Miscellaneous Life

So I am finally able to catch you all up on the comings, goings, and doings of the Halaby clan. It's been a while so I apologize if things are a little haphazard. Seems my editorial finesse is elsewhere, perhaps hiding behind the bags under my eyes. Lots of room there, ya know. I hope I'll make it up to you by sharing lots of pictures!

Last Saturday was a big day. Maddie turned six weeks old and Jalal and I celebrated our fifth wedding anniversary. Since he had to work that night, we had to wait to actually celebrate until last night. We got a babysitter and went out to dinner. It was nice, especially the bottle of Cabernet. I haven't had a single drink in probably close to a year, so that was wonderful! I don't know if it was the wine or the relief from being out with my husband at dinner and not having to replace anyone's pacifier or ask for the 17th time if someone would please drink his milk. We really had a nice time, only we didn't have time to make it to a movie and we didn't know what else to do, so we just drove around a while and then came home early. We joked about getting a hotel room and just sleeping for a couple of hours, but it was cheaper to just go home and go to bed early. Hah! What a couple of dorks we are.

Maddie is smiling now, and it's adorable. She gives this big gummy grin and her dimple shows, and it just makes my heart melt. It's hard to catch on camera since it's just me trying to make her smile and take the picture at the same time, but here's what I've gotten so far.




Quinn is such a beast now. He has so much energy that he just literally runs around the house slamming into things at random. Whenever I get mad and fed up and tell him to stop doing something, he throws himself on the ground so hard that he ends up hurting himself. Does it make me a bad mom that I don't feel sorry for him one bit at that point?

Ok, to back up to what I've missed. We had our Easter Egg-stravaganza at the Bridge the week before Easter. Quinn had a blast, decorating cookies, coloring pictures, and finding eggs, of course. I love my church. We all feel so at home there. I have friends there who come up to me and say, "Quinn's a little stinky, so I'm going to take him to change him. Where is your diaper bag?" Isn't that crazy? It's amazing that it really doesn't take long to feel like they are family. My pastor's wife, Chris, is awesome. She works at her kids' school, so she had spring break last week. Midweek, she emailed me and emphatically insisted that I take her up on her offer to watch the kids while I go out and do something. I finally agreed and had almost two hours to run not-so-kid-friendly errands, like the Cartridge World, because of course I ran out of ink just as I received my first job after Maddie's birth. I also hit Hallmark because can you imagine me struggling with Maddie while Quinn ran up and down the aisles "reading" cards? Especially now that he knows some of them play music, I can't control him in there. Anyway, so Chris made it through most of his stack of puzzles while Maddie slept the whole time in her swing. It was so great of her to do that.






Speaking of puzzles, Quinn is amazing at them. He mastered his 12 and 20 piece puzzles months ago, but he would do them over and over again. When Trish came up for Maddie's birth, she brought this 48-piece construction scene puzzle from Melissa & Doug, a company I LOVE! I told her it was way too difficult. But it was just a few weeks later that I had to go out and find more of them because he was putting it together so well. I found two more just like it at Ross, a fish one and a dinosaur one. Here we are less than 5 weeks from his first attempt at the first one and now he can put them all together just about as quick as I can. It's crazy!!

We made it to the mall to visit the Easter bunny again this year. It started to look a little iffy with Quinn beginning a minor freak-out, and all I could think of was the Santa Claus fiasco last Christmas. I hate paying more than $20 to have pictures of my kid screaming on the lap of a stranger dressed up like a character. But when we told him he had to show his little sister how it's done and that he could ask the Easter bunny for a "special treat," he changed his tune. They turned out pretty cute. Here are the ones Jalal took.




Easter was really nice. We got a few pics of the kids all dressed up. Miss Maddie looked absolutely adorable in her Easter dress, and Quinn, of course, was quite the handsome little man. After church, we had a lovely traditional Easter dinner. For the first time since we met, Jalal made his mom's baked ham recipe, and I loved it! Those Hawaiians really know what they're doing with that ham and pineapple combo. Mmm mmm starts with M, as Quinn would say. Here are the little lovelies.






