More Random Pics

Here are some recent photos of Suhana and Jiana. :)

Watering the garden.

We went to the LA Zoo last weekend and Suhana took a tumble,
 as she fell from a stool she was climbing. Ouch!

Some sister love!

At the LA Zoo

Right before bedtime....so content.

Last weekend, it rained all day. But we still ventured out.
She reminds me of the Citibank commercial, with the red umbrella.

We took this video of Suhana dancing. She has this new style of moving
involving some fancy foot work! It's awesome!

Beautiful Jia

To bottle or not?

The end has come.  I am going back to work next week after having 5 months off to be with my kids. It has really been an amazing time, as I reflect back on these months. I got a chance to see what it is like to be a Stay-At-Home Mom (SAHM), something I always craved deep down to be. Now that I have had the chance to experience it, I have decided that staying home full-time is not my cup of tea. Don't get me wrong, for some its a choice, for others there is no choice. I worked full-time for the first two years of Suhana's life and was always guilt ridden of not spending enough time with her, but the time I did spend with her was quality. I always wished I was a SAHM in those years. Now that I have had the honor of experiencing life as a SAHM, I think I need a balance between work and staying home, and this is what I get to have now. I will work part time when I return next week, I get to use my brain, have adult conversations, hang out with my friends (I actually like the people I work with :)) and I get to spend more time with my kids and be a mom. Staying at home full-time is a lot of work. I have many friends who are doing an amazing job with their kids and they are sane women!!! I admire them but for me a good balance is my cup of tea.

With that said, the post title is about Jiana not taking a bottle. She was bottle fed for the first few days of her life in the NICU and then every night Avikar gave her a bottle for the 10pm feeding. Around January we stopped giving her the bottle, because it was easier for me to feed her and (we got a little lazy). So, fast  forward to February and we start trying to give her a bottle feed. NOT HAPPENING! For the last month or so, we have tried every type of bottle, nipple, person and she flat out refuses to take it!! This has been stressing me out quite a bit as you can imagine, since I am going back to work next week and who ever watches her needs to be able to feed her. Yesterday the Lactation Consultant, Gisele, from Long Beach Memorial came to my house to help me out. These women make it their life's work to help babies eat, be it from a breast or bottle. If anyone had a chance to make Jiana drink from a bottle it was going to be Gisele. I had all my bottles ready and my milk thawed. Gisele, tried and tried and Jiana refused. She cried, she knocked the bottle from her hand, sputtered, but refused to take the bottle. OMG!

Gisele's assessment: She is one stubborn baby! She has lost the reflex needed to suck with her tongue and move the milk back into her mouth. Jiana is also teething really bad, and so having any type of nipple up against her gums is very uncomfortable. We need to transition her straight to a sippy cup. Don't worry mom, it's going to be okay. Until she gets the hang of the sippy cup, she needs to have rice cereal diluted with breast milk spoon fed to her. When you get home from work, know that she is going to want to eat A LOT from you, until you leave for work again. (this part makes me tired just writing it) If she used to wake up once a night, expect her to wake often to feed, to get her calories in. :( 

For those moms who say, well why don't you give her solids now? Well, she doesn't show any signs of being interested in food and she doesn't have that reflex yet that pulls food back into her mouth. All in all, this is going to be okay. My baby is healthy, happy and I can't ask for more. Here are some pics to remind me what a darling she is. Even if she won't take a bottle!!!!!!!!!

Random pics

We have had a busy few weeks here at the house...preschool, dance class (ballet/tap), outings with the family and as for me, I am preparing mentally to go back to work part time.  I think it will be good for me to go back, but I am a little nervous on how it will all pan out. How will I juggle everything??? Laundry, lunches, pumping, nursing, activities, and remaining sane?????? I guess I will figure it out as I go along.  Until then, here are some fun things that have happened lately.

Dadi takes Suhana to the local stables for horse rides! First time she rode the horse and enjoyed it. Future equestrian?

Jiana is 4 months old!!!

Sitting in her very own big girl bed! Thanks Jojo Ma!

