Tuesday, January 30, 2007

Giving up Fast Food

Tonight, I decided to give up Fast Food for a period of one year. I keep going back and forth over whether Starbucks is fast food? Tamer says it is. Zaid says that if eat salad at fast food restaurants then it is okay, but I detest fast food salads, they are always YUCKY! Old lettuce, anyone? No, thank you!
I went to Wendy's and got a large fry and Zaid wanted chicken nuggets so, we ordered the meal, and so they gave me this massive Dr. Pepper, which I promptly tapped.

Also, no more soda. It is not like I am addicted to fast food or soda, I do not go there every day, but I just want to see if I can do it, if I can make more healthy choices.

I will miss Dr. Peppers and Starbucks....and french fries......and coffee from McDonalds, but I will not miss all of the calories.

I am giving myself one treat, one happy hour drink at Sonic once a week. That's it.

Zaid went to the optometrist today, he said everything was great. Zaid is a little far-sided, but not anything to be concerned about. Zaid did his, I ask a gazillion questions and I am adorable routine. It got him a prize, a pencil, 2 erasers, 2 stickers and some black glasses. And everyone telling him bye. How cute is he? :-) Very.

Who am I

"...what You have done." "...you catch me when I am falling." "...I am Yours."

Sunday, January 28, 2007

Godspeed - Dixie Chicks

Instead of Superman, we have Batman. I consider it to be one of the greatest privileges in life to be a Mommy. I hope I never take this amazing job for granted.

Thursday, January 25, 2007

Five Years Old and Technology




Tonight, Zaid wanted Tamer to download some songs on his MP3 player. This MP3 player was given to Tamer from his Mom, and it has been sitting in the back of the car since Thanksgiving! :-) I do not have an MP3 player, I listened to one song on my niece's one time, but that is about it, with music I could either take it or leave it. I like some songs, but most songs I only hear the melody not the words, even as a child, I never heard the words only the music. So most of what my friends where hearing, I was hearing something different. I digress.


Wow! I can not believe it! Zaid was listening to Black Horse and a Cherry Tree, he was dancing and singing. It was so cute! Oooh, oooh, oooh, oooh, oooh......... He had a hard time putting it away to go to sleep. He is growing up so fast. He was telling me tonight about how he is going to be six soon. He talked about how it was creeping, creeping up on us, him being six.


I do not like the number six if you did not know. It did not dawn on me until just now, that Zaid is going to be six. I do not like thirteen either. I do not like three because when you multiply it by two it is six. When I wake up, I will not get up until the minutes are whole numbers or multiplies of five.


Monday, January 22, 2007

Snow


Where is the snow? This is from last year, right about this time actually. We made snowmen and snow cream and snow angels. I loved Zaid walking through the snow and when he balanced on our flower bed. He was learning how to walk on a balance beam.

Sunday, January 21, 2007

New Names

Apparently Macy thinks her name is now "Zaid".
She is cute though.

Saturday, January 20, 2007

an ordinary day



the day ~ december 9, 2006 ~ the place ~ red lobster

"Zaid, what are you thinking about?"
"Government"
"Oh, really Zaid, what are you thinking about government?"
"Mommy, what was the first government?"
"Ummmmm.....ummmm.....*thinks: Greeks, Romans, Egyptians*, then I ask the waiter if he knows?"
The waiter says "Wow! Let me think, probably the Greeks or maybe the Egyptians, they were incredibly smart also."

Then he tells us about how he was bored in kindergarten. He tells us how he skipped a grade in school and he asks Zaid how old he is. He says his sister is like that. He asks Zaid if he loves to learn. He says he does. He tells him how wonderful that is, and that he loves to learn new things also.

When we get to the car, I call Tamer and he asks his friend Garrick, then they come to the conclusion, that maybe the Babylonians or the Samartians.

Another friend says to just say what you think, that they are discovering new things everyday. That what may have been the first government today, may not be tomorrow.

His questions, are so intense and real and so grown up sometimes.


"Mommy, how high does a butterfly fly? Mommy can we make a robot? then ~ Mommy, when I grow up, I am going to be the King of Cheese, then when he finds out about the Green Bay Packers and their cheese hats, he decides that no, he will be the King of Watermelon.

How high does a butterfly fly?

http://www.learner.org/jnorth/tm/monarch/HeightFallFlight.html

Fort Yargo State Park


I took this picture
at a state park in Winder, Georgia. Zaid played on the playground for a long time, then we walked down to the dock and watched the sun go down. The view was amazing.

