Monday, March 05, 2007

Kiss me! I'm turning three!

Its Yousuf's birthday today-and my little boy, the star of my blog, is turning 3!

Where did the months go? Seems like just yesterday that I was nursing him to sleep to the rhythmic battery of artillery fire...but that's another story.

We celebrated his big day last week with some friends and family. A little too much sugar was involved, though that is to be expected I suppose. I think I figured he had enough when his cheeks turned bright red by the end of the day.



My attempt at a "choo choo" train cake, at Yousuf's request, complete with candy cargo and mountains of jello (an improvisation added in the last minute after my jello molds failed to deliver)




Who needs cake when you have frosting?














Posing with baba








"It's too heavy I can't turn it over!"

33 Comments:

Blogger Ziz said...

Mashallah! may Allah bless him with happiness and peace. he looks very happy. he has grown so much in the last six months. he looks like a big boy now where as just a few months back he looked more babyish in the pictures. with all my duah's

8:57 PM  
Blogger pacalaga said...

Happy birthday, Yousuf! And many more to you and your family.

10:31 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Happy Birthday Yousuf! May they all be as happy for you as this one!

Laila, my boys are much older now (the oldest soon to be 21 and the youngest 15) but how well I remember those years when they were that age.

Cherish these days as they really are fleeting!

John

4:04 AM  
Blogger eurofrank said...

Laila

Happy Birthday for Yussuf.

I suppose "A Lullaby of Artillery" might be the title of a book about Gaza.

6:51 AM  
Blogger Unknown said...

Happy Birthday Yousuf!
I wish you and my future children will grow into more peaceful and just times. In the meanwhile, me and your mom will do anything in our power to make this become more than a happy-birthday greeting - to make it a reality.

7:03 AM  
Blogger jarvenpa said...

He is beautiful. Happy birthday to him, may it be a year of unexpected joy for your family. I recall quite well my eldest child's third birthday--I made a very "healthy" cake with whole grain flour and carob; it was heavy as a brick. He thought it was wonderful. And he is now...29 years old. Everyone will tell you the time flies by..they told me that as well. It does.

8:23 AM  
Blogger Heba said...

Happy Birthday Yousef ...Inshalla your days will be better than ours ..love . aunt Heba

12:10 PM  
Blogger ياسمين حميد said...

Happy Birthday!

4:43 PM  
Blogger Laila said...

hehe...well I first made this chocolate cake, but I feared it make lack intensity, so I "spiked" it with several teaspoon fulls (ok, I just poured right out of the jar...) of Turkish coffee (you know, with cardammom). Well needless to say, it cake out a little *more intense* than expected. Luckily I had baked one coffee-free marble cake for one of the trains. :)

4:49 PM  
Blogger Omar said...

Happy Birthday Yousuf!

5:54 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

So what did you get him? A strap on bomb belt, perhaps? Maybe a kassam of his very own?

Oh don't act shocked -- we know what you do to your children, how you train them up to murder infidels.

5:54 PM  
Blogger Um Ibrahim said...

Masya'Allah

Mabrook, Insya'Allah he will grow as strong as his parents and will do best for his country:)

6:25 PM  
Blogger Kiwi Boy said...

'Eid Meelaad Sa'eed, ya Yousuf! We have that song, how does it go.."Sana helwa ya ghani.." or something like that!

May you live till 120 and more.

7:42 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

I'll bet Gilad Shalit also had a 3rd birthday party. I'll bet his mother has cute pictures of him with his gifts and birthday cake, pictures that she treasures now. I'll bet she can't sleep at night, and finds it difficult to live through the day, wondering what is happening to her son by the Muslim thugs that are holding him in your precious Gaza.

You don't care about her son; why should anyone give a rat's ass about yours?

9:15 AM  
Blogger Asad Ramallah said...

