Kai can use a spoon!

I posted a few pictures from today below this in another post. Here's a quick video of Kai feeding himself yogurt with a spoon!

Wednesdays with my boys

I have every Wednesday off, which most of you probably remember. Since I work long hours and commute 2 hours round trip, I really need this day home with my children to reconnect. I'm happy to be working, growing professionally, and making money for my family, but I have never stopped feeling guilty about being gone 12-14 hours a day. Gabriel is essentially a single father some days.

I've completely adjusted to having two children now. I remember the first few months having a hard time handing two at once, but it's become the norm and my boys really depend on each other for companionship as well. I can't imagine being pregnant and having a newborn to care for now as a working mother, so I'm really glad I did it the way I did--having them in and right after vet school worked out perfectly for me.

Here are just a couple of pictures before I hit the sac. I'll post more in a few days.

-Shirin

Squinting in the sun last Wednesday after we left the mall to go back home. We had lunch there and played at the indoor playground.

Actually, I think we ended up going from the mall to the McDonald's playground (they napped in the car in between). It's too hot to play outside in GA right now. Notice the creative useage of the spoon.

Kai is still a newbie, but he is finally able to get some of the yogurt into the spoon and mostly into or near his mouth.

I loved playing dress-up as a girl, and when Cyrus said he wanted to dress up like a pirate and wear an eye patch, I jumped into action and fashioned this impromptu pirate costume. Too bad we didn't make it to his cousin Morgan's pirate-themed birthday party last week!

Not so relaxing weekend at home

We stayed home all weekend, but I hardly relaxed at all. In fact, I swept, mopped, laundered and folded clothes, cooked, shopped, did dishes, bathed children, and nursed a baby. I think work tomorrow might be a break!!!

I did enjoy being a "real" mom for a few days though. Here are a few pictures of my lovely children. (Although, I just have to say that Cyrus gave us SO much trouble this weekend in so many instances that I'm questioning my abilities as a mother. I think a lot of it has to do with him being sleep deprived from all the nights he refuses to go to sleep despite being in a dark room with pajamas on. Sigh).

-Shirin

I finally got him to go to sleep in the car today because he was having melt down after melt down. After that, he was a much better boy.

Trying to get a good photo of us all is quite difficult.

Oh well, at least two out of three looking is pretty good.

"Ha?" Kai definitely thinks he's talking on the phone with this coaster to the side of his head.

Posing like a Japanese tourist.

My big love reading to my medium love before bedtime.

Kai is ~6 months younger than Lucy but his head is about twice as big as her whole body! (JK).

Those boys love playing on top of Gabriel's trunk.

Kai wants so badly to jump off of it after he climbs up, but he just can't do it alone yet.

So, he got by with a little help from his friend (brother).

How sweet are they?

Oops! I know it looks like he broke his neck, but never fear! He is very bendy at this age. (My father will never forgive me for this photo, I just know it).

See, he immediately moved on to the problem of how to eat this balloon.

Cyrus is totally into making silly faces these days.

Gee. I wonder where he gets it from?

Silly boys together.

Today also marked our first harvest from Cyrus' tomato plant.

He waters his plants daily and has checked the progress on his tomatoes turning from green to red. Today was the day to pick our first one!

Considering taking a bite.

He's my little kitchen buddy and loves to help me cook (yay, my plan is working). He helped me take the fresh tomato slices and make caprese with them (bread, mozzarella, and basil from our garden).

Kai got to sample little pieces of the fresh tomato, bread, and mozzarella, so he was happy.

After the boys went to bed tonight, I made about 6 different meals for the week to try to help Gabriel out. Boy, am I tired from my weekend at home!

A few more silly Cyrus quotes

Tita phone conversation:

Tita: Hi Cyrus.

Cyrus: Hi Aunt Tita.

Tita: I wanted to tell you that I am sending you a package for your birthday.

Cyrus: Oh!

Tita: I am going to mail it in an airplane for you and you will get it in about 5 days.

