my world's aaaa changin'

boy, has my world been changing! you wouldn't think a little thing like walking could bring such change, soooo soon!! this little one has become a new little boy w/ the onset of walking. i'm sure it's his newfound independence, having mommy twisted around his little pinky and realizing there's a whole new world that's opened up to him. phew.... it's exhausting!

he can't run yet... thank gawd, but i can see it coming, and i'm hoping/praying that it's not for a good few months.

now, any time we go someplace, he no longer wants to sit in the stroller for very long, doesn't want to ride in the cart and hates to be held. he'll twist his body around, bend backwards and forwards, and from side to side until you let him down. once he's down, he's gone. when we go to Geant, somehow, someway, this little boy knows exactly how to get to the toy area. it's like there's a little radar beacon that pulls him to where the toy house is and once he gets there, it's like pulling his little baby teeth to get him out of it. he throws little fits when daddy gets him out, tightens his back and screams until we're practically out of the store!!

what happened to my sweet little angel???? he's disappeared and this little independent monster has taken his place.

everything is changing. he now refuses to let me feed him (which i know is a good thing), but the thing is... most days he doesn't get the food to his mouth and winds up not getting much to eat, unless i help, but he's soo stubborn and independent that he wont let me... (but that has been changing somewhat!!). he has started to refuse to sit in his highchair, insisting on either sitting on my lap to eat or to eat in one of the other chairs or i put his plate on the chair and he'll eat while he's on the go.... from room to room, that is.

he calls me at least a 100 times a day, and if i'm doing something and don't go to him immediately, he'll scream it over and over until i'm right in front of him - sometimes not even stopping when that happens. it wore me out for the first couple of weeks. i found myself losing patience, not knowing what to do and he could sense it. the more i got frustrated, the more he'd do it. it was rough at first.... very rough.

we've both calmed down now... well, at least for the last couple of days. today and yesterday were the best days by far. i've realized that losing patience and getting upset does nothing for me.... nor him for that matter. i have finally let go of this internal need of mine to get it all done by the end of the day. i've realized it's impossible, especially when you're caring for a small child. yeah, yeah... why did it take me so long to figure this one out?? because i'm a perfectionist... wanting to clean the house, do the laundry and watch naief... thinking/believing that other mothers do it, so i should be able to as well. but i can't. so, i've let go of having the house perfect. spending more time w/ naief is the most important thing, and it pays off. he isn't as moody, is much calmer - which, in turn, creates more calmness in the house, and it makes me happy too. now... i'm hoping that i can maintain this imperfect house w/out beating myself up about it....

he's changing in some really sweet ways as well.... he has started noticing bugs now. hates them! just like his daddy. he will call me to where ever he is and point to the ant on the floor - so i kill it - and the other evening we were outside while daddy was watering and he actually did his little body in a shiver motion when he saw this big black bug... it was sooo cute. he yelled for me and screamed a little when he thought he'd actually have to walk by it. he saw some kind of bug today when we were doing laundry and refused to move. i'm so hoping that it's a phase and he doesn't have a lifelong fear of bugs! but hey... i hate some of them and we all know his daddy is terrified of bugs!! ;) so, he probably will. we also bought him this little, red convertible roadster car (plastic) that can be controlled by hashim. he loves it. we went out walking yesterday evening and he rode around in that thing for about an hour 1/2 - not wanting to come out when it was time.

but anyhoo... can NOT believe this hot weather. we were out yesterday and the temp dodad inside the car said it was 49 outside... what is that.... like 120 F??? it was terrible. i hate this hot weather.

Sexual Abuse/Molestation in Bahrain

I've been waiting to write this blog entry... hoping that someone else would beat me to the punch, but as of yet, I've not read anything about what's happening in this country.

Today I read on Ammaro's blog about a guy in Berlin or someplace in Germany that was given a job at a kindergarten after being sentenced for sexually molesting children, and what did this guy do??? You got it... he turned around and abused two children at this school. Who would have thunk it.... imagine... he's a predator and the best job for him is at a school. Oh but wait... he was a janitor.... how could a janitor sexually abuse children?!!!!

So... the story goes.

Well... I guess about a month ago, I read in the GDN about how some Bahraini guy had sexually molested a child and been given 5 yrs for the offense. But after judges reviewed his case, it was lowered to one year because they felt like he was suffering from a mental problem. Poor guy... must be terrible being a victim of such mental problems!

I know what can fix that for 'em tho... let's castrate the guy... and hey, maybe Bahrain should take a lead from Saudi and do it in a public place for all to see. That might fix his little problem and keep him away from other children... you think?!!

I'm appalled at this ruling. I don't know how anyone in their right mind could lower the sentence of such an animal. Here he's damaged a child and that child will have the scar for the rest of their life - in one form or another - but he's given leniency by the judge and his sentence is lowered to one year. ONE FREAKIN YEAR!!!!!!!

But ppl who sale drugs are given 10 yrs in prison and then deported. Where's the logic in that? Who the hell cares about drugs and ppl who are using when you have pedophiles running loose???? And no one gives a damn about it!

