Gabriel's match

I blogged about this below.  Here's the video of Gabriel's NAGA match.

Visit home for Gabriel's first grappling match in forever

This past weekend, we headed home (my parent's house in RH is still home) to see my parents and for Gabriel to compete in the NAGA (North American Grappling Association) tournament in Charlotte.  Grappling is basically any sort of wrestling or martial art like jui-jitsu or judo that involves, well, grappling with one another.  Anyway, it was something Gabriel has been training for with healthy eating and frequent working-out for the last 2-3 months.  I was very proud to see him win his division, small though it was.  I'll post the video of his match above (he won by points, 2-0).

It's also Halloween tomorrow!! Yippee!  So, I've posted lots of the kids' dress up costumes from tonight and from this weekend at Nama and Baba's house.

-Shirin

Nama found lots of our old Halloween books and read them to the boys this weekend, along with some Halloween window stickers and superhero costumes.  Fun!

One of the aforementioned superhero costumes.

The other one...how scary!

Kai loved his mask and cape so much he wore it around the house and to do puzzles in, etc.  

Playing Pa-soor with my dad (a Persian card game).  He beat me solidly, but I was relearning to play, so that was my excuse.

Before Gabriel's match: Gabriel, Cyrus, me, David, and John (a friend of the guys' through Clayton).  Kai is pictured in the stroller on the left.  He woke in time for G's match.

Gabriel was in a division originally with three other guys that were over 200 lbs, over 30 years old, and experts in the field.  Due to some extenuating circumstances, they ended up dividing them into pairs into their own divisions, so Gabriel only had 1 match.  He won that match and was actually glad he was done because he was so exhausted afterwards...back to the gym for more training for next time!

I helped around the yard on Sunday, raking and leaf-blowing my dad's driveway and patio.  The kids enjoyed the pile of leaves immensely.

So very silly.

Athens is "home" too.  Gabriel was reading Frog and Toad before bedtime last night.

Kai's dragon face paint.  

Wolverine-baby-dragon and Thor!

 Attempting to make a passable Thor-beard tonight in preparation for tomorrow.  It's hard to make a yellow beard look real, I've found.

Pappap to the rescue (again)

The kids have the sniffles and cough that I had last week and have had to be home from school/daycare for about 2-3 days now.  I covered Wednesday, but I can't take off any more time than that.  Gabriel needs to work too, since he's planning a conference for mid-November, so we asked Pappap if he could come up and watch his little GA dawgs.  

I'm always so amazed and grateful that Gabriel's parents will drive SO many hours (about 9-10) to come up for just a few days.  The boys love to see their grandparents and had such a fun day with Pappap today, eating muffins, watching Star Wars, and looking for monkeys outside.  

Once of the cutest things Pappap does is tell them stories.  He makes them up as he goes along and they are always about going into the deep dark forest or ocean and encountering various interesting animals along the way.  The boys LOVE to listen, enraptured by the tales he weaves and giggling at all the funny parts.  The videos below show Kai (and Cyrus a little) telling their Pappap stories.  So cute!

Thanks, again, to my father-in-law, Gene, for driving all the way up here to take care of our kids while we work.  I wish we were all closer!

-Shirin

Some funny Cyrus and Kai quotes to start your week off right!

Cyrus quotes:

Kings:

Gabriel: Hey, Cyrus...

Cyrus: My name is Cy-ris, not Cy-rus.

Gabriel: No, your name is Cy-rus.  You were named after a king of Persia.

Cyrus: Where is he?

Gabriel: He died a long time ago.

Cyrus: I want to be a king than never dies!

Drive:

Gabriel: Cyrus, one day when you're older, do you want to come stay with your Nama and Baba for a while?

Cyrus: Yeah!

Me: You'll be here by yourself, without your mommy and daddy.

Cyrus: But how will I drive here by myself?

Love me and leave me:

Me: I love you boys. You are my life.

Cyrus: I love you forever. I will never leave you. 

