Fun time...

Today evening we had so much fun...Sean got his favorite prop...the hat that he uses to pretend like he's a train engineer...he even got a spare one for rhea...she was clearly amused by all this and we had a lot of fun...I had a great time trying to capture the moment...it was hilarious...all of us were hysterically laughing for no apparent reason...Love such simple pleasures of life...

Mommy & Me

Since i hardly post any pictures of me with Rhea i thought i should post one...so here it is...



Picture of me and Rhea early this week!

First Snow of the Season..

The way this winter was shaping up we thought we'll never see any of the 'white stuff' this season...the weather has been so much like spring and so less like winter even nature got fooled to some extent...we saw quite a few cherry blossoms in bloom and the daffodils woke up from their hibernation hoping to add color to the dreary world....alas...winter decided to make a late and grand entry and thwart everyones happy plans...

Today we got our first snow of the season...the weather the past few days have been seasonable...mighty cold I would say since we had gotten used to the occassional 50's and 60's. We are not expecting a huge accumulation this time but it is slightly more than a dusting...Sean seemed to be the only one excited about the snow and has been wanting to step out to make a snowman...maybe we can convince him that its not a great idea..i have to admit it looks beautiful outside but only till the moment you have to step outside...

Here's a view of our deck and our front yard...

Our deck

View from the front door
Now if only there was a way for my daffodils to get the message and get back in the ground. Hopefully they wont face premature death and can manage to make it to spring. Here's hoping that spring makes an early arrival..

Collage of Memories

Few pictures from the last few weeks...not in any chronological order...


Dada, I love the view from up here

Basement picnic for Dada & Sean

Appachan and Ammachi with their lil darlings!


Gramma & Me all smiles


Appachan and Ammachi with the kochumakkal on X'mas Eve.

Striking a pose before rushing for X'mas mass


With Ajoo and kids on Xmas eve


Too tired to hit the bed


Dada's biggest fan!


Me and my teddy :)


Brother & Sistah

Rhea is 10 months old!

yes...i'm a little late with my 10 month announcement...but hey better late than never...

So here is our little boog at 10 months old..as happy as can be even though she has a ear infection!


Just now she was sitting on my lap happily and the Tv was on in the family room. She heard the title song for 'Kutties choice' a kids program on Surya tv that has a very catchy title song with lots of kids dancing. She loves that song and as soon as she heard it she wriggled out of my grasp and crawled as fast as she could to the family room. When i caught up with her she was grinning from ear to ear and clapping hands...you had to see it to beleive it. We have one HUGE music lover here...wish i could catch her whole reaction on tape...it was hilarious and unbeleivable at the same time...

Heart to Heart Career talk

I know...too early for this one...but it was so good to hear Sean's rationale for his career choice of the moment :)


TRAIN LOVER

Today on our way to school, Sean was pretending to be on a train and said,

Mama, I'm sitting on a train.

Me: Where are you going on the train?
Sean: To the Noth Pole
Me: Who is in the North pole
Sean: Santa
Me: What is santa doing in the north pole?
Sean: he is going to give gifts for all the nice boys.

Me: Sean, Santa is not going to give gifts all the time...only during X'mas time.
Sean: But the boy in the polar express train ....the train driver helps him and ...

Soon he lost his train of thought and kept talking about trains in general and he announced,

I WANT TO BE A TRAIN DRIVER!!

Me: Sean, what do you want to become when you grow up?
Sean: I want to be a train driver
Me: Are you sure? What about becoming a Doctor?

He didnt want to disappoint me, so he said,

Sean: I want to be a doctor and a train driver.

however soon he changed his mind...(it was as if he couldnt betray his true love)

Sean: I want to be a train driver because i love trains. Baby can become a doctor.
Me: Why?
Sean: Because baby likes doctors...

Yeah buddy with all the recent Dr visits you would think that she LOVES doctors :)

I love these conversations with him and I hope I'll rememeber to share this with him in a few years when he has something new lined up for his career...

Thats my favorite thing in the world!!

This is Sean's favorite quote. i think he picked it up from Little Einsteins...Leo is his favorite little einstein and he wants to have a baton just like Leo and conduct.

