The random thoughts & events in the life of an animal-loving, peace-loving vegetarian.
I can't promise to write regularly. And I can't promise that it will be interesting when I do.
I still can't decide if I liked this book, and yet there were times that I loved it. It was so cleverly written (by the author of Everything is Illuminated) and contains such a great mixture of laugh-out-loud-funny and can't-help-but-cry-sadness. It's the story of Oscar Schell, a nine year old boy who lives in New York with his mother. Oscar is smart, weird, and lovable. His musical instrument is the tambourine. He writes letters to Stephen Hawking and dreams up things always starting out with "What if...", with a free-flowing stream of nine-year old consciousness following. He shares a special relationship with his grandmother, who has experienced much loss in her life. Anytime she can't see him he yells out, "I'm OK!" so she doesn't worry. It's so endearing.
But then there's the heartbreak of his dad dying in the collapse of the Twin Towers on 9/11, and Oscar being the one to come home and hear four progressively more desperate messages from his dad on the answering machine. He hides the machine in a box at the back of his closet and listens to his dad's voice from time to time. He uses interesting terms like "heavy boots" to describe the sadness he feels; the heavier his boots, the worse he's feeling. The book becomes a poignant reflection of a boy and his father and the utterly crushing blow when he loses his father forever. My boots were very heavy when I read these parts.
So what's not to like? The chapters told in his grandparents' voices about their lives were too long and distracting. They were also sort of strange. I couldn't wait for the next chapter to go back to Oscar. And there's also the odd plot of Oscar finding a key in his dad's stuff and wandering throughout New York trying to find it's owner. It was peculiar and didn't add anything to the story.
I do love Oscar though and still think about him. Especially when Cyrus falls down and gets right back up and says, "I'm OK!" It makes me smile and my boots feel so light.
I tried a new setting on the treadmill last night - HOLY COW! I'm just trotting along and all of a sudden my setting goes from a "3" to a "6"! I took off running of course. It was either that or fly off the back of the thing. Once I realized what was going on I was able to limit the amount of all out sprinting. Just wanted to let you know I survived.
I'm trying to catch up on older visits. I think this group of pictures was from the weekend of Sarah's wedding, because I know we had Cyrus alone for a couple of days. Kai of course has to go wherever his mommy goes. Fortunately the whole family was with us for a bit.
Getting reacquainted with Kai.
What a life! Getting a pedicure for free.
Mischievous little monkey!
The fountain of youth saliva.
I mentioned in the last post about Chappu being fairly chaos-proof. Obi has also done quite well with the boys. Here he hangs out with us on the quilt.
Cyrus and Shirin had polished their nails and were admiring the results.
Gabiel and Kai said no way, they were real men. No nail polish for them.
This video is short, but so representative of our lives: Cyrus jumping, Shirin breastfeeding, and Saeed marveling at his own cooking:
Saeed gets Kai to laugh. So cute!
This video kind of freaked me out. Prior to recording I had been shaking Kai's arm to get him to giggle. It worked so well I went to get my camera and turned it on, but all it looks like is that I'm trying to give him shaken baby syndrome. Sorry Kai. Hope your mama's kisses make up for it.
I love the way Kai squeals at the end of a coo.
Cyrus spends quite a bit of time driving his car at our house. I should start charging tolls.
Cyrus' new thing was stop signs. I knew that Gabriel had taken him down the street to go see one, so when Cyrus and I took a walk we made a point of find each and every stop sign.
Here you see him intentionally NOT looking at me for the picture, little rascal.
Beautiful. Thank you precious.
The other thing he was into was looking for American flags. We stopped in front of this neighbor's house to look at the flag and there were some squirrels across the street.
So Cyrus proceeded to tell me all about how the squirrels were looking for food.
He decided to throw them some pine cones. I explained that perhaps pine cones aren't squirrels' first choice on the menu...
... so he switched to throwing acorns. Ahhh.. much better.
Back home he notices Obi in the sunroom window. "Hi Obis Obis."
He LOVES that wagon.
It's hard to steer the wagon with a fist full of bubbles.
Baba shows Cyrus the turtle Shirin made in art class in high school.
Within seconds Cyrus tells his Baba everything he knows about turtles.
It had been raining outside when Shirin and Gabriel got home, so these two little mudpuppies went outside to enjoy some puddle stomping.
Last month Gabriel had to go out of state for a job thingy. Shirin prefers not to be alone with both children, not because they're scary, but because it's just safer (and more fun) to have more people around. I remember having racing thoughts when the girls were little, like, who would I grab first in a fire if they weren't in the same room? How would I sufficiently maim the thief crawling through the window? You get the idea. So she came to Rock Hill for a few days and we had a blast.
"Hi Nama!"
Oh my. Someone has gotten very smiley! Anyone need an extra chin?
It was SO funny, the way Cyrus kept trying to help Shirin build her house when she just wanted him to keep his hands OFF!
Finally someone who looks like me! I have more hair, wrinkles, and teeth, but the resemblance can't be denied!
What a handsome boy.
Content no matter where you put him. Here he is lying in the hallway because Shirin had to put him down quickly to take Cyrus to the bathroom. No problem.
I'm always sweeping the floor and scooping cat litter. When Cyrus first heard the vacuum cleaner (it's very loud) he wasn't quite as comfortable with it as he has been with the broom, but eventually he warmed up to it and we vacuumed together.
Shirin clips Cyrus' fingernails so here he is returning the favor. I only heard Shirin yelp out in pain one time, and I didn't see any blood.
Cyrus and Nama color together:
Cyrus is such a loving boy. Here he is coming in for a landing.
I'll take a Cyrus bussi anytime! But there's a price...
... you have to be willing to be tackled too!
The next morning Cyrus and I woke up to feed the kitties.
Talk about bed head!
Cyrus likes to make his own sandwiches.
Kai is definitely a happy drunk!
This is his George W. Bush II face.
Master of His Domain
The Master of His Domain is also apparently the outer space launching pad. Remember this from the video Shirin had on her blog? They were counting down to blast off, as Mickey Mouse does when he goes to Mars to save Goofy.
BLAST OFF!
Chappu seems to be the most chaos-proof kitty in the house. As long as she can find a kitty bed that's not covered with a diaper bag, tricycle, or on the outer space launching pad, she's OK.
We had planned to go to Cherry Park, but Cyrus wore himself out that morning by repeatedly flying to Mars. Needless to say, we went back home.
I blindly aimed my camera over my seat to Kai in the back. Let it be settled once and for all: he has blue eyes and they aren't going to change color.
Kai got to hang out with Baba too.
Such a cute little smiley drooly boy. As you'll see below, he's also "so everything good."
Since both Calvin and Teddie died young of similar but different kidney related cancers, Saeed wondered if there could have been something that we were doing (type of food or litter) that could have contributed. This resulted in a specialist visit for Calvin's sibling Frosty Paws - an Internist visit and ultrasound of the kidneys. In order to do the ultrasound they had to shave his tummy and side. Happily everything seems to be OK; the kitties who died in similar ways was mere coincidence, nothing more it would seem.
Frosty has particularly thick, luxurious fur. I can't wait for it to grow back.
This pink heart-shaped pillow is one of Frosty's favorite things. Prior to settling down in a kitty bed he stands on it with his front paws and kneads it, the way kitties do. What cute white footsies.
I walked in on Saeed writing his patient's report, looking none too comfortable. He probably needs a shoulder/upper back massage after this! Anything for Obis Obis, as evidenced by the video below.