Me: Oh good

Cyrus: But, I want Kai to leave.

Six flags:

Gabriel: I wonder how many rides we're going to ride. 

Cyrus: How about two?

Gabriel; Oh, I think we're going to ride a lot more than that. 

Cyrus: A million?

Gabriel:  No, I think we're going to ride a lot fewer than that. 

Cyrus: A billion?

Baba:

Cyrus: Baba knows EVERYTHING!! 

Gabriel: Does he know what I'm thinking?

Cyrus: Yeah!

Gabriel: How does he know?

Cyrus Because he went to school a LOT!

Amy:

Gabriel: Cyrus, remember seeing Any get married a little while ago?

Cyrus: Yeah. She didn't want to get married.

Gabriel: Really?

Cyrus: Yeah.  Then Tuan said, "Please get married to me. I'll give you a doughnut." 

Real?

Gabriel: Cyrus, are there going to be sharks in the pool?

Cyrus: No. 

Gabriel: What about squids? What about an octopus?

Cyrus: Sharks and octopuses aren't real. They are just made up for stories!

Car:

Me: Cyrus, can you fix my toy car?  It doesn't have tires.

Cyrus: I can fix your engine too.

Me: Where did you learn about that?

Cyrus I went to school for 3000 days.

Cough:

Cyrus (to his pediatrician): I've been coughing for 300 years!

Vet:

Cyrus (playing doctor with Gabriel as the patient): Does your arm hurt?

Gabriel: Yeah.

Cyrus: I'm going to give you a shot.  It's just going to go through the hair on your arm.  It'll only hurt for a minute.

Gabriel: OK.

Cyrus (turning towards the computer): I'm going to go onto the computer for a minute.  My computer says 0.513.

Gabriel: What's that?

Cyrus: A number.

Nose:

Cyrus: I'm bringing a tissue to the birthday party for my runny nose.

Me: No, don't bring a tissue into the party.  I'll wipe your nose if you need it.

Cyrus: But, if I don't bring a tissue, I'll get snot on the cake!

Wind:

Cyrus: It's too windy!!!  Close the windows.

Me: No, I love the wind in the car windows.  It's delicious.

Cyrus: Too windy!  Too windy!

Me: No, it's not.  If feels great.

Cyrus: It's going to blow my pants off!

Mice:

Me: Cyrus, there are red marks on the floor and we can't figure out where they came from.  Do you think someone painted them there?

Cyrus: I didn't paint them.

Me: I know.  They don't look like paint.  They look like blood.

Cyrus: *Gasp*

Me: Do you think the kitties ate a mouse or a rat?

Cyrus: No, because rats don't live here and mice aren't real!

Sigh:

Me: Cyrus, please go potty so we can leave.

Cyrus: I don't want to go.

Me: You can't stay here by yourself.  Please go potty.

Cyrus (going to the potty):  Ugh!  (exasperated sigh).

Me: Good job, Cyrus.

Cyrus: I said, "UGH!"

Movie:

Gabriel: Do you want to watch another movie Cyrus?

Cyrus: No, it'll make my brain fat. 

At restaurant:

Cyrus (seeing a morbidly obese man in the restaurant): Look, Daddy. That guy has lots of butts. 

Tornado:

Cyrus: OK, Mommy.  Pretend you're in the house reading a book and all of a sudden a tornado comes and the house is flown up into the funnel and you look out the window and see that you're inside a tornado.

Me: OK.  I'm reading a book.  Oh no!  I'm inside the funnel.

Cyrus: Tornadoes suck everything up and then throw them into other countries, like Alaska.

Me: OK.

Cyrus: Now you need to go find some meteorologists who can see everything on their computers and can figure out how to stop tornadoes.

Cooking:

Gabriel: Cyrus, if you were on a cooking show, what would you cook?

Cyrus: Macaroni and cheese with hot sauce and some fish.

Gabriel: But we don't eat fish; we're vegetarian. 

