Chipping away at my loans

Feels good to see, but there's so much more before we're done: student loans, home mortgage, car payment.  Sigh...how does a middle class family ever get ahead?  When does all the fun start?
-Shirin

Memorial park, home, and St Patty's Day

 This was my weekend to work, so we've just been putzing around the house when not at work.  We were in RH last weekend and will be in FL next weekend, so it's just been a good old weekend to chill with the fam.  Here are pics from last week and today (Happy St Patty's Day!)
-Shirin

On Wednesday, I built the kids a quilt tent.  This provides them, the cats, and even Gabriel (and Bren when he visited) a place to hide and play.

It was even hard to get pictures of them, because every time I came up with the camera they would shriek like I was a monster and run away.

My precious little baby Satin, enjoying the tent too.

Cyrus loves the kitties so much.  He has always been so gentle and good with them.

Kai still has some work to do in that area, but he's learning from his big brother and our constant reminders.

Hugging him a little too hard.

We went to the park to enjoy the beautiful warm weather, but had to wait for Cyrus to wake up.  Kai and I just sat on the grass and read books til he did (sweaty and grumpy, I might add).

 

I think this was actually from last week at the park.  How cute are they?

They fight a bit sometimes, but they really show lots of love too.

Dubious about the hug?

On Thursday, I went shopping on my lunch break, just for a few things at Wal-mart (ie shampoo) and came out with tons of Easter basket stuff instead.  Sigh.  They just suck me in when holidays come around.

That evening, I was able to leave work early enough and get home early enough (6:45) to meet Gabriel at the park with the boys.  It was so nice to still have some light to play by.

Love.

Cyrus can spell "Kai" as well as "Cyrus" now.  He also can spell "Stop" from looking at stop signs.  

He pretends to read sometimes, when he's memorized words from books.  I remember that I used to do that as a kid too.

I put Kai in a cloth diaper the other day, just to air out his butt.  When I asked to see his diaper, this is what he did.  What a showboat.

This was the pose Cyrus chose (and Kai copied).

Don't ask me where he gets this from.

Today (Saturday), while I was at work, Gabriel took the kids to the mall playground.  He caught Kai chatting on his "car phone." 

"How scandalous!!!"

 

One of my favorite things about the Saturdays that I work is the big family nap we all take after I get home.  Gabriel usually sleeps with Kai and I sleep with Cyrus.  How delicious.

After we all woke up, I dressed the kids in green and got us ready to go downtown for St Patty's Day.

A green family on a lovely evening.

Ready to push the boys around downtown in the stroller to see the festivities and eat some dinner.  Cyrus kept asking, "Where's St Patrick's?"

When we got home for bathtime, Gabriel got to snuggle some naked babies beforehand.  He's doing this thing he does where he sings them a song and tickles them on every other line.  They love it.

 '

It took us a while to figure out Kai's word "ne ne" was "twinkle" for Twinkle, twinkle little star.  But we eventually got it somehow.

Naked and giggling.

All clean, pajamaed, and ready for brushing and flossing before bed (yes, I'm flossing their teeth every night like the dentist told me to).

Bedtime with Kai has been a big struggle lately.  He goes to bed just fine, but then he gets up out of bed about 50 times.  He keeps Cyrus awake and it's just terrible.  But, they sure are cute.

Loads of recent videos

My sister always asks for videos of the boys, so here are a bunch I finally uploaded. I know she just saw them, but this will help her feel connected now that she's heading home.
-Shirin


Cyrus always has to dance.



Talking with Kai before going to see the Lorax movie.




Kai loves to color and loves Sesame Street characters (from books). Here he is doing lots of drawing and talking about a work book with Grover and Elmo and Cookie Monster, his favorites.




Cyrus at gymnastics. He's getting so much better at hanging, balancing, and somersaulting. If you skip ahead to 1:30 (1 min 30 sec), you can see him flipping around the bar with help.



