Happy 39th Anniversary, Mom and Dad!

Mom and Dad have been married for 39 years today. They have been through so much over the years, and I am so grateful for the example they have set for me. They have been together in 3 different countries, half a dozen cities at least, a war, and two teenagers. That's some serious business. This year especially I appreciate even more the challenges of life that have to be met in order to get to this point. I hope I am lucky enough to see my 39th anniversary (and more) with Cary. In celebration of their anniversary, guess where we went.....yup, the Grove.
I strapped on my Layla love and walked over to Monsieur Marcel for some lunch on this lovely Saturday.

Shashar and Sheila were there. Ms. Sheila was on the top level of the trolley with Dad when I got there. She was getting over a fever and wasn't her usual energetic self.
Layla was in a good mood for Grandma and Baba. She is so sweet and giggly these days.
Layla was dressed in her Bruin blue for the big USC vs UCLA game that day. Daddy dressed her, of course. A couple people said what a cute boy she was. You can't blame them. I put her blue ballet shoe socks on to give her outfit a feminine touch.

Meeting Great Grandma Dorothy

Today Layla met her Great Grandma Dorothy for the very first time. Great Grandma is 98 years old and the sweetest southern bell. She enjoyed meeting Layla and asked if she could keep her. Later in the night Judy asked her if she remembered Layla's name. Her memory is not very good. But she answered "sure, it's Trixie". I got it on video. Trixie will forever be a nickname of Layla's now.

Happy Birthday to me

My first birthday as a mommy. I got the closest thing to a full nights sleep for the first time in 3+ months. I slept about 6 hours, till 4am when Layla woke up. Then I slept some more. Then I took a nap. Then I met Megan and Jenny and the girls at the Grove for lunch (see previous post), then I took another nap. Then Shashar, Jack and Sheila came over with some cake and champagne. By this time, Layla was in full meltdown mode because we spent too much time at the Grove and she didn't get enough beauty sleep. It really zapped me. Any energy I gained from my semi-full night of sleep and two naps was almost completely used up. I almost canceled our plans to go out to dinner, but then mom and dad convinced us to go. So Cary and I went up the street to Terroni. It was our go-to place before the baby. We hadn't been out to dinner one single time since the baby got here.

Grilled artichoke inside of prosciutto. Holy crap that was good.

Pulpo (octopus) with fire roasted tomatoes. Both the octopus and the tomatoes could not have been cooked more perfectly. Tender octopus, great flavor. Tomatoes were juicy, with a hint of smokiness from being roasted for just the right amount of time.

I was enjoying myself so much, I forgot to take pictures of my main course, the tagliatelle with ragu. It's always a winner.

For dessert, scoop of chocolate and a scoop of hazelnut gelato with a nutella biscotti. This was by far the best gelato I've had outside of Italy. The waitress said this guy in the valley makes gelato in his home and only sells it to certain restaurants. It was soooo goooood.

Then we went home, mom and dad were babysitting and Layla had slept the whole time. I only checked in on her once through the whole dinner. Today was a good day.

Happy Birthday, Pappy.

Layla and I met Mom, Dad, and Sheila at the Grove for lunch to celebrate Dad's birthday.
Layla doing a big stretch in her stroller.


Dad's birthday cupcake. Sheila tasted both to make sure it was good enough to for Dad.

Mom and Dad and their two grand daughters.

Layla started getting upset, so it was cousin Sheila to the rescue!

Sheila knows how to keep Layla happy - so cute!

Visit from Tom and Jaleh.

Tom and Jaleh visited us and stayed at Mom and Dad's for a night. Aunty Jaleh made us some curry. mmm... Miss Zeba was such a good girl. Jojo could learn some manners from her.

Norouz

I took Friday off since it was Norouz. The exact moment of the vernal equinox was 4:44 am. I went to Mom and Dad's house for some nahar.
Here is mom's sofre haft seen.Here's Dad "keeping an eye" on Sheila. He's her horsey.

Then went to Aunty Mahin and Aunty Zarin's new house afterwords for shahm.

As usual, monkey was center of attention whereever we went. As it should be

Sheila's Third Birthday!!

After much anticipation, here are picture from Sheila's third birthday!!

Grateful

Monday was one of those days that we'll talk about for many years to come. The day started out miraculously. That's the only way I can describe it. We got to hear the baby's heart beat for the first time and got a video of the ultrasound. I didn't go to work today and was basking in the the glow of excitement, hope, and happiness. My baby was safe and snug in my belly, jumping around and moving. I've watched the DVD of the ultrasound 11 times already.Mom, Dad, Sher, Jack, and Sheila came over for dinner to watch the video of the little jumping bean. Cary had to work late. He called that he was on his way home, around 10. Then two minutes later he calls to say he just got jumped by 4 guys in a minivan and they took everything he had: his wallet, laptop, checkbook, iPhone, iPod, Bose headset, laptop bag, keys. One of the neighbors near by hear Cary yelling and let Cary use his phone to call me. Cary is fine, we're all very grateful he is OK. I went and picked Cary up after he gave the police a report, and then had the apartment security search our apartment because they had our keys and address. We had our locks changed that night. We slept with the lock, deadbolt, and chain on. I added the chair for good measure. Today was a great day, possible the best day, and I really mean that in every possible sense of the word.

Beautiful Downtown Culver City

Kavon and Chelsea were in town, so Shashar, Jackie, Cary and I met them at Akasha in Culver City. First some drinks at our place, though there were already drinks that had been had, if ya know what I'm sayin'. Akasha is a restaurant that features locally grown, organic ingredients and cruelty free meats. Good stuff. They use a lot of "small family farms, organic growers, sustainable and fair trade companies , and artisan food makers" according to their website.

I got the short ribs, really good. The side was a mashed potato and turnip dealy. Really really good.

Chelsea got the meatloaf. I waited for her to leave to take a picture of her food because I was too embarrassed. Kavon got some sort of chops, but I didn't take a picture.
Cary and Shashar got the scallops on forbidden black risotto. Yummy.Desert was a salty chocolate tart, aka salty balls as Jack referred to it all night. He suggested the waitress add salty balls to the menu and she had enough of a sense of humor to say she would make sure the chef heard about it.

Then we mosied over to The Culver Hotel. It has a great lobby/lounge area. Cary had a gin and elderflower cocktail that he still talks about. It was that good.

This guy, who sort of looked like Santa with a "Jesus Dream Team" ball cap on, was jamming on the piano. So Kavon goes up to him and asks if he can play Rocket Man, and he shakes his head "no" and says "its just too good the way it is" or something like that. Kave and Jack remind me if I quoted it wrong.

We all had a great time and can't wait to go back to Culver City.

Christmas and Hannukah

Cary and I went to mom and dad's and hung out with Sheila, the Folgies, grandmothers, and Fahimeh. Of course Sheila was the center of attention. She got her first Lego set and was having fun making a mess. Baba didn't mind.

I didn't take a lot of pictures today, unfortunately. I've not been taking as many pictures as I usually do these days. Here are the few I did take.
Then we went to P.V. to hang with the Rubys.