The Birthday Bashes

A couple days before his birthday Yo had his weekly playgroup date, and Susan made that into a mini-party.  The theme this year was trucks - she made a bulldozer cake, the rice-krispies were embellished with car decor, and snacks were served in Yo's large orange dump-truck.

We started out his actual birthday with streaming the gift opening to the grandparents and Ajujus/Tan-tan in India.  In the evening we had our usual PDXgang get-together, and that became a mini-birthday celebration as well.  And to continue the vehicular theme most of the boy's gifts had something to do with cars, trains, or trucks.

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Parks and Recreation

A couple weekends ago the weather was pretty good, so we took the munchkins out, starting with brunch with friends, a visit to a park, and then topped it off with ice-cream.  Mika tried out the swings for the first time, and seemed mighty thrilled.

 

Bounce

The little lady's not shown any signs of wanting to crawl as yet - she's more than content to just sit and watch all the action.  And one day she started bouncing by herself - which was quite cute to see.


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Go out, dada Ranjit

Putting Yo to bed has progressed through many phases.  We used to first hold his hand while he fell asleep; taking one's hand away would result in plaintive cries of 'hand, mamma', or 'hand, dada'.  Then we moved to just sitting in his room while he fell asleep.  And the next step was sitting in his room but out of eyesight. (Btw, God bless the iPhone - it was heavily used during all these stages).

Over the last week we've tried just walking out after saying good night and tucking him in with his 'foft blankie'.  Worked pretty well, with the occasional aforementioned plaintive cry for a parental unit (that was largely ignored by said parental units), but definitely making progress in the right direction.

And today, the boy surprised us all.  Before I could even tuck him in and say good night, he said 'Go out, dada Ranjit' in the sweetest manner possible. A goodnight kiss and a tuck later, he booted me out with another 'Go out dada', and then quietly fell asleep.

Our little boy is growing up. Hold on.

Talking about growing up, his private tutor mamma Susan has been teaching him to recognize shapes.  Here is a cool video showing progress thus far.

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In other news, here is a video of dinner time with Yo.

Misc Mika Moments in March

The first time on her 'hanging-bouncer'.  Yes, that is the technical term.  I think.

A case of the giggles.

True misc moments.

Names

Once we taught him our names, Yo re-christened us 'Mamma Susan' and 'Dadda Ranjit'; 'Baby Mika' still continues.


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Happy 2nd birthday, Yo!

Our little boy turned 2 today - can't believe how fast time flies.  Happy birthday, Yoyo!

Just hanging

Mamma and the kiddos.

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Mika's first solids

This is another catch-up post.  About a couple months ago (Feb 1), when Mika was about 5 1/2 months, we introduced her to solid food.  Since then she's just been lapping it up - even veggies (which we started end of Feb) that her older sibling strongly objected to.  Maybe it's the second child thing, but at least to me she seems generally easier to feed than the boy.

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Catching up

Here are a couple videos from when the munchkins were in India a couple months ago.

Chennai:

Bangalore:

All in a day's work

Recently folks have been enquiring about how I deal with 2 kids under 2, so I thought I'd try and provide an inside peek into how I manage to pull it off.

Yohan baby-sits his sister

He cooks a hearty meal for us all

And eats it all up by himself too

The boy takes care of the weekly laundry

And he even takes care of the driving (papparazi-style!)

All jokes aside, here are some things that keep things going, in no particular order: coffee, prayer, scheduled activities, the cutest smiles on the planet, the husband, chocolate and the thought that, "if today's Wednesday, can the weekend be far behind?"

Someone's growing up

Over the last month, Yo has:

• Exchanged the crib for a toddler bed
• Started eating at his little table, by himself (finger foods for now)
• Moved from wearing a sleep-sack at night to using a blanket
• Begun using crayons to create 'art', not necessarily on paper
• And the biggie, for now: Started drinking his milk from a sippy cup rather than his favorite for the past 2 years, a bottle!

Pretty Princess Poses

Little Mika has been sitting up by herself for much longer periods now - she only topples over when she reaches for something and loses her balance or another force in the vicinity (aka her big bro) enters her airspace.  She's laughing a lot more now - and breaks into huge grins when she sees one of us.

   

This past month Mika's been enjoying a variety of seating devices - a Bumbo, an exersaucer, and a jumperoo.

 

The two of 'em

Nope, it's not like this all the time.
Not even most of the time.
Though according to reliable sources, it's all going to be better.
In about a year.

 

The next fep

That would be 'The next step', in Yo-speak.  Most 's' sounds are currently pronounced 'f''.

The boy moved from his crib to a toddler bed this weekend - a bright red fire engine bed that we acquired earlier this week.  He was quite excited with it during the day, but then exhibited some trepidation nearing sleepy-time.  He did fine at the end of it, though, and slept through the night quite well.

Mika at Six Months

Six Month Stats
Weight: 12 lbs 14oz
Height: 26"

(And since we missed posting this earlier, her 3.5 month stats were:
Weight: 10 lbs 7oz
Height: 23")

The little lady hasn't yet executed a turn-over maneuver, which we're all waiting for as the next logical step.  She is quite the energetic, active munchkin, though, and 'scoots' in reverse gear rather rapidly while lying on her back.    The child is also rather wriggly, and a firm grip needs to be maintained at all times when she is in your arms.  Smiles are gladly given out, and she is starting to laugh as well now.  And much character continues to be built by bravely enduring all big brother's frequent pokes and prods.