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Kayhon Eric Wood (left) was born on December 13th, 2004 at 5:57PM, weighed 6-lbs, 3-oz and was 20 inches long. Kayhon (pronounced K-hon, where “hon” rimes with “lawn”) means “The Universe”. Eric is the name of my next oldest brother. 

Rassa James Wood (right) was born one minute later, weighed 6-lbs, 8-oz and was 20-1/2 inches long. Rassa (pronounced ra-saw, where “ra” rhymes with “rack”), means “a profound voice with the ability to reach everyone”. James is my father’s name.

Kayhon and Rassa are names considered strong and modern in Iran. In Iran, almost all names have some literal meaning. Nikoo means “good, beautiful and elegant” and today, seeing her with her new children, she definitely lives up to that meaning.

They are not identical twins, and already show very different physical attributes and personalities. Kayhon is more physically active and constantly wiggles out of his blanket and has a hard time calming down to start nursing. He is aggressive with the bottle too and, if you let him, will swallow down the whole thing without stopping, and then toss half of it back up. So you have to give him breaks in between.

Rassa is more casual about things and other than when he is hungry or wet he will pleasantly look around. When you stop feeding him, he drifts quickly to sleep. When he is real hungry, he makes faces like a growling little tiger tearing at the blanket. They can both be calmed out of crying by blowing on their faces or listening to Mozart.

I keep expecting them to be more patient when they are hungry, but my wife says expecting a patient baby is like waiting to find a mature husband. But those are the best parts anyway – the nursing, feeding, burping, comforting and changing. They are too young to “play” with us, so this is the time we get to be very close to them. After nursing, Nikoo hands them off to me for supplemental bottle-feeding and she gets some needed sleep. After, they fall asleep in my lap or on my chest before I put them back to bed. But the whole feeding process can take 2 hours, and they need to be fed every 2-4 hours, so sometimes one feeding runs into the next and we don’t get any sleep at all. But we are also lucky, they are very pleasant babies, don’t cry too much or have any physical problems. 

We are happy that you have expressed your love for our two new little ones. It is love; after all, that makes space in little (and large) hearts so they may be filled with joy, courage, compassion and wisdom. We, as new parents, would like you to know how strongly we feel about this concept – our doors are always open to you.