're also taking a class put on by the public health nurses cal...

I guess it was bound to happen - my blog posts have started to slip. I was hoping to have an update posted every weekend, and I definitely missed my deadline this week! I've said this before, but I'll say it again - the days are flying by, and it's bathtime and bedtime for Samarah before I know it! Anyway, here are the pictures from days 65 - 78 (this brings us up to June 7) - I will try to write up some highlights later, but I better post the pictures before friends/family turn on me! Enjoy!

Now that Samarah has gotten her first set of shots, she is out and about town, hitting up all the hot parties!  Ok, so that may not be exactly true, but she did go to her first formal party (an engagement at Angus Glen golf club). Kaniz and I are getting a lot more comfortable taking Samarah out, whether it's for a stroller or sling ride in our neighbourhood or a dinner party downtown. So far she's handled all of it exceptionally well. I might be a little biased, but I think Kaniz and I have an angel for a daughter! Some highlights from the week (days 58-64): Meeting the Chagpars Dressing up as the third bear (see photo above) Getting more and more tummy time - she's almost ready to do the Superman flying pose Visiting with Noa and meeting Rayan Going to our pre-natal class reunion at our instructor's (Jaye's) house. Although a bunch of people ended up canceling, it was fun hanging out with Aaron and his parents. Meeting Aunty Shamshad and family from NY Attending a...

It looks like I'm a week or so behind in the pictures.. and even though Kaniz is the one that is supposed to be suffering from less than optimum memory, I can't seem to recall all the things we did during days 51-57.. good thing we've got lots of pictures as reminders! One notable thing during this time was our family trip to College St. (our old neighbourhood) for some dinner. Samarah, as expected, handled the outing exceptionally well. Aside from a feeding, she slept through most of it. Having seen plenty of toddlers have meltdowns at restaurants, I think Kaniz and I need to take advantage of this low-maintenance time as much as possible. Aside from that, we went out a bunch of times to visit with friends and family.. and we had a few guests drop by. Thanks to everyone for coming by, and bringing such wonderful gifts. Aside from diapers, we haven't really had to buy anything for Samarah! Here are the pictures - enjoy!

As usual, the last week just flew by. As I write this (12:11am), Samarah will be turning exactly 8 weeks old in 5 hours (adjusting for daylight savings). I know I'm beginning to sound like a broken record, but I can't believe that time is flying by so fast! It may sound a little silly, but I really miss Samarah as a tiny 4.5 lb baby whose crying sounded just like the squeak of a mouse or a tea kettle about to start boiling. Despite the 'nostalgia', it is incredibly rewarding and humbling to see her get bigger and learn new things every day. This week's installment of photos are, in my opinion, pretty interesting.. we've got a few nice shots of Samarah's bathtime routine, which generally consists of bathing in a plastic bowl in the bathroom sink followed by a gentle massage with some lotion.. and since her head was shaved, we've also been putting some baby oil gel on her head. For Mother's Day, I have to admit that I wasn't able to think of anythi...

As I mentioned in the previous post, we shaved Samarah's head last weekend, in observance of Islamic custom.. Although Samarah looks super cute with her Kojak/Sinead O'Conner look, I still miss the hair a little. It'll grow back soon enough (it's already started!)... Enjoy the pictures!

Another busy week for Kaniz & Abbas + Samarah. A few highlights: We bought a crib mobile! I'm not sure why it took us this long, but we finally got our act together.. Samarah isn't sleeping in her crib full-time yet, but she takes her naps there and she really seems to like the mobile. Our friends Jamie & Kim came over with their son Sebastian for a weeknight dinner.. in the midst of all the excitement before Samarah's arrival, I forgot to write about how Kim totally helped us out by installing our car seat for us (so, belated thanks Kim!). It was fun to see Sebastian try to cover his head with rice.. can't wait till Samarah starts playing with her food! (or starts eating food, for that matter). Janelle, Scott & Karen visited us on Saturday. Karen really like Samarah (almost as much as she liked ghantia - a salty, deep fried snack made from chickpea flour). Saturday evening, we got together with Kaniz's parents and my brother Hussain, my sister-in-law Ba...

