wtf kind of test is this?

do you ever get the feeling that you're being tested, just to see how far you can be pushed? i don't want to seem ungrateful but damn have the past few months sucked the life and energy out of me.
never mind that february was "how sick can avisa get" month...she lost 4 pounds in one month (i shouldn't say "lost"--i think she just transferred it to me) and was literally sick THE WHOLE MONTH. but then thankfully she got better and has been eating non-stop since. but then it was my turn. i caught the flu last week and was sicker than i have been in YEARS. four days of nothing but sitting on the couch, which you'd think i'd appreciate, but i couldn't really enjoy it because i was under 3 blankets trying to keep myself from shivering. i got better and thought we were over all the sickness since the weather is warming up. except earlier this week, i noticed my index fingers were hurting--the joints and bone. by the end of the day, my hands, wrists, knees...every frickin' joint in my body was aching--very arthritis-esque. the next morning i couldn't even close my hands into fists. three days of killing my kidneys with motrin, and i think it's finally getting better.
so now something is wrong with avisa's legs. she is normally the most active, hyper little kid. she doesn't walk, she runs. well, hobble-run, but still. i picked her up from school today and she was napping when i got there so i didn't notice anything until i got home. she can't walk. i put her down for a second and she screamed. and it wasn't the "hold me i'm tired" scream. it was an "ohmygod this hurts" screech. i thought she had maybe a splinter or something in her foot, but i checked and didn't see anything. i gave it about an hour, then tried to see if she would play a game of "go get [insert any random object here]" with one of niek's snakes (aptly named "Ol' Snakey"...whole other post). she got excited, clapped her hands as usual, but then when she tried to run to get it, she screamed again, sat right back down, and looked at me like it was my fault. i have no idea if she twisted her ankle or what, but it just sucks. it's times like this when i start to bargain with God--okay, make her leg okay and my joints can hurt forever, i don't care. i don't think God's a bargainer though. i just want us all to be healthy. :(

vis vid

so, crazy thing. i tried to upload this to youtube, and i got the craziest message. it recognized the SONG in the video and said because it was a copyrighted song, the video was muted. this BLOWS my mind how it knew, down to WHAT SONG!!! unbelievable.






i have no idea if it will work, but if it doesn't, you're missing out on some serious visi cuteness. no joke.

Sunday bliss

Today:

painting eggs (yes i tried to take artistic photos. so what.)



lunch outside





getting threatened by a dinosaur



but i owned it

What now dino? HUH??HUUUUH?????

getting threatened by niek, after artin and niek discussed the pros and cons of using the nerf bow and arrow vs. the nerf strike guns.


striker gun thingie won. verdict was due to: easier to aim and load, didn't need help "cocking" gun when trying to hit adult, and believe it or not, being easier to run away with.


thanks kid.

anyway.

enjoying the new betta fish, our newest addition thanks to the tradition of fish at the sofreh haftseen. (name? "Bubblehead" courtesy of Niek. also? the dog was going to be named "Bubbles" so i'm gonna go ahead and say creativity will probably not be his forte. or he will have some f'ed up fetish involving soap and bubbles, and possibly a jail cell. just being honest here.)


also, looking at flowers trying to make their way into a bloom, laughing, some tickling, going for a walk (no moonlight. also no beach), watching the squirrels, talking about Eid, planning the future (we want a house with a sunroom AND a deck, apparently), and just generally spending time together.



i have to say, today was pretty close to perfect. i will now proceed to wait for the shit to hit the fan. because life is just funny like that. or a bitch. a funny bitch even.

the many faces of niek.

a little peak at what's to come.

before it goes away again for that one last snowstorm and then comes back, before it goes away again and is replaced by suffocating heat and humidity. good for skin, bad for hair. but wow did it get nice all of a sudden! three days ago it was 12 degrees outside and yesterday the high was 65--beautiful weather (or, as we like to call it: "san diego weather" although i sometimes wonder if we're giving that place more credit than it deserves. meh, probably not)

it was pretty windy (at one point, i wanted to make sure avisa didn't get blown away, then i remembered that she's 20 pounds of sheer muscle power so...) but still nice enough for the kids play outside.

i couldn't get them to hold still for shit to take pictures, but here's what i managed to capture.

avisa trying to grab at my camera case:


niek whizzing by on his bike:


and artin, stopping by to tell me about...the phases of the moon.

oh fine, i will get these damn pics off my camera

it's not that hard. take out memory card. stick it in computer. click two times. but i'm laaaaaazy.

so here are a few pictures from the field trip to the natural science museum. it's no smithsonian (in fact, artin said so) but let's not forget where we are.

some highlights:
-a bunch of cute and little kindergarteners trying to correct our equally cute and litte senior citizen tour guide. for example, it's not a compsogNAHthus...it's compsogNAYthus. (i had no idea wtf this was, but it's the smallest dinosaur. like it grew to be as high as a human's knee. almost makes me want one)
-a bat show. with real bats. some bat handler (aka some guythefuckoutofhisgoddamnmind) went into this 15x10 screened-in room, took out two bats, and talked about them for 20 minutes while those shits just whizzed around past his ear and over his head. then they'd land on a screen and crawl. then fly again. i hate those damn things. i don't think they'd be half bad if they didn't quadruple in size once they opened their wings. but holy shit. they go from being little 2 inch furballs, almost (i said ALMOST) cute, to this 15 inch flying rabies monster. fuck them.
-a cave walk-though. made me claustrophobic. aside from the fact that i go spend time with artin, i kind of hated this field trip, with all the bats and tight spaces i had to deal with...not to mention facing the sad fact that if i had to take a test with the Kindergarteners on dinosaurs and the different ages they were around, i would fail. miserably.

...aaaaaaand cue smart ass comments from 3-year old.

niek kept getting up from the table while eating breakfast and playing with toys. finally, i said "niek you have three minutes to finish eating and then you're done."

you know what the little turd says to me, in the sweetest voice in the whole wide world? "mommy, do you know when i'm done? when i tell you i'm done."

yeah.