Like most kids, the Syed children love to read.

The other day I was telling Quinn about the blog and asking him what I should write about. He suggested that I write about everyone's favorite books. So he and I came up with lists of the Syed children's favorite books, as he knows them just as well as I do. These "favorite books" lists were compiled by Quinn and I agree with his choices!

Quinn
1) "Puzzle Buzz" Puzzle books (Quinn belongs to a highlights puzzle club and gets these books in the mail every month. He LOVES them. Such a fun thing for a preschooler)
2) Captain Underpants
3) Jessica Seinfeld cookbooks (yes, Quinn loves to read cookbooks. The Jessica Seinfeld ones are his favorite)

Penelope
1) Brown Bear, Brown Bear
2) Goodnight Moon
3) Goodnight Gorilla
(As you can see, P has a taste for the classics)

Zahra
1) Princess Baby
2) Pete the cat and his four shiny buttons
3) Cuddle

Quinn has always loved the alphabet. And who knows, maybe he always will. Perhaps he'll be a linguist, Aunt Kelly?

But, to be clear, he really loves the alphabet. His first words (aside from the members of his family) were the 26 letters of the alphabet. Starting at about 18 months he and I could spend long periods of time putting his magnetic letters in order. I tried to do that with the girls the other day and they just knocked all the letters off the fridge and laughed hysterically. Different kids, different interests!

This picture was from our first time at the San Jose Children's Museum. There were so many fun things to do and all Quinn wanted to do was read his alphabet book he had brought with him!

So, for his upcoming 5th birthday, I knew just what to get Mr. Quinn. A personalized alphabet book with pictures of Quinn and his sisters for each letter. We received it in the mail today and it looks fantastic! If you'd like to take a look yourself you can do so here

I can't wait to see his reaction when he sees it for the first time!

We've made a couple changes around our house recently that have benefited the Syed kids. Maybe one day we'll make changes that benefit the adults, but we're not quite there yet :)

First up - we converted our front porch (which used to just store things) to an art space.

The kids (especially Zahra) love drawing and painting, but I'm always hesitant to do it inside as it makes such a mess. So it's nice for them to have a spot where they can feel free to paint and draw as they please.

Penelope is still having a hard time learning the "paint only goes on the paper" rule. Or, rather, she is having a hard time following that rule. i'm pretty sure she knows it.

Here's one of Zahra's creations. She works so hard on them!

The biggest bonus to being on the front porch is that the kids finally have access to the wind chimes, which they've been coveting for some time now.

We also moved the girls' room around so their cribs are right next to each other.

I guess this move did benefit an adult (me) as we moved everything around so I could move my clothes into their closet. It's the biggest one in the house and it was just sitting there unused!

I bought this print for their room a few months ago. Isn't it perfect?

But the biggest changes involved our backyard. Several months ago we had our garage in the back torn down. At that point the garage took up about 2/3 of our small space out back. Then we had the concrete under the garage removed. Then we had the soil tested for lead. Then we had new soil brought in. Then - finally - grass.

The space with the new grass is where the garage used to be. Isn't a yard so much better?

Moin also got his two-bin compost system built and some planters put in.

And put in some other pretty garden spaces as well.

The kids will be allowed on the new grass in a couple weeks. I'll post pictures when the time comes. It's still not the biggest space in the world but I'd rather have a yard than a garage any day!

Some fun pics from the last few weeks

Me and the girls at como conservatory (taken by gma amy)

Penelope with as many shoes as she can hold

Strawberry-rhubarb sorbet at the farmer's market. Non-dairy!

splashing at the splash pad

watching dirt being delivered to our backyard

running down hills!

swinging!

hanging with Andreas

Covered in baby!

A couple addendum's to my last post about Zahra and her favorite things.

First, I can't believe I forgot Zahra's number one favorite thing - dancing! Often it's to music playing in our house, but it's also commonly to music in her head. I took this great picture of a private performance she was giving to the basement mirror :)

Second: Zahra's favorite mac&cheese is not Trader Joe's (as previously posted) but Ikea's! I remembered this while at Ikea today. Yes, we go to Ikea all.the.time. Sometimes to buy something but usually just to play and eat. May sound weird, but remember we live in a place where there are many days that you cannot go outside, so we have all kinds of random indoor activities. Usually those days occur in the winter, but our recent heat wave has provided for them in the summer has well.

