Mental Magma

I'd like to pass the word about a great new website where you can participate in interesting and creative contests. And YES there are prizes! The site is called Mental Magma and there will be a new contest every Monday. Although the MM staff will pick the best five answers, we, the cyber participants, get to pick the final winner. Should be fun!

Our Quickie Visit

We made the most of our short visit this weekend. Cyrus was the main attraction (of course) and I made up for not being able to hold him two weeks ago. Once or twice I allowed him out of my arms and I promise to share again in the future.

Cyrus loves to look at the blinking musical star in the center of the arches. At the end of this post is the video I took of this activity. I've never uploaded one of my videos onto my blog before so I hope it works.

Star-mesmerized.

After Cyrus eats he's almost always sleepy...

... and sometimes Shirin is too.

Hey! What's going on here? I think Cyrus has special soporific powers.

A mother's loving gaze.

I don't want to use the term "foot fetish" because of its negative connotations, but I love babies' feet!

For lunch Saturday we checked out a Thai restaurant that Gabriel and Shirin had never been to before. It was quite tasty. Remember, their favorite Thai place closed down so it's very important that we find a replacement!

And look who sweetly accompanied us. He was asleep much of the time but not the whole time. It will probably be more difficult in the future.

The tired but happy parents.
(notice Gabriel's Super Dad shirt)

After the restaurant it was Cyrus' turn to eat. Here he is getting burped while Shirin tries to have three seconds to herself to check her computer.

Well, those three seconds didn't last long. As soon as Benji saw she had an extra hand he demanded some TLC.

What a pretty boy.

Poor baby (not Cyrus) was really sleep deprived. I sacrificed myself ;-) and held Cyrus so she could go take a nap.

Ok - here's the video of the master star-gazer. Maybe he'll be an astronomer?

The Lure Of The Kevorka

For those of you who are Seinfeld fans you will already know what the term "kevorka" means; it's the "lure of the animal." In this case the animal is a little baby turtle who's lying on his back, arms and legs flailing in the air, and unable to right himself. Despite these deficiencies, he has the kevorka. His kevorka is so strong it is
pulling us to Athens this weekend. It'll be a short visit, but remember, I was unable to schmoozle him over Father's Day weekend so there is great need. This is the power of the kevorka.

The Kite Runner

There's a reason this was on the national bestseller list for so many weeks. IT'S SO GOOD! Saeed and I had the pleasure of watching the movie last weekend and it did a good job of sticking to the book. If we particularly like a movie we usually watch the "making of the movie" segment. It was clear that turning this story into a movie presented a number of challenges such as dealing with an ethnically diverse cast. For example, the actor who played the main character (Amir) as an adult is actually an Egyptian Brit. He had to, and did, learn the Dari dialect of Farsi in one month in order to do the non-english speaking parts. The actors who played the children were real Afghani boys with no previous acting experience. The director was Swiss, so any time he wanted to give instructions to the actors they had to be translated first. The filming actually occured in China near the Afghan/Pakistan border due to the current turmoil in Afghanistan and the similar appearing terrain. So fascinating. So well done. Here's the trailer and if you haven't seen it yet, we recommend that you do.

The Departure

Surprise! I found these still in my camera from Father's Day weekend. Right before Shirin and Gabriel left for the drive home Cyrus had one more for the road. What a beautiful sight.
This is what Shirin calls "milk stupor."
I get kind of like that when I have a full stomach too.

I guess this is called "breastfeeding 24 hrs/day stupor."
Is that a tail on Cyrus' back?

Yup, it's Frosty's tail. He's the only one not in a coma.

Tippy wonders what kind of cat and cat carrier that is?

Calvin

You will rarely see photos of Calvin on my blog. He is very shy generally and of the camera specifically. When Shirin and Gabriel brought home that scary new noisy creature last weekend he mostly stayed in the closet. Once they took the creature home he felt safe to come out and position himself on the kitchen table near Saeed's Father's Day presents. He is such a sweet boy and I'm happy to finally have a few pics of him.

I caught this one before he realized I had the camera.

This is what he usually does when he sees the camera. I have lots and lots of pictures of the side of Calvin's body.

Finally! He smiled for the camera :-)

Better Late Than Never - Father's Day

I woke up on Father's Day to find a tired new father already up with his newborn son. It's moments like this that exemplify all the things fathers do for their children. Lack of sleep and sacrificing your own needs are just the beginning, but Gabriel has already shown all the traits of an excellent father. Cyrus is very lucky.

