Bluebeard

This Is The End Of The Innocence

Aliya came home from school today and told me that she met a new friend in her class - Brianna. She said that Brianna is going to the movies tonight with her boyfriend, and that he is 15, and that she has kissed him before. Oy.

Update: Today Aliya told me that the same girl was pulling down the back of her pants to show her tattoo and she accidentally showed her butt.

The Thinker

What do you think he's thinking about?

Wet-N-Wild

A while back we had Shane, Sydney, and Victoria over for a play date, which ended in a big water fight. Most of you will find this hard to believe, but one of the day's activities was giving Zoe a bath. She just stood there and let the kids wash and rinse her. Maybe she is therapy dog material after all.

Handlebar Mustache

This picture cracks me up. A couple of weeks ago we spent the day at Davis Farmland for Isabel's birthday. As you can see, Adlani REALLY enjoyed the do-it-yourself face painting.

Isabel and Aliya had fun too.

Out Cold

Crystal Bridges

This is one of the projects I'm working on right now. It's the Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art in Bentonville, Arkansas. Isn't it purty?

Where The Wild Things Are

Last weekend Karen and I had a last-minute girls' weekend at camp. Vic and Sydney were camping with Nelson, and Ben had to work, so Karen and I took off Saturday morning with my 3 + Shane. After surviving the Libderrazak family weekend in July I figured this would be a piece of cake. Same 600 square feet but only 4 kids and 2 adults instead of 6 kids and 4 adults, and hopefully no vomiting.

The kids had a ball but I think I can speak for Karen when I say that I was very happy when they fell asleep. :) Finally - Mommy-Time! We stayed up late chatting...I'm having a hard time remembering about what. My favorite line of the night was when Karen asked if I wanted another glass of wine and I guess I said "yes" because she said, "Ok...Just one more bottle." We woke up in the morning fresh as daisies and she said, "Wow! Look at all these empty bottles!" A good time was had by all and we're hoping to make it an annual event.

Problem Child

I never thought MY kid would be the bad boy of the class, but today I took Adlani to orientation at his new preschool. I watched proudly as he sorted through the bin of plastic people, looking for one that would fit into the green jeep. I read him a story and internally praised his cognitive skills when he noticed that I skipped some pages. I watched with pride as he looked at a piece of coral through a magnifying glass and then told the teacher that it was like a tunnel that a train would go through. What an imagination! I was thrilled at his maturity when I left the classroom to go see the nurse, and he didn't cling and cry like a couple of the other kids. He even went peepee on the potty...my kid is truly a model 3-year-old. Cute too.

Then...Circle Time. He wouldn't sit with the other kids...every one of whom was sitting quietly and listening to the teacher. He insisted on looking at books while the rest of the class was doing the bean bag dance (to a record - can you believe it?). He laid down on the floor while he was supposed to be touching the bean bag to various body parts. He said, "I want to get out of here," loud enough for Room 211 to hear. He crawled under the loft and went to the play kitchen to make breakfast. He was unresponsive to my whispered threats, even though I used my mad voice AND my grumpy face. And when it was time to do the question of the day where each child had to find their name and place it under the "yes" column or the "no" column, poor Adlani was the one member of his class who insisted that "no" - he had never been to the beach. When it was time for the whole class to go down to the potty, he screamed that he didn't need to go and went boneless in the hallway. When I enticed him to the general area of the potty by pointing out that the water fountain was also there, he momentarily joined the line, and when it was time for the class to return to the classroom, he was overjoyed that he was the fastest runner and the first to make it back. I'm just hoping he's not expelled the first week.

Riding the Short Bus

Today was Aliya's first day of school. She woke up at 6 a.m. The bus was due at 8:33. In an attempt to kill time, I suggested that she take a shower "so her hair would look nice." She was showered and dressed by 6:30 and wanted to know how much longer until the bus would come. I told her 4 Dora's!!! Somehow the time passed and it was finally 8:15. So I loaded Norah into her stroller and dragged Adlani down to the bus stop. It's about a 2-minute walk, even dragging a 3-year-old. We waited. And waited. And threw acorns down the storm drain. And tried to find matching caps for the naked acorns. And tickled Norah with a stick with leaves and acorns on it until she tried to eat one. Today's experience will teach me not to show up at the bus stop 15 minutes early with no food again.

When the bus was 15 minutes late I had the brilliant idea to call Ben to look up the number for the transportation department on the internet, so I could find out if I should just give up and drive her to school. After he looked at the bus schedule for a neighboring town, the 2006/2007 schedule for our town, and the high school schedule, insisting each time that the corner I was standing on was NOT a bus stop, the bus finally came - 20+ minutes late. The bus driver made up for it by being 5 minutes EARLY this afternoon.

