Happy Halloween!

Cyrus went trick or treating with his friend Solan tonight. It was perfect weather (just a little chilly), and we were in a good neighborhood with lots of other kids. Cyrus still isn't allowed to eat candy, so he got to collect all the goodies (including other things like pretzels and playdough) and then got to eat some dried apricots and a Lara-bar (date and nut bar). He was happy and was all tuckered out when we got home. Trick or Treat!

-Shirin

Gabriel, the GA redneck.

"I knight thee, Sir Cyrus."

Kai was initially dressed up as a bat but didn't seem to like the costume, so I tried the banana from last year, and he did much better in it.

The wiggly knight and the not-so-happy bat.

Trying to echolocate something.

Solan and Cyrus in their wagon before trick or treating.

Getting pulled to the first house for candy.

Yep, I dressed up too. Kim let me borrow this medieval princess dress.

Redneck Daddy followed behind with a sleeping bubsy.

Some more funny Cyrus conversations

Cyrus is speaking so much. So many funny things come out every day, I can't possibly remember them all, but here are a few.

-Shirin

Learning Sir and Ma'am:

Mommy (me): Cyrus, go take your shoes off and put them in the hallway.

Cyrus: Yes, sir.

Double meaning:

Daddy (driving with Cyrus in the backseat): We need to go pick up Mommy.

Cyrus: Mommy fall down?

Breakfastime:

Cyrus: Wake up, Daddy! Dinnertime! Dinnertime!

Gabriel: OK, Cyrus. What do you want for breakfast?

Cyrus: Something else.

Falling:

Mommy (me): Cyrus, if you fake fall, Mommy can't help you. Did you fake fall?
Cyrus: Yes.

Mommy: Then I can't help you.

Cyrus: Daddy help me.

Mommy: No, Daddy can't help you.

Cyrus: Pappap help me.

Mommy: No, Pappap can't help you.

Cyrus: Brendan help me.

Mommy: No, Brendan can't help you either.

A few days later:

Cyrus: Cyrus fake fall; Mommy can't help you.

Cellphone:

Cyrus (talking on his toy cell phone): Hello? What? OK, Bye.

Book:

Gabriel: Do you want to read this book?

Cyrus (sounding like Tamala): Yemme see dat book. Yemme see dat.

OK:

Cyrus (anytime he falls, slips, or trips in the other room): I'm OK! I'm OK!

Boy/girl:

Mommy: Are you a girl?
Cyrus: No.

Mommy: Are you a boy?

Cyrus: No, I'm Cyrus!

Accent:

Mommy: He has a Southern accent.

Cyrus: Has accident.

Mommy: No no. Accent.

Cyrus: Accident.

Mommy: No, AC-CENT.

Cyrus: AC-CID-DENT.

Veterinarian vs vegetarian:

Mommy: Don't push the kitty, Cyrus. You'll hurt him.

Cyrus: Kitty gets hurt. Ouch. Go to doctor. Doctor help him. Don't eat him.

The road:

Mommy: Cyrus, be careful. That's the road.

Cyrus: Road is bad. Cars smash you. Cyrus get hurt. Ouch. Cyrus cry.

Mommy: Exactly.

A great picture

Saskia's wedding photos are all coming back from the photographer and they are beautiful. Above is one totally unrelated to the wedding that I really love. I think he was dancing.

-Shirin

Happy Birthday, Brendan.

Gabriel doesn't believe in many holidays, but he certainly cares about people's birthdays. So, tonight he made sure his little brother got to have a nice family birthday dinner celebration and got him two really cool presents from www.fiverr.com. Ya'll should check out the site. It's very interesting.

Happy birthday to my little brother (in-law).

-Shirin

Cyrus and Gabriel decorating Bren's cake.

A cookies n' cream cake with candles and some little figurines from a game Gabriel and Bren played.

I made Thai food for the occasion: Pad Thai on the left and Tom Yum soup on the right. It was really good (if I say so myself).

Beth and Melissa also came to celebrate (and eat). I was thrilled that Melissa liked the Pad Thai (her first intro to Thai food. There is hope!)

Cyrus wasn't much into the dinner itself, but he hung out and played with his new word cards from his Auntie Lisa.

Meanwhile, Kai took after his Uncle Brendan and played with a lighter (JK).

Videos from today

I have more time to take videos of the babies when I'm home all day with them.
-Shirin


Kai grabbing things like a real baby.




Blastoff to Mars (Cyrus reenacting a Mickey Mouse episode about Goofy going to Mars).




Singing along with the Old MacDonald toy.




Kai doing more holding things and stuffing things in his mouth in his exersaucer.



Cyrus talking about shapes.

A real baby moving up in the world

This weekend has been full of a few firsts for Kai: rolling over multiple times, sitting up in a high chair, and holding objects to put them in his mouth. He's becoming a real person now. How exciting!

-Shirin

Home sweet home.

Nothing feels quite as good as being home with family.

Videos

We made it to Rock Hill safely (just me and the boys) since I am off the rest of the week and Gabriel is in Mississippi on business. We're happy to be home with Nama and Baba. Here are a couple videos from this morning.
-Shirin


Kai's first time in an exercise saucer.



Cyrus playing with his puzzles and playing with Kai.

Muchisimas gracias a Pap pap!

Many, many thanks to my father-in-law, Gene aka Pap pap, for taking off of work, driving 10 hrs each way, and spending two long days taking care of me and the boys while Gabriel has been gone. It is a very rewarding but very difficult task to keep a 2 year old and 4 month old happy all day long by oneself. We've loved having you, Pap pap. Thanks for everything!

-Shirin

Pap pap's here!