Somewhere in there in the last few weeks, we went to a circus in Spartanburg. To be honest, it was a little ghetto. Well, it was sort of half-ghetto/half-redneck. Hope I'm not offending anyone, but we were all abused by the urchins sitting behind and beside us. They were horrible. One little girl even reached over and grabbed a handful of our popcorn!! Seriously? Does anyone teach their children manners anymore? Do you think they have the decency to be ashamed? (The parents, I mean.) Anyway, Quinn had a good time, and he even rode an elephant. I think the next time we'll spend the extra money and go see Barnum and Bailey instead.




Well, I was flattered when I got an email from my contact at Cambria Press two weeks ago asking if I was ready to come back to work for them. I suppose that's a good sign, right? I just finished my first project for them, and wouldn't you know it was in Chinese. It was a good book, actually, but it was literally in Chinese. Well, some of it was. I have now done books that were partly written in Chinese, French, Herati (an Afghan dialect), and math. Yes, that's a language, and one I don't speak. But as stressful as it is watching the dishes and the laundry and the diapers pile up while I work frantically toward a deadline, I am so happy to have work. And I do like this job, so I am glad they like me, too.

Whew! That was a lot. I'm sure there is stuff I've missed, but it's probably minutiae. Like Quinn making Maddie scream when he throws her "teddy bear" (GloWorm) at her and hits her. Or how all of Maddie's pants are about 2 inches too big in the waist and fall off her. Or how we tried to take Quinn to a movie today to see "How to Train a Dragon." How even though we'd just eaten lunch, we had to feed Quinn peanut butter crackers, yogurt-covered raisins, Reese's Pieces, and a lollipop just to make it through the movie. (Don't judge us!) We also have had a couple of play dates with Maureen and Sarah and even met a couple of new moms. So we are making new friends, which is great. Oh, and whoever taught Quinn to say "are we there yet?" can bite me. Okay, time to go to bed. I'm exhausted! You probably are, too, after slogging through this post, which feels huge to me. That'll teach me to wait this long before writing! Love, Us.

Good Broccoli Night

I know I haven't given the whole lowdown on our Christmas around here, but it might have to wait. I've been busy trying to enjoy it rather than blog it. Oh, and working. And cleaning. And emptying out the soon-to-be nursery. And panicking about Maddie's due date just EIGHT WEEKS AWAY!!! Agh! Anyway, I thought I'd just update here with a few things Quinn has said lately that crack me up (though sometimes not at the time).

A couple days before Christmas, I was trying to get some last-minute shopping done for stocking stuffers. Jalal had taken the last four days in a row off, and he took Quinn shopping with him every single day. No problems. He reported that Quinn was a complete angel the entire time. I stayed home and frantically tried to meet deadline on my job. Anyway, so Jalal had gone back to work and I thought I'd take Quinn to hit Marshall's and Ross with me. I was super nice to him that day, taking him to the playground that morning with Sarah and Maureen and getting him a good nap. I made it through the first 10 minutes with only minor whining, even letting him walk along with the cart instead of sitting in it until he was ready. Then he pretty much wound down into full-scale temper tantrum. It was not one of those "I'm not getting what I want" tantrums, though. It was more like an "I don't feel good and I don't want to be here and I can't have mom thinking she can just take me somewhere and I'll behave" kind of tantrum. It was the kind where I actually picked him up and held him (though he is just over the 30-pound weight limit I'm supposed to not lift) and begged him to tell me what was wrong. It ended with me dumping the stuff I'd picked up already onto a shelf and rushing him out the store still in my arms. I say "rushing" but by the time I reached the parking lot, I had slowed down considerably as a result of the severe pain in my lower back. Now remember that I'm "slightly" hormonal lately, so by the time we reached the car, I was crying as hard as Quinn was. While I tried to calm down enough that my glasses would stop fogging up and I could drive home, Quinn started asking if he could watch Bob and Larry (VeggieTales). I was so frustrated that I couldn't get in half an hour of shopping that I pretty much cried all the way home. Quinn kept asking me, "Mama, you happy? You happy crying?" Um, no.

