the new City Centre

Wow, wow, wow!!!! What a place!

Checked out the new mall late this afternoon. There's only some hundred stores open right now, but ... even still, made me feel like I was walking in some other country. I'm so tickled w/ all the stores. One of my old favs is coming..... Saks Fifth Avenue! Not that I have the money to really shop there nowadays... but just to walk through... possibly see something adorable I might want and in my price range... well, the mere thought sends me floating in air! ;) Hashim and I were just talking about this store and he could hardly believe when he saw it today!!

And one of his favorite stores of all time - Virgin Records - is HERE!!!!!!!! Two stories, I might add! We made a stop there tonight. They have so many great movies!!! Can't wait for all the music to come!

I'm so excited that American stores are coming. We're even getting a Krispy Kreme!!! lordamighty.... what is this small island comin' to??!!!!

The new theatre looks incredible. Could only see the marble at the entrance and some areas where ppl will enter, and just from that, it might be a cause to return my butt to the movies! :)

I'm just thrilled. In a time that I'm really missing my family... my mom espcially... this brings a little piece of America to me... be it, all the stores aren't open yet, but just from knowing that there'll be so many new places to wonder through, if the mood hits me, makes me smile.

Did I mention that they're going to have the largest indoor water park for this part of the world? Or for the time being, at least. This should be interesting. Can't imagine going to the mall for a day of swimming... so I'm wondering what it'll be like.

mmmmm... we made a last stop being leaving at the ice cream place that does everything on cold marble, and mmmmm.... it was so yummy! I didn't get what I asked for since the guy behind the counter had his undies turned inside out by an Arab mother who was most upset at the fact that the girl behind the counter ignored her 6 kids when they wanted ice cream and let EVERYONE know about it... but it was still yummy. I feel like Winnie the Pooh !!!! mmmm, honey! :) I got dark choc ice cream w/ twix (i wanted that toffee candy - the name eludes me at the moment) and strawberries. it was good, but Hashim's was delicious! He got both dark choc ice cream and cream cake i.c. with strawberries at the candy I wanted :( He saved the last 3 bites for me though :)))) which made up for that yucky twix that I got and didn't complain about, I might add :)!!!! I felt sorry for the guy and for the mother. She reminded me of how my mother gets when she's mad. It always embarrasses me, but boy... she gets what she wants and so did this mother. All of a sudden everyone stepped away from the counter to let her children go first. She was havin' one hell of a momma rush and topped w/ not eating all day... wouldn't tangle w/ the mix... :)

Naief had fun too... running around and insisting of sitting whenever he saw fit. We ignored him which soon remedied the situation. I also told him that if he did it again, momma was gonna put him in the stroller. and ... it worked!! :) We took him to play today at Marina Mall (my thinking they were closed during the morning coz of Ramadan - but nope.. they close at 1)... and he loved it. It's been wks since he's been anywhere and he actually remembered and squealed when he saw where we were going. He play a tiny bit of air hockey, if you can believe it, w/ daddy, but likes to take the puck and put it in the hole so, obviously, daddy always wins. Can't wait til he figures out what's up w/ this game. I love air hockey, Hashim does too, so it'll be fun to play w/ him!! :)

Hashim loves playing Xbox and such, and the other day when Naief woke up from his nap, he took the controller (if that's what they're called) and moved the tank by himself... even got it thru the next checkpoint!! Hashim laughed w/ hysteria... it was sorta scary! ;) He was clapping and telling Naief go keep going... OMG... I can't imagine when he actually starts playing. :) It was really cute though.... if I have to say so myself. I was firing for him but he'd do this laser thing every so often. lol

Here we are

Gosh... it's been almost a week since being in Cali and haven't gotten into an argument w/ my sister one time... okay, maybe a tiny little spat, but it ended quickly, so all is happy on the Jahooni and Um Naief cloud! :)

Naief is still trying to get used to the time change. He's waking up at midnight wanting to play... which last night my sister got us up, played for a while, and he slept until 8:30 this morning!!!! What a relief since he's been waking up at 4:30 and 5 in the morning every day.