Friday, January 19, 2007

Walks around town





Today Zaid and I took a walks around town. He talked forever about villains and bad guys and how he was going to capture them with nets and little holes in the floor and tell the bad guys that there is treasure "down there" and trick them. For one of the first times I can remember I asked him to please talk about something else, that I could not take any more of the villains. I tried to explain to him that if bad guys came in, then we would call the police and deal with them, that he would not trick them. I'm not sure if I got through to him. He did get through to me however, and he continued his tirade about the villains. We ate a yummy, frozen dinner, veggie lasagna. (Yes, it was actually good.) Zaid wondered how much he would have to eat, surely he said if he ate 100 of the lasagna, I am not sure if he meant 100 pieces, 100 whole things. At this point, I do not ask. Anyway, he was sure he would "get fat", I tried to explain that to him about how it takes time to become overweight, how he is at a healthy weight, and so on and so forth. Eventually, I gave up.
Sometimes, you just have to take a break and retreat from everything, that is what I did tonight. I just vegged out. I thought about nothing. Nothing at all. I hope that tomorrow, I am all recharged for this Mommy expedition again, because my house is in desperate need of a magical fairy to come down and clean and organize. And if you are listening fairy, I would like for you to finish the projects I am half-way through also. Thank you in advance.
Seriously though, today was a beautiful day filled with lots of hugs, love and praise for Zaid who was a much better listener today to his teacher. I talked to her about that yesterday. I realize that I pretty much give Zaid no responsibility, that he is going to grow up to become one incredibly spoiled brat if we continue down this road. I always think of Zaid in the back of my head as a still a "baby", but today when I put him in a thinking period for hitting Jacob, he demonstrated how "strong" he was as he pushed an antique table, that the bird sits on in his cage, (peacefully and safe until today) around the "real" hardwood floor. One day, I am going to move to a house with floors made out of something that can not be damaged. Something like dirt maybe? :-) Zaid does not like thinking time, so therefore I do not like thinking time. But, I have to keep reminding myself almost hourly, who am I kidding, minutely (is that a word?), that I am the adult and that I have Zaid's best interest in mind, that our hands and objects in this case are not for hitting.
Later on when I told him he was going to have to start cleaning his room, he very quickly came back with that I am going to have to start paying him. I told him I would pay him to take out the bathroom garbage, but I was not paying him to clean his room. I am not a huge believer in charts and all that jazz. No one applauds me when I get clean the potty. Zaid pretty much leads a charmed life, he just does not realize it. I guess as a parent, it is my responsibility to teach him to be appreciative. I only hope that one day soon he is appreciative because I'm not sure how much long I can tolerate the baby tyrant.

Wednesday, January 17, 2007

Why does the caged bird sing?


I KNOW WHY THE CAGED BIRD SINGS
by: Maya Angelou
A free bird leaps on the back of the wind and floats downstream till the current ends and dips his wing in the orange suns rays and dares to claim the sky.
But a bird that stalks down his narrow cage can seldom see through his bars of rage his wings are clipped and his feet are tied so he opens his throat to sing.
The caged bird sings with a fearful trill of things unknown but longed for still and his tune is heard on the distant hill for the caged bird sings of freedom.
The free bird thinks of another breeze and the trade winds soft through the sighing trees and the fat worms waiting on a dawn-bright lawn and he names the sky his own.
But a caged bird stands on the grave of dreams his shadow shouts on a nightmare scream his wings are clipped and his feet are tied so he opens his throat to sing.
The caged bird sings with a fearful trill of things unknown but longed for still and his tune is heard on the distant hill for the caged bird sings of freedom.


My bird does not appear to like his freedom, actually.

To see......

As I look back over my blog, I see so many changes in myself, in Zaid, in our family, mostly good changes to our life. Growing, learning, bit by bit, more and more. Everyday, this is our life to learn from each other, to love each other, to go on, to exist in harmony with one another.

Yesterday, I went to guidance with Zaid at his school, (I was not exactly sure what it was, Zaid tells me about it a lot.) He is was teaching them yesterday how do deal with their angry emotion. He gave them situations and they sang a a song, when there is a problem, to look at it as a way to a solution. To not get "angry" with our fists up, but to "take a breath, push it down and count to ten." Then to find a solution to whatever we are having a hard time with. Invaluable lessons for a five year old to learn. Invaluable lessons for me to learn. Invaluable lessons that our society needs to learn.

Most days, I do not want to listen to the news, it is depressing and it makes me sad that this is our world, where killing and violence seems to be the answer to everything, but one day Tamer said for me to come and look what was on the news, this was it http://www.gothamist.com/archives/2007/01/03/details_about_t.php , and I had this overwhelming sense of the good in people. That there is good in everyone, even if we have to push to the end to see the good, it exists. It is out there. Kindness, empathy, compassion, love, patience, self-control....

Thursday, January 4, 2007

Rain

"Mama, why does the rain fall, do we drink the rain?" me ~ "Umm, rain is dirty Zaid, we can't drink it from the sky?" "Mama, what is in rain?" me ~ "Salt." "Mama, is this where salt comes from?" me ~ "Zaid, I'm not really sure, we will look it up when we get home."

Now, me at 11:18 pm finally getting a chance to look it up for my tiny love. Looks like rain is different from area to area.

On a totally different note, my love for this beautiful light in my life is so strong, so fierce as only a Mother's can be. At times so sad and meloncholy that he grows more and more minute by minute and other times, completely happy and excited watching him grow.

The third thought, we read a book about mosquitos tonight, he was intriqued and wondered if the mosquitos go to Heaven, I said probably not, as we would not want bugs to bite us in Heaven. But I did tell him that I was not for sure if there were mosquitos in Heaven. In the end, he said there were.