Best Buds

Amiya has a really good friend here. His name is Gabe and he is all that and then some. These two are double trouble and cute as can be. Amiya begs to play with Gabe every.single.day. She's getting an early start on a stalking career I think. When they're together he's as boyish as can be and she's as girlish as can be and this is a trend that must be stopped before they reach middle school. But for now, their little (and sometimes not so little) hugs and kisses are just cute.



The great thing about Amiya loving her boy friend (ha!) so much is that Gabe does things that Amiya doesn't and I think Amiya is challenged to keep up with him. Gabe is an amazing jumper at the edge of the pool and since Amiya's seen Gabe jump, she's trying harder than ever to do the same. Gabe gives great hugs and Amiya gives hugs a lot more freely after spending time with her buddy. It's just a really cool thing to see peer pressure working in positive ways and moving her to try things that are just a bit outside her comfort zone. Now, come the day these two pressure each other two run in the street or mess with an anthill. Then we'll have something to deal with. But for now, I'm happy that Amiya's got a great friend.

Maybe this time?

Dear Obelix,

Just so you know, your Daddy gave you your nickname, not your Mommy. I'd probably call you Peanut which is not highly original and would set up confusion and probably sibling rivalry. You see, I call Amiya Peanut, too. My brain is turning to mush, but my heart still works just fine and I've got lots of love just for you.

Daddy calls you Obelix because Amiya (your older sister) was Asterix. When we found out we were pregnant with your sister, she was literally the size of an * (asterix). And, since your Daddy loves Asterix & Obelix, well there you have it.

We found this picture when we were pregnant with your sister. Obviously she looked a lot different than this. But you? Want to gives us some hints? We don't know if you're a boy or a girl and we're not sure we're going to find out until you're ready to come out and meet us. But if you're a boy and seeing how much Amiya takes after your Daddy, well, you just might look like this. We'll get you some product for your hair and teach you to shave just as soon as you figure out that your hands are really yours.

In the meantime, I just wanted to say thanks for calming down in there lately. I'm not feeling nearly as yucky as I had been for the first few months. You're just a quiet little guest lately who takes things in stride. I've enjoyed the little taps you've given me - feel free to keep them coming. I think your Daddy is eagerly awaiting the days when you'll kick me so hard that he'll be able to feel it. I promise not to be upset when you do. But fair warning, once you get out you'll have to be gentle with your kicking. And if you could teach your sister that, I'd really appreciate it!

More soon, Obie.
Mommy

Mmmm. Cheesecake.

Yesterday night, my husband had a strong craving for cheesecake. (See couvade syndrome) :-) So, we stopped at the store with a decent bakery (why, oh why, is this part of Tampa so lacking in anything non-chain?!?!) and bought a small cheesecake. Eight servings of cheesecake. Do the Guptas really need eight servings of cheesecake? Nooooooooooooo. But it is mighty tasty!
And Amiya thinks so, too. I thought she'd be a bit hesitant about it, but she went at her full slice full force and had it gone before Mommy or Daddy could finish their portions. ( As an aside, she washes her cheesecake down with tepid Ovaltine that we call hot cocoa. She thinks she's a grown-up because she's drinking a "hot" beverage.) Same thing tonight, although we used it to our advantage and got absolutely everything we needed her to do done with the threat of withholding the almighty cheesecake. She just might have eaten an onion to get to that cheesecake.

And this is just one more tic in the "Yes, she is my daughter!" category. Although I can't recall a time I've eaten cheesecake wearing only big girl underwear with poodles on them.

She's No Dummy

This is what happens when we tell Amiya to pick up her toys and put them in her playroom. The toys get in the playroom and not a bit further. Please note, the stroller was actually in the doorway to the playroom, but was pushed in to make room for the cart.

Gotta love this kid.

The next Willard Scott

It seems like everyone is asking us lately if we're going to put Amiya in preschool or not. We are not. She's two and a half and doing just fine for two and a half. But I'm now just a bit freaked out that she's going to be the child who sits in the third seat of the row, praying not to get called on because her Mommy and Daddy didn't ante up the $140 a week for preschool. So, we're starting some basic stuff around here, aside from the books and puzzles and coloring we normally do.

