Kai's broken foot

Last night, Kai decided to take a flying leap off of the arm of our couch.  That's nothing new and certainly no cause for concern on his parents' part.  But, once he landed, fell, and rolled, he didn't get up laughing like normal.  Instead, he cried for 30 minutes and wouldn't let me put him down.  Hardly a typical Kai reaction to falling.
This morning, he woke up and couldn't put any pressure on his right foot.  I felt sure if this had been a minor injury, he'd have forgotten about it overnight.  So, I headed to the urgent care center with him first thing this morning.  The doctor x-rayed him and thought he saw a suspicious area at the proximal first metatarsal (translation: the leg-end of the long first foot bone).  He sent it off to the radiologist for confirmation.
This afternoon we got the news: Kai has a small fracture on his 1st metatarsal.  He needs to wear one of those post-op shoes/boots on his foot for a while and follow up with an orthopedic specialist this week.  Poor baby Kai is in good spirits and actually doing a little lame walking on his broken right foot, but he's mostly asking to be carried around and crawling a little too.
Neither Gabriel nor I have ever broken a bone before, unless you count Gabriel's nose.  Cyrus hasn't broken anything either.  I guess Kai wanted to distinguish himself in this family as the crazy guy.  He's already been to urgent care or the ER three times in his young life.  I'm sure hoping it's not a trend.
-Shirin

Two kids and two cats are a gracious plenty

A while ago, I posted a blog post discussing whether it made sense for us to have a third child. Of course, babies are a blessing, precious and perfect. But, they require an enormous about of time, energy, money, and attention. Well, my dad will be happy to know that we are pretty much sure we are stopping at two kids...and cats, for that matter. Our cup runneth over with what we've already got. I'll have to just accept that I'll never have a daughter to cook and talk with (*sniff*), but I just don't have any more of myself to give right now. Focusing on the two loves we've got right now just makes sense. Plus, we have been lucky enough to have two healthy, normal children. Why tempt fate with a third genetic experiment? Ever since I came to the conclusion that I was done, I have been mostly relieved by the idea of never having to go through the pregnancy/breastfeeding/infant stage again. It was one of the most exciting and fabulous times of my life to have my two babies, but I don't have enough energy to put into it another time. At least, not without neglecting the current children I have and certainly not with the job I have. Two full-time working parents can only give so much. There is a small amount of sadness but mostly a whole lot of excitement as I look forward to the impending 4th birthday of Cyrus (in 10 days) and 2nd birthday of Kai (in a month and a half). The next phase of our lives will be full of school plays, homework in the evenings, and soccer games on Saturdays. I'm ready for those things. We are also seriously considering buying a bigger house in Athens. We can't really sell our condo for what we owe on it right now, so that means we'd have to fix it up a little and rent it out. I sure don't like the idea of having two mortgages, but the prices and interest rates are right for buying. If we are really going to settle in Athens, for at least the next several years (which we probably will because of our jobs), it makes sense for us. More on that later.

-Shirin 

PS Interestingly, I finally came to the conclusion that I was done at two kids while listening to NPR. I was listening to a report on the presidential election in France and thought about how I'd love to take my kids there and travel internationally again soon. Once I realized that I would have to continue putting that off for several more years with a new baby, and that it would probably be cost-prohibitive to ever travel with three kids, the thought process of staying at two was really put into motion.

My fruit-eating bubsies.

Silly boy.

I tried to take a picture of us all having a family dinner but it didn't work.

Playing outside with and "driving" on the streets I created.

Cyrus at a red light.  Guess Kai is a jay-walker. 

Fighting over the bike (which Kai can't even ride yet). 

Crazy naked kids before bath time. 

Bath buddies. 

Kai LOVES to draw!

Our baby artist.  Gabriel got him all of this for 60 cents at Goodwill today.

He also got Sorry! (the board game) and played a cut throat game with Cyrus tonight (Cyrus trounced Gabriel, I'm happy to report).

Holding a sleeping baby Kai tonight.  I don't get to do this almost ever anymore.  (I should almost mention that I successfully ceased nursing him about 2-3 months ago...it was time).

 My baby.

I always realize how tired I look when I look at pictures of myself.

My sweet Earl baby at my feet.

Then came Satin to lick and bite him.  I love these boys too.

Jack and the Beanstalk

Cyrus got a tape recorder and "Jack and the Beanstalk" story cassette tape as a present from Tamala about 6 months ago. He LOVES it. He has listened to it so many times, he's basically got it memorized by now. This is a long video, but if you like to watch Cyrus videos, you'll enjoy this video. -Shirin

Atlanta trip for CE and visits with Tannaz and Amy

We had a great time this past weekend on our trip to Atlanta.   Despite being only an hour and a half away from Atlanta, we rarely go there.  But, I had my Dentistry CE on Sunday, so we decided to make a weekend of it.  Since I haven't seen my cousin Tannaz in over a year and she has since had twin babies, I made that one of my priorities.  Then, we headed to the Fernbank Science Center for the afternoon.  After that, we ate some delicious vegetarian Chinese food before heading to Piedmont Park for the Dogwood Festival.  

My CE on Sunday was actually very good and I learned a whole lot.  Afterwards, we spent a few hours with Amy, Lanie, and Tuan.  All in all, we had a wonderful weekend.

-Shirin

Gabriel eating brunch with Tannaz's husband Masih and his mom.  The rest of us women and kids were already done and up playing.

Kai and his cousin Atousa playing.

She's a very beautiful little girl.

Her twin brother Khashiar.

They played well together and were already walking and talking at 15 months.

Tany's mom is on the left playing with the balloon Kai just shot at her.

We tried to get Khasy to play too, but he just liked to hold the balloon.

We actually got all the kids to sit together for a second.  When they are all together, I feel like saying "Which one doesn't match?" (answer: blond baby Kai).

Kai's only 7 months older than his second cousins, so hopefully they will get to play and interact more as they get older.

Sitting outside after brunch.

They have a beautiful deck with a nice seating area on Persian rugs and pillows.

So cute.

Next stop: Fernbank Science Center.

We mostly talked about plantets here, but they also had a natural history side to it as well.

Sitting in the Planetarium, waiting for the show on Mars.

Zoned out.

What if there are Martians?

Face to face with a Sea Turtle.

Making a light bulb light up with manual power.

Egrets?

All of us inside a kaleidoscope.

T rex skull!!

At the Chinese restaurant with a sleeping Kai.

He slept through almost the whole dinner.

Which was amazing, by the way.  Left is "Beef and Broccoli," middle is "Sesame Chicken," and right is "Braised Lamb."

Gabriel finally woke him up to eat, since he would hate to miss a meal.

I was on the other side with my buddy, Cyrus.

Getting silly.

Me and the boys.

Kai trying to imitate Cyrus.

At the Dogwood festival.  It was very crowded and had lots of fun inflatables to slide and jump on.

You can just see the city sky scrapers in the background.

Waiting for their tickets to play.

The slides were super fun.  I went down a bunch of them with Kai, and I enjoyed them as much as the boys.

Daddy and Kai throwing basketballs.

That night, we stayed at Amy's house while they were out of town.  The boys were very cute on their little floor bed.

In the morning, Cyrus was in our bed, and Kai was here.

When Amy and Tuan came back from FL, we all headed to the park behind her building.

Looking at the goldfish in the pond.

Lanie playing with Kai.

Cyrus tickling Amy's feet.

Tired boys on the way home.