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!

purim

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

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

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

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

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.