Ishu's First Movie

A few weeks ago, we let Ishu watch his first movie-- Winnie the Pooh.

We made popcorn for everyone to share, and settled in to our seats. There was a little skirmish about who would sit where.

 Amaani won.



... but he still made sure to hold her hand so she wouldn't get scared.

Amaani didn't sit for the whole movie... but it was really great to cuddle up for a movie with Ishu. I was very unimpressed with the film in general though, so next time we'll go with a Pooh movie from my childhood. Good times!

Tea for me?

As I was perusing my usual mom blogs this morning I saw so many posts with mom's saying how thankful they were for their children. I of course, forgot to post yesterday. :)

I am very thankful for my kiddos, and very thankful for my family...

but today; I'm especially thankful for my husband. I could go on and on about how great he is.... but I know that you all already know. Happy Anniversary, Kartik! And Happy Thanksgiving to everyone else! 

Amaani vs Theplu

You have been warned... this post contains a lot of open mouthed eating. I wouldn't read it on your lunch break.

Although 'Mani has yet to cut a tooth, she's becomeing an eating expert. I guess since it is the second time around; Kartik and I are much more adventurous in what we give her.

We even bet each other to see what foods she can eat wihtout spitting it out. So far the only things she hasn't managed to eat are whole almonds and acorns that she finds. (We didn't give her the almonds... or the acorns for that matter-- that was Ishu.)

Can she eat all of it?

She loves bakhri, roti and thepla (spelling?). The other nice thing is that since I'm not pregnant this time around, I can actually make food for her without retching. When Ishu was this age I was smack dab in the middle of my first trimester with Amaani.

Still chewing...

As a mom, it's so wonderful to see food that I made eaten so enthusiastically. She makes sure that she has food in both hands and then bites from alternate hands. Somehow she manages to chew it (or gum it) until she can swallow it.

Looks like she got all of it in!

Born to Dance!

The nice thing about having two young kids at home is watching both of them grow and learn new skills. Amaani is amazing as every day by standing on her own two feet, climbing on all fours; moving furniture around (seriously! chairs and high chairs and our barstools!), and walk-ish. It's not really walking yet, but sort of taking a few steps and falling flat on her face.

Amaani-- mid-fall. Don't worry-- she thinks it's hilarious!

Our newest biped has learned to dance! It's sure to put a smile on your face!

And since it's been a while since we've had a video; here is one if Ishaan gettin' his groove on as well. We also have a video of the two of them when they were younger. Look how small she was!

It's ok if you want to dance a little too... it's contagious!

Amaani...

You know... sometimes I can't just get over how very beautiful she is.... 

 

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I love her so much!

Dhanteras

This post is late, late, late. I had somehow written it and crossed it off my mental list without actually posting it. I didn't realize until Kartik mentioned that he hadn't seen it yet!

This past month we started off our week of celebrations (Diwali and Halloween) with a Dhanteras puja. This tradition comes from Kartik's side of the family. I had never seen or participated in this ceremony; but I had heard Kartik talk about it fondly for years.
 
Because of where we live, we are surrounded (quite literally) with things, people and places from my childhood. It's so nice when we get glimpses of Kartik's childhood for both me and the kids.
He talked about how his mom, dad and Mina Foi would sit with Sonu, Bhailu and him carefully moving coins from one dish to another.

Of course we had Bunto!

This year Dhanteras fell on weekday, so I spent a lot of Ishu's nap trying to get things ready. I asked Kartik a lot of questions while he was working trying to get everything just perfect.  It's hard to recreate someone else's memory.


We sat down in the evening to actually do the puja. Here is Ishu in his clasic 'jai-jai' pose. He'll always open his eyes to make sure that everyone else is also folding there hands and crossing their legs.

 I don't have many pictures of the ceremony (I was holding Amaani, while Kartik was directing Ishu). The ceremony involves washing coins; moving them from one bowl to another. Ishu, loved it! He loves playing in the water, he loves shiny things. Needless to say, Ishu ended the evening by dumping an entire pail of water on everything that you see above; the coins, the prasaad, everything was soaked.

 
And I'm so glad he did... after we cleaned up everything, fed the kids and put Ishu I set to work rewashing the coins and finally got a chance to look at them carefully. I had assumed that all the coins were those silver ones with a engraving of Laxmi on one side.

But these were all interesting coins that Kartik's Mom and Dad had collected over the years. Coins from different places, beautiful silver dollars and foreign coins. Kartik mentioned that they would add new coins each year, so I ran upstairs and added a few coins from my travels pre-kids. I felt so very blessed and honored to be able to participate in this tradition with him.

Yay for good weather!