Ballet and Tap class. Not so happy to be there. But it was cute nevertheless.

Having 90 degree weather in March..playing with the water hose..Priceless!

Slowly but Surely

Jiana had her four month appointment on March 8 with Dr. Kallah. She has seen Jiana since the beginnning and is incredily caring and detail oriented in dealing with her. Something I appreciate more since Jiana had spent a week in the NICU when she was born and taking that into consideration is important. Since she was born we have to give her these multivitamins with iron in liquid form and they taste HORRIBLE. Not just horrible but really really disgusting!! Avikar tasted it and ran to the bathroom because he thought he was going to throw up.  In the beginning we mixed it with breast milk and gave it to her, she fought it but drank it. After about 2 months, we decided to give it to her through a syringe, without diluting it since drinking 2 ounces of breast milk with the medicine was more painful than 1ml of the medicine alone. Needless to say over time it has become more and more difficult to have her swallow it. Her taste buds are more mature so she knows it tastes gross and she is developing a gag reflex, so she pushes the medicine out of her mouth. But my angel is so good, that even when I am giving this to her she has a smile on her face.
At each of her appointments, she has had blood drawn to check her iron levels and this time Dr. Kallah wanted to run a few more tests to see if we really needed to keep giving her this medicine. So, I took her to the lab to get her blood drawn and they needed more than the normal amount for the multiple tests. Usually they prick her heel and squeeze out the blood. This time they tell me they will draw blood on her arm with a needle, and I have to hold her. Oh My God! Can I just say, that it was one of the most painful things to watch your child get poked with a needle and then hold them as they are screaming!!!! The poor thing was so scared and crying so much, and to top it off, they couldn't get enough blood out of her right arm, so they poked her heel hoping that would be enough. But no! They then proceeded to put a needle in her left arm and get the remaining amount of blood. During this horrible experience I am bawling, she is bawling and we are both wet with tears. I felt so bad and there was nothing I could do. Mind you, I take both kids to their doctors appointment, am with them for all their shots but this was a whole other level. I just couldn't deal with her being pricked so many times. It was so sad!! I still ger goosebumps thinking about it.
Good news is that all her tests came back fine and she doesn't need this gross medicine anymore!!!! Yay!

On another note, Jiana weighed in at 11lbs and 11 oz and was 23.75 inches long. She is in the 5th percentile, a small one for sure. Doctor says nothing to worry about, just may take after her mama.. I am a little on the short and petite side. ;) But she has doubled her birth weight and thats saying a lot for such a little person. Suhana at four months was about 15.5lbs! But she is growing just fine! My little angel.

My girls and me.

Jia holding my finger while sleeping..this is what it's all about.

Locks of Tears.. Wait not anymore!

Suhana has a beautiful head of hair..we did shave it when she was a couple weeks old, and since then she has had 4 haircuts. (if you count the impromptu one Avikar gave her, when he gave her bangs. Let's not go there!) The first haircut was ok, since she was too small to understand what they were doing. The second haircut, is forever imprinted in my head. I am holding down a screaming child and she won't sit still enough for the lady to cut it. The third haircut was just as bad, and this time I made Avikar come with and hold her down. (I was pregnant with Jiana, so I wasn't going to fight a very strong toddler). She was sobbing and sniffling afterwards for a loooooooong time.  After that we decided not to get her haircut EVER again. Until, a couple weeks ago, where the mane had just become too much and the ends were really dry. So, I started talking to her about it, telling her how she is a big girl now, and the lady will cut her hair slowly, and it doesn't hurt. I also figured out that the reason she hated it so much is the water they spray on her hair before they cut it, makes her MAD. She doesn't like to wash her hair in the tub so how is this any different?

So, we took the plunge and went to this place I found good reviews at and I brought bribes with me (Chocolate) and it went surprisingly well. There were a few tears in the beginning, but once the chocolates came and a little bit of water, she was very well behaved. Thank God! So, we crossed a milestone..no more tears at haircuts! This is big for us, because with the amount of hair she has been blessed with, we will be having lots of them!

