I felt it coming on Friday – that tickle in my throat that I knew would get big if I didn’t nip it in the bud, fast. And though I started my usual cold-averting tricks, spending 1.5 hours outside under the lights Friday evening at Hamza’s soccer game as I screamed and cheered him on didn’t help my throat any. By the end of the night, the throat was hurting. Hurting bad. Salt-water gargles, Airborne, medicine, hot tea with ginger... Read more
One child needed help understanding the terms of the scientific process when conducting an experiment. Then she needed help with calculations based on absolute numbers. Then another needed help with estimation problems in math. The six-year-old needed to be scolded to get back to coloring his patterns. Another child wanted me to explain what “setting” meant when writing a story. Still another needed to be quizzed for a reading comprehension test. And the eldest, who was prepping for his upcoming... Read more
When I glance up at the clock from my computer, I see that it’s 5:30 p.m. Where does the time go? As many times as I’ve vowed to cook dinner earlier in the day so I’m not panicked to make Lil D’s 6:30-7:00 p.m. dinner deadline, inevitably it comes down to the last hour. I click my laptop shut and move two feet into the kitchen and get to work. Lil D is out with his therapist on one of... Read more
You guys. You guys! I was working on a post, something I had been mulling over the past two weeks, but I have to put that aside and share this. Because it matters. It’s so small, so seemingly insignificant, but it really, really matters. Lil D came home on the bus today. Since school started up two weeks ago and with my in-laws out of town, I am left to manage the afternoon bus/pick-up schedule by myself most days. With... Read more
A dear friend posted the question on social media last night – What is your 9/11 memory? The responses came flooding in, and as things are wont to happen in this day and age, my husband and I, sitting on opposite ends of the couch, both responded on our phones – our answers posting within seconds of each other. He at the hospital, the last year of residency in midtown Manhattan, in a patient’s room when they both turned to... Read more
The day after speaking at the 50th annual Islamic Society of North American conference in Washington, D.C., I was back at home in my basement hanging with Lil D. He was roaming about, spinning his beads and calling “Maw-maw! Maw-maw! Maw-maw” – very much caught up in his stim and oblivious to the world. Every so often he stopped and would come close to me, put his face in mine and say nonsensical words like “Oweeowee owee. Maw-maw! Maw-maw!” As... Read more
I hugged my mom goodbye. Instead of our usual tight and brief hug, I went in for a long one, nestling my head into the crook of her neck, as I’ve done during the times I never wanted to let her go – when she was leaving to go back home after I had given birth to Hamza. Or when I had brought an infant Amal and a newly-autism-diagnosed Lil D to her home for post-partum recovery. Or after I... Read more
We live in a pretty quiet neighborhood – it’s your classic big old-style Southern colonial Virginian houses, complete with magnolia trees out front. Kind of a weird fit for an American Muslim-Indian family with a headscarf-clad mom (me), old school Indian in-laws (who are newly minted American citizens!), husband and three kids, the eldest of whom certainly disrupts the serene scene at times. It’s a neighborhood of kids and school busses, but not teeming with kids playing outside or in... Read more
I picture it happening like this: He walks in the door, weary after traveling thousands of miles and sitting for hours on a plane, then driving nearly three hours more – across time zones and battling jet lag – and drops his bags and calls out to his son. The edges of the picture fade into a blur and the room goes silent as the focus turns with a sharp clarity onto Lil D, spinning his beads and pacing the... Read more
It was a pretty monumental end to Ramadan 2013 for our family, as we celebrated the Eid-ul-Fitr holiday here in Hyderabad, India, completing what was my first experience fasting and celebrating this Eid outside of the United States. My hands have mendhi (henna) on them, I ate more than my fair share of sheer khorma, and we met more family in one day on Eid than I ever have before. We managed to stuff the day with Eid prayers, Friday... Read more
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