I’ve been at Zajil Telecom since 2002, had my ups and lots of downs and regardless to how I honestly feel about the place and some of those who work here; I managed to create my own connections with decent human beings. Now we all argue every now and then – It’s human nature not to agree but  respect remains so when I heard of the news on Saturday I prayed for the man and no body knows this till now – I dreamt of him dead! I mean he’s old (60+) and he used to work his ass off for the company (Or that’s what I witnessed at least) so no one had high hopes on his survival after that stroke he had during the weekend and although we should have faith in Allah for he mapped our lives ahead but subhan Allah, it was time for Abu Juma’a to finally rest in peace..

Abu Juma3a – Hajji, used to drive me insane asking for gift items and during events for more coupons or giveaway and I used to always contain myself responding to him because he was an elderly but last Thursday we exchanged “HIs” and he asked about my daughter so when I came to know of his death over dinner, I got too emotional… The idea of losing a person is a blink of an eye scares me to hell! I never openly discussed this with anyone but I sometimes can’t sleep at night praying for Allah to extend the lives of my loved ones and protect them from harm.. I start thinking of different scenarios of what will happen if I lose x or y and I almost end up with one scene: Me dying from a heart attack caused by grief over that person… Ok, this is too depressing from early morning.

“يا أيتها النفس المطمئنة ارجعي إلى ربك راضية مرضية فادخلي في عبادي وادخلي جنتي”

Allah yer7amak bas he used to wear that White dishdasha Winter – Summer! <– Me trying to make this easy :/

of course I think the people who work with him – his department would be devastated and I don’t want to even go there today but his Manager emailed us the following:

(Born – 1945  Died 30^th January 2012)

Please accept our sincere condolences for the sudden loss of our dear colleague Mr. Mohammed Juma Hareeb Yesterday  30^th January 2012.  We can only imagine what a shock it must be to his Zajil extended family. Indeed, it was only Last Thursday that Abu Juma and our colleague shared a humorous time prayed Asar Prayer with him.

Abu Juma  Joined Zajil family on 27-Nov-1991 and I go back more than 20 years as very dedicated and hardworking colleague.  Not only was he a great person,  he was also an excellent co-worker with whom I spent many memorable days at Zajil over the years. He had an amazing sense of humor and was a gifted True & honest Muslim. In business dealings Abu Juma was always straight forward and honest. In short, Our brother Abu Juma was an exceptional friend and colleague who will be deeply missed by all who knew him.

We collectively mourn our Be-loved Marhoom Mohammed Jumma Harib’s loss

You see, he’s not the first at this place to suffer from medical issues and as much as I would like to elaborate, I shall keep quiet out of respect to good individuals working there and in the end I say: I have much more to do in life than lose my mind or sacrifice my health for lame pathetic reasons.  (PERIOD)

May you rest in peace Abo Jum3a..

I celebrated my birthday on January – Friday 13th! and although the majority tend to be superstitious about that freaky date, mine was relaxing, full of love and wonderful! Clueless as I was to the surprise in the making, I helped my family a lot by providing them time for the cake to arrive as well as dinner so I went home to check if Dear Nanny had things done then left to my parents house… What no one knows except Julie ;p - LOL – is that playing on Instagram at my place, I managed to take a shot of this bug on our window

After that I was checking the Feed and spotted my name on a cake !

HAHAHAHAHA- Sorry Julz but that was sincerely funny!

So I kept quiet, played dumb and watched them buzz around the house trying to keep things ready and my husband was asking: “what do you wanna do tomorrow on your b-day?” or “I’ve got the feeling that I’m gonna mess my diet tonight” LOL !

I excused myself to go pray – more time for them to set the cake down and gather waiting for me ;p and it happened! All the clapping and singing! God, I am anti birthday celebrations :/ I’d consider every day my birthday if I’d receive gifts! >:)but what was really cool is having my Birthday cake done by Julie of [ A Little Sugar ] ! I’ve always wondered what they’d create – design for me and it came out beautiful as all her work.

A cute fully decorated cupcake on top of a Pink cake! So I’m full of sugar it seems ;)

Another view of “Me”

I love the details – which are all edible btw – on the cake!

