Rhea’s Baptism and the action packed week leading to it..

It felt like we’ve been planning rhea’s baptism forever. The big day was on Saturday(Aug 26) and Thank God everything worked out perfectly well, except for the camera glitch..i’ll get to that shortly.

I got all the cards out and even got confirmation from everyone regarding their attendance 2 weeks in advance, we placed the order for food and also got everything else covered before the end of last week. I’m usually a procrastinator so this was a huge accomplishment. We were thinking of having Naadan kerala food initially but we would have to pick it from Germantown, which is a good 1 hour drive each way from home. I’m so glad we finally decided to drop that idea (we figured we would end up spending half the day Saturday driving up and down for the food) and decided to order food from Minerva which is just 10 mins from home. The whole of last week was extremely busy too, Achachan and Mummy came back from Florida on Monday (they had a fantastic trip), Anishchayan, Chechi and kids got back from India on Tuesday and Daddy & Mummy came on Friday. Thursday was Daddy & Mummy’s wedding anniversary so we had everyone over for dinner on Friday and also cut the cake. Mummy had made a huge spread – Fried Rice, Caramel Chicken, Shrimp Olathu, Raitha, Rice, Kaachu Moru, Beans Thoran, Fish Vaatipattichathu and pickle. Daddy and Mummy were tired and jet lagged but were happy to celebrate their anniversary with the whole family.

Saturday rolled around fast and all of us were very excited. Sean kept saying ‘Are we having baby’s birthday party?’ and we had to keep reminding him that it was her ‘Baptism’ not birthday. He was confused but happy that a lot of kids were coming over and kept saying, ‘Lot of kids are coming.You have to share your toys. No fighting’. I just hoped that he’d remember at least some of that when the time came and he did (More about that down).

Aji and Achachan got all the last minute errands (like getting ice for the drinks) done in the morning and around 3pm went to Minerva and got the food. It was good to have the van. Everything fit in the trunk and we didn’t have any big spills…except for a little bit of the sugar syrup from the gulab jamun but the lawn bag liners caught all of that. Daddy, Mummy, Anishchayan and the kids came around quarter after 4. Sean was still napping. I got Rhea all dressed. We decided to carry her baptism dress and change her into that after the mass. Mass was at 5pm and we had to leave at least by 4:40pm to be able to make it on time. I was beginning to wonder if we will make it in time, so I woke sean up and got him ready, Aji, Mummy and Achachan also were all set and we were out the door by 4:45pm. Well, just before we left for church is when we thought of taking some quick pictures and realized that there was some problem with our digital camera, it wasnt working at all...it was such a HUGE disappointment. Hopefully we have some good ones on Anishchayans and Achachans camera and some on our video. Achachan had brought a suit from India but it didn’t seem to go well with his shirt so Anishchayan lent his sports jacket (Thanks Anishchayan!!) to achachan. He looked great and reminded me of Oommer (yesteryear mallu actor). We managed to reach church as the first reading commenced. Ittirachen and family were already there. Mass got over around 5:40pm and Aji and I changed Rhea into her Baptism dress. She looked so cute all dressed in white with a tiny white bow on her hair to complete the look.

The Baptism itself started around 6pm. There was another family with 3 kids. The priest had both the families on the pews on either side of the altar. Achachan and Mummy were Rhea’s God parents. Mummy held Rhea and achachan lit the candle. She didn’t cry when the priest poured the water over her head. She loves bath time so I guess she was thinking it was bath time again. We took some pictures in the church and we got Rhea’s baptism certificate. Our lil girl was officially christened - Rhea Elizabeth Joseph.




We got home around 6:45pm. Sean wanted to wear his new kurta pyjama for the party. He was sooo cute in it. Sarah and Suzanna looked gorgeous in their chanya choli.Everyone started arriving by 7:30pm and soon we had a house full of people, kids running around and playing in the basement. It was a lot of fun. Rhea was a happy camper but she was pretty worn out by 9pm (her bed time) and both the ammachi’s took turns to put her to bed. Sean played really well with Sarah, Kavya, Arnav, Arunima and Meherbaan. He shared all his toys even his Thomas the tank engine. We are so proud of him. We had Chicken Pakodas and Vegetable cutlets with dates and coriander chutney as appetizers. Dinner was served around 9 and included Naan, Vegetable Biriyani, Navaratan Kurma, malai Kofta, Butter Chicken, Chicken 65, Raitha and Salad. Dessert was Gulab jamun and Ice cream. For drinks there was wine, sparkling cider, beer for the guys, margaritas for the women and soft drinks for the kids. We also had Red Label but every one preferred to have beer and wine. There was quite a lot of food left and we packed some for everyone. By the time everyone left it was around 11:30pm. It was a fun filled night and everyone had a fantastic time. Rhea slept like a champ till morning after waking up briefly before midnight for her post dinner snack. It was the perfect ending to very special day.

