Four Years Ago Today

The little boy in the photo is the light of my life.

Four years and one day ago I could never have imagined that anyone could capture my heart the way he has.

On December 9, 2005, we arranged for a family dinner--Farida, Jason, Nasreen along with Sunny and Eddie, Jason's mom and stepdad. Farida was to be on her way to the hospital later that evening, with Hunter scheduled to be born the next day. This was to be a last get-together before the Blessed Event.

Nasreen and I went on ahead to BJ's Brewhouse in Irvine to await the arrival of the others. We ordered Cokes and waited. And waited.

Hunter has always marched to a different drummer, so enroute to dinner that night, he decided to change his parents' plans.

"Let me try to call Jason," Nas offered. "No answer," she said, after the phone went to voicemail. Still we waited, figuring they'd gotten caught in Friday night traffic. She tried again; still no response.

Suddenly Jason rushed into the restaurant.

"Don't you people ever leave your phones on? Farida's water broke, and we're on the way to the hospital."

Why we hadn't received his call, I don't know, but that was before the days when my cell phone became my primary means of communication. I probably didn't have it on. In any case, we scouted out our server, let her know we wouldn't be dining that evening and let her know why. As I recall, she even comped us our drinks. Obviously she didn't want to delay us any further.

She needn't have worried. Hunter decided he wouldn't be born immediately. About 10:30 that evening Jason suggested that we might all want to go home to get some sleep, and he'd call us with any news. It made sense to us since it looked like Hunter wasn't going to make his appearance anytime soon.

At a little after 7:00 am the next morning, Jason called.

"You have a grandson."

Whoohoooo!!! I couldn't wait to see the little dark-haired, brown-eyed boy we'd been expecting. After all, how else could he be with a Pakistani grandfather and a half-Pakistani mother with beautiful olive skin and big brown eyes?

Once again Hunter had us fooled. What hair he had was blonde, his eyes were clear sky-blue, and his complexion was fairer than mine. Needless to say, he was gorgeous--and he looked exactly like his father.

He still does.

These photos are the latest I've taken of Hunter, shot on Saturday, December 4, as we had breakfast at Pete's.

The eyes are still blue, the hair still blond and spiky, like his father's. He has a sense of humor and makes me laugh every time I'm with him.

And he's still the most gorgeous little boy I've ever seen in my life.

I knew it!

I was living dangerously, and I knew it. How long would it be until I got the "dreaded" message (dreaded only because it was deserved). Where ARRREEEEEEEE YOU? It arrived last week.

Through thick and thin Betty has always been there to make sure I'm okay. If I go too long without blogging, she'll nudge me just a little. When she finally got email a few years back, I told her it was wonderful because I'd be able to be a better correspondent--something I've failed at miserably since she moved to Israel waaayyyyyy too many years ago. I lied. Email didn't improve my communication skills. Then when I started my blogs, she applauded that because at least then she could keep up with me whenever I'd post. Yeah, right.

Anyhow, here I am, after almost a month's absence with no excuses and nothing to show for my disappearance.

Not a single trip to Yosemite.

Not one hike.

Can't even blame work. How can you blame something you do only two days a week? Except that I did actually put in five days in a row in October. That was tough!

Hardly any photos.

Foxy looks depressed.

So does my granddog, Dakota.

Even Hunter looks a little down-in-the-mouth. But that's only because he was waiting (and waiting . . . and waiting . . . and waiting . . .) for his dad to light the candles on his birthday cake, blow 'em out and CUT THE DARN THING. His hangdog look has nothing, nothing whatsoever, to do with his Ani's missing blog posts. (BTW how many of you grandmas out there have a name created especially for you by your one-and-only grandson? We have NO idea where the name "Ani" came from, but Hunter adopted it, and it's stuck. I love it!)

And now Farida will be dejected--because she didn't like the "heart background" I used on the above photo.

Just for her, here's one of the other edits I did. Don't think she especially liked the maroon/purple texture on this one, either.

That should tell y'all that a lot of time since the last post has been spent experimenting with Photoshop and trying to learn all the program has to offer. I've got a long, long way to go yet, but every day I master some new tidbit.

We were lucky enough to have two (2) visits from Nasreen during October. She couldn't resist the opportunity to spend Halloween with her favorite nephew and help celebrate Jason's birthday. It was a quiet weekend, but filled with lots of great family time.

Unfortunately another family gift has been making the rounds over the last month and a half--a cold that keeps recurring like clockwork. We figure Hunter's going to school might have a bit to do with the fact that we've passed it around and around. I've had one version or another consistently since September 22. (The date sticks in my mind because I originally got sick on my way back from a photo shoot in Yosemite that date.) The cough has been brutal and a lack of energy means that I mope around a lot more than I'd like. Farida, Jason and Hunter have all "enjoyed" repeated episodes, as well.

Speaking of Farida, she's been doing some photo shoots lately and has recently put up the initial version of her website, wilksphotography.com . She's been working hard on designing a bigger, better site, but you can see some of her awesome photographs at this one for now, until she's ready to publish the final version. Both she and Jason are very talented artists, and I'm excited to see them exploring their abilities and their creativity.


This afternoon I'm going out to shoot a few photos around Yosemite Lakes Park. We've got some great fall colors cooking, and my camera hasn't been out of its bag for over a week.

That's it. That's all the excitement around here.