My sister's an alien!

Bilaal is convinced that his sister is an alien! Before we found out we were pregnant with her, Bilaal had been earnestly asking for a baby sister every night in his prayers. But one night he said to his dad, 'when I asked Allah for a sister I didn't think she was gna be like THIS!'. He has since concocted this very creative conspiracy theory that Sumayah is in fact not the real baby. Down the road from where we live is the hospital where she was born. And on the opposite side of the road is one of those old, huge concrete water tanks with the dome roof. According to Bilaal this is in fact a space ship that crashed on that piece of land and is now stuck in the ground. Apparently an alien from the spaceship then took the place of our real baby (I don't know what supposedly happened to our real baby). This, in Bilaal's mind is the only explaination for her being the way she is!

So the other day Bilaal comes to me and asks me if I would mind a boy baby. 'Uh, huh? What do you mean?' was my initial response. So he says to me, 'I mean do you mind having a boy baby, can I ask Allah for a baby boy, 'cos Sumayah is just too strange...'. I was very amused and simply replied, 'my boy what you ask Allah is between you and Allah. It is up to Allah to decide to grant you your duahs (prayers)'.

About three days later and I find him sulking and sighing. When I asked him what the problem was he asks me, 'why's it taking so long? I've been asking Allah every night and every day and still nothing!'. Now how does one respond to that? So I say to him, 'well what do you expect... A baby to suddenly appear at our door in a basket?'. To which he replies, 'well maybe if one night you feel like a cramp in your stomach then it means there's a baby 'cos I think it will be painful when you get the baby'.

No comment.

Fantasy vs Reality

The Tooth Fairy (or  in our case the mouse), Father Xmas, magic... these are all the familiar fantasy realms we are familiar with that fill our children's minds with a sense of wonderment and splendor. But there are more comples lines between feeding into the fantasy and teaching the reality. With Bilaal now entering the age of reasoning and the need to understand things... you know... the what, when and why age... I am constantly battling with this line.

For instance Bilaal will often ask me about the programmes or adverts he watches on T.V.
Is it real?
Are they really doing that?
Can I go there?
etc, etc

So when do i go with him on that ride of fantasy and say, yes the magical forest in the Baker's biscuit advert where all magical creatures steal the biscuits falling out of the childrens buckets is real...
or should I endeavour to teach him about the principles of marketing and not trusting and believing everything on t.v. when some beer advert makes it look like drinking it will make it snow.

Or maybe he shouldn't watch so much T.V?
But the thing is he doesn't, and its not just t.v. I want him to be a child and believe that magic is real and that wonderful things can happen if you just use your imagination, but I also want him to learn about the world and how it works.

Aah parenthood...