Babykutty, I love you !

Those are sean’s words. He calls rhea, babykutty these days. Its so cute to hear him almost singing –

Baby kutty

Baby kutty

I love you



And he’ll plant a big kiss on her face. She gets all excited when he is around her. She will get all giggly and will babble as if talking to him. I love watching them together and its amazing to see how they communicate with each other. I’ll post some pictures soon.

Rhea loves her veggies

I gave her ‘sweet potatoes’ on 19th as her first veggie. She wasn’t quite sure of the taste initially but started to like it soon after. She has been having that for a meal and rice cereal for dinner. She is not enjoying the rice cereal as much as earlier I guess it tastes pretty bland compared to the sweet potatoes. Maybe I can get her to eat it by mixing the rice cereal with the sweet potatoes. We’ll start carrots today. Hope she’ll like them.

Hi, I'm Rhea!

Starting friday we realized that Rhea has started to actually respond to her name. I say this with a lot of confidence because I did a lot of data collection in this regard - like calling her zillion different pet names and then thrwoing in 'Rhea' occassionally and Yes! she would look at me only when I called her 'Rhea'. It was a fun excercise too because all the while i call her chikkoos and moluu etc she would not look at me at all and then when i call her 'Rhea' it was instant reaction!!

Well so there it is our lil girl knows her name now!!!

Our Portraits

Last saturday we got our portraits at sears. Here are some of the pictures. We haven't gotten the prints yet, so these are from their website. Here they are,

We're a team!

Brotha & Sistah!

Rhea, Cheta loves you!

Be Gentle Cheta!

This is fun!

The four of us.

All in the family.

It’s the lil things that make you teary eyed!

Today morning Aji was planning to go for a jog and as he was getting out of bed, Sean half sleepily asked - Dad, where are you going?

Aji: I’m going for a jog
Sean: Be careful while jogging.

It was soo cute…he being so concerned about Aji’s safety. I guess he has heard aji telling me ‘Drive Carefully’ everyday when I leave early morning and was repeating the same concern for aji. Sometimes its these moments that make your heart swell and get you all teary eyed!!!

I love our lil Seany boy!!!

5 Months Old !!!

HAPPY FIVE MONTH BIRTHDAY RHEA!!

Rhea turned 5 months old on Sunday! She has changed so much in the last month. She will now hold onto pretty much everything. If you hold her close to your face she will hold onto your cheeks, ear or hair...whatever she can get a hold of and pull it with all her might! She seems to have a lot of fun doing it but Ouch is all I can say! She has also learned to play by herself with her toys for short stretches - she will hold onto her rattle tightly and shake it vigorously. She is however happiest when Sean entertains her with his trains and trucks. Mostly though he just needs to be there beside her, doing what to us may sometimes seem very mundane like throwing a washcloth up and down and that’s enough to start her on a laugh riot. She will continue her giggles and squeals for the longest time and we have to ask Sean to stop just so that she can catch a breath and settle down. Sean always has a few of these class acts up his sleeve and its hilarious to watch them together!! It'll be fun to watch how well they play together when she gets older. She now enjoys her rice cereal and i think she looks forward to her dinner everyday. She gets very excited when she sees me or mummy preparing her cereal and is pretty good at cleaning up the plate. We will introduce her to veggies this week and slowly progress to fruits. She is also now trying to hold onto the spoon when i feed her the cereal or onto the bottle with both hands as if she wants to feed herself. The cutest though is when she holds onto my fingers tight when she nurses in the night and falls asleep. Its a very special feeling and i treasure those few moments every night.

