Play Time

Daddy is a great mountain to climb on!

Young camera man

The Belly

There's no hiding it now. That belly is a'growin' big time. Fazal is always pointing to it inquisitively. He knows something is going on.

Buddy's Birthday Party

Fazal's little buddy, Rosalee, had her one-year birthday and we got to attend the party!! It was Fazal's first birthday party. Rosalee's mom, Vivian, is a dear friend of mine and we have a great time getting our cuties together as often as we can and talking mom-talk. Here is mom and birthday girl below:

The birthday girl eating her cake! "Double Wisdom" - we met Sage at this party and discovered that her and Fazal's names both mean wisdom!! Isn't that cool!

Fazal with his party hat on.

Opening her gifts.

Ruhi Book 3 celebration

For a few months now, we've been getting together almost once a week with a lovely group of people who wanted to learn how to facilitate neighborhood children's classes whose purpose is to virtues and general spiritual education. The curriculum is based on Baha'i principles but neither the teachers nor the students need to be Baha'is to participate - they are for everyone concerned with the spiritual education of children. The book we studied is called "Teaching Children's Classes Grade 1" developed by the Ruhi Institute. We are excited to have completed the study of the book - although we will miss getting together very much - and now the real work begins of actually starting our children's classes! Three people from the group have already started one in their neighborhood! At the end of class tonight, we had a dinner to celebrate, and were joined by my mom as well as a neighbor of the hosts who is interested in learning more about the Bahai Faith.

This (photo below) is our wonderful study circle. One thing we loved about this group is that we had people of all ages, from Fazal to young people in elementary, middle and high schools and several adults. It was really nice to get input in all our discussions from such a wide range of participants.

All the children helped keep Fazal busy during the classes, and Cecelia, pictured here, was especially wonderful!!

The photo above was our group at the dinner tonight...
Fazal took NO naps today (I can't remember the last time, if ever, he has done this) so by the end of the evening he was really winding up and winding down, and koko was helping a lot! At one point, he just started shrieking at the top of his lungs, just for the fun of it, sending the kids into fits of laughter. He did this for several minutes, I think just out of sheer tiredness, until we took him outdoors, where he continued to scream and run around in the cold for quite a while until he finally got it out of his system ;-)

Fazal's First Trip to Boston

See that orange and red triangle sign in the photo below? That Citgo sign symbolizes Kenmore Square in Boston, Mass., where Fenway Park is (hello! where the Red Sox play?!?!!) :-) We had Tuesday off from work for Veteran's Day, so Fazal, koko and I met Emily in Boston for the afternoon. (Jafred was studying, Cedric working.) Fazal loved it...oh the stories, if only I still had energy to type at this hour....maybe later...the one about Fazal dancing for the ladies working in the clothing store.....

Dr. Emily's office at the Boston University Business School - very nice.

Emily also took us to a fabulous French Bistro for lunch. The hostess and waitresses were actually French and greeted us at the door with "Bonjour!" The food was excellent, and Fazal, who has already proven to us that he has a strange palate by liking things like pickles and lemon wedges, thoroughly enjoyed fresh French bread, leek and potato soup, and a Frenchy version of sheperd's pie. This boy knows how to eat when he wants to. The nice waitresses also paid him lots of attention.

This is bell-ringer man. Fazal liked him because he was ringing the bell for Salvation Army right next to where we found a miracle parking spot (yes, right in the middle of Newbury Street). He was a very friendly guy, and it seemed, happy to have people to talk to on a cold day.
When we felt a little worn out, we stopped at a tea shop, which is cute and has a lot of character, but no space for children. Fazal sat on our laps and everything was within his reach - thus, the funny photo of me below trying to get a sip of my tea without having Fazal grab it out of my hand....Finally, as it was getting dark, we made it to the Boston Common, a huge park in the middle of the city. I wanted Fazal to be able to run around on the grass and wear himself out before we got back into the car for our 1.5 hour drive home AND I wanted him to see the Make Way for Ducklings sculptures. Do you know the famous children's book of that title? Here are some photos with the bronze duckies.

Outdoors with Koko Candy and Senjay Emily

Fazal's senjay Emily (aunt) and koko Candy (grandmother) spent some time with Fazal on Saturday...we hadn't seen Em in two months!! They went for a walk and you can see in the photos that some of the leaves on the trees are still beautiful. They also cleaned up koko's garden, raking leaves and clipping down dead plants.

Fazal wants to be outdoors ALL the time...

Koko got Fazal his own little rake so he can help! Thanks for coming Emmy!

I love the one below cause it looks like they are jumping in the trees :-)

Here's a shot where you can see my expanding belly. At this rate of growth, February seems kind of far away!