Choozo spells his full name!

He graciously spelt his name for me last night. I am beaming with happiness!





This video is captured with an Cartoon theme application. It will not look like a real video!

Choozi in traditional attire

She loves to eat, now that she knows how to use fork and spoon, watch out!

My dad and I looking smooth.

My dad and my bhai, and Asad bhai, the boys.

More pics from our Lafayette trip

At Aneela baaji's backyard, exploring with dad.


Waking bhai up!


Yup, I got strawberries all over my mouth, gotta brush the seeds out!


Oops, got caught with Daadi!


I am sticking my head in.


My momma and I, high up on a hill or should I say, mini-mole hill?

During our Bay area trip, we stopped by Casa De Fruta (House of Fruits) on 152, Choozo had a ball throwing pebbles onto the pond filled with gold fishes and ducks. These crisp pictures came from a cell phone, not mine, but Choozo's dad.

Choozo has skillz!

I bought a bucket of vanilla flavored alphabets cookies for Choozo. He was in love with them, they tasted buttery and good, even Choozo's dad liked it. They were sturdy shortbread cookies, for $1.49 at Vons.

He knows all his 26 alphabets, can count 1- almost thru 100. He reads signs, license plates, sing songs...he knows tel phone no. (with proper dialing way, 1 followed by area code...for his dad, mom, aunt alicia, uncle kong, home, alicia's home and also grandpa international no.

Last night, he did something so awesome, my jaw dropped to the floor. He was fishing for the alphabet cookies one by one and forming words on the sofa. After his first set of words, I joined in by helping him dig thru the cookie bucket. He asked for a specific alphabet, I tried throwing him off by transposing some letters, he told me, "Mom, "V" first, not "E", later! Try again!" His favorite word now, TRY AGAIN!



He spelled all 3 words by himself (THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, STARBUCKS COFFEE, GAMEOVER(not in pic), he loves proper alignment, he is into Elmo and Pocoyo (a spanish cartoon translated into British English). I am not one to brag, was worried for a while that he was a slow starter in the language department, but watch him now!

Samer Graduation 2011 weekend

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Samer Graduation 2011 writeup

On Saturday, we left at 11.00 am for Pleasant Hill where our hotel is. I found a deal on Priceline.com where 2 connecting suites, we made good time, even stopped at Casa de Fruta where Choozo had fun throwing pebbles in a pond and looked at fishes and duckies. We browsed at the candy store and the fruit stand, after that, we arrived at out hotel, Residence Inn Marriot Pleasant Hill Concord. The room is has a fully equipped kitchen, breakfast counter, dishwasher, full size fridge, microwave oven, electric stove and most of all, a huge big screen tv. The kids took a nap which is mandatory, or else, I have two sleep-deprived brats on my hands.

We arrived at the restaurant, from a short drive, to Alborz at Walnut Creek. The persian restaurant serves great food, loved their chicken & minced beef kebabs and I even took a bite of leg of lamb, it was not gamey which is very nicely done. The herbal rice was fantastic and the eggplant appetizer was delicious. To end the meal, we had chocolate cake from Whole Foods, which was to Die for!!! I meant it-to die for!

Samer's High School Graduation Cookie Frame

I made this for Samer's graduation, the frame is made of fondant, the picture and wordings printed on edible frosting sheet and it sits on a 13" by 15" sugar cookie which is stuck together with royal icing and buttercream.

This edible art is supported with a wooden easel made by my dear friend, Derek Walker, a genius in all things metal, wood & he is a superb chef.