Blueberry Girl

We have a tradition at our house. Every weekend I make a big double batch of Grandma's waffles and making enough to last all week. The kids love them!! They remind them of Grandma. On this particular weekend I decided to go all out and make blueberry waffles. As you can see, Milan LOVED them. I couldn't resist taking a picture of this blueberry face. We encourage Milan's love of fruit as she typically refuses every vegetable ever placed on her plate, but she absolutely loves all fruit! She will eat mixed berries like they are going out of style and will say, "More berries pease!" One other think you'll notice is that Milan is sporting quite a crazy 'fro. Every weekday morning I have use extreme precision to time Milan's breakfast so that I can fix her hair the minute she starts eating. She will only let me fix her hair with minimal fuss while she is distracted during breakfast. However, when the weekend rolls around, I often take a day off and don't do her hair during breakfast. If I'm making waffles, I cannot do both at the same time, so forfeit fixing her hair. I enjoy the break, but it causes problems if we decide to go out later in the day. There is no easier way to do her hair than while she is eating so if I try to do it any other time it typically turns into a major production, but she always looks adorable when I am finished no matter how dramatic the process is!

Love those Blueberries!

UN Staff Day

Today was UN Staff Day, a day which is held to honor and recognize those who work at the UN and also those who have lost their lives in peacekeeping efforts. There were many activities throughout the day. My favorite part of the day was that the gardens were opened on this day. It was my first chance to walk through the gardens. The cherry trees were in full bloom and it was absolutely beautiful. The gardens will be closed for an ongoing basis during the renovation of the UN Secretariat building. So this was one of the last chances we will have to see them until the construction and renovation is complete. The grounds will be preserved and restored as part of the construction. While some of the trees have to be removed, they will be moved and replanted, so that no trees are lost as part of the renovations.

Enjoying the gardens

Our New Routine

Don is now working at Cornell University's Weill-Cornell Medical College as a Project Manager in their IT department doing work very similar to the work he did at Creighton. He is finding the work very challenging and is enjoying it.

His new job caused us to get into a bit of a new routine, as we now coordinate getting all four of us to daycare and the train, without a car. The parking situation near the train in our town is very overcrowded and there is something like a four year wait list to get a permit to park at the train station. So, we either take the bus and/or walk a lot. Most mornings we try to have Don and Mzee ride the bus and I will push Milan in the stroller. It is just about a mile to the daycare/train station, so this is a nice walk. By pushing Milan in the stroller, I then have the stroller there so I can push both kids home at the end of the day as I usually leave work earlier than Don. I get plenty of extra walking in this way, and given the price of gas, this works out just fine. However, on really crazy days (usually Mondays), Don will drop the kids and I off with the car, and drive back home and take the bus to the train. It is nice to have this fallback plan when we need it.

The kids are doing well. Milan is now consistently using two word phrases and some three word phrases. "No, Mommy!" is one of her favorites. She and her brother are playing together a lot now, and also trying to boss each other around from time to time. Milan gets very excited about a lot of things. She had to go to the doctor last week for an ear recheck (they were fine) and now often says, "Dr. Khan, ears" I guess it really made an impression on her.

Mzee is doing great. He's spent a great deal of time studying colors and rainbows at school.

Tonight when reading a new space book we have, he asked me, "Mommy, are you driving?" When I said no he asked, "Then how is the earth rotating around the sun?"

Enjoying the Weather and The Pope

Well, it's been a slow couple of weeks around here, until yesterday. Getting over colds, strep throat (Mzee) and ear infection (Milan). The weather has been WONDERFUL here this week, so we have been spending a lot of time outside. Last night we went to the playground after our Friday night dinner at the local pizza shoppe. We took Mzee's bike as there is a huge paved area for bike riding, skating, etc. Social butterfly that he is, he befriended 8 and 10 year old brothers who were trying out their new roller skates. I thought roller skates were out of style, replaced by roller blades! Looks like, as usual, everything old is new again. In any case, the three boys had a great time. Mzee actually seemed to be the "coordinator" and got them started racing across the playground. They did this for quite some time and had a blast.

Milan is finally feeling better, she had a rough couple of weeks with her ear infection, a horrible cold and teething. She is on antibiotics for the ear infection. The week before last she only went to daycare one day out of five as just when we thought her cold was getting better, she spiked a fever and had the ear infection! Milan on antibiotics is not a fun thing!! She despises any type of medication and has found several different ways to spit her medicine back at us. I think we've wasted more than we've actually gotten in to her stomach!

This morning while Mzee was helping me shake out some rugs outside, I mentioned that it was a beautiful day, to which he responded, "Yeah, it must be 106 degrees!" For the record, it was probably about 65 or 7o at the time!

