Birthday party and some other random pics

These are all from Gabriel's Google+ account.  He refuses to do anything else with the pictures he takes and won't admit that basically no one we want to see the pictures will see them on Google+.  I'm not anti-Google, but I just don't think it's the best photo-sharing site.
So, here ya go!  The first few are from Cyrus' classmate's birthday party that Gabriel took them to while I was working yesterday.

-Shirin

Cyrus and Kai eating snacks with the others.

Whispering a secret to Victor.

Cyrus is really good friends with three other boys in his class, including the birthday boy (laughing hard at something in this pic).

Angry Birds cake bites.

Here are just a few random pics from the last week.  This is one Sat or Sun morning when Gabriel made the boys pancakes with jam.

Yum!

 Reading to my bubsies.

My parents visited last weekend.  I have more pictures of that, but here is a picture of Baba telling the boys stories.

I don't know what he's telling them, but it seems interesting.

Brendan's award-winning short film

 Brendan and a few friends had 24 hours to make this film with three themes: a cupcake, a racket, and "less than three."

 

Cyrus talks about the food chain

Talking about the Strawberry Poison Dart Frog and the food chain (something he learned about at school).

 

Talking with Kai

My sweetest little baby is about to turn three in a couple of months.  He's getting more and more fun to talk to at this age.  He loves to tell stories like his Pappap.
-Shirin

Last weekend with the family

**Today is a two-post day.  Check out another post below this one.**

Here are some pictures from the weekend before last.  We had a good weekend because I didn't have to work that Saturday and the weather was beautiful, so we got to do a lot of things.  Enjoy!

-Shirin

 Our Athens Farmer's Market is open again!  They had lots of children's activities, as well as live music.

I always run into people I know here.  

Over at the 100th birthday party of the Athens Clarke County library.  This is a baby kangaroo!

I actually really hate petting zoos.  Just leave these poor animals alone!  (He didn't seem to mind, though!)

 They also had an alpaca, porcupine, spider monkey, and lemur!

Kai, petting the kangaroo.

 One of the librarians holding it.

Making a party hat but not looking happy about it.

Lots of art supplies.

Cool hat, Cyrus!

 Waiting for a cool puppet show to start.

This one-man puppeteer was great and even played the banjo.

Star Wars blasters at home.  These were gifts from Pappap and are endlessly entertaining for the boys.

Cyrus using his "light saber" to chop off Kai's head.  Sorry...it's what they play.  They are boys!  Kai wasn't worried about it.

Sunday, we went to the Mall of GA for good food and to look around.

Eating at my favorite Vietnamese place makes me happy, especially with all my bubsies!

 Reading books at Barnes and Noble.

Riding the Merry Go Round at the mall.

Wheeee!

Kai, wearing a brand new outfit because he puked on his regular clothes.  Sigh...never forget the Dramamine!

He LOVED this puppet.  It was hard to get him to leave.

Excited about fruit smoothies.

Gabriel meant to share with the boys, but they got most of it! 

Snoozing all the way home.

Still a napper.

Back home and in their new PJs from Pappap.

Cyrus and Kai at the dentist

We now have dental insurance, so we are ready for the biannual tradition of getting the kids' teeth cleaned.  I'm a dental hygiene enthusiast and am really trying hard to keep my kids cavity-free.  So far I decline x-rays of their teeth, because they haven't had any problems, because they have all baby teeth, and because I don't want to irradiate their brains every year for the rest of their lives.  I've promised the dentist I will let them do the panoramic radiographs when they are six, so they can watch for any pathologies, crowding or misalignment of permanent teeth, or anything else they might be looking for.
The kids and I talk about the dentist for about a month (literally) before I take them there, so they are good and excited about their visit by the time it comes up.  We also go to a children's dentist office, so it's full of treats, toys, and nice ladies.
I learned a lot on this visit.  For example, did you know that the bacterial flora in your mouth is largely something you get from your mother when you're a baby?  And, did you know that if your mom has a bacterium called Strep mutans you are more likely to have that as well and you're more likely to have cavities?  Very interesting.  Since my mom, my sister, and I have never had any cavities, I'm hoping we have good mouth flora and my children will too.  We also do very little juice and brush and floss daily.  So far, so good!
-Shirin

Waiting their turns.

Cyrus loves getting to watch the movie on the ceiling.  This feature is probably the biggest reason my children are so good for their cleanings.

 Cyrus went first and Kai got to watch a little while before his turn.

Cute little glasses to protect his eyes.

Getting his pearly whites brushed.

Entranced with the movie above.

After polishing the teeth, they did a little hand-scaling.

Kai is like my mom and has very little crowding and probably will have straight teeth without braces.  

Cyrus is more likely to need braces due to crowding (like mine and Gabriel's).  Nevertheless, their check up was excellent and they don't have to go back til October.

Kai's drawings

I have mentioned before that Kai is a prolific drawer and artist.  That kid will sit for many, many minutes as long as you provide him unlimited paper and a few markers or crayons.  Even when he was a mere one year old, he could already draw circles and color pretty well in the lines.  I'm not trying to brag as much as report an awesome skill Kai seems to have, innately.  I guess we're all just born with certain propensities or talents.  We never even really pushed drawing with Kai, because Cyrus was never that into it.  Kai has just always LOVED to sit down and draw forever.

I am hopeful to continue to foster his love of drawing.  If you've ever seen a two year old draw, the following drawings will probably impress you as much as they impress us.  He's also very creative about telling us what he's drawn.  What a cutie.

-Shirin

This is Miss Wynn, I think.  (His future teacher).

Miss Dana, his other teacher next year.

A sideways robot or monster face. (I can't remember).

"A sad robot."

Our pediatrician, Dr Martin, told us that Kai holding his pen like this when he was 22 months old required very advance fine motor control usually not seen in toddlers.  I can't take credit.  He just did it!

"A robot".

"A monster."

Cyrus trying to write down all the words he knows how to write while Kai draws.

Cyrus' words, including Cyrus, poo, Kai, book, bat, took, dog, the, boo, zoo, egg, cat, go, OK, no, wig, and pie.  :) 

Hm...I can't remember what this drawing was supposed to be.

This is one of my favorite drawings (sideways, sorry).  The four people are Cyrus' two teachers (Wynn and Dana), me, and Kai.  The circles on the top are clouds and the line on top is the sky.  The swirly thing above the person on the left is an ice cream cone.

Upside down people.  Why didn't I rotate these?  (He didn't draw them upside down; that's just how I took the picture, I guess).

Aargh...why didn't I turn these upright?  I'm too lazy to go back and rotate them and re-upload them.  Sorry!  Sideways monsters again.

This is a picture about Gabriel's friends, David and Clayton.  Clayton (on the right) is mad at David (left) for taking his toys.

A family of bats.  I love how he draws bats with their face, wings, and feet.  He draws them all basically the same every time.  I need to find a drawing of a rabbit.  Those are one of his favorites and remind me of the spooky rabbit guy in Donnie Darko, but I love them nonetheless.

A red ghost and a green man.  I need to take a picture of his most recent picture of Gabriel.  It's hilarious.

I downloaded it!  Gabriel is the guy at the top.  He did such a good job with the beard.