Starting Solids

Although it is advised not to give solid foods to babies under 6 months, I believe that some can be ready to move beyond milk-only nourishment at 4 or 5 months, depending on some signs of course.
I was planning to introduce solids to Kareem when he turns 4 months and see whether he's ready or not. The other day I was eating a banana and Kareem was looking at me when I suddenly thought, ok well, why not give it a try NOW :D so I mashed a little piece of the banana, about one tablespoon, and put a small amount in Kareem's mouth. At first he looked curious, as if trying to discover the new taste and texture, then he got excited and gave me signs that he liked it and wanted MORE, lol. The next day I got him rice cereal and I've been feeding him about one tablespoon a day and will increase the amount gradually. So, Kareem is ready and absolutely loves this new experience.

My New AddictionS

Crunchy peanut butter and strawberry jam.

Tea biscuits with tea, coffee or milk. This addiction actually started when I was pregnant, like the many other things that I couldn't find an explanation to, I so craved biscuits with milk to the extent that instead of just dipping the biscuits into milk, I used to fill the milk mug with biscuits until smooth and eat it with a spoon, heaven! :D

The Mystery Behind Wara2 el 3inab Disappearance!

A friend of mine came visiting once, like two, three or even more years ago, and we had homemade hamburgers for lunch. I ate half a hamburger sandwich as usual, while she ate two. She couldn't believe that I eat only half a hamburger and found it a very amusing story to tell everybody about. "Do you believe that Diana eats half a hamburger? It's unbelievable, this girls eats nothing, even a kid can easily eat one or two!"
I went to this friend's place the other day, and someone started talking about food, so of course she didn't forget to mention the same old story of Diana and the hamburger. "For God's sake!" I told her "Aren't you ever gonna forget this story?". Her mother laughed and said that her daughter repeats the same story every single time they have hamburger.

So, the moral of the story is Diana doesn't eat much. But now, I had to add some calories to my diet you know. This baby of mine is mafjoo3, I sometimes wake up in the middle of the night feeling very hungry. I'd feel stomach pains in the early morning and get up just to eat.
A couple of days ago, we had wara2 3inab bil khodar, or b zeit, or yalanji, you name it. El mohem, I just LOVE stuffed grape leaves soooooo much. They usually make this dish as an appetizer, but who will think of eating anything else in the presence of wara2 el 3inab? Mom made a good quantity, so that I can eat my all time favorite dish for two days. We had lunch, and mom went out to visit some acquaintances. Shortly afterwards, I got hungry, so I ate another plate. A couple of hours later, I got hungry, again! and had a third plate. Not to mention that I was paying the kitchen a visit every now and then just to take a mouthful or two . When my mother came back home, she found the pot almost empty. "Did we have visitors?" she asked. "No, nobody came." I answered. "But, but.. where did the wara2 3inab go?" she exclaimed. "well, actually I ate it!" :D
"Unbelievable! Mashallah! Sa7tain." :D
So, I mustn't forget to tell my friend about this incident so that she totally forgets all about Diana and the hamburger story and start telling another one for a change: Diana and tanjaret wara2 el 3inab.

Expecting (4): My Health

My mother always says that I’ve been a good girl ever since I was a fetus. She's usually surprised whenever a woman complains about her uneasy pregnancy or about her naughty children saying that she never suffered from such things. E7EM E7EM :D.
This to some extent used to relieve me knowing that girls do inherit such things from their moms. So, having a smooth and happy pregnancy like mom’s was something I looked forward to.

Unfortunately, my pregnancy turned out to be completely different. I suffered from almost all the awful symptoms that pregnant women may have from nausea, heartburn, food aversions and cravings, to moody swings and other things.

Even before knowing that I’m pregnant, I noticed that I can’t stand to smell any strong odor including my own perfume. This, later on, developed to a strong feeling of DISGUST. Any smell, even that of food, would turn my stomach. I couldn’t enter the kitchen for weeks! Entering the kitchen was like entering hell to me. As a result, I wasn’t able to cook. So, I used to force myself to eat some fruits- the only thing that my stomach could accept- and that’s it! At night, hubby would order fast food after spending much time choosing something that would't make me feel queasy.

Starving myself means starving my baby, a fact that I came to know later, and made me feel very guilty. I made my baby starve, I am extremely sorry but I didn't mean to wallhi :(

Believe it or not, I hated all kinds of coffee and chocolate, knowing that I am a coffee lover and a chocoholic. Now I can’t even stand their smell! Weird things happen during pregnancy.
This, however, is a good thing. Pregnant women better limit their intake or even cut caffeine out of their diets. Chocolate, too, will give me nothing but extra pounds, so I'm lucky I hated it too.

