The Father Factor

Children share an amazing bond with their fathers, and this goes double time for daughters. Even though mothers work 24 hours to ensure that the baby is fed, cleaned, bathed, happy and healthy... it's the dads that get all the glory. I can't remember Iman jumping up, all smiles and excited when I walk into the room...

Is it because the poor child is so happy to see another face come home after the whole day, or is there really a deeper connection between father and child?

Last week Omair had to go on a business trip to Bahrain, and I was left to man the homefront. The first day that Omair was out of the house, Iman fell sick with a fever. There were no other symptoms, just the fever. Then when I put her to bed in the night, she kept waking up and crying. NON STOP CRYING!! And no matter how hard I tried and how silly I behaved... I couldn't get her to laugh wholeheartedly... the way she does with Omair.

This went on for the 5 days that Omair was away. And on the 6th day when he returned... all of Iman's symptoms disapeared. *POOF* just like that she was all better. She slept well that night, the fever was gone and she was as happy as a puppy!

Dads do make life better :)

Shopping for PJ's

It's a well known fact that there is far more variety out there to buy when it comes to shopping for a girl. It's a WHOLE other ball game when you're shopping for your BABY GIRL.

Despite the fact that Iman gets showered with clothes and accessories from her Khalas, Phuppi's and all other forms of Aunts, I still can't help but indulge myself every time I go shopping. Children’s clothes are so adorable that I keep convincing Omair that Iman "really needs" that shirt, or... she "must have" that jacket, or my personal favorite... she's got a top that goes with those shorts, so I "have to" buy it to complete the outfit, otherwise the top will go to waste (tee hee hee).

Sorry, what to do? I'm not even a shopper, but if you take me to the children's section I'll show you WILD!!

Recently we had to re-stock Iman's bedtime pajama's. I was literally giddy at the thought that I "had to" buy 7 sets (one for each day of the week, of course!). Baby PJ's are soooooooooo CUTE!! I must have picked up 20 sets before we went through the tough screening process, and then finally 7 made the cut.

I'm adding a picture of our little one in her new nightwear. If you look closely you'll see the cute baby bunnies on the soft powder blue.

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Natural disasters bring a lot of humbleness and humility into our lives. As we sit and watch the devastation of South Asia’s earthquake on TV, it’s hard to ignore the fact that in the past couple of years there have been more natural disaster than I can remember in my entire life. Starting with the Tsunami and ending with Katrina, that left the world’s most advanced nation helpless and now the earthquake. Are we really as strong and prepared as we think?

The revelation of the end of times has suggested that there will come an era in man’s life when natural disasters will increase in quantity and damage. I can’t help but remember that the end is always near, but suddenly it seems as though we are rounding the corner to it.

Its times like this that I wonder, what are we leaving behind for our children? We live in a world where we have no sense of morals or values. This is the age of unmarried pregnant teens. Broken families where affairs and infidelity are household words. It’s an age of drug and alcohol abuse. We’ve stopped caring for our elderly; mothers no longer invest their time and effort to raise their children. We put ourselves before others and we’ve become more materialistic today than we have ever been before.

I wish I could tell my daughter that the world is a wonderful place, but that would be lying. And we promised we would never lie to her. I just hope that amidst all this sadness and disturbing images on TV she can learn that there are good things in the world , but now we just have to look harder for them than before.

Night Scares and Nightmares

Another part of toddler-ism is getting used to a full night of sleep, which can be easily disturbed by a night scare or a nightmare, two VERY different things.

For a few nights, Iman has had night scares. In the dead of night, while she was sleeping, Iman started crying. Not just "sniff sniff" but full fledge CRYING. Trying to do the right thing, I went and picked her up from her crib to comfort her, and she fought her way down (sleeping all the while) and when a set her on the bed and tried to hug or hold her, she pushed me and my hand away. Since I found all this really confusing, I went to my trusted website and looked up the problem and found my answers...

So I am here to enlighten you with the difference between the two. Night scares (also called night terrors) occur when the baby is sleeping. Since she is asleep, if you try to hold her and comfort her, she gets even MORE scared, meaning... she's dreaming of a monster, and then some hands come and grab her and try to pick her up. In her dream, she doesn't know that it's me, so she thinks the monster is grabbing her and picking her up and it scares her even more.

Result: If your baby is having a "night scare" let her be. She'll scream it out and then continue sleeping. DO NOT attempt to pick her up or hold her, it might cause her to get even more scared.

Nightmare, is (as we all know) a bad dream. In this case your child will wake up crying or visibly upset. You should go to her, hug and comfort her, and if your toddler can talk, ask them what happened and then help them resolve the issue, for example "there is a monster under my bed", show her the space under her bed so she can be assured that there are no monsters.

Result: A nightmare must be comforted. It is your responsibiltiy to resolve it and assure your child that she is safe.

Now that you are all a little more wiser, you can thank me when your toddler cries in the middle of th night and you can tell the difference between a night scare and a nightmare (NOTE: child may also wake up sick or cold or hot or feverish or hungry, etc. then the above information does not apply). Whoever thought parenting was easy... think again.