Is this really it?

Our sleeping situation hasn't changed, we still get up every one to two hours every single night. I spend more time in Omar's bed then I do in mine and it is making me very frustrated!

A couple of months ago I decided to stop nursing him. It wasn't like he was constantly having it, just before bed time he would have some and it would bring him to dreamland. With the stress in our lives and the switch to his own room I had given in again. Just so he could settle. But honestly, I think this is the problem of him waking up. Besides the fact that I am not there next to him when he does wake up, he more than ever wants to nurse at night, every single time he wakes up. I don't know if it is his way of getting me into his bed and I stay there so he has me to cuddle with or what. I know he is not hungry as he only takes one or two sips at most, it must be the closeness.

He has always been a very affectionate child, the doctor said on our last visit that it is his character which is fine with me but this whole sleeping thing is totally affecting my life! I am so on the edge all day long, I just can't function. I am also extremely forgetful, I can't even make it to a friends house without getting lost.

So to make a long story short, last night was the last straw. I am done. I can't do it anymore. Omar has had enough time to get used to his room and his bed and it is time to pull the plug, or for this case the breast.

The previous time when we decided to end it it was more for others than it was for me. It didn't bother me he was still nursing. It was only at night, he was in my bed, I got more sleep then too, but the pressure of the outside made me feel ashamed about it and stressed out. It was hard then, but it seems harder now. Harder for him as he can voice his opinion on the matter. It kills me to see him crying like this, begging for a tiny bit of milk. One moment I think, no, I am staying firm, I need sleep, this is better for all of us, so I can be a normal person again. Then the other moment I think, what the hell am I doing to this child? Will I scar him emotionally for life? Does he think I don't love him anymore? Am I crazy to let him cry like this?

He did finally fall asleep on my bed, hugging my pajama top. Now it is really up to me. Can I do this? What will happen tonight, will I be able to stay strong after my third trip to his bed room wishing for a little sleep?
I am hoping and praying I can, I hope God will help me with this to make it easier on both of us.

It can only get better right?

A little 'sleep' update

Well, so far so good. Omar has been in his own bed for a week and a half now. He is taking his nap very well but the nights are still a bit rough. He is waking up 5 times again. Every two hours. It took us a year and a half to go from 5 times at night to 2-3 times at night and now we are back to square one.
Needless to say, we are both exhausted. Omar barely makes it to 10.30am before going for his nap which means he has a very hard time making it through to the night having a nap that early. (If it was up to him he would be down for his nap at 9am!)
At some of the awakenings I just give up and fall asleep with him in his bed, then waking up two hours later with Omar's foot in my nose and a bad back ache before returning back to my bed for a minute and him waking up again.

I honestly need to contact that sleep specialist as the sleepless nights are definitely taking a toll on my sanity. I feel like I am living at Starbucks these days, or at least, at their drive through, and the coffee doesn't seem to be working anymore at this point as I almost fell asleep behind the wheel coming back from the airport yesterday!
I am going to give it one more week, until next Friday, and if things don't improve, I might have to start a different approach.

Don't get me wrong, I love that Omar is in his own room, and I am so proud of him for sticking with it, but we all need to get a good nights rest!
I can't imagine having another baby right now with the amount of sleep we are getting, as this reminds me of Omar being a new born and waking up every two hours to eat.
I could see it now, one hour Omar would wake, the next hour the baby. It would be a very unpleasant time!

What a big boy!

Well, he is doing it! Omar is sleeping in his own bed in his own room!

I think it helped that he picked the bed out himself and was part of the decision making.

We started on Wednesday evening. He went to sleep without a problem but woke up about three hours later with a nasty cold and fever. The rest of the night I kind of had to lay with him and we were both miserable. At 4.30am we both crawled into my bed and barely got any sleep. Around 9am we finally did fall asleep for about three hours.

Yesterday night he was very excited to go sleep in his own bed, and crawled in it right away. Then he got scared for a minute and tried to go to my bed. I told him that is mommy's bed and he had to sleep in Omar's bed. So he got back in and said goodnight to all the trains on his bed sheets and went to sleep. No crying! He did wake up every hour and I took him back into my bed around 1.30am. Its not that he was crying to get out, he was so miserable with his cold, he had a hard time breathing and wanted me near. I let him sleep on my shoulder and he was able to breathe better.

Today he was very tired and was ready for his nap at 10am. He went straight for his room and it took him a good hour to fall asleep, but when he did, he slept until 1pm! I was able to put all the laundry away in my room and just have my bedroom for me. It was really nice. When he woke up he was very proud of himself that he slept in his own bed and I made sure to make a big deal out of it.

I am also very proud of him, he has always known our bed as his, but maybe he was ready for his own bed. He absolutely hated his crib and he would cry and cry all night long in it.

I don't know, maybe he thought it was a prison or something haha

Anyway, I am very happy and I think Ramy will be nicely surprised to see this change when he gets back from his trip.

I was reading an article today about a family that also has their child sleeping with them. The only difference is that the child is seven years old. I can't imagine having Omar in my bed until he is seven and the author said she is not kicking him out anytime soon. When I started reading the story I was like, thank God we are not the only ones! But towards the end I thought, lets not end up like them!

What a big boy!

