Jan

ROYALS / THE PRINCESS FACTOR

i have always been anti-princess. even though that was the name my dad used to call me and it was filled with such good memories. i just never favoured the word when referring to my girls. when they were born people would ask, “awwww, how’s your little princess?” and i would cringe inside. i know, i’m so mean right?

but daani just loves to be called princess. she believes in her heart of hearts that she is. and that niyya is as well. and that her papa is king and i’m the queen. queen mummy to be exact. lol.

and at first it didn’t sit right with me. mainly because i know what i know and those titles get thrown around so loosely and get used and abused. and that kings can be monsters and princesses can be spoiled. and that the pre-fab fairytales that i grew up on, that are everywhere you turn these days are not ideals and dreams i want my daughters to buy into. at all.

and so, i’m just not about that. princess this and princess that.

but i’m starting to realize her view of it is true. and pure and special. so i’m starting to think it’s sweet. since this started way back when she was two, we’ve talked about what kind of princess she is. and adjectives i want her to hold close and adopt as characteristics are always on heavy rotation.

she is a strong, caring, gentle, creative, courageous, thoughtful, helpful and kind princess. she prays for people, and shares with people and loves people. and she loves herself. not in the selfish, vain way. in the wholesome, ever-important, oft-overlooked, self-love kind of way. she is that kind of princess. and that’s something i will forever be cool with.

tahs

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royals is a feature i write about my kids. my royals. and what we are going through. come along for the ride, won’t you? if you have kids of your own and can relate, feel free to join talk to me on instagram fb, or twitter.

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3 weeks ago Short URL 1 Comment

KIDS/LIFE

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Dec

ROYALS / TAKING PHOTOS

daani’s been picking up the camera a lot these days.

“i just wanna take your picture,” she says.

i’m actually pretty excited about this because she’s getting to a good age to start learning about some of the tools i love to use to express and share. which means we can share in that. and sharing is caring and caring loves people. at least that’s what my niece ayah says.

so she goes into my phone and sets up her shot and clicks away. and she literally does just that. it’s something i teach my students not to do, you know, the quick succession of shots without a steady hand or distinct aim…

just clickclickclickclickclickclick.

but you know what? there’s some real magic here. i love how the viewer sees only snippets. there’s a little mystery. and mood. and it’s kind of abstract.

ha.

she’s got a style all her own. like mama, like baby.

___

royals is a feature i write about my kids. my royals. and what we are going through. come along for the ride, won’t you. if you have kids of your own and can relate, feel free to join the conversation.

like what you see? subscribe and never miss a post.

2 months ago Short URL 2 Comments

ART/KIDS/LIFE

like mama like baby/tahsin the good/the daani diaries/toddler photography/toddler photos

Nov

SOME THINGS / 4

1. all smiles at breakfast time is golden.
2. this past weekend was a rainy one. so fort building was on the agenda and i think it’s gonna be a thing in our house from now on. or at least for this long cold winter we are about to enter. it’s such a cozy thing to snuggle under blankets together and read a gazillion books together.
3. baby legs and new pj’s. that is all.
4. oh hello. this is toque 2/2 and i’ll be wearing it for at least half of the time you see me for the next 6 months. don’t tell me i didn’t warn ya.
5. daani’s been real helpful lately. everything she does now is because she’s “this much” (said while holding up three fingers.) i love this extra confidence and sense of capability in her.
6. a semi-throwback of me and him from a few weeks ago. we have almost no pictures of us anymore. so when i saw this on his phone i grabbed it immediately for my own records.
7. attempted beet frites yesterday, and they were eh…. gotta experiment with the cook times a bit. i still chomped them all up, the girls… not so much. i snacked on them while preparing dinner and topped our salad with a few of the extra crispy ones.
8. new print up in the shop. for me it’s a reminder of who this is all for. a You and only You kinda thing.
9. a little blurry mirror selfie. maybe not the prettiest, or most clear shots, but i like it.
10. we almost switched niyya’s crib into a toddler bed this weekend, but i got cold feet even though we switched daani from crib to bed at about the same time. i can’t, or maybe just don’t want to imagine her as a big girl. im being a little too sentimental about this, but if you can’t be sentimental about your own kids, then who on earth can you be that way with?! it will have to happen soon though, daani wants to be able to hang with her sissy in the mornings and after quiet time. she want to crawl in her bed and cuddle with her and “take all the things.”

