Christmas 2011

Somehow despite having pneumonia and sinus and ear infections this December, we managed to pull off a very nice Christmas. The only downside to this Christmas was Tita's absence, but we did get her at Thanksgiving and for that we were grateful.

Christmas Eve morning I took the boys outside for some fresh air while their parents slept. Here they are posing with our chalk rendition of Santa and a sleigh (behind Kai.) We then went for a walk around the block to look at our neighbor's decorations. 

Once inside, Shirin, BUG, and Obi watch The Grinch That Stole Christmas.

Baba and Kai were jammin' to Old McDonald Had A Farm.

Finally time to open presents!

Cyrus spells out his name with his new magnetic letters.

Shirin shows him how to tell that that's his present by reading the name tag which says, "To Cyrus, From Santa."

Notice our fancy Christmas tree. Hey, it was better than nothing!

Cyrus doing his math puzzle.

Kai is just as happy with this plastic lid as with his presents!

Even the Grinch got something.

I got stuff from S & G too but here I am with gifts from my sister.

Next morning's stockings reveal the beloved Larabars.

With a Peanut Buddy in his right hand, Cyrus digs deep with the left.

Kai found a very bouncy pink ball in his stocking. I think he liked it better than anything!

Some videos:

Kai was getting tickled to death while Cyrus was trying to make the gadget play Twinkle Twinkle Little Star so he could sing along with it:



Finally, Cyrus gets to sing Twinkle Twinkle Little Star:



Saeed's singing debut (please excuse Kai):



I think Kai would've danced too if he hadn't been so distracted by the person to my left eating something out of a bowl:

Uuuuuungh........

I was going to get so much done this weekend including blogging but this thing I've had has turned into the worst head cold ever. I just don't think I can blow my nose any more. I've even gone so far as to stuff tissues up my nose but I can only stand that so long. I may just have to let it drip and put a pan under my nose like people do when the roof leaks. Please kill me.

The Leaf That Fell From A Bird

I’m not sure if it’s because I’m in that age group where the material aspects of life are less interesting or if it’s because with children grown and gone I have the mental space to focus on other things. Things like poetry didn’t used to do it for me. My ability to see into the true meaning of a creative piece of writing, though still abysmal, is getting better as I push my brain to think in those terms. I appreciate the clever turn of a word or a beautiful visual phrase that does more than convey a concrete action. Any poetry I’ve ever written could easily be seen on the student wall of a fourth grade classroom, no offense to fourth graders.

It’s with this new energy that I stumbled across a recent NY Times article (“The Doctor as Poet”) describing a poetry contest offered to the med students by Yale University School of Medicine and University College London Medical School. The modest $1500 prize was anonymously offered by a patient interested in literature and they expected only a few student entries, but more than 160 were submitted! The article’s author, Dr. Pauline Chen, writes that poetry has long been linked to medicine. She writes that “in mythology the Greek god Apollo was responsible for, among other things, both healing and poetry.”  Poets like John Keats and Oliver Wendall Holmes Sr. were trained as physicians. Though not poets I think of award-winning authors such as Khaled Hosseini and Abraham Verghese (of Kite Runner and Cutting for Stone fame respectively) both of whom are physicians.

Chen says that in recent decades the medical profession has been preoccupied with primarily high-tech approaches. More recently they are placing more emphasis again on the patient as a person, and “are once again turning to poetry for inspiration. And education.” Associate professor of medicine at Harvard Medical School, Dr. Rafael Campo, an award-winning poet himself, uses poetry in his classes. He has used “Cancer Winter” by Marilyn Hacker to help students better understand the experience and feelings of a patient dealing with the news of her cancer. “Poetry does a better job in teaching because it is about embracing the human aspect of suffering, not just knowing how many lymph nodes are positive and where the pain is on a 1-to-10 scale.”

Below is one of the poems submitted by one of the med students who entered the contest. I particularly love the imagery in this poem. It was written by Noah Capurso.

