That's Rhea!

That was what Rhea exclaimed as I was showing Aji the video from today morning. She kept screaming, That's Rhea!! That's Rhea and laughing loud....It was so sweet to hear her happy giggles...moments like these make being a mom truly special and rewarding!

Learning the fun way!

It is always easy to remember when you have learned something the fun way. Rhea's class has been doing just that. They learnt the spanish numbers (1 thru 10) in a song and also the days of the week (in english of course)in a song. She has been singing it at home for the past few days and I thought I should capture it before she moves onto something else. These are her current favorites and if you notice in the video she loves to repeat the same song over and over again until we tactfully get her to move on to the next one :)

So Ladies and Gentlemen,Boys and Girls, put your hands together for Rhea - singing the Uno Dos Tres Amigo and The Days of the week!


Rhea Singing from PreethsJ on Vimeo.

Hope you enjoyed it!

Ice Ice Baby

Yes, that's the story here today. So much so that county schools are closed again. Luckily winwood is open so Sean and Rhea were dropped off even through they were reluctant. Aji and I are working from home since the roads seem to be slippery and makes for a hazardous commute. Yesterday aji cleared the driveway in the morning but by evening as I was driving in, it again had a few inches of snow and Shirley our neighbor with whom we share the drive way was clearing it out again. Justin their 9 year old was having fun in the snow. Because of my tendonitis, i dont even attempt to take the shovel out.

Deck today afternoon. You can see the ice on the chair and the table


View of our side yard from the garage

Anways, fast forward to today morning I hear the grating sound of the shovel on the drive way. Ed (shirley's husband) was out again and he cleared the entire drive way. Aji was in a conf call so he couldnt step out. Thanks Ed!

Clean Driveway!
Usually the two of them work on it together. I was thinking that maybe I should take a few of the muffins i baked yesterday as a 'thank you' to them.

Mmm Mmm Muffins!

Sean has been asking me for blueberry muffins from Saturday. I was planning on making some banana muffins over the weekend but he said he wanted blueberry ones. Since they are not in season, I asked Aji to get some frozen blueberry's. I didn't get to make them over the weekend but today we got our homework out of our way slightly early. And since Aji was home, he played with the kids afterward. So I had just enough time and all the ingredients to whip up a batch of blueberry muffins.

The kids were in the basement when I started on them and came up as I was getting done with the batter and Oh my! the look on their faces :)


They were so excited wanting to eat the batter rightaway. I always let them have a lick or two of the spatula/spoons.


Rhea licking the spoon clean!


Mmm..Warm muffins with gooey blueberry's inside. Yummo!

It was getting a bit late for bed time but i let them stay a little late for the hot muffins. Here they are enjoying the late night snack!




They absolutely loved it and downed a muffin each :)

Snow Day!

Today was our first reasonable snow day of this season. We got about 4 inches of snow. It started around 5:00 and went on and off for almost the rest of the day.I left for work at 8:00, the community roads were not even treated by then. The ride to work took me about 45 mins. Lots of accidents reported on the radio. County svhools were closed but Sean and Rhea's were open. So AJi dropped them off and worked from home. They were very excited about the snow and wanted to play but it didnt happen in the morning since they were rushing to school. They wore their snoww boots to school. Rhea's class was planning on stepping out for awhile but Aji asked that she be kept inside since we didnt wwant her cough to aggravate. Will probably let them play for some time tomorrow morning.



View from our deck at 8:00pm


Of course by the time i headed home, the snow had already turned into sleet and freezing rain. Not fun, since the roads woul get slippery soon. I managed to get the kids and get home without trouble. Tonight they are expecting more ice and freezing rain, an accumulation of 1 inch of ice expected by tomorrow morning. This means tomorrow schools will be closed and i may have to stay home with the kids. Hopefully I will be able to atleast work part of the time.

