Elissar's Words

At 18 months E should be able to say at least 25 words. Her words are
mostly English, but there are a few Arabic words.

1. Mama
2. Baba
3. Daddy (for walking)
4. Tata
5. Rula (Ru-a)
6. Mary
7. Pa
8. Dog
9. Taubee (ball)
10. Ball
11. Water (wa-wa)
12. My (water)
13. Nana
14. Nanu
15. Bath
16. Shower
17. Swing
18. Eyes
19. Nose
20. Mouth
21. Teeth
22. Ears
23. Arm
24. Toes
25. Boobie
26. Va-Jay-Jay
27. Knee
28. Head
29. Hair
30. Beads
31. Bye
32. Rattle
33. Cat
34. Ducky
35. Dan
36. Num-Num
37. Video
38. Radio
39. No
40. Baby
41. Bebo
42. Book
43. Cookie
44. Cheese
45. Bread
46. Please
47. Thank you
48. Tongue
49. Ma
50. Whats that?
51. Ta-Ah
52. Peek-a-boo
53. Home
54. Swimming
55. Two, Three
56. Talathe
57. No not that.

Maybe these pictures will upload...

I haven't been as consistent as I hoped I would be about writing in
this blog and taking pictures of Elissar. Life with a baby and
husband in a so-called terrorist country is actually pretty
monotonous. I do the same thing everyday. The only exception is
whether or not I have to go to the grocery store and which one I go
to. Occasionally, I will do something with Rola (my sister-in-law)
like going to the dvd shop for movies or a quick trip to the market to
take a look at what's new in the shops. Anyway, here a couple more
recent pics (I hope).

Elissar is so big!!!

I took Elissar's measurements about a week ago and she is getting
bigger. As a one year old, she is 30 inches and 25.3 lbs. She is
above average on the growth charts, which makes me happy. I am not
sure though that she will be tall like I am. I guess I was unusually
long at this age. She seems to have Zouheir's stature, with the big
butt and all. I wonder if she will end up looking like his sisters.

I found this online game that I have become addicted to. It is
actually a bunch of riddles. I have gotten to level 33, but without
the help of searching the internet for hints. www.mcgov.co.uk/zahada.html
Try it.

She Walked!

Today was a historic moment in the life of Elissar Kheir-Beyck. She
took her first steps today. It was a total shocker, as she is still
not even close to crawling and is a pretty wobbly cruiser. Earlier
this morning I caught her standing by herself and wanted to show
Zouheir what she could do. So, I stood her up (no crawling, means no
pulling up on her own yet) in the middle of the kitchen and let go.
This time thought, instead of freaking out, she walked to Zouheir
(after which, she promptly called out, 'One small step for man, one
giant leap for Elissar').

So now we have a walker. Actually, I think it will be a couple of
weeks before she is comfortably walking around our apartment. She is
still not confident enough to stand freely and insisted on using two
when someone is helping her walk. And as far as Zouheir, is
concerned, she can take as much time as possible before she walks.
His first thought after seeing her first steps was, "God save the
furniture". I can't wait to see her running around this place.

Birthday Pics: Take Two

So apparently, the last upload was unsuccessful.  I hope this time around it works.  Dealing with a 56k modem sucks.

 

Birthday Video

Birthday Pictures

So I finally got around to getting the pictures of Elissar's birthday from Rola.  They are pretty good.  It was a nice party.  Zouheir's mom, sister, brother, and his brother's family were there.  Elissar could have cared less that everyone was there for her.  The only thing she was interested in was keeping her cousin Noor away from her bike.  I baked the cake myself from scratch.  It tasted pretty good and in the pictures it doesn't look too bad.  Everyone had a really good time and really enjoyed coming to our house.

Zouheir\s cousin died yesterday and his uncle died today.  His cousin had cancer of the face (I don't know what it is called).  About two years ago they removed his eye.  But the cancer continued to spread and they eventually had to remove most of his left cheek and left jaw bone.  Zouheir said he died from cancer, but depression is really what killed him.  Zouheir's uncle had been in the hospital for a couple of weeks, suffering from hepatitis.  He has been sick for a while and was not expected to last this long.  So Zouheir is going to be busy for the next week or so with family and funerals.  Here in Syria men and women do the funeral thing separately and since I never met either one I am not expected to attend anything.  I am kinda relieved about that.  Funerals here usually last a few days and it is a lot of sitting around.

 

 

 

New shoes