Christmas at Kuka and Nana's house

Christmas Day we spent some time at Kuka Ed and Nana Lois's house with other relatives there. Here is Fazal in his nice new elf hat with his grandpa (kuka) Ed (Christina's father).

Ed and Amy

Nana Lois and a child all tired out from the holiday excitement

Jean and Janice, cooks extraordinaire

Ian, who unlike most people, didn't mind having his photos taken at all!
Jenny and Joanne
Matthew, Amanda and Jean (their grandmother)
Skip, Hank and Tim, enjoying post-meal conversation

And thanks to the Oak Park Wilder's for Fazal's new winter boots!! :-)

Froggy, my friend

Somewhere along the way, one of our generous friends gave Fazal this fun frog and Fazal loves it. Here they seem to be having a pretty good time together :-)

Christmas Eve with Koko Candy

Fazal's first snow

The Standard

Unless ye must,

Bruise not the serpent in the dust,

How much less wound a man.

And if ye can,

No ant should ye alarm,

Much less a brother harm.

'Abdu'l-Baha

Just imagine if we truly made this our standard?

Bath Time

Fazal's daily baths are made a little more enjoyable for him by this doggy bath towel, a gift from the Kronholms. Usually after his bath, carrying him from the bathroom to the bedroom, he is chilly, but he knows that once we get there (well, I am presuming he "knows") we wrap him up in the towel and he relaxes. Pretty cute, eh?

Congratulations

Warm congratulations to Evan and Amanda on their recent engagement! May you be blessed with many happy years together!

~~~~~~

And best wishes to Tahmina and Amir on the birth of their son, Azamat! Treasure every moment you are with this new soul and may you have much joy watching him grow!

Decorating the tree at koko's house

Christina and Fazal helped koko with tree decorating last weekend. Well, Fazal actually slept through most of it, but is obviously pretty impressed by all the lights!

Mom, why did you let my belly show??!!

What a pretty holiday scarf, grandma...

All dressed up and nowhere to go...

Fazal woke up bright and cheery this morning, took a bath and got dressed (with a little help from his mom, obviously) :-) Of course, just because one looks sharp doesn't mean one gets to leave the house! To add to the nearly foot of snow we got a couple of days ago, we got struck by a nor'easter (a special kind of storm around here) and snow has been falling all night. The world outside is completely white and about 23 degrees F. Alas, there is plenty to do to keep us all busy indoors today, and being a Sunday it's nice to rest anyway. You'll want to scroll down to watch a short video of "Mr. Drama", as we sometimes call him, below...

We totally crack up when he sneezes. What do you think?

Team Fazal

Go team!

Fazal is rapidly outgrowing all of his newborn clothing, and adorable as it all is, much of it has to be put away or shared with friends.

So when I saw this outfit the other day, I couldn't resist. In this household, soccer is the #1 sport of choice. Why not start early?

Also, yesterday we had our first big snow storm. It snowed for hours and came down fast. This morning there was a beautiful sunrise around 7am and there is at least 10 inches of snow on the ground.

Series in Red

Now that he's figured out how to grab onto things, it is an action-packed day! Watch Fazal during his afternoon hard at work:

ohh, this is hard!


It's exhausting being so innovative!

More at the Office

Another day at the office! It works out well 99% of the time. Occasionally, someone who calls on the phone gets to hear Fazal's cries up close and personal, a few inches from the receiver - I don't think that happens at too many companies...

:-)

my snuggle bug!!!
the guys went with red today

Fazal at work

Some of you may be wondering how we work in an office with Fazal there. Here is what it looks like. Fazal's play pen is between our desks. Sometimes he is content to play by himself, and when he's not, we can hold him. When he starts to crawl it is going to get interesting!

Laughing with his animal friends
He talks to them too!

First snows

Winter doesn't officially start for another couple of weeks, but we have had a few snows already. Here is what it looks like around our house. It's not too bad, only that the ground has a layer of ice on it, and so we don't take Fazal out as much.