Things you need to do when you are two

Well, we survived the birthday parties, and now we are focusing on sleeping in our own bed. For Omar that is anyway. His new bed arrived yesterday afternoon. Two guys came in a big truck and went into Omar's room and put it all together. Omar was very excited to see the big truck on his drive way and he didn't care much for the noises coming out of his room. Until the guys had finished and said we could go have a look. Oh boy, you should have seen his face! He walked in and said with a really surprised voice 'Omar's bed!' I guess he recognised it from the store. he loves it so much and he wanted to sleep in it last night. We went out last night after they left to get sheets but it was rather late when we got back and the sheets weren't dry yet.

After bath time we laid on it for a few minutes and then he wanted to sit in his old crib for a minute as well.

When we walked out to go to sleep he waived and said bye bye to the crib and his bed.

I promised him tomorrow he could sleep in his own bed, and he keeps telling me it is Omar's bed while pointing at his chest.

This morning we had Omar's two year check up. When we pulled up at the doctor's office Omar said: Look! The doctor. I was surprised he recognised the place, maybe because he hates going there.

The nurse checked his weight, height and temperature and stuff, then I had to fill out two forms, one was about exposure to lead and family illnesses, the other was a sheet of questions to see how he is developing. We finished both sheets, except for one of the questions where they asked what a cup, bed, and chair were for. Omar answered juice for the cup which was wrong, it had to be drink and he said sit for the chair. He didn't answer the bed question as by that point he was crying a lot and wanted to leave.

The doctor seemed very pleased with him though, he is 38 inches tall and weighs 30.9 lbs.

She did give me a paper to see a specialist for his sleeping habits as he still gets up at least 3 times a night. She said I deserve some sleep and I agree with her!

Omar also got a flu shot and then we went for breakfast at Panera. His favorite place to eat.

We had a nice breakfast together and he seemed his happy old self again.

Fingers crossed for tonight!

Omar is two!

That's right, Omar turned two today! I am not sure if he fully understands what that means, but he had a great time opening his gifts when he woke up. I think he enjoyed ripping the paper off the most.

His grand ma and grand pa, uncle Jeffrey and his great grand mother called to congratulate him.

It is funny, I was thinking about it last night around 10.30pm, that exactly two years ago at this time I was in labor and waiting for those last two centimeters so I could push. I wanted Omar to come before midnight but it didn't happen. Omar came when he was ready, the next morning, on the 17th. It was nice reminiscing with Ramy about it, and how fast time has gone by..

Omar's birthday party began at 3pm. All of his little friends were invited for a Wiggly good time. I think they did have a good time, we had a moon bounce in the dining room that also had a ball pit in it. The kids loved it! They colored and played with clay, and also played with toys and stuff. Towards the end we had a pinata and Omar really liked that one. He wanted to pull all the strings at the same time.

The last people left around 6pm and then it was rushing to get the place cleaned up for the next party which started at 7pm.

Omar was so tired, he just sat on his little chair and watched his new Wiggles DVD while I vacuumed and cleaned. The second party was also fun. It was mainly adults, so it was nice to catch up a bit. I didn't get the chance to chat a lot though or make pictures as I was running around like crazy. I even forgot to make a picture of the cake which I am so sad about.

Omar was very tired, he really wanted to go to sleep around 9pm and he was out in less than 5 minutes.

Tomorrow he gets to open all of his presents, I am going to video tape it this time, it is so much fun seeing him tear up the paper!

Ramy leaves for Egypt on Monday, I know that will be hard on Omar, so we will see how he does. Omar is also getting his new bed delivered on Tuesday. I am very excited yet nervous. It is a bunk bed. He will sleep on the lower bed of course, until he is old enough to sleep on the top bed.

I hope he likes the bed well enough so that he will actually sleep in it, and maybe for the whole night as well. He is the one that picked it out, so fingers crossed!

The Wiggles

We just got back from The Wiggles concert in Washington, DC. The concert was amazing! Omar and I had such a good time. It took us forever to get there and of course there wasn't any parking, I drove around for at least 15 minutes until I found a spot. We ran over to the venue and in our hurry forgot our banner in the car. Yes, us Dutchies made a banner. We also got roses to give to Dorothy. The concert had already started when we walked in. Omar was excited to see the Wiggles, his face showed disbelieve at first, until we started walking over to the stage. Then he got really excited! We got to our seats, and sat there for about 5 minutes before we got up and went to the front so Omar could dance with the other kids. He had such a good time! I also enjoyed myself very much, there were some nice moms next to me, and the atmosphere was just really fun. Towards the end I got brave and walked up to the Wiggles and got to chat with them a little bit. Anthony was really nice, (blue wiggle) he signed Omar's DVD, but I was unable to get a picture of him with Omar because he told me he wasn't allowed to hold anyone. What a bummer. Omar was just staring at him with his mouth open, it was really cute. Then Sam (yellow wiggle) signed it too and he was also really nice, we talked for a bit and he was surprised I was from Holland. Murray (red wiggle) signed the DVD as well, he looked really tired, his eyes were all puffy. Jeff (purple wiggle) was the only one that didn't sign the DVD, he was not as friendly, he just didn't want to.

I think my concert days with the girls are over, but I had just as much fun going to a kids concert with my son. I am already looking forward to the next one!