First day of Preschool (was March 5th)

(Note to Reader: I intended this post to be published on Monday, March 5th)

Today was a HUGE day in the Gharib house, one I am still trying to wrap my head around. It was the first day of preschool for Suhana! Yup, my baby or shall I say preschooler, is all grown up. She is going to Joy Preschool, near our home. When I was still pregnant with Jiana, I knew I wanted Suhana to have more interaction with other kids and other people. I worked full time and so mommy-and-me groups and play dates were scarce. So her interaction with kids was limited to the parks or places we visited. But, I also believe its important for a child to have good social skills not just with the people she knows and is comfortable with, but also regular people. And for us (I consider ourselves very lucky) Suhana hasn't had to go to daycare since she is born, since her grandparents have watched her while Avikar and I worked. That's been a huge blessing for us and she is so well taken care of!

But like I said, her interaction with others has been limited. So I wanted that type of exposure for her and thought once she turned two (now she is almost two and a half years old) she should play with other kids, learn how to sit in a circle and listen to a story, and do little guided projects. So my search began. I wanted a school close by, since I only wanted her to go half days and her grandparents needed to be able to pick her up. Also, I wanted one with some academic aspect to it (we are talking pretty basic academics, not Tiger mom style). Suhana has already learned so much from all of us, for example she knows her alphabets, she can recognize letters (spell her name), she knows how to count up to 40 (not kidding), shapes, colors, and animals. She says full sentences and understands everything. So, I wasn't trying to make my kid grow up faster than she needs to, but just give her a different type of exposure.

As I mentioned before I saw many schools in the area and had the best feeling from this one. Its more intimate, the teachers are nice, and her class is pretty small with only 7 students including herself. I really like that since I did not want her to feel like the teacher was too busy to listen to her or her needs wouldn't be met. The academic part of the program is in the morning and the kids get plenty of playtime outside and she gets to eat lunch with other kids sitting around a table.

So she is going 3 half days a week. Day 1: I stayed with her the whole time and she really liked the whole day. She likes her teacher Miss Claudia a lot and I can tell feels comfortable with her. As the day progressed she felt safer moving away from me as she became familiar. Day 2: I decided to leave her for a couple hours today and tell her that I was going to come back and pick her up after lunch. I explained all this to her, but she did end up crying here and there, but Miss Claudia was really good about distracting her and keeping her busy with the next activity. She kept asking for mommy and wanted to go see my car outside. I admit, I cried as I left and felt so sad. Like I was leaving a piece of myself behind and I know the transition is going to be hard, really hard. Probably for both of us, but I know she is going to like this place and have a lot of fun. At one point she held onto Miss Claudia's ears (this is Suhana's self comforting act, where she will grab onto ears and just pull them or hold them really tight) and she exclaimed "Ouch, gentle Suhana!" So Suhana pulls away and says "Sorry Miss Claudia" and that melted her teachers heart and she pulled her in for a hug. Outside playtime and lunch was cry-free. The best part of my day was when I walked in and she saw me she exclaimed loudly "Miss Claudia, I told you Mommy was coming!!!!" She was so happy to see me and kept saying it over and over. I also reassured her that I promised I would return and I did.

Going through this emotional moments as a parent will never end, but it makes the bond with our children stronger. I understand this is the beginning of many goodbyes I will tell her over her life...when she goes to 1st grade, high school, prom (if daddy lets her!), college and when she gets married (again if daddy lets her), but I don't think they ever get easier. My mom still gets sad every time I go to visit but them leave her to come back to my house. Her house feels empty and sad without me. Oh being mommy is filled with highs and lows. I am going to take this as a high...because in the end, Suhana is going to love it and that is what matters the most.

Here are a few pictures from her first day. :)

Before school started..just playing.

Her classmates sitting around the table and waiting for their project.

She's a Singin'

Lately, entire songs are sung at home! From "itsy bitsy spider" to "in the jungle" to "govinda jai jai gopala jai jai"! Its pretty darn cool to see Suhana singing a tune. As I mentioned earlier, hearing her speak in full sentences is really neat and I still can't believe this is my little baby, all grown up. Here is our rendition of "In the Jungle". Enjoy!