We've been spending our days shopping for Christmas presents, stocking stuffers... and even a few things for myself... yeah, how could I not, especially since they're carrying Vera Wang at Kohl's now and her pajamas are to DIE FOR!!!! Oh my gosh, they are sooooo soft... your skin melts in them, believe me!

Stocking stuffers are the hardest to get... I rack my brain trying to come up w/ things to fill stockings, and buying for hubby has always been the hardest for me, but this year... with a little help from my sister, I was able to get things to fill his stocking w/out a problem!

And mentioning stockings, I COULD NOT believe the difference in sizes of the stockings between me and my sister and Hashim's was quite small comparetively speaking (and yes, we're talking about sister jealousy here! ;) ). My mother made me and Hashim stockings two years ago and sent them to us filled w/ goodies, so this year she tells me to bring them w/ me - which I did - and what did my wondering eyes see when I got here, you may ask??!!! My sister's stocking is two sizes bigger than mine!!! Yep! Even the dog's stocking is bigger than mine and hubby's !!! Oh.. and if you know me, that was a no go, so I marched in to my mother and told her right off that that would have to be fixed :)!! So yesterday my momma made me and hubby new stockings!! and now sisterpoo is complaining that mine is bigger than hers! Can you believe it!?? I can... but I laugh because it's been how many years that she's been getting gobs more stocking stuffers than me... matter of fact, there have been years that I haven't even gotten a stocking from my mom... so this is only fair, the way I see it! ;) hehehe AND... found out this morning that she actually measured the stockings last night when one of her friend's was over.... uh huh.... she can hardly stand that my stocking is as big as hers now!!


And... and all of you might figure, I miss my husband a lot. This is the first vacation I've taken w/out him and for it to be such an extended length of time, well... it makes me sad on days... but the daily shopping excursions have helped w/ that somewhat! ;) Altho, I know Hashim is not too happy to hear that! But hey.. I haven't had Christmas w/ my family... well, my sister in about 5 years and ... my mom, well, it's been about 9 or more years, so I see this year as special. Coz who knows when the next time will be that I get to spend the holidays w/ them and such an extended length of time!

My sister has a dog and it's been a difficult task in getting Naief used to him. If I sit Naief down on the floor, the dog is usually all over him... not being mean or anything, just wanting to lick him and it scares Naief a bit, so he usually cries and doesn't want to do anything but be held, which is hard for me. He's also not particularly keen on being held or watched by my mom... crying when I leave the room and when I left to get gas the other day, he went into a complete crying fit, and then when I took a shower, my mom thought she was gonna have a panic attack because of the way he started acting.... so that's been hard, to say the least. I feel like I have a siamese twin and it makes it hard to do anything... but I'm trying to see it as a good thing and know that soon enough he won't even want me to hold him... but it's hard.

Anyway... this has been our time in a quick nutshell. We have a dinner party to go to this weekend, so I'll be making a pie to take - one of my favorites - and then I'm gonna do some baking over the next several days... making some Christmas cookies, brownies and such. The nice thing about here is that they have ready-made pie shells, which is nice. Never tried them, but have heard their just as good as the real thing, so I'm gonna give 'em a whirl this time around.

Happy shopping everyone... and Happy Eid to everyone in Bahrain!

Miss you Hashim!

two front teeth

I can hardly believe it.... altho I knew back when he was 4 mths old that he was starting to teethe .... and yep, even when the dr. said that he can't be teething... not until he's at least 5 mths or 6 mths of age....

well... Naief has two teeth coming in. I've been able to see them for a while now - a whiteness thru the gums - but only today have they broken thru. Not a lot, but I can feel them w/ my finger. Aaaaahhhh, after 4 long days of going thru it w/ him.... I'm so happy that they've shown themselves, because not only were they causing a fever, but nothing made this little boy happy... nothing. He was cranky all day, every day, and crying a lot, and even his favorite toys and games weren't enough to help the pain and ease his suffering. I finally started giving him children's panadol and it seemed to help a lot.... for all you new mothers out there.

