Rhea's 1st birthday Party!

We celebrated Rhea's first birthday with family and friends this past sunday. Rhea was a sport the entire afternoon and gladly obliged to everyone who wanted to carry her. We had an action packed day...here are some pictures...

Making a giant leap into the world of letters!

Sean has been practicing his letters everyday for the past couple of weeks weeks. We have started with Uppercase letters. He does it in school but I wanted to give him an extra push from home and so far he has been very positive about it. I did promise to get him a 'Thomas' backpack when he is done with all his letters. Today he completed all of the uppercase letters...a big acheivement in itself..we still need to practice everyday and perfect them. I guess its time for me to go shopping for that backpack I promised him :)

Below is a snapshot of the first time he wrote his name on his own ...this was about 10 days ago...i know I've been a lazy poster...



Seany, we are so proud of you!

Tomorrow we start with numbers and then slowly progress to lowercase letters...

Rhea is a year old!!!

Last year this time(8:33 pm) we were at the hospital. Seems like yesterday...time flies...


She also had her 1 year appointment. here are the stas,

Height: 75th percentile
Weight: 25th percentile
Head circumference: Right on..

Here are some pictures from today...

Getting smarter than Mommy?

Yesterday I started from work a little early and picked up Sean first since it was too early to pick Rhea as it was still her nap time. On our way to Rhea's daycare there is a farm and I told Sean that they have cows and sheep and horses there. They just had a baby calf and sheep and I promised him we would visit the farm on a weekend when the weather was good. There were couple of cows outside in the fields so I pointed to them for him to see.

He was silent for a minute and then said,

Mom, cows don't have hands??

My mind was racing fast to come up with a good answer for him but all I could come up with was,

Sean, the two front legs are the cows hands.

I know that does sound ridiculous...even to me now that I think back.

He immediately shot back, Mom, that's for walking right?
Duh, yes son...legs are for walking not hands...what was mommy thinking???

I guess at some point i can explain how hands and feet are used differently by different 'Species'....good topic for our day in the farm that I promised him I guess...

Needs and Wants

Sean is pretty vocal these days about his 'needs' and 'wants'. Here are a few conversations from last week on our way back home from school.

Sean: Mama!
Me: Yes Sean
Sean: I want a baby brother.
Me: Why?
Sean: I want a baby brother and a baby sister. I want our baby but I want a baby brother too.
Me: How come?
Sean: Joseph has a baby brother.

At that point I had to giggle to myself...i was also glad that he mentioned he wanted to keep rhea and still want another baby. Whenever he throws a tantrum I ask him if he were to have a baby brother who would take care of the baby brother since he himself is behaving like one...that seems to calm him some...well for 5 seconds :)

Another one on the same day went like this,

Sean: Mom, I need a compuuuter.
Me: Why Sean. Why do you need a computer?
Sean: Because I dont have a computer...

kids...gotta love their honesty huh...

Daycare Debut!

Do we look similar?

Here is a picture of Rhea and Sean and in almost the same pose......Sean was 7 months and Rhea is 11 months in the picture.





What do you think...do they look similar?ths and Rhea

New Car Seats!

This past weekend we stopped by and picked up a new car seat for Sean since Rhea was starting daycare this week and we were i car seat short. Rhea was so excited about cheta's new car seat. Aji had it in the family room before installing it and she was busy trying to climb on it. She was so happy when i sat her on it.



It was her favorite toy for the night!

Rhea is 11 months!

Our lil girl is so close to turning 1. Its amazing how fast the past 11 months have flown by..its been such a wonderful experience...

Rhea is such a cutie pie....she has so much energy and is always so cheerful...she always has a smile for us. She loves to walk...she will go around the ottoman holding it for support. She also loves it when we hold her hand and walk her around. She seems to want to talk a lot and communicate. She already has a few words to her growing vocabulary. he r first word was Tata. Whenever she hears the garage door open..she thinks someone is heading out so she'll wave her hands and gently say Ta-ta, ta-ta...I wish I could record it and play it here...the other words are Dada and mama...and also a host of babble...like mum..mumm..mimm..huh..huh..ha...ah etc. Music continues to be a first love. She goes ballistic when sean does the prayer before meals which is a song. She starts clapping hands and grins from ear to ear 

Aji taught her to say hi too but she says it so gently its almost a whisper :) The funniest though is when you ask her a question...doesn’t matter what question - she will nod her head up and down as if to say 'Yes'. I think she understands a question from our tone and immediately she will start nodding...its hilarious. She has also learnt to give us a kiss - a wet one at that! She will come close to your cheeks and then stick out her tongue and do a small lick :) the best part is that she will be at your cheeks for some time..its like she doesn’t know when to end the kiss:) She is so silly :)

Happy 11 month birthday to you my dear vave!!

Family Portrait time!

Dressed in Overalls!

Brr...its cold!

The weather the past few days can be aptly termed 'Biting Cold'. The highs have been well close to 32-33 degrees farenheit which is 0 degrees celsius and the lows have been as cold as sub zero farenheit.

Old man winter definitely knows to get his message across. He must be smiling away and blowing all those heavy winds our way as we sit and freeze. he seems to be asking 'So who's the BOSS?' and we mortals can only shiver say back 'YOU ARE!!'.

Now if only spring could make a big dash and save us from this misery.....

KEEPING FINGERS CROSSED...
KEEPING FINGERS CROSSED...
KEEPING FINGERS CROSSED...

Mom, you're the best!

yes...those words are from Sean...needless to say i was flying high for next few hours..

Let me give you the full story...Daddy and Mummy spent the weekend at Anishchayan's house. So it was just the 4 of us this weekend. Needless to say we were busy bees. We had some errands to runa dn since it was biting cold we decided to take turns. So saturday morning after i fed the kids, i managed to bake cranberry bread before i stepped out of the house. My mission of the day (as sean always says) was to get Rhea a winter jacket and some clothes in prep for her day care debut on the 15th. I had been out for about an hour when aji called me and passed the phone to Sean and he said - Mom, You're the best!!!

I was almost in tears..aji explained that they had been down in the basement playing and when they came up they were all hungry and they delved into the bread. Sean loved it so much he immediately proclaimed -


Mamma, is the best because she makes all the yummy things!!!


I love you Sean! You definitely know how to make my day!!

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...