Cyrus: Oh! I be so happy! Well, bye.

Tita: Bye. I love you, Cyrus.

Cyrus: I love you, Tita.

Cyrus (after the conversation): Tita is sending an airplane to my house with a package in it.

Boo boo on Daddy's face:

Cyrus (kissing Daddy's face very forcefully)

Gabriel: Ow! Cyrus, thank you for the kiss, but that hurt Daddy's face!

Cyrus (looking carefully at Gabriel's cheek): Lemme take a look.

Down the drain:

Me: OK, get out of the bathtub. Let me hold your hands.

Cyrus: Wow, that was slippery.

Me: I know. That's why I have to hold your hands when you are getting out of the tub.

Cyrus: Yeah, if I don't hold your hands, I fell back into the tub and hurt my head.

Me: That's right and I'll be so sad if you're hurt.

Cyrus: And, then I go down the drain and you never get me back.

Used pile:

Me: Gabriel, can you please put on Cyrus' pajamas that he already wore?

Gabriel: Yeah, I got these from the "used pile."

Cyrus: What's used pie?

The sandwich incident:

Cyrus (eating a sandwich with my parents): I want to go upstairs with Nama.

Baba: OK. Are you done with your sandwich?
Cyrus: Yeah.

Baba: OK, you can go upstairs.

Cyrus (after a few minutes, returning to the table): Where's my sandwich?
Baba: Oh, ha ha ha...I'm sorry, sweetheart, I ate it! I thought you were done.

Cyrus (looking a little upset): Oh.

Baba (a few minutes later): Cyrus, I love you very much.

Cyrus: You ate my sandwich.

Tomato:

Me: We need to water your plants Cyrus.

Cyrus: Why?

Me: Because your tomatoes need water; they are thirsty.

Cyrus (holding one of the tomatoes and speaking in a squeaky "tomato-y" voice): Give me water...I'm so thirsty!

Life:

Cyrus (on the big slide at the McDonald's playground): Aaaahhh (screaming dramatically with a bunch of other kids).

Me: Are you OK?

Cyrus (running and jumping out of the slide): Whew! I just saved my life!

Car:

Daddy: Cyrus, what color car do you want to buy when you buy a car?

Cyrus: White!

Daddy: Why?

Cyrus: Because I'm white!

Daddy: Oh, who else is white?
Cyrus: Mommy, Daddy, and Tamala.

Child's names:

Daddy: Cyrus, what do you want to name your son when you have a son one day?

Cyrus: Cousin Porgan!

Why?

Cyrus: Why when there isn't a rainbow in the sky can't you see a rainbow?

Daddy: Because you can't see something that's not there.

Cyrus: Why not?

Daddy: Because you can't see something that doesn't exist.

Cyrus: Why not?

Daddy: Why don't you guess?

Cyrus: No, you guess first.

Daddy: I don't have one.

Cyrus: Here's one!

Daddy: Well, I'll give you a guess first. Here you go.

Cyrus: I ate it!

Wake-up:

Daddy (coming in room to get Kai): Good morning.

Cyrus (very sleepily): Wake me up in 15 hours.

Shhh:

Cyrus (at the mall in the food court): That boy over there isn't making a good choice.

Me: Why not?

Cyrus: He's yelling in the mall.

Me: Yeah, that's not right.

Cyrus: He should yell outside.

Me: That's right.

Cyrus (going over to the little boy and whispering): Shhhhh. You're going to wake up my brother.

Beards:

Me: Is Daddy's beard prickly?

Cyrus: No, it's soft.

Me: Not it's not, it's prickly! Tell him to shave it.

Cyrus: No, I like it.

Gabriel: Cyrus, where's your beard?
Cyrus: When I get bigger soon, I'll have a beard.

Me: You won't get that big for many more years.

Cyrus: When Mommy gets bigger than Daddy, she'll have a beard!

Fruit flies:

Cyrus: What are those?

Me: Fruit flies.

