aliyah

2011-08-04T07:08:00.007+03:00

tonight as i tucked aliyah into bed i asked her if she'd still love me when she was 25 years old. she hugged my head, sighed, and said, "i'll try not to forget you."

july 13, 2011 | 86th monthly portrait

a first

2010-06-16T08:07:00.002+03:00

today aliyah licked an envelop for the first time. you wonder how many more times she'll do that in her lifetime.

after sealing the envelop she asked me if our tongues are sticky like (birds who build) birdnests.

it was also her first time to make mail for someone. she drew three drawings for layla, enna-marie and scarlett, put them in envelops and addressed each to the girls. when she was done, she gathered the letters and said, "i'm going to give these to my lovely ladies. my lovely friends.. " and hugged the letters. mail truly sent with love.

language

2010-06-03T08:40:00.003+03:00

i have a feeling aliyah's unique vocabulary will disappear when we move to the states and she's surrounded by native english speaking kids. so for now, i'm enjoying my favorite expressions of hers like "nester' for "next to" Usually she's telling someone that she likes,

"i wanna sit nester you."

dreams

2010-06-03T08:38:00.002+03:00

this morning aliyah woke up and told me she was dreaming that her hair was so long that it touched the ground.

hot iced tea on a sick day

2009-12-02T13:12:00.004+02:00

aliyah's home from school today with a cold.

i asked her if she wanted some chaee ("tea" in farsi)

and she said, "no. i want some hot iced tea."

aliyah at five

2009-09-09T19:26:00.005+03:00

big things like first tooth falling and starting kindergarten are easy to remember, but the little things that happen so frequently you almost don't notice them anymore can be forgotten, such as:

language

aliyah makes her past tense by putting "was" before everything. was be, was go, was say... "mommy! iiiii was saaaaay, i am eating it!" i'm now correcting her and she's starting to say the verbs correctly, but it's been sweet to enjoy while it was happen. :)

american idol: "amiracle idol"

"next time" for anything in the future, whether it be later, tomorrow or next month.

"traffic" in farsi is the same word but with a french-like accent. so when she tosses the persian pronunciation it into her english speech there's a bit of sophistication that's so beautiful.
aliyah rarely refers to keon by name (though she does address him by name). instead she says "my brahder" with a strange swedish accent

movement

when she runs in the house whether it be to go put on her pajamas or get to the toilet in time, she ever so slowly and daintily flaps her arms like she's a fairy in flight. it's funny when her legs are scampering but her arms are smoothly fluttering.

habits

aliyah's routine in the morning is to get ready before keon and i are ready in order to "watch elmo" (go on sesamestreet.com and play games and watch videos).

when keon and i are ready, aliyah always unlocks and opens the door and presses the elevator button.

for some reason she always pushes the coffee table flush against the sofa when she watches a video in the living room.

every day she eats cucumbers, carrots and cherry tomotoes as part of her school snack.

these are the little things that make up much of our days.

when i grow up

2009-07-03T10:53:00.003+03:00

the other day i was driving aliyah to school before taking keon to the speech therapist (or 'doctor' as i refer to the therapist to aliyah) and after several minutes of being quiet she said,

"mommy, when i be big and a mommy and keon be big like a daddy, how do i take him to the doctor?"

our boy is in good hands. :)

hide and seek

2009-05-11T14:40:00.003+03:00

last week aliyah and layla played some good ol' fashion "hide and seek" except aliyah didn't quite get it. when layla would count, aliyah would find a hiding place and then call out, "ok! i'm hiding!" or "come find me!" if i managed to keep her from announcing where she was, it was hard not to hear her giggles and chuckles knowing layla was looking for her.

layla would find her and usually tell her, "that's not a good hiding place, aliyah." so today when layla suggested to aliyah and zane, "let's play hide and seek!" aliyah said, "ok, but layla, can you tell me where to hide?"

now aliyah and layla are hiding together while zane counts. only thing is that first they hide and then call out to zane from the laundry room, behind the curtain or under the table, "ok zane! START COUNTING!"