Today Mzee had his last basketball game. He did great. It was so interesting to watch their game as it mainly consisted of a kid getting the ball, running (travelling) with it, to the other end of the court and shooting. There was virtually no dribbling or passing. Once someone scored, it would reverse and go the other way. At this age, they all want to shoot...then again does that really change as kids get older? Mzee did finally pass the ball to a teammate who scored. So, we explained to him the concept of an assist and how that was a really great thing! After the game they all got trophies. Mzee is in love with his trophy and has carried it around since he got it today!

Don and Mzee, practicing dribbling

A great shot!

Mzee shooting during the game

The TROPHY!

Check out that face!

The weather was so nice we spent the afternoon at the zoo after basketball. It was VERY crowded today, now that the weather is nice. However, we saw some great things that we weren't able to see the last time we were there. The highlights were the giraffes, the gorillas and flamingos. And of course we rode the bug carousel again. Of course this time, Miss Milan decided she didn't like it once the ride started. I thought I had gotten her back to a happy place, only with a smile for one time around and then it was screaming the rest of the ride. Mzee was very excited to ride on a Praying Mantis, but Milan did not like riding on the Bumble Bee. Mzee said she was crying because it stinged her!

Mzee posing at the zoo sporting his new haircut and Daddy's sunglasses

Nine pictures of us on the carousel and not one with both kids looking in the general direction of the camera...such is life in pictures with more than one child!

Daddy, I'm tired...

Milan now likes to count with us and will sing the ABC's from time to time. When counting she only hits about 3 out of 10 numbers when counting to 10 with you, but gets very excited. If we sing the ABCs there are certain letters she likes more than others and says them really loud, ignoring the rest of the alphabet.

I'm sure many of you are wondering if I was able to see the Pope this week while he was in New York. He gave an address specifically to UN staff. There were only 1700 tickets given out for the event. The day of the ticket distribution people started lining up 2 hours in advance. When I saw this as I was arriving at work that day, I decided I didn't have time to wait in line. I also knew that many REALLY wanted to see him so wanted as many to have a chance to see him as possible. About 15 minutes after the tickets were to be handed out I went down to the cafeteria for some water and saw the line moving quite quickly. I decided to see how long the line really was, so followed it only to find that it stretched the full length of my building, through the tunnel that connects our building to the next building and then all the way through that building. By the time I was at the end of the line, I decided I was already there, so I might as well wait. It only took about 20 minutes to get to the front of the line and I received a ticket.
Yesterday was the quite a day at the UN. Security was extremely tight. I went to work earlier than usual to be sure I could get through security quickly to get to work as I had some things I needed to finish and knew I would be taking time out for the address. Thankfully, I got through security quickly. My office looks right down on the circle drive in front of the UN, so I was able to see the enormous motorcade arrive. I could see many of the bishops and cardinals walking up to the building from their cars. I went down to wait in line about an hour before the address was to start. We had to wait in a very long line to go through airport type security before making our way to the General Assembly Hall. Luckily a friend of mine got in line quite a bit earlier than me and she saved me a seat in the hall. We were quite far back, but on the first raised level so we had a great view. Unfortunately, it was far enough back that I wasn't able to get great pictures.

Introduction of Pope Benedict XVI by UN Secretary General, Ban Ki-Moon

Pope Benedict XVI

The Pope's address was directed to us as UN Staff Members, so it was encouraging. It really was somewhat surreal to be there. Being in the GA Hall has that affect on me regardless, as this is where I took the written exam at the initial stages of being accepted to work at the UN. So, being in the GA Hall and having the Pope speak so highly of our roles as UN Staff Members was really meaningful!

Mzee LOVES the Bus!

Well, today we tried something new. Milan is still sick and needed to stay home. Rather than take her out of the house so Don could drive Mzee and I to school and the train, I decided to take Mzee on the bus. There is a bus that stops three blocks from the house and drops us off across the street from Mzee's school. Mzee was VERY excited when I told him the plan this morning. We headed out with our bus fare in our pockets. We weren't even through 2 of the 3 blocks when Mzee asked if we were almost there. He did great though, and we were at the bus stop in plenty of time. His excitement was building as the bus pulled up to the curb and opened the doors. We climbed in and the first thing he noticed was one of his classmates with his Mom sitting on the bus. Before I could even drop my quarters in, Mzee was in a seat next to his classmate's Mom settled in for the ride.
It was cute to watch the boys on the ride as his friend was quick to educate Mzee on how things work on the bus, which stop he gets on at, which stop we get off at to go to school and various other bus rider tidbits of information. When we got into his classroom Mzee immediately announced to his teachers that "I rode the bus to school today!"
Tonight, I also took him home on the bus. This meant he got to play on the playground for an extra 15 minutes after school as the bus doesn't run that frequently, so we need to kill some time waiting. We rode the bus again with the same friend who rode the bus in the morning, as he takes the same bus home at night.
About half way from the bus stop to our house, we could see Don and Milan on the sidewalk, walking out to meet us. Mzee was very excited, ran up to Milan and gave her a big hug.

