An adventure in Ontario

Aleta reached her 5-month birthday this past week and has had many adventures over the last month or so. She took her first plane trip, stayed in a hotel for the first time, popped two teeth, and is now starting to eat food other than mommy’s milk. Here is her story.

I took my first plane trip! After an interminably long drive to Winnipeg through a raging blizzard (thank goodness Daddy is such a good driver), we got on an airplane that flew us to Toronto. Mommy seemed to think that I would find take off and landing hard but all I did was suck on my soother and I didn’t have any problems. The lady in front of us said I was such a good baby (I guess she was happy I didn’t cry, or something, I’m not quite sure what she was thinking…).

When Daddy and I went with mommy to the Bahá’í National Centre, I met so many different people, some of who seemed to just want to eat my cheeks and cover me with lipstick. But I was a good sport and had a great time with everybody. People wondered if I ever cried!

Meeting Mandana, who, despite her reputation for wanting to eat babies' cheeks, didn't scare me at all!

Here I am with Vida:

Some other staff: Kathryn, who just got married, Mary, who Mommy hadn't seen since she was a lot younger, and Nahedeh, who was wearing a very interesting necklace:

I got to see where my mommy works, while she was helping Anne learn the archives job. She says that there are not very many archivists so maybe I should consider it a career option. Well, I have a few years to think about that. Daddy may turn me into a farmer yet.

We stayed with Parvaneh and Rostam, whom, along with their daughters, have been friends of my mommy for a long time. Khaleh Parvaneh taught me a prayer in Persian and a couple of songs. I wish she had taught my parents so that we could sing it again. Here are our hosts, along with Daddy, Rainee, and Dorothy and Michael Robinson.


I also got to visit with a couple of mommy’s other very good friends. We spent an evening with Karen and Bruce and Lindsay and Leigh – and Ricky, the dog who made me laugh! Mommy used to take care of Leigh when she was a little girl, and Lindsay was a teenager.


We had supper with Rainee at Swiss Chalet (one of the restaurants Mommy has been missing).

The next day we went to Nousha's place for lunch.

Well, the following weekend, my first tooth came in, while we were visiting Mommy’s friends Lou and Lorna Bergner (with whom she served at the Bahá’í World Centre) in Barrie. Then, I had reason to be a bit fussy! But even though I had a tooth, I didn’t get to eat the great pancakes that Lou made for breakfast.

When we visited Daddy’s Aunt Rose and Uncle Bill in Bowmanville, I still didn’t get to eat the great feast that Auntie Rose cooked.
Uncle Bill said he was sure the second tooth wasn’t far behind. Well he was right! I hardly had time to recover from the first one. After visiting Larry and Marjorie Clarke at their new home in Niagara-on-the-Lake, and just as we arrived at the Toronto airport to fly back to Winnipeg, the second one came in. Somehow I felt a bit better by the time the plane took off and I guess I slept a lot of the way back to Winnipeg.

And would you know, mommy and daddy went to see Niagara Falls at night with Larry, but left me and Marjorie at home. I guess I was sleeping. And, ha ha, they didn’t even see the Falls anyway, they could only hear them. Mommy showed me the photos she took in the snowstorm that hit just when they set out to see them. She tried to point out this dim line in the snow that was the falls, but I couldn’t make head nor tails of it. I guess next time they’ll know better to take me so we can all see them together!