supermom to the rescue picture

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This is the picture of the part of the door mechanism that had to be broken off in order to free the kids (see previous post). 

Supermom to the rescue!

I don't normally do a written post if I've already posted a movie clip monday, but today I make an exception. I have just seconds ago had to literally embody what it means to be supermom. My lovely little wild child of a daughter was slamming her bedroom door with much vigour and amusement. I reprimanded her once, then twice, then used the distraction technique. This worked, but only momentarily. While grabbing a very rare chance of doing-nothingness between packing away laundry and cooking supper, Sumayah's bedroom door suddenly slammed and I heard Bilaal calling out, 'mommy! The door can't open! Moommmyyy!'
So mommy strolls over to see what the problem is, only to discover that Bilaal is quite correct! Now bear in mind that the door has no key, so the simple explanation that it was locked was not possible. Bilaal was actually very calm consoidering he was trapped in a room with a toddler who likes to shout for fun and gets pleasure out of pinching her brother for no apparent reason. So I assess the situation, ask Bilaal a few questions about what happened and whether there was perhaps anything stuck in the door that could have jammed it, and I quickly realise the problem. Sumayah had slammed the door so hard (and believe me I am not surprised, we have seen how strong she is when she picks up her bike and carries across the room!) that she broke the spring mechanism of the door handle (says Mcgyver). What was I to do? Break the door down of course. Bilaal was amazing, I could hear him on the other side completely calm trying to distract Sumayah who was now hysterical that the door was closed and mummy-a (as she calls me in distress) was on the other side. He kept her away from the door just long enough for supermom to replicate the police-kicking-down-the-door manoevre I've seen in so many action movies, to the best of my ability. Well I'm not one half samson for nothing, because I kicked twice and it was just what was needed to reveal the part of the door handle that keeps it closed (see picture). All that was needed was a flathead screwdriver, a little wiggle and voila! The door is open and now unable to close, but at least the kids are free... On second thought perhaps I shoulda left them in there just a little longer... As we speak Bilaal is calling to me that Sumayah is switching his desk lamp on and off and its starting to smoke!

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movie clip monday 10

My Blonde Moment

Due to the rain and thunder, we find ourselves lying in the dark, music playing from the phone, waiting for the electricity to come back on. I may as well use thid opportunity to blog about my blonde moment. No offense to some of the smartest peeps I know that happen to be blondes of course!

At school Bilaal's class does a different letter theme every 2 weeks or so. Last week they did the letter 'N' so he was trying to think of things with the letter to take to school for the interest table. Most of the things he thought of were not things he could put on the table, like 'nose' for instance. We were running out of ideas when Yaasier chirped in with his usual dry teasing humour... 'why don't you take a knife to school'... Knowing of course that Bilaal would be shocked and horrified at the suggestion not knowing that it doesn't actually start with a 'n'. Little did he know that mom would have the very same reaction... 'How can he take a knife to school! That's dangerous!... Unless you take a plastic knife'. Its only when Yaasier started laughing that I realised my little error heehee.

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What happened with the ink...

A few days ago I updated my facebook status about the kids driving me potty and blue ink coming out in the bath. In hindsight I do realise that the update makes the incident sound far more dramatic than it actually was. With Bilaal growing up, he no longer watches 'baby' programmes on cbeebies, he's more into Ben 10 and Bakugon. But on the occasion, when Sumayah is watching cbeebies ( yes my kids watch tv ooo! Naughty OT mommy) Bilaal really gets into a show called 'Mr Maker'. The great thing is that it encourages him to explore his creative side (he's more of a numbers and logic guy). Without fail, he would scrammble around for art supplies to copy what Mr Maker is making. Of course the down side is that sometimes these activities involve messy supplies such as paint or glue and in this instance, ink! We do happen to have a bottle of blue calligraphy ink that we used for Yaasier's birthday project we made last year so I agreed to help him with his activity. I made I t very clear that he should do it outside, with his plastic cloth on the table, he should wear an apron and WAIT FOR ME TO OPEN THE INK. Of course between helping him set up his art station I was also trying to cook and answer the phone at the same time... And then there's also that small consideration of a little monkey named Sumayah. She was of course all around her boetie interested in what he was doing, all very exciting for her I can imagine. So anyway I stepped inside for a minute to get some newspaper for the patio floor and when I came back out, phone to my ear and newspaper in my hands, I find Bilaal just as he had opened the ink bottle, blue ink all over his hands, some on the table and Sumayah with a huge excited grin on her face rubbing her hands in it. Now those of you in the know, know that ink stains do not wash out easily, and the longer you wait the more they soak into the skin. When wet, they also transfer very easily. I was on the phone with Yaasier at the time and I had to cut him off mid sentence to tend to the situation before it became alot worse. Once the ink bottle was closed again and safely out of reach from little hands, I was left with T sets of hands that needed to be transported up the stairs and into the bath without touching anything on the way up, remembering of course to turn the stove off first. In the end the situation was contained, the ink came out after quite a bit of scrubbing and the supper was still ready on time. Beat that Martha Stewart :-P

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A blogging break

I've been neglecting my blog somewhat, partly due to being very busy with work and partly because, like everything in life, sometimes its good to take a time out. Of course as Murphy would have it, this is when some very blogworthy incidents occur that I just don't get to etch into the blogistory pages. So I find myself playing catch up. I'll start with the most recent incident involving Sumayah, the toilet bowl, and an istinja bottle. Now for those of you who are not familiar with the istinja bottle, this is something you will find in every muslim household. And for those of you who hav never been into a muslim household, but have muslim work colleagues, you will recognise it as that label'less empty energade bottle that has the word 'do not remove' in black permanent marker, found in the toilet cubicles (i speak of course from a female perspective, I hav no idea what goes on in the male loos). As muslims we are required to rinse with water after using the loo and this is known as istinja. So anyway, now that Sumayah is able to open doors on her own, she has developed a new found love for the bathroom. If you just turn your back for second you hear the bathroom door open, and the sound of the hand basin tap opening to full blast promptly follows. This is when you find her diligently brushing her teeth and washing her hands. So now we have to lock all the bathroom doors. But a couple of days ago... I heard Yaasier exclaim, 'no Sumayah!', a common phrase in our house, so I wasn't exactly running to see what happened... And then I heard what she did! Apparently Sumayah had gotten hold of the istinja bottle, and was dipping it into the toilet bowl with its blue cistern block water and saying, 'mmm, juice, mm!' can you imagine?! If Yaasier had caught her just a second later?! So now the locking of bathroom doors are more vigorously enforced... that is of course until she figures out how to turn the key...she's already been practicing!

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wordless wednesday 39

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Movie Clip Monday 9

I am starting to lose track of which videos I've posted already, so I do hope that someone will let me know if they notice a repeat ;-)

wordless wednesday 38

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