Movie Clip Monday

I keep saying that I feel so bad that Bilaal has so much video footage of himself at different stages of development and Sumayah... well I am yet to make her her first home movie. I just don't have the time or energy to grab the camera everytime or fight with some technical issue to get the footage onto pc or to sit tirelessly editing it into a more entertaining 'movie'. I also became less motivated when I realised that once it is watched once it gets stored away in some DVD case or folder and doesn't get watched again (well Bilaal and I often watch, but thats us!). So I decided that to inspire my movie making efforts again to give Sumayah and any other children that may or may not follow a fair 'showing' in the family movie repertoire, I would like to suggest an idea to fellow bloggers to do a video version of the wordless wednesday trend, and we can call it movie clip mondays! Now I realise that not everyone is into the whole upload video thing what with the fantastically fast and cheap internet service we have in coutries like South Africa (note the sarcasm), but if you are a willing and able blogger and have as many clips stored away somewhere and would like to share it with us here in the blogosphere (doesn't have to be every monday), then please join me in observing movie clip mondays. I will try to do my first post next monday.

Movie Clip Monday #1

As promised, today is movie clip  monday. I am npt strictly uploading anything new as this video is already on my facebook profile so apologies to my facebook friends who read my blog as you may have already seen this. Also I have been cheeky and have copied and pasted the description from facebook too!



This is part 1 of 3 from our home movie about our move to the UK in July 2006. Apologies for the poor video quality, the software & pc I was using at the time was not so good. I had to split the movie into 3 parts and still edit quite a bit out so that it wouldn't be too big a file size, but it still captures the essence of the original film.

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As I suspected when I introduced the idea of movie clip monday, It would not be easy to keep it up. Nevertheless here is a video of Bilaal in his school play. As you can imagine, I was very proud?

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This clip is from Sumayah's birthday last year. When I watched this clip again I marvelled at how much she's grown since then!

Welcome to the final stretch

This week I will be 28 weeks pregnant, the official start of the third and final trimester. Not only is it a big deal because it's the last stretch, it is also generally thought that a baby born prematurely from now has a very good chance of survival and normal development. Tomorrow is a very exciting day because I will be going for a 4D scan. With Sumayah we couldn't really get a clear image of her face because she kept moving away from the ultrasound, so I really hope this one will not be so camera shy tomorrow. I am starting to get really excited about his arrival now which is what makes the scan so exciting. I am so curious to know what he will look like and what his kind of personality he will have. They usually give a CD with these scans so will hopefully be able to post a clip tomorrow for movie clip monday. Wish us luck!

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Bilaal is really growing at lightning speed, not only in height (and shoe size!) but in terms of his maturity and acquisition of skills. In this last 6 months he has learned to read completely on his own, do simple arithmetic, tell time and ride his 'big boy bike'. In the beginning of the year his teacher was concerned about his ability to listen and follow instructions, but recently she told me that he has really improved tremendously and this was reflected in his June report. It was a really funny feeling bursting with such pride reading a Grade 0 report! This clip is of him riding his bike. It only took him 2 lessons with his dad to be fully confident to ride on his own. Yaasier says needs to get running shoes to keep up with him when he takes Bilaal out on the roads because he goes so fast now lol! Bilaal always laughs at me when I tell him that I can't ride a bike... no i am not joking, I really can't ride a bike! Well to be fair I can ride in a straight line, but just don't expect me to change direction.

Movie Clip Monday 16 - 4D scan

I went for my 4D scan this morning and once again, baby is a bit camera shy. With a bit of poking and prodding at my belly he finally moved his arm away from his face just long enough to briefly catch his profile on the scan. At least it was a lot clearer than when we had Sumayah's scan. So as promised, here is a clip of the scan showing his beautiful face! And as you will see at the very end, he's definitely a boy!

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This clip was taken in July 2010 right in the midst of world cup fever. Sumayah had just turned 1 that month.

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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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This segment shows us actually leaving our loved ones in Cape Town on our new and exciting adventure in the UK.

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movie clip monday 6 - Happy Valentines Day Everyone!

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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 ;-)

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The kids found a frog in the garden which they found very fascinating.

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