The Glance of Destiny

This is a video presentation that I had prepare for the Baha'i Summer School 2007 of South Australia.
It is called "The Glance of Destiny" and is a brief account of one of the early believers of the West, Howard Colby Ives, describing how 'Abdu'l-Bahá offered His Father's Message to those that He encountered.
The audio track was taken from the CD entitled "Portals to Freedom - The Story of Howard Colby Ives" adapted by the Australian actor and playwright, Phillip Hinton, and is from the book of the same name by Howard Colby Ives.
I hope that you will enjoy it.

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Voici une petite vidéo que j’ai prépare pour l’école d’été du Sud de l’Australie cette année. C’est une brève petite extrait de l’histoire d’un des premiers croyants d’Amérique du Nord, Howard Colby Ives, et cette histoire raconte comment ‘Abdu’l-Bahá avait l’habitude de partager le Message de Son Père avec ceux qu’Il rencontrait. Cette histoire est extraite du CD ‘Portals to Freedom – The Story of Howard Colby Ives » et est raconte par l’acteur australien, Phillip Hinton, qui a adapté le livre du même nom. J’espère que vous apprécierez cette petite vidéo.

Hot day today!!

It was a very hot day today... reaching 45degrees in the afternoon.
Of course we head over to the swimming pool at hubby's brother house. The kids enjoyed the water fun and we enjoyed the cool and refreshing water.
After swimming we had dinner and the kids played some more till it was bed time.
Here are some pics...

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Il a fait super chaud aujourd’hui… avec un max de 45 dégrée dans l’après-midi. Bien sûre nous nous sommes plongés dans la piscine de tonton et tatie. Les enfants ont adorés jouer dans l’eau et quant a nous, nous sommes bien rafraichi dans l’eau. Apres la nage on est passé a table et les enfants on ensuite jouer un peu plus jusqu'à qu’il soit l’heure d’aller au lit. Voici quelques photos…

Bahá'í Summer School 2007

This weekend was the annual Bahá'í Summer School (from Thursday evening to Sunday morning). Mona really had fun there, playing with all the children, walking in the bushes, and just enjoying the fun and love that was in the air. It was great fun for us too and we sure had a memorable time there. Here are some pictures of Mona at the Summer School and some group shots.

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Ce weekend c’était l’école d’été Bahá’íe, (du jeudi après-midi au dimanche matin).Mona s’est vraiment amusée a jouer avec les tout les petits enfants présents, a faire de la marche dans le bush, et simplement s’amuser et apprécier l’amour et l’amitié qui se fanait dans l’air. C’etait très fun pour nous aussi et on a tous passer des bon moments.Voici quelques photos de Mona pendant l’école d’été et quelques photos de groupes.

Christmas Tea!

On the 26 of December, we had a Christmas Tea at uncle and aunty's house. As they are the only ones in our family to celebrate Christmas, they had organised a Tea for us and invited us over. Here is Aussie land, Tea is simply another word for early dinner, specially now that the days are longer. Then after the dinner, we all went for a long walk on the beach, where the kids got to play in the sand.
Enjoy the pics...

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Le 26 décembre, nous étions invites chez tonton et tatie pour un ‘Tea’ de noël. Comme ils sont les seuls dans notre famille a fêter noël, ils ont généreusement organiser ce repas pour nous. Ici en Australie, un ‘tea’ c’est un diner qui se passe dans l’après-midi au lieu du soir, surtout que les jours sont longues ici en été. Donc après ce diner, nous sommes tous parti faire une longue ballade sur la plage et les enfants en ont profité pour jouer dans le sable. Voici quelques photos…

Happy Wedding Anniversary dearest Mum & Dad!!

A Poem for Little Ones by George Townshend

While they are at your side, love these little ones to the utmost.
Forget yourself: serve them; care of them; lavish all your tenderness upon them.
Value your good fortune while it is with you and let nothing of their babyhood go unprized.
Not for long will you keep the happiness that now lies in your reach.
You will not always walk in the sunshine with a little soft hand nestling in each of yours, nor hear little feet pattering beside you and eager baby voice questioning and prattling of a thousand things with ceaseless excitement.
Not always will you see that trusting face upturned to yours, feel those little arms about your neck and those tender lips pressed upon your cheek, nor will you have that tiny form to kneel beside you, and murmur baby prayers into your ear.
Love them and win their love and shower on them all the treasures of your heart.
Fill up their days with happiness and share with them their mirth and innocent delights.
Ere you are aware, it will be gone with all its gifts for ever.

George Townshend, Hands of the Cause of God.