Milan seems to be doing better today, but still has a nagging cough and an awful runny nose. She has a nice big goose egg on her forehead as she tripped over the rug today and feel and hit her forehead on the floor. It looks really awful...poor girl. She has been going through a clumsy phase lately it seems. We are hopeful that she'll be well enough for school by tomorrow.

Kids Say....

Yesterday, as I was washing my new travel coffee mug (yes, I've taken up coffee drinking since we moved) and removing the tags, Mzee walked in the kitchen and in a very matter of fact tone demanded "How many bucks was that?" When I told him he replied, "Oh, that was cheap." I said, "oh, you think so?" to which he responded, "Well, actually, it might be expensive." I could hardly contain myself!

Milan had a rough night last night. She started a horrible sounding cough early in the day, but very infrequent. Her nose was a faucet all day. By bedtime, I knew we were dealing with croup. We put her to bed with the humidifier going and hoped for the best. However, she really started coughing a lot. We did the usual steam in the bathroom, but we ran out of hot water before we really got the bathroom steamed up enough. This was partly my fault since I didn't have the shower going, just running water in the tub. In any case, by 10:30 we decided we should call the pediatrician before it got really late and she ended up worse. She decided since this was the first night and it usually gets worse nights two and three that she would take an aggressive approach, so I got introduced to the nearest 24 hour pharmacy. Not how I wanted to spend my Sunday evening....nothing ordinary happens at midnight on a Sunday at a 24 hour pharmacy...needless to say it was an interesting trip. The medicine tastes horrible, but once she took it she fell asleep and slept until 9 a.m. this morning! I stayed home with her this morning and she was generally in good spirits if just a bit needy. Don had an interview this morning, so I went to work when he got back home.

Milan's new favorite thing is pretending to feed us something she's cooked. She holds her hand out to us and says "num num", to which we are to pretend to eat what she's made and say "yum, yum, yum, delicioso." We all do this, even Mzee, and she thinks it is great fun. At first she would do it with a toy plate or dish in her hand, but now she'll just reach out into the air and hand something to us. Tonight she even bent down to pick something from the floor to feed Mzee...hmmmm?

Back in the Swing of Things

Well, we've been back from our trip for almost two weeks already and things have been busy as usual. To bring you up to speed, I'll first say that our trip to Iowa was WONDERFUL!! Thanks Mom and Dad for the hospitality! It was nice to see so many people even though it was such a short trip! Check out pictures of the trip in the photo album on the left.

The flight there went better than I hoped considering our flight left NY at 6:00 a.m.! It worked out great. The kids were wide awake at 4:00 a.m. when we woke them to get in the car. Mzee was even dancing to a DVD in the car on the way to the airport! We managed to grab breakfast in the airport, so eating that on the plane kept the kids busy after Milan screamed the entire time we walked down the aisle because she didn't want to be carried. We had a very tight layover, which was just the right amount of time. By the end of the second flight, Milan was tired as she could not sleep on my lap, so she screamed the last 20 minutes of that flight and was very happy when we got off the plane! Both kids were very excited to see Grandma and Aunt Katie at the airport. Milan showed off her walking skills and took Grandma for a walk in the airport while we waited for our luggage and prepared for the drive to her house. We weren't at the airport too long when Milan asked for Grandpa, who was at work at the time.
We got to my Mom's house by lunch time, fed the kids and they took nice long naps after the early morning. That night my Mom hosted the Baha'i Naw Ruz (New Year) party at her house, which included a variety show. This is an annual tradition that has gone on since I was a kid, so it was fun to experience it again. Mzee and Grandma even performed in the variety show...Mzee told two of his knock knock jokes...he was a bit shy, but did a good job. After that there was a great meal of turkey and lots of pot luck dishes that were wonderful. There were lots of kids and Mzee and Milan got to play with their cousins. Milan was a bit shy, mostly I think because she was tired.

Friday we spent the day around the house. I spent some time sorting out some of our stuff that is in storage in my dad's shed. The kids played as my aunt, her husband and grandsons were staying at my parents too. The boys are 4 and 6 and play very well with Mzee.

On Saturday morning a group of us went into the small town I'm from to the town Easter Egg Hunt. The boys had a great time. Milan wasn't too sure about the whole idea. She picked up one egg and was more interested in people watching after that. It was VERY cold, and she doesn't like the cold, so that likely had something to do with it. After the egg hunt we took some time to go visit my grandma and had a wonderful time seeing her. She had a new bear that sings which the kids loved and Milan was very loving giving her Great Grandma several hugs, which was very sweet. Great Grandma has several toys and Mzee knew right where the legos were and found them and played and visited with her.
Saturday and Sunday my Mom organized an open house at her house so family and friends could drop by to see us and my aunt who was visiting from California. So, we were able to see a lot of people and enjoy the great company and a LOT of good food!

