Memorial Weekend, Recital Weekend

In an effort to catch up with our latest events, and keep them chronologically ordered, this post is backdated to correspond to Memorial Day Weekend. This will bring us up to speed with the highlight of this month: Moody's seventh birthday!

Friday was dress rehearsal. It was at 5 pm, at the Veterans Memorial downtown. Sol and I had to leave work early. Tala and Moody had to be fully dressed just like they'd be in the recital day. We were at the rehearsal till past 8 pm. Both kids did pretty well. The teachers first bring the class out to stage and shows each child where their place would be following color-coded marks on the floor. Then, the class will go backstage and come out with the music to rehearse the number. Tala just stood there, pouting, when a girl took her spot. The teacher came to the rescue and everything went as planned.

Moody was the only boy in his Hip Hop class. Most classes had one boy with many girls. He did so well that the teacher said "Where did that come from, Moody!" He doesn't pay much attention in class and pretends he's tired most of the time.

On Saturday, we headed to the Vet Memorial at 10 am. Tala was in the noon show and Moody in the 2 pm show. We spent the whole day there, till 5 pm. The shows are very nice and interesting to watch. The dancers are from all ages starting at 3 all the way to 17 years old. Of course, the younger dancers each does their own moves and follows their own rhythm--the fruit of one full year of practice! The older ones are very good and in sync with the group.

We rushed home to make it in time for our next outing. Sol and I were going to the Sherrys' international night. I promised to make some Libyan food, which did not happen. Instead, we stopped by Aladin's on the way home; picked trays of falafel and dolma. They were 'mm 'mm good! We got home and Madi, the babysitter, arrived shortly after. We promised her to be back around 11; we got back at 1 am! It was a fun day and night!
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Birth of the albino tarantula

The other day, the boys in the lab (literally) cooked up a beauty. It looks like an albino tarantula, or maybe one that fell in a bottle of bleach.

So I thought, what would happen if I inverted the image? Well, the result is a radioactive looking beast that belongs in a science fiction movie.

What should we name the movie? It looks like the beast is crawling out the chimney of a ship. Maybe it was a normal spider that fell in the nuclear reactor of a ship? Spiderman 4? I just tested my idea on Tala, and she said, "It looks like an onion." Go figure!

It's Mother's Day!

The highlight of our spring has been SHOPPING! Never-ending shopping! Two weekends ago, we shopped for bikes for the kids. It was hard to find what we wanted. We started at Bike Source, our favorite, which turned out ridiculously expensive for kids' bikes, followed by trips to Meijer's, WalMart, Toys'R'Us. If you need bikes, go to Toys'R'Us. Very good bikes, decent price. Moody got a Schwinn, Tala got a Groove Girl bike. Tala rides so slowly, which makes it hard to ride with her. Last weekend, I rode with her and it was fine. I didn't have to stop my bike, just had to go slow. She's progressing.

We have been shopping for a grill for sometime, and we finally found what we wanted last weekend. It is coming home today. It would make perfect Mother's Day BBQ. Yesterday, I went clothes and shoes shopping for the kids. It was so nice outside, that I hated every minute I was at the mall... And I was there for 3 hours! I got sandals and flip flops for the kids assuming their sizes have not changed much since the last time we bought shoes a few months back. Well, we had to make a trip back because Moody's were too small for his feet. He grew from size 1 to 2 in few months! I promised to never buy shoes for the kids without them there to try on. Everybody got clothes, and I got only two pairs of shoes!

We are not only blessed with a nanny with a dog, but also with neighbors with a dog. Jake is our next-door neighbor's. He is so funny and cute. Very hyper! The minute he comes out, he runs straight to our yard looking for the kids. The owners are blessed too to have neighbors with kids the dog can play with--that's us!

Moody has been refusing to listen to Alicja and follow her instructions. When they ride the bikes to the park, Alicja has to stay with Tala at Tala's pace. Moody is supposed to stop every now and then and wait for them and never to disappear from their sight. Well, that does not happen. Every time, he takes off and goes out of Alicja's sight. On Friday, he walked out of the house without telling her and went to Chris's house. Later when she drove him to school, he took off from the parking lot and wouldn't wait for her. She couldn't find him immediately, but knew that he went inside the school. She had Tala and Bodo and was not allowed to go in the school with them. I got a call from school saying that Moody was dropped off at 12, an hour before his class starts, and needs to be picked up. Alicja didn't answer the phone since she left it in the car to chase after Moody, and Sol didn't answer either. I started to freak out not knowing what happened and why was Moody there an hour earlier. I told the school that they would just have to keep him in the office.

He's now grounded. He can't ride his bike, we took away his Yu-Gi-Oh cards, he lost watching TV and movies, and he's going to a day care starting Monday. We warned him before that if he doesn't cooperate with Alicja, he will end up in a day care and Tala would stay home with Alicja. I signed him up in the day care on Friday. He would be going there in the morning, then to school and back from school, till we pick him up late evening. He knows that he would lose all his freedom, the fun things, and fun trips he would have if he's home. He begged for another chance, but he blew all his chances. He will saty in the day care till June 8. He will then have a 2-week trial period with Alicja to prove that he learnt his lesson, or he would be back in the day care for the whole summer.

Scattered thoughts/events:

• 
  Mrs. Jay, Moody's teacher, went on maternity leave. Moody misses her.

• The gym has closed for good. What a loss! We need to find an alternative for an outdoors pool in our area.

• Mama is in Lebanon visiting Ennis and Juju. How very nice and thoughtful of her. She's been visiting them every year.

• Moody lost his glasses. It takes a week to order new ones. He's due for an exam on Monday.
  

• 
  The gutter in the back of the house fell down but remains hanging from one end. We don't know when or how that happened, just discovered it last week. It's probably the storm and strong wind we had that time.

• I keep thinking that Moody is growing and things will get better for him--and us. But he grows, and his problems grow with him and take another dimension. Is it ever going to get better? Will we ever get a break?

Happy Mother's Day!

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