These days anything we ask him he might say -Can i do this mama...its my favorite thing in the world...

I wonder if he really knows what he means...well, do we all really mean what we say all the time...atleast it sounds cute when he says it :)

Look at me- I can stand all by myself !

Rhea has started to stand all by herself now. She's been doing it for the last couple of days and can last upto 10 seconds before she falls flat on her butt. She does it with ease too as if she's been doing it for awhile. Pretty soon she is going to figure out 'walking' and then it'll be fun.

Sean has a lot of fun playing with her these days. She is always following him and her favorite spot is under the dinner table. Did i tell you what her favorite hobby is these days? - Picking up all the all the tiny bits from the floor and putting it in her mouth. For some reason she thinks that everything is a snack..she doesnt even stop to see what she has in her hand...as soon as she spots something she'll crawl fast and get her hands on it and in lightning speed it goes in her mouth. She even gets pretty mad when we try to get it out of her mouth. Looks like we have Ms stubborn in our hands.

So these days we have to constantly watch her...lets also say that the house is much cleaner these days since we are constantly vaccuming the floors...AAh there's always some good that comes out of every situation right!

Grooving into 2007!

This time we decided to host the New Years party at our place. The planning for the event started in the previous year itself...well the last few days of 2006, so here's how it all unfolded, Once the venue was decided, the next thing everyone wanted to finalize on was the cuisine..Indian Chinese was the unanimous choice and so aji placed the order at our next door Minerva restaurant. We also decided to do a secret santa for the kids and all the parents picked up the lots. The last thing on the list was to decide on the games and that was settled towards the very last.... The day before the party is when we though of the kids menu and Shankar and Bhavani graciously offered to pick up the fetuccine alfredo from Olive Garden. We started thinking about games and music and once again shankar offered to put together some jammin songs in time for the party :) Our trusted cleaning lady had a family emergency and was out for almost 4 weeks so what do we have in our hands...a very dirty floors and a broken vaccum cleaner..a trip to Costco solved that problem and soon aji revved up the vaccum cleaner and put it to work hard...Vrooom...Vroom..Vroom…

I decided on a few appetizers and finally the list was shortened to a reasonable 4 - Pita chips and egg plant dip, cutlet balls for the meat eaters, Patra for the veggies, fruits and veggies served with a delectable cheese fondue and chips for the junkies...i mean the kids.. We had ordered for gulab jamun from Minerva but I wanted to make an assortment of sweet bites. Aji wanted to try something new and different and suggested a trifle. I was wary at first coz I was unsure how much everyone will enjoy it but decided to give it a try. The night before the party Rhea slept with Appachan and Ammachi and Sean slept on the couch as I worked on the Trifle listening to all the songs shanker had compiled while Aji loaded it on the ipod. Aji also helped me cut the congo bars and the brownies that I packed into tiny goodie bags, and I also set the table and we were up till 12:30am..it was fun and for some reason reminded me of my paying guest days in Bangalore when my friends and I used to be up late night chatting and munching and just having fun..

Morning rolled in fast and after all the last minute cleaning and cooking and setting up we managed to dash in for the 12:45 mass. Made a quick stop by party store and got some hats for the kiddo game and some streamers and we were all set..Shanker and Bhavani are always the early birds and they didn’t disappoint this time too...anishchayan made some rockin’ cosmos and soon thereafter everyone rolled in slowly... We had music in full blast and everyone had a round of jiving before we did the kids game..a modified passing the parcel...anytime someone gets the parcel they had to perform....the kids were really good and were outsmarting each other...but the night belonged to Aashay with his brilliant dance moves...we then did the secret Santa and the kid couldn’t be happier...

The Kids strike apose after secret santa!

This followed with more jiving. Dinner ensued soon after for the kids and the adults had the apple dance which was such a huge hit.

Apple dance
After more music and dancing we decided to take a break and everyone had dinner. food was spicy and a tad bit greasy but everyone enjoyed it.

