Putting up the Christmas tree!

Arya has been so excited about putting up the Christmas tree!! We picked it up from the garage at the old house yesterday and she wanted to put it up immediately!! It was already kind of late to get started, and you should have heard her trying to convince us to try to get it up anyway.

"We can just put a little bit up and then relax for a little bit and then put a little more up and then rest some more and keep doing that!" She even started pushing the Christmas tree box from the kitchen towards the living room. ("Look how strong I am, Mommy!!")

Oh my, how do you say no to so much excitement? Anyway, I gave in. Sort of. :) I agreed to put together the tree and put the lights on last night, but said we had to wait until today to do the ornaments when we could do them all together.

(Rajeev was resting last night after passing out in the late afternoon, which is another story altogether. He has not been sleeping much at all due to the crazy amount of work he's got to do... working 16 hours a day is a short day for him, and two days last week he worked 25 hours straight, came home and slept 7-8 hours and then went back to work. It has been insane, and I've been really worried about the fact that he's gone for months and months with a schedule of working so many hours and sleeping so little, knowing that a body will eventually just shut down if you don't take care of it. Anyway, after this passing out episode our doctor's office recommended he get checked out at the emergency room. So, we spent a few hours there and all of the tests came back normal and they basically just said, "You need rest." I guess we'll have to pay a lot for those words, but at least we were able to get him checked out and know it wasn't anything additional. I felt relieved after a very scary afternoon.)

So, Arya and I put up the tree and she was so cute as she helped sort each size of branch so we could put the branches and lights on. We have pine cones that came with the tree and they attach with little wires that you can wrap around the branches. She got a kick out of putting those on, and sneaking on a few ornaments as well. She would say with a big excited smile, "Mommy, every time I'm good maybe I can put on a pine cone or an ornament!!"

Alex was also so excited that he couldn't go to sleep! He usually is out by about 8:30 or 9p.m., but last night he was up until 11p.m.!

This afternoon, after a good night's sleep for Rajeev, we all decorated the tree together and it was a lot of fun to do as a family! I'll try to put up some of the photos soon that I took of us all putting up the tree! Merry Christmas everyone!

Learning signs

We have been doing several signs with Alex since he started eating food. We'll do signs for "more", "all done", "eat" and "thirsty/drink" as appropriate, and also move his hands to do the signs as we say the words to help him learn.

Last week, I thought he put his hands together in a sort of "more" sign while I was feeding him dinner, but I wasn't quite sure how intentional it was. However, today he definitely did two signs intentionally. It is amazing what babies can learn at this age!! (He is 8.5 months now...how did that happen??)

First, this morning he put his hand up and waved it back and forth when I asked him if he was all done after sitting on the potty. I don't think he was really answering me saying, "Yes, mom, I'm all done going to the bathroom." However, I do think he's heard me say "all done" enough with the sign that he knew that what he was doing with his hand went with the words that I was saying. Pretty cool!!

Then, tonight he'd already eaten dinner and gone to sleep for a bit and then he woke up while we were eating. He was wide awake so I brought him out and was holding him as I ate my dinner. Alex was facing away from me, but toward Rajeev's mom, and she said, "Look! He just signed 'more'!" I was really surprised! I turned him around and asked him if he wanted some more and he did the sign again. I gave him a bite of a cracker and after he ate that, I asked if he wanted more. He did the sign probably 10 more times like this, laughing like crazy every time we would see him do it and then give him a bite of cracker.

I can't remember how old Arya was when she started learning signs, but it is so amazing to see babies figuring out that they can communicate even before they can talk. We may not know tons of signs, but it was definitely worth it to try signing some common words/needs when Arya was a baby, and I think it is going to be good to try these with Alex as well!

Alex loves food :)

Alex has been much more interested in eating solid food at this age than Arya ever was. She didn't really care about food until she was about 10 months old. She loved rice cereal the first time we gave it to her and then wouldn't eat it after that. Alex, on the other hand, wants to eat food whenever we are eating!!