Cyrus: I would make it for someone who ate fish. 

Gabriel: Oh, OK.  What would you make for dessert? 

Cyrus: Blueberries on cookies. And some vinegar and applesauce in some spaghetti sauce.

Stinky:

Cyrus: do you smell something stinky?

Me (in car): No, like what?

Cyrus: A toot 

Me: Did you toot?

Cyrus: Yeah, and it's stinky

Me (rolling down windows): I'd better let it out. 

Cyrus: It's too big!

Beer:

Bren (handing Cyrus his cup of beer): Cyrus, can you hold this for me? Don't drink it. 

Cyrus (putting to his face): I'm smelling it.  It smells a little good and a little not good. 

Bren: It smells a little bitter. 

Cyrus: It smells bitter? Like beer?

Games:

David P: If you knew a game that I didn't know, wouldn't you teach it to me?

Cyrus: I don't care about teaching you. I just want to win!

Destinations:

Me (pushing Cyrus around in his "car"/laundry basket): Where do you want to go, Cyrus?

Cyrus: I need to get to the drugstore to buy some necklaces for my grandpa.

Me: OK.  Now where do you want to go?

Cyrus: To go to the pond with my kitties, because they really like water.

Pet:

Cyrus: I wish we had a bigger house, so we could have a chimpanzee. 

Kai quotes:

Baby?

Gabriel: are you my sweet baby, Kai?

Kai: No, I'm not a sweet baby.  

Gabe: Then what are you?

Kai: I'm a sweet big boy. 

Brother competition:

Kai (Pushing Cyrus off my lap)

Me: No honey; don't push Cyrus. You are both my babies. 

Kai: Cyrus a baby?

Two year old math:

Cyrus: Hey, Kai, what's 3 plus 3?

Kai: Six!

Me (impressed): Wow. Good job!  What's 2 plus 2? 

Kai (holding up 2 fingers): Six!

Funny Words:

Plamela= Tamala 

Pimberly= Kimberly 

Blunana= banana

Tantate= pancake

Wet?

Me: Whee, we're swimming, Kai!

Kai (in the water): Mommy, is my butt wet?

Finger:

Kai (seeing Mommy chewing her nails): Don't bite your finger!

Touch:

Kai (grabbing glasses in the store)

Gabriel: Kai, do not touch those!

Kai: Can I touch you? 

(Then gave him a hug).

Sleep:

Kai (in bed): Daddy, come sleep with me.

Gabriel: I can't always sleep with you.  You're a big boy; you need to sleep by yourself.

Kai: Oh.

Gabriel: You're going to go to sleep and have good dreams....about Six Flags and eating muffins and...

Kai (smiling): And hotel?

Gabriel:Yeah.

Kai: And pool?

Gabriel Yeah.

Kai: And Uncle Casey!

Confusing senses:

Me (after leaving a bathroom): Kai, that bathroom is stinky.  Let's find another one.

Kai: Lemme see stinky!

Me (flushing the toilet in a public bathroom, which was quite loud)

Kai (holding his hands over his ears): That hurts my eyes!!!

Bedtime nonsense:

Kai (crying in bed): Daddy, Daddy. 

Gabriel (entering the bedroom): What Kai?

Kai: I'm sad. 

Gabriel: Why are you sad?

Kai: You badgering me. 

*Gabriel leaves*

Kai( crying in bed again): Daddy, Daddy 

Gabriel (going back in): What Kai? 

Kai: I'm sad. 

Gabriel: Why?

Kai: You bothering me. 

Gabriel: No, I'm not. 

Kai: You lying. 

Some interesting vet cases from my work

One this I can say about being a veterinarian is that my days are always interesting and unexpected.  Of course, I do encounter sad situations, like a dog who had escaped from her kennel with a muzzle still on her face that couldn't be caught for 3 weeks.  Once finally caught, with the muzzle still on her face, we were able to sedate her to remove it and scrub off all the necrotic skin covering her face and muzzle, but the wound care was going to be too much for the owner, so she ended up turning the dog over to a rescue group and their vet.  I hope she made it.  We've also had several of our most favorite, long-term patients come in with terminal diseases recently.  That's always so hard, since we all know and love the animals and their owners.  