When the bus came this morning Adlani said, "She (the bus driver) has a seat for me!" The bus driver said, "I'll be back for you next year." Why does everyone think I have an immature 4-year-old, rather than a giant 3-year-old? Anyway, after the bus drove away he asked where Aliya was and I said that she was on the bus. He said, very sadly, "Well, I'm not going to see her again and I didn't say goodbye!" He got over it pretty quickly.

Aliya had a great day at school, although in her words, "I didn't learn anything - again." Apparently the highlight of the day was when one of the boys "tooted" at circle time.

Update: I later learned that when the bus arrived at school there were no teachers outside to meet it because it was so late. The bus driver walked all of the kids inside the front entrance and set them free. Somehow Aliya found her way to her classroom on her own. She's so self-sufficient. I wonder where she gets that from?
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1st Annual Libderrazak Family Weekend

Don't get me wrong...we've had Libderrazak family weekends before, but we've always had more than 600 square feet to spread out and get away from each other. For Hannah's birthday we decided to take the plunge and brave the ultimate test of togetherness. Can 4 adults, 6 kids, and 1 psychotic dog coexist in a 2-bedroom, 1-bathroom camp for 65 hours? We did it and we lived to tell the tale. Beyond multiple minor altercations, a few major crying jags, and a couple of close encounters with vomit, we all had a great time and are planning to make it a tradition.





We spent a long, hot day at Six Flags where Adlani peed behind a tree for the first time ever. Yay Adlani!

Nosy Neighbor Lady

Who knew that I would someday be the nosy neighbor lady? Maybe some of you did, but I didn't see it coming. It all started when 2 little girls (5 and 7) from our street ran away from home with a suitcase full of clothes and apples. They walked more than a mile and were found over an hour later, in a culvert, naked (they were hot), eating apples. Luckily, because of the emergency system we have in town, all residents got a recorded phone call from the police describing the girls, and calls started flooding in. People had noticed them all along their journey down Route 30 and Route 9. I couldn't believe nobody stopped and asked them where they were going.

Not long after that happened, I was driving down our street and saw two little girls literally sitting in the middle of the road, using sidewalk chalk. I pulled over and said that it wasn't safe to do that and they needed to stay out of the road. As I drove away I looked in my rearview mirror and was shocked to see the little sh*ts running back out into the road. I turned around and drove back, and more sternly said that it was dangerous and they needed to stay out of the road or they'd get run over. I pulled away again, and WTF?...they did it again! So I called 911 and tattled on them. A police car came right over and the next day one of the girls was playing in the road but her mother was sitting next to the driveway watching her. I guess that's an improvement? One of the girls rides Aliya's bus. I told her not to admit that her mother's the NNL.

This weekend I was driving down a busy street near our house and I saw a little girl walking with no shoes. She didn't look any bigger than Aliya. I almost kept going but I turned around and watched. She would veer away from the street every time a car went by, and she continued to walk. I pulled over and she came right up to the car. She said she was looking for her brothers and I said that I was going to turn into a side street and come talk to her. She answered all of my questions and basically she was 8 years old and out looking for her brothers - 12 and 15. She had no clue where they were. I ended up calling her mother and she drove down and picked her up. She didn't seem overly worried about it, but I felt better. I couldn't just drive away without making sure she was safe. Both situations made a real impression on Aliya.

Black Thumb

Early in the spring, Rachael mentioned that it might be a fun summer project for the kids to have a garden. I have a black thumb, but I went along with it (and eventually beyond, of course). We bought seeds and spent an afternoon planting them in an assortment of yogurt cups, peat pots, dixie cups, and assorted plastic dishes, and covered them with plastic wrap. Much to my surprise, a few days later we started seeing some results. Within a couple of weeks we had 7-9" seedlings - beans, zuccini, and yellow squash, and some smaller seedlings - cherry tomatoes, lettuce, carrots, and flowers. Around Memorial Day we planted everything in raised beds in the front yard; everything that would fit, that is. The rest (including additional plants that I couldn't resist buying at Lowes') we planted in the planter behind the retaining wall along the driveway. Everything started growing like crazy. The squash leaves were bigger than my head and there were tons of squash blossoms. We harvested beans, lettuce, at least 15 zuccini and yellow squash, and now we've got cherry tomatoes and carrots. It turned out to be a great project and I found out that I don't actually have a black thumb, I just don't have time to water plants. I feed and water my kids, myself, sometimes Ben, and the pets. How am I supposed to have time to water plants? Isn't the rain supposed to do that?