Aphasia

We are taught that the brain
Is a set of highways;
Corpus callosum,
Spinothalamic,
Optic radiation.


But there are other roads, as well.
Scenic neural backroads
That are hidden from view;
Dusty and seldom used.


Sometimes we can see them
When the highways are down;
From cancer,
Surgery,
Or a stroke.


Our patient had a brain tumor.
We tested her highways
With a feather drawing;
“What is this?” we asked her.


And the answer she gave
Came by the scenic route;
“A leaf
That fell
From a bird.”

OMG The Struggle

I was doing so well, avoiding the Halloween candy and then... my super powers wore off, my magical shield was wrest away, my anti-bad-food sorcery got flummoxed!  

For most of November, OK, ALL of November I ate what treats were brought into the office, even the ones I didn't like so much. What the hell! So this is my public announcement that as of this asterisk ---> * I am no longer going to fail on my quest to eat only healthy foods. I will be allowed to eat some of the goodies at our office Christmas party, BUT THAT'S IT!

Super powers, sorcery, and magical shield RESTORED! (as of that asterisk up there)

Kitty Update

OK, where to start...  I guess anyone reading this knows we have our house divided in half to keep Frosty Paws away from Banu. After four years of peaceful coexistence Frosty began to beat up Banu and the dining room doors have been closed ever since. Banu lives on the upstairs side of the house with kitties who chose to live on her side and Frosty on the downstairs side of the house with his companions. It's not perfect but it works.

Over time Frosty and Obi began having trouble with each other. Obi, the oldest and self-proclaimed King of the downstairs kitties, clearly was fearful of the rather large, strong, and sometimes aggressive Frosty Paws. Instead of screaming and running away (like Banu did) Obi exhibits fear aggression - not good when your opponent is twice your size. Last spring we put them both on 'calming' medications and tried some behavior modification and these definitely helped, but nothing is foolproof.

Recently we had everyone home for an early Thanksgiving. There was a lot of noise and people coming and going. Obi behaved very badly, but he was stressed out and I don't blame him. After everyone went back home it seemed like the kitties calmed back down but one evening Saeed and I both heard a cat fight in the living room. We ran from our respective areas of the house to see that Obi got the worst of it -- no serious injury but he got roughed up. Enough is enough.

Frosty now lives most of his life in the computer room. If I'm in the kitchen and Obi is asleep in the little bed on the table (Frosty doesn't jump up there) I let Frosty out of the computer room to cruise the big wide world of his former downstairs area. When we're home we also open the sun room; he loves the sun room. Frosty actually seems pretty happy and we wonder if he's happier now that he doesn't have to deal with tense Obi. Obi also appears so much happier. We are amazed at how much more relaxed he behaves.

So we are sort of like a cell undergoing mitosis - we keep dividing our house into new separately functioning units. Some may question our sanity. Why would we do this to ourselves? Why? Because we are reaping the consequences of our earlier decision to have many cats. We assumed they would all and always get along. We were wrong, but that's not the cats' fault, so we are accepting our responsibility as loving cat companions and doing the best we can to keep everybody as safe and happy as possible.

One day our house will be free and open again. Sound good? No. It will mean that the little furry creatures we love so much who have totally screwed up our freedom, are gone. Not good at all. Our mitosis house with the multiplying iron curtains is a house of love.

Of the original upstairs girls only Banu...

 ... and Lupe remain. I miss Teddie and Layli.  :- ( 

 Frosty, the thug, happily hanging out in the sun room.

 Chappu screaming at me to let her into Frosty's room. She goes back and forth about 40 times a day and often stays in there with him all night. Isn't that interesting? She loves the thug.

 A very happy Obi.

 Tippy (or should I say Tippless) also goes into Frosty's room sometimes but she doesn't stay long.

