Madeeha's 2nd Birthday Party!!!!

We held Madeeha's 2nd birthday party at our house on Jan. 10, 2009. We delayed her party because of the Christmas season. Her party was pretty much all about Dora and balloons, but we did have a Blue's Clues cake. All of the Dora cakes were ugly, so I went with one of her other favorite characters. We were fortunate enough to have lots of friends come over and help us celebrate. Madeeha is still talking about her party every day. She names off all of her guests throughout the day. It was cold outside, so everyone pretty much stayed inside the whole time, but it was a beautiful day.

Here's the Blue's Clues cake laying on top of the Dora tablecloth. It was a chocolate cake with whipped icing and it was really good! Imran prefers vanilla over chocolate, but even he couldn't stop eating this cake.

Here's the birthday girl all dressed up! This dress came from Pakistan and it was so beautiful. It has gold glitter on it, and that glitter got everywhere. I'm still battling the gold glitter in my hair and on my forehead. I vacuumed the couches inside and out, but I think we're going to have glitter around for a while. I thought that her skirt was going to be too long, but she was tall enough after all. I took her to the pediatrician the other day and she measured in the 99th percentile for her height! She's a tall little critter. Doesn't she look like such a big girl now?

We decorated with lots of balloons. We had helium balloons on the ceiling and a Dora balloon. Then we had regular and the long twist balloons all over the floor.

I put as many toys out as possible to keep the kids busy since we were all trapped inside by the cold weather. We had the slide in the living room and it looks like we're going to keep it there because she loves using it while she watches tv. Here she is getting ready to slide and saying cheeeese while holding one of her balloons. She LOVED those balloons. We blew them up the night before and she was ecstatic. She showed each balloon to me about 100 times each and kept saying "Look at that, look at that!" I had to keep telling her how amazing they were and that they were beautiful.

Now we're getting ready to sing 'Happy Birthday' and eat some cake.

Isn't she precious?

Now we're singing and you can see that she's a little nervous and amazed that everyone is singing to her.

It was funny trying to get her to understand how to blow out the candles. She could only make a little blowing sound, so I ended up blowing out the candles for her. It was fun to watch her try.

Now she's watching and wondering about the smoke rising from the candles.

It was so funny! She grabbed a fork and went straight for the cake and wouldn't stop eating the icing. See her little smile.

The kids were getting impatient. They were watching in agony as Madeeha kept eating icing while they waited for their piece of cake. I wish I had video of Abby with her hands on her head and saying "Oh, no, no, no Madeeha!"

Here's all of our guests, minus Imran because he was taking the picture. Everyone is posing for the picture except for Madeeha. She is still busy stuffing her face.

Here we all are again, minus Amber. And Madeeha is going in for another bite of icing! She didn't care at all about having her picture taken. She wanted that cake!

We had a great time at the party and I know that Madeeha was thrilled with everything. She is a very lucky little girl. We have lots of nice family friends who are wonderful people that are good parents with sweet little children. Thank you everybody!

Happy New Year!

We hopped in the car about 11:30 and rushed to downtown Denver to catch the fireworks. We caught up with our friend and said hi for a few minutes. Madeeha was so absorbed by all of the noise and the people that we couldn't get her to smile for any pictures. Her eyes were just moving around and I could almost see the gears in her head working as she was trying to figure it all out. It wasn't too cold that night. It was about 55 degrees.

Just taking a picture of Imran's 'vacation beard' and also looking at how much smaller his face is now that he's lost about 25 lbs.

Madeeha loves to go to Lowe's. She especially loves the faucets! I put her in the display tub while daddy was busy shopping. And, yes, she is holding a 'booger sucker'. She plays with everything. She is going through a phase right now where she has to take a doll or toy or just some object inside the store.

Just posing for mommy because she loves pictures and she loves to say cheese.

Who's that cute little winter princess? I love all of her winter clothes.

Here are some of the things that we did in December. One major accomplishment was finally being able to wear pony tails. Madeeha's hair just wasn't quite long enough all around in order to use anything other than clips. She doesn't wear her hair up around the house, so in all of those pics, she still looks like a shaggy dog. But, when we are out and about, she usually leaves her hair alone.

This is at the Orchard Town Center. Behind that tree was a small ice skating rink. This area was very pretty. All of the lamp posts and small trees were lit up with white and red lights.

We were eating at the Happy Sumo in the same Orchard mall. She loves chopsticks. She didn't eat anything, but she did get down, walk around and try to impress the waitresses.

We've been having lots of fun dressing Miss M up in hats, mittens and boots.

One of her favorite weekend morning activities is to sit with her daddy and eat graham crackers dipped in chai. She LOVES chai! Aren't they cute together? When she eats something good, she says "Mmmm, yummy. It's 'licious!"

This was her very first time wearing pony tails! I was soooo excited! She toddled around the house making her pony tails bounce.

This was Christmas Eve. We were invited to a friend's house for dinner, so we dressed her up. This outfit came from Pakistan and was given to her when Imran's parents were here.

Daddy took some pics before her hair was fixed, but her face is so sweet.

This was her actual birthday. We didn't do anything that day, but she sure did look cute. Her daddy went out shopping for the day after Christmas sales and came home with a head set. She thought they were neat.

Look at this cutie! I just love it when she's all dolled up!

