Of Blackcurrents and Gooseberrys

2009-05-20T18:11:00.003-04:00

Strawberries and blackcurrents

Nettles and asparagus

Why do the clouds look like phoenixes

(or is it phoenices?)

over Hillingdon, they rise.

One skips, one toddles

one runs after the others

Don't climb up the stairs!

Watch out for the bears!

We'll go to bed now

now, now, now.

2009-05-17T18:42:00.002-04:00

It's poetry season on the BBC now, so here is my little offering to their altar of small gods:

Two little girls

I remember their faces

when first they saw the light

Such wonder they brought with them

into this dark yet hopeful life

I see them every day

Yet they belie belief

That such angels can belong

To a fool such as me

2008-12-19T12:31:00.000-04:00

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year everyone!

2008-12-19T12:15:00.003-04:00

Snowy Seven Quercus L.

2008-09-27T06:18:00.003-04:00

2008-09-27T06:14:00.001-04:00

Aida welcoming Dana to the world.

2008-05-02T17:48:00.001-04:00

Two little cuties! Here's Aida with her new baby sister Dana!

2008-03-31T03:10:00.003-04:00

Portrait of a fruit monster in her new home.
Aida helped me assemble and put up these bookcases! Look at her proud face.

Ahh, snug as a bug in a rug!

2008-03-31T02:58:00.004-04:00

Ah, sunny England! Here we are with Elham & Faraz at the top of the Tonbridge castle motte.

Spending time during our last days in Puerto Rico at the Mayaguez zoo (instead of packing and getting ready to move)

2008-01-07T05:56:00.001-04:00

Feeding the ducks near Boulter's Lock.

I scream, you scream, Aida eats ice cream (at the Shire Horse Centre on the A4).

2008-01-07T05:49:00.001-04:00

I love these photos. Hope you do too.

2008-01-07T05:44:00.000-04:00

Well, 2008 is here and we have moved to London from Mayaguez. A new chapter in our lives, and a chance to start afresh. Aida is loving it! Here we are, seeing in the New Year at Nana's house. (Beer edited out :-)).

Here's our little princess dancing until the early hours of New Year's day!

2007-07-29T13:15:00.001-04:00

Ooh, so many birthday presents! I want to be 2 years old again next year.

2007-07-29T13:12:00.001-04:00

Juice! But only if I can wear my new Little Mermaid swimsuit. And no, I won't take it off to go to bed.

2007-05-28T21:03:00.000-04:00

2007-04-26T17:49:00.000-04:00

Aida meets a squirrel in Hyde Park for the first time, and fed it cashew nuts. She did it so well that some passer-bys came and joined in later (and stole the squirrel from our little star, the meanies!)

Aida teaching Uncle Dion and Auntie Kayleigh how to play with toys correctly!

2007-01-08T02:29:00.000-04:00

Now, which way do I go?
Hey, I've seen that before!
Maybe the casino?
Or Canal Street?

2007-01-08T02:26:00.000-04:00

Dancing by the Mississippi ...

2007-01-08T02:16:00.000-04:00

Crouching baby, hidden dragon!

2007-01-08T02:14:00.000-04:00

Here we are, enjoying a walk in the park, right by Ol' Man Mississippi. Aida is loving every minute of it.

2006-12-07T20:39:00.000-04:00

A pretty lil one in a hat, and just while crying, she decides to laugh ...

2006-10-29T20:32:00.000-04:00

Here we are, with another photo for Maman-Jon

2006-10-28T18:43:00.000-04:00

now she wants the camera

2006-10-28T18:34:00.000-04:00

Aida in the kitchen in Nana's birthday present!

2006-09-27T21:31:00.000-04:00

Happy 1st Birthday Aida!

2006-09-27T21:28:00.000-04:00

Cheeky Teletubby fan!

2006-09-27T19:42:00.000-04:00

Walking in the garden, like a teddy bear ...

2006-09-27T19:29:00.000-04:00

Hanging around on the 24 of Sept.

