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January 14th, 2010Walk the Plank
November 11th, 2009Tanya has been walking all over the place the last couple weeks. Of course it started with a step and a fall, then she learned how to fall safely, then increased the number of steps and as of yesterday I have counted up to 14 steps in one go. It looks very unstable but it is fun to watch especially when she tries to pick something off the floor while crotching. She is crawling up stairs and onto anything she finds. She is laughing a lot and this morning I woke up to her stroking my goatee and yelling “eh” repeatedly until I woke up.
Jamal is stringing more words together so he is starting to put together more two word sentences.
Hibah is growing up so fast I get scared. She loves to draw and play and is full of emotion. The great thing is she is becoming more open with others at her school and elsewhere and going up to other kids to ask if they want to play vs before where she would be more passive and just hope that the other kids would ask her.
Life is good
Jamal’s Birthday
June 13th, 2009Jamal’s 2nd birthday finally arrived. We were hoping he would be with us when his first birthday arrived but we were not so lucky. So this was his first birthday with us. We had a small party and just invited folks with kids around the same age. All in all there was about 30 people and we rented the pavillion at Wonch park in Okemos which has a playground. The kids had fun although I do not think Jamal understood what was going on but the first 2 birthdays for any kids are mainly for the parents. He got some nice gifts and Tanya slept through most of it. It rained in the morning but by the time of the party, it was sunny and dry. A perfect day.
Solid Advice
June 9th, 2009It is exciting to see Hibah grow and become an independent person right before me. Two small things happened but yet very moving, at least for me.
First off, I asked Hibah if she wanted to come with me to the Friday prayers. These start with a lecture that is usually not too exciting and then a short prayer at the end. All in all it takes about 45 minutes. Hibah said no, understandably. I responded that I get bored without you. Her response, “Well I get be bored with you.” I could not stop laughing.
Second event. I study in the basement where it is naturally cold so I have socks and a fleece pullover that I take off in my bedroom upstairs. Hibah noticed this and was asking why I was wearing such things when it was soo hot outside (it was in the mid 80s). I explained to her why I wore it and told me I should leave the pullover and socks downstairs where I study so I always have it when I need it. That is what I do now. As far as I can remember, that is the first piece of real advice she has given me.
The Story Behind The Name Tanya
December 25th, 2008We wanted a name that is easy to pronounce and also a Muslim name. 2 syllables or less is my criteria. Tanya fits the bill. It has various meanings and origins. First off it is pronounced “Ton” that rhymes with “gone” and “ya” that rhymes with “fu“n or another way of looking at it is that there is a hard T at the beginning followed by a soft o sound. The start of the name is the part most people foul up by either making it a Th sound instead of a hard T and or following it with a soft a sound instead of an o sound.
For instance, it is the short form of Tatiana in Russian and means princess. It is
also Arabic for the 2nd leap of the gazelle. I know you are going to ask so the 1st leap is “Alula” and the 3rd leap is Talitha.
So you can decide if she seems more like a leaping gazelle or a princess but at least I know you’ll be able to pronounce it.
Some other fun facts about her name:
It’s popularity grew in many respects thanks to Pushkin’s poem Eugene Onegin, where the main character was Tatiana Larina, beloved by Onegin and Lenski.
Variants include Tania (an English spelling) and Tanja (German, Estonian, Finnish, Bosnian, Dutch, Croatian, Czech, Macedonian, Serbian and Ukrainian).
It is the 237th most common name in the USA according to namestatistics.com, which uses US Census data.
Famous People named Tanya:
Tanya Chan – a legislator in Hong Kong
Tanya Chua – a singer in Singapore
Tanya Donelly – singer/guitarist for Throwing Muses, The Breeders, and Belly
Tanya Dubnicoff – a Canadian track cyclistTanya Dziahileva – a Belarusian model
Tanja Godina – a Slovenian backstroke swimmer
Tanya Haden – daughter of jazz double bassist Charlie Haden, wife of actor Jack Black
Tanja Hart – German volleyball player
Tanya Hughes – American high jumper
Peak popularity appears to have been in the 1970’s as you can see from the graph below
Tanya’s 2nd Day of Life with the Family
December 24th, 2008
Big Sister Hibah holds her little sister Tanya for the first time. Day 2 and 3 were spent in the hospital as mom went through the normal hospital recovery alongside Tanya.
Everyone remained healthy and happy and waited patiently until the doctors gave us the approval to take Tanya home.
More pictures of Tanya’s 2nd day can be seen at http://www.flickr.com/photos/fatteh/sets/72157615437835451/
The Birth of Tanya
December 23rd, 2008
Tanya Fatteh was born on December 22, 2008 at Ingham Regional Medical Center.
She is healthy and lively. She was born about one month early similar to her big sister Hibah, at measured in at 18.75 ” and 5 3/4 lbs.
Both mother and Tanya are doing well and will spend the next couple days in the hospital for normal delivery recovery.
Big brother Jamal is excited but has no idea what is going on (he is 1.5 years old) and Hibah is simply excited.