Yum Yum Yum
The trifle was enjoyed thereafter and them more dancing and games followed...we celebrated the new year with champagne and sparkling cider and streamers all over..More dancing followed and we had the white elephant and the 'How well you know your spouse'. This was followed by ‘Patron shots’ …not for the feeble hearts.

It was well past 2:30 am and the kids were still very wired up....we decided to call it a day ...with a goodie bag and a calender for the new year...everyone parted ways.. A great time was had by all!!

The month that was...Shhh..I'm talking Dec 2006..

Its been quite a while since I wrote here for lack of time if not anything else....i dont think i had a busier holiday season than this time around in the last 6 years since our wedding...

Most of it though was because both Sean and Rhea have been down with one virus after another...it was as if we were bombarded with an AK-47 loaded with different kinds of cold viruses....as i speak or write...Rhea is recovering from her first ever ear infection ..she had her last dose of antibiotics today...Sean meanwhile had his dose of antibiotics before the onset of an ear infection 2 weeks earlier. I was very surprised when Dr Rowe diagnosed sean with 'almost an ear infection' since it was his first close encounter with the dreaded beast itself...I really hope and pray that we dont have to go through any more of these with both the kids...Ha ha wishful thinking you would say...but I'm ready to cross all my fingers and appendages in that hope ...although truth be said Sean has already started sneezing again and am pretty sure in the next couple of days...its going to turn into another full blown 'pediacare-tylenol-delsym' routine for us...Uggh...I'm so ready for Winter to be over...speaking of which it hardly feels like winter here..atleast the temps have been comparitively mild...i dont think the viruses got the memo regarding the mild winter season because it has been the sickest winter for us to date. Ok enough of my rambling already...

Well, lemme sum up the last couple of weeks at the Joseph residence,

I was working all through the holidays which meant last minute holiday shopping but I'm glad we got everything done with 1 big 'not as tiring as i imagined' trip to the mall...talk about productivity.

Sean was super excited about Santa's impending visit and I was hoping that he would be equally happy with Santa's choice of gifts for him...i mean he did get everything on his wishlist ..well almost everything...he wanted the train drivers dress(denim overalls), Little Einstein DVDs, Thomas the tank engine PJs, a Spiderman watch(he wanted fire engine - but he didnt seem to notice). Santa even left him sleigh bells with his presents and a steam engine ornament as a momento of his visit!!! Sean was over the moon...his favorite gift of all -the denim overalls...he has been literally living in them...we have to bribe him to put them in the washer. He also got a motorised train set from chechi and sarah and a video game from Alex.

Rhea got a cute butterfly rocking chair and a stuffed bear and a singing goat.She had the most fun though with all the wrapping paper :)

We went for X'mas eve mass and the entire Joseph clan had dinner at our place...we had pig in the blankets followed by chicken carbonara, arugala, beets and warm goat cheese salad and biscuits and finally banana pudding for dessert..

Everyone was up bright and early X'mas morning anmd after digging into all the loot that Santa had dropped off we went over to Anishachayan's place. We had a heavy brunch..chechi made sure we were all full to the brim :) and i could start to feel the jiggle. We came home in the afternoon and Rhea took a nap..sean stayed back. We went back just in time for more food...loads and loads of appetizers and drinks...by the time it was time for dinner we were all stuffed...there was a huge Naadan spread on the table...oddly enough dessert part of the dinner is a little fuzzy in my memory....Aah coz Rhea was beginning to get fussy by then...it was way past her bed time.....thinking back...now I remember - Chocolate covered strawberries and Chocolate cake.We didnt stay back too late since I had to go to work the next day and the kids were getting very cranky. The rest of the week/month was pretty uneventful as Aji and I were working except for all the getting ready we had to do in preparation for the New Years party at our place...

It was time to say good bye to a fantastic year !!

That in my next post...

Budding Chef

Last weekend me and sean made the ginger bread house. This was our first real prject together and I didnt have my hopes up...sean always wants to help me with whatever I'm doing in the kitchen these days... so i thought this might be fun project to do...I assembled the shell of the house and put all the icing to cement his decorations. Initially he was trying to sneak a candy or two but soon he was engrossed in the decorating..i was very impressed...i did help him with the smaller candy..but its truly his work...here are the pictures of the iron chef in the making with his master piece...

