Thursday, April 26, 2012

Perfectawash has arrived!

So on the home from work yesterday I was moaning and groaning to my poor husband about my poor injured body parts and we were all feeling very poorly in the car. When we home my children tried to make me feel better with earnestly placed kisses. My daughter kissed my knee and my son pressed his face against my wrist. Whilst this didn't take the pain away it made me feel so lucky to have these particular little people in my life.
The other thing that made my day was a package I received from mom central (mom related website) which contained a full version of the new clearsil perfectawash system. It comes in this cool handsfree soap dispenser which dispenses just the right amount of product. I've been dying to try this product as I am one of those women that breakout even though I am well out of my teens.I am so happy it is finally here! As soon as I am better I will do a before post with pictures of my face and my breakouts - then after a few weeks I will do an after post.  So excited but I also hope it doesn't mess my skin up. I'm really sensitive.

Wednesday, April 25, 2012

Injured!

As most of you know, I am trying to get in better shape, so when the company I work for started a program called the ultimate wellness challenge, I was first in line to sign up. Luckily I got on a team with a few friends that I work with. The challenge is an 3 month challenge that help people get healthier by focussing on nutrition, weight loss, fitness and mindfulness. Part of this program involves the teams getting together to compete to in a physical challenge. Today's challenge required participants to put a banana between their knees and jump like a bunny towards the finish line. Sounds like fun right? Except guess who wiped out? I managed to bang my knees and wrists pretty badly! Don't feel very healthy right now =(

Sunday, April 22, 2012

Food and family

About once a week we end up going out to lunch with the kids. One of our favorite places to go is Ben Tanh. We sit in booths and somehow I always end up with my son

 and my daughter sits with my husband


Lucky guy - she was giving him a butterfly kiss in this photo.

This time when we went we let the kiddies try the green tea.

They loved it!
We ordered our usual - mango salad, shrimp fried rice and mango fish.
It was so yummy! 

Friday, April 20, 2012

Kissy face

What would you do if this was coming at you?
She lands them with a big loud smack! It's the most satisfying thing to receive a kiss from my daughter. These kisses are hard to come by - She is very discriminating. When she was younger it was very difficult to coax a kiss out of this daddy's girl. Thankfully that has since changed and now at least once a day I am treated to this face!

A picnic

My son and I are home today and so we decided to have a picnic.

First we sat on the steps of our patio and ate some food. My son then explored the backyard whilst I watched him from our porch. Have I ever mentioned that I have a strange aversion to grass? Anyways, after several moments of exploring my son came back with an offering - can you guess what it was?

Here is a dandelion that my son and I made a wish on. I wished for many more fun days in the sun with my lovely boy!

Thursday, April 19, 2012

My Personal Menagerie

This is what my son made at school with the help of his teacher.


















His name is squeaky. Squeaky inspired my husband to create a puppet, so a sock, some googly eyes and paper scraps later ssssssnake arrived.


















My daughter didn't want to be left out so my husband glued some eyes on some balls of yellow fluff and  quacky joined the party.


















Just a regular zoo at the glue homestead!





Monday, April 16, 2012

First flower of spring

What do you think this is?

To the untrained eye it looks like a crumpled dandelion. To me it is something entirely more magical.

My son gave me this flower. He pulled it out of the pocket of his jacket when I went to pick him up from school. He was disappointed to see the condition it was in.

"Don't worry about that flower mummy, I'll get you a new one that's beautiful like you."

I didn't surrender my flower. It took it home and placed between the pages of a really thick book. After it is pressed and dried a plan to laminate it and turn it into a bookmark so I can have something to remember this pure innocent gesture of love from my son.

Thursday, April 12, 2012

Time to say goodbye

Sad to leave

















Happy to go home

Cousins!

My Story Girl

My cousin Jhumur is the Story Girl in our family. All of you LM Montgomery fans will know what I mean. (For the rest of you, Story Girl is a novel about a girl who captivates her cousins with her stories.) As we were growing up, our cousin Jhumur was the person that made our long summers in Bangladesh exciting. She was our leader. When we were really young she taught us to play the most vivid make believe games and when we were older she would take us to all the best places to eat in Dhaka. Every outing with her was an adventure. She also told the very best stories - especially her ghost stories. I remember spending several nights sleeping with the light on because I was too scared to sleep in the dark after one of her stories.
Today my sister, my husband and my brother in law went shopping with her and what would have been a mundane and tiring shopping trip was transformed into an afternoon of laughter in her company. I love my Jhumur Appi and I will miss her when I leave.














The Twins

Akhi and Nitu are identical twins. They are several years younger than me so we never really hung out growing up. Now that we are all a little older we have a lot more in common and they are so much fun! Nitu is especially good with children. Their family invited us to dinner at a Turkish restaurant called Topkapi tonight. Here are some shots from the evening.

My daughter enjoy sitting in a grown up chair

A rare occurrence - my daughter allowing my uncle to feed her - she doesn't let us feed her at home!

My sister and I with the twins!