From the book "Mission of Bahá'u'lláh

Mona, my little cuppy cake

I made this video for Mona, because she loves the 'Cuppy Cake' song.

J'ai fait cette petite video pour Mona, parce qu'elle adore la chanson 'Cuppy Cake'.

I was tagged!! - Je me suis fait taguée!!

I was tagged by Margo! She was challenged by one of her friend bloggers to name 7 of her wishes and to tag 7 other friend bloggers and I was one of them.
This is actually my first 'tag', even though I've seen so many people getting 'tagged' in their blogs. A 'tag' is usually a question that you have to answer in the form of a list of 7 or 9 answers, it's main purpose is for the readers of your blog can learn a bit more about yourself. However, you can only answer a tag if you have been tagged by someone else!
This tagging thing may look easy to do, but when you really have to answer the questions that are personal, it's doesn't seem that easy anymore.
So yeah, I was tagged and here is my 7 wishes list:

- I wish to go on Pilgrimage with my husband and daughter.
- I wish to be a more healthy and fit mom.
- I wish to speak and read Farsi (Persian) fluently.
- I wish to have big house (with all the luxuries) by the beach.
- I wish to go on holidays in Mauritius and other Tropical Islands, whenever i feel like it.
- I wish to be a role model for my daughter and at the same time be the best parent ever!!
- I wish to be able adopt lots children who are not as privileged as I was.

Here you have it, my 7 wishes.

So now it's my turn to tag 7 friend blogger and I choose: Papijoon, Nancy, Prishni, Vidya & David (that's 2 people), Nas (to force him to update his blog lol) and Phil & Amelia.

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Je me suis fait taguée par Margo! Son amie bloggeuse lui a demandé de nommer 7 de ces souhaits et elle a ensuite a son tour taguée 7 de ses amis bloggeurs, et j’étais l’une d’entre eux.
C’est mon tout premier tague sur mon blog, même si j’ai vu pleins de monde se faire taguer dans leur blogs. Un ‘tague’ est une question que l’on vous pose à la quelle vous devez répondre en forme de liste de 7 ou 9 réponses et le but principale étant de mieux de faire découvrir par les lecteurs de notre blog. Cependant, on ne peut participer a un tague, que si l’on est tagué !
Le tague semble facile a première vue, mais quand l’on doit répondre à des questions perso, ce n’est plus aussi facile que l’on pense.

Donc voila, je me suis fait taguée et voici ma liste des 7 souhaits :
Je veux aller en pèlerinage avec mon époux et ma fille.
Je veux être une mère en pleine forme et en bonne santé.
Je veux pouvoir parler et écrire le persan couramment.
Je veux avoir une grande maison (avec tout le luxe) au bords de la plage.
Je veux pouvoir partir en vacances à l’Ile Maurice et autres Iles tropicales, a chaque fois que j’en ai l’envie.
Je veux être un exemple pour ma fille et en même temps être la meilleure des mères pour elle.
Je veux pouvoir adopter des d’enfants qui n’ont pas les même privilèges que j’ai pu avoir pendant mon enfance.

Voila, vous avez mes 7 souhaits.
Et maintenant, c’est a mon tour de taguée 7 de mes amis bloggeurs et je choisi : Papijoon, Nancy, Prishni, Vidya & David, Nas ainsi que Amelia.

Happy Holidays!!! Joyeuses Fetes!!!

Happy Holidays!!

Click here to view our little family wishing you all a very Happy Holidays season!!

Joyeuses Fetes!!
Cliquez ici pour regardez notre petite famille vous souhaiter une tres bonne fetes de fin d'annee!!

Videos

Two videos of Mona and her grandmother. They are reciting a Persian kids poem/song. Mona knows the poem/song by heart and follows the actions of the words by doing all the hand motions and gestures.

Deux videos de Mona avec sa grandmere. Elles sont en train de reciter une comptine iranienne pour enfants. Mona connait la comptine par coeur et joins les gestes et mouvements de la main avec les paroles.

Video

Video of Mona playing 'Simon Says' with her aunty.

Video de Mona qui joue a 'Jacques a dit' avec sa tante.

A note to my english and french readers - Une petite note pour mes lecteurs anglais et francais...

I just wanted to let you all know that from now on I will be trying my very best to translate my posts into french, because i had so many requests from family and friends who can't read english that well. Even though my french writing is a little bit rusted at times, I hope that you will be able to digest my really horrible vocab and grammar errors (talking mostly about my dear mother here!! As you all know she was in the teaching field all of her life and spend her leisure time correcting grammar and vocabulary errors of others!! lol...), because most of you that can read this in english, might not care about the vocab and grammar errors I do in french anyway!! lol
So... I guess I better get on with the translation...
Big kisses & hugs to all...