Finger foods...Mmm..Mmm Good

Today evening I gave Rhea her first biter biscuit. Sean was not fond of these at the same age maybe because he didnt have any teeth...but Rhea already is the proud owner 2 pearly whites and she is always gnawing at everything she can get her hands on. So I figured she is ready for some biter treat...and Boy was i right...she was holding to it tight and going at it like it was crack..I'm convinced it is baby crack alright!!..and she sure is addicted. I had to finally almost steal it away from her after she downed almost three fourths of it...just because it is close to dinner time and so that she won't lose all her appetite. Hopefully we can force her to have some dinner tonight....I'll wait another hour to start that battle...

Here are some pictures...


Mom, You caught me!!

Mmmm...Mmm....this is sooo good.

Now lets see how much more I have..

The end result

She has also been getting sneak previews of other foods like tid bits of pasta, eggs etc during dinner time thanks to dada,mamma and cheta..

These are a few of my favorite things!

Yesterday on our way back home, I asked Sean what he had for lunch and he said 'Chocolate'. I knew he didn’t remember coz I'm sure he must have hardly ate any lunch. I had checked the lunch menu on our way out and knew it was 'Fish Sticks and tater tots'. Not one of his favs …

Anyways as we drove home I asked him,

Sean, what is your favorite food? and he said Chicken Nuggets!

Me: What else?
Suddenly he got very excited and said,
Sean: Chocolate!!
Me: What else?
Sean: Pink lemonade! and after a pause he shouted COKE!!

In my mind i kept thinking ...he loves all the junk food ...just like his mama :)

After a few moments he shouted Green Coke.

Me(puzzled: Green Coke?

Sean: Yeah! We have it at home...

I'm pretty sure he was referring to the ginger ale...maybe thats slightly better than coke i thought…with the ginger and all..it must be good for your tummy right?

Anyways as i was smiling at all his fav foods the scene from the movie ‘The Sound of Music’ came to mind when Julie Andrews asks the kids what their favorite things were and then breaks into the song 'Rain drops on roses and whiskers on kitten...these are a few of my favorite things!!'

I wish I could compose a song the same way with Sean’s list of favorite things...he would have enjoyed it so much! He loves music !!

Speaking of music...he is so in love with 'Little Einstein’s' now ...I like them too partly because they have lot of classical music in their shows and their theme song is catchy and I hum it all the time. We didn’t know the words till couple of days ago so I went online and found it and printed it for him and even though he cannot read he treasured that paper like it was his bible and kept asking me to sing it for him all the time. Its amazing that after just 1 day he picked up the lyrics and he knows the song all too well now.I need to record it soon...its verys ute to haer him sing- he's so proud of himself :)

So these days on our way home we sing the Little Einstein song and the he'll say,
Mama, sing the jingle bells song with me mama...

I love the way he asks me...so we both break into 'Jingle bells...Jingle Bells!!!'
Soon after he'll say lets sing the 'Nose song' .

The first time I didn’t have a clue but soon I knew...he wanted me to sing 'Rudolf the red nosed reindeer'...

I love our drive back home these days...i cant wait for Rhea to join us soon...I can tell she takes after her cheta...whenever a song comes on tv she goes very quiet and is glued to it...at the end of it she'll have a big smile on her face :)

Rhea is 9 months old!

Rhea is 9 months today. She had her 9 month appointment today. Here are the stats,

Height: 27 inches (50th percentile)
Weight: 19 lb 7 oz (70th percentile)
Head Circumference: Hmm..i dont remember ...but she is right on target and thats all that matters right!

Standing Up!

Yay!!!! Huge Milestone for our little princess.