Hey layla,
Happy birthday!
I'm sending my best regards to Yousuf!
I hope you have enjoyed your birthday,
May Yousuf grow up in a better Palestine, and may times will only get better for us all.

Regards,
Asad al nimr,
Ramallah.
http://almanarasquare.blogspot.com/

3:08 PM  
Blogger samay said...

MashAllah he looks adorable.

salams

7:08 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Happy Birthday to Yousif...God bless his years.

I have noticed something through the blogsphere since I started to follow it closely, that almost all Zionist minded people always comment anonymously on blogs! I don't know why you guys live in such a self-denial! if you truly believe in what you utter, why don't you reveal your identity and stand behind your speeches! And to answer your curiosity Anonymous # 3, I think yeah Gilad Shalit might have a nice 3rd birthday party and yeah his mother certainly worry about him and miss him, but guess what! there are 10000 Palestinians behind your Zionist masters' jail bars, they also have kids that turned 3 years old and they weren't able to celebrate with them their birthdays, some of the 10000 Palestinians prisoners are kids that turned 3 years old inside the "Israeli" prisons with their moms... also those 10000 has moms that cannot sleep the nights thinking about their loved sons and daughters behind the bars... Stop crying for an artillery soldier that him or his colleagues have killed and still killing many many 3 years old, younger and older, kids... don't be the devil and play innocence, believe me it looks ugly and disgusting! no one is going to enjoy it... so cut the crap you and all your Zion-like minded people.

1:02 AM  
Blogger nuh ibn zbigniew gondek said...

As salaam alaikum.

Masha'allah. Happy Birthday little one. May it be Allah (swt) will that you live 100 years.

This is a poem I wrote for my son Joseph. I share it again with you today:

http://nuhgondek.blogspot.com/2007/02/poem-for-joseph.html

Wa salaama,

nuh ibn

8:12 PM  
Blogger Shimonzk said...

Many Happy Returns of the Day for your son and many more to come. I hopee that your son will have many birthdays and that there will be peace between Palestinians and Israelis. Hopefully your son will have a prosperous future in an independent Palestinian state living alongside Israel in dignity and that mutual respect will reign in both states for the benefit of both peoples who have suffered enough. Inshallah.

11:04 PM  
Blogger Yusuf said...

Assalamualaikum Sister,

Happy b-day to your son.

I wanted you to know that your blog was recommended to us from professor of Middle Eastern politics from the University of Toronto. Your effort is certainly not being wasted. Please continue to inform us about the politics of Palestine.

4:24 AM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Sami,
I am sorry but any man with morals will be ashamed at writing what you wrote.
10000 Palestinians in prison are there because they chose the way of terror, because they killed or tried to kill. Israel has no desire to hold these people. But we know that as soon as released they will go back to killing Israelies. Just look at Gaza - we got out, completely and we started talking about removing settlements in the WB. what did we get? unstopping rain of missiles on our cities and villages surrounding Gaza. This is exactly the same case - the Palestinians today take actions of war and not of construction. If a small percentage of the effort being put into smuggling weapons into the Gaza strip and firing missiles out of it were put into building factories the economic situation would have been unbelievably better. But why would anyone take responsibility for these actions when you can blame Israel? If the Palestinians want a normal country they should take control and get rid of the extremists influencing their society. Israel will release all the prisoners when this happens.
Gilad Shalit and his friends were not attacked because of the prisoners - they were attacked because extreme powers have an interest in preserving chaos and war in this region and because, today, still, many people believe the state of Israel should not exits as a Jewish state.
The ball is now in the Palestinian court - we left the Gaza strip and if this move will prove to lead to stability (true stability not a pause in terror as weapons are being smuggled in tunnels for the next round).

1:11 PM  
Blogger Torontoman said...

