Simple

Tigers on TV.
Listening to Beata sing Kavaun to sleep.
Sometimes the simple things lead to the biggest smiles.

New routines

• Brainy Baby Animals
• Is Your Mama a Llama?
• Slide and Find Trucks
• Let's Count!

This is the line-up from Kavaun's library that overshadows ESPN's College Gameday.

I love lazy Saturdays that combine four of my favorite things to do: play with Kavaun, visit with Beata, drink coffee from a bottomless mug and enjoy the entertainment of college football.

Our special invite

Beata helped design our invitation and I created it using Photoshop. She came up with the idea and then together we narrowed it down to the pictures we wanted to use. This weekend I will try to design a special thank you note using pictures from the party. My Aunt Maggie and Aunt Janet took some great pictures along with Beata's dad and sister.

Party Time!

This picture was taken by Kavaun's Aunt Sara just before our guests arrived. Kavaun was in good spirits all day and pushed through without his afternoon nap. We designed and created our own invitations with a prince theme. The decorations included the usual balloons and streamers and Beata special-ordered a cake shaped like a crown and our blue and white striped tent housed all of our prince plates and crown table decorations.

Birthday Fun

Kavaun had a wonderful first birthday party. We had about 60 guests over to our house and we captured a lot of it on video and in photographs. I look forward to posting those pictures soon. We feel lucky that the rain and today's windy cold temperatures held off for one day. We enjoyed partly sunny skies and 70-degrees for a nice outdoor party.

Tomorrow, his Persian family returns to Oregon and without a doubt, there will be very heavy hearts. Kavaun loves his family time. Here are some memorable moments:

• When the Mostafavi women sing, "Jumpy jumpy jumpy!" and they clap a beat, Kavaun dances around, giggles and claps.


• Kavaun moving in for a hug with any member of his extended family. Those moments are always embraced and welcomed. When he finishes with a giggle or a kiss it's the best.
• Our guests pulled together for a memorable rendition of "Happy Birthday" while Kavaun seemed confused. It was cute to watch him intensely stare at all of the people singing and cheering for him. For me, this was hands down my favorite part of the day. I tried to soak it up because for so much of the afternoon, I was running around and visiting with guests - most who drove more than hour to spend the afternoon with us.
• Kavaun's response to his birthday cake was very intense. He had little interest in eating it and chose to slowly - very slowly - play with the frosting.


• Kavaun loves climbing on boxes and then falling off. He repeats this game over and over until he tires and finds new entertainment. With a room full of gifts there are plenty of boxes to climb.
• Cottage cheese and bananas seem to be the table foods of choice for our little guy. Tonight he will get a taste of some rice and Persian cuisine. Beata's mom has been preparing one of my favorite Persian meals this evening, giving Kavaun's nose a good workout.

I wish we had another week to have Beata's mom, dad and sister here. The fall weather and the smell of Persian food in our house makes me feel at home. It has the weird sense of Christmas break.

N