But, despite some of the sad aspects of my job, I've also had some wonderful successes in helping a stray or very sick animal get a new chance at life, which is really the reason I went into this field in the first place.  Here are some of the pictures I felt OK sharing.

-Shirin

This poor sad doggie, Chloe, was brought in by a Good Samaritan who had rescued her from a situation where the owner didn't want her anymore.  But, the lady hadn't been able to care for her properly and brought her in emaciated, vomiting, dehydrated, and close to death.  This is her at about 4 lbs.

So skinny you can see her shoulder blades poking up her skin.

Because the lady couldn't afford to treat her and would've had to euthanize her, I offered to take custody of the dog and try to treat her.  The Good Samaritan was more than happy to let us try to fix her up.  I can't do that with all dogs, but a young, female-spayed Chihuahua will DEFINITELY get adopted easily.

I didn't have to look any farther than our head technician, Susan.  She LOVES chihuahuas and this dog had her name written all over her (Susan also loves hopelessly sick and sad animals).  She immediately offered to foster her, which I knew she would.  ;) 

Chloe was indeed very sick, but she was also quite fixable.  Her problems were all just parasites: fleas, whipworms, and hookworms (if I remember correctly).  However, she needed a LOT of medicine and hospital care to recover for a month of vomiting, diarrhea, and anorexia.  This was her treatment plan initially!  (Six medicines plus special food and IV fluids).

She perked up quite well and was able to eat without vomiting in no time.  Sometimes, I just love my job.

 Poor skinny baby.  When feeding a previously starved animal, you have to start VERY slowly in replacing the calories due to possibly causing Refeeding Syndrome.  It can really mess a body up to get too many calories and one time.

A week later, she was feeling better, gaining weight, and going home with Susan at night.

Of course, Susan never got Chloe another home, and she is now an official member of their family.  Here she is, weighing about 9 lbs, with Susan's son, Nate.

A chubby Chloe posing with her friend Reesie.

Here are our two clinic kitties, Casper and Jinx, getting into something.  I actually had to take Casper to UGA for acute onset of blindness, but it resolved on its own and he's back to himself again.

 The teeny-tiny little kitten you see beneath a ginormous Casper is a kitten someone left in a box on our doorstep one morning.  He wasn't even a good age to be weaned yet, but he was able to eat solid food and we took him in.  He was pretty pitiful for a while, but he's been growing bigger and has become a gorgeous kitten now.  We named him Loudmouth because of all the squalling he did when he first got here.

 Here he is on top of Dr Amy's 100 lb Labrador retriever.

So gorgeous and healthy.

This is Joey, a stray dog that the shelter brought us for an x-ray, because he was limping on his right rear leg.  It was completely broken at the distal femur.

Can you see how the femur is completely fractured above the knee?  It can heal with a pin or plates, but that is very expensive to get done.  Luckily, a vet in a town nearby did it at a very discounted price and this little guy is now on the mend.  

This is a kitten I encountered when working in a mobile clinic in SC, which I've been doing occasionally for my boss on Thursday afternoons.  His feet were extremely infected and very necrotic.

Look at that horrible infection!  I have never seen such sad looking, malodorous paws in all my years. I started him on some antibiotics, fluids, and wound care and left him in the capable hands of the other vet at the clinic my boss bought.

Two to three weeks later, he is looking MUCH better.  I can't believe how well skin and tissue can heal, as long as there is no infection and lots of wound care.  He's such a sweet kitty and I'm so glad he is mostly recovered.