i'm sure they'll get it eventually.

proud child

2009-05-01T20:22:00.005+03:00

aliyah's english is inching along (as is her farsi, italian, hebrew and now, sign language). she definitely understands that "proud" means an intense feeling of joy and satisfaction. today she told us, "mommy and papa, i'm so very proud of you for taking me to the beach today."

it was her first visit to the beach this year.

strong

2009-04-12T21:36:00.003+03:00

today aliyah saw a video clip of an extremely obese woman whose arms had several rolls of fat on them. her reaction: "mommy, she's so strong!" she thought the rolls of fat were muscles like on her hercules action figure. always nice to see her fresh and innocent perception of things.

ayyam-i-ha 2009

2009-03-29T10:55:00.015+03:00

aliyah celebrated ayyam-i-ha this year at a party for the bwc families where she ate pizza, played with balloons, and had her nails painted for the first time.

aliyah and U2

2009-03-11T15:24:00.007+02:00

aliyah likes many different types of music and sometimes loves a song after only hearing it once or twice. today, while listening to the new U2 album, No Line on the Horizon, aliyah stopped her conversation with enna-marie in the back seat of the car and said, "mommy, i like this music." that made mommy smile. :)

aliyah also has a couple of faves from How to Dismantle an Atomic Bomb:
#5 (city of blinding lights; she calls the songs by their track numbers) which she always reminds me that she loved when she was a baby (i told her she used to sing along with the bells she was little) and
#1 (vertigo) which she thinks is just fun.

playing with enna-marie

2009-03-11T15:07:00.008+02:00

aliyah and enna-marie were playing with the kitchen in aliyah's room and enna said, "i'll be auntie negeen..." aliyah said, "i'll be auntie menchie and you be papa maarten." then aliyah came out of her room to inform me, "you are enna-marie."

before i could get my camera to shoot them at the kitchen, they had moved to a doctor's office where aliyah was checking aliyah's vitals.

good times.

zoo trip!

2008-10-01T23:50:00.003+03:00

today kids were out of school for rosh hashanah (jewish new year) so aliyah and a bunch of her friends got to go to the zoo with their moms. :) there she rode a pony, fed a rabbit and saw some of her favorite animals including flamingos, "pinguini", zebras, elephants and monkeys. the best part was that she got to enjoy it with her good friends. more photos on flickr

...

2008-09-16T01:42:00.005+03:00

after numerous attempts and sleepless nights, i am so happy that aliyah has been pacifier-free for over a month! we'd tried a number of techniques and efforts were interrupted by trips, new places, colds and jet lag, but what finally did it was the appearance of Sleeping Fairy. this orange-haired fairy doll that i'd bought at the dollar store in oklahoma turned out to be just what aliyah needed to get through the transition. sleeping fairy would come out of her drawer with three accessories: a brush, a purse and a wand. with the brush, aliyah first had to brush sleeping fairy's hair. with the purse she had to sprinkle magic sparkles onto sleeping fairy. then sleeping fairy would hold her wand and tell aliyah she had to do three things: "number one, aliyah must put her head on the pillow" and the fairy would wave her wand and aliyah would do it. the second thing she had to do was go under the covers. and the third was to close her eyes.
miraculously, the first night sleeping fairy came out, aliyah closed her eyes and slept with not so much a whimper or a whine.

that first night sleeping fairy stayed in alyah's hand while she slept.

the next morning aliyah was so happy about her own accomplishment.

night two: sleeping fairy came back, immediate shut eye, but sleeping fairy had her own covers and sat while aliyah quietly fell asleep.

the poser

2008-09-16T01:35:00.000+03:00

in her own world

2008-07-08T23:50:00.005+03:00

watch out

2008-07-08T23:49:00.005+03:00

katkatim

2008-07-08T23:46:00.001+03:00

one of aliyah's favorite places to be.

blue shades

2008-07-08T23:05:00.006+03:00

(photo by kami)
july 2008

FOUR!