Where do I begin?

Well, it has been about two months since I last posted. It is not that I didn't have anything to write, I just didn't have the time to sit down and do this. Believe me, there were many times I thought about updating the blog. I have time to sit down now as Omar fell asleep in his little chair waiting for the cookies we were baking. As it is only 7.30pm I am having a lucky break!

For the family overseas that has been asking about Omar, I will try to go back as far as I can remember...

About a month ago, I had to put all of Omar's outfits away as he outgrew everything. I was not prepared for this as I thought he would wear his 2t's through to next spring. Luckily we had gotten a lot of 3t clothes for his first birthday which was perfect. Besides him growing in length, his feet have been growing like crazy as well, I've had a hard time keeping up with finding shoes that fit him for longer than 4 weeks. Throughout the summer we have gone through 5 pairs of shoes, which two of them he never even got to wear! Same with his socks.

Now that Omar is approaching age two, his personality is
really coming out. He is a very kind hearted child. I really enjoy my time with him and he always seems to amaze me with the things he does. Our favorite time together for me is when we go to the book store where they have a train table set up for the kids to play. We usually go there and play for about half an hour, then walk to the cafe and share a cookie and a drink while reading a book together. he loves reading books and I love that we are able to do this together!

The other thing that he is really into is counting. Everything has to be counted, and I mean everything! He also loves to color and play with clay.

It is getting harder to hide simple things from him as he seems to remember everything, including where I hid things a long time ago. He also recognizes where we are going, there is no sitting in the car for a few minutes while parked in front of the toy store. We need to get in there pronto!
Or when I go through the drive thru for a drink, he wants chicken and juice. I also can't tell him we are going for a cookie and then make a detour, he makes me feel guilty when he asks me where did the cookie go? with a sad face.
Omar is full of surprises, and I love it, he makes life fun!

Last week we went to the pumpkin patch with some friends and Omar had a blast. There was a big moon bounce kind of thing that he loved to jump on, and there were big slides and mazes. There was also a pit filled with corn that all the kids loved to play in. We also took a hay ride which was a lot of fun. On the way home I noticed a little bump on his cheek and thought he had just scratched himself out there, but the next morning it was all swollen and the inside of his nose (which also had gotten scratched) started to get infected. I kept it as clean as possible, but the day after that his cheek was all pussy and so was his nose. We took a trip to the doctor and he gave us some antibiotics to put in his nose and because Omar had scratched open the puss ball on his cheek on the way over, the doctor told us to just put neosporin on it twice a day.
His nose got better, but his cheek didn't. We wound up going back to the doctor a couple of days later as the little dot had gotten over an inch big! Now he is also on penicillin and that seems to be helping. Poor kid, it is always something!

This past Friday we drove down to Fredericksburg to pick up a train table a woman was selling down there. I didn't realize it was one and a half hours away. Train tables are very expensive and this woman was selling it for almost nothing! I decided to go at Omar's nap time so he would sleep on the way down. It took us a lot longer due to Friday traffic, but Omar did great, he had woken up and was excited about the 'choo choo' table. It just barely fit in the car, I had to put all the seats down and Omar was squished on one side, he didn't mind though, he was already loving the table! Fredericksburg is a very nice town, we stopped for lunch and I let him play for about an hour before heading back. We got in some huge traffic and we stopped again half way at a mall so Omar could stretch his legs. The end result is that we didn't get home until 8.30pm while we had left the house at 11.30am. It was a crazy day which was spent mostly in the car but the trip was well worth it as Omar hasn't stopped playing with his trains since we got the table.

Omar enjoys playing with his friends a lot. He loves hanging
out with Ella, I think he thinks she's his girl friend or something. He really misses her now as she is out of town for a month. He has also made some new friends, a german boy named Daniel who is one month younger than him and another boy named Aiden who is a couple of months younger than him. He has a bigger social life than me!


















I have also been busy trying to organize his birthday. It has been a lot of work but I am really excited about it. We will have a kids party during the day and then in the evening we will have all friends and family come visit. It will be a crazy day but I think also lots of fun!
It will be Omar's last birthday in this house which makes me sad thinking about it.
Tomorrow I am taking him to see the Wiggles again in Washington DC. It will be an early birthday gift. I told him we are going and he is very excited. He even got his Wiggles t-shirt out today!
I am also very excited, as I can't wait to see his face when we enter the arena. This time I will bring my camera. We are also bringing roses for Dorothy the dinosaur as the singers come through the crowd to collect them. Hopefully I will be able to make some good pictures. We got front row seats so it should be awesome!
To add on real quick, we had to take Omar's friend Ella to the airport last week. I told him we were going to the airport to drop off Ella. Omar got really excited and said Opa, Willy airplane? He thought we were flying to Holland to see my dad and his wife. Awww

A special time has come to its end

Omar has been exclusively breastfed since birth. He has never had a bottle and didn't start eating regular food until well after 6 months. Today his most favorite comfort time has come to an end. Omar is almost 22 months now. I wanted to stop on his 2nd birthday but with life's pressures and the negativity I have been getting I woke up this morning and felt it was time. I enjoyed this special time with my son very much, We have a very close relationship which I think will last forever.