That’s the top of the cupcake lady on top of the cake base – how cute! All is fondant covered and everything again I say is edible!

The saddest part was having to cut through the cake so we removed Mrs. Cupcake and dug in the cake base

Dear lord, if i hadn’t enough self control that things would have been eaten up by me! I took a thin slice of this chocolaty, yummy YUMMY goodness! OMG! The thing about Julie is she understands what her clients want and my husband told me he didn’t request a specific flavor but she know what I like :) chocolataaaaa <3

And because we got too curious on what was filled in cupcake lady, we cut through it to find a White cake with cream and cherries I assume! Equally delicious and fattening!

I was so happy to see the family gathered around the table, specially with Alma clapping (she does :) ) and smiling, my first birthday with her and enshallah many more to come. I was so happy that Mrs Julie managed to squeeze my cake on her already fully booked schedule because she’s always booked in advance mashallah!

I am happy that i got gifts: a Michael Kors watch, a Green ensemble which makes me look like a tree and I tweeted it and got hugged for it ;p

and my husband got me an Aigner watch! <3 My family knows – can understand my obsession to that brand! I have several watches of different colors to match any color I wear and the latest is a Black – Silver one with Pearl dial off the latest collection At Geneve Novelties..

The full “A” – Love the color BTW! Need Red ;p E7emmm

Thanks to those who made this memorable, thanks to Julie for the cake, thanks to those who sent in their b-day greetings and thanks Man for the gift and Alma :*

Previous posts on A Little Sugar read [ HERE ], [HERE ] & [ HERE ] or you could follow her on Twitter @A_LittleSugar & her FB group link’s mentioned in the beginning of this post.

I’ve always wanted to do ONE thing for a long time and while we were at the Avenues, I dropped by [ Build-A-Bear ] (Phase 2 upper floor) & gladly fulfilled my fantasy:

ONE

Head towards the hair accessories stand and picked up a suitable wig for the kid, in this case the Light Brown was fine  – she’s too young to go Madonna on us!

TWO

Miraculously placed wig on kid’s head and snapped as much photos as we can before she pulled it away and into her mouth! Ha Ha! Mashallah it suits her well ;)

P.S: That shop is way too cute! Y’all, specially with kids gotta try it out soon… Oh! Make sure you have enough money cuz your avarage teddy + accessories would not be less than KD 20!

YES I resumed duty! After ONE YEAR, FIVE MONTHS of maternity leave, I chose to resume work with the beginning of  the new year. I’ve been up since 5:30 AM- I made sure baby had enough of me and I left crying because I will be away from her from 8 to 4:30 5 days a week! *CRY* I wish times were much more simple and life wasn’t as expensive so women would stay home and take care of the kids and yes I would totally encourage any mom to stay home (Based on my personal experience and at least for the first 2 years)… I am aware that I will be missing some important milestones but there’s nothing we can do about it unless I win the God damn Jawhara account prize!!! YA RAB !

So many changes which I need to keep track of, too many people left, many yet to leave and I was surprised with a “kind of “ career change in spite of being under the same domain as well as a new location / office but this time there’s a window!! YES some ventilation hallelujah. I am kinda pissed cuz I am away from those that I know but change is good no?!

I am so happy that there are windows <3 !! It’s refreshing and the view’s a killer! I never knew that garden was THAT big! 7amdellah ! As for the office space itself, it’s just great! I am gonna have my own mini fridge – microwave – Nespresso machine! You name it! and am filling it with my baby’s photos <3 so I see her all around me! *enshallah*

Oh, and the Man decided to treat me to a Diet Center subscription, Let’s see how that’d work with 1050 calories per day!!

I just miss one person in this world more than anyone or anything else … :(

It’s been like 2 weeks already since Nanny dearest arrived to our household, I’ve got mixed feelings about welcoming a stranger into our small family and what makes it harder is the amount of horrific news we read in newspapers on “domestic assistants” going insane with all the crimes they perform on sometimes innocent people. You see, it truly comes down to the simple basic word of “RESPECT”! Treat them how you like to be treated of course with certain imitations i.e not have her lie down on the couch while you are around .. E7m ! I am not going to further discuss this issue because some get touchy & start placing unnecessary accusations and we all know what some of these maids go through – doesn’t give them the right to murder, torture, run away, steal.. etc but I feel they do this out of their despair and YES I think they need to have some psychological / behavior assessment prior to bringing them over.

