Happy Mother's Day!

Hope all you awesome mamas out there had a lovely day. It was a special one at this end, the first time the kids really got into the whole mothers day thing. Danny coudn't contain his excitement all week about having made a surprise for me at school, and 'mommy just don't look in my bag, okay?'
So the minute he woke up this morning, i was greeted with, ' By the way, Happy mother's day!!' and the biggest warmest hug ever, instantly followed by a most gorgeous card with a spinning flower which he'd carefully cut out. Inside was his message in his neatest writing ever, not bad at all for someone who is still learning the alphabet...so proud of the little man:)
Oh... lest we forget her majesty, she insisted on getting a card too, but big bro was not interested so she had to make it herself.
Photo by Amy.

A harsh reminder

Last night was a harsh reminder of how fragile life can be, and how thankful I should be for the 'ordinary'. Right after dinner, Danny started having a few red spots on his face, nothing unusual for this allergy-prone kid. After 10 mins, more spots on his neck, and his ears went bright red and were extremely irritable. Hmm, maybe some antihistamine should fix that, I only give it when he's really miserable. One dose, and redness is getting to his mouth, swelling developing around the eyes, inside joints...okay maybe i didn't give enough medecine, here's another dose, now go to bed and get some rest, you'll be fine Danny.
15mins later, he comes back this time his face doesn't look good at all, he can't kep still for all the itching, i'm starting to panic. One last dose of Zyrtec, and this time i'm keeping a very close eye on him, checking his tongue for swelling (none obvious), can u breath, yes mommy.
Finally, about 45 mins since the first sign, there's Vahid, me and my friend Sukriti who happened to be over, getting very worried and decided it was time for the hospital. But wait, he has an Epipen, shouldn't i be using that now? After a frantic search in a very panicky state of mind, i finally found it in the fridge, where its supposed to be anyway.
By now Danny is not his usual bouncy self and has slowed down a bit, still getting worse.
Quick, get this adrenalin into him. How? never done this before.... Easier than i thought, Epipen is as easy to use as a needle gets. Press blunt plastic end into thigh, hear click sound, needle has magically popped out, delivered its life-saving carge, and out in 10secs.
Releif.... Lets go to hospital just in case.
Within a few minutes, swelling subsides, redness dimishes. Life saved.
Whew!
Now to figure out what on earth CAUSED it!!! He IS allergic to quite a few things, but i've been super careful the last 5 years, i THINK i know everything he's allergic to, but apparently not.
I still can't figure it out. So for the second time in his life, it takes a life-threatening event to get a decent referral to an allergist to get tested.
And to think that the night before, Vahid and I were have a big fret session about how slow his reading is compared to his peers, how shy he is at school, the really 'important' stuff u know...

Love these little ones

Forwarded by Lessan, little bro, who seriously needs to get into the parenting scene soon:)

"While they are at your side, love these little ones to the uttermost. Forget yourself: Serve them; care for them; lavish all your tenderness on them. Value your good fortune while it is with you, and let nothing of the sweetness of their babyhood go unprized. Not for long will you keep the happiness that now lies within your reach. You will not always walk in the sunshine with a little warm, soft hand nestling in each of yours, nor hear little feet pattering beside you, and eager baby voices questioning and prattling of a thousand things with ceaseless excitement. Not always will you see that trusting face upturned to yours, feel those little arms about your neck, and those tender lips pressed upon your cheek, nor will you have that tiny form to kneel beside you, and murmur baby prayers into your ear.

Love them and win their love, and shower on them all the treasures of your heart. Fill up their days with happiness, and share with them their mirth and innocent delights.

Childhood is but for a day. Ere you are aware it will be gone with all its gifts for ever."

by George Townsend

Mere coincidence?

I had an unusual experience today which i'm sure can be interpreted many ways. As i came back home from dropping off Danny at school, Amy was at home and when i left was watching TV. It's often a battle getting her into the shower. As i walked towards the locked front door, a strong whiff of strawberry shampoo hit me, and i immidiately thought, 'Amy must be having a shower with dad. Too good to be true...' then i unlocked the door, walked in and there was no smell inside the house, but i heard them in the shower. How could i have smelt shampoo way outside the house? When they finished, i asked dad if he'd used the strawberry smelling shampoo on Amy(which he never does), and he said yes, how did you know? I smelt it outside. Huh! So we walked outside to check. No smell.
My thoughts: there's WAY more to reality and human nature than what our 5 senses percieve. I strongly believe that all humans are in essence one entity, with individual souls, deeply connected. We are far more inteconnected than we realize, and the more we love someone, the more we are connected to them, and the more we tune in to their spiritual vibrations.
Okay, not the best way to express this i know, but you get the drift. This experience may have been totally in my head only, but i've had many similiar unexplained coinicidences, as i'm sure everyone does, if we choose to notice them.
The concept of the interconnectedness of humanity is something that came to me as second nature, growing up with Baha'i beleifs, - mankind is one, etc. But its only just sinking in at a much deeper level through an array of life experiences and 'aha!' moments, like learning about near death experiences, about the world of dreams, and living in times when the general consciousness of humanity is rising to that understanding - its so exciting! And at the same time its like peeking through a tiny hole in the wall into a world which i know so little about, the world of the spirit, its humbling.

Hmmm, how carried away can you get with the smell of shampoo?!!!

