Yep, He's Mine

It's been ages! But I'm back, and still in one piece, so I figure I ought to update my blog before it's too late!

Let's see.  Where have we been the last few weeks? Um, EVERYWHERE!

For one, Nana went out of town to meet her newest grandson (my NEPHEW), Ibrahim Kareem Monib.

Photo Credit: Nazia Abbas

Cute, yeah? I know, I'm jealous I haven't gotten to meet him yet either! But he'll be coming to Texas mid-June to meet his aunty and new cousin, inshaAllah!

Well, with Nana gone, we spend a lot of time at home--an on Skype.  Yousef needs his daily dose of Nana!  One day, we had called her on the laptop, and I stepped out of the room for a minute. I came back to find Yousef looking like this:

I laughed too.  He was really into their conversation! And he's learned a new word:

"eekom"--> (assalamualaikum=peace be upon you... the way muslims greet one another). It's adorable mashaAllah.

In the last three weeks, Yousef has also gone swimming twice.  He hasn't been since we were in Egypt in August 2010, so this was first time swimming as a walking (and too brave) toddler.  He had a BLAST! My friends and I headed over to Nana's house (who was out of town still) and we took him swimming.  The water was a little cold to begin with, so the first few minutes were difficult for us both.  BUT, he quickly forgot the cold and began splishing and splashing everywhere!  His favorite thing to do was stand on the step in the spa (me behind him) and sword fight using noodles with my friends. Here is a pic of Yousef in the pool!

Well, Yousef also went swimming with daddy yesterday while I was at a baby shower for a friend.  Dad says that as SOON as he pulled out the spray sunblock, Yousef starting whining like he was afraid.  He turned around and in an instant, Yousef was gone! He had gone all the way to hide in my dad's closet because he didn't like how cold the spray was last time we swam!  He started whining again as soon as dad found him.  Poor baby.  Guess the spray was a bad idea after all, I'll go get some lotion.

Finally, another highlight of the past few weeks was Yousef's "performance" at a friend's wedding ceremony.  The ceremony was held at a mosque in Sugar Land and we took Yousef with us.  He enjoyed walking back and forth between his dad, grandfather, and myself.  He also had no problem calling out "mommy" in the middle of the sheikh's speech! I was so embarrassed and went to go get him. But had a hard time keeping him in one spot (yep, he's mine!).  He found his aunt eventually and was playing with her. He wasn't obnoxious or loud (and our ceremonies are not quite as formal). Just super cute mashaAllah.

Later after the ceremony, he went to spend some time with my friends Mariem and Yasmin while we went to a celebratory dinner with family.  He apparently had a blast! But my favorite part of the night was when I had asked him what he did with them, he proceeded to babble in his Yousef-talk for 20 seconds and ended with "kha kha" <--insert snoring sound here!  He was trying to tell me that they were making snoring noises to try to get him to go to sleep! HAHA!

I'm really enjoying these last few precious days alone with him, which is why I need to wrap this post up!  I'm due in 16 days, pray for me! But I'll leave you with this:

I know Yousef is my son because:
-He likes to lick peanut butter right off the spoon.
-He loves to read.
-He seems to get ear infections without fever (Nana says I did too).
-He loves to be around people.
-He loves NANA!