Sep

FACE PLANTS AND FACE-GEAR

i got myself a pair of glasses after maybe five years with my old ones (i rarely wore them. i’m more a contacts kinda girl.)

i realized if i don’t take care of my eyes by giving them a break every so often, i could lose one of my most valuable tools. and that’s not good or going to happen insha’allah.

i always get excited when buying a new frame because i love glasses, but once the lenses are in i just don’t want to wear them anymore. my script is really high and that leads to a less than ideal look with them on.

this pair is different. they are such a classic frame, with a little edge. and the fact that they fit my abnormally small face, an issue i have had with my glasses in the past, is a huge plus! and also, now, i just don’t think it’s worth it to worry so much about how an item i require to see properly looks on my face.

I CAN SEE CLEARLY NOW.

i found them in a cute boutique in playa a few months back, and the shopgirl told me johnny depp swears by this brand. haha. that didn’t sell me, but for some reason i keep telling people that little tidbit of info. lol.

i ordered the frame online here and got my aunt to fit the lens. et voilà. my new face-gear for slow mornings, evenings and sundays!

do you wear glasses? i bet you my prescription is worse than yours!

ps. niyya, my thrill-seeking, daredevil-ish little rascal gave me a big scare the other night. i had to take her in to see a doc (let’s be real, it was an er doc) for a gash she got on her lip and gums from “surfing” on, and taking a big wipe-out off the bed.

SHE ACTUALLY LEARNED TO STAND THAT WAY. ON UNEASY, UNSTEADY GROUND.

she’s some kind of wonderful. lol. my cheeky little monkey. and knowing her, she probably had something in her mouth to cause extra damage. she’s a tough cookie, though. and it seems she can withstand a lot alhamdulillah. not too many tears despite the crazy amount of blood and my short-lived moments of panic, and a silly and playful attitude afterwards.

pic.

i think i’m beginning to get this whole second born/last born thing.

FUN-LOVING, AFFECTIONATE, REBELLIOUS.

i only worried and took action beyond what i could do for her at home, because the cut seemed big and, i don’t know… you never know.

5 months ago Short URL Comments

DESIGN/KIDS/LIFE/STYLE

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Jul

TRADITION / EIDVENT CALENDAR

months before ramadhan started, like, last december, leading up to christmas-time, my pinterest feed was overloaded with the most lovely images of advent calendars. the creative community that i followed had cooked up sweet little packages for their little ones to open each day in anticipation of christmas day. it’s a way to make the holiday season fun for the kids and not just about the one day. and it really is a season. a season of giving, loving, sharing, and spending time with loved ones amongst many other things. and when i saw these pins i thought it would be so nice to do something similar for my kids during our big season of our holiest month, this month of ramadhan.

i am learning that with kids it’s so important to start traditions that appeal to them to involve them in our culture to ensure that it doesn’t get lost in the midst of all the other cultures they are exposed to. check out our milad un nabi tradition here and here. for me, ramadhan has always been about good food, going to the mosque, spending time with family and friends, giving charity, pariticipation, community, and of course, the spirit. connecting with Allah and reviving my relationship with Him.

so i made plans to prepare a calendar to kick off the month and incite cheer and fun in anticipation of eid. hence the name eidvent! then, we decided to go away on vacation and return two days prior to the beginning of ramadhan and it just didn’t get done. but that didn’t mean i didn’t still want to prepare something for the girls. so a week in (hope it’s going well for everyone so far!) i finally completed ours and put it up. never late is better, but better late than never. right?

i made a list of all the things and experiences i wanted to include. i didn’t really want our calendar to be about stuff so much as fun and experiences. I remember growing up the advent calendars sold in stores were filled with chocolates and i definitely didn’t want to do that for the girls on the daily. having it be only about food would defeat the purpose of this tradition as they grow up because eventually they will be fasting too. i could have also gone to the dollar store and picked up little trinkets and toys for each day, but we’ve got enough stuff hanging around.

so i thought up fun things to include and talked to friends about some of the things they included and was able to come up with thirty unique “treats”. things like a love note and loose change to give for sadka, baking together for the bake sale at mosque, calling/face-timing someone of their choice, going to the splash pad. some had to do with the month and it’s values, some were just for fun and some were what daani would call treats. i mixed it up a bit.

