Happy Birthday Mamijoon

Happy Birthday Mamijoon!!
We miss you and love you so much mum!

Big bisous and big hugs to you!
from Mona, Sabby & Nays.
xoxox

As Always,

Thanks for watching!

 

 Mona, Age 4 - September 2010

Cooking with Mona - Mini Avocado Triangles

Welcome to "Cooking with Mona" show!
Today Mona is showing us how to make 'Mini Avocado Triangles', one of her favorite sandwiches for breakfast.

For this recipe you will need:
1/4 of an Avocado and 2 slices of light Rye Bread.

Enjoy the show!

Please thumbs up this video if you liked this little cooking show.
Also please comment below to let us know if you would like to see more of 'Cooking with Mona'.

Music used is royalty free and is courtesy of Kevin MacLeod from www.Incompetech.com

As Always,

Thanks for watching!

 

 Mona, Age 4 - August 2010

Our little Ballerina

Mona, our little ballerina, at her Ballet Class in August 2010.
It's usually a 45 minutes class that I've reduced to a 7 minute video.

I hope you enjoy this little video, as Ballet is all that Mona talks about all day!

Music used are:
- Slient Film Score, Barroom Ballet
- Tchaikovsky, Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairy
- J.S. Bach, Prelude in C
- Léo Delibes, Divertissement - Pizzicato (from the ballet Sylvia)

All music used are royalty free and is courtesy of Kevin MacLeod from www.Incompetech.com

As always,
Thanks for watching!

 

Mona, Age 4 - August 2010

 

Mona sings for baby Eva

Mona wanted to make a video for her little cousin Eva who is in Mauritius.
So she gathered some of her dolls and sat on the couch to sing for her.

In this video, Mona sings "Twinkle, twinkle little star", "All the colours of the Rainbow" in AUSLAN (Australian Sign Language) and "Miss Polly had a dolly who was sick, sick, sick".

I hope you enjoy this little musical video, as much as we have enjoyed making it for our little Eva.

As always,

Thanks for watching!

 

Mona, Age 4 - August 2010

Birthday Gifts from Mauritius

Below are two videos of Mona and myself opening my birthday gifts that I received from my lovely parents, back home in Mauritius Island.

I made this video mostly for my parents, family and very close friends...

I excuse myself in advance for all the "screaming and excited voices" on this video! (You've been warned!)

As always,

Thanks for watching!

Mona, Age 4 - August 2010

  

Mona dancing Sega

Mona dancing the Mauritian Sega in her brand new Sega Outfit, a beautiful gift we received from our dear friends, Nancy and Leah from Mauritius.
The song is named 'Dansé Morisien" and is performed by Cassiya.
The Sega is a typical folkloric dance from Mauritius, the island on which I was born and grew up.
Don't forget to click on 'Thumbs up' if you liked the video!

As Always,

Thanks for watching!

Mona, Age 4 - August 2010

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What is the Sega?

"The sega, is both song and dance. Accompanied by distinct instruments such as the ravane (a thin, wide drum covered with a goat's skin), the maravane (a pebble-filled box that makes a rattling sound when shaken) and the triangle, the singer sings about the tribulations of love or the humorous side of life. The instruments provide a rhythm only, no melody. The dance is a series of shuffling steps with no set pattern, with hips swinging and arms outstretched. The dancers shuffle around each other before facing each other and sitting down on the floor, bending their torsos forward and backward, much like a courtship dance. Commercial performances in hotels and nightclubs accentuate this suggestiveness and try to lend an air of eroticism to the dance.

The sega is extremely versatile. It can be played with full set of guitar, drums and trumpet or with no instruments at all. Anything that can make noise will do -- an old jerry-can, two sticks, or a bottle and a coin, and that's the way a sega party gets under way at the beach. And, despite the sensuality of swaying hips and torsos, the sega is a family dance as well. Young children dance the sega with their grandparents at weddings, friends dance it when they meet in the village square'.

So, as you can see from the above descriptions, the sega has become part of the Mauritian national identity. In this respect, it would be interesting to know its history briefly or how it all started.

To start with, the sega is African in origin, brought to Mauritius by slaves in colonial times. During those days of slavery, the sega provided a form of relief to the hard-working slaves who yearned for the land they were cruelly snatched from.

In the beginning, Mauritians in general view the sega as a Creole song and dance. The word 'Creole' in the Mauritian context has two meanings. Firstly, it means the mother tongue of most Mauritians, which is Creole Patois. Secondly, it means the black community of Mauritius. But today the sega is a national song and dance enjoyed by all the communities of Mauritius. Click Sega Dance to view pictures of the sega dance."