 Not that this picture has anything to do with the Kitty Update, but here you see Chappu staring down Saeed's piece of bread. She loves carbs and will take that toast right out of your hand if you're not careful! That couch was Calvin's favorite place to sleep. I miss him too.

Anahita's August 2011 Visit

I am so regretful that I didn't take any pictures during Tita's most recent visit. I think it was a combination of being busy, knowing that I still hadn't put up pictures from many other family gatherings, and perhaps even laziness? So here are the pics from Tita's visit in August, and I promise to take pictures at our future visits, even if they stay unposted forever. At least I'll have them. I feel like I've lost a chunk of our lives by not snapping our family Thanksgiving visit. Ok. Enough regret. Now for some happy pics.

Kai must have just woken up from a nap.

Judging by the angle of this shot Cyrus took this picture.

What I remember about this was that Cyrus' Baba had taken him outside to work in the dirt, they came in and took a shower together, and Baba Saeed didn't know where Cyrus' clean clothes were. He put Cyrus in one of his own T-shirts and an old pair of his bikini briefs. (I haven't seen those in a while.) Cyrus loves his new outfit.

Anahita lovin' on Cyrus' fashion designer.

Baba and his best yard helper, checking out the backyard.

Soon he'll have another yard helper.

Whenever Tita comes home Ricardo visits. We love Ricardo.

Buddies still.

I think Saeed fixed Persian burrito khorush and rice.

At this age Cyrus is more interested in fun than eating.

Shirin loves Ricardo.

Kai

Kai is like a little bird, always ready to open his mouth for 

anyone who will put something yummy in it!

Looks like he's scolding one of the kitties.

Awww... love.

Don't remember what they were doing but it looks serious.

The next two pictures don't even do justice to the pictures and video I have of this event. Shirin and Anahita played with the boys who apparently stripped down to nothing to be sprayed by the hose. The videos are so precious and yet so not uploadable unless I want to be arrested for the Grandma who posted nude little boys.

Anyone who wants to see the videos will have to come watch them on my computer! Just remind me that the folder is titled "Anahita's visit 8.2011 with naked little boy videos."

The Beauty Of Flowers

So fun to watch. It's like magic.


Life of flowers from VOROBYOFF PRODUCTION on Vimeo.

Cleaning Out Closets

Yikes! What a job. One closet leads to another as I move things around. No blogging for now!

Paw Paw

Cyrus may not have known it at the ripe old age of two but when he named his "bunny blanket" (y'know, the one he holds dearly while falling asleep) "Paw Paw" there is actually a fruit with this name. After watching this video I really want to taste one. Have any of you tasted one?

November Is National Pancreatic Cancer Awareness Month

Unlike other cancer diagnoses, those with pancreatic cancer face survival rates that have not improved much over several decades. The American Cancer Society estimates more than 44,000 Americans will be diagnosed with pancreatic cancer in 2011, and approximately 94 percent of pancreatic cancer patients will not survive past five years after diagnosis. It takes an average of 6.8 years for a pancreatic cancer cell to spread to other organs, and an average of 2.7 years from then until the patient’s death, according to a study published in the journal Nature.

The good news is that diet can be protective against pancreatic cancer. An Italian study in Cancer Causes and Control shows that diets rich in fruits and vegetables can reduce pancreatic cancer risk. Those who consumed the most fruits and vegetables had an estimated 40 percent decreased risk, compared with those who ate the least. The study found that frequent meat consumption can double risk and that table sugar and white potatoes also increase risk. The researchers suspect insulin resistance may play a role in pancreatic cancer.

Yachida S, Jones S, Bozic I, et al. Distant metastasis occurs late during the genetic evolution of pancreatic cancer. Nature. 2010;467:1114-1117.

Polesel J, Talamini R, Negri E, et al. Dietary habits and risk of pancreatic cancer: an Italian case-control study. Cancer Causes Control. 2010;21:493-500.

(Image by Art Jonak) 
(Article excerpted from PCRM.org)