Today we went to the teacher supply store and got a weather chart, a Clifford calendar and a Clifford number set. We're starting simple with the weather chart, marking the day's weather when she gets up every morning. We'll move on to the calendar when September begins and maybe the numbers in October. She had a good time helping me punch out the various weather icons and sorting them into piles, but she really loved our five minute foray into the great wilds of our backyard to check out what kind of weather we have in Tampa today. She insists that today is a cloudy day, even though I'd argue that it's sunny with big fluffy clouds. But, it's her weather chart and if we have to deal in absolutes, cloudy it is!

Zsa Zsa Gupta

Don't you think she looks just like one of the Gabor sisters with her matching hat, bag and Bear? Granted, I don't think the Gabor sisters have ever owned or wore a neon yellow UW Oshkosh t-shirt with a pair of hand-me-down jean shorts, but the spirit is definitely there.


If you can't tell, it's been a weekend of dressing up at our house. I think it's probably time to spend a morning thrift-shopping for strappy high-heels, glittery tops and feather boas. Any and all seventies/eighties fashion hold-outs can be sent to the Fabulous Amiya Gupta.

Snowman Sari

Two yards of fabric is all it takes to make a sari for a two-year old apparently. I left Amiya and Daddy to fend for themselves in the wilds of Tampa Saturday morning. While out, I found a cute snowman fabric on clearance (bonus! bonus!) at Hancock Fabrics and so bought a few yards to make Amiya a winter dress. After returning home, I was showing Amiya the snowmen when magically the fabric started to wrap itself around her. Amazingly, it became a perfect sari for this little one. Amiya wasn't as fond though - saris are not accomodating dress for an active toddler. But it was kind of fun to see her all dressed up!

The Week in Review

Hurricane Katrina's got nothing on Hurricane Amiya. It seems that everytime we turn around, there's a new tantrum on the horizon and they are all category fives. We're not really sure what's causing them so we're going to give it a few days and then we'll probably have to call the pediatrician. Her left ear tube is working itself out, so it may be that she's got ear stuff going on.
See the picture? That's the calm before the storm. It's like Jekyll and Hyde around here.

In other news, Amiya has told her first lie. It's true while also astonishing. I know, I know, we're not always a good example lying about onions and pickles and the like. But come on! Before nap time we've instituted a quiet time period where Amiya plays quietly in her room. It's more for Mommy than for Amiya, but she loves it so who are we to change what's not broken? She gets to play as long as the CD in her radio is playing, but when the music stops it's nap time. Yesterday the music stopped and things got eerily quiet in her room. I said, "Did your music finish, Amiya?" "No Mommy, it's till goin'!" I thought perhaps I made a mistake so I listened intently only to hear silence. "Amiya, are you sure your music hasn't finished?" "I'm sure Mommy. It's till goin'!" At that point I went into her room and we listened for her music together at which point she agreed that it had indeed finished. She didn't even have the sense to look like she was caught in the act. Guilt must come later.

Amiya's come late to the game of the camera-loving toddler. But she's here in full force now. She's constantly asking for us to take pictures of her - here you can see her dressed up and ready to go to the "tore" for cheese and cookies. When I reminded her that we bought a fair amount of cheese already today she said that this cheese was only for her. Well then.

The vocabulary of this little tempest is growing in leaps and bounds. She now regularly asks if we "pefer" chicken or spaghetti when we play restaurant. That's not to say she always gets the correct usage for the word. We always put in a "border" at the restaurant, we're never allowed to actually order. Happily, the menu at the restaurant has expanded a bit - just a few days ago our choices were tomatoes, broccoli or eggplant with hot or cold water as the beverage of choice. We held out hope that this restaurant would go under, but alas, the vegetarians in Tampa must have loved it because we're still forced to border every evening.