FIGilicious

There is an emormous 40 yr old fig tree in my parents' backyard which is fruiting at the moment. Fresh figs are a delicacy in most places, but an acquired taste in Australia, where many people are either unfamiliar with them or don't quite like the texture/taste. Persians on the other hand would do anything for fresh figs, so we've been picking and sharing loads of figs.
They ripen slowly so we get some every day, and picking figs is part of the routine here, with the kids helping to carry the fig basket while i pick from lower branches. The rainbow lorikeets get the loot up the top.
The tragedy here is the fate of this tree. Due to exorbitant land prices here, the backyard has been subdivided and building will begin soon on the site where this great tree sits :( and many other well established fruit trees :(

A peek at our day

With Danny now settled into the new routine of school, its a wonderful new phase of life for me to have that precious mother and daughter time with Amy. She is now 2.8 yrs and able to engage in lots of activities. I'm trying to get into a routine of some structured activities in the first hour of the morning before we get carried away with other things like outings, chores. So far, she's responded very enthusiastlically to any learning experiences where she has mommy all to herself, and i simply can't keep up with how fast she learns. Here she's doing a simple aphabet matching activity and felt board













The girly stuff, which Danny never really got into even tho i exposed them both to all sorts of toys. They both LOVE my fabric box in the background. Lots of imaginative play comes out of that

They both love gardening, hmmm, wonder where they get that from (says mommy who's been dreaming of the country life, la de da, someday). And yeah, a little housekeeper in the making, just give me something REAL and USEFUL to do, i do it "my byself". Gotta love the enthusiasm of preschoolers hey....before 'I'm bored' enters their vocab.

Blog i heart

Some fabulous parenting goodies here, Noble Mother, great articles and tips, based on Virtues guide philosophies. A good dig at the concept of timeout and super nanny, which i totally relate to.
Comment of the day : 'Allow your children to become bored enough to become creative!'.
Danny, 'mommy, you know the stuff around the lion's face, when his mommy forgot to give him a haircut?' Proceeded to make the visual to illustrate his point.

Gift time...

It's that special time of year for Baha'is, the Intercalary days (Ayyam-i-Ha), 26th Febuary to 1st March when we exchange gifts and do charitable acts...or so we should.
I'm always looking out for ideas on how to make these days memorable for the kids, given all the other over commercialised events they're exposed to which we don't celebrate.
Here's a page full of ideas of how various families celebrate the Intercalary days: Ayyam-i-Ha Ideas. Some practical ones for me are:
A count - down calendar,
Decorations with lights - (check Ikea)
A special gift every morning
A family picnic
Bake for friends
Any other ideas?

A glimpse of history

http://news.bahai.org/community-news/regional-conferences/sydney.html

Random thoughts:

Amazing, inspiring, insane, exhausting, unforgettable event, the like of which Australia has never seen. 5,500 people, that all... hundreds of volunteers and ushers, state of the art technology, awesome location in the heart of metro Sydney (Harbour). Best organised event i'd ever been to, despite the size and logistics of the event.

Between Vahid and I, and plenery sessions, we each caught less than half of the conference. Even though every effort was made by the organisers to provide live feeds in parent rooms, fantastic children's program, etc, it was still quite challenging with our 2 bunnies.

Saturday night was a thrill, a showcase of artistic talent relevant to the theme - 5YP. The auditorium was filled to capacity, show after show. Just can't do justice to it here, so i wont even try. At the end of evening (11pm), two sleeping kids to navigate out of this crowd, i lost my camera coming down the stairs. Within 5 mins of dropping it, i was already retracing steps to find it, asking ushers, security etc. No luck. Until the last minute of the conference i kept checking the lost and found desk - they got sick of me. Came home rather glum about the loss of precious pics.

3 days later, Dad randomly looks up the conference website, stumbles upon the lost and found section and voila - my camera is listed! The pics above would have been lost were it not for a miracle!

During the conference, we made pledges of service, which would go directly to Baha'i institions. The day after we got back from Sydney, we're driving along with dad and Vahid, and discussing what service activities we would like to do now in Adeliade. I mentioned tutoring. The words were barely out of my mouth when dad's phone rang, it was for me - was i available to tutor Book 3 tomorrow night?! 3 days later, we had completed the book (Teaching Children's classes).

Will be offering these spiritual education classes to neighbourhoods soon.

And yes, it was spine chilling to walk into the arena outside the Convention Centre, and see so many familiar faces from such diverse places, many of whom i hadn't seen for years, all in the one place! It got more freaky as the days went by.... But you generally had one chance to say hello before the face would be engulfed by the sea of perpetually hugging humans....

New Beginings

First meeting with my parents at the Baha'i House of Worship, Sydney. Unforgettable

Its been a long journey, but now i feel like i'm finally home. It the most comforting feeling in the world, to be surrounded by love. "Where there is love, nothing is too much trouble, and there is always time" (Baha'i Writings).
To wake up in the morning and have breakfast with mom and dad, be able to leave Amy with her beloved grandpa for the whole morning while i take Danny to school for his first few days at school, and come back to a happy kid who hardly missed me!!! Lunch with my darling grandma and aunty, the odd uncle or cousin always showing up, hardly cook dinner, hardly realize that hubby is so late from work..... This is bliss.... the contrast to my previous lifestyle is stark. I write this to share my joy, and as a reminder to myself to continue appreciating the good bits about living close to family, long after this initial euphoria passes.