Simply Spoiled

Yesterday I had my dental appointment to put my crown in. Afterwards, mouth parts numb and all, I decided to look into this kids store next to my dentist's practice called Simply Spoiled. In outward appearance, the store looks very "foo foo" and only for the families who can truly afford to spend inordinant amounts of money on their children. So with trepidation and curiosity, I walked in to the store, only to be greeted by the salesperson within seconds. "Only looking" I replied in a hurry, sounding really weird, like some weird guy. But I was the only customer there, and their prices were not outrageous actually. So I looked some more.

I ended up buying this picture frame with a kit to cast your baby's footprint. I've always wanted to get one of these, and since Ethan is now nearly 3 months, and his feet are getting bigger every day, I figured it is now or never (these kits don't really provide a lot of material to cover a huge foot). And so last night, with Kelly and grandma helping out, we managed to keep Ethan's foot just still enough for an impression. Not spectacular, in fact in certain angles it may look like he only has four toes since only four little depressions were made in the casting material, but in other lines of sight, shadows casted on the depressed shapes make for a really nice looking footprint. :-D Will post a picture of our final keepsake tomorrow. The casting material needs 24-36 hours to set.

Consignment

The Kids Exchange consignment is coming up! (January 1st - 8th 2007) They are held twice annually, one in the summer, and one in the winter. I had my first experience at the KE consignment this past summer. What a zoo!

The consignment is like a huge garage sale - all 100,000 square feet, under cover, garage sale :-D They sell EVERYTHING BABY at a fraction of the cost for brand new items. In fact, only "gently used" items are accepted for sale, that you almost likely find BRAND NEW items still in their original packaging.

I was totally overwhelmed with my first experience at KE. The event runs over one week because certain days are alotted for certain people. The first day, and hence "first dibs" at everything, goes to the "super volunteers" who donated X number of hours of service to put the consignment in order. The second day goes to "volunteers" and the third to "consignors" - folks who are donating items for sale. Then the consignment opens to the public the remaining days, with the very last day offering half price on all the items.

I was totally overwhelmed the first time because I had no idea just how big this event was and how you go purchasing things. All you hear is this mad scramble for the sleigh bed/cribs, the toddler furniture, and all the "big ticket items". Prices are so cheap, and the items completely "like new", they bring out the worst behavoiur in the adults/parents. And a newbie to the KE consignment as I was, I found myself observing the protocol for a good half hour first, before I even made an attempt to call an item I wanted. All the really good items were by then sold, but there's just so much STUFF that everyone finds a few items in their basket that they were looking for, and everyone gets a good deal.

Oh yea, and the baskets? You have to provide your own - laundry baskets, trolleys from work, and even huge wagons were commonplace at the event.

I will be selling and buying a few items this time round. And going with my neighbour who is a veteran at this event. Chris is his name. He has a three and a half year old. We'll be one of only a handful of men in a predominantly mothers event. But don't be fooled by the demure characters of the mothers and their multiple babies on tow. It is first come first served. Manners are but second. :-D

December Weddings

[Taranom & Kamran, December 2004, British Columbia, Canada]

December is a very popular month for weddings in the extended Eblaghi(e) families. The following are upcoming wedding anniversaries:

December 27th - Taranom & Kamran (Two Year)
December 29th - Sharon & Babak (Five Year)
December 31st - Brooke & Emad (One Year)

CONGRATULATIONS to you, Brooke, Taranom, Sharon, Emad, Kamran and Babak. We wish you all joyous anniversary celebrations and many more to come.

Our love,

The Fam

(ps. if you wish to have a photo removed from my blog, or one put up, just let me know: maxwell.eblaghie@gmail.com)

Mountain Country

Reflection Gathering

Once again, a job well done to the Area Teaching Committee for putting together a wonderfully uplifting yet focused Reflection Gathering. Amani was completely in his element as MC of the day's program, and the Institute Coordinators (Becky, Rus and James) were just hillariously joyous and a bit nutty, but clearly got the message across, that indeed, with all the human resources at our disposal, we truly form a web of support for one another! :-D Well done, and VERY creative you guys!

And the Triangle Baha'i community welcomed its newest Auxilliary Board Member, Mrs. Betsy Ayankoya! If the first speech of your tenure that you gave tonight is any indication, Betsy, you will be a source of inspiration and guidance to us all. Welcome, and keep it up! :-D

A very special dedication was made to our existing Auxilliary Board Member, Mrs. Barbara Sheridan, for all of her tireless acts of service over the past 5 years. The Triangle Baha'i community has gone from 'floundering' and 'thrashing' (all the while in the 'learning mode' of course) to making some baby steps and dare I say 'growth spurts' all the while learning and growing under her leadership. You are simply awesome, Barbara, and a very dear friend to everyone here.

And mom met up with a familiar face in Mark Perry and met his wife, our very own Azadeh (aka Ozy) Perry, and of course we snapped a keepsake.

Just remember: fellowship, fellowship, love, love, unity.

