Week 35 ( Aug 27- Sept 2 )

Week 35 was a big milestone for us, especially since it was the first time Zain was traveling to my country of birth, Pakistan. It wasn't his first international flight though, so I was a little less nervous about the trip. Also, my dad was traveling with us so I had a huge moral support. Eventually the whole journey went very pleasantly and there were no major meltdowns. Zain actually slept most of the way and we were lucky to find both the flights half empty, so we had a lot of extra seats to make ourselves comfortable in.

Here are the photos from our first week in Islamabad:

Day 239
Ready for the journey across the world

Day 240
Yep that's the plane we are going to board from Dubai

Day 241
Enjoying the first rain in Pakistan

Day 242
That's how we roll in a mall

Day 243
Pink is so eye catching

Day 244
Shopping at a local clothing shop

Day 245
Drying red chillies out in the sun brings out the best red color

Hope you are enjoying the updates in quick succession from all the missed weeks. Thank you for checking out the photos. Until next post, Ciao!

Week 34 ( Aug 20- Aug 26 )

August went by very fast because my dad was visiting and soon it was time for us to visit everyone back home in Pakistan. They were really excited to meet Zain and spend some quality time with this amazing kid.

The highlight of the week was Zain's visit to Thomasland in Edaville, MA. When I get a chance I will write a separate post on it. It's a great place to take kids and have a wonderful time with family and friends.

Day 232
Dessert anyone?

Day 233
Matching sleeping suit buddies

Day 234
Hello Thomas

Day 235
Walking side by side, my three favorite men

Day 236
My good friend Bree brought me these from her European adventures to add to my collection 

Day 237
The best toys are sometimes just empty boxes

Day 238
Na-boo explaining Zain something interesting

I'm so happy to be back blogging my Project 365. Keep checking in and you will see many updates in the next couple of weeks. Have a wonderful weekend ❤︎

Week 33 ( Aug 13- Aug 19 )

This is race against the time to catch up with my 365 project before the year ends. I have taken photos everyday but just haven't been able to keep up with posting them on my blog. So at this point even if I can just post the photos without much writing I would be really happy. 

Here goes the best photos of Week 33

Day 225
Scrabble night is always fun with Chai

Day 226
Walking hand in hand with Papa and Na-boo

Day 227
Some berries I came across on a local farm

Day 228
Trying out some new stuff while we shop

Day 229
Taking Thomas for a spin

Day 230
Hanging out in the backyard

Day 231
Waiting for me to bring breakfast to the table

Thank you for coming back and taking a look at my blog. I know I haven't been as regular as I had hoped to be but I am trying. Have a wonderful day☺︎

Week 32 ( Aug 6- Aug 12 )

The weeks went by very fast while my dad was visiting us in Boston. Everyday we tried to do something fun. We went to the parks, ate out, did grocery and generally just spent quality time together. It was just great to see Zain interact with my dad. The best part was that Zain warmed up to him almost instantaneously, from the time he arrived in Boston. I had feared that living with us alone without constant family contact in person might be an issue for him. Luckily, it wasn't and he had the best time with his Na-boo.

It was really hot during most of my dad's stay but we still managed to go out and do our thing. At Zain's age I like to take him out everyday because he has so much energy and if we stay at home all day, I know, he and I will both drive each other crazy. So normally we go out after breakfast for a couple of hours of activity and then come back by nap time. We did pretty much the same with my dad except we included a lot of shopping sprees during the outdoor time. Week 32 also marked the 3rd official haircut of Zain and it was a much better affair than the ones before. 

Following are my week's photographs:

Day 218
Two and a half men walking hand in hand

Day 219
Some beautiful pop of color right outside our house

Day 220
The never ending playground fun during summers 

Day 221
3rd Haircut was a much better experience than the first two times 

Day 222
Putting practice while Na-boo is looking around for his golf gear

Day 223
Chilling out at home with Na-boo

Day 224
Who doesn't like climbing a speed bump?