Sunday was Easter and my Mom's birthday. We managed to have two egg hunts at my parents that day, a big Easter dinner and then an open house in the afternoon. Lots more people to see and catch up with and tons more great food...are you starting to see a theme?

The kids had a wonderful time playing with all of their cousins! Milan LOVED going up and down Grandma and Grandpa's stairs and is quite proficient at it now. Grandma's house has nice soft carpet while our house is all wood floors. She did take one fall down about five stairs that really scared her....and me! But otherwise, no major catastrophes.

Mzee got to play with his cousins so much and had a great time. By the third day, they put on a "movie" for us. His older cousins are huge dinosaur enthusiasts, so the created a Jurassic Park style scene where one of the boys was in a ride in pick up truck, up on two wheels and a "dinosaur" came and tipped the truck over onto its top. They got very formal about it, creating invitations to the "movie." Check out the video here to see the action packed thriller!

One of the highlights of the trip for Mzee was that Grandpa had rock delivered for the driveway while we were there. This meant four big red dump trucks came and dumped red (i.e. Mars) rocks on the driveway. By Sunday, a couple of the Mars rocks had made their way inside the house. Another highlight for him was Sunday night when Grandpa set up his tent in the basement so that Mzee could camp. He thought this was really great!!

It was a very action packed but short trip and we were sad to see it end. Monday was a FULL day of travel back home. We had to drive to Omaha and then take two flights with a four hour layover in between. Milan was her usual unruly self on the first flight as we had to share two seats again between the three of us. The layover was actually nice since the airport had a great play area where the kids got to play. The flight to NY was a FULL flight and we had to sit right next to a woman with the three of us in two seats. I could see the fear in her eyes when we got to our seats. Thankfully Mzee got settled quickly and Milan was very good. We had a brief snack and before we even left the gate I looked over to see Mzee SOUND ASLEEP...the value of the play area in the airport just went up! I think he just completely crashed after the non-stop activity of the trip. Milan was quite restless for about five minutes after that and while we were still on the runway, she finally gave in and crashed. The lady next to us had no idea how lucky she really was!!! Milan woke up with about an hour left in the flight but I managed to keep her entertained and fairly quiet. Mzee did not wake up until we were descending and immediately got upset because he realized he did not get a drink from the flight attendant. However, the excitement of seeing Daddy overshadowed this eventually. We landed in NY about 7:20 but didn't get home till almost 9 p.m. The NY airport we use is not known for speedy baggage handling so it takes forever to get our bags. The kids were VERY excited to see Daddy when we got back home and had lots to tell him about the trip!!

Since we've been back we've gotten into our usual routine. Mzee came down with strep throat last week and was very sick for about 36 hours. He really just slept the entire time until we took him to the pediatrician for the strep test. He started antibiotics in the evening and by the next morning was himself again! And, so far it looks like Milan is not going to get it, so that is good.

Milan had her 18 month check up last week the day before Mzee had to go to the doctor. We've been blessed that the kids have been healthy since we arrived in NY and these were our first trips to the doctor. The doctors office is a small office, the doctor seems very nice, and it is a real small town feel, which we like. Milan checked out healthy and off the charts for her size as was to be expected. The doctor commented that Milan has "made her own growth chart" and that she has a huge head. However, she's following a normal growth curve, so no concerns...we just have big kids.

We had a parent teacher conference with Mzee's teacher this week and got a good report. He is still very much into outer space. While we were in Iowa Don went to the Natural History museum to replace the lost space shuttle and also picked up some "Astronaut Ice Cream" This was a big hit with Mzee. And, Don's cousin Carol found the lost space shuttle outside at her house and mailed it to us, so now we have two space shuttles and lots of accessories. This week Grandma sent Mzee a Space book, so he is learning about planets other than Mars now and learning about Sally Ride and how astronauts deal with weightlessness in outer space.

Milan's new favorite thing to do is play "Ring around the Rosie". I started this with her in Iowa at my Mom's and she loved it instantly. She now will say "rwosie" when she wants to play it. After we all fall down, she'll instantly shout "hand, hand" as she wants to hold my hand and do it again. She still doesn't like it when I fix her hair but I've discovered that if I sing the "This is the way we wash our clothes" song making up words about combing her hair she'll let me do it without a fight. This also worked last night when she was resisting having her nails cut. I'm not sure how long this tactic will last, but I'll keep it up until she tires of it. She loves to say hi to all the parents on the way out of the daycare at night. She is also really into her babies now. She has three little babies and always seems to have one of them.

Tonight we had our usual Friday night dinner at Pelham pizza where we are officially regulars.