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Je voulais simplement faire savoir a tout mes lecteurs francophones, qu'à partir de maintenant, je vais essayer de faire de mon mieux pour traduire mon blog en francais, puisque j'ai eu tellement de demandes de la part des membres de ma famille et de mes amis de France et ailleurs, qui ne peuvent pas tres bien lire l'anglais.
Je vous demande d'avance de m'excuser pour toutes les fautes d'ortographes et de grammaire que je vais certainement faire. Je vous rappelle aussi que j'ai un clavier anglais, donc tout les accents aigues et graves, les petits chapeau etc.. je ne peux pas tres bien les faire, a moins que je m'en souviens du code...
Bon ben, maintenant vous allez pouvoir tout suivre et comprendre de nos petits aventures quotidiennes en Australie, enfin... presque...
Gros bisous a tous!!

O Lord! I am a child.... Baha'i Prayer for children

This beautiful and positive video on children is from my daddy (papijoon).

The song is a Baha'i Prayer for children put to music. (Below are the words of the prayer sung).

Hope you enjoy this video and please feel free to share this video with one and all... because the children are the most precious pearls and gems that this world will ever possess.

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O Lord! I am a child; enable me to grow beneath the shadow of Thy loving-kindness.I am a tender plant; cause me to be nurtured through the outpourings of the clouds of Thy bounty. I am a sapling of the garden of love; make me into a fruitful tree.

Thou art the Mighty and the Powerful, and Thou art the All-Loving, the All-Knowing, the All-Seeing.

'Abdu'l-Bahá

Australian Video Clip - Hey Mona

A song entitled "Hey Mona" by Craig McLachlan.
His is an Australian singer and actor (played in the series 'Neighbourgs').
Think this video clip is from the early 90s. But the original song 'Hey Mona' was written by Bo Diddley, first black american rock singer, in the early 70s.
Enjoy...

VIDEO - Mona singing French Kids Song

Mona singing french song - Mona chante Frappe petites mains'

Mona singing the french kids song "Frappe petites mains" while being upside down on the flow and then plays with Dora and kisses D Mona singing the french kids song "Frappe petites mains" while being upside down on the flow and then plays with Dora and kisses Dora because Dora is hurt!
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Mona chante "Frappe Frappe petites mains" tout en etant allongée par terre, puis se releve pour aller jouer avec Dora et fais des bisous a Dora, parceque Dora a eu un gros bobo.

Good nite Ab Abha, I wov yuu!!

Love.... Recently, I've been teaching Mona about L.O.V.E !
I've been telling her about her heart and where it is, and what it is for and who lives in it.

I told her that in her heart is the home of Baha'u'llah and 'Abdu'l-Baha, that they live there because they both loves her very much!!




And that in mummy's and daddy's heart, there is a big room for Mona, because we love her very much too.

She can now tell you where her heart is
and whenever she says: "I wov yuu, Mummy" (translation: 'I love you, Mummy"), she puts her hands on her little stomach and taps her little heart to give more meaning to the words... And each time she says "I wov yuu mummy", she touches her heart and says: "home, Ab Abha home!!"
And every time time she does that, i go weak in the knees and feel like my heart will overflow!!

Also at bedtime, after saying our prayers and goodnight to daddy and mummy and saying the 'I love you" to both of us. She started saying: "Good nite Ab Abha, I wov yuu Ab Abha!" (translation: Goodnight 'Abdu'l-Baha, I love you 'Abdu'l-Baha!)
I also taught her to say Goodnight to Baha'u'llah and she says: "Good nite Bah aa ahh, I wov yuu Bah aa ahh!"
And my heart just melts each time she says goodnight and love you to Baha'u'llah and 'Abdu'l-Baha!! It is such a warm and so fuzzy feeling inside of me... something i must admit, that I've never felt before... The sincere feeling and love in her voice, bring tears to my eyes each time i hear it.

Sometimes, when I say to her "I love you Mona", she replies by saying: "I wov yuu Nona!" (translation: I love you Mona). Then i reply with "I love you too Mona" and replies back: "I wov yuu too Nona!!"

It's definitely one of the best laughs of the day when she just repeats what she hears!!!

An evening with my favourite cuz

Today I spent the afternoon and the whole evening with my favorite cousin Ajay. His parents had to go out and they asked us to babysit him.

Well, let me tell you this, he didn't sit at all, because he is not a baby!