This morning was really rough though. He woke up at 5am. Normally he would go right back to sleep with a sip of milk from mommy. But without it he cried and screamed and kicked until 11am! Exhausted he fell asleep on my lap. When he woke up I told him he could have something from the toy store if he would give up nursing. So we went to the store and he picked a train set. We set it up and he loves it. He has asked for milk through out the day but no crying so far. I wonder how tonight will go...

8.30pm

Well, bed time wasn't as bad as I expected. I offered him milk before bath time but he wasn't interested which really surprised me! He took a bath, watched 5 minutes of his favorite show Nijntje and we went to the bed. I told him he could have 5 minutes of milk and he did, after that he fell asleep right away, no crying! Since this morning he has taken to a new 'lovey'. It is this little blue dog which he grabbed while he was crying. Now he won't part from it. I am so glad he is finding comfort somewhere else as I've been his 'lovey' all his life. I will miss our special time together but there are a lot of other special times that I look forward to and the memories will always be there!

The Wiggles concert

Last night I took Omar to the Wiggles concert in Baltimore. I had gotten two tickets months before and after getting back from Holland I kind of had forgotten about it. The concert started at 6.30pm, we left the house around 4.30pm so we would have enough time for traffic and parking. There was a lot of traffic in the city as there was an Orioles game at the same time, but we managed to get there early enough. Omar was really excited every time I mentioned the Wiggles but I don't think he really understood where we were going. That all changed when we walked into the arena and he saw the stage. The arena was pretty small which was great as everyone had a good view that way. There were two large screens on each side that were playing the Wiggles movie. The guy showed us our seats which were really close to the stage. Omar didn't want to sit of course, he ran all the way up to the stage and was so excited! He kept yelling for the Wiggles. They had the guitars there and the Wiggles house and Dorothy's hot air balloon. I tried to let him sit on stage for a picture but it was not allowed. We then went to look at the merchandise and Omar picked out a t-shirt and a wand with the big red car on it. He also got a Captain Feathersword hat. He put the shirt on immediately and was waving the wand to everyone. We had about 30 minutes left before the concert started so we just walked around the stage area and made some pictures. Omar was super excited!

When the concert started the dancers came out first, and then one by one the Wiggles. Omar clapped like crazy and had the biggest smile on his face. He sang and danced to all the songs and did all the moves. Half way through the concert, I moved to the beginning of the stage as there were some empty seats and Omar had an even better view then.
I spotted the Popples in the audience and they came down and sat with us. Omar and Ella were really excited to see each other and had fun dancing together.

At the last song Omar and I walked up to stage and danced to the last song. The Wiggles and the rest of the gang came by to wave hello and shake hands and Sam said hi to us and Captain Feathersword shook Omar's hand. I think that must have been the high light of the evening!

Omar was wide awake after that, so I tried to go into the harbor for a bite to eat but as it was Friday night there was no parking so I gave up on the idea and went home.

When Omar woke up this morning all he could talk about was the Wiggles. I am so happy he liked it!

On our way to the US!

We are on our way to Detroit right now. We had to leave the house at 5am to go to the airport. Omar had a real fun day yesterday, we took him to this very big play area with an air mattress, tons of slides and climbing things and sprinklers. He had a blast! Then I went into town for a little bit to get him some Dutch dvd’s and cd’s. Omar stayed with Aunt Vera at the play area and when I got back there they were just leaving. It was my first time riding a bike in at least 10 years and it was fun! Omar got to sit in a front seat on the steering wheel. He cried at first but when we started going he loved it. After that we had lunch and drove to my dads house. We were having dinner there and sleeping over as we had to leave so early. My dad took us to a pancake house in the woods with a huge play area and a petting zoo. Omar was so happy! He ate really well and had a really good time. There was a really creepy guy there, and when Omar, my brother and I went into the play area I noticed he was taking pictures of Omar. I told my brother and we watched him for a bit, then I really started freaking out as he was following us. My brother went over to him and he was trying to hide his camera. We then left the area and went to sit down to eat. He kept looking over at us and I got more upset. When he finished eating he went into the play area and started making pictures of the kids there. He tried to make more pictures of Omar so I went and complained at the restaurant about him. Another lady had already
complained as well. Omar was walking back into the play area and as soon as the guy saw him he tried to make more pictures, then my sister in law went over to him and had a long conversation with him. He stopped bothering us after that but it totally creeped us out. I wanted to take his camera and look at the pictures and delete them all. You can never be too careful that is for sure!Omar ate a lot and had so many snacks and juice that he usually doesn’t get. We got home and he had a nice long shower. When I was putting him to bed all of a sudden he threw up, it was a huge projectile and as it was going up in the air it landed on top of his head and all over his face. I didn’t know what to do, so I just held him until he was finished. We were both covered and the bed too, I felt really bad, for him and for my dad’s bed. I stuck him back in the shower and cleaned him up, then my dads wife was really nice and helped me get out of my puky clothes while holding a crying Omar. It was really disgusting.
When I woke him at 5am he cried so much it was unbelievable, he kept asking to go back to bed so he made me feel so guilty. We even had to pull over because it was getting unbearable. Luckily he was fine at the airport, we got to go check in at first class which was so easy, then at security I was in the back of the line and a woman came up to me and escorted me to the front, so we were through in two minutes. This flight is even nicer than the first one, the seats are really nice. Omar has his own seat again and I reclined it to a bed and he slept for two hours. While he slept I got served an incredible breakfast. I am really enjoying this experience. I know I will probably never fly first class again in my life but it is a memory I will not forget. Omar is watching baby einstein right now on his private monitor with head phones on as they have kids movies. I am just sitting here relaxing and writing about our trip. We will arrive in Detroit in six hours and then we have a two hour wait before we head back to DC. Omar knows we are going to see daddy so he is really excited. I think that is it for now. The two weeks have flown by, I can’t believe I will be back in the US today. I miss Holland already and already looking forward to our next trip back.

