teamwork

hamza is turning 3 in less than a months time, and im so nervous and excited with the thought of it! it has been such a fulfilling and frustrating journey so far, and i know its only the beginning of things.  he has this amazing personality, kind hearted, cheeky and talkative like his mimmy of course. is still apprehensive with things and people that hes not used to - i used to find this part so frustrating. he isnt like those kids who would just jump in puddles, or be willing to get dirty on the ground or in mud - has such a clean and neat bone in him, which is also frustrating too sometimes bahaha. i wanted him to be this adventurous boy with the "just do it" attitude, who'd run wild and just be like a boy. well, Allah gave me Umar who is all the above now. and now i'm just complaining of tiredness everyday. phewh. im glad i have this one all calm and easier to control alhamdulillah lol.

the clean and neat bone inside of him doesnt come from me. he took after from his jadda (my mom) who is such a perfectionist in neatness and cleanliness. hamza wouldnt even let us wipe his nose with our hands ( of course we'd wash it straight away after ) but he would scream for tissues instead! " no hands! tissue! i want tissue! " hahaha. such a proper boy alhamdulillah - while his brother Umar is always busy sucking on our toes or the floor at home ( masha Allah ). i have the best of both worlds! complete opposites and i love it so much !

with him turning 3, ive been busying myself reading books on education for them both. ive always been attracted to the idea of homeschooling. but these days i came across the term "unschooling" and was intrigued by this whole natural way of learning. i wont go deep into things as i, myself am still weighing our options out as to what suits best for our family - we have a friend that is doing it and im loving seeing how the kids are. when i heard about the term i was like
" what is that? what about socialising? im sure we cant possibly teach our kids EVERYTHING ourselves? "
my friend went
" ok thats where you need to stop asking. and start reading first. come back to us once you've finished reading "
so she showed me this book by Peter Gray "Free to Learn", and the book was such an eye opener.

Long before i knew of him, the idea of homeschooling interested me through the writings of John Taylor Gatto and Sir Ken Robinson.  It was during one of Sheikh Hamza's lectures that i was listening to way back before i even was married. I got home, tired from work and was killing time making dinner while having his lecture playing on the kitchen bench. He touched on educating children in this century, what the challenges were and how he kept his kids roots strong with faith and good values.

i discussed my readings with Azhar along the way. from when we first got married, until now. and it is always my most favorite thing to do. discussing with him. how he pictured the kids education to be, and what he expects out of it. to my surprise, he sounded more into the whole idea of homeschooling than i ever was. but we felt like we needed a good mix of both homeschool and unschool. but the discussion is still ongoing - i still need to think how i were to do all this if i ever decide to go back to work along the way.

anyway, enough about that bit.

azhar left us for one night for a business trip recently, and it was such a big deal for me as i have never ever been left alone overnight with BOTH kids to look after. i was nervous preparing mentally for it the whole week before he left, and when he left, i remembered feeling so tensed up the whole day. i couldnt even sleep well that night, and was so excited for his arrival the next day, and when he got home, there was this huge relief i felt inside of me.

i told him, i could never do this parenting without you. and he laughed. he looked at me and said
" well i could never do what you do everyday, so id definitely be in deep trouble ".

sometimes i feel so left out being out here by ourselves. with no family and no help. we only have each other. but most times, i feel thats where the hidden blessing really is.


as we sat with our teas that night with each other, the kids were asleep , ive never felt more thankful for this journey with such a perfect life companion. sure he annoys me every other times, but i cant help but to think how Allah really granted me a kind, patient, soft hearted man. and im so happy my parents chose him for me too.

"its teamwork," he said "and we're a good team"

i hope he still thinks of that once he sees my online purchases next week.

okbye