ayyam-i-ha 2008 - day 3

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

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

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

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

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

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"

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

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

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

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!

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!