Back in Holland

We had a crazy day yesterday leaving Spain.
We had a very big delay and arrived in Holland 3 hours later. My brother picked us up and then we drove to my moms house for some dinner. The weather was very warm so we sat outside. Omar had a good time. We then drove to my brother's house and Omar slept the whole way, we got there around 10.30pm. We went to bed right away, and this morning when we woke up Omar was very excited to see his aunt Vera. He even went upstairs to wake uncle Jeffrey. We had a nice breakfast outside and then Vera took Omar for a long walk to the park. He took an hour nap and then we went to a friends house for a birthday.Omar really enjoyed himself, there were three other little kids there and a kids pool! He was exhausted on the way home and fell asleep in the car. Tomorrow is my last day here and then we will be coming back to the US to see Ramy! We are going to a big play area for kids in the morning and in the afternoon I have to do some last minute shopping. Omar and I are spending the night at my dads house as we have to leave for the airport at 4am. I will miss Holland and the lovely food but I can't wait to see Ramy and I know Omar can't wait either!

Last night in Spain

The time has come to say goodbye, I am feeling sad but also happy I got to experience this. It has been an interesting week, with good things and bad. Tomorrow we have to leave the house at 9am, our flight to Holland is a little after 12pm. We had a nice day today, went to the beach in Nerja in the morning, I took Omar in the ocean, and he loved it. There were a lot of jelly fish though so we had to be very careful. All the Spanish old ladies kept coming over to tell us about the jelly fish and to be extra careful with our little ones. We then walked into town and had some pastries. After driving back to the house Omar didn’t want to nap so we went shopping and he slept for two hours in the stroller. We got back later in the afternoon and drove to the board walk for some food. The waiter was very rude, and when we were paying he actually yelled at us and started throwing things. We just smiled at him and thanked him for the great service which made him more mad. The food and drinks were really good though. Omar played a little on the beach, had some ice cream and we drove back to the house. We went for a swim in the pool and then Omar went to bed. I just finished packing, and about to go to bed myself. Our last night in Spain...

Update

August 3, 12.46am
The days have gone by really fast. We only have tomorrow left and then we leave. I guess the saying ‘time flies when you are having fun’ is true. The last couple of days we’ve been at the pool, exploring different towns, and just relaxing. I am sad the week is almost over and that I might not see my old friends for a while. I hope of course we can do this reunion every year, but who knows, a year is a long time and lives go on. I really hope we don’t lose touch of each other, as it was wonderful getting to know everyone again. Omar has made good friends with Benjamin and I know he will miss him. As I am typing this I am looking out of the window in my room at the moon and the spectacular view. The nights are wonderful here. Tomorrow we are going to the town Nerja and spend our last time at the beach. After that we don’t have any plans, there is a mall nearby where I would like to go to for a little bit, and hopefully I get to spend some time at the pool when Omar takes his nap. He is finally back on schedule after almost a week.. I wonder how he will do once we get back to the US. I like Spain, it is pretty here, and the people are very nice.

Spain day 4

We got up early to go to the market, unfortunately it was not there so we decided to just keep driving to the next town. We stopped at a small town called Nerja. It was pretty, especially the beach side. We are planning to return there for a swim sometime this week. Today was the hottest day of this week, and we really felt it. We spend most of the day in the pool, it was so hot Omar couldn’t take his nap until late afternoon. I had a really hard time getting him to sleep tonight as our room is boiling. He was drenched in sweat. Poor kid, I gave him a glass of water which he drank within seconds. I then put him in my friends stroller which fully reclines and has a bug cover. We walked around outside for about 45 minutes, until he fell asleep. I just checked the room but it is still so hot, so we are all outside now, Omar in the stroller and everyone else is in the pool. My friend brought a fan and I wish I had too. I still don’t understand why there are no fans in this house. Hopefully it will be a bit more windy tomorrow so the house can air out a bit. I think tomorrow we are driving to one of the nearby towns to do some sight seeing. Should be fun!

Spain day 3

We had a pretty lousy night again, Omar woke up around 5am screaming and crying, he must’ve had a bad dream. It went on for an hour or so and woke up some of the people in the house. He did manage to fall asleep again for an hour before waking up for the day. I think he was over heated as he felt hot and had a rash. I gave him a cool shower and he was better after that. We then headed to the beach. As it was early it was deserted. We rented a couple of chairs and umbrellas, and the kids were loving the water. Both boys are fearless and kept going in the ocean and then the waves would knock them over. They thought it was so funny! The beach is with a lot of stones and pebbles, not white and soft with shells. Omar really liked it though, he kept collecting the stones and there were some really pretty ones there. He cried a lot when we had to leave but he was very tired and hungry. He cried all the way back to the house, and went straight to sleep when we got there. There is a huge market further down and I really want to go check it out. Hopefully it will be there again sometime this week. It is very hard to find fresh fruits and vegetables and even meat in the stores. Some of the girls went out looking for a big supermarket. I hope they find one so maybe we can do some grilling tonight!