Today I went out to buy him a few onesies and while I was looking, I had him in the sling, facing forward, in front of me, and one of the Bahraini sales ladies asked if he was 8 mths.... which I could hardly believe and I said, "no, he's 5 mths old". We talked for a bit.... w/ her commenting about how fast everyone wants you to have babies around here, after which she told me that she's been married for a year and hasn't had any children. I told her that I thought that was good... it would give her time to be w/ her husband and for them to enjoy each other because children aren't easy and you no longer have any free time.... boy, ain't that the truth! ;)

Finally, finally, finally... hubby has found some old artwork of mine that I did years ago on Photoshop... he's gonna bring it to the puter upstairs so that I can put a few of them online... I'm still waiting for him to find my poetry from a website that I had years ago w/ most of my poems there... since getting rid of that, he backed it up to someplace (he swore to me) and it's been sorta lost ever since... but I hope this is a sign of good things to come... and soon he'll tell me that he's found my poetry! I hope... because it's not anywhere else. I didn't write down a lot of it... only spending hours online writing one poem after another it seemed... some during my most depressing of days... why it is that I write and paint the best when I'm sad or depressed is beyond me and something that I still long to understand. I only wish I could when happy... but my muse flies away and doesn't come back around 'til I'm sad and depressed again.... weird how I long for days like that so I can paint something or write something of beauty.... or at least to be able to pour my heart out thru my pen.... it was such a release back then.... now I just journal or write here, which is ok... but I miss that other side of me..... makes me wonder why I'd miss such sadness.

what a voice

We went to Geant tonight to pick up a few things.... and as always wound up w/ much more than we expected to get. One unexpected thing is the CD called Amore by Andrea Bocelli.

Wow.... I have no idea if this is new or what... but he has such an amazing voice. I've really liked him for a long time, but strangely never bought one of his CDs until tonight. We're playing it now and Naief seems to really enjoy it. He was crying, but is now dancing w/ daddy :) .... and quite possibly will be going to sleepies shortly :).... here's to hoping. He's a stubborn one when it comes to going to sleep. He was out in the car... but I swear as soon as I get upstairs, while walking as slowly as possible, and put him down... he wakes up like it's morning!

*************************

While we were checking out tonight, you know how at Geant all the lines/check out areas are real close to each other, which is a pain in and of itself... but it also gets ya to know your neighbor real quick in some instances. Tonight, I was standing holding Naief while hubby took everything from the cart and as I was standing there, another family was checking out next to us. As the mother was putting everything on the conveyor belt, her son came up asking her for something... one thing was a plastic shovel... I can imagine to maybe dig in the sand while at the beach or some sort... and then two little books. His mother refused and he started crying... not hysterically but he really wanted these things. So, the mother took them, put them on the belt and then smacked him as hard as she could w/ the Geant flyer (that was all rolled up) right in the face. It shocked me and made me feel so desperately sad for the little boy.

How embarrassing for him to have his mother hit him in public... and it wasn't like she wasn't allowing him to get the things his heart desired.... but I guess she did it for the sake of it. These types of things break my heart.... here she's breaking this little boy's spirit.... I can only imagine what happens at home.

************************************

Well... I called my blog friend and we're having lunch tomorrow. :) I'm looking forward to it. She's quite interesting, sassy (which I like), AND smart. I know we'll have lots of things to blab about.... laugh about.... and I hope it's the start of a lasting friendship. oh yeah... if you wanna check out her blog, it's at Bint Battuta in Bahrain.

And.... you know what makes our lunch date all the better??? I went to M&S today and bought myself a few cute things. Gosh... it's been forever since I've been shopping at a mall by myself. I swear... the last time was in Lewisville, Texas. No kidding... I've never once gone to Seef by myself. But... I think this is the start of a lasting love relationship between us! :)


We're all doing better... getting better by the day. Naief is much better... now me and hubby are suffering a little .... but .... hopefully not for much longer.