Hope you enjoyed the photos and keep checking back for more updates. Until next time, take care! Adios ☺︎

Week 31 ( Jul 30- Aug 5 )

It is such a blessing to have a healthy and happy family and we thank Allah for it all the time. The one thing that makes us sad though, is living so far away from our family especially our parents. Both my parents and my husband (Samer's) parents live in Pakistan while we live in Boston. Sometimes, the distance doesn't feel that much in this age of technology. With the Facetiming and Skyping generation that we have become, it makes us feel closer to each other despite living far away from each other. However, once we had our son, Zain, we realized that he was the one missing out on all the love and affection from his grandparents. He sees them almost daily via Facetime and interacts with them very well now, at the age of 22 months. Still, it is not the same as being with them and them being able to hold him and play with him. So we were very excited when we finally planned our first trip to Pakistan this year with Zain. Preceding that, was my dad's visit to Boston and then we were all traveling together to Pakistan. 

The highlight of Week 31 is the arrival of my dad to Boston and Zain's first meeting with his grandfather whom he lovingly calls Na-boo. Na-boo is a condensed version of Nana-Abu which is actually the word for maternal grandfather in Urdu.

Hope you enjoyed this post and the photos of the week. Thank you for checking my blog. Keep coming back for more posts. Until next time, take care!

Day 211
Where am I today? Exactly where I want to be

Day 212
Summer is incomplete without this giant bowl of banana split

Day 213
Zain's first experience of a live show, he was so excited to see kids performing that he would try act out like them

Day 214
To do or not to do? In this case get wet in the rain

Day 215
Trying to reach the tree without any luck!

Day 216
The day Zain met his Na-boo for the first time

Day 217
Zain showing Na-boo around his local fav spots

Week 30 ( Jul 23- Jul 29 )

I am not too proud of the fact that I haven't been able to keep up with this weekly post in a while. However, the fact that I am still continuing on with it, says something about my determination. Despite breaking the schedule during and after our Euro trip, I am still trying to catch up. I have only missed a few weeks at a stretch and I know I should be able to recover considering I am in Pakistan for an extended vacation. The best part of this vacation is that I literally have no household chores, which essentially takes up all day, taking into consideration I have an active toddler at home. However, the social calendar is jam packed here. I still think I should be able to catch up during this trip and be on track by the time I head back for home mid October.

We have had such an incredible summer MashAllah that I truly feel blessed. I will try to write about each week as I post the photos but I think they may not be as descriptive as I would like to be but that is something I can live with as I like the photos to speak for themselves more. Week 30 was pretty fun as we were smack in the middle of the summer with the heat turned on full throttle. Summer is the time to be outdoors, so, heat or no heat there are plenty of play days. Visits to the parks are frequent and keep Zain happy, except the part where he actually has to go back home, which is always a struggle. That is where bribery comes in handy.

Day 204
Future soccer player maybe?

Day 205
After class, park playdate is always welcomed by these two

Day 206
No visit to the mall is now complete without a stop at the Lego store

Day 207
Creepy paper Mache of my least fav character

The other highlights of the week were a surprise baby shower that was for three of my friends who are all having baby number two this year. We became friends because of our babies number one. There are two boys and a girl joining in our baby bunch so we are very excited. As I write this one of the boys has already arrived, so welcome Ben and I can't wait to see you.

Day 208
Ready for the surprise triple baby shower of my friends

Day 209
Beautiful arrangement by friend Christine hosting the baby shower

We also went to the Stone Zoo this week, which is the smaller of the two Zoos in Boston. We like going there more often because its really close to us and has fun kid events throughout the year. Looking forward to their Halloween trick or treat this year since Zain had such a great time last year.

So glad to finally write again. Hope you all are having a great summer. Keep coming back as I will be publishing the next few posts of the missed weeks in succession.

