In other news...

Above and beyond the breaking news of our unexpected arrival there has been alot of other significant happenings in the Abrahams household. Aside from adjusting to having a newborn in the house, we've also been sitting with 2 sick older kids at home for almost 2 weeks now.

Bilaal has this chronic problem every winter with post nasal drip which causes bouts of coughing. In previous years we have managed it with frequent trips to the doctor and medication. But this year it seems to have hit him pretty hard. Last tuesday he was sent to the sick room at school because he was coughing too much. He stayed home on wednesday and we had intended to send him to school on thursday, but then we ended up rushing to hospital instead. Friday he developed a fever so he was home again and then just got progressively worse over the weekend, which didn't do any favours for my my first night home with Uthmaan. On top of that Sumayah was also home from the monday already with tonsilitis. To say she was miserable all week would be an understatement! Sumayah is that age now where change is not embraced easily, even good change. But it is also in her nature to be emotionally overwhelmed by changes in her universe. So can you imagine her being sick and miserable with a sick older brother sharing the tlc and further down the week I go away for 2 days only to bring home with me a baby, which follows with grandparents, aunt and uncle and even great grandparent arrivals sleeping in an already recently rearranged, redecorated home...

Needless to say my first weekend home was pretty wild, but we leave that for another post. In the mean time sunday comes around and we have ourselves a very sick Bilaal with an extremely high fever, coughing like a dog, shivering, crying, in pain. Monday rolls round and a trip to the doctor brings home a bag full of medicine. So every morning and every night we spend at least 20 minutes giving him his medication, nebulizing him and just generally trying to help him feel more comfortable. And just when he looks and acts as though he's better, the fever spikes up again! And then there's the all night delirium that ensues in a humurous but annoying way only Bilaal knows how. All night you hear him talking to soneone ranging from lengthy explanations to arguments to complaining or moaning about something he imagined Sumayah to be doing. According to the doctor the antibiotic should start being effective after 4 to 5 doses when the fever should go away. Today, thursday, after a whole week at home Bilaal's fever finally broke. He will be home again tomorrow seeing as there's only one day  of the week left, but I really hope we will have our regular, annoying little 8 year old cheeky, talkative, happy boy back.

Sumayah I am pleased to report went back to school today. It was so cute to see how much her classmates and teachers missed her. They even phoned last week to find out how she was doing. When she stepped into class this morning the whole class immediately started chanting and knocking on the tables 'su-may-ah, su-may-ah...' over and over again. I was worried that after such a long absence and Uthmaans arrival she might cry when I left but she must have felt so special that she immediately went to sit with her friends with the biggest smile on her face.

Needless to say, amid  all the excitement, life... still happens...

Schools out

When children start school they are exposed to a whole new world. School is not only a place where academic learning takes place, it is also a place where a child is introduced to the wider world, free from 'parental guidance'. I have been reminded of this more and more as Bilaal gets older, especially now that he is at 'big' school. It is amazing how much he has matured this past 6 months since he's been in grade R. But the funny questions and insights keep on coming.

The other day Bilaal wagged his middle finger the way you would gesture someone to come toward you with your index finger, and asked me, ''mommy, why is this a rude sign? What does it mean?'' I was a bit stumped by the question because I didn't particularly want to tell him what it means. I ended up telling him that all he needed to know was that its a rude sign that he shouldn't use and theres no reason its rude, it just is!

Then the other day he told me that one of the boys in his class kissed a girl in his class on the cheek. I asked him why and he said that the girl told him to or she would tell on him to the teacher. Apparently another classmate saw and told everyone and thats how they all knew.

There are many other tidbits that evades my memory now, but hopefully I will get back to regular blogging so that I don't lose any more of those precious gems.