The other big topic around here lately is babies, babies, babies! Not surprising as we've been pretty open about Mommy being pregnant. Amiya's told me on several occasions that she has a baby in her "you-ta-rus" just like Mommy. She kisses and hugs and holds her $5 Wal-Mart doll who she lovingly calls Baby Katie. Lately we have to diaper Baby Katie. Size 1 diapers do not work on a tiny, tiny doll. But that's no matter to Amiya - it's all about the effort. If only it could be so easy with a real baby!

And finally, further proof that she's really my child. After a big dinner tonight (where does she pack all this food away!?!?!?), Amiya chose to have ice cream. I asked her if she wanted some chocolate sauce on it or a scoop of apricot jam. She chose the jam! Whoohoo! She gobbled it up as if she hadn't just eaten half of my pork chop, a cup of broccoli and a scoop of stuffing.

That's it for now, dear Friends. Tomorrow Mommy is taking some time off, so it'll be up to Daddy to take a picture and write about the day's events.

Swimming Level III

So we signed Amiya up for Level III of swimming only because she mostly hated Level II but finished off the last few days with smiles. I wanted to keep those good feelings towards swimming lessons growing a bit, so Level III it was! We've got one more day left and I couldn't be happier. Don't get me wrong - she's rocking! This girl can float like a four-year old now. She jumps (or more likely gets pushed by her (offensive word deleted her as Nisha's too young for it) teacher) in, bobs to the surface, gets herself on her back, floats, rolls over and swims to the wall! I love it! It's great to see her doing these things and being confident in her abilities. It'll be just as great to just go to our pool every morning and play together instead of hauling over to a neighboring community's pool for thirty minutes of hurry up and wait.

Quiet Time with Daddy

The past two nights in Tampa have been full of lightning and thunder. Amiya's become pretty serious about thunder - she knows it means we have to get out of the pool and get inside the house. She even acknowledges that dark clouds mean thunder is just around the corner and so we probably shouldn't even try to go to the pool.

Monday afternoon saw the skies cloud over and so instead of the pool we opted for a trip to the library. Amiya came home with a few books about opposites which is the new thing around here. Sometimes she gets it, sometimes she doesn't. (Which is, I guess, both ironic and appropriate for the topic of opposites.) Daddy and Amiya went to the lanai with the books as there was a nice breeze blowing - not something to pass up in Florida in August. After reading the stories, they sat together for another forty-five minutes watching the lightning and having a Daddy/Daughter talk. Mommy watched from inside mostly, not wanting to break up the sweetness of the moment. When is the last time you remember Amiya sitting for that long? Moments like this cannot be interrupted! When finally I joined them, it was to find myself fully instructed by the newly-trained expert on the proper way to hold one's head while looking for lightning and the best spots to look for it.

I certainly had a nice time, but I don't think my level of enjoyment was anywhere near Vinay's or Amiya's. Daddy got a huge chunk of cuddle time and Amiya got Daddy's full and undivided attention. Here's to Tampa: Lightning Capital of North America! What a great place to live for so many reasons!

Are you ready for some ____?

If you filled in the blank with the word "football" you are clued perfectly in to American culture in late-August. You almost can't ask the question without the image of a hairy man with a beard and big cowboy hat popping into your brain. And yet, that's truly not what it's all about, dear Friends.

You see, in our house there is a much less violent game that is almost always preceded by the question "Are you ready for some ____?" In this case, the blank is to be filled in with "o rollin'"
That's right - it's the intriguing game of o-rolling where the object is to roll the foam letter O from one side of the coffee table to another. If it's varsity level o-rolling, the letter T serves as the "pusher" and one must not touch the letter O except to stand it up. No matter if the O makes it to the other side or not, one must cheer "Yeah! Amiya!" or "Yeah! Daddy!" while stomping feet and sort-of jumping. You can see Amiya showing you the T-pushing-O technique. Note the poise and concentration. Such intense thought is rarely seen in the toddler set except in the bathroom or while trying to keep up with an ice cream cone in the Florida heat.

Clean up!

