My Apologies

So I realize that I missed the first day of my promised 7 days of photos! Here are 4 pics, 2 for yesterday and 2 for today!

Napping with Daddy

First Walk in the Stroller

She's mastered the pout already!

Two Months Old!

It's hard to believe but Saraya is 2 months old! She is growing so fast. At our last doctor's visit she was 7 lbs 11 oz and 21 inches long. That's 3 and a half pounds and 4 inches bigger than she was when she was born!

The most exciting thing about being two months is that she is starting to interact more. She smiles (mostly for her Daddy) like crazy and babbles to us all the time. She's sleeping for at least 5 and sometimes 7 hours at night which thrills me since I have started back to work and have to get up early in the morning.

In honor of Saraya turning two months old...I'll post pictures everyday for a week starting today! Enjoy!

One month old...

Saraya had her one month check up yesterday. She officially was due to be born today and she has rapidly made up for that fact that she arrived 5 weeks early. She weighed 6 lbs 11 oz yesterday which means she gained a whole pound in the last 10 days! She also has grown 2.5 inches since she was born and is now 20 inches long! Most importantly, she's healthy and meeting all her developmental milestones at or ahead of schedule. We are so blessed!

Napping with Daddy

Is there anything more precious than a sleeping baby?

These are my favorite moments as a mom. I love it when she just looks at me and it seems that she is really listening to what I am saying.

4 Weeks Old

It's hard to believe, but yesterday Saraya was 4 weeks old! She's growing so fast and the time is flying by! I can't believe she's been home for 3 weeks!

She has started to smile at me and her Dad in the past couple of days. Her smiles certainly are precious. She's developing a little personality, too.

Here are some pictures from yesterday as she celebrated her 4 week birthday!

I Need a Nap

I think this is Saraya's way of saying...

It's a hard life...sometimes a nap is all that will do!

She frequently sleeps with her hands like this, covering her face. It is fitting, actually, since in every ultrasound I had before she was born (and there were a lot of ultrasounds, believe me...) she had her hands in front of face preventing us from getting a good luck at her face. In the past few days we have caught her sucking her thumb at times, too. It's all too cute.

Ahmad and I are loving every second of being Saraya's Mom and Dad. She is such a little bundle of joy!

Doctor's Visit

Saraya went to the doctor today for a weight check. Just as we suspected, and as you probably can see in the following pictures, she's gaining weight like a champ. She was up to 5 lbs 11 oz today which means she gained 11 ounces this week! Her cheeks are really starting to fill out and she even has a little double chin now. Here are some pictures from today:

Getting ready for her doctors appointment.

Talking to Daddy

She's supposed to be taking a nap, but instead is wide awake, taking in the world.

Saraya's First Visitors

This week Saraya had her first sleepover with her cousin, Laurel. Aunt Laura, Nana and Laurel came to Rochester to visit Baby Saraya. We all had such a good time! Saraya particularly enjoyed the hugs and kisses from Nana and Aunt Laura.

Ahmad and I enjoyed spending time with Laurel. She is five months old now and has grown so much since we saw her last. She's such a big girl and she smiles all the time!

It was really fun to see Saraya and Laurel side by side. You can really appreciate the difference in size when they are so close.

Finally, Saraya had her two week doctors appointment today. We were thrilled to learn that she is now almost 5 lbs (4 lbs, 15.5 oz.). She gained 9 oz in just one week! She's doing great and is already ahead of a few milestones! She's such a good girl!

Happy Easter!

Here are some new pictures of Saraya. Her Easter basket is bigger than she is. That just means more candy for Daddy and I to eat!

She's Here!

Ahmad and I would like to introduce our daughter, Saraya Renee. Despite arriving early at 35 weeks, she is doing amazingly well.

I'll spare most of the details, but I admit that a four day induction of labor wasn't the most fun thing I have ever done. In the end, though, we were blessed with this beautiful little girl who Ahmad and I fell in love with instantly. Nana was there with us and Papaw was able to see her right after she was born even though he is in Iraq thanks to Skype.