Day 210
1st visit to the Zoo this summer by these curious toddlers

Travel Do's and Dont's with a Toddler

One of my biggest fears was traveling by air with my toddler. It was for this very reason that we had delayed traveling with our son over long distances till now. At almost 20 months, we figured it was about time, especially since we love to travel and had been dying to go to Europe. Living in USA we have gotten quite used to frequent road trips. We introduced our son to road trips early on and considering he loved the car seat it had worked out very well. Now it was time to broaden his horizon and bring air travel in the mix.

Before we embarked on our momentous trip, I did extensive research on what should and should not be done over the period of the whole trip including what things we should take along to keep our toddler engaged. Here is a list of the things we took:

• Coloring books and washable markers
• A couple of board books
• Play doh
• Drawing board and washable crayons
• Stickers
• Random new toys
• A blankie or any other toy your toddler maybe very attached to.
• last but not the least an iPad(mini) in a protective case.

We were going on a 11 day mini Euro trip with stops in Paris, Brussels, Amsterdam, Zurich, Lucerne and Fussen to name a few. It was a very ambitious but doable plan. I think you know what your limitations are as a family so just keep that in mind. My husband and I love to travel and luckily our son has adapted well with this lifestyle. However this was a whole different level because we were not only planning to travel by plane, but also taking the trains between cities, traveling in taxis, buses, metro, trams and boats. Add to this mix the cable car rides in the Alps. I think the only time our son must have felt really at home was when we rented a car for the last 3 days of our trip and he was in a car seat. 

My son is showing signs of terrible twos. I try to be a very disciplined parent with little or no TV, no added sugar to his foods and no candies. However, on this trip I had decided, I would do things in a way that we all have a good time as a family. Which meant we do not want our son to have tantrums that can be avoided. Usually if he asks for something that he is not supposed to have, I will let him throw a tantrum and he will forget about it two minutes later. When you are on the road you neither have the luxury nor the patience to deal with such issues like you normally would. So you have to adapt in a way that works best for you. Very quickly I realized that if my son was sitting in his stroller getting bored then we could keep him entertained for a while longer by giving him the iPad. We had downloaded 4 episodes of different shows he likes on it. He would watch them happily. If he got bored of one, he moved to the next one. Usually before he would get bored of the iPad we came to a place where he could be let out of the stroller and move around and that solved our problem. So my point is that in normal circumstances I would not let him watch TV or have access to an iPad but in this situation it was a necessary evil. Once we got back I hid the iPad and now he doesn't even remember it. So pick your battles carefully.

To summerize, here are the Do's and Dont's

• Planning is the key. Research all the places you are going to extensively. Make a plan for each day and what activities you are going to do and make sure you include a couple of places in your itinerary everyday, where your toddler can blow off some steam and unwind.
• Pack light, this will make your life a lot easier.
• Start packing a week in advance to see what things are essential and which you can live without. You may have to take out and put back stuff multiple times.
• Buy a great umbrella stroller, preferably which reclines. This was the best investment we made for our trip.(My vote is for Uppababy G-lux)
• Gate-check your umbrella stroller. You do not want to have your toddler on the go when trying to move quickly through airports or train stations.
• Always have all the toddler essentials in your baby bag including a change of clothes for you and your kids, extra diapers and a first aid kit.
• Prepare for worst case scenarios; only then you will be pleasantly surprised when your toddler doesn't have a meltdown and things go according to the plan.
• Do not plan the vacation for kids only, plan to go to places you want to see. Skip the Zoo's and Aquariums, you can always go to your local Zoo and Aquarium. 
• Toddlers don't care for fancy meals so there is no point making reservations at fancy restaurants, eat at any place that looks good and kid friendly.
• Take advantage of the fact if your child is less than two years old. Have him sit on your lap and save money. This privilege is for just two years so make the most of it, later on you will always pay the full price anyway.
• Don't forget to have fun and take tons of photos.
• My final and most important tip; this is a vacation so break the rules, let your child have that iPad, this way you and him will both have a great time :p

Toddlers have a mind of their own so sometimes its best to let them be, like on the airport floor!

Hope you found this piece helpful please share with your friends and family. If you have any comments and suggestions feel free to let me know in the comments section below. Have a great week!