my baby turns 7 + tips for making birthdays special

Lately, I’ve been starting to get an itch to blog again.. I think I miss it.. BUT I also feel like I’m finally at the point where my business self + blogger self, feel like the same person. That is probably going to sound crazy to you because well it sounds crazy. Will share more about that another time but tonight just wanted to share these photos from my girl’s birthday morning. This is a little photo-heavy and long, because I don’t know how to do short conversations, haha.

Unless this is the first time you’re here, you probably know already my love for making family traditions. I love finding rituals to repeat year after year and have always put out balloons in her room for her to wake up to on her birthday. Its even more enjoyable now that she expects that and even asks for it.

Of course, that does make me want to mix things up a little bit to keep them interesting.

So this year, my husband filled up the balloons I had ordered from Amazon and once she was asleep,  I got to work hanging them from the ceiling + adding some more simple decor in her room like the birthday message on her wall (I pinned such a pretty version of this but ended up with this super last minute, made-in-a-rush version but well).

Recently she has often asked if I can bring breakfast for her in bed and I have to always tell her there’s no time for that so naturally that felt like the perfect way to wake her up! A tray of nutella crepes breakfast + berries with whipped cream + brought her a little something to wear too as well. Oh and the first clue for the birthday gift treasure hunt!

Random unnecessary fact: I believe in wearing new clothes on our birthdays .. doesn’t matter if they’re bought on a sale or if it’s nothing fancy, as long as your birthday is the first time you wear it!

I did the birthday gift treasure hunt on her 5th birthday for the first time and didn’t know it would be such a hit for her! She absolutely loves the tradition now.. and running around the whole house as fast as she can, figuring out the clues leading up to her gift!

This was the first year, we didn’t really have anything big in mind to get for her (I like to wait for birthdays or special occasions to buy any special items she has been wanting) so I ordered this party light / bluetooth speaker for her. I know my babe and her love for her Disney music and I just KNEW she’d love it.

Here’s a link to the light since so many have asked about it on insta-stories. We can connect it to my phone and play her favorite Disney music channel on Play Music or her favorite podcasts. It also can play from USB so we’ve added music to that too. My husband is very particular about not putting Alexa / Google Home in her room since there’s no way to make sure the songs that play are appropriate for kids so this has been the best solution for her!

When I’d asked her in the weeks before what she wanted to do on her birthday since it would be a weekend too she had asked for something animals related. I had originally planned for Northwest Wildlife Trek but found out it was closed because of Presidents’ Day, so we ended up at Point Defiance Zoo + Aquarium.

It was so chilly but absolutely beautiful and we really had a good time walking around and hearing her random animal facts about some of the animals we saw!

After dinner that night, I spontaneously set up this ‘party’ in our dining room for her to cut the cake. Bilal got her to pick it at Whole Foods the day before. She walked in excitedly telling me ‘were you planning all of this?’ when this was the one part of the day I had not been planning. One thing lead to another and it just happened. Just like life and the way these babies grow up right in front of the eyes, no planning.. just happens!

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IDEAS FOR MAKING BIRTHDAYS AT HOME FEEL SPECIAL

1. Set up a birthday morning surprise (love this / this )
2. Decorate their room! Balloons, string lights, a simple banner; make everything feel festive.
3. Let them choose a birthday cake / cupcake / donut whatever they’d like.
4. Set up a treasure hunt to find their birthday gift.
5. Write them a letter and give them on their birthday.
6. If you live far from family set up a video-call celebration OR have everyone send them video messages that you can play for them.
7. Let them choose the main meal of the day or all meals if you’re a cool mom!
8. Tell them the story of the day they were born (leave out as many of the gory details as you’d like lol / inspiration: gilmore girls ).
9. If you love taking pictures, make time for a ‘birthday photo session’ (this)
10. Before they go to bed that night, read out any/all of the birthday wishes you received for them 🙂

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Thanks for following along all these years sweet friends and please do remember her and our family in your prayers! I hope to be dropping in randomly a little more often.

Hope you guys have been well.

Lots of love.

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ALSO: STORY OF HER 6th / 5th / 4th / 3rd / 2nd BIRTHDAYS.