2008-05-16T14:30:00.003+03:00

on may 13 aliyah turned four years old. the day was celebrated with a party at her preschool, a visit to the Shrines, and a dinner at home with her aunties and uncles. she also got to chat on the phone with her cousins iman and jamilah, auntie nadi and uncle omeed. more photos and stories to come...
thanks all for the well wishes, notes and phone calls!

photo ops

2008-04-25T00:29:00.003+03:00

sometimes the *only* way i can get a picture of aliyah when she is dressed up and we are out somewhere is to get her to stand with her friend layla.
stand by herself or even with us and just *look* at the camera, verrrrrry difficult.
"put your arm around layla and say cheese!" DONE. :)

bahji and blessed

2008-04-20T23:02:00.007+03:00

this afternoon aliyah, keon, and i went to bahji because i had (*had*) to take some pictures of the gardens that were more beautiful than i'd ever seen in all my years here. aliyah was moved to pick a flower for me (sorry mace).

on the way home, it was dark outside, the three of us were in the car (victor was in his work car also on his way back from bahji), eating mcdonald's fries i'd picked up on the way home, singing and bopping to mika and i turned up ben gurion to see the shrine and terraces lit. the second after i turned the corner, aliyah said, over the music,
"mommy, 'scuse me!"
"baleh aliyah?" i ask,
in persian she says, "shall i say a prayer?"
and i turn down the music which happened to be one of her favorite songs that she always requests,
"what?"
"shall i say a prayer?"
"yes joonam!" so she starts to sing the prayer,
"blessed is the spot." (which has gone through an interesting evolution from,
"blessed is the spot, and the house, and the cake..." to now,
"blessed hits the spot..." which i guess it does)
by the time we reached the top of ben gurion, aliyah had finished her prayer. we turned around the roundabout to hagefen and she said,
"it's happy."
"what's happy?"
"the shrine."
"it is? why?"
"because aliyah said 'blessed...'"
"you're right, joonam, it is happy."

47 months old

2008-04-15T14:45:00.004+03:00

i know, i know, who's counting?

on the thirteenth of every month aliyah still has her portrait taken by her mom... this is the 47th one.

ayyam-i-ha 2008 - day 5

2008-03-13T16:34:00.004+02:00

ayyam-i-ha this year was five days long so on the last day, aliyah recieved a beautiful cindarella dress. after she gave a twirl in the mirror to see how it looked, she (miraculously) changed out of it and went to baha'i school and had a special ayyam-i-ha lesson.

ayyam-i-ha 2008 - day 4

2008-03-13T16:14:00.007+02:00

on the fourth day of ayyam-i-ha, aliyah woke up to an easel in the kitchen and then went to mandarin for breakfast with papa, mommy and keon and were joined by laurel and sisay. after breakfast, laurel came with us to this year's first visit to the beach. it was such a nice day. aliyah built sand castles, collected shells and waded in shallow water...

ayyam-i-ha 2008 - day 3

2008-03-13T15:51:00.007+02:00

on the third day of ayyam-i-ha aliyah was a little tired waking up (see first pic) but was still happy. she got her very first watch. she stopped at the food centre after school that day and hitched a ride on her brother's wheels. that night there was a big ayyam-i-ha party for all the kids at the prc with various activity stations. SO MUCH FUN! aliyah had pizza, made cards, did magnetic fishing, decorated cupcakes, had her face painted, ran in circles with her friends, played with baby ariana and her buddy sisay. after the ayyam-i-ha party she got to stay up super late and celebrate her mommy's birthday. :)

ayyam-i-ha 2008 - day 2

2008-03-13T15:29:00.004+02:00

on the second day of ayyam-i-ha, we celebrated by walking down the terraces from the Shrine of the Bab to douzan and having dinner and dessert with sisay, laurel and kara. it was very special for aliyah to be on the terraces at night and see the fountain lit. at the end of the night the waitress brought her ice cream on the house. :)

ayyam-i-ha 2008 - day 1

2008-03-13T14:58:00.006+02:00

on the first day of ayyam-i-ha this year aliyah celebrated with an children's activity at the family centre. the kids got together, sang songs, had snacks, decorated cookies and a cookie gift box and delivered them to the office of personnel.