But I don't LIKE fire!!!

I had the brilliant idea of going to Chef Orient for Adlani's birthday. I mean, what could be better for a 3-year-old than watching a guy in a purple hat cook your dinner in front of you, including flicking shrimp tails with impressive accuracy, and creating a working volcano with only onions, a mystery liquid, and a flame? The food wasn't scary - just chicken, rice, all normal stuff. Well, Adlani spent most of the meal crying and whining, "But I don't LIKE fire!" He wouldn't touch his food and he ate Norah's bag of Cheerios and crackers for dinner. "Every time I try to do something for you kids, this is the thanks I get!!" :-)

Luckily he enjoyed the Chuck E. Cheese pizza at his joint party with Shane the following week.

Happy Camper

Norah has spent the entire summer being dragged from one activity to the next - soccer games, swimming lessons, birthday parties, Six Flags, Davis Farmland, Ogunquit, Plimoth Plantation...she's such a trooper. She never cries or complains. She just goes with the flow. When Adlani blew out his birthday candles Aliya told me that if she got to make a wish she would wish for Norah. :)

Auction Chicken

In mid-August we attended the 58th annual Sturbridge Federated Church auction, which we've attended every year since we bought the camp except 2004 (we were all set to go and I went into labor). It was a beautiful day and we all had a great time. I was even interviewed for the Evening Telegram. I bought an old school desk for Aliya and a round wooden box to do something with (in my free time). Aliya got to participate in the first auction, where people were asked to raise their hand if they would bid $5 for an item, keep it up if they would bid $10, $20, etc. Later in the day, the Sturbridge chair behind Aliya in the picture went for a record $1200.

Plimoth Plantation

At the beginning of August my old friend Elizabeth who now lives in Texas came to visit with her family. We spent a rainy day at Plimoth Plantation; my first visit. It was great! I can't wait to go back when the kids have a longer attention span (or I can sneak off without them). Although they look enraptured in the picture above, it didn't last for long. One of my favorite things was the sign near the Wampanoag Homesite, instructing visitors to be respectful and avoid "war whooping", saying "How!" as a greeting, or referring to the staff as "brave", "chief", or "squaw". I guess I just can't imagine doing any of those things.

Flying Squirrel

A couple of days ago we pulled into the driveway and Zoe was nosing something around and licking it. It turned out to be a young squirrel (5-6 weeks) that fell out of a nest. The neighborhood girls all gathered around to look at it. It was still alive but the prognosis didn't seem good. Jessie (half-kidding) said, "Awww...just get a rock and put it out of its misery." Adlani picked up a big rock and prepared to follow orders. Screaming ensued and violence was quickly averted. Ben picked up the squirrel to put it in a KFC bucket and it started wiggling its legs. Much more screaming. The poor little thing didn't survive the night.

We have had quite the wildlife adventures lately - baby opossums scattered around the yard, a close encounter with a skunk, and a snake ("Snakey"), tiny toad ("Toady"), and strip of vinyl that Adlani is still convinced is some sort of snake ("Skinny") at camp. We also have a gigantic wasp nest in our tree. As long as all of the critters stay outside, I say "live and let live". Speaking of that...we found a larger toad in the garden a while back and I put it in a bowl on the kitchen floor. After the kids were done examining it I let it go outside but put the bowl back on the floor. A while later Ben noticed that the toad had jumped out of the bowl and gone missing. They're still looking for it! :)

Back to School!

What a week. Aliya starts kindergarten tomorrow, Adlani starts preschool Tuesday, and Norah starts day care Tuesday. I start Arabic in a week and Zoe has just finished her private lessons. It has been a whirlwind of forms, orientations, and summer reading lists. It has been great having the kids home with Rachael (and usually me) but summer flew by and I'm looking forward to getting into a routine. I've been so busy trying to get everything organized for school that I haven't had much time to think about the fact that this is a major transition time in our lives. I'm really excited about our choices for each of the kids. Aliya's program will teach her to be fluent in Spanish within a few years, and we expect that Adlani and Norah will follow in her footsteps. I met Adlani's teachers tonight and they are TERRIFIC. Norah and I went to see her day care provider Lina last week, and Norah had a great time playing there. When we were ready to leave Lina gave Norah a big squeeze and said, "I love you." It was so touching.

Recent Quote:
Aliya: "I was praying and I told God, 'You've kept our family safe for a long time and you need to keep doing it for a lot longer.' "