This is a rare video with me in it. It's just me tickling the boys around dinnertime.




A very sleepy Cyrus that I just woke up from his nap. Discussing dreams and such. (Also, Kai putting my bras on his head).




Cyrus is a puzzle lover and I'm glad to say Kai is following in his footsteps. I have always loved, and still love, puzzles of all kinds. (Kai gets very distracted by a tiny little bug in this one).



More puzzles with Kai.




Talking with the boys in the back seat.

Car sickness gene

So....I have no one to blame for this but myself and my genes.  I have spent my life puking, especially in cars, buses, planes, and vans.  Ask any of my travel companions; they know.  So, it is no surprise to me that I have had to clean off puke from the fronts of both my kids numerous times.  One notable time was on the way back from FL when Cyrus was watching a movie on the iPad and vomited all over it.  I had to stand outside in the freezing cold changing a shivering Cyrus and wiping off the coveted iPad.  Sigh...it's never ideal to have to deal with vomit on the road.  So, driving home two nights ago with my kids by myself, it was rough that Kai vomited all over himself, not once but twice!  (The second time after I had already cleaned him up and changed him).  It's SO hard to get all the substance out of the little seat belt buckles and it's a nightmare when all you have are baby wipes to clean it up.
It seems to happen more when they are reading books in the car, understandably, but it's hard to tell them they aren't allowed to look at something while we are driving.  So, I guess I'd better bring a "vomit kit" with us on the next road trip, which is only a little over a week away (to FL for Ides of March).
-Shirin

Anahita's visit and RH visit with Modaresis

Tita came home last week for a nice long visit with us.  She arrived on Wed in Atlanta and will leave again Wednesday from Charlotte.  I had to work Thursday and Friday, so she stayed home with the kids, and then we headed up to RH on Friday night to see my parents.  I was able to take off Monday from work, so we got to have a nice long 3-day weekend together.  Gabriel came too, but went home alone on Sunday so he could work today.  The kids and I drove back today and had a fine trip, except for Kai vomiting twice on the way home.  Sigh...carsick kids are awful.  

Happy early birthday to my mom and early Nowruz (Persian New Year) to all of you!

-Shirin

Thursday morning, unveiling her presents for the boys.

The human body book.  Cyrus loves learning about anatomy, so it was right up his alley.

 Touchable bubbles weren't a real success, since the kids were grabbing them as fast as Tita could blow them.

Bren came over Thursday night to visit with Tita and the kids.  I found them all in a pile like this when I got home from work.

 Dr Bren doing surgery on Kai with Nurse Cyrus assisting.  I guess Tita was anesthetist.

Sewing him back up.

Now Cyrus needed surgery.

Surgery tickles!

Getting silly before bath time.

Thursday night we just chilled on the couch and talked.  I had to go to bed early for work the next day, but it was a nice way to spend the evening.

Trying to get Tita to smile instead of protesting the picture.

Saturday morning at Nama and Baba's house.  Kai just got up on this stool and started reading.

This is a great book: "We're going on a bear hunt."

Nama finally has a baby that looks like her!

My dad making Gormet Sabzi (persian veggie dish with beans and "meat" on top of rice).

The end result.

My little quarter-Persian baby shoveling it in.

Anahita has finally discovered the wonder that is the book series, "The Hunger Games."  I have a feeling she'll be buying "Catching Fire" and "Mockingjay" very soon.

 The boys always have a lot of fun at my parent's house: coloring with crayons...

...doing artsy stuff with Tita and Nama...

...reading books...

...doing big boy puzzles...

...and little boy puzzles...

...and even singing "Happy Birthday" to Nama.

It's a little early, but better early than never.

Group photo before heading to Cherry Park today for playing and a picnic.

Tita and Cyrus playing.

Eating subs with my family.

My dad is on a mission for my children to love Persian fruit.  So far so good.  

Here is Kai eating persimmon.  They also love pomegrantate and dates.