The Nomad Mum's Diary

By lindo - About Me - E-mail this page - Add to My Favorites - Add to Blog List - See other blogs in Family & Parenting

Wednesday, April 4, 2007

A wean-wean situation I

I have a confession to make, but don’t laugh. Until one week ago Adam was still breastfeeding. Yes, I breastfed my son for 26 months. Why? I don’t know, that’s why I am writing this post. You can say it is psychoanalyses by blogit. First of all, you must understand that it is not unusual for mothers to breastfeed for this long. Many do that because of religious motives, the Koran recommends breastfeeding children until they are two years old. This wasn’t the reason I did not wean Adam earlier,... Sign in to see full entry.

Tuesday, April 3, 2007

And God created women...

As my trip to Libya gets closer, I find myself reflecting more and more on where I come from, not in terms of geography, but in terms of values, character and way of thinking. For a couple of weeks I will be with my kind, the womenfolk of my mother’s family. My father’s family is well known here in Latakia for the toughness of its women but I seem to take the trait even further: a bearded lady among tomboys. You know that age old saying: men are men and women are women. I think my mum (and... Sign in to see full entry.

Monday, April 2, 2007

Libyana

I love Libya, not just because my mother is Libyan and I have a lot of relatives there; nor am I nostalgic because I got my art degree from the local university (those were the best 4 years of my life, hands down). The truth is I love the people, the food, the accent that no one else in the Arab world can understand, the rhythm of their music, the majesty of the landscapes not to mention monuments from 4000 years of history standing shoulder to shoulder in the same spot. I get drunk from the... Sign in to see full entry.

Sunday, April 1, 2007

Lock, shock and embarrassment

As a mother, paranoia becomes your middle name. You develop a sixth sense and start seeing dangers and sensing hazardous situations that others may not see except for fellow mothers, of course. Fathers either worry about petty things only or don’t worry at all. This statement comes from my experience with my husband and my father-in-law. Adam and his granddad are very close and I have no doubt whatsoever that the old man does his best to make sure that Adam is safe and well. However, there are... Sign in to see full entry.

Saturday, March 31, 2007

Where everybody knows your name

Children love Ferris Wheels, but my son is passionate about them, they are all he speaks about -in addition to cars. He sees images of them in every day objects: car wheels, mirror frames, religious medallions, jewelry, the lot. If it is round with spokes then you can bet Adam will spot the resemblance. This Ferris wheel fetish started when we took him to the nearby fair last Eid. It wasn’t his first time (that one belongs in the blog of horrors but that’s a different story). Anyway, during the... Sign in to see full entry.

Friday, March 30, 2007

Strange Thinking

It was the usual pre-nap fuss, I had hauled Adam onto our bed and tried to get him to settle down and go to sleep. Our bed is about 75 cm off the floor so it offers Adam a bird’s eye view of the room and its contents. We had to dispense with the nightstands a long time ago because we could not leave anything on them, instead we have fabric cubbyholes hanging from the curtain poles to house our stuff. To get back to our story, Adam was scanning the contents of the shelves and the cubbyholes to... Sign in to see full entry.

Thursday, March 29, 2007

Loo and behold

After three years in Limbo, I have finally claimed a space to call my studio. It is not the spacious sunny loft I had been dreaming of, but it beats being squeezed in on the kitchen counter between the fridge and the food processor. In fact, the only person who was benefiting from the previous arrangement was Adam, once he was tall enough to reach the top of the counter he had no difficulty at all in dragging the paint tray down to his level, but when he learned to climb on chairs that’s when... Sign in to see full entry.

Tuesday, March 27, 2007

Bottoms out

Adam’s 3-day fever had left him with a painful rash, one that is resistant to all kinds of creams and ointments. It was Déjà vu, We had the same problem when we drove from Syria to Poland and it took a month to make it go away. This time around I knew the drill: Adam needed to stay nappy-less for the longest period possible, the more his skin is exposed to air the faster it will heal. There was only one problem, since he is not toilet-trained accidents will happen and they did. It was my fault... Sign in to see full entry.

Sunday, March 25, 2007

Drawing drill camp

People often ask me if I still paint, the answer used to be "only the living room walls!", but ever since Adam discovered pen and paper 2 months ago I have been drawing 24/7. My work often depicts cartoon-like cars, hearts, and Ferris wheels. No, I have not embraced the Naive school of painting, these are the kind of subjects that my son commissions. My day invariably starts when Adam comes tugging at my duvet "Mama: Alam (pen).... Mama: paper" and then the list of demands comes right after... Sign in to see full entry.

Saturday, March 24, 2007

Loose Cannon

I woke up this morning to the mother of all nightmares and the nightmare of every mothers. I'm still trying to convince myself that it has not happened and I don't know if it is a good idea to post it on a public blog, but here goes: Adam woke up early (no fever at night, thank God) so I sent him to watch Tv while I made breakfast. I went into the living room to check on him. He was sitting quietly on the futon with his dad's gun in his lap! Max was sitting near the window and he must have given... Sign in to see full entry.

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