Sunday evening we went to our friends, Sunita & Ittirachen's place since it was their son Alex's 5th birthday. Sean had a great time playing with Alex. Of course he was beyond thrilled that he got to play with all of Alex's trains and trucks too. Rhea had a fantastic time. There were almost 30 people but she was her happy self. She is such a charmer (she gets that from her dad!) and was enjoying being the center of attention. Everybody wanted to hold her and play with her and she was such a diplomat, happily obliging and giving everyone her fair share of attention. Melissa (Alex’s 9 yr old sister) was getting a whole bunch of stuffed toys for her to play. By the time we started our drive back she was completely exhausted and fell asleep right away !

Drum Rolls please !!!!

Yesterday after I got back from work, achachan logged onto Deepika online to read the news. In 2 mins time he came out very excited. The Kerala State Karshika awards were announced and guess who won the Skhoni award (Soil conservation and water management) – LEELAMMA TOMY!!!!

Congratulations to Achachan…its is a true testimony to your relentless hard work and vision. And good job Mummy, for being the pillar of support and encouragement to Achachan!!! This is a huge recognition and the award is Rs 25,000 and a citation!! The best part is that achachan’s sister Elsy ammai is the winner of the Karshakothama award. The karshaka officer called from Kerala to give Achachan the good news. The award ceremony is in Trivandrum on Aug 17th and will be presented by the Chief Minister. I feel really bad that Achachan and Mummy will not be there in person to receive the award. That weekend they’re going to Florida and they’ll be back in Kerala on September 3rd. I’m secretly praying that the awards ceremony gets postponed to September so they can be there!!!

Sean was very excited too even though he didn’t fully understand what was going on. We celebrated with Cognac and had Kappa and Duck Roast for dinner, pretty close to the staple Karshaka Aaharam, the kappa atleast.

So 2 awards for the Mooleplackal family. Appachan, Ammachi and Kunjukunju Perappan must be smiling from above.

Something Special

These days Sean asks mummy to make him something special everyday. Day before yesterday he wanted Payasam and yesterday he wanted ‘Puttu’ for breakfast. Yesterday Mummy made diamond cuts and duck roast. He was snacking on the diamond cuts the whole time. Who can blame him….it is sooo good, I was munching on them non stop after I got home too. Today morning mummy made ‘Puttu’ for breakfast and I’m told Sean really enjoyed it. It seems everyday after he and Achachan return after their hour long play time from the basement, he is really hungry and will raid the fridge. It reminds me of my childhood days when I too would sneak into the kitchen to do some ‘Kattu Thinnal’. Somehow everything tasted 10 times better that way. Of course now we have to get him whatever he has his eyes set on but soon I’m sure the story will change and he will become a kattu thinnal expert in no time.

Craving Real food!!

Rhea loves her cereal these days and is very curious about what everybody is eating. I was holding her while popping some diamond cuts in my mouth yesterday and you should have been there to watch Rhea - she was staring at me for the longest time and the expression on her face seemed to say – I want some too mommy. Poor thing I felt really bad for her. Starting next week we’ll try vegetables and slowly fruits and other cereals. Hopefully she will like ‘em all and not have any allergies like her brother.

On another note, I realized that I got too carried away about Rhea sleeping through the night. Next time I will wait for her to do it for at least a week before I start proclaiming to the world. Yesterday she woke up once. I think its partly because she took a nap right before bed time. I should remember to keep her awake after her bath until bed time. Maybe that’ll work.

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Workout Related : Ran the same distance as Tuesday 10 mins faster. YAY!! Today is rest day…maybe I can fit in a walk today. There is live band that comes to play outside the community hall near our house every Friday during summer. Tomorrow I will do some cross training on the elliptical at the fitness center.

Feet Nibbling, Grunting and a Good Nights Sleep

Starting this week, Rhea has figured out that she could do more than just reach out and hold onto her toes. She thinks it is so much more fun when she gets the aforementioned toe in her mouth and nibbles on it. I have to agree with her. It is so cute to watch her do that with so much ease. When she realizes that she is being watched she will let go of her toe and give a sly smile.