Saraya has done great for being kicked out of the oven so early. She's eating like a champ (wonder where she gets that from?) and gaining weight everyday. She came home after only a week in the Special Care Nursery (a step down from the NICU) and has done great at home so far. We are blessed that she sleeps in four hour blocks so Ahmad and I are getting plenty of rest aside from the fact that I am either feeding or pumping for an hour and half every 3 to 4 hours.

Here are some pictures from her first few days at home.

Books I Read in 2009

Wow. It's been a long time. I am going to start posting more often now as Ahmad and I are expecting our first daughter in just about 6 weeks. I thought I would start off with a list of the books I read in 2009.

The list is long, I think in part because I got a Kindle for Christmas (thanks Mom and Laura) in 2008 and it without a doubt increased my reading capabilities. It changed my life, but that's a different story.

I read a lot of books this year. A lot of great books, actually. Here they are:

1. The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho

2. The Arabian Nights by Annonymous

3. Born to Run by Christopher McDougall

4. Duma Key by Stephen King

5. Focault's Pendulum by Umberto Eco

6. The Girls Who Went Away: The Hidden History of Women Who Surrendered Children for Adoption in the Decades Before Roe v. Wade by Ann Fessler

7. The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society by Mary Ann Shaffer

8. The Help by Kathryn Stockett

9. The Interesting Narrative of the Life of Olaudah Equiano by Olaudah Equiano

10. The Island of the Day Before by Umberto Eco

11. Just After Sunset by Stephen King

12. Olive Kitteridge by Elizabeth Strout

13. Outliers: The Story of Success by Malcolm Gladwell

14. The Qur'an

15. The Reader by Berhard Schlink

16. Red Mars by Kim Stanley Robinson

17. The Reluctant Fundamentalist by Mohsin Hamid

18. Revolutionary Road by Richard Yates

19. The Short History of Nearly Everything by Bill Bryson

20. A Thousand Splendid Suns by Khaled Hosseini

21. The Unbearable Lightness of Being by Milan Kundera

22. The Zookeeper's Wife by Diane Ackerman

I enjoyed them all, but in particular, I loved Born to Run, The Reader, The Alchemist and The Zookeeper's Wife. I LOVED The Unbearable Lightness of Being, as well.

Enjoy! And visit my library over at Librarything.com if you're interested!

Iran's Disputed Election - The Big Picture - Boston.com

I love the blog "The Big Picture" which is a collection of photos from news agencies around the world covering specific topics from hurricanes to space exploration to children in Afghanistan.

Today, there is a collection of photos from the protests in Iran over the contested (many would say fraudulant) presidential election.



Iran's Disputed Election - The Big Picture - Boston.com

I was literally crying as I looked at them. What an amazing display. Please check them out. I promise you will be glad you did.

Costa Rica Zipline

Here's a clip of the zip line we went on in Costa Rica. It truly scared me to death, but I am so glad I did it. We had a great time with lovely views and fast, fast ziplines! As I said in the previous post, the highest was about 600 feet and the longest was a quarter of a mile!

Costa Rica

For our quarterly blog post, a recap of our trip to Costa Rica.

We traveled to Costa Rica in February and had a wonderful time. We flew into San Jose and then drove up into the mountains, through the cloud forest, and to Arenal volcano. The drive was interesting (and beautiful), to say the least. We were literally driving through the clouds...a first. Only on the drive back, which was clear, did we realize just exactly how dangerous the drive was. Here's a picture of the road we drove on on the way back down three days later. Keep in mind that as we were driving up the mountains, we couldn't see more than 20 feet ahead of us because of the clouds.

We arrived in Fortuna and stayed at a lovely new hotel set overlooking the Arenal volcano, which is the most active volcano in Costa Rica. While we didn't see any lava flows, there was plenty of smoke continually coming from the top of the volcano.

Arenal volcano in the background of the bar in the pool



The hotel had natural hot springs fed by the waters heated from the volcano. It was amazing. The views were spectacular, the water was warm and the forest surrounding us was amazing. We saw lots of birds and an occasional monkey and one huge spider. Later, on a drive around Arenal lake, I scared Ahmad by getting out of the car to take pictures of these curious little animals which looked like a cross between a possum and a raccoon. I think Ahmad was scared that I would get bitten, and in all honesty, the little guys were running towards me. I escaped unscathed, however.