1.06am They did manage to find a regular supermarket and we got to eat some fresh food tonight. I got the grill ready and the others got the meat marinated and so forth. The grilling area is nice, it is all stone, I really enjoyed grilling on there and the food came out perfect. Omar and I were so hungry. We both haven’t eaten much since we got to Spain, the food hasn’t been very good. We spend most of the afternoon in the pool, Omar practiced swimming back and forth for so long his hands looked liked dried prunes. He is getting better and better and he is loving it. After dinner he had a long bath, I was trying to get the last remnants of sand off of him and to soak the blisters on his feet he had gotten from the friction of the sand in his pool shoes. He stayed up for quite a while, it took me a good hour to get him to sleep, it is just so hot in the house. We then all got together and took out our pictures from 1996 and had a good laugh. It was really so much fun looking back and sharing memories. Tomorrow we are going to see if the market is there again, and after that we don’t really have any plans.

Spain day 2

After a restless night, Omar and I got up around 8am. It was already very hot as the sun had been shining for a couple of hours. The shower felt great but after getting out I was already wet with sweat. We decided to go to the supermarket to pick up some things. We were lucky to find one that was open on a Sunday. We then went into the pool. Omar had a great time, I put these arm floats on him and he swam by himself all the way to the other side of the pool where the beach balls were. I am very proud of him! Now he refuses to sit in a regular float. He was exhausted after being in the pool for over an hour and took a three hour nap. I actually fell asleep with him and I didn’t know we slept that long. It was really nice and we both needed it. We drove to the board walk and walked around until we found a nice looking restaurant for dinner. Omar was very excited to see the beach and the ocean an it was hard to keep him on the board walk with me. I had ordered fish for us, and he ate the whole thing, he was so hungry. After dinner we did a bit more walking got some ice cream and went back to the house. The boys played a bit and we watched the sun set which was breath taking. Omar asked to go to sleep around 10.30pm so we are slowly getting him back into routine. Tomorrow we will go to the beach early in the morning as it is so hot. That is it for now:)

Arrived in Spain

We have arrived in Malaga Spain. The flight was okay. It was packed and the seats were tiny. Omar was good though, he sat on my lap for the three hours, and he let me sleep for a bit. I had 3 hours of sleep the previous night, and I am still exhausted. We got out of the plane to find my stroller was at baggage claim. We had to walk so far to get there, with me carrying an overtired toddler, two bags and portable seat. We got the stroller and the travel bag but the stroller is missing its cupholde now, what a bummer. I tried waiting to see if it would show up but Omar was falling to pieces. It was awful. I finally got him calmed down a bit in the bathroom and into the stroller and he fell asleep right away. I can’t figure this airport out, it is a lot different then described on the net. There is one hall for luggage and a café. I can’t find the rest of the airport. It is also wonderful that nobody speaks (or is willing to speak) english. I am at the café right now having some juice and a really old sandwich which cost eight dollars. I hope when we get into town it will be less expensive. I have to wait now for my friend Nina so we can rent a car and go to the house. Later tonight the rest of the gang will arrive and then the reunion will start. It will be very strange to see everyone after 11 years, but I am looking forward to it. There will be one little boy Omar’s age so I am very glad he will have someone to play with.
Although I haven’t gone out of the airport yet, I don’t think there is air conditioning in here as it is very hot and muggy. I think I have to change out of my clothes to shorts before we leave the airport.
I don’t have much to report other than that. Omar is still sleeping very poorly at night. We were up the previous night until 1am again, my dad and his wife came and we all went into town, did a little shopping and sat in a coffeeshop/bakery and had some wonderful coffee with pastries. Boy, how I am going to miss that. Omar and I haven’t been eating much, not really had an appetite for some reason, I hope that will change when we get back to Holland after Spain, as there are still so many things I want to taste before I go back home to the US.
My brother drove us to the airport this morning and Omar had a hard time saying goodbye to him. He kept giving him kisses and was waving a lot. He will be so surprised to see him again next week.
Will write more later tonight, I can’t wait to see what the house looks like. I hope it is nice, or at least clean...