now that i had my list, (planned out and coordinated to suit the days on our regular calendar) it was time to make it pretty! lol. i was inspired mainly by the minimalist advent calendars i saw and pinned a bunch of them here on my eidvent board. then i collected my materials (paper bags, paper, string, tape, markers) and the other day while daani was painting, i created my numbered tags by painting a sheet of paper, cutting them into circles, and painting the numbers on. once everything was ready to go, i assembled and hung it all up. the husband even helped!

both girls seemed to be excited about it, (when daani an i opened the first one, niyya kept inching closer and closer) and now a few days in daani is longing to open the next bag. like i said before, with these traditions it’s all about making it fun for them and, i could be getting ahead of myself here, but, mission accomplished!

did you make an eidvent calendar this year? or an advent calender at xmas? tell me about it. if you didn’t make one this month, and want to, you could just make it for the last ten nights! why not, right?!

8 months ago Short URL 9 Comments

DESIGN/KIDS/LIFE

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Jun

FIELD TRIP / HIGH PARK ZOO

i’m not in toronto right now, but if i was, i may take a weekday off and take this kids to high park again. it’s such a gem in the middle of our city. it’s our version of central park, i guess. but not central. west. and i love the west end of our city. but that’s another story for another day.

mase took the day off too and joined us on our little adventure. it was so nice to go during the week, as it was quiet and not too busy. there’s a lot of things to see and do, and most, if not all activites are free! bonus!

both of the girls are at such a nice age to do these things. and now that summer has finally arrived, it’s the perfect season to do so as well. last summer niyya was so new, so fresh, so needy, that these outings were not enjoyable to me. i felt like every two minutes i was stopping to feed, change diapers, etc that i preferred to be closer to home. i called it from then that this summer would be fun! and so far so good!!

we planned to walk the zoo and hang in the park for the half the day before naptime and we were lucky enough to have a few extra of these quinoa muffins a student of mine made for us over the weekend. next time, i will pack a few sandwiches and some fruit so we can all sit down to eat properly. there was lots of space to set up our little picnic.

right beside this picnic area they have a ginormous playground area that looks like a castle. since we are still in the frozen phase this was very exciting to our “princess”. but there was a storm looming around the corner and just as we took our last bite, it started to pour on us! so no park play for us that day.

i’m so glad that mase was there, he really helped quicken up our load out process! and also, i was so glad for him to join us on an outing because he was able spend some nice time with us doing something other that the usual play, dinner, play out side, bath, books, and bed. and also, without sounding too narcissistic - we was able to take some photos of me and the girls. sometimes i feel like i don’t exist in photos save for the selfie! and i like looking at natural photos of the girls an i in our element, not posed or so close up. i’m the photographer in our household, but i don’t want it to be that i’m never in any pictures. i live off of photos! so, i’m practicing the sentence, “can you take my picture, please?”, while i hand over my camera. seemed to work this time around!

what are your plans for this week? any outings planned? have you been to high park this season? and who captures your moments?

8 months ago Short URL Comments

KIDS/LIFE/PLACES

free activity/high park/high park zoo/places/things to do in toronto with kids/toddler activities/toddler outings/toronto

Jun

VAMOS A LA PLAYA

…del carmen! hola from mexico!

the fam and i made plans in late may to get away for a week just before ramadhan begins. the husband had a busy spring market, i have had a lot going on with launching the get that shot (work)’shop and light + good, and we both needed to get some r and r.

and so we booked this trip to playa del carmen. we came a few years back just before getting pregnant with daaniya. yup, the last kidless trip. and it was fun, but the weather was.. eh. i wrote about it here.

anyway, i love this little town. it’s a bit touristy, in a small-town-beach-vacation kind of way. i call it the mexican miami in that there’s a nice mix of beach and bustle. the centro is full of restaurants, small hotels, shops and everything is in walking distance. that’s a bonus with the load that we lug around!

it’s such a fun town with lots of different things to do and see. and an all-beach vacay is tough (and not so fun) for me being in hijab, so we’ve decided to compromise with our travel choices and mix in some sights, good food, markets, people watching, shopping and swimming. and of course lots of resting and relaxing!

and coconut water drinking straight from the madaf! lol!

i’m soaking everything up with new eyes this time, now that we have two additional travel companions. because if you have little ones, you know, you can’t just lay out and sit still on vacation anymore. so be on the lookout for a post about what to do and see in playa with your kids.

just wanted to check in and say hi! hope you’re all having a wonderful weekend.