What do our animals say?

Maya and Sahara are starting to talk more and more each day. For example they can say:

sit = pronounced "shit"

up = pronounced "up-a"

more = pronounced "moooo"

These are just a few examples. The girls are also having fun with their animal sounds.

You have to check out this video clip of Sahara below.

I'm asking her in Arabic, "Who is my love?" She is raising her hands saying "Ana", which means me. I then ask her "Who is my soul?" and she raises her hands, "me!" I then ask her "Who is my heart?", "Me !" As you can see, I'm really enjoying this age (21 months).

Two little girls and their grandfathers

"Enough with the pictures mom".

Toes on the nose.

Grandpa Epi and Sahara.

Grandpa Sido with his two little granddaughters at Oceanside beach.

Can you believe it was warm enough to be in swimsuits.

Sweetness...

SURPRISE !!!

Last weekend Nader decided to treat me to a weekend birthday getaway. We left the girls with the grandparents and took off to San Diego. We started our little vacation in Hillcrest where we found the most amazing french bakery. After we enjoyed some of their delightful pastries we strolled around Hillcrest taking in the sites and enjoying some quiet time together. Now as it turns out my cousin's wife, Lena, works for the Hyatt and reserved us the most amazing corner suite.

Here's the view from our room. In the distance you can see an aircraft carrier that has been converted into a museum. Also note the beautiful clear blue skies. It felt like Summer in the day time.

Another stunning view from our room.

At sunset we walked around Seaport Village which was directly behind the hotel we were staying in.



Now here's the fun part. Nader made reservations at Aqua Al 2 for what I thought was a romantic evening for two. But to my surprise, the hostess led us to a table full of friends. No wonder Nader was not hip to my suggestion to have dinner earlier that evening. Nader...you sneaky devil. We sat and had a proper Italian dinner that lasted for nearly four hours. The food was great and the company was even better. From left to right: Matt and Alyssa, Sayola and Scott, John and Mille, and lastly Nader and Rima.

Afterwards we went for a nightcap at the hotel bar on top of the Hyatt. Here's a great shot of Sayola and I. Believe it or not folks Nader and I stayed up until nearly 1 a.m. that night. I know, I know...we're a bunch of party animals.

I almost forgot to mention that my cousin hooked up a room for our friends too ! Another great surprise. So the next morning we all had breakfast together then took a walk in the warm sun around Seaport Village. Here's another group shot.

All in all we had a marvelous time and afterwards hurried home to see our little monkeys who were missed.

Lights, Camera, Action !!!!

A good friend of mine from Hawaii, Natalia, is a talented photographer and she has been capturing our girls images as they have been growing. I decided to share some of her recent photos with you.

Happy Birthday !

It was my birthday on January 6th and we celebrated my 35th birthday in Vegas. It so happens to be my close friend's birthday also (LOL Lahela!!), so we celebrated the joyous occasion of growing older together.

We started the night at Little Buddha for dinner at the Palms and ended the night at the Foundation Room at the Mandalay. Here are a few small snapshots of the night.

From top to bottom, a view of the strip from the top of the Mandalay. Below that all the ladies at dinner. Second to last is a picture of the birthday girls. And lastly, Kathy, me and Lahela. What a wonderful night of laughs with close friends. I'm happy to report that I made it to midnight that night. Wow !!!!

Aside from the birthday festivities, Sahara and Maya got a little gambling in at the Mandalay. I told Sahara she should take out her binky, it makes her look younger.

We also visited the Hoover Dam. My father, Grandpa Epi, was with us so we got in a little sight seeing. As it turns out, Grandpa Epi has not been to Vegas in over 40 years.

Those were the highlights of our trip, the untold low points include an exploding wisdom tooth in Sahara's mouth that sent us running to a dentist only to be told that such things are normal. Unfortunately it looked far from normal. And the constant striping down and streaking of the twins, which is cute the first couple of times but gets old when you have to constantly chase them down with their clothes in your hands.

Here are a few random pictures of the monkey twins since there wasn't much pictures of them in this blog entry.

Sahara eating yogurt. She has a beauty secret that keeps her looking young. She covers her face with whatever she happens to be eating at the time. It seems to be working for her.

Here's a cute over the shoulder look from Maya. She was coloring / drawing which is a new favorite pass time.


Grandpa Epi has a weak eye which has him wearing an eye patch every once in a while. Well the girls think is looks pretty funny and could not resist using it themselves.

Sahara could be a baby pirate in this picture.


And here are my two monkeys sitting with their two monkeys.

Happy New Year

Well as usual Nader and I could not stay up until midnight dispite all of our efforts. We had two bottles of champagne chilling in the fridge that went unopened. We did manage to make it to 9:30 p.m. which is techniqally past New Year's in NYC. :> I know, we are lame. Enough about that, here's how we have been spending our days.

We took the girls to Balboa Park and the San Diego Zoo. Here they are on a toddler ride. They looked so serious the entire time, I take it that they did not like it very much.

Check out the huge butterflies.

There is a huge old school carousel at Balboa Park that we could not resist.

Here's a photo of Sahara pointing to the flamingo's. Grandpa Epi is standing directly behind her.

Maya posed with the gorilla statue. She thought it would be nice to put her fingers in the gorilla's nose for the picture.

Maya and Sahara have been enjoying their new toys from Christmas. It did not take very long before Sahara found a way to replace herself with the sink.

We went to the Children's Museum in Escondido and had a wonderful time. Here's Maya and Sahara playing in a little house.

Here's the little house.

They also had an area dedicated to bubbles. Here are the wonder twins in action.