V.i.s.a

On February, 9th I called the Embassy of the United States in Brussels to make an appointment for  our (Haris and I)  tourist visas application. I did fill in the online form for the two of us beforehand, well pretty sure I had because it clearly stated in the web about the instructions of the visa application.  When I was on the phone, the officer (guy) who answered the called was briefing me about the documents etc even though all the infos are completed in their web and I really appreciated that and the fees for each visa was Eur 112. Generally, he said, I did not need to bring Haris during the application day, I just came solely to the office on the appointed date. Thus, on February, 15th I went off to Brussels alone and Am was taking care of Haris.

The application was straight forward for me(alhamdulilah), I had to arrive 10 minutes earlier and was in lined with the rest of the others applicants. We had to go through the security checked for our stuffs etc before entering the office. In a few minutes later, they called my number to submit my confirmation pages and the self addressed envelopes. There was a silly incident happened though. I was mistakenly sticking the registered post form on the envelops and basically, the envelopes were ruined but thank Allah, the officer at the counter, helped me out by giving me another envelopes and registered stamps which were costed Euro12 for the two envelopes freely. Initially, she wanted me to go to the nearby post office just to buy the envelopes and I had to redo the appointment, but after asking was there any other option for me instead of redo the appointment bla bla bla, and she came out with the idea that I mentioned above. Then, she scanned all the fingers print and I had to wait again for about 30 minutes before they calling for the interview at the next counter with another officer.

After waiting for awhile, my number popped out on the screen and off I went to the counter. The officer just asked the purposed of my visit, who was going to pay for the visit, my bank statements and basically that's all. He was so friendly and he said I was picking up the best destination ever for my first trip to the states. The interviewed lasted for less than 10 minutes and he said our visa (Haris and I) will be ready in the post in a week time.

I was blurred because the processed went very fast and easy, I thought they were going to ask all the documents that I had prepared in advanced, to be honest two copies of each documents were a lot and they did not bother to ask even one :-P.  After thanking him, I returned to Liege.

The time passed by, and after a week I checked my post box and I found a receipt to collect the visa at the designated post office. The receipt actually had arrived almost a week earlier, but I never checked the letter, pretty careless huh! I tracked online about the visa and I was amazed to know that, the Embassy granted me the visa on the same day when I went for the visa application and they courriered the visas in the following day, what a good service!

Frankly, I did not have problems at all during the application and I really appreciate for their fast and prompt action :-))))

InsyaAllah, we will fly out on 20th April and I hope everything is going very well.

Current mode is -E.X.C.I.T.E.D-

At last he is the proud owner of the dog!

I mentioned about my boy asking me to buy a dog before.

Thus, yesterday when I went out and about with him we passed by one shop, 'zigzag'. This shop sells house deco items  etc.

Suddenly, out of the blue,he said..

Haris-mama, yet's go (his accent of let's) in to the pet's shop.
Mama-pet shop? which one is the pet shop Haris?
Haris-this one mama, the black color shop (zigzag signboard is black)
Mama-This is not the pet shop, this is house deco shop.
Haris-No mama this is the pet shop. yet's go !
Mama-Ok..

So, off we went into the shop and suddenly he said,' that one mama. The white and small and fluffy dog is overthere,' while pointing at one corner where the doqs were sitting nicely on the rack. I was err..'are you sure this one?'. He answered 'yes. I sure (in his accent of course)!.

Now, I know! He saw this dog before at the same shop and that is why he wants a dog.

After paid  EUR5 for this dog, he kept holding the dog and playing with it and his mouth never stopped asking me 'Is it cute mama?'...hahahahha

It is chocolate milk not the cows' milk

Since Haris was a baby, he against any milks from the cows. He rejected formula milk so does the fresh milk until he was two years old, I found a special milk from Nestle that he really fonds of. The milk is about Eur 2.50 per carton which is 1L and it only takes two days for him to finish up the milk, which is quite impressive, at least for me.

Last night, as usual he will ask for the milk, he called the milk as a hot chocolate. So this goes the conversation between Haris and his dad.

Haris- Papa, I want hot chocolate, please.
Papa-Hot chocolate? It is not hot chocolate Haris, it is a cow milk.
(papa tried to tease him)
Haris-No papa no! It is hot chocolate not the cow milk.
Papa-it is a cow milk not hot chocolate.
Haris-No, it  chocolate milk not the cow milk! ( in screaming tone).
Papa-Ok, where is the chocolate milk comes from then?
Haris-comes from the chocolate papa. milk comes from the chocolate.
Papa-ooo..so you drink milk from chocolate?
Haris-Yes.
Papa-is it yummy?
Haris-it's delicious (while making a hand sign of rubbing the tummy in a cicle movement).

Haris, Haris...he keeps thinking milk from the chocolate because he said cow's milk is dirty and disgusting ( he said this before) and he also thinks bee comes from honey not honey comes from the bee.:p

A week of first time schooling

5 days after he has been to school..

Day 1-He was crying a lot and kept saying 'mama is upstairs n miss mama and papa'..:-))..As my previous entry.

Day 2-When he woke up in the morning he kept saying ' no school mama', thus I twisted the word of 'school' to 'nursery' instead. Because of the word nursery we arrived without drama until he saw the school sign. Then , I dropped him to the teacher, the tears bursted out and I just left. When I went to collect him at the midday, he cried when he saw me but the teacher said, today he was better than yesterday.. Alhamdulillah..improvement!

Day 3- He is getting better and perhaps he could comprehend that nursery is his routine now, though he is still crying but not that much like those past two days...

Day 4- When we arrived at school he cried n when I collected him , the teacher said he only cried for 5 minutes..alhamdulillah, -improved tremendously!

Day 5 -Teary eyed when we arrived at the school in the morning and fortunately, those eyes were twinkling when I collected him today :-)) alhamdulillah!