Summer's Here!!!

Tesina finally gets to wear all the cute sundresses people have given her! Hooray!

We rode on the mini-train at the park...
Our dear friends Vivian and Rosalee sat behind us on the ride. And doesn't the train conductor look exactly how a kid would imagine he should (albeit a little more grumpy)? Fazal with his Nana Lois taking a ride on the John Deere. He can't get enough of it.

This weekend we also had to say goodbye to some friends. Sandra, Carmino and their daughter Adrianna (the happiest child I have ever known) are moving to Maryland :-( So Fazal and Adrianna tossed a ball to each other for a while - after originally thinking the only point was to take the ball from each other - and we all chatted before they left. Good luck guys!

5th Wedding Anniversary

Five years ago today, we gathered with 20 dear friends in a beautiful apartment in Haifa, Israel and in a simple ceremony, said our wedding vows "We will all, verily, abide by the will of God", and were married! Much has happened...every year has been so different from the one before. We wouldn't trade a day of it, and hope for many many more!! Thanks to everyone who has encouraged us along the way. C&J

Festival of Ridvan

Right now, all around the world, members of the Baha'i Faith are celebrating the Festival of Ridvan. It is a period of 12 days that commemorates the time when Baha'u'llah, the Founder of the Baha'i Faith, proclaimed to be the Promised One of all ages, the Messenger of God that all previous Prophets had predicted. It happened in a garden in Baghdad in 1863. He wrote, "The time foreordained unto the peoples and kindreds of the earth is now come. The promises of God, as recorded in the holy Scriptures, have all been fulfilled."

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Baha'u'llah claimed to speak with the same divine authority as Moses, Jesus and Muhammad. He taught that the time was now ripe for the coming of age of the human race and the beginning of its conscious unity. To achieve this, He urged the abolition of racial, religious, political, and economic prejudices, the adoption of an international auxiliary language, equal opportunities and privileges for men and women, a universal system of education, the independent investigation of truth (clergy was abolished), the adoption of a world code of human rights, and responsibilities, and the creation of a world federal government.

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This is what Baha'u'llah wrote about this age we live in: "This is the Day in which God's most excellent favors have been poured out upon men, the Day in which His most mighty grace hath been infused into all created things. It is incumbent upon all the peoples of the world to reconcile their differences, and, with perfect unity and peace, abide beneath the shadow of the Tree of His care and loving-kindness...Soon will the present-day order be rolled up, and a new one spread out in its stead."

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See the Baha'i links on the side of our blog for more...

Forest Park Zoo

Fazal wouldn't go any closer to this cow-like animal, but they mooed back and forth for a while :-)

Is this a rope to keep us out....or to invite us to go under?

SLEEPYHEAD

Two Guys Gardening

Can you see Fazal helping his dad in the garden? He was working hard!

At the playground

Hanging out with baba

Waiting patiently for her mama to take a shower.

When there isn't a pile of leaves to run through, a pile of receipts will do.

Multi-tasking

Now which one of us is going to clean this up?

Green

I am so tired right now, but I feel badly that I haven't updated this in a while. Having two little kids is like...running a marathon every day. I think it has all the elements of being totally exciting and fulfilling, and exhausting at the same time. Having only one seems so easy now, but I definately didn't think it was when we only had Fazal! Anyway, I don't think I can write much tonight (and you know how I enjoy writing) so I can get sufficient sleep tonight, but here are a couple photos from several weeks ago - we went to the flower show at the greenhouses at Smith College. It is held annually right at the end of winter when we are all going crazy from the cold and gray and lack of anything fresh and alive, and you walk into these warm rooms filled with tulips of all colors and orchids and exotic trees and everything smells like flowers and you feel like you're in a forest after a rain, and leave feeling refreshed. Tesina slept in the carrier the whole time (under the blue blanket) but Fazal enjoyed it, particularly a fountain where the water came out of a frogs mouth. I hope you all can get a good infusion of green in your life. It helps. Good night.

Yes, occasionally they both need to be carried at the same time. Thank your parents the next time you see them :-)

Mother Daughter Smiles

Miss Little Expressive

Tesina is about 8 weeks old now - 2 whole months! - all other parents out there know that it sometimes feels like 2 years, sometimes 2 minutes. She is becoming quite expressive, and gives the most wonderful joy-inspiring smiles when she is smiled at. We haven't been able to capture the biggest smiles on camera yet, but these are versions of her smiles that build up the the big finale. She is showing her personality to be expressive, happy, and not too shy. She eats a lot, sleeps a lot, and when awake is THERE for all to experience. Our children are not to be ignored, if they have their way. :-)

Fazal wants to go outside...now...so get ready...

Fazal can now open the closet door and start picking out a hat, gloves and jacket to wear (not always his) to impress upon his parents the urgency of going outside. Opening doors has its pros and cons...you can just imagine how nice it is to be able to say "Fazal go and throw this away in the garbage can" and he opens the closet door and throws it away; and how unsettling it can be for him to open the front door and wave to us "bye-bye" when we live on a street where the cars drive way too fast! It is exciting to watch him grow - he is already so tall at only 19 months old - and every day brings something new....

You can also see we cut his hair this weekend. Everyone loves his curls, but we are not raising a fashion model, and we need life to be simple right now, so short hair does the trick for all involved.