While in the Arenal area, we went on an amazing zip line adventure. The longest zip line was almost a quarter of a mile long and over 600 feet off of the ground. Those of you who know me well know that I am scared of heights, but I conquered my fear and we had the most amazing time. I'll try and post a clip of one of the lines later.


We then drove to Quepos on the Pacific coast to the Manuel Antonio national park. We stayed in the only hotel directly on the beach. It was gorgeous. We took a hike through the national park and saw lots of monkeys and sloths and birds. I was hoping to see some tree frogs or snakes but we didn't. I think Ahmad was just fine with that. There were lots of monkeys, sloths and large iguanas at our hotel, too. We spent a lot of time on the beach just relaxing.

While in Quepos, we took a catamaran sailing trip. To everyone's surprise, we found 3 humpback whales, two adults and a baby. Mothers who have had calves spend the winters near Costa Rica while the calf learns to swim and gets fat for the trip back to colder waters for the summer. It seems that it is pretty rare to actually see them as the crew on our boat was just as excited as we all were to see the whales. One swam a foot underneath me as I was standing on the net on the boat. We felt so lucky to have been able to see the whales so close, within feet of the boat. I was too busy standing with my mouth open in amazement to take any pictures. Luckily, I am married to Ahmad, who not only took pictures but also shot some great video of the whales. Here's a short clip.

The trip was fabulous. It was great to get out of the snow and cold and to just relax together. Here's a slide show of the rest of the pictures.

A Year in Books

As I posted previously, I now use LibraryThing to keep track of the books I read.

I read, by my count, 26 books this year...although I feel like I am missing a couple.

Here's the list:

Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy
Bel Canto by Ann Patchett
The Bell Jar by Sylvia Plath
The Best American Short Stories edited by Stephen King
The Book Thief by Marcus Zusak
The Dark Tower (Books 1-7) by Stephen King
The Golden Notebook by Doris Lessing
The Lord of the Flies by William Golding (for the third time)
March by Geraldine Brooks
The Name of the Rose by Umberto Eco
People of the Book by Geraldine Brooks
The Poisonwood Bible by Barbara Kingsolver
Rebecca by Daphne de Maurier
Snow by Orhan Pamuk
Stanger in the Forest: On Foot Across Borneo by Eric Hansen
Three Cups of Tea: One Man's Mission to Promote Peace, One School at a Time by Greg Mortensen
The Unbearable Lightness of Being by Milan Kundera
Water for Elephants by Sara Gruen
A Long Way Gone: Memoirs of a Boy Soldier by Ishmeal Beah
The Monsters of Templeton by Lauren Groff


I just started to list my favorites of the year and I realized I was going to copy half of the list. I really enjoyed almost all of the books I read this year.


If you haven't read it, you MUST read The Poisonwood Bible. It's haunting.

Bel Canto is a great tale, as is Water for Elephants.

The Golden Notebook was fabulous, as was The Name of the Rose. I loved Umberto Eco's style of writing and the historical aspect of the story.

I actually read more non-fiction than normal this year. Stranger in the Forest I read before we took our trip to Malaysia and I loved it. What a great tale of travel and immersion in another culture. I wish I was as brave as the author is when it comes to just letting it all go and living a totally different life. Three Cups of Tea was fascinating and made me realize how much more I could be doing to help change the world. Inspiring.


What did you read this year? What would you recommend?

Feel free to check out my library over at LibraryThing.com.

Meredith's Birthday!!!

As I alluded to in my last post, I went home to Kentucky in July. I didn't go just to visit family, although I certainly was thrilled to see everyone.

I went home for a very special day....my niece Meredith's first birthday!

Laura and Michael had a wonderful party at their house to celebrate this momentous milestone. I was so glad to have been able to travel home to be there on her first birthday. It's hard to believe that she is one year old now.

I know I am a little biased, but she is just the cutest thing ever! Here's some pictures from her birthday party on July 26, 2008!