So, we are going through phases of no eating again. I call it the cheese and bread diet. No shortage of starch here. He hadn't eaten veggies in a few days, but I kept trying. Last night, I made him a cheeseburger and broccoli. At first, he ate the bread (big surprise). He tried to get to the cheese, but it was too melted to the meat. Then he finally ate some of the burger. Just when I was about to give up hope, I tried bribery. I told him if he ate two tiny pieces of broccoli, he could have dessert. He said, "How bout COOKIES!" Sure, cookies, I told him. About five minutes later, when I had said "Oh well, maybe tomorrow," he picked up a large piece of broccoli and proceeded to shove it all in his mouth, finishing the entire portion in about 12 seconds. Needless to say, he got his cookie, along with a second helping of broccoli (he asked for it!). I said that was a good dinner and I was proud of him. He said, "Yeah, Mama. Good broccoli night!" I'll say.

When I tried to tell Quinn about going to church on Christmas Eve and singing songs for baby Jesus, he started right away on "Rock a Bye Baby." Not a bad guess, but not quite. Before we went to bed that night, I read the Christmas story from the Book of Luke, and though he sat on his stepstool and tried to pay attention, it really was very annoying as he tried to "read" along with me. That's his new thing, trying to predict what I'm going to say and speaking along with me. Fun. He then made Jalal's reading of "The Night Before Christmas" last for about 20 minutes because he had to narrate everything happening on every single page of the book. That kid really never shuts up! He certainly inherited a lot of Langston in that respect. The other day, he had a long conversation with himself in the backseat on the way home from church. He even imitated bits of a conversation that we had with him about 3 weeks ago about jet trails looking like "two sides of a triangle" (his observation), after which Jalal or I laughed and said, "It sure does." He copies the laugh and all. Creepy.

When we opened presents on Christmas morning, he got a lot of boxes. Every time he peeled back the paper, he said, "A box! . . . about Mickey Mouse!" (or whatever he saw on the box). He opened the box to a game of Memory and said, "A box about two dragons!" It was terribly cute.

Well, that's all I'm going to write about tonight. Just a teaser. Hopefully more soon. Merry fourth day of Christmas! Love, Us.

Sunday! Sunday! Sunday!

Jalal had to work today, so Quinn and I went to church by ourselves. He was kind of tired before we even left, and he was not in a great mood. He started crying when we got to the nursery. Poor kid. Usually he is ready to run away from us and go play. A couple of weeks ago, he ran in as happy as could be and then freaked out. Jalal had to take him outside to calm him down. It was so out of the blue and unlike him that I wasn't really sure what to do. Today he just took a little distraction before he was fine.

During the sermon, one of the musicians, the violin player, came and sat down next to me. It was really nice since I was sitting alone. After I picked up Quinn from the nursery, I went back in the sanctuary and introduced myself. It was nice to meet another person face to face. I'm getting there! Maybe I'll start going to the women's Bible study or something soon. (Oh, and I always peek in the window trying to see Quinn before he sees me. He saw me right away today and ran across the room pointing and yelling "Mama!" The adults in there thought it was so funny. There's no need for nametags with that kind of reaction!

Yesterday was Supermom day. I haven't gotten that much stuff done in one day ever (or at least as long as I can remember). I emptied the dishwasher, filled the dishwasher, washed all the pots and pans, baked cookies (oatmeal chocolate chip!, and no I haven't eaten them all yet), vacuumed the whole downstairs, did two loads of laundry, finished an edit, ironed 6 shirts and a pair of pants, and took a 30-minute walk with Maureen, after which we let the kids play. Woohoo!

Oh, and saving the best news for last, I got a job! Another freelance job that I can do from home. It's with an educational media company proofreading flashcards. It's way more intense than I expected when I applied, but I already got work from them! I'm currently edited flashcards about business and marketing for the Praxis II. Here's to taking exactly a year to find something to do other than Arcadia! Man, when people said freelancing was hard to break into, they weren't kidding. All the more reason to be grateful that I've been able to stay home with Quinn for the past year. I have to go on a recycling run now. Love, Us.