Well I’ve mentioned them a few times and as I’ve said (somewhere) they deserve a whole post.

I love them sooo much - my nephews that is (although I have found them taking advantage of my not-so-strict-aunt like self. Note: be fun but firm – ahem that’s easy enough to say but how do you do it? Gosh)

Anyway I have two nephews, the first is aged two and three months (or so) and the second is going to be one next month. They are brothers by the way, and are the kids of the sister that says that I talk excessively.

They are so cute MashaAllah and the elder one has been picking things up at an incredible rate! Sometimes I find myself asking him how he knew something (actually shocked and overly happy about how he knew about something) – howww did youuuuuuuuu knowwww? Wowww you know everythinggg! I screech at him. He makes the cutest shy but triumphant smile ever!

The other one has just recently conquered the art of walking. Toddles, he does.. All day long. He toddles and waddles.. Like a little duck and when we scare him by “rrrrrrrraaaaaaaaaaaaarrrrr”-ing at him he gets away by switching to his faster mode – crawling (he’s got that one hands down). He has the loveliest laugh ever too.

They both are so wonderful when they’re laughing and smiley – they have a gleam in the eye that really does make my heart ache with love.

Of course they cry, what baby doesn’t? But even then it’s like we don’t want them to be sad so we cheer them up, although if they’re crying when being naughty sometimes a little bit of discipline helps (my sister has drilled this into me – ‘Don’t spoil them!’).

The younger one is going about his days with his cute hand jiggle to say bye and with his love of ‘hide and seek’, oh and ‘catch me while I run away’ as well as his words (are they words? Hardly but still) ‘Ta, ta, ta, ta’ and ‘huh’ I think I’ve heard ‘da’ sometimes but I couldn’t say for sure. He also climbs up the stairs and is so funny when he does it. We see him and gasp out his name and he giggles and tries to climb faster – little does he know, we can move faster than he can.

The other one (elder) has been, as I’ve said picking things up at an incredible rate. He knows almost half of the Arabic alphabet, the word ‘laa’ (he says: ‘laa – no’ as if it’s one word but he knows laa means no, if you get what I mean) and others. Of course he knows a great deal of English with which he tells us the stories of events that have happened (broken of course, in his not-able-to pronounce-the words-properly English).

Yesterday my nephew (elder yummy) was scratching a small scab on his leg while sitting in the car, a tiny, tiny bit of blood came to the surface and I said something like ‘oh no! Have a plaster’ or something and took one out of my bag.

Later on after Iftaar yesterday, he came down with my bag in my hand saying something like ‘dada hi, plata [my name in his language] bag’ (or something like that) my sister and I tried to guess what he was saying which actually was that his dad has hurt his hand and needs a plaster, he obviously remembered the incident before and went upstairs, brought my bag downstairs so that I could take out a plaster so he could give it to his dad. Amazing how he remembered. Just amazing.

They’re so cute MashaAllah and man just thinking about the things they do, can make me smile.

It’s nice you know, thinking about something that has the potential to make you smile. And when people ask you what you’re smiling at, you answer: 'oh nothing' - because the memory is just too precious to share.