Homeplace Visit

This morning, Ethan, Kelly, Grandma and I went to visit Ms. Black and Mr. Hill (two of our beloved, precious, elderly Baha'is in our community) at Homeplace Assisted Living. We also ran into Anyema who was dressed in a very colourful clown attire, spreading cheer to all the residents at Homeplace. We showed Ms. Black our wedding albums (after nearly two years of saying we would do so!) and she also go to see and hold Ethan. Mr. Hill was thrilled to hold Ethan as well, and we will also be visiting Mrs. Hill at Pettigrew Home shortly so she can meet the little bundle.



Ethan was clearly the youngest "little human" in the building, and he drew a lot of attention, and cheered many souls. :-D

Now off to the Reflections Gathering at the Durham Baha'i Center.

Big Smile :-D

One of the greatest joys of parenthood is watching your child grow and develop new skills. From a tiny helpless creature that can only cry, eat, and sleep, Ethan is now interacting with the world more and more every day.


The beginnings of a social smile bring a spread of warm fuzziness into my heart, and the way he is starting to babble and coo makes me proud and happy. It is amazing how little Ethan has to do to make my day! And here, captured by his daddy, are a few precious moments of bliss.
-Kelly

Pediatrics Dinner

One benefit that Kelly has for doing a combined internal medicine and pediatrics residency program at Duke, is that she gets to go to both the medicine and peds parties for both Christmas and year-end celebration. And, actually, a third med-peds party is usually thrown in the mix too. And so last week was the medicine party, and tonight was the pediatrics equivalent.



Also held at the Washington Duke Inn and Golf Club, the party was a lot more cozy due to the smaller numbers on the peds department. And although there was no chocolate fountain, in my opinion, we got something better (for dessert) - oven hot waffles with vanilla bean ice cream and whip cream with fresh blueberries, strawberries and blackberries. There were three flavours of waffles to choose from: (1) chocolate, (2) apple cinammon and (3) oh I forget this last one. But I totally prefer the waffles to the fountain station. Yum! :-D





And it was more fun this party, what we even did a bit o' dancin'. The kids came out to play - Krishelle, Matt, Christian and Kelly - all of whom are in the same med-peds class and are in their final (fourth) year. Only missing were Reilly and Jennifer from this group of six. And not to mention the very important spouses of these wonderful medical doctors - Lauren (in white dress) and myself :-D The night was a blast.

We got pictures with the med-peds crew (sleigh pics) and also one with our very own (Ethan's) pediatrician, Dr. Susan Owens, MD.





It is hard to believe, after three previous years of Christmas parties, this is Kelly's (et al) last. They are the seniors now. The six amigos. And in one half-year remaining, we shall all be together for a final hurrah, before the group go their separate ways to pursue fellowships or primary care elsewhere in the country.










You've done well, guys and gals. Ya dun good.

My Ecological Footprint

Oh how depressing :-( Apparently it would take nearly 11 Earths if the entire human population were to live the way I do. Everything from what I eat, how much I drive each year, what type of energy we use at home and how "energy friendly" our appliances are, was taken into account in this calculation. Calculate your Eco Footprint :-D

In order for me to be more ecologically friendly, I would need to drive a car with better mileage, use public transportation more often than driving, or if I do drive, take a few people with me or carpool with others. I would need to be a vegetarian or vegan or at the very least use less meat and dairy in my diet. I would need to buy more of my food items from local sources like Farmer's Markets and in-season items, since most of what I currently eat are packaged and transported nationally if not internationally. Ugh! Or better yet, just have a huge vegetable garden patch in my backyard like I used to!

And to think I have a tiny car and I seldom eat out and I rarely use A/C and the dishwasher and oven. I am sure I use far less energy than the average American, but obviously this is just not enough.

I think I can implement buying locally grown, in-season fruits and vegetables, and work on the others as I am able.

Medicine Dinner

Last Friday (12/9) was the Duke medicine department's annual Christmas dinner party, which traditionally was held at the Washington Duke Inn and Golf Club - the venue of our very own wedding two years ago.

This year's dinner - the food - was much better than last. Similar to last year, they had various 'stations' set up in one of the large ballrooms. They had an Asian station with stirfry, chicken skewers, shrimp skewers, and the like. Another station was set up with a large carving roast under a heating lamp with a chef ready to serve you, and garlic mashed potatoes. This was my station for the evening as we often eat Asian cuisine at home.

The real treat, however, was a large chocolate fountain, with fresh fruit (strawberries, blackberries, honeydew melon), marshmellows, cheesecake, and regular cake on skewers for you to coat in chocolate - I suppose like a fondu but instead of dipping your fruit/cake into a bowl of melted chocolate, you simply let the chocolate fountain coat your skewer. Neat :-D Needless to say the crowds were around this station.

And after having one too many chocolate coated cheesecake skewers, I was near about to puke. In hindsight, I would have simply stuck to the marshmellows (light!) and the no-fail, always-excellent-coated-in-chocolate, strawberries.

Baby Stripes

Road Trip, House Hunters

3 days. 2 Nights. 972.7 miles. 3 states.