school days

2008-01-30T12:51:00.000+02:00

sometimes when i pick up aliyah from school she leaves with her good friend layla, whether to go to each other's house or go to a baha'i school class together. if it was up to her, she and layla would share an afternoon activity together every day.

swimming at the gan

2007-08-06T16:40:00.000+03:00

today i visited aliyah's preschool and got to see the swimming pool. since it's a pretty small pool, the kids go in small groups. first they lay out their towels. then put their shoes aside and enter the pool one by one. after some free play, they play games with their teacher using beach balls.
after about twenty minutes, the kids go out, lay on their towels to have a rest, drink some water and go in again... i think they go in a total of two or three times a morning.
needless to say, aliyah thinks it's the greatest activity ever....

braids

2007-08-06T10:32:00.000+03:00

one morning after i braided aliyah's hair for school i left the room and i heard her calling to me, "mommy come here! come here!" (in persian, of course) when i went back in her room i found her perched up on her cabinet next to one of her dolls saying, "like her! aliyah is like her."

she's spotted the braids on the doll and wanted me to see that both she and her doll had the same hair do. :)

say "ken"

2007-08-06T10:26:00.000+03:00

yesterday aliyah's teacher was telling me that the kids were all seated for their morning gathering and she was calling roll one name at a time. when the teacher got to ari, a little boy that aliyah was sitting next to, he didn't answer. so the teacher said his name again. no response. then the teacher said in russian (ari's first language) "ari, say 'yes'" and ari didn't say anything.

so aliyah put her arms around ari, hugged him, and said, totally in *hebrew*, "say, 'yes'" as if maybe he hadn't understood the russian. ;)

birthday visit to the Shrine

2007-06-21T18:59:00.000+03:00

as we do every year on aliyah's birthday, the three (and a half) of us made a special visit to the Shrine of the Bab.

below are pictures of our shoes on her first birthday, and two years later, on her third birthday. gradually those shoes in the middle keep getting bigger...

birthday brunch

2007-06-21T18:39:00.000+03:00

the week-end before aliyah's birthday we had a small brunch at home to celebrate her turning three. for aliyah the highlight was standing over her birthday cake, singing "happy birthday" and blowing out her candles over and over again. we could have spent the entire three hours just doing that and she would have loved it. the guests however....

as usual, more photos, more descriptions and notes on my flickr.

aliyah's first day of school

2007-04-23T15:15:00.000+03:00

so last week aliyah started attending pre-school on a daily basis.
she's already picking up some hebrew.

on her first day when the dog was following her into a room, she turned around and told it, "lo at." ("not you"). apparently, she'd heard her teachers telling the dog where it should and shouldn't go.

she'd also told another student who was playing with a ball for a long time, "stop. now give it to me." in hebrew.

the other day when she saw a couple of girls playing, she wanted to join them, but she wasn't sure how. so, her teacher told me, she watched them a little while and then went over to them, looked at what they were doing, and said, "yofi! yofi!" "niiiice! nice!" (little flattery never hurt anyone ;)

i guess she's learning the most important phrases for pre-school survival. :)

below: (sorry, but captioning on blogger has become impossible.)

aliyah at preschool entrance on her first day of school.still sleepy. awake and happy

aliyah is starting pre-school!