She has now started ‘Grunting’ to get our attention. The first couple of times we thought that she wasn’t feeling well (gas maybe?) but soon we figured that its her secret weapon to get us to drop whatever we were doing and give her all our attention. She esp. doesn’t like to sit on the bouncy seat during dinner time. She will continue her grunt fest until one of us gets her from there and seats her on our lap. Then she is very happy and will try and hold onto whatever she can get her hands on, like the placemats or the spoon if I’m helping myself to something. Maybe she’s trying to help me. I can only hope that she will be as excited about her ‘duty’ of clearing the table after dinner few years down the line. Yep, I already have it all planned out. Lets be optimistic for now that my plan will work.

The other big thing that has happened this week – the last 2 nights to be precise is that my little princess has started sleeping through the night! YIPEE! I had forgotten how wonderful it feels to have 7 hours of uninterrupted sleep and I think she likes it too. Hopefully the trend will continue and I can start my day well rested and refreshed. This sound cliché but even though I’m so relieved that she started sleeping through the night I feel a tug at my heart when I think that its a big step towards her out growing her baby phase. I guess I'm just trying to freeze this moment in time.

God's Own Country

Sean has grown so attached to Appacha and Ammachi that he frequently asks them ‘Can I come to Indeea?’. He has gotten mightily curious about India as well in the process. I think he already has a birds eye perspective of Appacha and Ammachi’s life back there since we have told him about the vanilla plantation, the big pond full of fish (he is very excited about the prospect of catching fish), the fishing boats, the mango farm, seeing elephants on the roads and all the yummy food. He has started enjoying ‘Naadan’ food so much that he asks mummy to make something special for him everyday. Yesterday it was ‘Payasam’ So when I got back from work he told me ‘Mom, I had lots of Payasam!!! It was good!!’ After dinner we sat on the deck and chatted for sometime. The weather was beautiful and it was a full moon night. Sean was enjoying another round of payasam when we had this conversation,

Sean: Mommy, can I go to Indeea?
Me: What is in India?
Sean: Mangoes and Payasam
Me: how will you go to India?
Sean: Its very far away.
Me: You have to go on a plane.
Sean: Yes, we have to go on a big plane.

I’m already looking forward to our next visit to India. Till then we will nurture his interest in his motherland so aptly referred to as ‘Gods Own Country’.

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Workout Related – Got out for a nice 45 min jog outside on Tuesday. The weather was fantastic. Yesterday was rest day (not if you count shopping as a means of cross training) and I’m hoping to go for a run today evening.

Picture (Im)perfect

We went to get the portraits done on Saturday at Sears. Long story short – we got a couple of great ones of the kids. We weren’t very thrilled with the guy who took our pictures because…he wasn’t very creative in suggesting different poses for the family picture. Granted there is not a lot you can do when you have more people but we were just 6 not 60. We spent most of the time on the family picture with all of us...he came up with 2 poses one worse than the other. The first one had Aji almost like ‘the leaning tower of pisa’ trying to fit into the frame and in the second he had aji kneel next to me and had me standing.We were so frustrated because even though we pointed out that the poses he suggested were not working he wasn’t able to come up with anything different. At the end Sean was beginning to get fidgety and Rhea was sleepy and hungry and we were told that our 1 hour was up. We didn’t even get time to do one of the four of us and one of both the kids. We ordered Sean and rheas individual portraits and re-scheduled at another location for next Saturday to get the family one. We’re waiting for the prints to be ready. Shall post them here when I get them next week. Hopefully we will have a better experience next week.

Perfect end to a not so perfect morning

In the evening we redeemed ourselves from the hugely disappointing morning photo shoot and we went to Tysons Corner mall. Skimmed through the stores hoping to find Rheas’ baptism dress. No such luck so we postponed the hunt to next week and headed for dinner to The Cheesecake Factory. We were told the wait was 1.5-2 hrs but decided to stick it out and luckily got called 20 mins later. It was almost 9:30pm and we were all starving. We almost inhaled the food (esp. the bread basket) as it came to the table For the main course we had Chicken Madeira , Hungarian Beef Ghoulash and Jambalaya Pasta and dessert was a heavenly slice of White Chocolate Caramel Latte Cheesecake and huge helping of Tiramisu both topped with tons of fresh whipped cream. Need I say, Yum Yum Yum!!! Sean enjoyed the buttered egg noodles that came with the Ghoulash and whipped cream topping on the dessert. Rhea slept through the whole thing.