For the past month or so, we've been cooking veggies, blending them up, and mixing them with rice cereal for him on a regular basis. He LOVES it! He has been eating about 1/4 cup each night at dinner time, and lately, I've been feeding him some at lunch too, although he usually eats less then than at dinner time.

He has tried lots of foods (carrots, green beans, peas, sweet potatoes, mashed potatoes, baked potatoes, bananas, joulo (Nepali dish made by cooking rice and lentils together until they're soft...not sure how to spell it!!), saltine crackers, cheerios, and animal crackers to name a few) and we really haven't found anything that he doesn't like yet!! His favorites are carrots and mashed potatoes. No wonder our little boy is not so little anymore!!

Getting an early start on potty training

Disclaimer: This post is about potty training, so if you don't want to read about this subject, just skip it!! :)

You know, parenting does not always go exactly like you plan that it will go. I think that before you have kids you sometimes have ideas of how you'll raise them...and then once you actually have kids you usually have to adjust your plans for the real world and your real kids!! :)

Potty training is one of those areas where you usually have ideas of what you'll do ahead of time, but then you just have to see how it goes with your own child.

In Nepal, kids are potty trained early. In recent years, there has been more use of disposable diapers, but using a simple cloth has been a lot more common. So, needless to say, if your baby is just wearing a cloth that leaks all over you and everything else whenever they go potty (no plastic pants, etc.), you start potty training early!!

Anyway, with Rajeev growing up where it is so common for kids to be potty trained by 18 months, it just seemed logical to start early with potty training. We started putting Arya on the potty whenever she woke up when she was about 6 months. I was surprised at how quickly she learned what to do. (I mean it only took a few times.) She didn't start telling me that she had to go potty at this age or anything, and it wasn't like she wouldn't go in her diaper. But by paying attention to when she acted like she had to go to the bathroom, and then taking her, she went through fewer diapers and potty training was a gradual process for her. It wasn't seamless or perfect, but it seemed to work pretty well.

Anyway, we've started the process with Alex now. We were a little late in doing so - he was 7 months instead of 6 like his sister!! (I was just lazy!!) It took him longer to figure it out than Arya...we put him on the potty probably 15 times with no results!! I thought for a while that it might just not work with him, but he seems to be getting the hang of it now though. I just put him on the potty when he wakes up in the morning and he has been going pretty much every morning for a good month now. It is nice because due to his daily routine being what it is, putting him on the potty at this time means one less dirty diaper that I have to change each day!! (Yippee!) I don't really put him on the potty at other times unless I can clearly tell that he needs to go (which I usually can't tell until it is too late!), but I feel like we've gotten a good start on things. I don't worry about rushing it and know he won't be fully trained until he is ready, but for now, this seems like a good way to start.

Girlfriends!

Arya got to go to a birthday party for her friend Brenley last weekend, with friends Maggie and Maddie there too. Maddie and Brenley are cousins, and both in Arya's preschool class, and Arya has had fun getting to play with them at school lately. And of course Maggie has been Arya's friend for just about as long as she's been alive! (Plus, we're friends with all of the girls' parents!) The girls had a great time playing at the playground and eating cupcakes. Here are a few photos from the party that I snagged from Brenley's mom's facebook page!! I love the collage of photos above of the four girls all together. Aren't friends fun??!

Arya and Maggie having cupcakes...you know Arya LOVES chocolate!!

Arya and the birthday girl, Brenley!

Cooperation

A few weeks ago, Arya wanted to help me iron. She said, "Mommy, you hold the iron and I'll put my hand on your hand to help." I was a little hesitant because I didn't want her to burn herself, but carefully let her start helping. She then said, "That's called cooperation. That's what friends are all about. Maggie learned that." Me: "You mean Maggie taught you that?" Arya, "Yeah, Maggie taught me that."

Rajeev and I friends with Maggie's parents, but Maggie and Arya are also such sweet friends. She is a little older than Arya (about 10 months), but they always have so much fun playing together and always talk fondly about each other even when it has been a while since they've been able to play together. Apparently, Maggie has been busy teaching Arya some new things!! So cute!!

PS-The picture above is of Maggie and Arya playing at a recent birthday party!