Saturday was cleaning day in the Gupta household. I know, you think such a thing doesn't exist, but every once and again a little bug whispers in Vinay's ear that if he can just light the flame, Christy'll go on a kick and we'll get some massive cleaning done. And so it was this fine Saturday. I actually never really made it out of the kitchen - I washed down cabinet fronts and doors, scrubbed appliances, really cleaned our sink (please someone tell me why stainless steel sinks are so popular - porcelain are so much easier to keep looking nice!!!), vacuumed, arranged a cabinet or two and voilà - our Saturday morning was eaten up. Happily though, all this hard work was rewarded with a lunch at Johnny Rockets where the burgers are good and the on-table juke box keeps Amiya occupied.

Amiya also got into the cleaning mood and refused to leave her playroom until her cleaning was done. Above you can see her wiping down the top of her kitchen while perching on the little stool as Mommy had done to reach the high cabinets. All the while she sang, "Clean up, clean up, clean up! Everybody, everywhere!" I don't thank Barney for many things, but I do like this little song as it seems she actually believes that she *must* clean up while she sings it.

Amiya went to bed last night at 7:30 - she had a day filled with swimming lessons, playing at the pool and a playdate with her good friend Gabe. She also chose not to nap in the afternoon. So, Daddy put her in at 7:30 while Mommy was out at a fantastic restaurant with other Mommies.

She stirred a bit last night when Mommy came home, so I snuck in for some cuddles and back rubs. I think I've got a magic touch as she slept this morning until 9:40. That's when I heard the first peeps. 9:40, Friends, 9:40! I was counting my lucky stars as I couldn't fall asleep after returning from dinner and that extra quiet time in the morning was just what I needed.

I walked into Amiya's room as soon as I heard her up and about, only to find her curled up, eyes closed, cuddling bear and covered with her snuggly dino blanket. I said, "Are you ever going to wake up?" big fake snore. "I'm so lonely without you, Amiya!" another big fake snore, broken up with a giggle. "Ok then, I guess I'll leave and let you have some more rest." "No Mommy, I was just tendin'!" Big smiles and one really, really, really wet and stinky diaper.

What a kid!

What did you say?

This, dear Friends, is Amiya's newest and coolest saying. We hear it ALL the time.

"Amiya, please eat your beans."

"What did you say?"

"Amiya, time to float."

"What did you say?"

"Amiya, Clifford's purple!"

"What did you say?"

Yesterday night, I went into her room to see that she was fast asleep and... she wasn't deeply, but sort of in that raspy-voice, slow-moving stage. She pulled her groggy head up when she saw me enter the room and I said, "It's ok, Baby, I'm just covering you up."

What do I get?

"What did you say?"

It's almost entirely reflexive now, but not quite fully. She does not pull it out of her cute little phrase pocket if, for example, the preceding statement involves cookies, ice cream or going down the slide at the pool.

"Amiya, are you ready for some ice cream?"

"Yes!"

"Amiya, should Daddy take you down the slide?"

"Yes!"

Funny how this works, eh?

Now it's time to pray.

That's what Amiya says while she's combing our hair.

"Now it's time to pray."

What she really means is "Now it's time to spray." We use a no more tangles type of spray on her long locks and she thinks Vinay and I both need the same, so she does one soft pass of the brush and then plays with an imaginary spray bottle.

Some other missing S sounds that we've noticed:

"Daddy, can we go down the lide?"
-> Daddy, can we go down the slide?

"I'm coopin' Mommy!"
-> I'm scooping Mommy!

"Like a diamond in the ky."
-> Like a diamond in the sky.

"This is portan tuff."
-> This is important stuff.

We Are Fresh Out of Ss

If you see the letter s hangin' around here or there, would you send us a few? Amiya thinks they're in short supply and so uses them sparingly. In fact, she will only use them if they are in front of a vowel - never, ever if they are in front of another consonant.

Some of our favorites:

"Mommy, can I have a nack?"
-> Mommy, can I have a snack?

"Is it nowin?"
-> Is it snowing? (Everytime it snows on Clifford)

"Weetie, I love you."
-> Sweetie, I love you.

"I don wan ta go wimmin."
-> I don't want to go swimming.

We'll add more - there's a new one every day!