Cyrus: Why they called fruit flies?
Me: Because they eat fruit.

Cyrus: Why they eat fruit?

Me: Because they were born that way.

Cyrus: Why they born that way?

Me: Well, I don't know. Why were you born a human?

Cyrus: Because I love to eat fruit!

Kai's 1 year check up

Today, Kai got his annual check up and vaccines. He did very well, as always. He's pretty much the same off-the-charts-giganto-baby he always is, except he's finally on the charts for his height, which was 31" and in the 90th percentile. His weight was 28 lbs 1 oz and off the charts. I don't remember the exact measurement of his head circumference, but that was WAY off the charts above everyone else. Gabriel's family is a large-headed bunch, which I choose to believe will make my big-headed children smarter than average. ;)

Off to bed and work tomorrow. Be sure to check out the videos I just posted below.

-Shirin

Videos from the last few weeks

Cyrus, the lab rat

I'm sure some of you remember the monkey face studies that both Cyrus and Kai did as infants through the UGA Infant Lab study. This past Sunday, Cyrus became a psychology subject, as did I, once again for the UGA Psych department. It was interesting and much more involved this time. I had a TON of surveys to fill out the week beforehand with lots of questions about my emotions, my interactions with Cyrus, and even my family's history and behaviors.

Once we got to the lab, we spent about 2 hours doing different tasks together or separately, sometimes wearing a heart monitor and sometimes donating spit for genetic analysis or cortisol (stress hormone) assays.

The results from this study probably won't be out for years, but I was happy to have contributed once again to helping with research on children. Cyrus actually seemed to enjoy it and even got a few M&Ms at the end for his trouble (and I got $40!).

-Shirin

One of the "teachers," Sophie, showing Cyrus a puzzle.

Putting on the heart monitoring electrodes.

I told Cyrus we were pretending to be robots and he got excited and did "robot arms."

We both got electrodes all over our chests, tummies, and backs. This was to help the researchers analyze how much our sympathetic nervous systems were activated by stressful situations (ie, how we responded negatively to stress).

Cyrus wore his little receiver in a doggie backpack and got stickers every time he finished another task. (By the way, they didn't make him take his shirt off for the electrodes, but I just thought it was easier that way).

He also went downstairs with Sophie for a little while to do some tasks with puppets that I didn't see. Meanwhile, I was upstairs watching a video of me and Cyrus doing an activity previously on an etch a sketch and also giving a speech on camera about my philosophy on parenting (just an activity to stress me out).

He also watched some clips to see if he felt emotions from them. It was hilarious. They showed a sad clip about a pet bird dying and he pointed to the happy face. Then, they showed a scary clip about a clown at night, and he pointed to the happy face again. Finally, they showed a clip of happy, silly puppies with funny music and he picked the mad/neutral face. Guess he wasn't old enough to get any of those right!

Happy birthday, Baby Kai.

My sweet littlest son, Kai Ali Modaresi-Beal, is now a 1 year old toddler. Where does the time go...

We had a good afternoon after I got home from work. I played with the boys, went grocery shopping, and we had a pool party with the neighbor kids. I also took some more pictures with that fabulous camera, including Kai as naked as the day he was born. You'd never know that that ginormous baby is a totally breastfed, completely vegetarian child when you see his man boobs. What a chunker! I see him thinning out over time, though, especially now that he walks hither, thither, and yon all day long.

Happy birthday to my littlest, chubbiest, most delicious toddler baby. I love him so much.

-Shirin

Little pool in our front yard.

Fill 'er up!

Trapped.

Cyrus with his frustrated face on because he feet were getting the pool dirty.

Helen and Thomas' party set-up for tonight (we moved it inside due to rain).

Water water, everywhere.

Goin' nuts.

The mastermind of the party.

Emilio chillin'.

Mama mia!

Happy to be naked.

Old blue eyes.

Yes?

What a big boy.

Getting into whatever he can.

What a badonkadonk.

Happily drooling down his chest.

Happy birthday, my baby.