1. I’m taking care of Hassan.

(P.s. Four days ago he fell ill with a cough, a sudden fever the next day and finally a runny nose)

Or …

2. I’m ill.

Hassan’s so into cars now. He’s fascinated with lorries, buses and tractors. His new favourite movie is Cars and his new favourite show is Thomas the tank engine.

New words:

1. Sayara debeera - big car

2. Tayara - plane

3. Seekal - bike (This one’s for Marzouq)

4. Thomas

5. Bus

I have to wake up in a few hours so I could take my son for another haircut. The first one he had wasn’t that great. I thought if I went to a nearby kid’s hair salon then I won’t wait too long and I didn’t but once the guy was done, Hassan’s hair looked the same as it was before. That’s for being lazy!

Happy Eid to all of you!

Hassan’s up early today and I didn’t feel like getting up but I had to. There goes my chance to shower!

Hassan grabs at the kid’s eyeballs without reason, his teacher is complaining and some parents have come forth and complained about my son’s violent behaviour. Today I talked to him and asked him not to beat up kids, I told him to behave. What should I do? Should I take him out before they kick him out? I’ve noticed he’s not social at all and most of the time he’s on his own. Kids are so scared of him. They probably have nightmares of him too! I’m afraid he’ll turn into a bully. I don’t want my child to hit other kids except in self-defense. I don’t use much force with him. I might shout, pretend I’m very cross and spank him if he’s done a very bad thing like playing with an electricity socket or pulling at my hair. Some parents burn their kids with a match as a form of punishment and tell me they love their kids to death, that’s abuse. I’m not like that and I don’t think I’m spoiling him? Is it too early to worry about this?

Since his birth and I’ve had major problems getting him to go to sleep. Madree leeesh! Here are some important guidelines that worked with me but trust me it’s not easy:

- Don’t leave your child napping for more than an hour & a half.

- If he naps make sure it’s noon time or anytime in the morning not later than that because he won’t sleep at night. 

- Make sure his last meal is 7 pm or earlier because a full tummy helps kids fall asleep easily.

If I want my kid to fall asleep at 7pm he ends up sleeping at 8pm. So it really depends on the kid himself, mine is one stubborn one!

I was trying my best to put Hassan to bed as early as possible because he had to go to the nursery the next day and he was just not getting enough sleep, so I managed to keep him up until 6:30pm. I took him to Wonderland with my little nephew then to my sister’s place to have dinner. On my way back he slept in the car. I was so relieved because it kinda worked except around 10pm he started to twist and turn in bed, so I had to pretend I was asleep for almost an hour! That kinda worked too but only thing I slept! Actually I woke up to brush my teeth and dozed off again!