Extract from the book "Culture Shock: Mauritius", by Roseline NgCheong-Lum.

Checking in... Is anyone here?

Hmmmm...      Hello...

Anyone here... ? ...  We are...

Ok, so I know I kinda of deserted this blog for a while.
Well for almost a year! I didn't post much last year (7 posts in total - that's bad.... really bad!)
I guess we were busy living our happy lives and with Facebook it was just very convenient to post things in one spot. Anywho... the excuses don't even matter anymore..

This year things will be different... I will try to post to the blog first before posting anywhere else, because let's be honest here.... I miss blogging! A. LOT.!!

So starting now, I will do my best to first update you all and post some pics & videos of recent times. And after all the catching up has been done, I will also do my very best to update this blog regularly (at least more regularly than last year!).

Hope you guys didn't miss us too much?
Take care & see you all soon!

"God is the Best" - Mona's song

A few days ago, Mona came up to me and said that she had a new song that she absolutely wanted to sing for me!


She often do this, I mean make up her own songs and tunes, or even poems or stories. What can I say, she loves rhyming, it's in the family!


So Mona started to sing her new song which is called "God is the Best" and it was absolutely brilliant and funny! Unfortunately the video camera was not at hand, but I did manage to quickly type down the lyrics of her song on my laptop while she was singing!

Dear lucky readers, without further ado, I present to you Mona's new song, "God is the Best" (without the tune, I'm sorry but you'll have to imagine a very enthusiastic tune with lots of clapping!):

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GOD IS THE BEST
by Mona Mortazavi (4 years old)


Who made the world?
Who made all the countries?
Now we know, who made the world!

God made the world, God made the countries!
God made everything and you and me too!
But no one ever see God! No one knows who is God?
If you have a picture, that's the best!
Because I don't know,
Who made God and who made Baha'u'llah and all the rest!

God is the best! God is the best!
God is everywhere!
He is the only one who can be everywhere and not us!

You can touch him if you touch your heart,
Because God is in your heart too!
And God is in your head and your little nose!
And God is inside the moon and inside the world!

God is the best! God is the best!
He made the future,
And he made trees and the countries!
God is the best!
God is the best!

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 Mona, Age 4 - August 2010

  

 

Mona goes to Kindy (Preschool)

Mona started Kindergarten (which is another name for Preschool here in Australia) last week!
Can you believe it?!? Well, I am still trying to get use to it...

Don't get me wrong here...
Mona never went to childcare or daycare centers, ever! And she has never spent a day without either of her parents (or grandparents), ever! So when the time came for kindy (kindergarten), I became a total wreck! I secretly bawled my eyes out for days in advance, just because I couldn't believe the time had come for my baby girl to leave me...
I know this sounds super dramatic and silly, since it's just kindy, it's not like she is leaving home to study in another country like I did when I was 16 or anything, but it is still very much bittersweet none the less to me, since I am a stay-at-home mum and that Mona and me have pretty much been together most of the time since she was born!!


So, by the time the first day of school came about, I was absolutely terrified to take my sweet little angel and leave her to the care of complete strangers (not really strangers, we did visit the kindy a couple of times and met with the teachers too)!
And it's not that I didn't think that Mona was ready, quite contrary! I knew she was ready! She knew she was ready! The neighbours across the street knew she was ready! I'm pretty sure everyone knew she was ready! And it was that readiness that was bugging the crap out of me! Because that meant that she really was growing up and needed me just that tiny bit less than before!
And I knew that Mona was going to have an absolute blast at her kindy, because she has been wanting to go to school for a long time, and for about two years this is all we've heard about, since all her friends and cousins were either in daycare or preschool, so she'd already heard about it and was desperate to get in on the action too!
And being at home with me all the time, meant that I was able to really teach her on a preschool level at home, and now that she started preschool during the second term, she is doing everything the other kids do at kindy and then some! So yes, I knew Mona was ready and I knew she'd do just great!Mona personally picked out her school shirts (one in pink and one in green with the name of the school and logo on them) and a pink school hat, when we visited the school the second the time.
Her dad bought her a pink 'Dora' backpack, which is twice her size, and Mona wanted a matching 'Dora' lunch box, which was not very hard to find. She even choose her water bottles, a pink fairy one and a blue pony one! She also has a pink 'Dora' gumboots and pink matching raincoat for when it's a raining, since we walk to take her to school. Her Kindy is about 15 minutes walk (at Mona's speed) and it's a welcomed form of exercise for the 3 of us!

