Happy Birthday Aziz!!

February 29th is our dear brother Aziz's birthday. So, Aziz, when you read this, we love you! These pictures of our wonderful brother are from our wedding day, where he was not only the member of Jafred's family who was able to be there, he was also one of our witnesses. We miss you and hope to see you before long!

Special Time of Year

Ayyam-i-Ha means literally the "Days of Ha" ("ha" is an Arabic letter), and in the Baha'i calendar they form the intercalary days that fill out the 365 or 366 days of the solar year. The Baha'i calendar consists of 19 months of 19 days each, giving 361 days, requiring the addition of four or five more days.

Because of the leap year, they have an extra day this year. Ayyam-i-Ha extends from Feb. 26 to March 1, so the added day of Feb. 29 comes during this time.

The calendar was established by the Bab, the prophet who was the forerunner of the Founder of the Baha'i Faith, Baha'u'llah. But it was Baha'u'llah who specified that the Days of Ha should be inserted in the calendar just before the month of fasting.

Baha'u'llah said of Ayyam-i-Ha: "It behoveth the people of Baha, throughout these days, to provide good cheer for themselves, their kindred and, beyond them, the poor and needy, and with joy and exultation to hail and glorify their Lord, to sing His praise and magnify His Name."
Happy Ayyam-i-Ha everyone!

Love the weekends

This morning we introduced Fazal to applesauce! He liked it...hmmmmmmm

Just mashed with a fork was still too chunky, so we threw it into the blender and pureed it, and then he could eat it without any difficulty. A good lesson. Anyway, we look forward to making more of his diet fruits and veggies and less formula, as day follows day.

Goofing around with his mom

The chubby little yoga master can eat his toes

Finally recovering...and some sweet visitors!

After two weeks, our family finally seems to be beating the flu. Only the coughs and chest congestion remain, but the fevers are gone and our energy is back, making us feel like ourselves again. For a while there we felt like the house of the living dead. I had always known that if we were unfortunate enough to all get sick at the same time, it would be difficult...and it was. Good golly, Jafred and I could barely get out of bed, couldn't eat anything, were sneezing and coughing, and poor Fazal felt equally miserable and needed extra attention. When he started to cry, we'd look at each other and decide who looked less like a zombie and take our turn at trying to comfort the baby, as there was really no medicine he could take at such a young age. Meanwhile, Fazal got his second tooth, which I am sure made his mouth feel even better - eek. If you are in a household with a baby and one of you comes down with an illness, we suggest total quarantine of that unfortunate adult so that it doesn't spread around the house!! Next time, we will be ruthless with ourselves, to spare this household-wide mess. All in all, Fazal's good nature outweighed his sickness, and despite a 103.7 degree temperature, a nose that ran non-stop, and breathing that still makes him sound like Darth Vader, he is cheerful and energetic most of the time.

Okay, enough about that!!!

We had such a treat this week, as we are on the mend, of three visitors who came to stay with us for two whole days. Relatives Karen, Bella and Annie brought cheer and good health with them, Bella with a huge number of hugs and kisses for her cousin Fazal, and Annie brought her accordian and graced us with some great music. A few times when Fazal got really fussy, she played some tunes, and he calmed right down and listened, mesmerized. The accordian happens to be an instrument that Jafred loves, so the two of them had lots to talk about, and found a lot of fun videos of accordian players on You Tube. Very cool. Here are some photos of the week. The ones of Fazal near the bottom were taken just today, and if you look closely you might be able to spot his two little teeth. Now that we are on the up and up, we are going to try to post regularly again.

Karen holding Fazal, Annie, and cousin Bella. We were sitting in front of the fireplace eating dinner. Fazal and Bella are going to be good buddies. She already said that when she gets her babysitting license (in about 5 years) she is going to come up here and babysit for us. We are looking forward to it Bella!
Annie playing the accordian.
Fazal taking a nap. See the pretty, colorful blanket? Bella knit that herself as a gift for her baby cousin. So sweet!! He loves it!

Can you see any of the teeth? They are on the bottom in the center. :-)

Second Anniversary of Taowee's Memorial Service

Two years ago today we celebrated my grandmother's life at the site of her grave on a frozen, windy day in Illinois. It followed a very moving, positive program at St James Church where a few dozen relatives sang an incredible version of "Shall we gather by the river" and shared memories of Taowee.

This photo is of her by the ocean in Goose Rocks Beach, Maine.

And here she is several years ago with all 6 of her grandchildren.

Family Flu

All three of us have the flu, so we may be out of commission for a while...we'll post again after we all get healthy...

5 Months

Fazal turned 5 months old on Feb 5th - pretty unbelievable to us. As you can see, he can now pull off his own socks, and is, in general, getting pretty mobile. We can't turn our backs for even a second. We also started feeding him bananas this week which he loves!


You can see this precious paper is labeled "Fazal's first work of art, 2/7/08". Twill be sold to the highest bidder to pay for his college :-) Do I hear $100,000, going once, going twice...haha Grandpa helped him with the pencil action. I'm pointing to my tooth! We don't know how he chews so hard on his fingers with that sharp tooth, but that seems to be the best teething remedy.

Saturday Brunch at Jake's

One recent Saturday morning we all met uncle Hank at Jake's in Northampton, Mass, a great breakfast spot with great food and good prices, right in the center of town. If you have never been to Northampton, it is a must-see at some point, a very unique and vibrant small city.

Anyway, we had a great time! Here are pictures of Hank holding Fazal.

Surveying the scene
Mirror mirror on the wall, who's the most curious boy of all?!
After breakfast, we went over to the University of Massachusetts at Amherst, where Jafred just started his junior year. Although it was a very cold day, we had a nice, long walk around campus.

A Tooth!

Last night when we gave Fazal a sip of water out of a mug, we heard "clink, clink"...when we looked, nothing. But this morning, when we woke up, we could see a tiny tooth poking through his bottom gum. Hooray!