We will post once or twice more before closing this blog out - Alex and Mary will contribute the final pieces. Then we intend to physically publish this entire blog as a Coffee Table Book so that we can keep this as a
momento; we will also publish one for
Zarina to keep so that she may see the adventure that brought her into our life.
Zarina is always a joy to watch. She may drive me crazy often (and on purpose
oftimes), but even when she gets into stuff she shouldn't or she's still just plain wonderful - she's a joy whether she is being sweet or making mischief.
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This little girl, my little girl, is my literal and figurative "golden treasure". It's as if she sprung directly from the image I created in my mind of the sort of daughter I wanted to have. She's funny, smart, physically gifted, and just plain perfect. And as you will see in the following photos, she's got her brother wrapped around her finger.
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When I said funny, I meant as in actually having a sense of humor. To the right is her interpretation of a pirate. Once of her favorite shows is something on
Nickleodeon called "
Backyardigans" - in their adventures, the characters have various make-believe adventures in their backyard which is transformed into the backdrop of
whatever they are doing, i.e sow mountains, the high seas, a prairie, etc. In one, they play at being pirates. This taught
Zarina among other things, that a pirate says "
Arrrg!" So
Zarina will also say "
Arrrg" when she see a pirate in an ad or in a show. As a matter of fact, I have an t-shirt with a pirate flag on it and
Zarina will point to it and say "
Arrg" and when I ask her my name while in the shirt, she will also say "
Arrg".
Recently she has begun to copy our mannerisms - she learned
from Mary how to put her hands on her hips and to day she was copying me sitting at the
table with my hand on my chin - I will try to get photos of this behavior somehow. She will sometime wag her finger at us and say "No, no, no!!!"
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Alex is a very good brother to
Zarina, even though she claims as many of his toys as possible. He's very helpful and is on track to be a very good babysitter someday...soon...oh please ...oh please (just kidding). :-)
Zarina loves spending time with Alex - even if Alex wants some quiet time to himself to read, watch
tv, play videos, etc. His new nickname is "Ah-
da" since that is how
Zarina pronounces Alex. All we hear all day is "Ah-
dah...Ah-
dah" and then hear
Zarina zipping off in one direction or the other chasing him down.