We've been homebodies..

These last few weeks Suhana has been getting over her jetlag and so its been an adjustment. I try to take the girls outside during the day to hang out and play because I get cabin fever that can make me a little crazy! I need me my California sunshine!
Jiana is growing up fast, she is 4 months old already and the smiles just don't stop coming! This kid is just too sweet and she has a very chill temperment, maybe that's how God plans it, so parents can handle two kids. :) But since I am still on maternity leave, I am trying to soak up every last bit of her and Suhana before my life gets REALLY busy again.

Love her!!!

"She wants to hold Jiana" (referring to herself in the third person).
Almost looks like she is choking her!

One of the best parts of their day is when Daddy comes home.. Suhana is so excited she runs to the door and jumps into his arms. Jiana also loves to be carried by Avikar. I think as a mom, I am always doing some necessary function with them; feeding them, making them sleep, changing them, combing hair, or making sure they are taken care of. Dad's get to play with them without those worries, most of the time. I love our roles and aren't complaining I just think it's an interesting dynamic.

Little Miss Independent!

Suhana is learning the power of doing things all by her BIG self. By that I mean she has a new found interest in brushing her own teeth (or sucking the toothpaste and biting the toothbrush), which she finishes off by cupping her hand under the water, sucking it in and then attempting to spit it out, like a grown up. Picking out her own clothes, which is fun for me, because we pull things out of her closet and I ask "Want to wear the doggy dress?" To which she replies "No!, Want to wear green dress" or "purple shiny pants"  I think this new found independence is really exciting for her.. she seems to relish in making decisions. Sounds like her mother! Oh boy, I can just foresee the teenage years. She is also learning to take her own clothes on and off. This skill is still a ways away but I am teaching her the basics and once the clothes come off, she has to run and show Daddy!  She is just growing so fast. Sometimes I look at her and Jiana and imagine our lives two and half years ago and can't remember what we used to do. Now our days are filled with naps, meals, bath times, and bedtimes!

Around the world!

SUHANA IS BACK!!! YAY!!!! Can't tell you how nice it is to my baby back from her whirlwind trip to South Africa. She had gone with her grandparents to visit her great-grandparents and family. She had a blast to say the least. She has come back a little taller, funnier and a very well spoken toddler. Her sentence formation skills are amazing and she says some pretty cool things. She spoke quite a bit before she left but now her sentences have pronouns and adjectives. I can't beleive how brilliant she is (if I say so myself). Today she told me "Mom I have my backpack, I'm leaving. Peace out!" (She learned 'Peace out' from her uncle!) We have to be extremely careful in what we say, since she repeats it back. She is also learning her manners and adds 'please' on when she wants something. "Mom, can you please open this?" I can't get over the cuteness. It's a whole new level of adorable when they start talking like us.

Hello parrot!

Feeding some chickens at the Crafty Duck Farm

What you doing Hanu? I'm holding a rabbit.

I like how there is no mention of the human getting hurt or sick!!!!

Her Jojo Grandma (Avikar's aunt) took her to some neat places with animals. And, those who know Suhana, know that she LOVES animals! The majority of her time is spent reading her animal books, playing with toy animals and talking about animals.  Here are other pictures from her trip.

Playing by the ocean!

Everyday she would pick eggplants from Nanima's garden

At Howick Falls with Nanima, Dadi and Dada

They took her to Avikar's old high school, and she didn't want to leave!

Mina Aunti, Great grandma, Aajima and grandparents

Suhana's grandma's and great grandparents.
Shaleen Ma, Nanu, Dadi, Nani Ma, Shana Ma, JoJo Ma and Sai'an

Yup...she is eating a big piece of meat! Definately Avikar's kid. :)

A big thank you to her grandparents, Dadi and Dada who took her on this great journey, where she got to experience new sights and sounds and spend time with her family. And a thank you to the entire family back home in South Africa who spoiled her so much. :)