I'm sorry this msg board went from wishing a kid a happy birthday, to a written shouting match. Raz, you seem like a very informed person, one of only a handful. But I gotta tell you, that your comment about Gaza isn't completely true. Israel did pull out, but they still maintain control of who goes in, and who comes out of Gaza. They still control the water and the electricity and several other 'services'. There is no sense of autonomy in Gaza for the Palestinians, literally, it's a death trap. And as for the WestBank, when the Gaza pull out happened, the Israeli military occupied more land in the Bank while it talked about dismantling settelments. Please check these facts out for yourself. If you really want peace, we have to come to grips with the reality of whats happening.
If we think what we're saying is true, other people will believe it too, and more comments on this board will take a more manacing tone.
Check it out.
http://www.btselem.org

8:40 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

torontoman,
Trust is something which is built gradually. If the Palestinian wanted to get rid of the Israeli involvement in the boarder half a year of quiet followed by a very light push from the international community would have probably yielded a better result than thousands of missiles. The basic problem is that no sane person in Israel would take the responsibility or risk of opening up this border - this will just lead to more accurate, more destructive missiles fired at our cities and we cannot allow this. I don't this that the world is aware enough of the amount of smuggling and the sophistication of weapons in Gaza today. And this weapon is there for one reason - to be used against Israeli population. Even though we are the stronger side today a lot of our actions are driven by fear and by the desire to be able to live securely in out state.
I do not claim (nor believe) that Israel is not doing things which are wrong or which should not be done. But we as a society are doing our best to correct these things and to bring to justice those who need to be brought to justice. How many Palestinians have been punished by their own people for attacking Israelies? We jail those who abuse as should be. The other side praises them.
When the main issue, which is the right of both sides to live in security, improves other things will start falling into place. But when you know that one in 1000 or 10,000 or 20,000 people is carrying a bomb or a gun or a knife in order to kill you have no choice but to suspect all of 20,000.

10:17 AM  
Blogger Moses said...

Happy birthday, Yousef!

9:02 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

happy birthday youssef .

my boys are much much older too . (so am i ) my eldest 21 and my twins 15 all boys.

1:13 AM  
Blogger Giulius said...

Happy Birthday Youssef..from Florence, Italy! I know you because your brave mom write a blog ! She is a journalist and the news papers here in Italy talk about her!! You should be proud of your Mam because she are using the best way to promote the Palestine-right : the huge world of Internet where also people like me , very far from you , can read the real life of a family in Palestina.
Laila , you have all my support and I've put the link of your blog on my blog!!
God bless you and your family
Giulia

9:54 PM  
Blogger Karin said...

HAPPY BIRTHDAY YOUSUF! MAY THE SUN ALWAYS SHINE FOR YOU AND NO CLOUD EVER DARKEN YOUR SKY!

Before you turn around another few times, he'll start school ... enjoy every single day with him - time flies too fast!!

(There's something for you on my blog ... you may want to check it:
http://1158munich.blogspot.com/)

Love you ALL!

10:10 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

MashAllah he has grown so big!
:)

6:31 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

I have no idea why Yousuf's birthday comments turned into such a political debate. Dear Laila, never mind that. You have a beautiful child and I'm sure that he'll grow into an amazing person with such a dignified mother. May God Bless You and Happy Belated Birthday, Yousuf!!!

10:58 PM  
Blogger nsarmila said...

MY DEAR LAILA, IAM A WOMAN RESIDING IN KERALA, INDIA. EVEN FROM THIS DISTANCE I CAN UNDERSTAND YOUR PULSE. MAY YOU BE IN PEACE SOON, I HOPE. MY LOVE AND REGARDS TO U AND FAMILY. WITH AFFECTION, SARMILA INDIA.

12:35 PM  
Blogger Nabeel said...

Love the name Yousuf and a great looking kid .. Mashallah :) ..

3:05 AM  
Blogger Eman Mohammed said...

Ma shaa`Alah , may Alah make all of his days full of joy and happiness , he is soooo cute ;)

11:54 AM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

I can see you love your son because of his nice birthday celebration. :D

10:34 AM  

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