2006-08-01T00:16:00.000-04:00

2006-08-01T00:09:00.000-04:00

This is a sequence of portrait photos of Aida for her 1st birthday (taken 26/7/2006 in West Lafayette, IN)

2006-06-28T14:12:00.000-04:00

I am just about to cry, but right now I will pose prettily for the camera.

2006-06-28T13:44:00.000-04:00

No I won't be photographed!!!!!

2006-06-24T12:04:00.000-04:00

No longer a baby - she's a grown up toddler

2006-06-24T12:02:00.000-04:00

Can you say "dribble"?

2006-06-24T12:01:00.001-04:00

Wow, a swing!

2006-06-24T12:01:00.000-04:00

Ooh, so many things to see.

2006-06-24T11:59:00.000-04:00

Making new friends in Rodger's Forge, Towson (Baltimore)

2006-06-24T11:58:00.000-04:00

We stayed with Chantal & Pierre (who is not in the photo). Aida took a real shine to Chantal, especially when they went to the toddler park together.

2006-06-24T11:57:00.000-04:00

Having fun in Washington D.C.!

2006-06-01T02:31:00.000-04:00

3 little kittens together at Beverly's

2006-06-01T02:29:00.001-04:00

Here's a happy pair!

2006-06-01T02:29:00.000-04:00

Aida's idea of putting things away is to pull everything onto the floor!

2006-02-03T13:07:00.000-04:00

Although this one has bad lighting, I like it!

2006-02-03T13:02:00.000-04:00

Baby Aida and Haedeh are in England at the moment, so I am all alone in Mayaguez :-( This photo is about a week old, and baby had just discovered this book. She *loves* books!

2006-01-23T01:00:00.000-04:00

Baby Aida playing with her friend Sophia Catharine.

2006-01-23T00:59:00.000-04:00

... and at this point I want to join in too ...

2006-01-23T00:55:00.000-04:00

Ooh, I think I feel my first tooth!!!!

2006-01-14T13:09:00.000-04:00

... and this one is for Maman Jon!

2006-01-14T13:08:00.000-04:00

Who's a sleepy darling then?

2006-01-12T00:33:00.000-04:00

I like her expression here.

2006-01-12T00:30:00.000-04:00

Look, baby Aida can sit on her own now.

2006-01-10T21:53:00.000-04:00

See, she got it open!

2006-01-10T21:52:00.000-04:00

Opening Christmas presents during her first Christmas.

2006-01-10T21:50:00.000-04:00

A hot lil' tot in San Juan.

2006-01-02T19:03:00.000-04:00

Look, I can carry my own water bottle!

2006-01-02T14:58:00.000-04:00

At the airport in San Juan, saying bye bye to Nana and Uncle Dion

2006-01-02T14:56:00.000-04:00

Out and about in Old San Juan

2006-01-02T14:54:00.000-04:00

Who's got a really silly expression?

2006-01-02T14:53:00.000-04:00

Baby's first solid food (mashed banana from our garden). She couldn't get enough of it!

2005-11-26T16:19:00.000-04:00

Sleepy time.

2005-11-26T16:16:00.000-04:00

Baby meets Nana ... and Baby wins!

2005-11-26T15:58:00.000-04:00

Gorbuney beram!

2005-11-26T15:55:00.000-04:00

Look at me, I am having *such* a great time in cold, windy, wintery London!

2005-11-26T15:47:00.000-04:00

Slightly out of time sequence - this is baby Aida in her race car shopping bag in Puerto Rico. She may be small but she's fast!

2005-11-26T15:45:00.000-04:00

Aida meets Bob the Bear, and much to Dion's apprehension, may have found the bear of her dreams.

2005-11-26T15:41:00.000-04:00

Here Aida is being khaley cutie for her baba bozorg :-) Go Grandad!

2005-11-25T06:10:00.000-04:00

The two baby Changs together at last ...

2005-11-25T06:07:00.000-04:00

The family dinner table!

2005-11-12T23:43:00.000-04:00

Come cuddle me!

2005-11-12T23:41:00.000-04:00

Awwwwww ...

2005-11-12T23:40:00.000-04:00

This was the other view ...