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Singing into Slumber. A collection of our favorite Urdu lullabies

One favorite childhood memory is of bedtime when my mom used to lie down with us every night. She would tell us a story followed by a few loris (lullaby) she would sing to us as we drifted off to sleep. Nadiya and I would get to take turns to choose the story and I remember how irritated I used to feel because she would always pick Goldilocks and the Three Bears. I don’t blame her now though because mama told that one really well! When I had the top bunk bed I hated that mama couldn’t lay with me so she invented this system where she tied a dupatta to the top side and every time I tugged at it, she would give it a little tug back so I knew she was there. She would lay with us for a while and usually, we’d drift off with her lying in bed with us but once in a while, I remember watching as she quietly slipped out of the room. And she did this for us, lay with us for bedtime till I was at least 12 I think. The loris (lullabies), were a few favorites of hers which she would sing to us almost daily and they have stayed with us after all these years. We still remember them so well and I have sung them for Anya over the years. Among them is one that my nani (maternal grandmother) made up in her sweetest broken Urdu for me when I was a baby. As we got older sometimes we would complain and ask mama to sing us happier songs so she would laugh and sing the latest Shehzad Roy songs for us (Here’s an example. Major nostalgia warning if you grew up around the same time). It was a very happy, peaceful time and even remembering it now gives me the same, ‘feeling very safe’ feels.

I myself though, have had a love/hate relationship with bedtimes with my girl. Anya has always had a hard time falling asleep and I haven’t been the most patient mom in handling that and so our bedtimes haven’t been quite so peaceful. But even then I have enjoyed singing the same loris that my mom sang to us after I lie down with her and we say duas and cuddle together.

Here are some of the loris that my mom used to sing to us + a few that I love singing to her at bedtime.

MAMA’S LORIS

Chanda kahe Lori mei

Do akhiyan yeh do sakhiyan

My nani’s Meri Rani I love You

 

MY ADDITIONS

Uzair Jaswal’s So Ja

Kaavish’s Nindiya Re

Junoon’s Neend Ati Nahi // Also love Zoe Viccaji’s cover of Neend Ati Nahi

Do you have any favorite bedtime memories? Do you sing loris to your little ones? I would love to hear especially if you have any Urdu lori recommendations. Would love to add more to our collection:):)

Thanks for reading. Lots of love

ALSO My husband’s music because some of the tracks make for great relaxation music //

ALSO FROM PREVIOUSLY ON THE BLOG: These road trip memories  // Big memories from the almost decade spent in our little house  //  A friendship story + lots of memories // Scents and memories from a family reunion // Memories of my mother-in-law

a DIY tee from Anya to her daddy.

Last year, Bilal’s birthday came on our first full day in this house. You can imagine how crazy things were on that first day, surrounded by boxes and chaos! In the midst of packing, a week or so before that when I asked Anya what she wanted to make / do for baba for his big day, she told me she wanted to make a t-shirt (they both had a joke between them about making t-shirts for each other and so it made even more sense) and the wheels started turning in my head. Anya was super excited about her gift and I thought I would share it here today.

MAKING OF THE T-SHIRT

Supplies

A White Tee from Bilal’s closet (He buys them in bulk so we knew he wouldn’t miss one:p) / Black Fabric Marker (Available at Joanns or Michaels) / Pencil or Fabric Chalk / A ruler /

I know my girl has a strong mind but I wanted to give her some guidance in the project so it’s something that her daddy is more likely to wear, in the house at least. At the same time though, I wanted it to be ‘her’ project and didn’t want my ‘need for perfect’ to come in the way of its cute-ness.

 

The Process

I began by asking her what she wanted to write (had to make sure I didn’t correct her and use her words as-is because they are what make this project special).

I searched for ideas on Pinterest, and wrote / drew a few designs I liked on paper for her to choose from.

She was a little nervous about the writing so I wrote the words out with pencil and let her trace them over with the fabric marker. Of course, she added a few details on her own in the end (see that little flower?).

Rolled it in some pretty paper for a simple wrapping and waited for the big day to arrive.

// Don’t forget to iron out the t-shirt + add a cardboard in-between before you start using your marker //

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And here’s the simple breakfast celebration (using our ever-ready party supplies box) we had that morning. It is fun to look back on these photos now to see how different the place looks now. Will try to share more from how it looks like now soon :):)

Thanks for reading you guys.

I just might drop in more often from now on, let’s see how it goes. But all those messages you send, letting me know you miss my blogs.. warms up my heart, really! hugs.

Lots of love.

ALSO FROM PREVIOUSLY ON THE BLOG: THIS DIY PILLOW COVER IDEA / THIS ADORABLE HAND-DRAWN STUFFIE FOR ANYA / PAINTING HANDMADE STUFFIES CRAFT FOR ANYA’S 4TH BIRTHDAY PLAYDATE

O Pakistan

To Pakistan. To the country the great Jinnah gave his life for. To the soil of the motherland and to finally understanding the love for the mitti¹ as our elders used to say, that overwhelming feeling as you step out of the airplane and the airport. Through the smoky air, through the very Pakistani smells, you can almost feel it. These are your people, this is your land, your language, your history. This is your home, my home.

To Pakistan. To home. Because more than anything, that is what it will always mean to most of us. Wherever we will go, whatever we become, the one place where we will always be welcomed, will be this. Like they say, you can take yourself out of the land, but never the land out of yourself.

all photos from our time in Bahawalpur in December 2013.