Arya spends her "Fruit Dollars"

Last month, it was "Fruit Dollar Sunday" at church, where kids get to bring in all of the "fruit dollars" they've received for being good, participating, and attending Sunday School. They can then trade them in for little prizes. They're encouraged to think of others during this time too, and maybe get something for someone else in addition to getting something for themselves.

Arya didn't have many fruit dollars saved up because she'd only been in the 3 year old class for a short time and because we hadn't really realized we were supposed to be saving them until it was quite late. She only had one fruit dollar before class that day, but the teachers helped her earn some extras during class so that she would have at least a few to trade in for goodies!!

Rajeev took her into the little "store" they had set up and she bought a few things, including a juice box, some sparkly stickers and some lip balm. I met up with them as they were finishing and she excitedly handed me something! "It is some lip balm for you, Mommy! Yours was all gone so I got you some more!" She had picked this out all on her own, remembering that probably a month or two before, I'd shown her that the chapstick I keep in the car was all gone. She is such a giving little girl, and I can't believe how generous she is at times, sharing things with others. (She loves to share favorite treats that she gets - M&Ms, goldfish crackers, PEZ candy, etc. with others who she thinks might like them.) Anyway, her gift was so incredibly sweet and thoughtful that I wanted to be sure to write it down.

Alex is crawling!!

Alex has been on the move for the past couple of weeks and has been making steady progress toward crawling. I think that as of Sunday, September 20 though, it is safe to say that he is officially crawling. Over the weekend he started at a point where he would get up on his hands and knees and move a hand or two forward and then kind of thrust himself toward his destination. By the end of the weekend, he was moving 5-6 hands forward before making a "leap" towards wherever it was he is trying to go. Now, he can make it across the room and beyond. He is a very busy little boy!!

I will hopefully be posting some video clips soon. I've taken a few along the way so you can really see his progress. I still can't believe that he is only 5 months old and is crawling!! I definitely can't turn my back for a minute on him!! :)

Making Dora cupcakes

On Monday, Arya was playing on the nickjr.com site and watched a little video about how to make Dora cupcakes. She asked if we could make them, and it sounded like fun to me! So, on Tuesday we made Dora cupcakes. We didn't have fruit leather to make the mouth, and I ran out of red food coloring and could not make the brown icing that was supposed to outline Dora's features. Instead, we outlined them in green, the only color we could make using our options of yellow, blue, and green food coloring!! Anyway, Arya and I had a lot of fun. She did a great job making the hair out of melted chocolate chips. I squirted the melted chocolate around the outside and she used a toothpick to spread out the rest. Here are some photos of us making and enjoying our cupcakes!!

Arya's first day of preschool

Today was Arya's first day of preschool...wow, it is hard to believe she is big enough for that! We went for orientation last Thursday and she got to see her classroom, meet her teacher and some of the other kids in her class.

Today when we got to school, I pulled up toward the door where the teachers come out to the car to pick up the kids and take them in. They had said it was okay if parents took the kids in for the first few days, so I asked Arya what she wanted to do: "Arya, do you want Mommy to take you inside or do you want to go by yourself?" "I'll go by myself, " she replied confidently. Wow, so much for needing mommy!!

Show and tell is on Tuesdays, and this week's show and tell theme was circles. Arya decided to bring her bubble blower (the handheld kind with a little fan to blow lots of bubbles at once). She thought it was neat because the bubble blower had all kinds of circles on it (including the openings that the bubbles blow through), and it made bubbles, which were also circles. I told her she'd have to ask the teacher if she could actually blow the bubbles, and explained that she probably wouldn't be able to blow them inside. On the way home I asked her about show and tell and she excitedly told me that her teacher had blown the bubbles for them two times, and more importantly, "she even blew the bubbles INSIDE THE HOUSE!!!" (in other words, inside the classroom instead of outdoors).

Another highlight from the day included painting (which she loves). I asked her about seeing some of her friends, and she told me disappointedly about how one of the little girls didn't want to share. Arya: "She wasn't even thinking about sharing." Me: "Did you ask her nicely if she would share with you?" Arya: "Yes! I said, 'Share!'" Me: "Well did you share with the other kids?" Arya: "Yes! But I just played with the toys no one else was playing with."

