A Letter to Little Z on his Sixth Birthday…
This year has been quite challenging as we packed up and left behind everything that we knew in our home to Dubai to move permanently to the UK to build a whole new life. Just before we left, we tried to get everything ticked off our Dubai checklist along with a desert family photo shoot, where you loved climbing up and down the sand dunes. It can’t have been easy to comprehend what was going on and what was to come as a 5 year old but you did amazing and adapted so well to any new situation thrown at you.
You loved moving in with your grandparents for the first few months, soaking in all their love as they spoilt you and your brother. You also embracing the outdoor life, kicking around in your wellies and inspecting worms and butterflies (or that time you loved having a ladybug sit on your head). Since we moved during Spring, the weather and long days were perfect for day trips to lovely spots around Leicester like Foxton Locks, Bradgate Park, Cambridge, Lincoln’s Steep Hill, lots of tourist spots in London including the State Room Tour in Buckingham Palace and lots more!
We got to celebrate Eid with the extended family, and you were definitely overwhelmed at first with just how many members of the family you were surrounded by but are slowly getting used to it and have learnt majority of their names. I am loving seeing the relationship between you and your Mama (maternal uncle/ my younger brother) blossom and the admiration you have for him, possibly even more so since he bought a motor bike!
You also had your first eye test here as well as continuing on with your dentist checkups too. You love creating patterns with Hama beads and proceed to have me iron them for you as soon as you complete one. You are still Lego obsessed but have also found a new obsession in Hot Wheels cars and playing with swords. You have had the chance to explore lots of museums, but nothing beats a good dinosaur exhibit of course.
Your sweet tooth is still very strong and absolutely love waffles for dessert as well as gulab jamun and jalebi of course. Speaking of teeth, you have your first wobbly tooth ready to fall off any day now! You pull the funniest faces and are always heard laughing about something or the other. You have loved borrowing books from the local library and reading them before bedtime every school night with me. You love mhendi and are always asking me to draw some kind of car or helicopter on your hand with mhendi whenever you see that I am about to put some on.
Your sibling relationship with your brother is definitely getting more feisty, as you both love to play fight with each other but at the same time I know how much you look up to Master Z because you absolutely must copy everything he does (much to his annoyance! haha!) It is great to know that you have eachother though, regardless of how much you want to annoy each other.
In September you started at your first school in the UK, only to move to a different one a month later when we moved into our first rented property here in Leicester. Again, that must have been very hard but you are doing really well at school and have made lots of friends too. Your speech has come such a long way too and even though your “r”s still sound like “l”s, your vocabulary and sentence structure is amazing. You equally like to say “Cheers” to anyone around you rather than saying thank you like a normal child, but it has me and your dad in fits of laughter. You have defintely picked up alot of quirky sentences since coming to the UK and it is hilarious to hear!
You are finally on the Qaida, after plenty of breaks but have now got a good understanding of the Arabic alphabet basics and I hope we make better progress in the coming year In sha Allah and you are able to learn more Surahs too.
Although it took some time, you are getting used to wearing all the warm layers during your first ever UK winter season and you especially enjoyed playing in the snow too! You were missing the beach side since moving from Dubai, so we headed to Hunstanton by the beach side which was very different from the normal sandy beaches you were used to but still loved the crunch of pebbles and collecting sea shells. We also enjoyed a little staycation in Manchester, with a day trip to Liverpool during the winter holidays, where I think you were more excited to be staying in a hotel.
I hope the coming year brings with it more stability but equally lots of joy and happiness In sha Allah. I am sure you will continue to being the light of our lives and making us smile at every given opportunity. May all your dreams and wishes come true!
Happy Sixth Birthday, little one. Mummy and Papa love you to infinity and beyond.
How did you feel when your baby turned SIX? Feel free to share your thoughts in the comments section below!
You can read the letter I wrote to Little Z on his first, second, third, fourth and fifth birthday. Also, feel free to have a read of my open Birthday letters to my first born, Master Z, on his first, second, third, fourth, fifth, sixth, seventh and eighth birthday.