Happy weekend everyone.

the princess bitch

or should i say the rudest woman that i've come across so far while living in bahrain.

all i can think is: "what a lovely day in the neighborhood, what a lovely day for a neighbor, would you be mine, could you be mine, won't you be my neighbor!"

this evening, just a little while ago matter of fact, i had the fortunate opportunity to go shopping at the grocery w/ just the baby. we get one of those carts w/ the thing attached to the top for baby.... and baby just loved it. he got smiles and hellos... we even got in some good little chats w/out daddy around..... and even when it was time to check out and he started getting fussy, some lovely young bahraini girl came over to help me and asked if it was my first baby, i said "yes", then she asked "is this the first time you've shopped on your own w/ him" and, again, I said, "yes". she took him and he immediately stopped fussing.

i paid, took the baby from her and said goodbye and thanks to all. we walk out to the car, the guy helping puts the bags in the car, i put the baby in his car seat.... thank the guy for helping and then get in the car. now.... i might add that our vehicle is on the large side. we have an armada, so it doesn't make for easy backing up.

as i was getting in, some car pulled into the spot behind me, which was closest to the street.

i started the car, put it in reverse and as i started going backwards, the censor on the car started beeping rapidly because the big ass mercedes, that pulled into the spot or spots behind me, didn't pull in far enough or needed to move their car up a notch in order for me to pull out.

i try several times to back up... pulling up and then back again. but it was no use, i wasn't going to be able to get out w/out this car pulling up a bit. i roll down my window, look back and see that someone is inside and at the wheel of the car. so i motion to them to pull forward a little. the princess bitch, altho i didn't know it at the time, shook her head and refused to budge. again, i motion my hands in the schwaya schwaya way asking her to pull her precious piece of metal forward just a little bit.... still a big head shake NO. then... i yell (because her window is closed)... can you pull your car forward a little so that i can get out of this spot.

the princess bitch makes her appearance at this point. she gets out of her car.... and what a lovely little thing she was. indeed, this chick thought she was God Almighty .... having made her presence on this earth and obviously i was not bowing in her glory.... therefore.... when she spoke.... harps played, but i did not yield the warning..... (sorry... i was off in dream land a bit...)

ok.. now back to story. anyway... the bitch gets out of her car and proceeds to tell me that there is a pole in the front of her car and that she can't pull forward. i tell her that she has plenty of room and can't she move her car up just a tad so that i can pull out. she gets inside.... and inches forward like..... 2 centimeters... i kid you not.

then again, i tell her "can you pull forward just a bit more, i can't get out".... at this point, i'm in the middle of the road and still a little bit in my spot.... i refuse to wait for her friend who went inside to come back out before leaving, because one) naief is hungry and starting to cry and 2) this bitch will not get the best of me.

let me tell you guys.... it's not often that i get as mad as i got at that very moment. this princess refused to move up any further. she rolled down her window and said she wasn't going to do it. so.... in need to get home, i pull back just as the censor thingy starts ringing nonstop... this is when i know i can't go any further.

this is when i was allowed just enough space to pull my car forward and then back up again while barely missing her car .... and finally, i'm free.

but.... IT DIDN'T END THERE. ohhhhhh noooooooo. she really put me in a mood and even tho us virgos are pretty mild tempered, most times, i also have a fire horse inside of me that makes me quite the spicy one when needed. and indeed... it was time to pull out my claws.

so .... i put my car in park, got out and went to the front of her car and looked. the bitch had plenty of room to pull her little mercedes up w/out it getting all dented..... so i proceed to tell her so.

me: you have plenty of room. you could have pulled your car up.

her: no, i have no room.

me: yes, you do. you're just rude. for your information, i have a baby in the car... you could
have pulled your car forward just a bit to let me out.

her: i also have a baby.... (i guess you consider 2 or 3 yr olds, babies.... but i dont )

me: you are soooooo rude. i have never met anyone as rude as you.

her: (as i'm getting into my car) being the polite princess bitch that she is politely says, "F*&% you". (what lovely talk coming from a woman w/ a young girl in the car w/ her.... what a lovely example. no wonder life is the way it is w/ so many ppl not giving a crap about anything or anybody!!)

me: whereas, being the nice little sweet angel that i am, said it as loud as i could right back to her. then i got in the car and drove off.... first not w/out facing a ton of cars coming the wrong way in the parking lot and they acted as tho i was going the wrong way. i just sat there and waited... hoping, wishing someone would start a fight w/ me. (yes, i can be quite saucy... i can imagine the headlines.... expatriate mother of 5 mth old gets into physical roll around on cement with baby in the car)

you know... i wish i could think of the right things to say in the moment .... it's always later, right after the fact that i think of the best comebacks. what does that make me? an idiot. you don't even know how bad i wanted to cuss her out. i really did. i know some bad arabic words.... i wish i had the guts to say it, but i know she would have called the police on me. and... yet again i'm showing how i'm that rude american or westerner. and if she called the police, they probably would have arrested me for verbally insulting the bitch.