“LOL” was the SMS I got from the man when her went to pick her up, I called back frantically feeling that something went wrong. When he didn’t pick up I replied back saying: “If she’s not the same person as on her application DO NOT BOTHER bringing her home” ! Assuring that she’s the same person, I waited for them to ring the doorbell and I held Alma excited yet very anxious I opened the door and I laughed! Dude, I am 158 cm and they call me short huh! SHE IS SHORTER than me @@ I handed Alma who’s almost half her body height lol ! let’s see how she’d carry her as she grows taller!

I am not going to sugar coat what happened through those last few days especially with the man who calls her “you durra” – second wife – I tried in my own way to explain as show in practice how things are done around the house, how baby is cleaned, fed, put to bed and they all told me to be patient since she’s getting familiar with my style of running the house but how many times do you show one how to do something specific!? and to be completely fair I am satisfied with her today for the first time since she came!!!! She took the baby to let me “work” as she thinks :p and I can hear them playing outside and that was done by telling Alma “Yalla, let’s let mama work!” Cool!! Besides the fact that the house is spotless clean, laundry is done, dishes are washed and everything’s tidy in its right place (I much obsess on that) and she knows that by now. I have not seen major signs of her being a bad nanny and we much debated on having some type of surveillance equipment in the house but we agreed on observing how the baby reacts to her. Baby sometimes is agitated by her but we know that Alma is hyper and is too attached to me so I was instructed to butt off and let her deal with the child to further learn about her personality yet one cannot confirm if this is (having a nanny) is a good or bad decision unless at least after a couple of months and I sure do hope she gives back (taking care of the baby) like we’ve given her so far and I’m going to keep my mouth sealed since I was instructed not to blog about the nanny but I feel I need some feedback or some of your personal experience with your baby caregivers i.e do you let them go out on a day off? Does your nanny have a mobile?! How do you point out / emphasize on something wrong that she’s done?

Tidbits of the day:

1. Sleeping till 12 PM !

2. Nanny had everything done around the house which includes changing Alma when she woke up early in the morning + preparing her bottle

3. Nanny keeping baby away for me to “work” lol

4. Having some “me time” during morning because I’ve recently turned nocturnal!

5. Did lunch within 30 minutes

How do YOU feel about having a nanny in your house?

Her first eid was in Lebanon with my in-laws and it was fun to see all the family gathered around the tiny bundle of joy addition and have her dressed up and passing eideyyas to her and she likes money one could clearly see ;p This eid we are spending it with her grandparents here and hopefully we manage to take her out and enjoy this weather while it lasts.

I was thinking of eideyas – giveaways besides cash to hand to our neighbors’ kids because mashallah, they are a total of 10! @@ and I honestly don’t know how much to give to strangers then I suddenly had this crazy idea of making souvenirs that symbolize this eid – a sheep and have it filled with candy and I head to Bayya3 el Ward in Hawally to check if I could find something similar. I spent like an hour to bring together the items which made the cute giveaways which both my sister & I worked on for and have Alloumi’s name on :)

I first found the cute porcelain sheep then quickly snatched those boxes – Green meadows for the sheep to be glued on.

In the same building you could find chocolatiers and since I was in a hurry I got some Jordan almonds and crispy chocolates matching the theme of the giveaway

I then picked organza for wrapping the whole thing with matching labeled ribbons and separate daisies for the final touch

Got some ready made cards for the occasion and had them glued on with a darker colored ribbon on the side

And that’s the result of the hard filled with love labor !

The card with Alma’s name inside

Sheep which will not be slaughtered this eid ;)

Only downside to the whole thing was the having the text printed on the ribbons be upside down because we just suck at wrapping!

We’ve been struggling with her sleep pattern which was miraculously  fixed when we traveled to Lebanon and thank God now she sleeps all night so do I! Every week is a new challenge because she manifests new abilities and since last week I’ve noticed how she holds her feet and moves them up towards her mouth and starts sucking on her toes! TOO CUTE! Teething is a bitch, it makes her cranky – she bites on everybody’s finger as well as her teether and I need to ask you moms out there if there’s a way to calm her down without resulting to medication?!

