New Year's Resolutions

So we haven't really made any this year because it seems like I never follow though on them and Vinay is an engineer and making a resolution is silly. Anything an engineer sets his mind to is pretty much a done deal.

In light of that, we are trying to make some healthier choices including a whole lot less carb-y comfort foods and a whole lot more exercise. The exercise bit is the challenging part with two kids. It's either at 8 PM and we're conked or at 5:30 AM and we're usually still pretty conked. But, we're getting it done.

Today we convened in the garage for some free weights and we had our very own cheering section:

Every.single.time we picked up a weight to do something, Amiya informed us that we were doing it wrong and that she knew the right way to do it. Nevermind that she couldn't even hoist the two pound bracelet above her head for more than two reps. When finished instructing us on what to do and how to do it with weights that weigh almost more than her, she ran into the house to find a silk scarf and proceeded to show us some stretching/Pilates type exercises that make no sense but seem to keep her in great shape. If only I had known this whole time that only silk scarves are needed to weigh 32 pounds and have the sweetest little buns this side of a French bakery.

The Birds and the Bees

Thursday, 2:30 PM

Christy walks into Amiya's classroom to pick up Amiya and her buddy Aubrey.

Miss Clare pulls Christy aside, laughing. (That's important.)

"I forgot to tell you. Your daughter is teaching us about the birds and the bees."

Christy almost drops Kev. Fuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuudge.

"Really? What did she tell you because she doesn't know much."

"She just told us that a Mommy's uterus knows when it's ready for a baby and then the Mommy and the Daddy have a special hug and then the baby is there."

Laugh, laugh, laugh.

Thank you very much. Ok, so I guess we're the parents of the kid who knows some of the birds and the bees but not enough to really pass around naughty words at the playground.

Please, please help us because when it comes time to talk about what exactly a special hug entails I might just lose it.

Happy New Year!

I hope anyone still reading has a very happy new year! If you've braved the google process, I appreciate it!

We had a fabulous, fabulous trip to Wisconsin for Christmas. We left Wednesday the 20th at roughly 6:30 PM and pulled into Champaign, Illinois the following day at 11:30. That was largely due to Vinay's driving - I could not have done what he did. Amiya didn't fall asleep that night until close to 10 - "I just have too much excitement in my body!" We had a lovely, home-cooked meal at my good friend Jacki's house. It was wonderful - good food, nice conversation and Jacki's two darling children for our two darling children to play with. Amiya and Carli got along perfectly - odd for two type A kids, but I'm definitely not complaining! Here you can see Carli and Amiya posing in front of Jacki's tree. Carli looks bright eyed and bushy-tailed, Amiya like she just got out of a 1,000 mile car ride. That's about right, so I suppose we can't tease her too much about this picture in the future!

We pulled into Minocqua shortly before 6-8 inches of snow fell. It was a perfect white Christmas for Amiya. She built a snowman with Uncles Jon-o and Andy, Grandpa and Daddy. She went sledding with Uncles Jon-o and Andy, Grandma & Grandpa and Daddy. Ice fishing with Grandma and Uncle Jon-o. Making doughnuts with Grandma. Tea parties with Grandma. Filling the deer feeder and watching the deer with Grandma and Grandpa. And undisclosed quantities of hot cocoa and cookies. There are more photos coming soon in the mail and I'll upload a few when we have a chance.

While in Minocqua, Santa made his visit. One of the things I told Vinay before we went to Wisconsin was that I wanted Amiya to worry about if Santa would find her away from home and then marvel at the fact that he did. That almost didn't work because Mommy forgot to put the "Santa" presents in the car. And while I never thought I would say it, I was very, very grateful to Wal*Mart. A quick trip to Wally World saved the day. We had a lovely time visiting with my Mom's parents on Christmas Day, as well. Amiya spent most of that time badgering Super Grandma to play Candy Land (thank you Wal*Mart) and have tea parties.
It took Kev quite a while to warm up to Grandma and Grandpa, but once he did it was all good. You can see him staring adoringly at Grandpa here - he knows who has the hammers and saws and blocks of wood to play with! And below he cuddles with Grandma. He was "walking" back and forth between Grandma and me and would give whoever he was walking to the biggest cuddles as soon as he got there. Hopefully he won't lose this familiarity with them and Vinay and I will be able to sneak away for a weekend when my parents visit in March.

Santa came through for Amiya with a red scooter - "just what I always wanted." He dropped it off before we left Tampa since he knew she wouldn't be able to ride it in the snow. She quickly mastered scooting around and has discovered the thrill of the slight decline of our driveway. She wears her helmet faithfully and even the smallest bump causes her to yell out, "Good 'sing I had my helmet on!"

In other news, Kev has, in fact, started to toddle around as long as he's got someone's finger to cling to. He seems far, far too young for this. It's odd the way we relate to him v. Amiya. We cheered her walking on every tiny step of the way. With Kev, we help him out and cheer, too, but inwardly we're sad about it. (I am, at least, Vinay denies it.) He's our last and growing up way too fast. We had to start him on PediaSure at the beginning of December as he is so tiny, so our nursing is finished. Again, growing up way too fast. On our trip he learned how to wave - an emphatic thrusting up and down of his entire right arm (a little Forrest Gump, honestly) and how to clap. Since returning home, Vinay has taught him to do a "big stretch" during which Kev throws both arms up over his head and pulls on his hair. He's almost got it!

Amiya finished up the year at school with a pajama party. Big, big excitement for the preschool set. She absolutely had to wear her plaid pajamas that Grandma made for her and take Clifford because "he matches, Mommy!" She spent her morning watching Pooh's Christmas, running around on the playground and snacking on tepid cocoa and popcorn. Her teacher had plans for grander things, but gave up and took the path of least resistance.

Before leaving on our trip, I had two big cakes to make. The first is for our pediatrician's office as a thank you - they always are able to fit us in and give great care to our children. The second was for a teacher's luncheon where I used to work when we first moved to Florida. It was fantastic to be able to put my ex-boss' name on the naughty list. Everything in each picture is edible except the medicine cup and the note. I also had about six bags to sew and ship - it's kind of fun to think that "my" bags were under the trees of about 15 different Moms and Grandmas this year. All the profit from sewing and cakes goes directly to the Three Day walk and I'm happy to report that I'm just shy of 25% of the total I need to raise. I'm looking to find a team to join to train with and get to know. If I'm going to be spending three days with all these walkers, I'd like to know a few of them beforehand!