Gabriel is leaving for a business conference in Mississippi tomorrow and will be gone til Friday. Since I have to work Mondays and Tuesdays, I wasn't sure how it would go with just me getting everyone ready and out of the house by 7:30 AM those mornings. Luckily, I won't have to find out because Pap pap is here! My dear father-in-law took off from work to come up and help me with his little sweeties for the next couple of days. It'll be so nice to have another adult in the house at night, too, in case of an emergency. I try not to think about it, but the idea of something bad happening to my children, especially when I'm the only parent in the house, is really pretty terrifying.

We had a nice evening together tonight, and Cyrus is totally thrilled to have his Pap pap here.

-Shirin

Yay! Pap pap with his little bubsies.

Showing Pap pap his band-aid.

At the mall, checking out the train.

Cyrus really loves trains, so Pap pap did what we never do and took him on the train ride around the mall. It was a really nice ride and Cyrus LOVED it.

Earlier that afternoon, Brendan stopped by.

He and Gabriel and the boys all hung out in the living room for awhile.

I'm not sure what Bren was watching on his iPhone, but Cyrus didn't mind getting all up in his business to watch it with him.

Kai is starting to be able to sit up a little by himself (with supervision).

Brothers.

Kai working on some light reading.

Fall Festival

I worked this morning til noon and then came home to relax while all my boys took naps. When they all woke up, I told them it was time to go to the Wakinsville FALL FESTIVAL!! It was in just the next town over and full of vendors, crafts, and food. The weather was perfect: warm sun and cool breeze. We gorged on candied apples, roasted corn, and fried potato swirls. What are festivals for if not for gorging?
As always, Cyrus had a blast experiencing everything possible while Kai slept through almost all of it. What a nice way to spend our Saturday afternoon with the family.
-Shirin

A cute lady in a bonnet making kettle corn.

Gabriel thinking about where to go next.

He decided to follow the big boy ahead of him pushing his own stroller.

He actually lead us in the right direction and was pretty polite about not running into people's legs. He also used the port-a-potties the whole time and didn't have an accident the whole day we were there. Go Cyrus!

Wandering around the festival and enjoying the day with my family.

Dinner with Uncle Brendan

We don't get to see Bren that often anymore because we're all so busy, but he still gets time to come around now and then to visit the boys and eat some dinner. Tonight was one of those nights. We were happy to see him.

-Shirin

Bren and Kai wrestling. Kai is a natural.

He got a kiss for winning.

Playtime for the boys while I cooked.

Cyrus took a picture of Bren at the dinner table.

After dinner, it was time for Bren to go home and the boys to go to bed.

Reading books before it was time to go to sleep. Night night, little sweeties.

Our first Jack'o Lantern

I'm not a huge decorator or celebrator, but I definitely like doing holiday activities. I have fond memories of decorating Easter eggs, putting up Christmas lights, and drawing Thanksgiving turkeys from a tracing of my hand all throughout my childhood.

Thus, with Halloween right around the corner, I felt the need to stop by the pumpkin patch when we drove by it Sunday. Cyrus was not very cooperative on that day, so we left without a pumpkin, but today we had a talk about doing what Mommy says and tried it again. It was a success and Cyrus picked out a pumpkin for us to carve into a Jack 'o Lantern tonight.

I'm not sure why it falls to most moms to be the ones to pass on these traditions, but I definitely know in my house that it is all up to me to provide my children with these experiences. Luckily, I love doing it, so I'm happy to participate and bring a little holiday spirit into our home.

-Shirin

Running through the field of pumpkins on Sunday.

Trying out a big red one as a chair.

First I showed him how to take out all the seeds. I plan to bake them tomorrow.

Neither Cyrus nor I have ever been scared to get a little dirty.

I vividly remember all the Octobers that I did this very thing with my mom and sister. Maybe next year Kai can join in too.

We're almost ready to start drawing and carving out a face.

Cyrus helped draw the features for me to cut out (I certainly helped that along as well). Then I did the cutting while he watched.

The final touch with the candle lit and the lights off. Our first Jack 'o Lantern was a success.

Some new videos

Cyrus is a born baller. He can already hit a soft ball with a bat, catch a ball, and dribble the soccer ball around the yard. I was trying to catch his dribbling on this video, but of course he was mostly done by the time I actually got my camera. (This is in Chantal's backyard in Charleston).





Here he is at home throwing and catching his beach ball.



Cyrus has started showing interest in helping me make his food. I love to let him help, hoping that he learns to cook and learns to like cooking. I am going to do my best. So far, so good. Here he is talking about making a Tofurkey sandwich with avocado, mustard, and lettuce.




Eating his sandwich and talking.



Sitting in Kai's chair and singing (ends abruptly due to kitty incident).



Playing the piano with Tita and singing Old MacDonald.






Playing on the playground in his little dress clothes after Saskia's wedding.

Saskia and Sohail's wedding

Here are the rest of the pictures from Saskia's wedding.

-Shirin

Getting ready. What a beautiful dress.

The wedding site.

Saskia and Sohail at the Persian part of their ceremony (sitting at the sofreh). There was also an American/Western part of their wedding and a French reading. Saskia's mom is with her about to put the cloth over their heads (with other Persian women, including me and Tita).

My college friend, Daniel, holding Kai before he spit up all over him.

Cyrus in his little pink tie.

The beautiful reception at dusk.

Gabriel and Tita at dinner.

Cyrus sat at the children's table for dinner and Kai went to sleep, so we actually had about 30 minutes to just sit and enjoy ourselves like normal childless adults.

The intresting veggie/tofu loaf they served us vegetarians.

After Kai woke up and Cyrus got tired of the kid's table. We still had fun, though.

The beautiful cake.