Iran

I don't generally give a hoot about politics or the news for that matter, but i do hope what's happening in Iran will bring about some much needed positive change. Rather than comment, I'll let you read this from one of my favorite blogs, The Little Travelers. Angelina made a trip to Iran last year with her girls, and her views are very unbiased and refreshing.

A dawn party!

This year for Amy's 3rd birthday, we decided not to have a party. Many reasons. Main reason being cultural/faith views on the concept of birthday parties. Generally speaking, i don't much enjoy kid's birthday parties where the child is the centre of attention, gets to open presents in front of everyone, kids get filled up on sugar and junk, produce huge amounts of waste and get sent home with more of the darned rubbish. I'm sure we all do it with the best of intentions, to celebrate, bring friends and family together, an excuse to get together etc, its just that consumerist society has turned it into something so superficial and ego boosting, in my opinion.
I really don't have all the answers yet to the dilemma of what to do instead, but here's what we did this year - Nothing. Until last night. Spur of the moment decision to set up a surprise breakfast for the family. Some special occasion felt crowns (thanks to soulemama's book) i made earlier were placed on their spots, some candles to blow out, and voila! Her majesty was absolutely thrilled with the table next morning, as was everyone else! Cake for breakfast, yummm! Brought out their baby scrapbooks, told her story of the day she was born, lots of attention from everyone, and at the end, she helped clear up and on her own, thanked me for the 'party'. I even got the thumbs up from my dad, who is the brianwasher behind all the above fluff. happy mommy. happy birthday girl.

@ Home day

We're trying to have Sundays as family day, where we touch base and do all the many things we could do at home, when we get to use all the books and toys and crafties that i keep collecting. It takes a special effort especially for me to give on my 'getaway' time, but the results are sooo worth it. Rainy, cold winter days makes it a LOT easier to stay put...
Here's what we did last sunday, all together.... apple pie, from scratch!

Bit of this and that

I've given up trying to edit this page - blogger is impossible - apologies for the mixed up layout.


Danny wearing an apron I made, with a bit of inspiration from SouleMama, complete with his name on the front. (i adapted the waist strap to include velcro so kiddo can put without help)
But boys and aprons don't seem to go too well, he decided it would be more fun as a cape for his superhero stunt jumping off the couch. Ouch. boys.


Amy with a salad she made, and yes, sharp objects of the 'knife' type were used in the manufacture of this product.

Amy looking a bit chinese - with Aunty Nushan. These 2 go way back..

Ridvan celebration at Sarih's house. She has this wonderful tradition of a world cake with international dolls around. Its yummy chocolate on the inside. Also on the table are handmade flowers (with coffee filter paper).

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.