You have been in two indoor playgrounds before; one for Sahand’s bday party and one for your own bday party.

This time I took you to early years center at thornhill. It is just minutes of driving from our place. You were hanging on me for most of the time, and looking at others, kids and adults. You hit yourself in face with a toy bin and cried a bit. Then you were scared of one big father who was pretending to be a monster, chasing her daughter who was pretending to be a kangaroo. You cried again! You played a bit, chewed on the toys, listened to music and watched kids dancing.

I guess you had fun. I will make this a regular weekly or semi-weekly program for you to go out and play with kids.

You are adorable honey. You need to socialize a bit more and become more independent.

I want you to remember all these, honey. I want you to remember it, whenever you feel too overwhelmed by what life brings to you.

My mom has a “Reza’i” brother. This means that the same woman has breastfed them. This “reza’i” brother is my mom’s cousin (pessar khaaleh). This means that my mom’s aunt brestfed my mom and her own son. In fact, my mom was breastfed by her owm mom (maman massi) and her aunt (khaleh roghy).

My mom’s aunt’s family are not as fortunate as we are. They have never had that much of wealth. Anyways, this “reza’i” brother is called Ali. He has a wife, Zohreh. They had four sons.

They lost one of their sons in a car accident. The other son was married and had a 3-years old daughter. But they had a car accident on the road. The beautiful little girl was thrown out of the car, and died of a concussion. Seatbelts and car seats are not mandatory (or even used much) in Iran.

This son got divorced, I am not sure why. He was around 6~7 years younger than me.

He was arrested with 12 grams of drugs. In Iran, if one carries more than 10 grams, he or she will be sentenced to death. In many cases, they hang the person in public in the neighbourhood where they lived so that others learn a lesson! (I am not sure which lesson exactly).

So, you can imagine how the family may feel. You may (or I hope you will) become a mother some day. You will understand that it is even impossible for a mother to imagine their beloved son/daughter be hanged. But bringing them in the neighbourhood and hanging them in public; it is beyond words.

Luckily, the son was diagnosed with cancer in jail. The mother was trying hard to lift the life sentence, or have his son back home where she can take care of her son herself. They didn’t let her. Again, unfortunately, they were neither wealthy, nor connected to do anything.

Again, luckily the son died of cancer in the hospital around a month ago.

But, there is something more here. Zohreh (the mother) cared enough to send you a gift. She had seen you (and hugged and kissed you a lot), when we were in Iran. She wove beautiful winter pullover, jacket, scarf and hat for you, because (I guess) she wanted to send you something, and she couldn’t afford to buy. She wove them all when his son was in prison and sentenced to death.

I will keep a couple of those pieces for you. Keep them dear and near. Whenever you feel that life is difficult, just look at them and remember a woman, a mother, whose son is in jail, waiting to be hang in public (in front of their home? or at the main intersection, or at the main square?), and she cares enough to sit and weave something for a baby girl, an adorable baby girl, somewhere on the planet, just to show her care and her love.

Their son is now in peace, and so is the heart of the mother.

My dearest Deeba; always love yourself, respect yourself, care for your self, and share the love and care wherever you are, and however you can.

This woman loved you so much, honey.

 

If we ask if you “made poopoo”, you will make the sound “eh  eh”. It doesn’t mean if you did or did not make poopoo. It is just a reaction to the word poopoo, because you know what it is!

If you hear the word “good bye”, “bye bye”, “bye”, “khodaafez”, or “shab bekheir”, you wave hands. For the words bye and good bye, it is at least 6 weeks or so. For the other words, it started happening in the past 2~3 weeks.

If we ask you “bekhaab”, you will put your head down on the bed.

You understand many words, and I think you now understand a lot of what I tell you.

You are adorable, sweetie.

We celebrated it last on Monday, February 17th, on Family Day.

I had two midterm exams and a presentation all in the week of February 10th, so, I had to celebrate your birthday a week later.

We celebrated it in MiniMania indoor playground.

On February 11th also, we had a small celebration with you, Vahid, my mom, myself and Massy khanom.

Both times, you started crying! I think you are not comfortable with the cake, the candles, or perhaps the fact that you need to sit still somewhere, and do something if you have no clue what is happening.

You are always ALWAYS the prettiest and the most attractive baby in the party.

All kids had a wonderful time in the playground. 😀

You adorable thing; happy birthday sweetie. You made it. 😀

And….I made it too. I am soooooo happy and thankful for you and your dad.