And this is Madeeha just a few minutes later. Sunglasses off and hair down. She still twists hair to fall asleep. She twisted it so hard that she fell asleep with her finger stuck and her hair all tangled. Isn't that crazy? Her hand is just hanging there. I had to pry her finger out.

I was trying so hard to get her hair right, but it just wasn't working. We finally got it right, but I had to take a picture first.

She stayed outside with her daddy and got on the slide. She was having a good time and taking lots of pictures for us.

Here's the back yard on a nice day.

Just another picture of her pony tails. She's standing right in front of the tv watching cartoons. She's always getting in trouble for putting her face right up to the screen. It must be something genetic that she inherited from Mimi.

The weather was decent so we went to the Orchard play area. It was packed because the weather was so nice. She had a great time.

She's concentrating because she doesn't want to fall off of the beam.

Here's a random picture of Imran. He tries not to shave while he's on vacation.

December's Developments

Madeeha just turned 2 on Dec. 26th. She's a very big girl now! We're just now coming to an end of one of her hunger strikes. It lasted for about a month. Her eating habits still aren't perfect, but she is much better now. Beforehand, she was living on milk and vitamins and a few bites of food here and there. She's totally obsessed with tv and cartoons. She is so bored around here without anybody but mommy to play with. Potty training is not going very well anymore. She was doing really good, and then one day she just decided that potty training wasn't fun. It's difficult to keep her dressed. She always takes her clothes and diaper off. She's becoming more of an actress everyday. She is always perfecting her craft. She likes to run around the house in dress shoes, a diaper and a purse and play pretend with her babies and stuffed animals. She's still very, very affectionate and loving. In her mind, daddy is a rockstar and the funniest man on earth. She loves parties and I can't wait to see how excited she will be this weekend for her birthday party! She really misses all of her friends. All throughout the day she will name off some of her friends in hopes that I will say okay. I just tell her that they are at home and asleep. Our neighbor dropped by the other day and didn't bring his son. Madeeha screamed and cried for 15 minutes because her buddy didn't come to play with her. She was very offended :D.



The darndest things:

* She learned from Uncle Shane to say 'Good Gracious'. It's hilarious when she says that. She
saw a bruise on my leg today and said "Oh, good gracious!"..."It's alright mommy."

* She can say "I am Pakistani". She says it perfectly.

* She still says "What's the matter mommy?". But now she also says "You sad?", "Are you
crying?", "No crying." and "It's okay mommy.".

* She says 'monkeys' when she wants to watch Curious George.

* If you ask her if she wants something or wants to see somebody, she always has the same
response if her answer is no. If I ask her if she wants yogurt, she says "No, I no yogurt".

* After every bath I have to bundle her up in two big towels and then lay down with her in the
bed and sing several songs. We always sing 'Rock-a-bye-baby' and 'Itsy Bitsy Spider'.
Some days she insists on hearing more songs than usual or she'll make me repeat her favorite
ones.

* She's addicted to vitamins and teething tablets. I've pretty much cut off her supply of teething
tablets, which we refer to as 'happy pills'. She always asks for her 'Bitamins' first. Then she
begs for 'happy pills'. She LOVES her vitamins.

* If she walks off for a second or if we walk away from her, she says 'Be right back'.

* She's always said 'moowee' instead of movie, just like her dad. :)

* She always takes them off in the car, but she does like to wear her hat, mittens and jacket.

* She's learned from tv to always ask for ice cream, even though we never have ice cream
around here.

* She still likes to overuse a 'bo-bo'. She'll get a scratch and a week later she'll still point to it
and say ouch so that she can get some kisses and some attention.

* She likes an audience when she dances. She bounces all over the place and then screams for
either mommy or daddy to watch her. She bounces some more and if she catches us looking
away, then she screams for us again.

* She loves to sit in my lap and read books. She doesn't like for us to read her the story though.
She only likes to go through the book and identify objects, characters, shapes and numbers.

* She understands the numbers 1-20. She can clearly count to 15, but she is working on
properly counting from 15-20.

* She does all of the things that kids do, like begging for balloons, sweets and everything that she
sees in the stores.

* She's gotten pretty good at climbing the kitchen cabinets and dresser drawers so that she can
check out what's on top.

* She loves to stand on the toilet and stare in the mirror. She talks to herself and examines her
teeth and makes funny faces.

* At this point, when she does sleep, she sleeps so hard that it's almost impossible to wake her
up if she's not ready yet.

* She loves to color. She still eats crayons though. That's her favorite thing about restaurants...
they always give her crayons and a piece of paper. She won't eat our food, just her crayons.

* She makes me hold her toys, especially her babies and stuffed animals. She just brings them
to me and she won't let me put them down. Eventually, she'll come to me and kindly ask for
her toys to be returned.

* She still demands attention in public. She walks up to people and stands in front of them and
she just stares and says hi. Then she moves a little and then jumps back in front of them. It's
funny. Most people are nice about it, but I can see that it irritates quite a few people.

MADEEHA'S FAVORITES

Ketchup
BBQ Sauce
Chocolate Milk
Vitamins
Pumpkin Pie
Kichiri (Rice & Lentils)
Biscuits
Fruit Chews
Juice
Yogurt
Tomatoes in Italian Dressing
Desserts in general