hot iced tea on a sick day

aliyah's home from school today with a cold.

i asked her if she wanted some chaee ("tea" in farsi)

and she said, "no. i want some hot iced tea."

aliyah at five

big things like first tooth falling and starting kindergarten are easy to remember, but the little things that happen so frequently you almost don't notice them anymore can be forgotten, such as:



language

• aliyah makes her past tense by putting "was" before everything. was be, was go, was say... "mommy! iiiii was saaaaay, i am eating it!" i'm now correcting her and she's starting to say the verbs correctly, but it's been sweet to enjoy while it was happen. :)


• american idol: "amiracle idol"


• "next time" for anything in the future, whether it be later, tomorrow or next month.


• "traffic" in farsi is the same word but with a french-like accent. so when she tosses the persian pronunciation it into her english speech there's a bit of sophistication that's so beautiful.
• aliyah rarely refers to keon by name (though she does address him by name). instead she says "my brahder" with a strange swedish accent

movement

• when she runs in the house whether it be to go put on her pajamas or get to the toilet in time, she ever so slowly and daintily flaps her arms like she's a fairy in flight. it's funny when her legs are scampering but her arms are smoothly fluttering.

habits

• aliyah's routine in the morning is to get ready before keon and i are ready in order to "watch elmo" (go on sesamestreet.com and play games and watch videos).


• when keon and i are ready, aliyah always unlocks and opens the door and presses the elevator button.


• for some reason she always pushes the coffee table flush against the sofa when she watches a video in the living room.


• every day she eats cucumbers, carrots and cherry tomotoes as part of her school snack.

these are the little things that make up much of our days.

when i grow up

the other day i was driving aliyah to school before taking keon to the speech therapist (or 'doctor' as i refer to the therapist to aliyah) and after several minutes of being quiet she said,

"mommy, when i be big and a mommy and keon be big like a daddy, how do i take him to the doctor?"

our boy is in good hands. :)

hide and seek

last week aliyah and layla played some good ol' fashion "hide and seek" except aliyah didn't quite get it. when layla would count, aliyah would find a hiding place and then call out, "ok! i'm hiding!" or "come find me!" if i managed to keep her from announcing where she was, it was hard not to hear her giggles and chuckles knowing layla was looking for her.

layla would find her and usually tell her, "that's not a good hiding place, aliyah." so today when layla suggested to aliyah and zane, "let's play hide and seek!" aliyah said, "ok, but layla, can you tell me where to hide?"

now aliyah and layla are hiding together while zane counts. only thing is that first they hide and then call out to zane from the laundry room, behind the curtain or under the table, "ok zane! START COUNTING!"

i'm sure they'll get it eventually.

proud child

aliyah's english is inching along (as is her farsi, italian, hebrew and now, sign language). she definitely understands that "proud" means an intense feeling of joy and satisfaction. today she told us, "mommy and papa, i'm so very proud of you for taking me to the beach today."

it was her first visit to the beach this year.

strong

today aliyah saw a video clip of an extremely obese woman whose arms had several rolls of fat on them. her reaction: "mommy, she's so strong!" she thought the rolls of fat were muscles like on her hercules action figure. always nice to see her fresh and innocent perception of things.

ayyam-i-ha 2009

aliyah celebrated ayyam-i-ha this year at a party for the bwc families where she ate pizza, played with balloons, and had her nails painted for the first time.