Kid’s quotes

I've been trying to 'ignore the bad and praise the good' behaviour: I try to give choices rather than dictate things Let's see how that went

Me: You're welcome

Biryani: I'm not welcome

Me: Thankyou, good girl

B: No

Me: Do you want orange or red (plate)?

B: Purple

S Do we see in pixels?

H How do you know it's (the flight) been delighted (delayed)

B I'm too busy (if I ask her to do something not totally interesting)

B You're too busy (to say prayers, sleep etc)

B I'm not a brat, I'm (Biryani) (response to brother)

M If you think about it almost anything can happen, flower toothpaste for example.

H Is Postman Pat a Christiain? (after I'd explained what Rev Timms church was)

Highs and lows

MashaAllah, I'm happy that my children are remaining children, not growing up too fast, not losing their childhood. But the other day my eldest came home from school a little sad. His classmate who's a year older had been teasing him that he din't know anything about drugs were, even 'snuss' which is tobacco/ snuff stuff theyhave here in Sweden. So I'm googling to find something appropriate to give him the information, because forewarned is forearmed I suppose. Does anyone know a good website at a 10-11 year old's level? (Swedish and/or English).
Generally I'm feeling a sense of 'disquiet' at the moment, seem to be getting all over-anxious about things. The house being so full of mess, not feeling I have enough time or energy to do much with the kids (former due to them being at school, latter due to having no 5).
Alhamdulillah.
And it's only Ramadhan keeping on track with ibadah that makes me feel I am 'achieving' something.
But in fact Hz is sleeping pretty well. he can go 6-7 hours at night without waking, and he's started sucking his thumb which should help with sleeping, rather than having me as a dummy.
He's found his hands and has started lashing around with them so much that I've had to find a nail file to sort out his fingernails, to stop him scratching himself so often. Cutting them wasn't working, it's so hard with little fingers that are being flailed about to do it properly.
Biryani's potty training, uh oh, this has gone out the window and back into nappies, and also started doing poos in them which she never did when we were first training. I know its normal regressive bahaviour due to baby arriving, but its v difficult and strange to clean her (after she's sat down in her dirty nappy, ugh) after such a long time using the potty for number 2's.
Other regressive feature is she's started speaking with sound immaturities e.g 'fis' for 'fish' and sometimes 'labbit' for 'rabbit'.
Ho hum
It's the last 10 days now of Ramadhan. InshaAllah we can make the most of it...

Sunday night I was making some plans for the next few days, in order to get them out the house and away from the ‘screens’. Monday a.m, despite having had a relatively good night’s sleep, I felt v dizzy and had to lie down most of the day, so things haven’t got off to such a great start, alhamdulillah, Allah is the best of planners.
Today I felt similar but S had a dentist appointment so went out for that. I was quite proud of him as he confidently asked the dentist what the numbers were she was calling out, and he has taken on board her advice about avoiding so much juice and sweet stuff to eat. Let’s see how long this lasts!
S is at least learning certain vocabulary from his online games, today he asked me what a ‘pees- ant’ is, which turned out to be the word ‘peasant’ , oh the English language!
I have found my camera alhamdulillah, I’d put it away ‘safely’ but with my alheizmer’s- like memory had completely forgotten having done so. Nothing picture-worthy has occurred as yet, you all know what a computer screen looks like (maybe ours is a bit more smudged with baby/ child fingerprints than the average..) and this would probably sumarise the day

One of me waffles...

