Cyrus' five-year wellness check up

**This is a two-post day.  Check out my other one below.**

Well, we already knew it, but Dr Martin confirmed that Cyrus is a well-developed, handsome little boy.  (Ha ha, I know, I'm his mom, but that's what she said).  They tested his hearing, weight, height, blood pressure, and motor/fine motor controls.  He did great!  He was almost 45 inches tall, about 45 lbs, and his vitals were all normal.  He's still in the higher percentile ranges for height and weight (about 80th for height and 75th for weight), although he's at least been on the charts now for a couple of years.  He also won't have to get any more shots until he's eleven.  Whoo hoo!
We love our doctor, who actually happens to be close friends with Cyrus' teacher, Miss Wynn, and we'll be back there next month with a three-year old Kai.
-Shirin

Measuring his height.  WebMD's height predictor puts him at a future 6'1" when he grows up.  I'm going to be looking up all the time.

About to get his physical.

Afterwards, we met Gabriel and Brendan at the mall and Olive Garden for dinner.

We rounded out the day with a nice visit to the Barnes and Noble to read books.

Cyrus' birthday and Mother's Day

The last two week of May have been great.  Cyrus was born on the Friday before Mother's Day weekend five years ago, so his birthday always corresponds with Mother's Day every year.  (Kai, consequently, is a Father's Day baby).  The good thing about that is that is that we often have other family members around to help us celebrate.  Last week, we were lucky enough to have Gabriel's parents come visit us.  That allowed us to have a week to celebrate both holidays.  I also was able to go to Cyrus' class and bring his whole class a birthday treat to celebrate with his peers as well.
I plan to go to RH this weekend to celebrate Mother's Day with my mom and dad, since I had to work last weekend.  Gabriel is staying back in Athens for a computer game-writing competition (if you want to know more about it, ask him) he's going to do with his friends, Clayton and David.
I have a lot of pictures from the last week, but I'll try to post only the best.
-Shirin
PS A big shout-out to my mother-in-law, who stayed home with a sick Kai two days last week so we could go to work, AND filled in for me at Mother's Day Tea, since I couldn't take it off from work.  Thanks, Rita!

Brendan wrestling with his nephews.

My beautiful fruit pizza, made for Cyrus' class.

Cyrus, the birthday boy, got to travel around the "Earth" five times to demonstrate how many years he's had here.

Putting down the twelve months of the year in their corresponding seasons.

Kai got to hang out with Cyrus and his friends (Cyrus is helping Kai put his shoe back on).

The kids had their music lesson after we were done eating our fruit pizza.  They practiced the songs they were going to sing for Mother's Day Tea.  Since I couldn't go to that on Friday, I was glad to stay and listen to them on Wednesday.  I have uploaded them to YouTube, but have made them unlisted.  If you have an interest in hearing them singing, just email me and I'll send the links.

Pappap came later in the week for Cyrus' birthday.  Here are the boys, waiting for him outside.

Cheesing it up for the camera.  Since he usually makes "super hero" faces, I was glad to see his little cute smile.

Silly boys.

Pappap is here!  They immediately started telling stories.

Kai tells lots of recycled Pappap stories too.

Wednesday night, Gabriel stayed up late to make Cyrus a homemade chocolate cake.  It was totally homemade and delicious.  (Any of you who know Gabriel know what a sacrifice it was for him to make it chocolate).

In the morning, Cyrus ate muffins for breakfast that his Pappap had gotten him.

After I got home from work, we had a big family dinner and birthday cake.  We ate Korean food that night, and the night before we had Thai food.  Heavenly!

I love Cyrus' pure little happy face.

Getting sung "Happy Birthday."

Blowing out five big ones.

Family picture.

Cyrus got lots of presents, but the real glowing light sabers (from Pappap) took the cake.

He liked my Rafael figure too.

Just a picture of my Kai's beautiful curls.

Since that birthday party, there have been a lot of light saber battles in my living room.

Charge!

After work on Saturday, I came home to flowers, cards, pictures, and something mysterious beneath a quilt.

My little picture-makers.

The inside of this card from Gabriel said, "That's why we work."

My Mother's Day present: an amazing vacuum that actually sucks up all the cat hair.  Whoo hoo!

Cyrus got Catan, Jr from Gabriel for his birthday.  It's a miniature version of Settlers of Catan, one of our favorite games.

It was really fun and was scaled down from the original very well.

Cyrus and Kai, Episode 6 (The Jake and Amir episode)

If you don't watch CollegeHumor.com or Jake and Amir, you won't know what this episode is parodying, but it's cute nonetheless. Brendan was the guest writer and director (and editor) on this one and we love it.
 -Shirin

 

Beth had her baby!

Announcing the arrival of Molly Kathleen on May 3rd at 8:55 AM.  She weighed 8 lbs 2 oz and was just two days past her due date.  I went walking with Beth on the evening of her due date and she was definitely feeling ready to get Molly outta there (which I can remember all too well).  So, I was glad to hear from her just the next day that she was starting to have contractions.  

She and the baby are doing great and coming home from the hospital tomorrow.  I get to go meet her in person tomorrow, once they are all settled in at their house.  Beth said everything went well, but that "labor was really hard."  I hear ya, sister!  But, it was definitely worth it to have this precious little baby girl in the world now.    I can't wait to meet her.

-Shirin

Family tree and genetics

 Cyrus and Kai are interested in why Kai's hair is blond and eyes are blue while the rest of his family is brown haired and eyed.  We've discussed genes with Cyrus, who has some rudimentary understanding about how he's made from part of me and part of his daddy, but I felt that drawing a familiy tree would help him see where the blond and blue came from.
I really enjoyed doing it.  He helped tell me who his grandparents were, who they married, who their children were and what color their hair and eyes were (of course, he thinks that Pappap doesn't have much hair and that Baba and Grandma have white/silver hair, which I had to explain was not how they were born).
So, here's our mini-family tree without any of the other major players:

Somehow, out of all the brown straight hair and brown eyes, our little bubsy is a curly-haired blond boy with blue eyes.  I just love genetics!  

I also, just for fun, drew up my dad's siblings and all their kids.  I am a little fuzzy on a few details, but they started with eight brothers/sisters and there are approx nineteen children in the next generation (not including myself and my sister).  The next generation so far has about 32 and counting.  Guess the Modaresi genes are pretty prolific.  

I didn't show them my mom's family tree since we are always limited on attention span, but Cyrus was very amazed and surprised to learn that my aunt Martha (my mom's sister) had chosen not to have children.  I guess he can't imagine why anyone wouldn't want children! :)  Ha ha.
It was fun to do this, so I thought I'd share.
-Shirin