Cyrus may look like an angel, but the angel is the one holding him.

Well, even angels have to eat, so as soon as Shirin and Saeed woke up we had a wonderful Persian breakfast and celebrated Father's Day with gifts and cards. I, unfortunately, had strep throat, so I kept my distance from everyone. This also meant that Saeed had to fix his own Father's Day breakfast for all of us, but I've given the boys a raincheck for a nice Father's Day dinner.

Gabriel left to spend some with David and Clayton, so Shirin and I set up a quilt made by Cyrus' great grandmother and began an amateur photo shoot.

Awww... the little bubsie is posing.

Then the grandson/father duo chatted a bit before...

...Saeed set him out on his first walk.

Cyrus doesn't quite understand that curly toes aren't helpful!

The next five pictures are of a boy in love with his mommy.

Those soft fat cheeks are so kissable.

Be Back Soon

This blogger has been sick and will begin blogging again soon when I can do more than sleep and go to work.

A Tasteless Book

This was our book for book club last night. I liked it the least of anybody in my group. It's Ruth Reichl's account of her escapades as the restaurant critic for the New York Times, a coveted position she made sure to point out more than once. It was fairly interesting and moderately witty because often she dressed in disguise to avoid recognition so that she would get the "average man's" service. This, naturally, lead to some crazy situations.

Why didn't I like it? I can't stand the snobbishness of that whole elitist industry. It seems that she is less pretentious than the previous critic, who wouldn't even go to a restaurant unless it was French. Reichl, at least, sought out a variety of exotic and ethnic restaurants run by "real" people, not just people with pretend French accents. Nevertheless I couldn't get past the gluttony and waste that is the basis for her job.

How can you write about meals where just the wine is over $100? the appetizers alone caused the death of 10 animals? the crab cakes were "subpar" because they didn't melt in your mouth? the total bill for that one meal would feed these children nutritious meals for two months?

How can you write about the less than perfect treatment you received by the wait staff when there are children living on the street with no means of survival? who don't know when their next meal will be or from where it will come?

How can you go to sleep at night knowing that your stomach is full of exaggeration when others have stomachs touching their spines?








It's not Reichl's fault; there's a demand for this type thing and she's just talented enough or lucky enough to do this and get paid for it. At one point she briefly mentions, with what I would call thinly disguised guilt, the absurdity of it all. I'm glad I didn't buy this book; I borrowed it from the library. I think I'll donate the cost of the book to Oxfam or something.

The Princess And The Pea

For those of you who remember the fairy tale of "The Princess and the Pea" you may recognize her in the following photograph:

When Saeed named her "Shahbanu" he got it just right.

Southern "Charm"

I laughed at a segment on NPR this morning and had to smile about it the rest of the day. The piece was about how citizens in the South politely use whatever systems are currently in place within government institutions to make changes in the laws. The author observed that in the South people don't yell and scream, picket, or form unions to push things through; they are far too civil. It was said that as more Northerners have moved into the area it seems that raising a stink to make change happen is becoming more common.

Well, one of the southern gentleman being interviewed was a government worker who explained, "Southerners would rather lie than be rude." I love that sentence. It tells you a lot about how things work down here! It also shows how different we all are. Is it any wonder then, that people from different parts of the world have trouble understanding how others think and live if we, within our own country, go about things so differently?

Ya'll come back now, y'hear?
(actually I'm lying)

Babies, Babies Everywhere

Today I struck out on my own, leaving Saeed home to work on his reports. Everyone I know is pregnant, so the goal today was to buy baby presents for several of my friends, all of whom are having baby showers in the next couple of weeks. Let me tell you, Babies 'R Us is a very dangerous place for a new grandmother to go. I did my share to help out the economy today (I hope Saeed isn't reading this post.) When I got home I began wrapping baby gifts and as always I get a lot of "help."

Chappu was very interested in what was in that bag.

She makes sure no one else is near, a quick check to the right...

... a quick check straight ahead...

... and then darts in the bag!

I had to step away to put the laundry in the dryer and when I came back I thought Chappu had moved to the bag on the chair.

Nope! That's Obi.

Bag 'O Cat as our friend Larry would say.

He got disgusted with me taking his picture and turned the other way.

I left him alone till he did this. Too cute!

Despite all the distractions everything's wrapped and ready for the parties. I haven't seen Chappu in a while; perhaps one of my friends won't mind an orange little kitty in with the rest of their gift.