She's been at it for some time now and was pulling herself up when we plonk her on the bed or on the couch. But yesterday she pulled herself up on the magazine rack and stood up for almost a minute at a time. She kept repeating it all evening and made it look so effortless. We are so proud of her :)

Coming soon...BABY STEPS ...so stay tuned :)

Deciphering the growing wish list of our 3 year old

Past couple of days I've been trying to narrow down Sean's wish list for this Christmas for ahem…Santa. He has been trying really hard to be nice the whole year - notice the stress on NICE - thats the only form of blackmail that works on him these days and let me tell you I have been using that to its full advantage :)

I'm sure he has the scene from Polar Express etched in his mind where the kids see the Elves watching all the boys and girls on their screen and making a note - NAUGHTY or NICE. To see him believing in Santa so much I almost wish I were a kid again :)

Yesterday on our way home we had an interesting conversation,

Sean: Mamma, what time is it?
Me: Its 5:20 Seany
Sean: Mom, can you buy me a watch ?
Me: Ok Sean

And suddenly I had this light bulb moment ...and I could hear the keyboard in my head typing fast - List of possible gifts for Sean this X'mas
1) Watch

We continue the conversation,

Me: Sean, maybe we should write that letter to Santa and ask him to get you a watch.
Sean: But Santa is getting me a DC choo choo (thats his term for DC metro train)

I chuckle thinking how naive he is for thinking that Santa would get him only 1 gift. I'm also in a bit of a shock...how in the world are we going to pull that off - a DC Choo Choo train for X'Mas???!!! I'm thinking hard as to how I can convince him to settle on something 'Buyable'

Me: You mean you want a ride on the DC Choo Choo train?
Sean: No, I want a small DC Choo Choo train. I want to drive it.
Me:But kids can’t drive trains. You have to be older.
Sean:But I’m already OLDER.
Me: But you already have so may trains and the big train table.
Sean: But I dont have the DC choo Choo Train..And I dont have the DC Choo Choo train tracks.

By now I realised this conversation was really not going any place i wanted it to...

Me: Lets ask Santa to get you a watch.
Sean: I want Santa to get me a watch and a Train. (Ha, so much for the assuming he is 'Naive'. He seems to be grasping more and more about this gift receiving season fast)

Since he didnt mention DC train thereafter, i left it at that....but soon enough he had a new thought,

Sean: Mommy, can you get me the Little tien DVD (Little Einstein)
Me: Acting very ignorant - Do they have Little Einstein DVDs?
Sean: Yeah!
Me: Where did you see them?
Sean: In the green store
Me: Ok (Me thinking - Green Store? Which one is that?)

Anyways I make a mental note of the DVDs to his wishlist. At this rate I'm pretty sure if I continue to have similar conversations everyday till christmas...i may end having way too many things possible gifts ...MUST GET HIM TO PRIORITIZE. I'm hoping that somewhere along the way I can decipher all his thoughts and get him to agree on final list and hopefully the stores will still have them and that way we can keep Santa alive for another year.

I have to say that this is a huge step in our quest to find Santa's ultimate gift for Sean...because till last week he wanted to Santa to get him 'GIFTS' and a sleigh bell. I'm glad we have started defining what those 'Gifts' are :)

Now Rhea's gift- no brainer for another 2 years hopefully...right now she is happiest with a kleenex tissue...of course Santa will definitely do better than that this year but you know the bar is set so low..its just way too easy. I sure pray that I won’t have to pay the price for this time in the coming years :)

Donning the Pearly Whites!

Rhea has been chewing on everything she can get her hands on for the past couple of weeks. We suspected that she was teething and kept checking her gums but nothing. Sean got his first tooth after he turned 1 so i thought she was following in her cheta's footsteps.

But NO..NO...NO.This weekend we noticed a slight bump in the lower right gums and yeterday as i ran my fingers ...i could feel it ...Her first little tooth!!! She was so happy when I massaged her gums...am sure it was a big relief for her. You can barely see the white on her gums but I'm pretty sure in the next couple of days they will pop out and she will don her 'FANG'. I will have pictures then :)

Thanksgiving

Lilly Ammai's Visit

Sean enjoying a cuddle from Lilly Ammai. He is sporting the slippers that Roan and Joshua sent him!

Rhea is 8 months old!

Happy Birthday Daddy!