White Pickles

Dear Amiya,

Someday you'll read this and be briefly (we can only hope) angry with us. You see, you've been eating these French pickles for a while now. Maybe a month. You used to hate them, but now you love them and whenever Daddy brings the jar out, you ask for them. We limit you to one or two because they're quite acidic and your little tummy sometimes rejects things that don't quite mix with your now-standard salami dinners. But Saturday night, we gave in quite simply because we were in awe.

You had eaten your two pickles and your salami and had moved on to happily munch on your chicken, noodles and even, oh little connoisseur that you are, your asparagus. Daddy went back for another pickle and you asked for more. We gave you a "white pickle." That's what we called it, my trusting child, but you almost didn't buy it. Almost. You ate it, said it was good but that it was like a tomato. Remember, Amiya, you didn't like tomatoes at this tender age. You knew something was up, but you couldn't believe that your own Daddy and Mommy would lie to you. Oh, the shame! Yet, you ate another one, saying it too was good. Those weren't really tear-drop shaped white pickles, Baby Girl. They were onions. Yes, we knowingly lied to you and fed you onions when you were expecting pickles. But you see, Amiya, you liked them. Onions can be good. Onions can be your friend.

Forgive us,
Mommy and Daddy

Biscuits, Baby, Biscuits!!!

Nothing goes better with thick jam than homemade bread. We're fresh out of yeast and Mommy's not feeling up to serious kneading, so Amiya and I made buttermilk biscuits for breakfast Saturday morning. Mommy rolled them a bit too thin, so they were more like buttermilk crackers, but Amiya did a masterful job of pressing and twisting. We'll have to work a bit on spacing as the final biscuits were quite tough from being balled and rolled over and over. Imagine a big circle. Instead of getting two or three from the circle, Amiya somehow managed to get one so that nowhere else was there space for a complete biscuit. And you can imagine your average two-year-old - if they weren't circles, they weren't going in the oven.

More to come, I promise. Mommy's tired lately. When Amiya sleeps, Mommy sleeps. (And consequently, poor Daddy gets frozen lasagna for dinner.)

Apricot Jam with Orange

I once had really delicious homemade apricot jam with just a hint of orange. I think it was the best jam I'd ever had. The apricots were looking good at the store the other day and they are one of my favorite fruits, so I thought I'd try my hand at canning this afternoon. It appears that my efforts were successful - all eight lids are tight (I'm not really supposed to test until tomorrow), the jam is thick and amber-colored. Vinay who'd sooner eat a spoonful of butter than a spoonful of jam took a bite and said it was good - high praise indeed from this non-sweet-loving guy. Amiya tore up three books today, so she was not allowed to have a taste - no treats for this little one. Anyway, a good experience except for my thumb. Who knew jam would create such a big blister? I didn't but I can tell you that it does. For now the jam is cooling on the kitchen shelf, but come December, when apricots are just a thing of memory, we'll all enjoy this little dollop of summer.

The hierarchy of Vegetables

For the past few days V and I have been trying to be more careful about getting our daily vegetable servings in. A noble goal, but I don't know how long we'll keep it up. Amiya, of course, is along for the ride, however unwillingly at this point. She's been getting about a cup of salad nightly before she gets any other food. Once it's gone, she can have her protein, her starch, her fruit and maybe, if the salad went down easily, a dessert.

Here's what's been in the salad the past few nights: romaine lettuce, tomatoes, green peppers, cucumbers, carrots (not mine!), olives and feta cheese (not mine either!).

Here's the order that Amiya eats it in:
olives (plate doesn't touch the table before these are located and devoured)
feta cheese (not the tiniest crumb can escape her cheese-loving digits)
cucumbers (drenched in dressing)
carrots (drenched in dressing)
lettuce (limp with dressing)
tomatoes (only if Mommy and Daddy eat a tomato bite with her)
green peppers (accompanied by much gagging)

Amiya's good friend Gabe came over to play yesterday afternoon and he told Amiya he loves tomatoes. I thought we were good to go, but alas, even the power of Gabe cannot break the intense dislike my child has for summer's most delicious vegetable.