Sharing a the secret of a perfect camera smile with my cousins
The men in our family

Tuesday, April 10, 2012

Old friends

Whilst in Dhaka I have had the pleasure of reconnecting with two friends from my past.
The first is a friend from University - Suez. We met when we were both studying at Boston University. He was my best friend! . We also used to go to Tower Records. It was a ritual, it was our Tiffany's from breakfast at Tiffany's. We went when we felt down and listened to music until we felt better and then we used to go to IHOP and pig out. He was always there for me.....any time I needed his company all I had to do was call and he would show up and make me laugh. He was the brother I never had. Coincidentally now we are related - a few years ago my mother's cousin married his mother's cousin so now according to Bengali tradition, he is my cousin brother!
He's a little camera shy so this is the only picture of I have of him. You can't really see his kind face here.













When I was in high school Zinnia and her family had moved to the Philippines. Her father worked at the Bangladesh Embassy and that's how we met. We only got to meet for a short time, but it felt so good to see her. She hasn't changed a bit, she is as friendly, fun and gracious as she was all those years ago. It was lovely to be in her company again.














I leave you with a picture of my daughter, catching up with a new friend of hers.


Monday, April 9, 2012

Dhaka Days

Time is flying! Our days are filled with shopping and our nights are filled with engagements.We come home late and wake up early (courtesy of my daughter who wakes up at 5 AM every morning). I am exhausted! I will need a vacation to recover from my vacation.

New Market on a cloudy day

Our kids and their cousins getting to know their second cousin one evening - yes they are washing his toy car with toothbrushes

















My daughter finally playing something remotely girly





Saturday, April 7, 2012

Cox's Bazaar

In the 1800's, a man called Captain Hiram Cox impressed the British Raj with his handling of tribal disputes in an area that was considered part of Burma. He died of malaria in 1899. In his honor a small coastal village was named Cox's Bazaar. This small village grew into one of the best resort towns in Bangladesh. In 1975 my parents went there to honeymoon and after 37 years they returned to Cox's Bazaar with their children and grandchildren.

It is a very different place then Dhaka. There aren't very many people that can trace their ancestry to Cox's Bazaar. Most people that live there have moved from other cities. The main trade of the city is to cater to tourists. We stayed at this amazing resort called Seagull which is just a few feet away from the beach.
Here are some pictures from our trip:

Waiting at the Cox's Bazaar Airport for our taxis - poor thing was trying to sleep in the heat

















This my uncle and aunt (Kabir Chachu, my dad's youngest brother and his wife) came with us. He had arranged the trip to Cox's bazaar for us.

















Here we are in an auto rickshaw on the way to lunch. Doesn't my mom look more like and actress than a grandmother?

















My husband and daughter getting ready for a authentic bengali meal of fish cooked in manydifferent ways, mashed veggies, rice and daal.


We saw a interesting structure in the middle of a field and wondered what is was. Can you guess what it is?

















It's a covered tube well.
Thirty years ago the government planted fir trees, to stop erosion. They provide shade and beauty.


















Down by the beach we saw a starfish


We also met an earnest sweet hardworking local boy called Ayub.

















He impressed us with his proficiency in English which he learnt at his school. He's in the third grade. When he's not in school he does what he can to earn an extra few dollars, such as show my family around the local haunts.

We ended the day watching the sun setting over Cox's bazaar.













Our second day started with a refreshing round of coconut water fresh from the husk.

















Then we took a scenic trip to the site of a natural spring called Himchuri, about a 1/2 hour away from Cox's Bazaar.

















Then we went further south to a rest house in Inani where we had a stretch of beach to ourselves. Here is my father, enjoying the waves with his grandkids.


















We watched another spectacular sunset. Did you know that when you are so close to the equator, the sun doesn't actually set over the horizon - it just gets lower and lower and then it disappears from the sky.


Friday, April 6, 2012

Sisterhood of the bossy-pants

I'm starting to suspect that my daughter might be developing a bit of a strong personality. Who knows, I may well be wrong. Maybe it's just the terrible twos, but then again she manages to boss around her older brother. Here is an example of when she convinced him to play horses with her even though he said he didn't want to.
Maybe she just sat on him!
This is what she looks like when she's sleeping.
Well they say it's good to raise strong independent daughters. I'm not looking forward to the teen years.

Tuesday, April 3, 2012

Childhood memories

It's my second day in Bangladesh and guess what I did? Today I took out my childhood toys. Check out my pots and pan set.

No colorful plastic talking fisher price dish set for me! My set was literally a miniature of what was used in the kitchen.
Here is a fake mini cabbage patch that I got when I was seven.

Here's one from the 90's that was mint in the box, until my daughter saw it and opened it right away.

My sister and I were obsessed with Cabbies, actually we still are. Just the other day I saw a Cabby on sale at Walmart and I couldn't leave the store without her, so I bought her  for my daughter as a birthday present. Have I mentioned her birthday is seven months away?

I am contemplating taking some of these toys back to Canada with me. I want my children to play with them. I hope these toys are still able to capture their imagination when pitted against the high tech electronic toys of today.