Another thing that I am glad happened is my baby being weaned off milk.. I felt guilty at the beginning but that’s how my body works and I wasn’t lactating enough and some people seriously got on my nerves giving me lectures on how important it is to breast feed when it’s completely out of my hands and I am happy that she had her share for almost 2 months when I went dry. We’re on formula now and lately I’ve noticed it hasn’t been enough so in Lebanon we introduced fruits and boy oh boy she went nuts! She adores grapes!! I couldn’t believe it but she was so happy sucking on the grape as well as watermelon and when we came back I thought I’d cut her off but her grandpa cheated and he prepares some grape juice to drink so mama & I were discussing bringing out the baby food processor and start with solids when I read a tweet from @Oleana about the [ Wean Machine ] and  I instantly ordered it and after the 2nd day of trials, I can say that it’s the best mommy invented device! I love itttttttttttttttttttt! I just fed her some peaches with a dash of milk and she’s sleeping ! Wohoooo !

I know some might say it’s too early since she’s 4 months old now but I’ve noticed milk ain’t enough and after researching about it online, we took the decision to go slowly and diverse her meals and have her used to different tastes and she’s not complaining.. so far! there are some food which we have to avoid but I am sticking to recipes I got online as well a small booklet which I got from [ Oleana ] and it’s soooo darn easy to use!!!

I got the machine itself which comes with 2 grills and a spoon and got an extra pack of accessories just in case as well as the recipes book. Check this [ Video ] to see how it to works!

Along, I’ve ordered a couple of things since they have a great promotion on some items

I bought those two clothes items for a great deal, massage oil, rubber ducky and the diaper disposal bags which are essential in her diaper bag.

I alsoooo got her this adorable headband since she’s “9al3a” for now :* some people still ask if she’s a boy :I ! headbands are crucial at this stage till people begin to pay enough attention that she has earrings on for god’s sake!

Now about [ Oleana Boutique ], great “must have” items on their site, more than excellent customer service because they reply to queries and attend to any question one has and I love how they SMS – call before they send off the items ( Philipina lady is sweet as well as the driver Mohammed ). Their payment options are flexible as well so I highly recommend you check their website out, their FB group [ HERE ], follow them on Twitter @Oleana or drop by their blog [ HERE ] for updates. Thanks Reem for helping me out ;) and I am getting the trolley thingie soon!

Last Friday we had a small family gathering at my parents’ place along with husband’s family members… We are all exhausted to cook honestly specially with baby around since she demands full attention so she is passed from one hand to another, reminds me of how we deal with our cats at home! hug-able and sooo kiss -able! BOTH BABY & CATS!

Husband decided to order dinner from Al Deek Al Roumi and while I was browsing Facebook, I came across [ Cake n' Bake ]‘s special Summer offer which is a Flake cake that comes with a tray of mini Basboosa and since I am a fan of both, I called them up and scheduled for them to be delivered on Friday. Every time we have guests husband gets sweets from Mr. Baker and I wanted to change, their confectioneries are excellent but one has to have options – we go to people we eat Mr. Baker, people come over we eat Mr. Baker! Mashallah, their chefs are creative and talented.

I tried their delivery service when they first started it and it was very good yet this time, I was so pleased because they were so punctual and to my surprise, the cake turned out to be big and in sound order, the basboosa tray wasn’t any less either – you know when you see food pictures and once you actually get what you order they turn out disappointingly different! This is not the case with these people – cake was enough for 12+ pax. I am glad to see someone competing with Mr. Baker although they set the standard bar high for the rest but all I can say is best of luck Cake n’ Bake, wish you more progress and I will be depending on you a lot! During Ramadan as well enshallah :)

But to be completely honest, I have to say that although the cake tasted really good, it has to be more moist – or I think I prefer it to be drenched in chocolate sauce or something! and for a Syrian, I know that the basboosa taste was covered with that of ghee otherwise, both are very good & cake was almost swiped out!