This little guy was a rescue that a lady found in her neighborhood.  She thought someone had left him when they moved and finally decided she had to bring him in for us to check him out.  He was limping but nothing was broken.  He did have some parasites and heartworms, but we started treatments on both and I got a state discount to neuter him too.  The Good Samaritan had planned to find little Oscar a new home, but after a month at home with him, she couldn't let him go and he's officially got a new mommy! :)

 Sometimes things don't work out as well.  This is Foxy, a kitten that my client was trying to get a home for, since she had the mama cat and three other kittens from the litter.  I thought I had found this sweet girl a home, drove her all the way back to Athens to the new owner, and then had to take her back when the girl had a change of heart about owning a cat.  Luckily, her old mommy was happy to get her back and little Foxy got to go back home. (Kai still asks about her).

This was a dog my boss rescued from someone wanting to put her to sleep, because she was old.  We named her Edna, since she was an older lady dog, who was mostly blind with horrible teeth. Another vet spayed her and I helped clean and/or extract her teeth and we actually found a great home for her!  A human doctor with another old lady Boston terrier wanted to adopt Edna and we were so glad (it's hard to get old dogs homes).  What a happy ending.

One of the things I liked best about my clinic when I went for an interview was that there were both dogs and cats that lived or stayed there regularly.  Boomer, the big black lump, is Dr Amy's dog, and the cats are rescues who live at the clinic.  We all love them.

This was a kitten that Dr Amy took from someone who couldn't treat her mild skin infection.  We already had a great client who was looking for a female Siamese kitten, so we knew she could get a home quickly.  She's a bit crazy, but super sweet and heading to her new home soon.

 Last Sunday, I had to drive back up to work to take care of some hospital patients.  I hated not to see my kids on my day off, so I brought Cyrus along with me.  He was a very well-behaved little boy and got to watch his mommy work.

Meanwhile, Casper watched Cyrus eat a Larabar.

Me at work.

"Is there anything left?"

Cyrus helping me feed my patient.

They teach kitchen skills at Montessori school, so Cyrus was a pro, albeit slower than an adult.

Well, that's all folks.  Hopfully, this long and thorough post will make up for my lack of blogging lately.  I just haven't had enough time.  

Cyrus "reading"

I remember pretending to read when I was a kid too...and am thoroughly enjoying watching Cyrus "read" his favorite books by memory.  I wish I knew how to put subtitles in, since it's a little hard to understand, but the book is about a rhino that sits on his peanut butter sandwich and can't find it.  The boys love it.  I'd also like to add that Cyrus does all different voices for the characters, just the way Gabriel does when reading it.  Very cute.
-Shirin

Happy Birthday to us!

My sister and I are 32 today.  Whew...that used to seem so old to me! I guess they weren't lying when they said you are as old as you feel.  I had some 15 and 16 year old teenage-boy clients today with their dog (really their mom's dog), and I realized I was old enough to be their mother!  Such a crazy thought, but it popped into my head anyway.
Well, I can honestly say that I've enjoyed every single year of my life immensely so far and continue to look forward to the next chapters in my life.  While I'm not a spiritual person, I certainly feel blessed with all of my wonderful family, friends, in-laws, and children to love and be a part of my life.  I couldn't ask for more...except maybe a German chocolate cake!  (Just kidding, I've already had cupcakes, a real birthday cake, and an apple fritter in celebration of my birthday...back to the diet now!)
-Shirin

Birthday weekend at home with my family

Well, if anyone reads my mom's blog, they will know that these pictures are stolen, but just pretend you haven't seen them already. Anahita is on the east coast and we are in our home sweet home for our birthday weekend. My dad's sister, Parvin, is also visiting with one of her daughters, Heydeh, and one of her nephews, Hutan. We're having lots of Persian food and spending lots of time together. I'll try to blog more on this later. -Shirin

The boys at the kid's table.

Kai about to help us blow out the candles.

All of us, with my mom behind the camera.

My sweet mommy with our cake (and a very excited Cyrus).

Doing a puzzle with my cousin...she was so sweet and brought my boys lots of toys and gifts, as well as for me and Tita.