and... i also wish, if i was in my fantasy world.... that i could have taken my truck and rammed it into her car over and over again.... you know... like that scene in Fried Green Tomatoes ... where whats her face's character does just that .... or gone around and taken her by the hair and banged her face into the steering wheel until her nose was nice and bloody.... while she begged for mercy.....

anyhoo.....

BACK TO MY HAPPY PLACE. :)

Our afternoon

Today we decided to go to Toys R Us to look at the car seat that we have because we couldn't figure out how to lengthen the shoulder straps and to see how long we can use it because Naief is getting big and it seems, to me, like he's outgrown it.

So we head over to the Seef area, park and go inside. I was surprised to see that they've added a Babies R Us area and it has all sorts of developmental toys and such... tons of stuff actually. We also found a Bahraini girl that worked there and she actually knew all about the car seats and was soooo extremely helpful. That is a first and her pleasant attitude really made me rethink that store.

We found out that his car seat is good until 9 mths, altho... if his feet are touching the seat, then it's time for a new one. Since they are, I think we'll have to invest in a new seat w/in a few months. We did find out how to extend his shoulder straps and I found out that our stroller has an easy closer system that I didn't know about and she also showed me how to lower the seat, which I couldn't figure out to save my life. She was so helpful and showed us all the different car seats and we'll probably go w/ one that'll last him thru to age 6 when we buy the next one.

After Toys R Us, we decided to go over to the mall and went in thru Marks & Spencer. It's the first time that I've been to this store... and I've lived here for 4 years! Yeah, I don't shop like I used to... but I really liked this store. When we first went in, we noticed that off to the left of us was a food section. Hashim said that he didn't realize they carried food so we headed over to check it out.

It was all organic or pretty much and I loved all of it. They had tons of really interesting teas and I picked up an English breakfast tea and wanted several others but decided to wait, and then we looked thru their sauces and decided to try a spinach, asparagus and ricotta cheese sauce to put on pasta tonight. I also got some apple, raisin & cinnamon breakfast bars as well as cranberry and orange bars... I can't wait to try these. They had so much stuff there and I wanted to take a little of everything home w/ me... but instead of scaring the hubby, decided to get just a few items until the next time! ;) Oh yeah, they had all kinds of yummy sounding crackers and I just love cheese and crackers, so the next time, I think I'll try many different varieties of these.

And.. as we were walking thru the store to find a cashier, I saw sooo many cute things that I'd just love to have. Gosh, I haven't been clothes shopping in too long and since I'm starting to lose the weight from my pregnancy, new clothes sound rather appealing.

As we were walking thru the mall, we came across the new Play Station 3 so we stopped to check it out. There were a couple of guys playing in front of us and when they left, hubby stepped up and I couldn't help but be amazed at how realistic the game was. Matter of fact, I had to stop watching because I was getting a bit sick - sorta like motion sickness. For any of you game addicts out there... if you haven't seen the new one of this... you're gonna love it! I can only imagine how the hours will pass when Naief gets older and he and his father start playing these games....

I walked over to Mothercare as he played and they had some of the cutest summer clothes for little boys. But seeing that Naief is only 3 mths, I find it hard to buy anything that he'll outgrow within a few months... especially when it costs more than a cute outfit for myself... it's amazing how expensive kid's clothing is!! But... I'd love to have at least one outfit for 3 - 6 mths... just in case .... you mother's know how it is! :)

It was really nice to get outta the house and go walking around the mall. The only thing is... my back still starts to hurt, rather badly, after so long, so I find that I have to leave or take meds to calm it down. Tonight was no exception. I read on the internet weeks ago where some women continue to have back pain for years after having c-sections... I wonder why that is.

Well, dinner is ready and I'm hungry and it smells good. Can't wait to try the new sauce. Before I go, thought I'd leave you w/ a cute pic of Naief from his bath today.