Which reminds me I have been having a thing about pancakes with honey and flaked almonds recently. Delicious, until your son asks you to clip his toenails mid-scoff..
Something happening a lot recently, that if I’m walking about in my local area, a person waves to me, and I have to hope it was me they were waving to and not make a complete fool of myself when I wave back. You see, I am the token Muslim woman in the area, so am not hard to spot, but to me all the Swedish parents/ kids look pretty similar, especially at this time of year when covered in winter overalls and woolly hats.
Half-term is upon us and I was putting my feet up for a moment. I gladly realised I had found the perfect position to alleviate my dizzy head (feet elevated on sofa arms and head below body level as our sofa is getting a tad saggy). But how can I maintain this position when I have 4 kids to attend to and DH has jetted of to Africa?
You see my blood pressure is so low that I was seeing black spots when I was lying down. In contrast my MIL’s blood pressure is too high at the moment which is of course more serious, and not just annoying. Any tips for raising blood pressure (apart from reading upsetting e-mails), and lowering it please forward!
S had been home 2 days as he was unwell, and then he himself clicked that it could be a side effect of his vaccination he had on Wednesday (which I believe was for tetanus). Today I tried calmly to protest about not having been informed in writing that my child was going to be jabbed, but was reminded I had signed a consent form, last year!
Educational topics, er, S wondered how whirlpools were made but was unimpressed by the pictures of some in Norway that we found online. I think he’s thinking Bermuda triangle type thing.
Weather is very crisp and blue at the moment and it is so much better to get up for breakfast and the sun is peeping it’s beautiful head above horizon.
Anyhow tomorrow I have the prospect of the supermarket shop where I can also get some cash out as pocket money is owed. Last time H was with me and he thought it very strange that the lady was giving me cashback.
He asked me if I’d said ‘Hands up, give me the money!’ After that we enjoyed imagining other things I could have demanded.
‘Hands up give me my card back!' was one of them. It made packing bags of shopping a little less painful.
I received a pleasing mail from the library the other day, that my suggestion for them stocking 'From my sister's lips' by Nai'ma B Robert had been taken up, and it was ready for me to collect!!
I have actually read it already but thought it could be a good thing for them to have for a wider audience. All I can say is it is worth trying to suggest titles to your library, they can only say 'No'.
Maybe this was a good time to ask as they must have some of their budget still left as it's early on in the year. I shall pay my tax bill this year with slightly less of a sneer inshaAllah.
On a final note for today, I was flicking through the weekly property paper (I have to find something bigger pretty quick as time is ticking past). There was an article about what your bookshelf says about you. Unsurprisingly it said women thought that bookshelves were for books whereas the male species thinks they are suitable for displaying trophies and other such things besides books. We have one proper bookshelf (plus kids own in bedroom) so DH and I share. My half has all my Islam related books, dictionaries, DH’s travel guides, baby/Childcare books and the odd novel. I also have left the bottom shelf for kids books so they don’t have to only go to their room to read. However the shelves are quite deep and so other people’s stuff gets left there (out of reach of Biryani) such as CD’s, remote controls. DH’s half consists of computer CD’s and more CD’s and flying magazines. What have you got on yours??!

I’m sitting her in the murky twilight of what is about 10 am, typing this, trying to get some light from other sources and maybe reflect on positive things to bring this feeling of, well, ‘lowness’ is the only word of I can conjure up right now.
Watching the live coverage of Hajj perks me up when I get a chance. Those million supplicating on the plains of Arafat today, begging for forgiveness is what I’m regularly thinking about.
We’ve been bunking school for a few days (ssh!) but to be honest, I’m too wacked to take them so early in the morning, when all they’ll be doing is Christmas-linked activities. (I’ve grown tired with debating with the teachers about the legitimacy of my children participating in this stuff, and to be told that it’s just tradition, nothing religious.) But I’m not happy with it and it’s all around us so they know what’s going on without having to make a Christmas cracker. S’s teacher rang me yesterday to persuade me to bring him as they were going to meet some pen-pals they’d been writing to. (First I’d heard of this). S wasn’t keen and with my ailing voice, I said it wasn’t likely he could come. Biryani has a bad cold, S’s asthma is back (mildly)H had false croup again, and M has a mouth ulcer, alhamdulillah.
So where was I, oh things that have happened in the relatively recent post, DH is in Singapore but alhamdulillah MIL should be arriving this weekend, some welcome adult company., and support. We had visitors yesterday, which gave a slight morale boost, although I felt inadequate as a host. Hang on didn’t I say something about positivity.