2007-04-09T17:17:00.000+03:00

next week aliyah will start pre-school (or "gan" as it's called here) at a hebrew school. there are a number of children there that she already knows and we visited a few times together to test out the waters. aliyah took right to it and is so excited to become a little school girl. :) i've posted several photos with captions and notes on my flickr that explore the gan and show what one day we visited there was like. be sure to roll over the pictures on the flickr with your cursor for detailed notes and antecdotes.
this truly is an exciting time for aliyah and a big step in her toddlerhood. we are so happy for her!

purim

2007-03-23T16:53:00.000+02:00

a few weeks ago i heard of a purum (jewish holiday) festival happening on the promenade and on the street near terrace 19. i could see the flags and the crowds of people walking from my kitchen window. having seen kids dressed in costumes all over town that day, i figured it would be a fun occasion to put aliyah in her bumblebee costume and take her up to see what was going on. there were hundereds of families walking around under the warm sun, buying food from vendors and enjoying the live entertainment. aliyah and i saw many different costumes including the usual assortment of fairies and princesses, but also ladybugs, warriors, flamenco dancers and native americans. it was fun trying to guess with aliyah what people were dressed as. aliyah saw her first float, though there wasn't a parade. the float was just parked on the street for people to look at. though there wasn't a whole lot for aliyah to do, it was still a nice way to spend a couple hours on a sunny spring march afternoon.

aliyah's newest slide

2007-03-18T21:00:00.000+02:00

just outside of the dhp office is a short set of stairs that leads to the monument gardens. this has become one of aliyah's favorite spots because here she has actually discovered a slide in the baha'i gardens (under her raised foot in the photo). sure, she has to scoot the whole way down and practically wear a hole in her pants, but a slide is a slide and being in the gardens, well, that makes it even more special. ;)

Aliyah's 3rd Ayyam-i-Ha - Day 4

2007-03-15T19:51:00.000+02:00

on the fourth day of ayyam-i-ha, there was a field trip to the zoo planned for the moms and babies/tots, but because of bad weather, we went back to tando instead for more (dry) fun.

in the elevator with papa

Aliyah's 3rd Ayyam-i-Ha - Day 3

2007-03-15T17:19:00.001+02:00

ok, day three was a busy day.first aliyah went to rose garden, baha'i school for toddlers at the world center. this was a special rose garden because it included an ayyam-i-ha celebration. it was also amelia and shiori's first time to attend.

class photos

cupcakes!

singing

in the afternoon, we went to the Shrine of the Bab and visited the terraces.

family photo

in the evening papa took aliyah to an ayyam-i-ha party for the bwc families at the pilgrim reception centre

checking out the play dough station

that night, aliyah went to the merkaz with papa and friends to surprise mommy for her birthday.

Aliyah's 3rd Ayyam-i-Ha - Day 2

2007-03-15T17:13:00.000+02:00

on the second day of ayyam-i-ha, aliyah went to mother goose on the loose, a fun, singing and musical class for bwc moms and babies/tots.

that night we went to an ayyam-i-ha party where aliyah had fun with thomas (aka "cactus!") and got a nike neckband in a gift exchange.

Aliyah's 3rd Ayyam-i-Ha - Day 1

2007-03-15T16:52:00.000+02:00

this year aliyah celebrated ayyam-i-ha with a number of activities spread throughout the four days. there was also an orange-picking project at the garden of mazra'ih the week-end before ayyam-i-ha.

on the first day of ayyam-i-ha, aliyah went to tando, her favoritie indoor play/activity center. there, aliyah got to play with her buddy layla.

after tando, she went to the lunchroom and had fresh orange juice with her good friend sisay.

growing up

2006-12-01T06:20:00.000+02:00

aliyah hit two milestones last week:

sleeping in her own bed and riding a bike with training wheels.

on the ground floor of the buiding next to ours is a long open area, safe from traffic, where aliyah loves to ride and exercise those legs.

