The elephant in the room

Under the Christmas tree was a rather large silver box addressed to no one. There it sat patiently as all the other gifts were opened by the Urbans.

Later on when the excitement of unwrapping and opening had died down a little, Mr. Urban picked up the box and brought it over to me, "Santa seems to have left one more present under the tree for you".

I opened the lid and there inside was an old T-shirt of his. Wrapped inside that was an ipad. I thought it was really sweet. Hugs. Kisses. And after a moment of silence and gratitude all gifts were put away to get ready for our Christmas dinner.


UrbanMom: "I wonder why Santa got me an Eyepad? UrbanToddler: Cool, my own Ipad!

The next morning I awoke to an empty bed and an empty box of ipad on my bedside table. A little while later Mr. Urban, sweet as ever, told me that he had set up the ipad for me. "Great, I guess I'll put him back now in his special place" I said.

The days that followed were busy busy. The ipad sat on my bedside table. The elephant in the room. What does one do with an ipad, I secretly googled one night on my laptop?

I had just recently last year given up my HP laptop for a Macbook Pro my lovely had surprised me with a couple of years ago... How much change is really healthy? I googled.

I checked my weather app one day. And then set it back neatly on the table. Another day, I flipped the pages of the apps. And back it went to its spot atop my pile of books by my bed.

Each time the three of us were in the room together an awkward presence of an ignored third wheel could be felt... it always made me blush.

A week or so later I walked into our room to find my tiny girl laying on our bed. Propped up by two pillows. Her knees bent. She was engrossed in something.

Oh, there on her little lap lazily laid the ipad, ever so comfortably. The ipad gave me a very smug look. He didn't have to say what he was thinking, that a two year old just walked over, picked him up, turned him on, found her favorite app, and started playing. Just like that. No judgments, no hesitations.

I gave him the stink eye.

The next day I took him to a cafe with me. On a first date.

He slowly started a flirtatious banter. "Come onnnn, give me a chance darling" He said. I looked down at him laying square on the table, between me and my cafe latte, and after a second gave him a little smile. He is sexy, I give him that.   Half jokingly I said "So are you as useless as you look?"
"Just Relax! Let yourself be surprised once in a while Miss Smarty Pants... I dare you to gimme a chance" he said with a wink.

So my dear reader(s), as a dare is on, if you have a favorite app, I would so appreciate it if you could leave me a comment and share it with me.

Much Love,
The UrbanMom

FORTY THREE YEARS, SEVEN MONTHS AND FORTY DAYS

My life and the life of every Iranian I know, is bookended by the Iranian Revolution of 1979. It doesn't matter that I was barely old enough to remember this historic event or that I spent the decades that followed it, far far away from Iran, the Revolution of 1979 is a heavy, tacky, cruel bookend that defines who we used to be, who we are and the recurring nightmares and dreams we’ve had for 43 years. I can pinpoint with certainty the exact month after which a general feeling of displacement settled like sticky dust all over me, my family, my classroom, my teachers, our closest friends, our home, our city… In the years and decades that followed, I never experienced another event that brought such a magnitude of change to the nucleus of life. Not in Iran, and definitely not after a whole life lived outside of Iran. Perhaps only recently, the experience of the Trump years and the Covid-19 pandemic, the significant fear, change and frustration that both events brought to our col

On Donald Trump, Crunchy Bananas and our Children... A "How To" on keeping up Spirits and Sanity

The other morning at breakfast, my four year old looked, yet again somberly, at the breakfast before her. Despite having enthusiastically selected a hodgepodge of liberally salted hard boiled egg whites on the side of toasted hamburger buns, strawberries and vanilla yogurt and a cup of milk, she still could not bring herself to enjoy her breakfast. Her face was wrinkled, as was mine with exasperation from yet another failed attempt at assembling a palatable breakfast for my picky eater. This one, she is quite the philosopher. And before I could ask her why she wasn't eating, she said: "Two Things!" Holding up two tiny fingers. "The smells of these foods I picked, don't go with each other! And I wish Donald Trump would magically become Hillary Clinton, and the word (world) would be GREAT again". Despite our best efforts to protect our children from the anxiety of these times, they are alert and picking up on the mood (and the lingo) in the wor

Safa

I have always loved words. The way some people love shiny new objects. As soon as I heard a new word, a word that captured my imagination, my energy, my hundreds of unnamed inner thoughts and feelings, I would latch on to it with fearceness, joy and curiosity. I have also always been intrigued by how regular old words can be used in an unexpected context and evoke bursts of unexpected feelings in the listener, such as laughter, anticipation or tears. I would search for those words coming out of the mouths of everyone around me, and mentally catalog them like a dutiful librarian, and await the opportunity to say the words with my own mouth out loud to an audience, or better yet use it in an essay where the teacher could grade it, get a kick out of it, or read it to the whole class. As a child I always loved the Persian word Safa . For one thing the word sounds so simple, yet sophisticated and beautiful, and for another, each of my memories of hearing this word is stored in th

AnonymousJanuary 8, 2011 at 3:20 PM
My favourite game is Bananagrams. I also have the NY Times, Boston Globe, Yelp, Foodnetwork apps. I also think you'll like 'My Recipe Book', it helps organize all your recipes, loads of cool features. You'll love ordering book through iBooks. Congrants on getting the coolest gadget out there. XOXO P.
ShabJanuary 8, 2011 at 11:57 PM
Great suggestions P, I already know I will love these. Thanks so much!

An Urban Girl

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