Halloween 2006

Yesterday Rhea made her debut 'trick or treat' adventure and I'm glad to report that she totally loved it!!! We were at home for a while and handed out candy to a few neighborhood trick or treaters before stepping out. Sean was very excited to hand out candy but was a little disppointed that our candy pile at home was getting smaller. he kept saying' But where is my candy' so finally we stepped out. The first couple of houses he was a litlle shy to say 'Trick or Treat' and was happy to get the candy. But after couple of houses he became a pro and was loving the fact that his candy bag was getting full. he wanted to eat some rightaway but we managed to convince him that it is better to get home and then enjoy the loot. Rhea was havoing a lot of fun and waved bye to bye to everyone as we left. By the time we finished one round of our neighborhood Rhea seemed tired and sighed a few times as if to say 'Ok people...i'm getting tired...time to go home and chill'. Sean was not ready and wanted to keep going. we told him taht we were expecting sarah and Suzanna chechi and he finally agreed to come home.

Anishchayan,Chechi,Suzanna and Sarah showed up half hour later. Sarah was dressed as 'Snow White' and looked adorable. Suzanna was a witch, a good looking one at that(if there ever was one)!! Heres a picture of the kids in all their halloween glory!


I think we had a good mix - A fireman, a princess, an adorable pumpkin and a witch!!

Mr Independent..

Sean is very much into learning to write his numbers and letters these days. Most of the time I help him on paper but sometimes i play a game of find the letter and type it in WORD on the computer. He has become so confident about his computer skills athat nowadays he doesn't want me to sit down with him...well atleast not until he accidentally presses some key that brings up a new window and he cannot proceed.

Anyways I just turned on the computer now and this is what he said to me in almost one breath,

"Mommy,I have to do my numbers and I need to do 1 and I need to be strong and I need to have my breakfast and I need to do my letters and I want to do it myself..."

It is all the things we ask him to do everyday and he formed one sentence out of it all..

And now as I type this he is playing with his little sister singing 'Vavo Kuruvi, vavoo" the lullaby that kollad appacha taught him and Rhea is enjoying all the attention from cheta and sqealing in delight!!

I wish i could freeze this precious moment in time..

Bye Bye

Rhea waved bye bye for the first time yesterday. I was at home with a sprained back (lonmg story so will skip the details) and was at home. I was upstairs in bed most of the time. Whenever I came down though Rhea would get really excited and babble loudly and smile. When I didin't go and get her from Daddy and Mummy she would have this really perplexed look as if to say ‘Why aren’t you carrying me, mamma'. She would keep looking at me for the longest time. Finally I broke down and carried her few times. She didn’t want to go back to Daddy or Mummy from me after that. Pavam vava. Finally I had to say ‘Bye Bye’ in an attempt to trick her to think that I’m stepping out. I was shocked when she waved back in response. I didn’t know she knew to wave. I was so excited and kept saying bye bye to see her reaction!! It was such a cute sight and she must have been wondering what the fuss was all about. Oue lil baby is growing up so fast…

Halloween Pictures

Spooky??


Do I look like a real pumpkin?


I'm the new Fireman in the Firestation!


Enjoying the fall colors!


Firemen can be silly too


I'm lovin being a Pumpkin!



Awesome Twosome!

Portrait of our Princess!

Am I cute!

Dressed for chilly weather..

Its getting chillier by the day. Days are getting shorter which means that I leave when its drak outside and by the time I get back from work the sun is beginning to set. None of us are liking the extra layer of clothes and jackets we have to put on. Here is a couple pf pictures of Rhea before we left for church today morning.


How's my new outfit


Do you like my hat?

Happy Diwali!

I tknow this post is a few weeks late. But I have the cutest picture of Rhea in her 'Indian dress' as sean referes to it. He even said ' She looks like a princess' when he saw her in the outfit.


I'm a princess

I have to admit sean looked smashing in his kurta-pajama. He didnt want to be pictured and avoided the shutterbug like the papparazi were hounding him :)We went to our friend Kala and Parimal's house for the Diwali party. Sean had a graet time and enjoyed watching the fireworks. Rhea enjoyued being the centre of attention..she was the only baby there and hogged the limelight!

Weekend pictures...

Took some pictures before we left for church...Dada is missing ...next time we'll try to get one of the four of us!


Brother & Sistah


Dada, where are you?