I'm so excited that the kids and I are getting another shot at fall before winter comes-- mostly because I'm not cooped up in the house with them!

Wordless Weekend

Kartik informed me a few days ago that people read (or I guess, look at) the blog for the pictures -- not the writing.

On that note, here is a picture I snapped of Ishu on one of our walks this week.

I'm especially proud of the picture because it's one that I actually 'set up' and excecuted-- all on my own with two littles.

Milestones

Some milestones are more important than others. Ishu passed a big one this past weekend. He can now pick his own nose...

 

 ...which means we don't have to pick it for him.  Have a great Friday everyone!

Our First Diwali

Our Diwali celebrations weren't as festive as I had envisioned. I purchased some electric tealights and hid them away just for Diwali. Because Ishu loves to do Aarti and everything else having to do with shiny stuff; I had the bright idea that Ishaan, Kartik and I could put candles around the house before bedtime on Diwali night.

Kartik and I were so excited because we thought that Ishu would be so excited. He loves lights, he loves hiding things, he loves things that turn on and off- this was sure to be a hit

I had been prepping Ishu about this for a few days by telling him the story of Ram and Sita, and explaining how we were throwing a 'Welcome Home' party. He seemed to get it; and he would even say "Welcome Home, jayjay bunghan!"

He was excited about the lights except when it came to actually putting them in the windows. No... our little hoarder wanted to keep these all to himself. He ran around our downstairs collecting all of them and coralling them on the sofa.



Whatever happened to the spirit of the season? In the words of Ishaan "It's my, Mama. It's my!". (I think he means 'mine'.) 



We did manage to put the lights back up after he went to bed; and I admit that it felt very nice and festive to have the warmth and battery charged glow of these electric candles around the house. Next year, I expect things will go a little smoother, and I imagine that I'll be missing these days of toddler chaos.

Happy belated Diwali everyone!

Pumpkin Carving

This year Kartik and I decided to do 3 pumpkins! I think we've been carving since we moved into the house; but this year we finally showed Ishu how it's done.

First you wash the dirt off the pumpkins:

 Then you examine the pumpkins and wait for your creative muse to strike. This year we went with a Batman logo; a Longhorn and an Om.  The first two were copied off the shirts we happened to be wearing at the time.

After that, go ahead and sketch the design with washable marker. 

Amaani is a stickler for perfection; she was making sure that my Longhorns horns were long enough.

Cut out the shape carefully with a knife. Then  scrape and scoop the pumkin seeds out of the inside of the pumpkin.

 Ick! Ishaan wouldn't put his hands inside the pumpkin, so I did it.  He used a spoon.

When you're done, come on in out of the shade.

And enjoy your beautiful pumpkins.

Rangoli!

As part of our Diwali celebration; I had high hopes of Ishaan and Amaani of doing some Rangoli on a plate so we we could keep it in the home for a few days. I've seen them at some of our relatives homes and they are so pretty and festive!

Since Amaani wasn't feeling well, I decided that Ishu and I could work on it during her nap. We started out inside.... 

But quickly moved out to the front porch as it seemed like it was going to get a bit messy.

Pretty soon Ishu's hand and feet were a beautiful mix of blue and purple. He did understand that we were trying to make a picture on the ground; but didn't quite understand why we couldn't sit on top of it after we were done.

Amaani joined us just in time to make make a big mess bigger. Ishu was a little dismayed at her arrival; but they both had a good time rolling around in the on the porch.

Must. Poke. Sister. Cannot Resist.

 After everything this is what we ended up with:

Absolutely beautiful; don't you think? 

Trick or Treat!

We had a wonderful Halloween this week! Both kids went as monkeys; and the costumes were just made with whatever I could scrounge around in the house. Amaani's outfit was an old fleece outfit of Ishu's; and Ishu's sweatshirt was purchased earlier this season. Slap on some felt underbellies and ears and they look cute as pie.

This is the first year that we were able to walk around the neighborhood and actually ring bells. This picture is of Ishu walking back from the first house. He didn't actually figure out what was going on.

 Amaani was just anoyed that she didn't get any candy. Um... maybe next year.

Niki Masi took a detour on the way home from work to go to a few houses with us.

Ishu was really getting the hang of it by the end of the night. He was able to explain to me that you were supposed to ring the bell, wait and then hold your bag open. I'm not sure he said Trick or Treat, but he certainly nailed the asking for candy part. Since he had become such an expert, we let him do the last house himself.  

 

He did really well until we realized he couldn't reach the bell! He walked around confused for a bit, until we figured it out. 

 

Well... that's what mom's are for. Problem solved :)

We had such a wonderful time; and I'm already dreaming up costumes and decorations for next year.