Workout Related news – Nothing since Friday as I think I injured my knees pushing myself too hard on the treadmill. I will get back today though.

Princess (of Sausageland???)

Tomorrow we have an appt to take some portraits at the studio. So yesterday after I got back from work I thought of trying out my salwars to decide on which one to wear for the pictures. I opened my ‘Salwar’ suitcase and was trying to find one that fit me. I must have tried on at least 4-5 of them and was getting frustrated since everything was still snug in all the wrong places and I looked like a sausage waiting to explode. I was in front of the mirror wearing a lavender kameez which had lots of bead work and staring disapprovingly at my image in the mirror when Sean walked in and with a big grin on his face said ‘Mom, You’re a Princess!!!!’. That definitely brought a smile on my face - momentarily though. I couldn’t fathom how the first thing that came to his mind was the ‘Princess’ image of 'someone' looking nice and pretty when all I could see was all the imperfections that were staring back at me in the mirror. I hope he continues to always see the good in other people and comment on that and not become so judgemental as we often find people these days. That is my big wish for him as he grows into a young lad.

Sean’s vocabulary has expanded by leaps and bounds since the past year and he is getting so darn good at verbalizing all his thoughts. And I’m not saying that because he called me a princess. I know better that he relates all the ‘dressy’ outfits to princesses based on what he has seen of his cousin Sarah’s princess dress up collection. The other day Aji was working late and he asked me ‘Is dada working hard?’ and I said ‘Yes’. These days when I get home the first question he asks me is ‘Did you get stuck in traffic?’. The other thing that he does quite often these days is break into a song while he plays or is in the car. The one I have heard him sing a lot is ‘Doe a deer, a female deer’ from The Sound of Music – my all time favorite movie. He knows only the first few lines but he sings it pretty well. I should remember to record it next time.

Get Movin.

I am so disappointed in myself for being so sporadic with my workouts. I managed to find something to wear for the photo shoot but I changed into my workout clothes right after to go out for a quick jog outside. I had barely gone 100 yards when it started to drizzle so I turned around and went straight to the basement and did 45 minutes on the treadmill. I was way slower than I used to be but I think I just need to find the time and be consistent and slowly get back. Hopefully this is a new beginning and soon I will be able to fit into all my pre-preggo clothes.

I’m going to start posting a one liner about my workouts in with my journal entries from now on so you who are reading can ask me if I don’t mention anything and hold me accountable.

Picture time...

Some new some not as new..


I'm ready to sit...


Joining the boy brigade...



We're a team!


Appachas darling..

More fruits please..

Sean loves fruits!! Right from his baby days he used to love banana.Now he enjoys almost all the fruits. Banana and grapes are his favorites but he enjoys Strawberries, Papaya, Guava, Pears, Apples, Grapes, Pineapple, Watermelon to name a few.

The weather has been brutal the past couple of weeks here as we are in the midst of a heat wave and I think he keeps himself hydrated by eating lots of fruits.

Last week by Thursday our fruit basket was empty. I didn’t get a chance to stop by the grocery store and so when I got back home from work on Friday we had the following conversation,

Me: Sean, did you eat any fruits today?
Sean: We don’t have any fruits. Its over (with a shrug of his shoulder as if in disbelief).
Me: So what do we do now?
Sean: You need to buy fruits. I want lots of fruits.
Me: What fruits do you want me to buy?
Sean: I want banana, pina (meaning pineapple), pear and grapes.
After a pause,
Sean : and I want watermela (for watermelon)
Me: Ok
Sean: I want lots of fruits!!
Me: Ok, I’ll get them.

By this time I could barely hide my smile because he seemed so genuinely concerned that we were out of fruits in the house. I told him that he could eat some dried cranberries for the day and we’ll buy fresh fruit on saturday. He feasted on fruits for lunch yesterday. His lunch consisted of a small helping of pasta followed by a pear, some grapes and few pieces of watermelon. I’m so glad he’s a fruit lover, he is definitely setting a good example for the rest of us.

I just remembered that until very recently he used to say ‘Bananaana’ for banana and ‘Lellow’ for yellow. I used to have so much fun asking him ‘What color is Banana ?’ and he would say ‘Lellow Bananaana’.