zoo trip!

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

...

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

in her own world

watch out

katkatim

one of aliyah's favorite places to be.

blue shades

(photo by kami)
july 2008

FOUR!

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

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

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

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

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

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

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. :)