2005-11-12T23:39:00.000-04:00

Aida and I went out to the back porch today and I managed to get this (one hand holding camera, one hand holding baby). Isn't she just adorable?

2005-11-03T20:19:00.000-04:00

This is baby's favourite new trick ... how far can she stuff her fist into her mouth! (pretty far, actually)

2005-11-03T20:16:00.000-04:00

Baby is fascinated by the doggies on the sheet ... yes, I know, the bed sheet looks like it never gets changed, because it keeps appearing on the photos. We do change it, honest!

2005-11-03T20:15:00.000-04:00

Boo! I woke her up with the camera :o)

2005-11-03T20:14:00.000-04:00

All dressed up and ready to go out ... ? (8 Oct)

2005-10-21T21:51:00.000-04:00

The lil' monster side of Aida appears ... (21 Oct)

2005-10-21T21:50:00.000-04:00

We'd just come back from shopping (I am off to Boston for 5 days). The two babies are posing :-)

2005-10-16T23:58:00.000-04:00

Baby and her friend Sophia are queens of the table at the restaurant at the Lazy Parrot Inn, Rincon, PR (8 Oct)

2005-10-16T23:52:00.000-04:00

After a while without internet access from home, we are finally back! So to celebrate, here is Aida (dribbly with milk) saying hello! (13 Sep)

2005-09-10T14:29:00.000-04:00

Woohoo! Just learnt how to send photos from my mobile phone to blogger (go.blogger.com) and as a result, I have another blogspot page which I have linked to on the right hand links menu. Now I can post some other early pictures of Aida that I had on my phone!

2005-09-10T12:43:00.000-04:00

Here's lookin' at you kid!

2005-09-10T12:41:00.000-04:00

Baby with baby looking at baby :-)

2005-09-10T12:36:00.000-04:00

This is baby demanding "Cuddle Me!!!"

2005-09-05T18:18:00.000-04:00

Mmmm ... milky face ....

2005-09-05T18:05:00.000-04:00

You lookin' at me? You lookin' at me?

2005-09-05T18:04:00.000-04:00

In this photo Aida looks a little like Dudley, from the Harry Potter books :-)

2005-09-05T12:15:00.000-04:00

Now this is what I call a strong baby! 4-Sep-05 ... Aida is 1 month and 8 days old, 9 pounds and 12 ounces (4.4kg) and 22.5 inches (57cm) long.

2005-09-05T11:41:00.000-04:00

I've just created the site

http://sunnyliving.castpost.com

which should host a Quicktime format (.mov) clip of baby playing with Snoopy. I hope it is accessible and works for those of you who have a high enough bandwidth to download from it.
Do be patient as the file is a little large (I don't recommend downloading if you are only on a 56K modem ... the movie is 3,804Kb!) If it turns out to work well, I may put up more movies in future.

2005-09-04T19:40:00.000-04:00

My two spoilt princesses. Notice that I have been kicked out of the bed.

2005-09-04T19:38:00.000-04:00

After a hard day's crying, baby goes into a defensive posture.

2005-09-04T19:37:00.000-04:00

Aida met Snoopy after a month and it seems they got on really well. And she didn't throw up on him!

2005-09-04T19:33:00.000-04:00

Aida is starting to threaten the paparazzi, Sean Penn style. "Don't take any more photos of me!"

2005-09-04T19:31:00.000-04:00

Finally, it was all over. We came home and Aida complained that it was all too short.

2005-09-04T19:29:00.000-04:00

This is Aida on her way to the bar ...

2005-09-04T19:26:00.000-04:00

But it seems that Yasi and Barbara had fun!

2005-09-04T19:25:00.000-04:00

Of course, Aida found that all very tiring.

2005-09-04T19:24:00.000-04:00

With all the sun, sea, surf and sand ... we also got the rain from hurricane Katrina.

2005-09-04T19:23:00.000-04:00

Hey, life *with* a baby is tiring! So much so that we went on a short holiday, down to Copa Marina (www.copamarina.com) to have some R&R. Also, we had 9 people in the house at once, not counting our lil' starlet.

2005-09-04T19:17:00.000-04:00

Life as a baby is just *so* tiring.