We played on the slide, we played with my baby dolls, pushing them on the pram and making them go potty, we played cars, and with mum's big pink exercise ball, we danced and jumped around with daddy while mummy was cooking our favorite dinner: Spaghetti Bolognese!

We really played well together now that we have learned to play with each other, of course sometimes we still don't like sharing our favorite toys, but we really like playing with each other, specially taking turns to go on the slide and playing in the cubby house. We had so much fun in the cubby house, mummy said she even heard us giggling while she was cooking dinner.

We ate our dinner together on my red table and we had a contest of who could slurp up the long spaghetti the fastest, we eat with our hands and we had pasta sauce all over our faces, hair and clothes, but miraculously none on the floor.

It was really fun that mummy let us eat at the small table and let us get messy, we wouldn't have sat still on the big chairs at the big table anyway...

Here is a picture of Ajay when he was sharing his spaghetti with me... After dinner and cleaning ourselves up, we went to play some more, while mummy was clearing the table and doing the dishes. We had some fresh fruit juice that daddy made with the noisy fruit juicer... that was so fun, we laughed really loud over all the noise, and then we ate some more fruits. We played some more for a little while, then mummy decided to change our nappies and put our pyjamas on. We had to take turns, I went first and then i helped mummy change Ajay's nappy. Mummy was really happy, because there was no poo poo in our nappies.

After that mummy said that it was "Quiet time". So we sat down on my couch and drank our milk. Here is a picture of us drinking our milk quietly... After drinking our milk, mummy had to change our nappies again, because this time, we both did a big poo poo, and by the look on mummy's face, it was very stinky!! hihihihi..
After another round of nappy change, Ajay and me snuggle up against mummy on the big blue couch, so that she could read her some stories from the new books i got today. We read 3 books "When I am Happy", "When I am Angry" and "Love". The books were so beautiful and the colors so girly. And we really understood the story of the little bunny in them. I think those books are going to be my favorite books for now...

Just after story-time, Ajay's parents came to pick him up. They stayed a little bit for a cup of tea and we even had some and ate chocolate cookies (my favorite!!). We walked then to the door to say goodbye and blow kisses to them, and then when they left, i got ready to go to bed...

I love spending time with my favorite cousin Ajay, well because he is so much fun and we play a lot together and also because he is the only cousin i have... It would be soooo fun to have even more cousins to play with...
oh well... Goodnight from me!

VIDEO - Mona helping mummy to clean the dishes

In this two videos, Mona is helping mummy to clean the dishes by putting the cutlery in the dishwasher. It's her favorite part of cleaning and helping out. She loves doing the dishes with mummy. And she feels so happy to have help mummy.
She is mummy's best little helper ever!! And mummy is so proud of her...

It was actually quite hard to capture those videos, sorry for the shaky parts in the 2nd video.
Enjoy...

VIDEO - Mona saying hello to family in Mauritius & France

In this video, Mona is playing on the mattress and then says hello to her grandparents, uncles and aunts in Mauritius and France, and send them a sweet kiss at the end of the video.
We miss you guys a lot...
Enjoy...

VIDEO - Mona sitting on the potty for the very first time

Mona sitting for on the potty for the very first time and mummy showing how happy she was by making up a very exciting song about the potty!
Mona gets so excited about the potty adventure that she even gives her potty a big hug.
She also makes her baby doll sit on her own potty right next to her.
Enjoy...

VIDEO - Mona dancing to The Wiggles Songs - Part 1 to 3

Mona doing Irish Dance & Cow Dance

Mona doing Hat Dance

Mona doing Flap Dance

VIDEO - Mona talking with mummy

Two videos of Mona outside in the backyard, playing and talking with mummy.

VIDEO - Mona and Ajay jumping from the couch

They frightened me with that game....

Washing hands...

As promised here is 1 video of Mona washing her hands... she can spend hours at the bathroom vanity, if it let her do so..

I will post other videos later as soon as i upload them...

A little and quick update...

Well, lots have been happening lately and gosh, who knew that life with a little toddler being a total drama princess at times and at times a stunt and at times a circus staff, would be so time consuming...lol...

My little darling is all over the place, all the time, every time....

She is into everything, one moment cooking and cleaning, the next jumping from the couch to the chair, the next moment she is playing balls and writing on the walls, next she is playing with her baby and training her to go potty, then on to dancing and watching videos of herself, then playing with the stuff in the cupboards and messing the whole house, which i just happened to clean, upside down and inside out!!!... whew... just writing this makes me feel exhausted... the real thing is 10times more everything!!!