Here you have ppl out protesting almost every weekend about something... either not having jobs, about America, about Israel, about Lebanon... but NO ONE protests about these ppl - the child molesters/rapists/pedophiles walking the streets! And why the hell not???? Why doesn't anyone give a damn about this?

Here the child will live w/ this for the rest of their lives. They'll suffer post traumatic stress syndrome from it off and on for years to come, if not all of their lives, live in fear and shame, probably will be treated as a leper from ppl in their community - since the victim is probably blamed in this country or seen as someone who asked for it - but the man who committed this crime is walking free... only to strike again, I would bet my life on.

I get so sick when I read about this crap in the paper... and you have ppl in high powered positions not giving a damn.... usually caring more about getting their pics in the paper for giving money away to this charity or that organization.... but when I sit back and think about it, I really start to wonder why there isn't someone standing up for these children? Where is their voice? Where are their parents???? Why in the hell don't they care? I guess it's swept under the carpet like everything else.... and praying that no one finds out that it was their child who was raped/molested....

instead of getting out there and doing something about it. Why aren't these pedophiles black listed? Why aren't their laws to keep these ppl in jail? Why aren't they shamed at every street corner? Why don't ppl know where they live to protect their children???

It's sad... really sad. I wonder what will happen when and if children ever start disappearing here... oh but wait... that's already happened and what came of it?!! What about when and if children start being killed by such criminals... all of them out to molest/rape a child and then it gets outta hand and they kill the child... or their whole intent was to kill the child. If you don't think it'll happen one day, you are blinded by your rose colored glasses or you need to pull your head outta your ass and get a freakin clue as to where this country is going UNLESS ppl do something about this!

Wake up ppl!!!!! There are child molesters roaming your streets... and their hurting your children!

hooo hummmm

life has been pretty uneventful as of late. the only thing to really blog about is that i'm gonna do what my grandmother did to me and rub a dirty dish cloth on naief's hands and bury it either tonight or tomorrow night w/ the full moon. it looks like he has a small wart of some sort on his little hand and in order to get rid of it, i'm taking on some american indian traditions/customs to see if it'll get rid of it and any prospect of future warts and such.

naief is sick again. caught it from his cousin a few days back. hashim is sick as well. maybe the baby caught it from him... not sure... but either way, both hubby and baby are sick again and i'm hoping that i don't catch it. naief has been running a high fever which finally broke lastnight. the other night he was so hot i had to send hashim out at 4 a.m. to pick up panadol. poor little guy was whimpering and laying on me... it's a horrible feeling when your child is sick and he can't talk and you really don't know what to do other than give him meds to bring down his fever. i'm glad though coz it's under control now and he's feeling better. so is daddy.

i cut my hair again and dyed it really dark brown. i was ready for a change and instead of cutting it really short (the way i used to wear it), i decided to go in between and do a short classic bob and try a different color on.... i like it. it's sassy and fun, and easy to deal w/, which, at the moment, is my number one priority.

naief has been getting to know his cousins well. one cousin tries to bite him, hit him, punch him, pinch him... anything to be mean, so i find that after iftar, my time is spent trying to keep his cousin from hurting him. daddy has gotten involved and FINALLY his father (the cousin's) has gotten involved (or did lastnight), so i'm hoping that this little boy will start to be nice at some point. my question is... what makes little kids be so mean?! i have my own ideas about the matter.... but i find that i have to watch him intensely or he'll wind up biting naief. he's bitten some kids at the school, time and time again, matter of fact, so... i just hope he doesn't bite the baby. i told him this morning that if he bites naief that i will bite him back. and i have a mind to do it!! might teach him to stop biting.... or maybe make him more mean....

i've actually been enjoying ramadan this year and my favorite part has been dinner. my MIL cooks so good and i love her food... i know i've gained at least 5 lbs so far. my sister has started an intense diet and i've thought about doing it, but during ramadan it's almost impossible to diet. i keep telling myself that i'm gonna lose this baby fat... but to lose it means getting off my butt and working out which i have done nothing of.... maybe i can learn to love my fat.... i'm thinking not though :)

naief is changing so fast. he has started to use his index finger and thumb to grab things, adores the cats (they're afraid of him for the most part), loves all kinds of foods, and is cutting his eye teeth now. lastnight he cried for almost 30 mins straight, if not longer, while he was going to sleep. i thought i'd lose it after a while, so daddy got up and walked him around for a while.... as he continued to cry, and then, by some miracle, he finally fell to sleep. cutting teeth is such a difficult thing. all children are different and feel pain differently.... he loves to bite mommy and has bitten me on my arm a couple of times and on my stomach once.... i just hope this biting is a teething thing and stops after a while.... for i find that when a child bites, it's hard to stop that. he's not biting to be mean though... thankfully... and i hope it never goes to that.

anyway... that's about it. i don't wanna bore everyone to tears... so that's my life inna nutshell for the time being :)

happy day everyone... i'll post a few pics of naief in a day or so.