since aliyah never shared a bed with us, this is her first time to sleep outside of a crib. we can't get over how much bigger she seems in a bed. she likes it there better than her crib, though the excitement of being in the "big bed" have having the ability to get in and out of it makes for shorter afternoon naps and earlier mornings. :

gone for a ride

2006-08-23T10:20:00.000+03:00

she'll take it any way she can. :)

cowboy hall of fame

2006-08-23T09:56:00.000+03:00

there's a museum in oklahoma called the national western and cowboy heritage museum. i still call it by it's old name: the cowboy hall of fame. it's become quite a gem of a meseum with paintings, sculptures, clothing, tools, and all kinds of relics and regalia of native americans and cowboys. they have a few areas that are particularly fun for children, like the mock-rodeo, an actual life-sized town with a saloon, bank, chapel.. just like in the ol west... and a children's play/discovery area... so much fun...

the botanical gardens outing

2006-08-14T09:56:00.000+03:00

last week nadi and i took the kids to the botanical gardens in downtown oklahoma city. despite the fact that we were in a glass building designed to trap heat and recieve sun on a 100 degree august day, we had a great time. the kids loved seeing the plants, climbing stone paths along waterfalls, and most of all, talking to a parrot that could repeat their greetings.

afterwards, aliyah stretched her legs outside a bit. as some of you know, she loves running down ramps (the tunnel, the shopping cart entrance to level 3, the long stone path towards the pilgrim house and pretty much the whole itc parking lot ...) nice that she got to do it on the grass a bit. :)

out for a drive

2006-08-14T09:28:00.000+03:00

... in the mall food court

my mermaid

2006-07-28T08:55:00.000+03:00

yesterday nadia, amelia and i took the kids to an aquatic park in edmond (where victor and i used to live). the kiddie area was big with water that was as shallow as aliyah's ankles and as deep as her waist: just perfect. there were slides and water shooting, spraying, splashing and pouring from every direction. aliyah had such a good time playing, sliding, bobbing, splashing.... it was a slice of heaven on earth for her.

a cool spot

2006-07-28T08:18:00.000+03:00

why do we looooove going to barnes & noble?

for the coffee?

for the books?

for the wicked train set. oh yeeeeah.

the backyard

2006-07-28T08:08:00.000+03:00

because of the boiling heat, especially during the first week we were here, aliyah's spent much of her time indoors. however, in the mornings, evenings and, recently on less scorching days, we go in the backyard and play with water.

back with the cousins

2006-07-25T23:38:00.000+03:00

aliyah has been so lucky this year; this is her fourth time to see her cousins since last september. now that we're in oklahoma, she gets to stay under the same roof with her cousins and play with them every day... if only she always had it this good. :)

loving the green grass. :)

summer day in bahji

2006-07-15T16:08:00.000+03:00

hello. :)

wednesday, july 12 2006. bahji.

love love LOVE the beach

2006-06-12T09:43:00.000+03:00

growing up - april 2

2006-04-09T16:57:00.000+03:00

sometimes i find it hard to believe that this child is not yet two.

bahji visit - march 26

2006-04-09T16:12:00.000+03:00

on mondays, aliyah and i go to bahji. before going, we usually have lunch in the bwc staff dining room. here's aliyah is with her good friend sisay.

...at bahji

naw-ruz 2006

2006-04-09T15:42:00.000+03:00

aliyah found a ramp near where the naw-ruz celebration was and loved running up and down it over and over ... and over again. :)

...with her friend, Shiori Ishikawa, who is wearing a beautiful red kimono

aliyah and juiliet

2006-04-09T15:22:00.000+03:00

here are more pictures from aliyah's cousin juliet's visit at the beginning of february

.

2006-02-21T23:13:00.000+02:00

"building blocks"

welcome world

2006-02-21T19:12:00.000+02:00

i know it's been a long time since some of you (especially ex-BWCers) have seen aliyah so brace yourselves; she's no baby anymore. she's a fully-grown toddler complete with her own vocabulary and tenacious will. though only 21 months old, she's already acquired many of the characteristics of a two-year old.. including the height. :) she's energetic, affectionate, cautious when necessary, tender (espeically with babies), assertive (especially with her peers and parents) and very funny. perhaps one day she'll write in this blog herself and share her thoughts and adventures. but for now, mommy will have the pleasure. :)