Oh yeah, we started toilet training Mona.

We bought a toilet seat for kids first, but she just would scream and we would try to get her to go and sit on the toilets. So we quickly put that idea and the seat back in the cupboard and instead got a potty.

For a while, the potty was just sitting there accumulating dust, then one day, i remember that she had a doll who came with a potty seat, i got it out and show her how her baby wants to go potty and that Mona can also go potty on her new potty. Mind you, she is not stupid, she just stood there, looking at me showing her how baby loves the potty, then said a frank and loud "No! I'm Ok"... lol

After a few days, however, she stared to play with the potty of the doll, and when she sat on it, it was to small for her little bumbum, so i asked her to tried her potty, which to our surprise, she did, and since then, she has been sitting on the potty, sometimes with her clothes on and sometimes with nothing on, but still nothing done in there yet, no matter how hard we try. We just have to keep waiting i guess...

A couple of days ago, Mona helped me to cook breakfast. We made eggs. She was standing next to me, on her chair and she added the salt, pepper, paprika and turmeric to the eggs. And it turned out so yum and she ate all of her eggs.

She loves helping out now, each time i am putting dirty dishes in the dishwasher, as soon as she hears me opening the dist washer or sees me next to the sink, she comes and says: 'Nona help" (Mona helps). I give her the spoons to put in the cutlery basket and then allows her to put the dishwasher liquid and close the door and put the machine on to wash. She is so happy when i thank her for helping me! She just loves it.

She also helps in putting the table. I give her to put her plate and cup and sometimes other non-breakables on the table and she enjoys the feeling that she is really helping out.
She often goes and put stuff in the bin or on the table and feel happy that we have asked her to help.

And when i am cleaning the house, i give her a clean cloth and an empty bottle of detergent in which i put water and she helps me scrubs the tables and other furniture... she just loves it... she says "Nona cleans" or "Nona cleaning" or "Nona help". It's just so cute!!

Anywhoo... here are some pics from past weeks, and will update with some videos sometime soon.

Enjoy...

"No, I'm ok!"

This is a little conversation between Mona and me, just after lunch today:



As soon as Mona finished her lunch, she got down the chair and went to stand a bit behind my chair.

Without looking at her, i said: "Is Mona doing poo poo?"

Mona replied: "Nooooooo"

I turned around to look at her. Mona's face was red as she was pushing something down with a little grunt sound and while sqatting and clutching her diaper.

I said: "Oooh Mona is doing a poo poo. Does Mona want to go sit on the potty to do poo poo?

Mona stopped the pushing movements and gave me a stop sign with her hands and replied: "Nooooo, I'm Ok!!!"

I tried to contained my laughter and said again: "Mona go do poo poo on potty."

Again Mona replied: "Nooooo, I'm Ok!!!" and this time signed with her hands to turned back around and not look at her.

So i did... and let her finished her poo poo in privacy! lol...

Turning 20 months old...

Today, our little sweet pumpkin, Mona, turned 20 months old.
We are so happy and proud of her milestones achievements and we are quite excited to look forward to many more accomplishments.
Each day, we can witness how our little baby is turning into a unique little girl, with her own character, opinions and will, her likes and dislikes which she is now clearly manifesting (temper tantrums, and the excessive use of the word "No")...
We truly are witnessing each day the blessed gift we received growing, blossoming into a very beautiful flower, and this is truly the creation of God and what a joy and blessing for us to be able to witness the greatness of God at work in front of our very own eyes!!

Here are some of the new things that little Mona is doing or can do right now...