Kids quotes:
S ‘what’s’ impat-eee-ent’ (reads from book, impatient). You tell me!

‘How did they choose the first king?’

H ‘Why do you say everything is beautiful?’ Do I really, well it’s a better word than ‘good’ or ‘nice’. Must think of more adjectives to describe your artwork.

He has also worked out that if you have a ‘forehead’ then also one must have a ‘backhead’

H was trying to do some ‘homework’ the other day. I wrote out some sums which he did with some help. Then he did the alphabet stencil, which also contained a comma. That was tricky explaining what a comma is to a 4 year old.

M: ‘Maybe I might’ I can’t remember what he was talking about exactly, maybe having been asked ‘Are you going to pray now?’
The response anyhow may as well have been ‘No’
He also requested a ‘Staplizer’ to staple one of his numerous home-made books together.

Biryani is turning out a little Tom-boyish (unsurprisingly), bangs duplo men together and making fighting ‘Oooh, ooh’ noises. Her word for Star Wars at the moment is ‘Die’ I’m not sure if it’s a way-off pronunciation, or she just hears the boys saying ‘I’m going to die you’ as they race round the house with their improvised light sabres. (‘kill’ is the practically the same word as ‘die’ in Swedish so I assume that’s why they say this, it doesn’t sound so bad anyway somehow!’ )
She also enjoys picture matching the Curious George bingo pictures we have which I was surprised she could do.
She does use some of the baby-signs I taught her earlier on alongside speech, and she showed this by thinking I’d said ‘fish’ instead of ‘finish’. She also uses the sign for ‘pig’ ‘duck’ quite regularly.

Oh and one from DH ‘When did I say I was ignoring you?’. Yeah, I had to think about that one too.

More questions and progressions

Maybe I have noted these questions of S before, but I know I haven’t yet found the answers to all of them!
How are cucumbers pickled? (They have them for sale in a big tub in the fruit and veg section of the supermarket.)
What is ‘astromycin’?
How do they make butter, oil?
Why poisonous berries can be eaten by birds (I always wondered this as a child, but never thought to find out, it was pre internet though!)
What can eat ‘flotsvamp’ (the red toadstool)
What’s a rain shadow?
How do they make the special effects in films? e.g. cutting off hands, falling down a deep hole in Star Wars.
Can you live without saliva?
Which is the heaviest rock? Ayres?
Which is the highest voltage power plant in the world, actually now I remember we did check that one but I can’t exactly remember was it in Japan or Russia. Hope M15 doesn’t seize my computer anyway….
What’s the best conductor?
How is marmite made? Yes we did find out it is a bi product of the brewing process, assuming its still halal though.
He wants to learn more about Isa (as)
Have also been having lots of queries on dangerous insects – am thinking of starting ‘lap books’, I think M will especially like this. Any advice on websites, books willingly received. I think there was an article in the IHSAN newsletter I’ll have to look up inshaAllah.
Hmm I think we have a years worth of work here, who needs a government-concocted curriculum?

M said recently re his little sister: 'She doesn’t talk, I think she knows what we mean’ Very observant, as she is understanding a lot of words now mashAllah, esp. those that come up on a daily basis e.g. tissue, yoggi, TV (hmm)

H’s has been asking:
What’s zero not more than?
Why is zero nothing?
He’s managed somehow to pick up basic addition and likes to repeatedly ask ‘What’s 18 +1?' despite being told the answer many times!
He made up his own pen control game as he made a racing track and we had to race round drawing with our pens on the paper. Could have gone on for ages, if I’d had time, luckily big bro S joined in.