If you want to see more pictures of the day of the birth, go to http://www.flickr.com/photos/fatteh/sets/72157615527754210/
Famous December 22 birthdays:
- Ali Lohan born Dec 22, 1993
- Jordin Sparks born Dec 22, 1989
- Steve Garvey: former professional baseball player born in 1948
- Diane Sawyer born in 1945
- Barbara Billingsley know for being Mrs Cleaver in Leave it to Beaver born in 1922
- Lady Bird Johnson born in 1912
- Luther Campbell the singer born in 1961
The Story Behind the Name Jamal
June 14th, 2007Since we found Jamal early on his life and since he was abandoned at the hospital, he was John Doe. As a result, we got to name him.
How We Came Up With the Name
As is the rule for all my children, we want names that are two syllables or less, easy to pronounce, and Muslim names.
If you know me (Saif), you know I’m an avid sports fan. More than that, I am avid Georgia sports fan which includes the Atlanta Falcons, Braves, Hawks, Thrashers, Georgia Force, Calgary Flames (true fans
can figure this out), and Georgia Bulldogs.
The National Football League draft was a couple months ago and the Falcons drafted a lineman named Jamaal Anderson. He comes from a solid background with teachers/professors as parents and is supposed to be a model citizen and supposed to a raw talent that could become a great sackmaster (Update 2009, in 2 years he only has 2 total sacks but at least he still appears to be a good citizen, see other update below). In addition, the year the Falcons went to the Superbowl (I’ll never forgive Eugene Robinson), they were lead by a running back named Jamal Anderson. He had to retire a couple years later to due major knee surgery. Its odd that we had 2 players with almost the same name. 
He too appears to be an upstanding citizen (Update 2009, he was busted for possession and usage of cocaine in a restaurant bathroom stall in ATL). Of course Jamal is also easy to pronounce so we decided to name after the lineman Anderson but use the spelling of the running back because we figured that would be easier.
Meanings and Pronunciation and Variants
It is pronounced “Ju” like Jump and “mal” like the mall where you shop.
It is an arabic word that means handsome.
Jamal has 22 variant forms: Jahmal, Jamaal, Jamael, Jamahl, Jamall, Jamaul, Jameel, Jamel, Jamell, Jamiel, Jamil, Jamile, Jamill, Jammal, Jemaal, Jemahl, Jemall, Jimal, Jimahl, Jomal, Jomahl and Jomall.
Famous Jamals
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Jamal is the name of the main protagonist in the highly acclaimed 2008 British film Slumdog Millionaire.
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Jamal Abd al-Nasir: first Egyptian president,, who created the United Arab Republic (UAR) between the republics of Egypt and Syria.
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Malcolm-Jamal Warner of “The Cosby Show” fame.
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Jamal Anderson – former running back for the Atlanta Falcons/current cocaine snorter with a preference for snorting off toilets
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Jamaal Anderson – Defensive lineman for the Atlanta Falcons
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Jamal Duff – actor
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Jamal Lewis – running back in the NFL
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Mumia Abu-Jamal – famous death row inmate
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Jamal Crawford – Professional basketball player who attended the University of Michigan
Fun Facts
The name has been in use in the U.S. since 1968
Its peak popularity appears to have been in the early to mid 1990s as you can see from the graph below
The Birth of Jamal Fatteh
June 13th, 2007Jamal Fatteh was born today. This article was written well after this day for a good reason. I’ll tell the story of his birth and you’ll see why.
Jamal was born with another name and other parents, probably somewhere in Multan Pakistan. He was probably well fed and loved. For an unknown reason, he was abandoned in a hospital after when only a couple months old. His birth parents never came for him even after we published an article in the paper. Another couple had the opportunity to bring to Jamal to their house but they decided on another child, so we were lucky enough to have him paired up with us and so we continued the paperwork portion of the adoption process.
No pictures in this entry since we obviously do not have any pictures from his birth. How do we know he was born on June 13, 2007? The doctors measured his bone length and spaces between the bones and made an educated guess.
Some famous people born on the same day:
- Steve-O from Ja#$ As* born on June 13, 1974
- Ashley Olsen born on June 13, 1986
- Mary-Kate Olsen born on June 13, 1986
- Tim Allen: actor born June 13, 1953
The Devil Went Down to Georgia
August 16th, 2005We finally sold our house in Austin and finalized the move to Michigan. The move was uneventful. We had a deal for our house that fell through that was with the nephew of Too Short. Im sure a couple of you know who this is.
We flew to Augusta for a few days to see the Augusta Fatteh Clan and then to Atlanta for the International Beauty Pageant. We had a great time in Augusta where I saw my old elementary school Augusta Christian, and then my Kindergarten, Open Door Kindergarten. We also saw our first house in Augusta. 
To see all the pictures of our Augusta trip click here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/fatteh/sets/72157601655347312/
Then we went off to Atlanta for the beauty pageant. Unfortunately, Hibah did not place but we still had fun as we have cousins in ATL and brought the Augusta cousins with us. 