• Says "Tank Tu" (Thank You) whenever someone hands her something.
• Says "Sumthin" (Something) when she is not sure of what she wants to eat or which toy she wants to play with.
• Says "Nooooo" (No) whenever she doesn't want something that is being given, or done to her.
• Says "Gaw avay" (go away) when she doesn't need our help
• Says " All Done" when she wants us to stop whatever we are doing to her because she doesn't like it, she use this word specially at the doctor's office when the doctor is checking her up or when i am washing her hair.
• Says "Come" when she wants us to come, and says "Coming" when she is coming to us.
• Says "Lets gaw" (let's go) when she is ready to go out and is to impatient to wait for us to close the windows and doors before leaving...
• Says " Nona gaw outside" (Mona go outside) when she wants to go outside and play.
• Says many other words like 'cake', 'banana cake', 'bread', 'chips', 'cheese', 'juice', and many other food items, she usually can tell you what she wants to eat as long as you give her choices. She can also say many other words that are not related to food, like flowers, tree, birds, cats, bee, tiger, red, pink, pen, paper, book, ice cream, toilet, hungry, cold, sad, happy, etc... and using those words in the appropriate way.
• She can point to the moon and says 'Moooooon'.
• She loves star and loves saying it too, in a very low and almost magical tone, she says "staaarrrr" and it really sounds exciting when she says it...lol
• She can sing 'twinkle twinkle little star' and if you stop in the middle of the song, she can continue it for you.
• She can sing the french children song 'Frappe, frappe petites mains' along with the hands movements and signs and once she start singing this one, there is no stopping her.... lol.
• She can sing and dance out all of movements of one of the wiggles song "rockabye bear", she really loves this song and so do I, we love dancing to this one together, actually to most of the wiggles songs!! lol.
• She can start the prayer "O God Guide me" and also repeat after me all of the words for the prayer.
• She can name most of close family names and often ask for them, even at bed time!
• She can recognise songs that we often play in the car or at home and sing the melody or a few words from them when they are on.
• She can remove her Velcro shoes and slippers, she is still learning how to put them on properly.
• She can remove her pants and skirts, but often get stuck when trying to remove a dress or shirt.
• She can unzip her jackets and close them up when both sides are attached together at the bottom.
• She can say her name "NONA" (mona).
• She can count from 1 to 5 in order and from 1 to 10 but not in order.
• She loves taking care of her dolls and bears and you will often catch her feeding them imaginary food or drinks and changing their nappy and talking to them in her own little language and also doing 'Hi 5' to them and pretending they are doing hi 5 to her, kissing them and hugging them.
• She can pretend she is sleeping, by half closing her eyes and making snoring sounds lol... so funny when she does that.
• She can pretend she is surprised, she would just stand there and look at you and when you say 'got you', she will pretend to jump up as if you just surprised her by saying 'booh', lol.
• She loves playing hide & seek, ball, cricket, cars, pretend cooking, house cleaning, sliding, jumping on everything and from everywhere, and she loves reading books and often chooses which ones she wants us to read to her, loves drawing and scribbling everywhere, even on the cupboards, doors and walls.
• she loves washing her hands, and brushing her teeth and brushing her hair, and putting cream on her face and hair, and putting perfume on her.
• She loves playing with other children and often goes to them and play with them.
• when we say prayers together, she will now stay quiet and not make a noise, but would look at each one of us and when the prayers are done, she would say who had their eyes closed by naming them.
• She can recognize pictures of 'Abdu'l-Baha whenever she sees one and will often tell you 'It's Abha'.
• She can test how serious we are about something by holding what we call 'the look'. When she has done something that we are not very happy about, we call her name and by looking at her in the eyes, we tell her that we don't like it, well now she will look back at us in the eyes, without a word, and look seriously at us, without blinking her eyes and hold the look as long as she can, and when she realise that we are not going to give in, she tries to persuade us with her cute smile and see if that will work, and when even her smile doesn't work, then she stops the thing that she was not supposed to do, for example getting down from the glass coffee table, or hitting her cousin, or throwing food on the floor, etc... lol
• when mummy or daddy is sad or hurt, she will come and give us a big hug and truly this is the best medicine ever!!!

I think I will stop here as the list is getting pretty long...

Hope this gives you a little glimpse of what little Miss Sunshine is doing over here!!

Here is a little video recorded today, of her and her cousin Ajay playing 'jumping' with their grandmother. When these two little ones are together, they love to jump and jump and jump and jump.....

Our 3rd Wedding Anniversary

Today (14 Nov 2004) is our 3rd wedding anniversary.

I can't believe that it's only been 3 years that hubby and I are married and living together.
We are so busy living our little and happy life together and taking care of our precious daughter that it seems that so many years have passed since we got married on 14 Nov 2004!!!



We had a nice day today. The sun was out and it was a really nice day to be out.
We went shopping after lunch, then went for a long drive by the beach while Mona was having a nap in the car. We had ice cream and coffee and had a long and fruitful consultation on the rest of our future life together on a bench by the beach, while Mona was still sleeping in the car... it was so romantic to be just the two of us again for a short hour, sitting on that bench by the beach! (Mona was in the car, and the car was right behind the bench on which we were sitting).
In the evening, we left Mona with her mamani (grandma) and we went out for dinner in our favourite Indian Restaurant in the City. We ate so much yummy Indian food till we felt extremely full and couldnt eat anymore...lol... and we really enjoyed ourselves as it was a very long time since we last had a romantic dinner with just the two of us.
Then we went back for tea at Mamani's house and had fun watching Mona playing with her grandparents, until it was time to head back home.

