off to work he goes

Aiden spends A LOT of time outside on the beach. We basically take turns going outside with him. But sometimes, he misses home.

Aiden: Mommy, lets go to Aiden's home.
Me: You want to go back to Aiden's house?
Aiden: Yeah. Play in playroom with Bobba.
Me: You want to go home and play with Bobba?
Aiden: Yeah, play cars in playroom with Bobba. Grandma cooks rice for Aiden.
Me: But isn't this your new home?
Aiden: No this Kauai house, not Aiden's house.
Me: Oh yeah right, we're in Kauai now.

kookie the crab

Aiden found and named this crab "Kookie". I have no idea where he got that name but he insists that Kookie is the crab's name. At first he was a little scared of it but when he realized that the crab didn't move (and will never move again) he was feeding it bread and petting it head. I think the kid needs more pets.

gone fishin'

Aiden went fishing with Bobba Steve. He loves spending time near the water as long as the waves "don't get him".

Aiden and Bobba Steve also saw a shark that was caught by another fisher. Ask Aiden what the shark was like and he'll say "BIG" with his eyes wide open and arms stretched wide.

caleb and jayna's wedding

Both Aiden and Sky witnessed Uncle Caleb and Aunt Jayna's wedding. It was a really awesome wedding on Tunnels Beach. Here they are at the house getting ready to go to the wedding. Like all of the other guys, Aiden wore a white shirt and khaki shorts. Sky wore her pink dress and even put a flower behind her ear.

hike to queens bath, princeville, kauai

Today we hiked to Queens Bath. The hike is short and beautiful. Adam carried Aiden in a backpack and we left Sky at home with Grandpa Steve. As always, Queens Bath was awesome. Although the ocean wasn't as calm and peaceful as the last time we were there, it was a lot of fun. Aiden watched intently as each one of us jumped in. He was very worried and kept begging me to not jump off the rock into the water. Once I came out of the water he kept insisting that I put my shirt on and not go back in the water. What a sweet sweet kid.

Adam, Ben and Caleb hike the Na Pali Trail

Adam, Ben and Caleb left on Saturday morning to hike the Na Pali trail. They brought with them only the essentials - sleeping bags, food (mostly energy bars) and a towel to share.

Na Pali is Hawaiian for “the cliffs,” and the entire trail is made of cliff and secluded beaches. The sheer cliffs dropping into the ocean below, hanging valleys and green slopping mountains make for one heck of a trail. The 11 mile trail carves into the cliffs that raise as high as 4,000 feet above the ocean. The sometimes treacherous (see Adam's pic above) trail requires some skill to manage. There are signs on the trail counting deaths over the years. The 18 miles of protected coastline remains one of the most remote areas in the islands. With no roads, the stretch of coastline is only accessible on foot or by boat (and I can't even imagine guiding a boat near some of the rockier beaches). Na Pali is where pods of dolphins, humpback whales and sea turtles hang out away from the human population. Protected reefs make the beach perfect for snorkeling.

footprints in Kauai

We're in Kauai -- we're staying in a three bedroom private house in Haena, Kauai,
which is just a walk from the famous Tunnels Beach.

You may have heard of Tunnels Beach when Bethany Hamilton a fourteen year old professional surfer had her arm bitten off by a tiger shark back in 2003. Well, guess what. The beach was closed just last week again because of tiger shark sightings!

The picture above is of Laila, Aiden and Sky's footprints taken on our deck. Adam, Ben, and Caleb are leaving only footprints on the Kalalau Trail as I write this.

The weather is about 80 to 85 degree. There is a steady breeze blowing. The waves are fairly big. The water is a crystal clear blue. The whole island is amazingly green and rich with vegetation. There are tons of coconut trees, banana trees and papaya trees in our neighborhood. Our backyard sounds like a bird sanctuary. We have a pretty good view of the ocean and an amazing view of the Kalalau Mountains.

We were last here a little over a year ago. It seems strange to me that while we were on the east coast going about our busy lives, this little island stayed innocently the same. While we were rushing to get to work, daycare, grocery stores, meetings, luncheons, the people on this island were going for early morning surfing, collecting seashells, running on the beach, selling goods at farmer markets, or tending to little organic farms. While we were sitting frustrated in our cars listening to never ending loops of "traffic and weather together" on icy, congested roads, people here were walking in swim suites and cut off shorts holding a surfboard over their heads down down a beach access. What a life!

waterboy

We're still adjusting to the six hour time difference between Kauai and Virginia. We were all up at 5:30 this morning. Aiden was very happy to wake up at the beach at the "new house". Here he is playing with the hose on the deck just after sunrise.

good ol' buddies

Before Sky was born, I was really worried that Aiden would play too rough with her or he'd be jealous of her. Seems I worried for nothing. He is super gentle with her. He loves playing with her. He is protective of her. And when she cries and one of us doesn't pick her up or sooth her immediately he'll take your hand and walk you over to her and says "get Sky".

pretty in pink

Here is Sky dressed in the dress Bobba bought her. This is the second dress she's ever worn. At the age of eight months, she's already into dressing up!

sky prefers bread

If she could have it her way, she'd skip the meal and just have bread. She loves every kind of bread - Afghan bread, French bread, Italian bread...you name it. If I'm ever in a jam, and need Sky to just sit and entertain herself, I just give her a piece of bread and sit her at her high chair. She will work on that piece of bread (about the size of my thumb) for a good 30 to 40 minutes. I guess she comes from a long line of bread lovers.

mommy says wind, grandma says shamall

Aiden has recently realized that he is bilingual. He is very good at keeping the languages separate and knows who speaks what language. While eating breakfast together this morning we were talking about our plans for the day. I told him he'd probably be needing his jacket because it was windy outside. Here's how the conversation went:

Me: Don't forget to put on your jacket when you go outside at school today. It looks like its pretty windy outside.

