Monsters in Paris

 

 

I was watching television with my children this weekend and saw Monsters in Paris. The storyline was relatively cute, on the general trend of making the underdog the hero, but what I most liked about this movie were it's wonderful graphics, which were very remniscent of  French art of the 19th century and particularly of a series of books I read as teen about a Parisian thief named Fantomas. The main character in this movie is almost a mix of him and the Phatom of the Opera as well. Take a look at this lovely song "La Seine" sung by Vanessa Paradis (who happens to look just like this cartoon version) as well as Sean Lennon (yes, the son of Yoko Ono and John Lennon):

 

 

 

 

 Also, if you are needing a good book to read, check out  The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern-

the imagery is wonderful and the storyline is unique:

World Lullabies

Soir means Evening.

 

 

image by Mark Riboud

 

To me 'evening' is one of the most beautiful words in the English language-- just the sound of it makes me think of a time to relax and unwind from a long day.

 

However,our newest creation, my son Aydin, has made evening a bit of an adventure... to say the least. :)

 

To appease this little tike and get some peace in the process, my husband and I did some searching for lullabies, in his native language: Turkish, and in mine: Arabic. We came across something lovely that kept us searching different nationalities and seeing these connections of cultures all expressing a little about their heritage or ways of life thru a simple song...

 

Here are a few examples and I hope that they may help any parents out there to get their little ones to sleep..
 

 

African Lullaby

 

Turkish Lullaby

 

 

Armenian Lullaby

 

Arabic Lullaby

 

And if anyone has any others to share please do!! :)))