July 29, 12.08am I am glad to say we are settled and Omar has finally fallen asleep about 5 minutes ago. This has been such a long day, my friend Nina came out an hour later so we waited for 4 hours. Then we had to take a bus to the car rental, from the car rental we had to drive to the meeting point for the house. It didn’t take us long to get there, but the person meeting us didn’t speak a single word of English. Although I did bring a translator he didn’t have the patience for it. Finally we understood to follow him to the house. We drove through town, which was beautiful, then we took a turn on some dirt road, and I thought that was a bit odd. We kept on going until we took another turn on what didn’t even look like a road to me, heading into the mountains. I told Nina to lock all doors just in case. It was all so weird. The ‘road’ was very scary as there were ravines on both sides, I was very nervous, but we took it slow. We finally got to the house, which is beautiful but lays in the middle of no where. There is no street, just that path. If I would have known I would not have picked the house. It took us another hour and a half to converse with the man and get directions to the supermarket etc. Then it was time to pick up the rest of the girls at the airport. We made a quick trip to the supermarket then I stayed at the house to feed and change Omar. He totally had it. We both hadn’t eaten, well, Omar had a muffin in the morning and we both lived off of teddy grahams and water. The trip to the airport took a long time due to heavy traffic, so I didn’t get to see the girls until after 9pm. Two of them went back out to get dinner and I got reacquainted with the rest. It is funny, but it seems it has only been a couple of weeks instead of 11 years. Everybody looks the pretty much the same except we are not girls anymore, but women. Omar was very excited to have a friend to play with. The other two girls came back with pizza around 11pm and it tasted so good! Omar was still awake of course, he didn’t even seem tired. We have a big pool in the back yard and Omar keeps trying to go in it. I have to keep a real close eye on him as it is not fenced in. Tomorrow we are finally going to go for a swim and explore town. I can’t wait! I am really excited! I have to go to bed now as it is 12.30am and I really need to catch up on some sleep. Oh, and it is hot here, 91 degrees with not a cloud in the sky. The house has no air conditioning so you can imagine how hot it is right now.

On our way to Amsterdam

July 24, 9.23pm
Well, we are on our way to Amsterdam, it is 9.24pm. Omar only slept 45 minutes throughout the whole day which is really unusual for him. I took him to the doctor before we left because he has been having diarrhea for 5 days now. They said it should clear on its own. I thought for sure he would nap in the car, but he didn’t. He was a wreck by the time we got to the airport. I was so relieved Ramy parked and came in to help with the luggage and Omar. The security line was huge but also thanks to Ramy he had given us his miles and we got to fly world business class, that meant we got to skip the security line!
All went well, Omar fussed and fussed though, until I got us dinner, he cried hysterically for about two minutes until he tasted the food, and then he was happy. I took my time with Omar so we were about the last to board. As we had good seats I wasn’t worried about it. We got an isle seat but I really wanted a window seat as Omar was on my lap. I asked to move, and then they moved us to a row where Omar got his own seat! This is my first time flying first class, and let me tell you, it is awesome. We get almost anything we want, the seats recline completely to a bed, and it gives massage. We have so much room, we had a three course meal which was delicious. (Airplane food that is delicious can you believe it?)
We also have an extensive tv menu, with a gazillion movies, tv shows, kids shows, games etc.
Right now I am lounging in my seat with the massage on and Omar is hanging out in his seat, playing with everything and nothing. I am so incredibly tired though and want to go to sleep but it seems Omar is completely wired and the darker it gets the more rambunctious he gets.
Well, I am going to try to get him to settle, so will write more when we actually get to Amsterdam.

July 25, (6.11pm local time)
We made it to Amsterdam safely. We arrived a bit earlier, Omar didn’t fall asleep until an hour before the plane landed. The stewardesses were really nice and I sat and waited in the plane for my stroller to come so I could get Omar in it while he was still sleeping. Even though I was the last one to leave the plane, we got through security and picked up our luggage within 5 minutes. My dad hadn’t even gotten there yet, so I went to the café and got a cup of tea. Omar woke up when we went outside to the car as it is cold here! Brrr. Pants weather. He fell asleep on the way to my grandmother where I put him in her bed, and we all had breakfast. It was really nice but I was so tired as I only slept 1 hour. On the way to my brother’s house Omar and I both fell asleep and had about an hour nap. When Omar woke up he was very excited to see everyone and of course never went back to sleep. In all he has had 6 hours of sleep in two days. I am typing this from the car as Omar fell asleep on the way back from the supermarket. I hope he will wake up for dinner and then go straight to bed.
It is really nice to be back in Holland, I have not eaten much since we’ve been here but I did manage to have a couple of incredibly good cookies! I am not sure what we are doing the remainder two days before we go to Spain as I am too tired to think of it now, but will keep you updated! All I really want right now is to go to bed.

July 26

Omar is really having a hard time adjusting to the new time, he woke up after his nap in the car and didn't go back to sleep until 2am! As you can imagine, I am still very tired, Omar seems to be fine though, too much going on for him. We had a quiet day. Went into town for a bit, got some beach toys for Spain and we went out to eat. Afterwards we went to see the deer. Omar loved it, he got to feed them bread and they nibbled on his fingers which he thought was hilarious. Although it was raining, he didn't seem to care. The weather is quite cold, no shorts, and it rains a lot too. I hope the weather is nicer in Spain.