My daddy send us this cute video montage of us for our wedding anniversary and the 3 of us really enjoyed it as it was a lovely surprise!!
Thanks Daddy!!

Celebrating the Birth of Baha'u'llah

Today, 12 November, Baha'is around the world celebrate the birth of Baha'u'llah, the prophet founder of the Baha'i Faith.
In this Most Glorious Day, i would like to share with you all, dear family and friends, our joy and happiness with a special poem dedicated specially for the children.
This poem was written by my dear mother in law, Shahla.
Hope you will enjoy it as much as we did.
Wishing you a very very happy celebration!!

Story for Children on the Birth of Baha‘u’llah

Once upon a time,
Under the blue sky,
The space whereupon the birds fly,

A Kind God existed,
From whose grace everything,
And every being has been created.

God is the best friend of children.
O children of the world!
Rejoice your happiness,
It’s the gift of your Lord.

He gave life to creation,
Then; every people in every nation.
The heavenly angels have been made,
Who always come to our aid.

In a big beautiful city,
On a colourful autumn day,
A baby was born,
To show us the way!

In a palace like dwelling,
The angels brought a baby,
Whose Majesty was like a King.

He had beautiful and bright eyes,
From childhood was ever wise,
And His mother said that:
“He never cries!”

The golden crown on His head,
And the heavenly roses adorned His bed.

A smile on His face,
Were as a bloom of flowers,
The glow of His eyes,
Would melt the hearts of His lovers.

He was fast growing.
His Majesty and Power,
With breezes of His love were flowing.

He was singing,
The song of Lord
The song of love,
Melodies from up above.

In all directions was His fame,
Rich and needy alike mentioned His name.

But… Alas…
The sunny day would pass.

One day the unjust,
The jealous people,
Put the Blessed Beauty,
To crisis like hell.

Around His body and neck,
Was place a heavy weighty chain,
That caused the Beloved of the world,
Immense pain.

The imprisonment,
Exile and fetter,
Journey in the snow and rain,
Didn’t make it better.

One day from among the dark days,
The world witnessed,
The Sun with bright rays.

He told the people,
Stop the cries.
With joy of love and Unity,
Open your eyes!

You can now fly,
Free as a bird.
This is a new song,
That no one has heard.

I’ve brought you golden wings,
The joy of thousand springs.

Come and hear My call!
Forget hatred,
War and all.

O, Children…
The angles of this story,
Bestowed upon us,
The King of Glory!

The wicked ones,
Fell in depths of miseries,
We heard on them,
Terrible stories.

Now… shall I tell you,
Who was the King of this story?
Who got victory,
Upon victory?

Baha‘u’llah,
Who put laughter on our lips,
Brought Roses of happiness,
Heaps and heaps!

Now, it’s upon us,
To wipe everyone’s tears,
To share the message of peace,
So the kingdom of God one earth appears!

And not to rest,
Until we are assured,
The hearts are thrilled,
By the joy of our Lord.

Shahla Ghotbi,

10 November 2007

Maman read 'O God' please!!!

This evening, as usual, we went about with our bedtime routine (drink milk, brushing teeth, pjs, go in bed and read book, say prayers and say goodnight, etc....), but i has a very sweet surprise tonight!!

After getting in bed with Mona, i told her "It's story time", usually she then goes and picks the book she wants to read. For the last two weeks it's has been a bedtime rhyme book, which i have to read at least 4 times each night before she decides she had enough. Then we usually say our night prayers, which had been pretty quick lately, because each time i start the prayer "O God Guide Me", she says "Noooooooooo" and turns the other way.

But this evening, it was different.

Mona got out of bed, went to her book shelf, came crawling back in bed and said: "Maman, read 'O God' peazee" and handed me one of her new prayer books "O God Educate These Children".

I was so surprised that she knew what the book was about and even knew half of the title of the book, as i only read it to her once so far!!!

I bought the book on Sunday, along with two other prayers book. Each book has a small prayer in it, and on each page there is a prayer line with pictures to better understand the words. The 3 books are board books which is so nice because i don't have to worry about Mona tearing them apart etc...

So I got her the prayer books: "O God Guide Me", "O God Educate these children" and "Blessed is the Spot".

Each night i had read one of the books with her, and so tonight when Mona chose the book "O God Educate these children" and called the book " O God" i was really surprised that she remembered it!!!

So i read her the book, and she asked for it again, so i read it one more time, then she asked for the other prayer book: " O God, Star" (O God Guide Me...make me a brilliant Star!!!! she loves stars at the moment!!!), so we read " O God guide me" two times and then she asked for her rhyme book, which we read once.