Needless to say, it was a fun filled day for Arya and she was clearly excited to tell me all about what she had spent the afternoon doing.

As we were getting out of the car at home, I asked her one more question, feeling sure that I'd know the answer. "Are you excited to go back to school another day?"

Her answer surprised me. "No, I don't want to go back. I don't want you to leave me. I really missed you." I'm sure she'll change her mind and be completely ready to head back on Thursday, but it is kind of nice to know that she still needs me after all. :)


Above is my sweet Arya just before we left for school...and below is my silly Arya. :)


Here she is "getting her exercise" as she calls it, by trying to climb a tree in the front yard!

Alex eats cereal for the first time!

I wanted to post a couple of videos of the first time Alex tried solid food. He has been so interested in the food that we eat, and has been reaching for it and moving his mouth as he watches us eat. The pediatrician told us to try to wait a bit longer to give him cereal, so we gave him some once he had passed the 5 month mark. Here are 4 videos that show his first experience!! (My camera only takes 30 second videos, so that is why there are four of them!!) He kept crying whenever Rajeev took the spoon away to refill it!! I guess the rice cereal was a hit!! :)

My tongue taste-es yucky!!

Arya has had some trouble at various times with biting her nails. I have to share this story in relation to that because it is so funny!! Maybe 2 months ago (??) Rajeev had put some of that special bitter tasting nail polish on her fingernails and toenails to keep her from biting them. One evening after doing this, we were driving and Arya was sitting in the back seat snacking on some goldfish crackers. Apparently, she started tasting some of the bitter polish on her fingers while eating the goldfish!! She got our attention, saying, "My tongue taste-es* yucky!" (*Taste-es is something she says occasionally, when she adds an "s" to "taste" and makes it two syllables.) She went on to explain, "It taste-es like I licked an animal...like an elephant or giraffe." Oh my gosh!!! What a great description!! Maybe she has a gift for expressing herself through words like her Aunt Liz!! I couldn't have explained it better!!

Alex's 4 month appointment

Alex went for his 4 month appointment on July 30. He is doing great. He weighed 15 lbs., 8 oz. and was 24 3/4" long. His head circumference was 17 1/4".

He knows now that he has a voice, and likes to make different sounds like "ga", "ma", "ning". (I'm totally guessing on how to write that sound, which is kind of like an "ing" sound with a "n" at the beginning!) He says the sound "mama", but more as a need sound (when he wants picked up, etc.) than as a way to refer to me.

He rolls over all of the time, and loves to move! He usually wants to stand up while on people's laps. He also no longer wants to lean back in his swing. Instead he wants to sit up (even with no back support) and play with (i.e. chew) toys on the little tray that goes across the front. He is very good at holding himself up with his arms while lying on his tummy.

The current movement update is this (which is a little later than his 4 month appointment, but since it did happen this month, I'll include it here): Last week Alex started pushing his knees up under his body and he'll even try to move sometimes. He'll usually have his elbows on the floor when he does this, but it makes me realize that crawling won't be that far down the road. Wow! All of this is happening so fast!!

Alex is a very happy baby. He smiles a lot and for many different people. He also will laugh when you make some silly sounds or tickle under his arms.

He is very curious about food. He'll move his mouth while he watches people eat. He also loves to grab for things on the table if you're holding him while eating. The pediatrician recommends waiting a bit longer before giving him food, but I think that when it is time, Alex will be very excited.

As for sleeping, until this week, he's been doing really well. June 5 he slept through the night for the first time. He did this for about 4 out of the next 6 nights, and then it started becoming an almost every night thing. He would go to sleep around 10-11p.m. and sleep until 6-7a.m. He'd then eat and go back to sleep until about 8a.m. Nice!! This week he's been waking up for several nights between 1-3a.m. and wanting to eat, and I'm not sure what to do!! I guess we'll figure it out!

Well, those are a few of the 4 month milestones that I wanted to include! I can't believe how fast the time is flying.