Samarah turns 6 weeks today.. so I thought I'd share a list of six things we (or I) couldn't live without as new parents: My Brest Friend nursing pillow - we looked at the Boppy and Jolly Jumper nursing pillows but opted against them. The Brest Friend pillow wraps around the body, ties securely, provides back support, and is made of much firmer material. Definitely makes feedings a lot easier. GR8X receiving blankets - I've mentioned these already, but I like them so much, they deserve a second mention. The problem with most receiving blankets is that they're a little too small for a proper swaddle. GR8X blankets are larger, they're soft and they're stretchy - and most importantly, they let you give your baby a tight swaddle.  Sleep positioner - I'm not sure what brand we have (it's a hand-me-down) but the thing is fantastic.. not only does it ensure that Samarah is sleeping on her back while in her bassinet, we've also used it to let visitors (wh...

Where does the time go? When Samarah first arrived, I figured I'd have plenty of time to keep the blog up to date, but between working full-time, running errands and hanging out with Samarah, the days just fly by! I've still managed to take pictures of our little treasure every day, and hopefully I'll be able to do a fun 'year in review' DVD for her first birthday! In any case, here are the latest pictures that I've managed to process.. this brings us up to April 26, so I'm not doing too bad, right?

As promised, here are some pictures from Samarah's second photo shoot. I took most of the pictures by myself, so there aren't very many 'dynamic' shots in here, but the next shoot (scheduled for tomorrow) should have a little more variety. Stay tuned. In the meantime, here are the pictures !

My dear friend Vicky, who I know from my first job in California, now lives in Montreal and has her own greeting card company. All of her cards are hand made and reflect her beauty and creativity. She sent us this card, which you can't appreciate in the pictures but it's the most beautiful card I've ever received. I'm certain Samarah will just love it as well when she's old enough to sift through the many lovely cards friends and family have given us to celebrate her arrival. Thanks Vicky (and Michel)!!

Today is not only Earth Day, but it's Samarah's 1 month birthday! It's hard to believe an entire month has gone by since she came into our lives. She's doing great (as you can see in the tons of pictures her daddy is posting). We had a pediatrician appt yesterday and Dr. Freedman said she was doing great. In fact, he gave her an A+! She's 6lbs, 6ozs now so she's gained 30% of her birth weight. She's much more alert these days as well and has been following objects with her eyes. Another fun development game we've done with her is scents. Abbas let her smell cinnamon which she liked and citrus which she was indifferent to. Tummy time pics to come!

I know I know - I've been a little neglectful of updating the blog over the past week. But I'll make it up to all of you in the next few days (I promise!). I'll post about the highlights from the past week a little later, but here are a few photos to keep you entertained till then: Samarah's first official 'photo shoot' at home Days 22-26

If you make it through the 3 minutes and 50 seconds clip of me and Samarah hanging out in our room last week, you are officially part of the "Samarah Fatima Fan Club"!

Phew - it's been a busy few days, although to be honest, Kaniz, Samarah & I haven't been doing very much outside of our usual routine. The days just seem to fly by anyway. It's hard to believe that Samarah is already 3 weeks old (tomorrow is her actual due date)! Some highlights: Last week was my first full week back at work, and as most of you know, I work from home. It's definitely been a challenge to stay focused on work during the day, instead of running downstairs and hanging out with Samarah all the time. I feel really lucky though because I can spend time with her (& Kaniz!) during my breaks and over lunch.. and I'm home as soon as I stop working!  Samarah went to the mosque for the first time on Friday. Samarah also met her newest friend, Mahdi (who's super cute and looks just like his mom) Hussain (my older brother), Bano (my sister-in-law), Sakeena (their 2 year old daughter) and Zain (my youngest brother) visited on Thursday evening. Bano was ...