After that, i started chanting some prayers with her and she pretended to know the words and started singing with me (really just making sounds!!), then we said goodnight to daddy, goodnight to kaloo, pooh bear and baby (doll), said goodnight to star and moon and sand 'Twinkle twinkle little star", and then said to goodnight to 'Abdu'l-Baha and Baha'u'llah, and good night to maman too of course!

Then i continued to chant her some prayers while she slowly drifted to dreamland...

It was such a nice and special moment that i was so blessed to share with her, or maybe that she generously let me share with her.... i don't know... but all i know is that i feel so happy and joyful and proud of my little baby right now.

Persistence works!!!

Children's Devotional Meeting

Last Sunday was 'Words in Harmony' (Monthly devotional meeting organised by the Baha'i Community of Holdfast Bay, in SA.). Each month we have a specific theme on which we read sacred writings of all Faiths related to that theme.
And this month's theme was children.
So we decided to have the children attending the BESS (Baha'i children classes in public schools), to participate in the program. They actually prepared the whole program. They chaired the meeting, did the readings, sang songs, played music and perform a short skit.
They helped in the decoration and setting up of the snacks and refreshments etc...
The children was aged 6 to 13 year old, and there was around 15 to 20 children in the program.

The program was really beautiful. We had a great outcome, the hall was crowed with the regular group of people who usually attend 'Words in Harmony', plus the friends and parents of the children who were performing the program on that day. The hall was really crowded!! We had to get extra chairs from the store room to accommodate the guests.
The children were really just precious and they did their program so professionally.
We had a lovely time and everyone seemed to have really enjoyed the program.
I reckon more and more responsibilities should be given to the children, they sure did showed us how capable they are when given the right channel and tools to express themselves!!
Can't wait to do it all over again!!!

Of course, little Mona was excited to see all those children at the devotional meeting, and just wouldn't sit still. During the whole program, she was standing in front of the kids that were preforming, as if she wanted to be a part of the program too. She got really happy and enthusiastic when the children started to sing, and she clapped and sang with them too!! lol... It was really funny and cute to see her.
I think she is going to be one of those kids that is always first to participate in all the Baha'i programs!! (sounds familiar!!! lol)

Anyway, here are some pics of Mona getting ready to go and Mona at the devotional meeting.
Enjoy...

Pics of Mona at her grandpa's birthday

Those pics were actually taken on Tuesday 23 Oct, but have been busy and then got sick, and completely forgot to share it with you all.
Enjoy.

Just a video

New dress and hat

Mona in her new dress, new sandals, and new hat.
And Mona having fun at her grandpa's house.

Celebration of the Birth of the Báb

For the celebration of the birth of the Báb, we went to our old Baha'i community in West Torrens.
We had such a great time meeting the dear friends there and everyone was so surprised to see how big Mona is now.
Needless to say that Mona was so happy and excited to be there! It was impossible to keep her still for 2 mins consecutive!! She just wanted to get down and run around and play with all the kids there!!
It's getting harder and harder to keep her quiet and still during the devotional part!! lol...

After the celebration we went to Mona's grandma's house for cake and coffee and of course Mona enjoyed the cake (see video below!!)

Here are some pics of Mona at the celebration in West Torrens:

Mona having fun with Ajay

At the beach house today...

Today was another warm and sunny day.
We spent the afternoon at Glenelg beach, (with Ajay & his parents) on the playground and then went to the beach house and had dinner and ice cream on Jetty Road and back to the beach house for some more fun with the kids.
The weather got chill pretty soon after the sun had set. That's the only thing i hate about south Australia, the weather changes so quickly!!!
Here are some pics of this morning at home and of this afternoon at the beach house and ice cream after dinner at the restaurant:

Football Fever

Hubby is having fever right now... footy fever that is....

Tomorrow (Saturday) is the Grand Final of the Aussie Footy Season.

Our team, Port Adelaide aka Power, is in the finals against Geelong.

Last time they won the grand final was in 2004, we are hoping that they will win again this year!!

Our main entrance outside of the house has balloons in the colors of the team!!

Our living room has balloons, streamers, flags, poster and scarps of the team all around the house!!!

Tomorrow, we are having barbecue with friends & family at home and after lunch we are all going to put on our team t-shirts and sit in front of the plasma TV and watch the game, crossing our fingers for the team to win of course and protecting our ears from all the screaming and cheering that the guys will be doing... lol... this should be fun... did i mentioned that the game is on at the same time that Mona usually has her nap... lol...

Gooooooooo POWER!!!!!