When I first held Mir, I felt a feeling of calmness and completeness. It was pure joy holding Mir. I never thought in my life I would be pregnant again and get to hold a newborn. Mir made that possible for me. When we got home a little bit of depression and guilt feeling started to kick in. When I was pregnant with Mir last minute, I had to cancel my baby sprinkle due to Covid-19. Again, due to Covid-19 no one came to visit Mir. There were no balloons, no flowers, no friends and family there to celebrate this miracle baby of mine. Mustafa said to me who cares! You are here, I am here the twins are here, our parents are here. Who else matters? That is when it something inside me clicked. He is right. The most important people are there! I should be happy and grateful my family made it here to see Mir and help us out and celebrate. That is when I decided to celebrate Mir’s aqeeqa properly!
In the Pakistani Islamic tradition, the 7th day of a child’s life is an extremely important day in the first year. It is on this day we shave off all the hair off the baby’s head. It is a day of celebration. For Mir I decided to have a proper aqeeqa celebration. I ordered food from one of our favorite local Pakistani restaurant Kabab and Kurry in Farmington Hills. I also ordered the family’s favorite Tiramisu cake from Maria’s bakery. My brother drove all the way to Chicago and back with Pakistani mithai. As you see this family believes in a lot of food and even more dessert when it comes to any occasion in life. The night before I blew up a lot of balloons as my décor and something for the twins to play with.
Mustafa shaved Mir’s head with the help of my mom in the presence of both set of grand parents and my brother. We timed it during the twin’s nap time. Post the shaving my mom gave him a quick bath while I cleaned up. After that we set up for family pictures and the meal for when the twins woke up from their nap.
For me it is all about the pictures! I had a whole set of pictures in my mind I wanted to take. Family pictures. Pictures of Mir, pictures of the twins with Mir and so forth. Some how the only person who was cooperating with taking pictures was Mir. Twins refused to sit still and were all over the place. That is when I just took my camera and started clicking. It did not matter if they were in focus or twins looked at the camera or not. I captured real life pictures or lifestyle photography, I guess.
Having Mir during this pandemic has taught me a few things. As cliché as this sounds it is absolutely true; Life is short! We should celebrate every day! If something can be done today you should do it today. In life everything somehow works out just have faith and hope.
The Winging it Mama! 