Stitches!!

A little over a week ago, we had to take Alex to the pediatric dermatologist to have her look at his foot. He had a little bump (that has been there since he was born) on his right foot. The doctor removed it on Aug. 13 during our appointment. It wasn't much fun, but fortunately it was over pretty quickly. There were 4 of us (the doctor, 2 nurses, and me) who had to hold Alex still (which he really didn't like) while the doctor gave him a shot to numb his foot. She then removed the little bump and gave him two stitches in its place. :( Poor little guy. They are doing a biopsy to make sure there isn't anything more that needs done, but hopefully this will take care of it.

Siblings

Yesterday as I was tucking Arya in for bed, she looked at me and said, "I love Alex. Isn't he the cutest baby in the whole world?" Oh my goodness...how adorable!!

Arya really is so sweet with Alex. And Alex clearly loves her too. When he sees her, he just lights up and a huge smile appears on his face. It is pretty amazing. I'm so glad that they have each other.

How do I get so far behind?

I had great intentions of keeping this blog more active than the old one, but here I am realizing it has been more than two months since I posted. I was thinking that I could just write new posts and then go back and add in previous entries by changing the time/date stamp on them, allowing me to basically fake the entries and keep everything in order. But somehow, I don't think I can do that from this template. ???

Anyway now the dilemma is whether to not write anything new until I catch up on all of the old stuff in an effort to keep things in order, or whether to just write whatever I can, whenever I can. I think I'm going to have to go with the write whatever I can whenever I can option. Otherwise there's never going to be anything on this blog!!!

Anyway, now you've been warned: this blog and the events and happenings it describes may not (and probably WILL not!) be in order (at least for a while). Maybe if I don't worry about all I've left out, I will just be able to jot things down in an entry here or there and it will be more regular. Well, that is what I'll at least hope for!!

By the way...

By the way, it was 12:31a.m. when I posted that last post - not 9:31p.m. I just thought it looked funny to be talking about how I was tired and heading to bed when it was only 9:31p.m.!! I mean, Arya doesn't even go to bed by that time!! :) I guess the time stamp is set for Pacific Time. I'll have to see if I can find out where to change that. I'll save that for another day though. Good night!

A New Blog

I've decided that we need a new blog for a couple of reasons:

• We have a new member of the family. (I think I'll need to post a separate entry to introduce you all to Alexander Jeevan Karki!)
• I have trouble keeping up with blogging on Arya's blog, and didn't think I would do a very good job of trying to blog there about Arya and elsewhere about Alex.
• A family blog will give me a place to blog about random things that might not fit on blogs specifically written about/for the kiddos!
  

So for all of these reasons, I've decided to just make a new blog that can contain of all of the things the family is up to in one spot (or at least all of the things I have time to blog about!). Anyway, I'm hoping (as always) to start doing a better job of blogging. Wish me luck!! (For now though, it is late and I'm really tired, so I'm going to go to bed!!)

Happy Birthday, Arya!

Our little Arya is turning 3 years old today. I can hardly believe it. She is such a fun little girl. She loves to talk, talk, talk, and tell you all the things that she is thinking. She loves singing songs. (I need to post some videos of her recent favorites.) She loves painting at her easel in the kitchen, which she does nearly every day. Some of her favorite things to paint include fish in water, Sesame Street characters, ducks, and the Lion King. (She has a Lion King book, and likes to look at the book and have me help her copy one of the pictures in it - where Mufasa and Sarabi are standing on the big rock with baby Simba.) She loves to read books and to go to the library, where they have a big wooden boat to play in.

One of her other favorite things to do is to play games at one of the two websites we let her go to - sesamestreet.org and nickjr.com. I am amazed watching her navigate the sites, pick the games that she wants to play and work the keypad or mouse to do the things that she wants to do! At Nick Jr., some of the games ask you to type in your name, which she excitedly does, and then at the end they'll make a little card for you that you can print out that says something like, "Arya saves the day!!" with a picture of the Wonder Pets or other characters. She has to ask to use the printer, but really loves it when I let her print something!! We definitely have to limit how much she plays because I think she'd play all day long if we would let her!!