H also said ‘panpake’, then went to think in his room and came out and said ‘ pan-cake’
Yesterday it was French toast on the menu except it took me a while to workout this request as he called it ‘fresh bread’
Another touching expression ‘I’m just taking the water off me’ (as he was drying his tears)
And finally today he was asking ‘Why everything grows except crocs(those shoes) and toys?’ ok it’s a start on animate vs. inanimate objects!
He’s being showing me how to cover his mouth when you cough, and he asked why they do it with the hand in England. The Swedish way is to put arm up to mouth, assumedly because so often have to shake hands with people here. (Once I took it a bit too far and offered my hand to the nurse in the doctor’s and she had actually wanted to take my ‘nummerlapp’ queue position number instead. A bit of Swedish etiquette learnt there, no queue barging and wait for them to offer hand first!)
Biryani's walking getting quite confident now, yesterday we went to an indoor play centre *groan* where there was a lot of floor space and she picked up a bit of speed there. She also loves holding on to H’s shirt behind him while they walk very fast around the house, giggling away.
She tries to pray, missing the rukuh and salam, but does a sujood with knees still off the ground. We tried it and it’s not easy! She moves her index finger a bit for tashahud and did hold her hands up for dua and fold the prayer mat after, mashaAllah.
Recently she kept pointing at H’s milk in his anywayup cup (still using I’m afraid) She normally shows no interest in milk of the bovine form preferring mine but she really meant she wanted to give it to her brother, and so she promptly walked to the other room to deliver it mashaAllah.
Now I know my cooking’s not so great but felt my heart sink as she enthusiastically pointed towards the shelf with the baby food jars which I serve out when I haven’t made the meal in time for her schedule or if what we’re eating’s not suitable. She ate almost a whole big fat 15 month HIPP jar of vegi lasagne which is a lot for her.

Well it's school on Monday, a week later than I'd expected and I need to do some clothes shopping for the boys, if inshaAllah I can escape to the shops without kids..

Should be napping.

but I wake up feeling groggy, even though it's sunnah to do so after Dhuhr, maybe need to do regularly to adjust my body clock..
Just had a go at Biryani as she started to pull various papers off my desk, and then she started putting them back on the desk, girls, they’re so different!

I don’t know why, maybe because I’ve not been at my best with ear ache, but forgot to mention M read his first proper book to me (‘Up and Down’ Oxford Learning Tree), without me asking him to! That’s what I like about autonomous learning, it happens without the ‘I don’t want to… later… do I have to?…. I’m not doing it *humph*. I feel so sorry for him that about 60% of English does not follow the phonic rules, so words like ‘he’ are sounded out perfectly ‘h’ ‘e’ heh, and I have to tell him it’s actually ‘hee’, but his personality is such that he doesn’t get too disheartened and we went onto the Ugly Duckling (Ladybird)with great gusto.
Now for those learning in the UK, me getting excited about my boy starting to read when he’s practically 7 must seem a bit mad, but from experience with son no.1, Islam's age-guides for learning, as well as the Swedish school system not staring til 7, I did not really push the literacy stuff around the usual age 5. (Phew that was a drawn-out sentence..)
H is actually picking up on the phonics work M is doing, and he’s starting to segment and blend words. He liked the word ‘cucumber’ beginning with ‘c’


Some questions that have been asked recently by S that need research (may have noted before but still haven’t looked up anything about them):

How they discovered bread?
Cyclones?
Inflation (the money kind)?
How do they make windows and glass? (could do a ‘field’ trip, there are some special glass factories in Swede I think.
Japanese buildings (as regards withstanding earthquakes)
What’s a rifle (as opposed to a standard ‘gun’) ? hmmn?
Is chocolate (cocoa powder) denser than icing sugar (mm I enjoyed that cake that sparked this question, and maybe should do more research in this area!).
Also he’s interested in doing things with Balsa wood (aeroplanes maybe?)

Here’s some closer-up photos of the tomatoes, inspired by Zainab's blog:

And here’s the end-result of some rare time I had alone to tackle the kids room whilst the boys were out at Jummah prayer and Biryani was asleep. I maybe could have done a ‘before’ picture to show the contrast.but forgot, but probably will be back to it’s usual state in a a few days. Just had to document that there is a floor under there. I got motivated to do it as S had been sneezing a lot and I’m worried my lack of cleaning may be causing this.

Luckily the poor exposure of the photo masks how I have used the top bunk as a place to cast the toys. (Need shelves, now take it one step at a time, we do now have blind no. 2 installed)