Amani and I set off to do a quick road trip to the Georgia mountains. Blue Ridge, Georgia, to be precise. We left Durham just after 3pm on Sunday 12/10. Being one for convenience and comfort, I packed a lot even for just a short trip. After all, I figured we were not flying, and so I can pack my car full of comfort things I normally would not take with me on a trip (pillow, comforter, even a portable mattress to sleep on). Amani on the other hand is a very seasoned road traveller, and has put a many miles on his Camry driving up and down the eastern coast of the U.S. many times. He packed a bag the size of my toiletries bag. His own camera case was bigger. OK, so I am stretching the truth some, but he packed VERY lightly. :-D

We drove through North Carolina, South Carolina and then Georgia. We stayed with a Baha'i friend, Sheidu, who lives in Marietta, Georgia (a suburb of greater Atlanta). Sheidu was a wonderful host, very jovial and a bright soul. We had a lot of great laughs and time spent together. But this trip was a rush, and was mainly for one purpose - house hunting.



From Marietta, we drove up the scenic Zeller Mountain Parkway Highway to the Blue Ridge mountains, leaving the sprawling city of Atlanta behind. In fact, what made our trip less taxing was the fact that we were going opposite the traffic for most of the time. As is well known, Atlanta has the worst traffic in the country (even worse than L.A.), and the morning commute did not disappoint. For miles, all we could see on the other side of the highway were headlights after headlights, all 6 or 7 lanes (!) reduced to a humble 35-40 miles per hour (if that). I couldn't help but think exactly where all these vehicles would end up in the city. Sure, not all will stay in the city itself, perhaps just passing through, but the shear volume of traffic and congestion was just astounding.

And only after just a few minutes on the opposite direction travelling north, the bustle of the city behind us, and only the blue mountains and scenic highway drives ahead of us, Amani and I were on our way to Blue Ridge.

We met up with a realtor, Carrie, who took us to many homes in the area. We eventually narrowed a location down - Buckhorn Estates - which was under 20 minutes to Riverstone and 24 minutes to Fannin Regional Hospital. There were a couple of homes in this golf course community that I was really interested in, but still nearly 7 months premature, moving forward on an offer would be too soon. In a couple of months, however, we will likely entertain a few sellers with offers.

More pictures to come, as soon as I download them from Amani's camera.

Bugs et al.

Yesterday, we all went to the Butterfly Conservatory and Insectarium at the Museum of Life and Science right here in our very own Durham! Of course, leave it to the out-of-town(er), my sister, to find activities for kids right around our corner, when I live here and I had no clue they existed. :-D

Well, the butterfly conservatory was by far the coolest. Not literally, because this place is enclosed in a huge green-house looking building that is kept at 80 F (28C) and 80% humidity year-round (kinda like the tropics). Just the day we decide to go out, though, it was absolutely freezing! We couldn't wait to thaw out in the warm environment of the BC and even watched new butterflies released (occurs every day around 3pm I think).


Carmel even got to hold a butterfly as it was being let go. Precious :-D

I enjoyed the butterflies too, especially since there were so many of them, and they flew in pairs or groups all around you and even land on you briefly! But what really interested me were the many different types of plants and butterfly-attracting flowers, vines and foliage. And there were these really colourful and unique birds (pheasants?) that would trot in and out of the low lying plants and into the foot path where we were walking and back into the dense foliage.

Then there was the Insectarium, where we saw mantids, thorny woody insects, brilliantly coloured (poisonous?) frogs, water striders, water beetles, rhino beetle, assasin beetles, tarantulas, hissing cockroaches, scorpions and many others. Fun!

I am thinking I will purchase a membership for Ethan and I for the year, and make regular trips to the Museum of Life and Science. They also had an Aerosspace section, and also an outdoor animal farm among the activities they offer.

Here's Lookin' At You, Kid

This is NOT my bonnet. It belongs to my cousin Ellie Nur. My Auntie Sharon let me borrow it because it was just so cold and my own Kushies hat was not very comfortable. Not that there is anything wrong with this bonnet. It is just kinda girly (but I do love the flower). But thank you, Auntie, for keeping me nice and toasty! :-D

Shar and 'Efan'

Sharon, the girls, Mom, Ethan and I went to the local neighborhood park. It was a crisp and sunny day. Carmel just loved going to the park with her cousin "Efan" (Ethan). The three cousins enjoyed their time spent together outdoors. Carmel was most active of course, trying out every activity from the swings to the slides to elephant, whale and toucan Sam rides. Ellie was supervised a little bit closer, and she even tried the swing! Ellie (aka Boon Tiki, Eli, Don Don, Kootsie Koo, are among the many endearing nicknames she possesses) just loves the swing, and having the wind and sun in her face, and feels safe knowing that her mama and grandma are just around the corner, if not holding her :-D And the little(r) E was content with just watching and being held by his Auntie Shar.

Carmel is very curious about all things nature, and even collected a few pine cones, pine needles and branches. We came across a fascinating tree - the Sweet Gum - which had lost all of its leaves and simply displayed the spikey balls of sweet gum, like ornaments hanging on every branch.