Arya is very excited about the Spring flowers that are starting to pop up. She wants to pick them all! She is very happy that it is getting warmer and that we've been able to play outside more lately. We like to walk down to the "duck pond" at the retirement complex that is close to our house, and she always asks if we have any old bread she can take to feed the ducks and swans. She likes to plant rocks in the yard (which I discourage), but also likes to plant leaves too. She'll push aside the dirt, stick whatever she is planting into the ground, and cover it with more dirt. She'll water it too, if she has any access to something that will hold water! She likes to look for what she calls "beautiful leaves", and likes to point out the different colors that she notices in the sky when the sun is getting low. She'll say, "Look, Mommy, the sky is SO beautiful!" I wish you could hear it!!

I wanted to write a little about these things so that I can remember exactly what this stage in her life was like, but there are so many things that I love about her that it is hard to write them all down. Needless to say, we can't imagine life without this precious little girl in our lives. We love you so much, Arya!! Happy Birthday!!

Arya loves chopsticks!

A couple of weeks ago we went to a Japanese restaurant (where they cook at the table in front of you) for Rajeev's birthday. Arya was a little nervous about being that close to the fire on the table. (I think that means we're doing our job as parents, right? Don't get too close to fire! It can burn you!) However, she LOVED using the chopsticks that they gave her. (They had those little plastic things to hook the two sticks together and make them easier to use.) I took a video of her using them. It is a little dark, but I think it is pretty cute!!

What should we name the baby?

We have had trouble coming up with the right name for the baby that is about to arrive. Arya, however, has had no trouble at all. At the beginning of February, we were talking about name options, and Arya said, "I think a good name for the baby would be Walden. Walden is a good name and it is a boy's name." She's pretty much settled on that name ever since. (In case you're wondering where "Walden" came from, no it isn't a reference to Henry David Thoreau's famous book. It is a reference to a character on the cartoon Wow! Wow! Wubbzy! She doesn't even get to watch that cartoon very often, but apparently the name of the silly scientist on the show has made an impression on her!!)

Getting ready for a new baby...

Arya is getting very excited about the upcoming arrival of her baby brother. She likes to curl up next to me and talk to my belly to say hi to him. She'll often say something along these lines, "Hi, baby! I'm your big sister, Arya! I love you! I can't wait to meet you! I think you will like the Dumbo ride at Disney World!" That last part cracks me up, and it is something that she tells the baby quite frequently!!

Arya has liked hearing the story about when she was born. The story of her birth that I tell her goes something like this: Before you were born, you grew in Mommy's tummy. We waited and waited as you got bigger and bigger and bigger and my tummy got bigger and bigger and bigger! (This is a phrase from the book, God Gave Us You, which she likes to read.) When it was time for you to be born, Daddy and I went to the hospital and we spent the night. The next morning, the doctor told us you would be coming that day!! Everyone was so excited! We waited for you all day long and then you were born! So many people that love you came to meet you (I then tell her everyone who came to see her that day). They were all so happy that you had arrived! (Wow! What an easy birth, right?!!)

Well, we've also talked to Arya about what will happen when her baby brother is born. She knows that Mommy and Daddy will go to the hospital and that she will get to stay with Grandma or Aunt Sara and Uncle Landon. Then, after the baby is born, Grandma or Aunt Sara and Uncle Landon will bring her to the hospital and she'll get to see Mommy and Daddy and meet her new baby brother!

The other night, I was cooking dinner when Rajeev and Arya came into the kitchen. Rajeev looked at me and said, "Arya has a question for you!" They had evidently just had the following conversation:

Arya: When the baby is born, will Mommy's tummy break?
Rajeev: No, Arya, the doctor will be there to help. Don't worry, Mommy's tummy won't break!
Arya: (laughing) But Daddy, Mommy doesn't have a hole in her tummy!! How will the baby get out??!
(That's when Rajeev turned to me for some sort of great age-appropriate explanation!)
Me: Well, Arya, the doctor will help the baby be born and Mommy's tummy will be just fine!! It won't break! You don't need to worry!

