Daniyal's Summer Activities

It's been a long lapse since Daniyal's birthday, but we've managed to pack in a lot of activity.

We've had a lot of guests this summer. Through April we had Chachi, Chachi, Amin and Alizeh staying with us for two weeks. They were flying en route to Manchester and broke their journey is Dubai. We didn't do much in the way of activities, other than the usual; scourging of Malls, catching of all A- and B-rated movies and lots of lots of food consumption. That is after all how all Pakistani's operate.

There were a few achievements. I (Ami) took the end of their trip (last four days) to weaning Daniyal off breastmilk cold turkey. Daniyal was breaking a few teeth at this time and well, we had to do what had to be done. It was almost May and I had always planned on completing just one year. The teeth gave me a good excuse.

I think Chacha and family had a rough few nights, but luckily we had Baba (Shahid) at hand to help with the bottle. Like all spoiled babies of rookie parents, Daniyal created quite a fuss. He tossed and turned and brought the house down wailing bloody murder. But like all good children, the lesson was eventually driven home and Young Master Daniyal took to the bottle.

We did have a little bit of trouble in the beginning getting our choice of formula right, and we did have the occasional case of constipation when I tried the off-the-shelf UHT milk, but all that has now passed.

Though not guests, we met with Fatima and Naina on a play date in May. End May I think. Fatima, Nomi and the kids were preparing to move to Singapore on a new posting and we wanted to catch up before they left. Also Daniyal and Naina were seriously overdue on a play date.
We also managed to get the old school fellows, Daniyal's Dado and Momani Nasreen together as well. I think the older generation has as much fun and the younglings!

Beginning June I got some friends of mine over with their kids. The age brackets were close to Daniyal's...and the Mums got a chance to enjoy themselves also. I took a few pictures of the whole lot at the end of the day.

The real fun though began end June when Chandi (Dadiyal's Chachi) and kids broke their journey from Germany en route Islamabad. That is when Daniyal got some serious cousin time.

I think that was the first time Daniyal started identifying a small person other than himself. I sometimes wonder at what level this cognitive recognition takes place.

Thereon the word "baby" was regularly sprinkled in Daniyal's vocabulary. Daniyal would wake up every morning and thereon begin his chorus of "baby" until both Neha and Shayaan came down for dinner. Then he would follow them around th house like the proverbial tail.

We did the usual routes. Movies, malls and food. The highlight however, was a trip to Atlantis.

Water parks are generally a favourite with Daniyal. The added cousins however made this an extra special treat. I should also mention, by this time we had Daniyal's older cousins, Sana and Hassan over as well. We took lots and lots and lots of pictures. It was rarity having all of Daniyal's cousins on his paternal side under one roof. So we snapped (pun intended) up the opportunity with both hands (and a camera!).

We took lots of pictures, so here's a montage:



The best picture from the lot, perhaps, is this one of all the cousins together:



A day or so after Sana and Hassan left, we had Daniyal's mamus come stay with us. Azam Mamu came first on the 18th of July and Asim Mamu followed on the 21st. Instead of doing Atlantis again, which by now we have done with a couple parties, we opted for a day out at Wild Wadi.

With the Mamu's Daniyal understood they were not "babies" but could not yet classify them as adults. So both of them were put in the broad, you-are-men-like-me-but-not-so-tiny category that is "baba". We are still working on distinctions between those two groups.

Here are a few pictures of Daniyal from their trip (since it is all about Daniyal here and no one else!)





I'm sure there's a lot more that we've forgotten to put here, but for the interim this will have to suffice. The way I've been busy of late there's a good chance that this will become an 18 year update.