On a date

Ramy and I had our first date today in two years! We haven't been out together since I was in my last trimester of pregnancy and on bed rest. We have been out of course, but it has always been with Omar. Finally Ramy's tournament season ended and he got Sunday off. I asked one of our students, whom I love and trust, to come watch Omar. It also helped that Omar likes her and she is certified in CPR and first aid. That last one really made the decision. (After the strawberry incident)

Omar had taken a very short nap and has been having diarrhea, (I think from the shot he got at the doctor) so he was not in a good mood. I was nervous about leaving him with a sitter, as I never had a sitter before. She came, I showed her where everything was and then we all went down in the basement where Omar wanted to watch his Arabic dance videos and play with his toys. Ramy and I said good bye to him and we left. We went bowling which was a lot of fun. Of course I lost twice, but it didn't dampen the mood at all. I felt like we were back in time when we were dating! After bowling we went to the Mediterranean Grill and had appetizers and then went for a smoothie afterwards. We stayed out about 3 hours and called home twice to make sure everything was okay. And it was! Omar didn't fuss, didn't cry nothing! I couldn't believe it. This is the same child that cries non stop when I leave for only one minute. Omar had a great time with her, she said he only asked for us once. I am so proud of Omar, and already looking forward to the next date with my husband. Yay for Omar :)

A good ending to a stressful week

This past week has had its ups and downs. Ramy had been in California for 8 whole days which was pretty hard for us. Not just that we missed him but also we missed the extra help, the company, the conversation, you know. On top of that Omar really really missed him. We had crying bouts asking about daddy. Looking for daddy in the house, and after a couple of days any man with black hair became daddy.

I don't know if that caused the restless nights and lack of sleep we've been having, but I could definitely tell by the end of the week it was taking a toll on both of us. I was cranky and so was Omar. As I tried to entertain him as much as possible, some days all I really wanted to do is crawl into bed and sleep. Of course Omar would not have that. On Saturday we went to Baker park for a summer concert. It was supposed to be with big dinosaur puppets so I thought Omar would love it. We got there early as to get a good seat, but it was boiling hot, so we got up after 10 minutes and went into the shade and played in the park instead. I thought the show was really boring and Omar did too. He had a good time playing in the park with all the other kids, and I enjoyed seeing Omar so happy. Later on we went out to eat and they had a play area there, so Omar had even more of a good time. We got home rather late, but that was okay. Omar was happy. That night we didn't get much sleep either, and on Sunday we just hung around the house doing nothing all day. We got invited to a picnic in the afternoon by one of our play group friends as a thank you for making them dinner and such when their son was born. We arrived just about an hour late.

Omar was exhausted and although his favorite little friends were there, he didn't seem to enjoy himself. It was quite stressful running after him in the heat while trying to get him to eat and feed myself. Not until the end of the picnic when the kids were playing with the water Omar started to have fun.

It was a lovely picnic, they really outdid themselves, the food was fantastic and it was so nice just to hang out with everyone. I hope next time we have a get together Ramy can actually be there with us.

We got home a little before seven and Omar went straight to bed. He was so tired! I was hoping he would sleep in but really, who am I kidding? We were up at 5am again. He was really good though and entertained himself for a quite a while. Later that day we went to the airport to pick up Ramy, I told him daddy was coming home in a big airplane and Omar was so excited! While waiting for Ramy to come out Omar was checking out all the big airplanes through the windows, I was wondering if he was trying to locate Ramy. As the wait seemed like forever, Ramy finally walked out of the plane and the look on Omar's face was priceless. It was by far the best feeling I have had all week seeing that little face light up. I am so happy Ramy is back, and I know Omar will get up super early tomorrow so he can play with his daddy!

Hermit crabs

Omar has three hermit crabs now, two small ones and one big one. the small ones are the size of a quarter(or a euro), the big one is the size of a softball? Maybe a bit smaller. As I did some research these little critters require quite a bit of work! I wasn't anticipating that. But alas, we got them a bigger tank and filled it with the appropriate things, including a humidity and temperature gauge. They seem happy, the big one already changed to a bigger shell and now seems huge. (and heavy)
After thinking long and hard about what we are going to call them we decided to go with cool dutch boy names. (As I am not sure if any of them are female and I don't really care for finding out)

So the big one is called Daan, the smaller two are Sjors and Koen. It was a toss if the big one was going to be Daan or Koen but after he escaped out of the cage last night he has become Daan. This morning I went to check on them and I couldn't find Daan, I thought maybe he buried himself but my cats were acting weird so I knew something was up. Although nothing was stirred on top of the cage. Then I noticed crab poop on the top corner, and the knife block had fallen down. I really didn't want to find a dead crab with limbs everywhere so I very carefully peeked behind the cage and there he was, intact and just staring at me. I guess the knife block caught his fall and his big shell protected him from the claws of my cats. What a little dare devil, I couldn't believe it. Now I stuck some heavy things on top of the lid, hopefully he will stay inside tonight. Here he is, mischievous Daan.

Isn't he huge? He is as big as the hut for the little crabs!

Omar really hasn't seen much of them as they have been hiding. I read that is a common thing to do as they need to de-stress from being taken away from their natural habitat to a dealer then pet store and finally my home. My cats are really fascinated by them though as the crabs come out at night to eat, drink and play. Here they are just staring at them walking around.

All we need now is a crab the size of Daan so he has a play mate and a good spot for the tank where the cats can't jump on it but Omar can still enjoy watching the crabs.
The fun thing about them is that they eat just about anything we eat (besides dairy) So they have had carrots, pears and dried fruit and tonight they are having banana.

They can live up to 15 years in good living conditions so that sounds promising!

I know, not much about Omar but these are his first pets, so I thought I'd mention them!