Fortunately, that seemed to be enough detail for her for that day!! I'm sure this is only the start of the questions that we'll have to answer in the years to come though!!

Arya on TV!!

On Sunday we went to Winterfest, near Rajeev's parents' house in Vaughan. The Backyardigans were scheduled to perform, and we knew Arya would really enjoy that. She loves the show, which is about a group of friends that get together in their backyards to go on all sorts of exciting adventures using their imaginations. All of the adventures feature lots of fun songs as well.

Anyway, we were excited to be able to take her to see the show before we left Toronto and headed back to Muncie. It was an outdoor show, so all of the little kids were so bundled up! Arya loved it, and afterwards, we just happened to be passing by when RogersTV was interviewing kids. She had no problem taking the microphone and answering all of the questions that they asked her!! She didn't even seem to have trouble coming up with answers at all! (I shouldn't have been surprised, since she is naturally so talkative!!) We didn't get to spend too long due to the fact that we had to drive home on Sunday, but we did love the show and we got to go on a horse and buggy ride before leaving too. (Arya was wondering why we could only do two things when there were other rides and activities all around!!)

Anyway, the clip played on the show FirstLocal on RogersTV on Monday, 2/9/09. If you want to see the clip, the segment about Winterfest starts about 11 minutes in, with Arya appearing right around 12 minutes in. You can view the link here. I am hoping that the link will be good for more than just today!! If it stops working, let me know and I'll try to post another link.

Thanks, Vaughan, for providing such a fun (and FREE!) activity for families!! We're so glad we had the chance to attend!

I want to be the manager now!

While in Toronto visiting Rajeev's family, Arya has had lots of fun playing with Bunu Phupu (Rajeev's sister). Bunu has a laptop, and Arya is a huge fan of laptops (and really of any computer that allows her to access the sesamestreet.org website).

Bunu works in a bank, and Arya also likes to pretend that she is working in a bank. She'll fill her little purse with change and take it to Bunu and ask to deposit or withdraw something. Or, she'll want to be the manager and sit at Bunu's laptop while Bunu comes to deposit or withdraw something. So funny! Anyway, lately she has been really interested in being the manager. We just had the following conversation with her...

Arya: I want to be the manager now! (i.e. I want to use the computer!)
Rajeev: What does the manager do, Arya?
Arya: First someone takes the money and gives it to the manager. Then the manager types the money into the computer. That's how you be the manager.

Wow, being a manager sounds pretty simple!

Arya's First Day of "School"

Last Wednesday, I took Arya to her first day of "school". It is actually a Parents' Day Out program at a preschool/church where several of our friends' kids go to preschool. We have the option of taking her to the program a couple of afternoons and/or mornings a week. She went last Wednesday and again today, and she seemed to have a lot of fun. She says that the teachers are nice. They've told me that she has been a really good girl both days she has been there. She has been hesitant to leave both of the days when I've come to pick her up because she has enjoyed cooking in their toy kitchen so much. She also likes the slide, which is part of their indoor playground. She takes her lunch when she goes, and she thinks that is fun. (She likes me to pack her favorite lunch - a ham and cheese sandwich.) The pictures above are of Arya all ready to head to school with her lunch bag! I still can't believe how she is growing up!!

Recent comments from Arya

Yesterday, we had to drive down to Indy. On the way, I let Arya have a sucker that they gave her the last time we stopped at the bank. It was close to sunset, so the sun was low and shining through the window. I looked at Arya and saw her holding her sucker out in front of her. When she saw me, she said, "Mommy, my blue sucker looks so beautiful with the sun on it!" It was such a sweet observation that I decided I had to write it down. I am amazed at the things that she notices.

Another funny thing Arya said yesterday was this, "Mommy, I'm a sweet girl, but I'm not food."

She comes up with the funniest things. I'll try to keep posting them from time to time here on her blog.

December mini photo shoot

In December, we did a mini photo shoot of our family to use in our Christmas cards. I thought I'd post a few of them so the blog would have some updated photos of our little Arya.