To the people, the land, the food, the beginning of our stories. To all that is good about it that we can never forget. To the country that continues to survive because of the hundreds and thousands of nameless everyday heroes that work for it and get forgotten amid the stories of the many that malign its name. And to the resilience and the courage of its people, to continue in the face of turmoil.

And to all of us that began our stories there, from its cities and its colleges and its universities, but then moved on to greener pastures, may each of us from our corners of the world, find something we can do for its cause and its people. We owe it to it’s mitti.

A very happy Independence Day² to all the Pakistanis from around the world.

Thanks for reading and much love.

THIS IS ANOTHER REPOST FROM MY PREVIOUS BLOG

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FYI

¹Mitti is an Urdu world that means the soil.

²Independence Day observed annually on August 14, is a national holiday in Pakistan, commemorating the day when Pakistan achieved independence and was declared a sovereign nation, following the end of the British Raj in 1947.

Little House. Big Memories

If you follow along on my Instagram, you might know that we moved from our home of 9 years last summers. Sharing this kind-of photo tour along with some memories today.

Last year after living in our little rambler for over 9 years we switched houses and moved to a nearby city. It has been a crazy time but things are settling down now. Alhamdullilah we will always look back on our memories from this home with nostalgia. Up till very recently Anya has told us how much she misses ‘the old house’ almost daily.

Amidst the craziness of our move and as we wrapped up our life in our little house, I kept thinking of all the years we had spent there. It was our first little home.. where we got to understand each other a little bit more every day as we celebrated that first year of being married.. It was where we enjoyed visits from our loved ones, my parents and sisters.. including the only family reunion in Seattle (that visit became my dad’s first and only visit to us), Anya’s first meeting with her very favorite taaya and recently her cousin visited with her husband two years in a row.. All those heart-to-hearts over cups of tea + chatting late into the night in our little living room on these family visits. We spent our life when it was just the two of us here, where Bilal and I would be up all night watching tv and doing stuff like there was never anywhere we needed to be the next day.. Where we longed for a baby and then prepared to welcome our little girl, where those lazy-hazy newborn days were spent.. with my mom + sisters who came to help us and made their first memories with Anya.. Where my baby learned to sit and crawl and walk and talk and spent her preschool years.. This was the house where I started dreaming of my photography business and worked in its little study as I finally registered it. Where we were when the news of Bilal’s father’s death came.. Where I found out my father has cancer, where we returned to after losing our respective parents.

..So many.. little + big / happy + sad.. memories.. all against the backdrop of this house. My guess is Anya’s very first memories will contain this house in them 🙂

Is it just me or does anyone else feel like that too? Like so many little memories were connected to that house / those rooms / those streets and that town.. I have a picture of Papa that my mom took, where he’s lying in bed in that same corner where Anya’s bed was later on, photos of mama painting in the guest room which later turned into my little miss A’s room room.. All those videos of Anya lying / sitting / crawling / walking and then doing all those little funny antics of hers in the middle of our living room.

(All these photos above taken on my cellphone for when we were listing our house. )

Little first house of ours.. Despite your little quirks and all the things we dreamed of changing but never got round to..  you were so very special and such a big part of our story those 9+ years. Thank you for all those memories.

Thanks for stopping by sweet readers, it has been a while.

Also, would anyone be interested in tips for small-space living / entertaining? Because I was thinking of sharing some ideas relating to that and what I learned over the years living in a 1000 sq-ft place!

Lots of love and stay blessed!

 

Happy 6th my girl

Every year for the past 4-5 years, I have shared a photo story of Anya’s birthday. This one is for her 6th birthday with an excerpt from the letter I wrote to her the night before her big day.

Good Morning baby girl. It’s finally here, the day you have been waiting for.. You are 6! Alhamdullilah. This birthday is extra-special because this year you can read and I’m so excited I can give you this letter instead of saving it for you like I’ve done every year.

On this special day, I just wanted to tell you that your baba  and I are so proud we get to be mom and dad to a smart, loving & kind-hearted girl like you. You amaze us each and every day. I know that you love looking ahead towards growing bigger and another year older, but you know its so much fun to look back at times like birthdays also, to see just how far you have come.

You were only just starting to read at your 5th birthday & look at you now, reading everything. You’ve started Kindergarten, lost 6 teeth & grown 4. You had to move from the only home you ever knew; though you didn’t want to and even after missing it all the time, you still are settling down here and already making so many new memories. You got to learn many little life lessons about adapting and learning and stepping out of your comfort zone and courage . This year you grew in so many different ways my babe!

Every day these past 6 years with you has been a special one my love. You love us like no other, you test us and teach us and make us want to be better parents, better people, every day.