Aiden: Its windy outside?

Me: Yup. It is windy. See the shamall blowing the trees?

>> Sometimes I use a word that I think he may not know in Farsi just to build his vocabulary.

Aiden: Noooo, Mommy...not shamall. Mommy says WINDY, Grandma says shamall.

Me: Oh yeah. You're right. Its windy outside.

Sky's first dress

I took these pictures for Nawroz (Afghan New Year) and Easter which happen to be very close to each other in the month of March. I bought this dress for Sky from the Pottery Barn. I totally fell in love with the dress; it just seems like Sky's style. This is actually first dress that Sky has ever warn. As you can see, she looks great in a dress!
Her hair is growing and I bet by this summer she has long hair.  Sometimes I'm tempted to cut her bangs because the get in her eyes but I haven't had the courage yet. 
I thought of buying her little tights to go with the dress but I decided against it because I image it would be kind of uncomfortable....hey, I'll do anything to avoid wearing pantyhose. 

a chef when he grows up?

I bought a kitchen set for Aiden right after he turned a year old. It was a simple $4 set from Wal-Mart nothing special. I cannot believe the ROI I've gotten from this economical little set. Next to his train table, the kitchen set is hands down his favorite toy. He makes pretend tea, rice, chicken, and oatmeal several times a day.

that famous shot of Aiden

I have taken this shot like a thousand times trying to get a picture that matches in color, lighting, focus, and quality to Aiden's picture (below) taken by a professional photographer. As you can see, I'm not a professional photographer...yet. But I do like this picture of Sky...her eyes look amazing. She is eight months old in this picture. It was taken in our family with my Nikon D40. By the way, as my cousin Elizabeth puts it "I scored a blue-eyed kid". When I look at this picture, I can't take my eyes off of her eyes. It's like looking into the eyes of an angel.  The blue eye gene is credited to Adam and his grandmother  - Grandma Weymer.



This is my favorite pictures of Aiden. He is seven weeks old in this picture. The photo was taken in the living room of our Centreville home by a professional photographer. I have this picture hanging in our bedroom over the fireplace next to the picture of Sky. The photographer told me recently that she displays this picture of Aiden in her studio and she gets a lot of comments on it from customers. She says many customers actually request a picture of their child that is like the picture of "that little boy" (my Aiden). He's famous! When I look at this picture of Aiden, I feel like I'm looking into the eyes of an angel.

she mimics us

Sky is now regularly repeating some of the sounds she hears. If she hears Aiden say mommy or momma or daddy or dadda she repeats it as "ma ma ma ma" or "da da da da". Its very cute. It is really cool and interesting to hear her speaking voice.

Happy Nawroz and Happy Easter!

This was Sky's first Nawroz (New Year) and Easter. She did great. She even let the Easter Bunny hold her without even the slightest whimper. Hey, a seven foot white bunny can be very intimidating!

Aiden on the other hand was very cautious with the Easter Bunny. While he shook hands with the bunny and graciously accepted the lollipop the Easter Bunny had to offer, he was very skeptical of the bunny's size 14 basketball shoes. After a polite "thank you" (for the lollipop), he quickly instructed me to take Sky back from the bunny's arms. Smart kid. Protective brother.

beach weekend

We were at the beach this past weekend.  Aiden had a lot of fun outside.  He loves to fill his wagon with sand over and over again. The weather in Virginia Beach is usually about 10 degrees warmer than Northern Virginia so that's always nice.   Here's Sky enjoying her bath in the kitchen sink of the beach house. 

She loves to the running water on her skin. I have to be very careful to wash under all of the skin folds or her skin gets very irritated. 



She doesn't even mind the water falling over her head. I think she is going to be water sports loving kid...good thing we have this little beach house.

lucky Sky

Happy Saint Patrick's Day!

Sky is my lucky charm. No joke. My favorite two numbers have always been 7 and 11. Sky was born on 7/11/07 and she weighed 7 lb 11 oz...the only thing that would make her luckier if she was born with a four leaf clover shaped birth mark. ; )

teeth clean, brush yucky

Right now our biggest challenge with Aiden is brushing his teeth. He does NOT like to brush his teeth at all. We actually wrestle him down to the ground and force open his mouth every night. It is such an ordeal. Our pediatrician said it would get easier with time but I don't see that happening. We've been brushing his teeth daily for almost 2 years now and still no improvement in his attitude towards brushing. We've tried bribery, singing songs, saying the letters a-e-i-o-u, and practically standing on our heads...still he doesn't want to brush his teeth.

Today he actually tried to give me an excuse..."Aiden teeth [are] clean, Mommy. Aiden not eating dirty. See aaahhhhhh. Aiden brush dirty. Yucky. Brush yucky. Aiden teeth clean. See aaaahhhhh."

Nice try Aiden.