1 year

The weather is quite agreeable for the time of the year. It is not as hot as last year when I was recuperating from a caesarean.

On Monday 10th, we celebrated Zakaria’s first anniversary. Not that we had a celebration. He is too small for that. We visited both aunts that were with us in the hospital at birth.

They were very pleased to see Zakaria back for the first time after our 3 week stay in Belgium. Although they hardly remember their own children’s birthday, they do know Zakaria’s.

We had a surprise, because the newborn Youssef was shown to us. He was born 2 weeks ago as a grandson to Auntie Shamsi.

In Belgium, we started brushing Zakaria’s teeth before bedtime. I tried to do the brushing at first, but very difficult because this boy wants to do everything himself. That’s why I decided to show the example by brushing my own teeth after putting his little brush with baby toothpaste into his hand. It works. He likes brushing his teeth, but hasn’t quite worked out yet how to do the movement with the brush.

Back in Syria, we found the figs and grapes in season. We have a lot of figs on our small trees and for the first time, we have grapes in the garden.

Zakaria loves grapes even more than figs. The first time, I bit them in half taking out the pits. The second time, I couldn’t stop him from taking the grapes himself and devouring them, pits included. I have to hide them, because when he sees grapes or figs he needs to have them.

When visiting Auntie Shamsi, Zakaria’s brother, Amer, came by to take him on the motorbike to see his nephews. Back home, I awaited Zakaria’s return for a few hours. The news was that he had eaten and had a nap. He must have been knackered, because he usually doesn’t want to sleep in a strange house, especially when I’m not around.

Zakaria started talking. Sometimes I hear Arabic, most of the time Dutch. He refuses to say Mama or Papa. We are Néné and Tatta. Following words are much easier: look, light, out, on, that. Fascinated by light, he is. He always kindly indicates where the lamps, moon and stars are, so we don’t forget.