Doctor Visit

Last week Rhea came down with the same virus that Sean had the week before. She was down with very high fever. So Tuesday and Wednesday Aji and I took turns staying at home. It looked like she was beginning to get better but then Friday night she came home exhausted and true enough high fever again. We put her back on Motrin and she seemed better on Saturday but Sunday rolled in and she woke up again with fever and a wicked cough. Uggh…this is getting old, and I started to think that maybe she has a chest or ear infection since the fever kept coming back. So I took her in to the Dr.’s office Monday morning. She is very excited to go to the Dr.s office. Nurse Kayla absolutely loves Rhea and she of course loves all the attention. We were waiting for Dr. Cruise in the Spiderman room. Every waiting room has a theme and as soon as she saw the spiderman,

Rhea says – Seany loves pider man
Me: What about you? Do you like Spiderman?
Rhea: Noooo. I like Dora. Me not like piderman.
Me: Oh Ok.
Rhea: Seany likes pider man
Me?: What else does Seany like? Does he like Star wars?
Rhea: Nodding her head – Jhea! Seany likes star wars!

The two of them are so close..they love each other so much and also fight for the same toys a lot of times…I guess that’s what brings siblings close..all the fighting, the laughing and the crying…it used to be similar with pavi and I. It was amazing for me to realize how Rhea was thinking of Sean even when he wasn’t around in the things that he really loved.

Anyways Dr Cruise checked her and her ears and lungs were clear so she gave me the go ahead to send her to school. Rhea picked a Dora sticker for herself and also reminded me to get a Spiderman sticker for Seany.

Sunday Night's Tasty Travel to New Orleans

Today's dinner was a tasty travel to New Orleans without the hassle of actual traveling...well our taste buds took a travel down south to the land of Mardi Gras..

What was on the menu you ask...Shrimp Etouffe and it was absolutely fantastic, even the kids gobbled it up..Here's a picture...



It had a nice kick to it and was perfect with a glass of bubbly!




BAM! BAM! BAM!

Sweetie Pie..

Today morning...rhea held my face in her tiny little arms gave me a big kiss and called me 'Sweetie Pie'...its was so funny and sweet at the same time!

Winter Party 2009

My Project's winter party was this past saturday. All of us were excited to go but then Sean woke from his nap with high fever. I decided to still go since we missed last year's party alsoa nd i had made a coconut cake for this year. here is a picture.


It was a fun party but i really wished for Aji and the kids to be there.

What's for Dinner?

Since aji is away..I realy dont have to worry about real food or variety etc. I made a big pot of roasted eggplant soup- yummo. That should safely get me through 3-4 days. I also have some left overs frfom the work party from the weekend. So no real cooking for me this week...

Solo Parenting..

Yes, i'm at it again...thanks to aji's training this week again in Chicago. To add to the trouble Sean was down with very high fever from saturday night..the week can only get better from here on right...thats what i think and that's what i really hope. I worked from home today...hopefully sean wwill be better enough to go to school tomorrow...let's see what tomorrow has in store..

HAPPY NEW YEAR 2009!

Happy New Year! Another year passes by...a new one rolls in..wonder what we have in store this coming year. Whatever it is we pray that the almighty give us the courage and the strength for all the surprises he has in store for us..

A Grand Vacation...

We had a fun filled 2 weeks off. We did a lot of fun things as a family...Pictures coming soon..


The kids by the X'mas tree

Family Portrait taken at home



Visit to Museum of Natural History

We also went to china town for some authentic chinese fare. Sean wwanted to have crabs and they had fresh ones in a tank that they picked when we ordered, brought it to our table to show us the 'chosen one' and brought it 10 minutes later fried in a spiced up batter. Sean devoured it.

Aji ventured into the litchen and made some really good chinese soup one night.

We went snow tubing with Sanjiv and family. Rhea could only go to the baby slopes, so Aji and I took turns and Purvi and Sanjiv watched the kids so wwe could some together also. It was great fun and Sean was getting more and more adventurous as the day passed. Parth and Prashant also joined us and it was fun to watch these kids from ages 12 - 2 interacting and playing and having a great time.