I totally love Atlantis and I have never expected to go to Dubai and not go shopping or sleep for 2 nights wasting precious time off, guess I was THAT tired! I lovvvvve looovvveee loooooove Dubai! <3 LOVE IT - I am only posting a couple of pics since about a gazillion other human beings on this planet already did but again, I LOVE the place!

One of their pools <3

The hog I became ;p

Inside Dolphin bay, where they keep the dolphins

Husband was on shore taking pics however, this group doesn’t include me since we were assigned Black with his trainer (man on right side in Black) and I kissed, cuddled, hugged and played with the dolphin :)

And to cap this post I decided to share this pic after slicing myself out of it of those Japanese couple! I noticed them roaming around the hotel wearing the traditional Emarati clothes and my husband didn’t bother to listen to me and when he saw them he was like they might be residents of the UAE, turns out not! They barely speak English and I guess they think it’s cheaper and much more comfortable wearing loose clothes over their swimming suit (lady has a hot Red bikini under that abaya ;p )

I NEED MORE TANNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNN…… TAKE ME THIS WEEKEND ;p (Addressing da man, man copy do you read!? )

9 months of suffering.. 9 months of being deprived decent food since I mainly lived on ice cream and mostly desserts.. 9 months of sleeping like a bear during hibernation.. 9 months of staying home after work started to get me tensed as well as everyone around me (since I throw tantrums excluding no one).. 9 months of wearing 4 colors of the same pants (H&M’s maternity clothes).. 9 months of being smoke free.. 9 months of being bitchier than I usually am and she came along!

The beginning of the whole pregnancy was a surprise although we were planning on having a baby but just about the time I gave up, I came to knew when the ER doctor demanded I get a test and my first reaction was: “How?” of course he had to mock and replied: “You know how it happened” <– DUH! and of course to spare the world my drama and since I was in the mood for nothing, good ol’ blog was abandoned and I think updating will be an issue since little ALMA (That’s my kid’s name) clutches on to me like a Koala! No matter how hard I try to keep her in bed she starts crying wanting to be held all of the time which I don’t mind honestly, I am just waiting for her to be old enough to dress up without puking all over herself and take her out, have her nails done ;p and go around cruising in the car. All moms know that sleeping during this period becomes if I may say a “wish”; Kid has to be fed every 2 hours besides the diaper changing and anything else that comes along yet again I don’t mind since we spend quality time together and I get to “gaga and gogo” to her in the kitchen where she loves to stay it seems in spite she has lots of nice things to do or places to be like her bassinet or that soft mat with hanging toys or her chair! This one is very stubborn (wonder where she got that from!)

Bism Allah & Masha’allah

I am currently blogging with her on my lap farting (yes babies pass gas like men!) which is making her uncomfortable and since the satellite in the building is not working AND since I managed to do house chores I said yalla, let’s do this quick post before she wakes up asking for her snack.. breastfeeding, was not fun at the beginning but I managed to get along eventually and since we’re talking about this I need to rant out the fact that I am being fed like a cow to lactate and I am gaining weight like never before and this is the most annoying thing to me at this point (My jeans don’t fit no more :( ) so I guess I am going to subscribe to one of those diet centers and hope for fast results. As for work, well.. I enjoy being at home but it sometimes is boring but I don’t know if I would be able to leave kid alone or under the care of a stranger which reminds me, I still don’t have someone to help around the  house although we tried a lady for a month but man got bullestic and decided to terminate her services (a7san) my next plan is to teach Alma how to clean and set her loose around the house with me ! Need I also remind you readers that she clutches on to me to the point that I find it hard to go to the toilet *currently struggling*

So, it’s all about the feeding, changing, bottle sterilizing, clothes washing and burping for now when it comes to this baby. I just can’t wait to have her starting conversations with me which makes up for me feeling that I am missing out on a lot of what’s happening around me… Gosh I feel like am 120 years old! I walk around with a bag full of things for her and bottles and bibs.. bas it’s fun :p 

P.S: Mommyhood teaches you patience so expecting ladies put your stress aside and sleep as much as you humanly can because you won’t be getting enough once you pop baby out!! *Drinks Turkish coffee to stay awake* oh, and expoilt your husband during this period ;p