On Monday 19 April 2010, after a very extensive photo shoot of my little prodigy, my husband and myself very bravely walked Mona to her very first school day session!
When we got there, Mona went to hang her bag on the hooks outside of the classroom, and was very excited to get inside. A group of kids were already seated at the far end of the room for story time! After the teacher welcome us and gave the OK for Mona to go join the rest of the children, she super happily gave both her dad and myself a very quick and distracted hug and kiss and tossed an "I love you mum and dad!" over her shoulder as she quickly ran off to find a seat among the other kids!


I think that's when my heart dropped out of my body! I felt the tears rushing up and a huge knot in my stomach! I held my husband hand and he kindly reminded me to breathe! I followed his advice and felt somewhat better and immediately started to record this moment for posterity and for my dear blog readers (mostly my family and friends right!)

We previously had asked permission to stay at kindy in case Mona needed some time to adjust herself, and as it turned out, it was me who needed that time!
We stayed and watched her being introduced to her class, we felt proud when she started talking to the teacher and asking question, and felt ashamed when she wouldn't stop talking... lol.
We saw her sing along to the children songs and saw her made friends, when my husband reminded me that it was probably a good time for us to leave now... I really didn't want to leave, but I had to, because this was Mona's time and not Mona's and mummy...
We told Mona we were leaving and she so joyfully yelled out: "Bye mum! Bye dad!" and we sadly left the school and waited for her at a coffee shop nearby!

When it was time to go home, our daughter didn't want to leave! She was too excited and wanted to keep playing in the sand pit!
The teachers told us that Mona was doing really well for a first day at kindy, considering the fact that she hadn't been to daycare before. They said that she was very confident in what she was doing and saying and is also very independent. They said that Mona had a go at a bit of everything and made friends pretty easily. They think Mona will do just fine at school.

This post is getting too long, so here are the videos I made of her first day at school...

PART ONE

PART TWO

Thanks for reading and I hope you enjoyed the videos!

Mona and the Tooth Fairy

Our 4 year old little darling, decided that it was time that the tooth fairy comes to visit her.
But since none of her baby teeth have fallen out yet, she thinks that she might just be able to trick the tooth fairy into believing that a peanut is actually one of her baby tooth!

Will the Tooth Fairy be tricked by a peanut?
Will the 'peanut' become a real tooth?
Who knows, but you have to see what happens to the 'peanut' baby tooth, when Mona realizes that she cannot have any more chocolate!

Hope you enjoyed this funny and cute video as much as I did!

Love,

Lady Mona dancing to 'Telephone' by Lady Gaga

Lady Mona is dancing to the hit song "Telephone" by Lady Gaga!

We are fan of Lady Gaga and were just having fun dancing.

Hope you enjoy the video too!

Conversations with God

Today, while walking back from the doctor's office, Mona and I was chatting about stuff.
Usually Mona doesn't like to hold our hands when walking outside, she is very independent and proudly claims so! She will only hold our hands when crossing the road, or when mummy and daddy think it's appropriate, like when there is a huge crowd etc...

So while walking back together she reached out her little hand and grab mine and said:

Mona: I need to hold your hands to get more leg power, so we can walk faster you know!
I thought that statement was quite interesting and funny and wanting to know more, I asked her:
More leg power honey, how does that work? How do we get more leg power by holding hands?
Mona replied: When we hold hands our blood touches inside our hands and that creates more energy and it goes to our legs and gives us leg power!
Me (intrigued): Hmmm, that's interesting! Where did you learn this honey, who told you this is how we get leg power?
Mona: God!
Me: God! Really?
Mona: Yep! God tells me everything you know!
Me: Oh ok, that must be nice! Do you talk to God a lot?
Mona: Yes, everyday all of the time!
Me: Wow, that's so cool.... So what is God like? Do you see God when you talk to him.
Mona: Sometimes! Sometimes I see God and sometimes He is in my tummy!
Me (absolutely loving this conversation by now!): So what does God look like? Is God a man or a lady?
Mona: God is a Man, just like a daddy you know, but a bit older. He is like my grandfather you know and He is really gentle when He talks to me! I like talking to God and telling Him stuff you know!
Me: Yes honey, I know. I love talking to God too.
Mona: I like talking to God's mum too! She is really nice too!
Me (totally surprised): God has a mum!?
Mona (laughing): Yes, God has a mum! Everyone has a mum! You're silly mum!
Me: Wow! So God has mum!! That's so great!!

I bend down and gave my nearly four year old daughter a big kiss, and we happily went along with the rest of our day, still holding hands all the way home...

 

Mona, Age 3 - March 2010