On the other hand, I craved the arabic bread, especially el saj (mar2oo2) and tanoor, which was impossible to find in Turkey. I also craved my mom's cooking. I wanted badly to eat Mlokheyeh although I don't really like it much, but as I told you the most weird things may happen during pregnancy. I wanted to eat wara2 3inab, kebbeh b laban and many other things... I made a list by the way :D I was daydreaming about eating them :D

Eating them is no more a dream now. I enjoyed (and still) eating mama's cooking. Thanks to her care and tabeekh, I don't starve my baby no more. You better thank ur grandma for taking good care of you, fahem? hehe The pills and vitamins prescribed by the doctor helped a lot in reducing the symptoms and increasing my appetite and I started gradually to get better. Now that the first trimester which is the most difficult stage is about to end, the unpleasent symptoms are disappearing thank God. And I feel good, both physically and emotionally.

Amal's Fettuccine by Chef Diana

Since today is a holiday(Labour Day), I decided to cook myself. I couldn't think of anything better than pasta which I love to cook and eat. So, I checked Mrs. Al Ramahi's blog, wrote down the Fettuccine recipe, went to the supermarket, got the ingredients, went back home and cooked it. Amal said that the recipe is both easy and yummy. She was definitely right! Mom and I liked it a lot, and it didn't take much time or effort to be ready.

The only thing that I changed was that I added chicken breast, therefore skipped the maggie cube.

I think that it's fun to share recipes online, especially among starter cooks.

I'd like to thank Amal for the recipe. Here it is if anyone is interested.

Springtime, Tabbooleh, and Other Things

At this time of each year, when the weather starts to get warm, our suffering begins. The children become very annoying. They get very hyper in the playground that they hurt themselves and their friends, and we got blamed for not keeping a good eye on them. In the classroom, however, they get unbearably lazy and sleepy. I feel as if I’m talking to myself all the time. All my attempts to capture their attention go in vain. I ask questions and all I hear is the echo of my sound. Great! It isn’t a nice feeling to be totally ignored, is it? And here I get really mad, I start yelling to wake them up. ( Am I really wondering where do I burn the calories?!). Now that they are giving a full attention, it’s me who’s not in the mood anymore to explain the lesson again :D
Ahmed doesn’t want to bother and hold his pen and write. All he wants to do is to talk, play and laugh. He even changes the subject when I try to persuade him to write.
“ Mith, mama el youm bada ta2mel mtaletlah”
“excuse me?!”
“ Mama bada totbokh mtaletlah, ana b7ebba tteel”
“ Here we go again, another riddle by Ahmed! Let me guess.. mtaletlah mtaletlah.. mda .. mdaredrah.. mdaredrah!”
“ eh mtaletlah”
“ tayeb sa7tain! Befham min hek eno you have no intention to write?! All you can think about now is the mtaltlah you’re going to eat when you go home?!”

He didn’t write anything for two days. On the third day he drove me mad that I yelled at him and he started crying. Poor Ahmed, it’s OK, let him cry :@

While flipping through grade two science book, I noticed an activity where we are supposed to prepare tabbouleh. I found it a good idea to break the routine and get the children more excited about the lesson and the school in general. Of course it was impossible for me to make tabbouleh for two classes ya3ni about 50 children. So I chose the clean ones and asked them to get the ingredients. On Thursday they got the tomatoes, cleaned and cut, parsley, mint, olive oil, lemon juice, mint, salt, onions, plates and spoons, a big bowl and even a board to cut the onion and the mint on in the classroom.
The children were very excited while they were watching me putting the gloves on and starting to cut the mint and the onions and then adding them to the other ingredients and mixing them. Finally the huge bowl of tabbouleh was ready and they couldn’t wait to taste it. Some of them ate 2 and even 3 plates mashallah. I was really happy that they liked it a lot and didn’t hesitate to ask for more. We really had a great time.
The other section’s turn was on Friday, but unfortunately, after finding the two kidnapped guys killed, the minister of education announced that there will be no school on Friday. The kids today were frustrated that the tabbouleh activity was canceled, but I promised them to do something else, cake maybe, or pizza, I haven't decided yet, any idea?

Eat Nonstop

Remember the SALTS times that I told you about ? Well, I'm having these times nowadays. I'm eating tooooo much and never get enough, not only salty food, but all kinds of food mostly chocolate. I'm IN LOVE with chocolate.

Problem is, the more I eat the more I lose weight! Strange! I don't understand why is this happening. Every time I tell myself "hey watch out you will gain too much weight", I find out that I lost a kilogram or two, and people keep telling me : " leesh hal 2ad na7faneh, are you on diet or what?" On diet? Me? Yeah right! :D

What's bothering me is not that I'm losing weight, (which is worrying me a little bit though) but that most of my clothes are getting too loose that I can't wear them anymore :(

ya khsaret el ta3ab, everything that I bought lately doesn't look good on me anymore. I think I should go shopping once again, no? :D

Chocolate anyone?