I love your loving and your cuddling especially when you walk into our room at night.. I love your always on-the-go mind as you keep asking me all those questions after dark. I love the way you’re so sure of yourself and know just what you want or not. I love your excitement and laughing like crazy when you play those pretend games with your dad. I love your sensitive, kind heart when you worry about animals, trees and the earth. I love everything about you and hope you always remember how special you are and that even if we miss your baby days and how adorable they were, we love watching you grow and turn into our own little friend.

I know you will continue to push me and test me and drive me crazy but never for a second will all of this be not worth it. Stay yourself, my girl. Love you forever, your mama.

Behind-the-photos :  After I was done setting up the birthday decorations + balloons the night before // Anya checking out her room in the morning and reading mama’s letter // Skype with her nani (grandma) and khalas (mom’s sisters) / khalu (khala’s husband<-) after breakfast and opening gifts from them // blowing out the candles on her donut tower-cake which she asked for // Running all around the house on her treasure hunt till she finally found the gift from her mama-baba, her own grown-up camera // staying in for dinner instead of going out as she wanted to ‘spend time with family’ and eat ‘daal and roti’ // (not photographed) Skype with her Taya and Phupo / Dressing up in her puppy costume and spending the afternoon like that / A movie night followed by me reading out all her messages to her to end the evening

Thank you for following along all this while you guys. Remember her in your prayers.

ALSO: Stories of her previous birthdays ( 2nd / 3rd  / 4th / 5th)

A friendship story + a birthday wish.

Happy Birthday to my best friend of almost two decades and one of the most positive inspirations around me. Any day that involves our ‘5 minute'(or not) phone call is almost certain to go much better than the ones when we don’t get to talk. From being our awkward teenager selves (mostly me, since she has been pretty much the same since day one) when the only things occupying our minds were how to get my mom to give permission for our next get together (+ possibly our Matric and FSc board exams too) and through decisions like ‘which university to apply to’ & ‘where to work’ & ‘who to marry’. Through adjusting to married life & new countries. Through the various seasons of motherhood and trying to figure out how to do it all and being content with what we have. Our friendship truly has been a summation of all those hours and hours of conversations through these 19 years on anything and everything that has been in our thoughts or hearts. What began in E-9 Islamabad in 1998 when she chose to sit next to ‘the new girl’ in class (me) and ultimately change her classroom for her (me again) and the phone calls that started soon after. The long non-stop conversations about who-knows-what back then but which continued undeterred by our PAF phone line which would auto- disconnect and drop our call every 8 minutes or so (we would keep our finger on redial and continue for hours:p).

Through the next decade and getting married and moving countries, Riyadh/Bahrain for her and Seattle for me, luck stayed with us because we always had a way to be just a phone call away thanks to the Vonage number she had and later on thanks to our smartphones. Through the very many different phases of our lives and through happy and sad moments, we’ve been in touch and been there, without actually ‘being there’! I love that she is the kind of person who will always push me to be a better person. She won’t just listen and let me vent, but give me just the angle I need to come back to my center and think things from another perspective. Seriously if everyone had a friend like her, we would all be so much sane-er. (Not trying to say I am always sane but it can help you know) Lol. It’s amazing to me how we have never run out of things to talk about in all of these years.. and our conversations, some serious + deep and others not very much like our eternal obsession with finding the perfect solution to organize ourselves and our lives ;).

The weird thing is that in all of these 19 years, we were only in the same school for a little over a year, in the same city for probably another 1-2 years. And between my wedding in Sep 2006 and June 2016 we couldn’t meet even once. Our trips to Pakistan somehow never coincided and the only in-person memories we had of each other were from before we were married! We’ve sifted through old photos on birthdays trying to find a good one to share with our birthday messages and even took the Skype photo at the top of this post just so we could be in the same frame! And then this summer, it finally happened! We met, and each others’ not-so-little ones for the first time! We got updated photos and made in-person memories and it was even better than we could’ve imagined it to be! Between Iftari at my mama’s place and Sehri at her parents’ place, we squeezed in time with each others’ families + bonded with each others’ babies. And even managed some deep heart-to-hearts before we fell asleep as the sky turned into morning outside. So much has changed in all these years and sitting at my Mama’s house with Papa not there it was a reminder of that but yet so much is still the same, and being at her parents’ house with reminders of all those memories we have made there, it felt like that. And that’s all we got, a little short of one whole day together but it felt like we made the most of it. So thankful for that!

I know this has turned into quite a love letter, but sorry what could I do! It was somehow harder than I realized to summarize a whole friendship into words! Here’s wishing her the happiest of birthdays and for all of us to be blessed with friendships like these.

And because I love her and you guys alot, here is a blast from our past 😉

Have a fabulous week and Happy Valentines Day!