And yes, I managed to capture a look of total ecstatic joy on her face while eating her most favorite meal.

And even Penelope loves it, too! Can you see why we eat at Ikea all the time?

Zahra has big feelings.

When I say "big feelings" I mean that she loves hard, she cries hard, and she laughs hard. When she's sad she can be very sad, but when she's happy she can laugh uncontrollably and her smile is beyond contagious. Luckily, she is usually happy.

So today I decided to write a post about the things that make Zahra the happy little girl that she is.

1) Art. Zahra loves to draw/paint/do sidewalk chalk. She's getting quite good at mixing colors and really takes time with her work. Probably related to this interest in art is the fact that she already knows all her colors and has a clear favorite. The winner? Yeh-yo! (yellow)

2) Swimming. This girl is convinced she can swim already and runs straight to the deep end. She and P start a swim camp in July and I can't wait because I need this girl swimming for real as soon as possible. Her antics in the pool scare me to death sometimes!

3) Eating. Zahra is my one child who will eat whatever I put in front of her. Obviously, I love this. Here are some things she's eaten recently that she's enjoyed:
samosas
dahl
chicken noodle soup
cucumbers
raspberries
tofu stir fry

Of course, Zahra is still a toddler so her absolute favorite is mac & cheese. She likes the Trader Joe's frozen kind (baked in the oven) the best :)

4) Laughing. And you know who can make her laugh the most? The Q-man. Quinn is quite the jokester and man-oh-man has he found an audience in his sister Zahra. She will always laugh at his silliness.

5) TV. Out of all the kids Zahra likes TV the best and since she's a second child she actually gets to watch it as a 1-year-old. Favorite characters are grover, cookie monster, and Brobee from Yo Gabba Gabba.

I'm a big believer in temperament. Temperament refers to a set of innate dispositional traits that we are born with and that stay with us (to a certain extent) throughout our lives. I believe in temperament as someone who has studied developmental psych, but also as a parent.

Because what you learn as a parent is that kids come out a particular way and, for the most part, they pretty much stay that way.

Sandra Scarr wrote about the idea of "good enough" parenting. Meaning that our kids are born the way they're going to be, and our job is to provide a good enough environment for them to grow in to the adult versions of their little selves. Or, as Lady Gaga would say, we're all just "born this way, baby"

Case in point - Penelope

Now I know this is my second post in a row about Penelope. Sorry Q & Z - I'll get to you next, I promise!

When Penelope was born she was 34 weeks gestational age and 3lb14oz. The first thing the nurses when a preemie is born (after clean up) is to put sensors on them to monitor their breathing. I was out of it but Moin was there when the nurses put those sensors on Penelope and he said one turned to him and said, "Wow! You've got a feisty one here!"

She wouldn't stop moving and kicking and fighting the nurse off.

Then, two months later, we had our family over for Christmas. Penelope refused to go to sleep all day because she was so happy to have so many new people around her.

So Penelope's reaction to her first day of "school" today was predictable in every way.

The girls don't need daycare. They are lucky to have me and my parents and Moin watching them most of the time. But I signed them up for day care one day a week (for three hours) so they could play with other kids. We are calling this "school."

When we arrived today Penelope marched right in without even turning around to say goodbye. When I came back to pick her up she said "Hi" and the proceeded to do a dance of excitement for me. Then she found each of her teachers and individually said good-bye. THEN she went to each child and gave them each an individual hug! She loved being there around all those people so much.

And I wasn't surprised one bit. I could have predicted that from the moment she was born.

This is a girl who loves people, and action, and chaos, and - I'll admit - sometimes a little drama.

Speaking of drama, I'm ending this post with Penelope in her new flamenco dress Wa and Pa brought her from Spain. And do I even need to tell you that she LOVES it?