home again

we just returned from our trip to quebec and maine. quebec was lovely, but rainy- we stayed in a castle that is one of the city's landmarks, walked around on cobblestone streets, took lots of pictures of yusuf in front of Mother Nature. taher was honored at an actuarial conference (he's passed all 9 and is the actuarial-equivalent of a Rock Star), which is the reason we were in quebec.

from there we had a scenic drive to portland, maine, where we stayed in a little hotel right on the beach, tried some lobster (ICK!), watched yusuf bat his eyelashes at all the ladies, saw the new adam sandler movie at a drive-in movie theater. it was a nice little beachy vacation.

they had a book warehouse, too, where i bought a bunch of novels for only four bucks each! i need one of those in elmhurst.

this trip was wonderful in that we had an entire week to just be together, the three of us- we got to just play with yusuf and not feel any time restraints. we learned how much yusuf really knows about what is going on, even though he doesn't yet have the language to express what he knows. i see him becoming more and more of a little person who aims to make his desires known.

it was a good trip. the first of many family vacations, inshallah.

swimmer

today we took yusuf to the pool for the first time. granted, we were only in the pool for about 5 minutes and we only got him wet up to his shoulders, but we were extremely excited about it. another milestone, another event we got to experience.

as i slathered him in baby sunblock for his 5 minutes poolside, i thought about the cold winter weather we were having when he was born. i thought the summer would never, ever, ever come, and that taking him swimming was a far away dream.

it's the small things that make us so happy these days. yusuf can charm us with the tiniest gesture, and it's a power he doesn't (yet) know he has.