Lucia

I am in love with this little girl. She is hilarious. She's always so excited and happy. She nuzzles up to you with her head and just purrs when she wants some love. Most of the time, she is crawling really fast somewhere and absolutely resolute. I love to pick her up from her naps in the morning, because she is a ball of pure exuberance.



Eating chocolate cake





She has to eat everything by herself. She will not eat anything unless she can pick it up herself and put it in her mouth.













Her shirt is always off when she eats because she usually takes a few bites and then dances around like this a little bit--notice the watermelon juice dripping down her elbow. I have had to really just learn to deal with messiness and chaos with this one. Often, I just have to stick her in the sink after she eats and just hose her down from head to toe. This is the child that crawls into the bathroom and goes right for the toilet scrubber or plunger; into the kitchen straight for the garbage or recycling unless there are some knives in the dishwasher--then she goes straight for those. I take her to the park and she goes from clean to filthy in 30 seconds (as opposed to Cyra who I have to take three extra outfits for when we go out--if one gets wet or slightly dirty, she needs to change before she can be comfortable).



Lucia also loves swings. She can sit there all day and gets pretty mad when you take her out. She doesn't even need to be pushed. She just likes sitting there.

Our family did a mini photoshoot a few weeks ago for a benefit. Just a volunteer project and I think they just asked us because we are the only family with two kids in the entire city (I don't know how other people do it. seriously, suggestions welcome). The best part was watching the girls get their hair and make-up done. Cyra was in heaven.

Darius turns 14

And when you are 14, you don't smile at the camera.



Lucia and Darian discover birthday cake.

Zoo party

We went to the Central park zoo with the kids with Jared's firm and tried really hard to feed them as much junk food as we could during that time:
















There were also cookies, fudgesickles, animal crackers, pretzels, and strawberry shortcakes. I hope my pediatrician isn't reading this, but then again, maybe this behavior will help Cyra break out of the bottom 5% for her weight.

And when they weren't eating...



Cyra, of course, asked for a "flower rainbow" on her arm and Kian got a rainbow.





Cool tricks...







Animals? What animals? Polar bears were asleep. Penguin tank was too cold; who knows where the monkeys were, but the fireflies were the biggest hit of the night.

The birthday festivities

(Jared took Cyra to his Harlem barber and she got a haircut, but I think they got a little carried away with the bangs)



Thanks Josh for taking pictures--no idea how you got the above shot.

Presents

So my mom is out of town (in Iran taking care of business) and my dad is left on his own to pick out birthday presents. This is what he got for Jared--he wrapped it himself:





...cucumbers and tomatoes from his garden (and a card with a check).