Curry anyone?

Spice Up Your Brain

Currently simmering on the stove are chole (chickpeas) and paneer makhani (creamy paneer (cheese)). We is going to be smart!

Actually, it's not for us. It's for friends of ours who just had a baby boy and who really like Indian food. (They're not Indian.) So, I guess they're going to be really smart and our house is just going to smell like smart people live here.

And, a thousand Amiya kisses for whomever can correctly solve this hypothetical situation:

Imagine you walk into a grocery store. To your shock, to your horror, to your utter dismay, the entire, entire store is devoid of anything labeled chickpeas. You do, however, notice cans with pictures of something that looks just like chickpeas. What might those chickpea lookalikes be called? That is, what's another word for the food item that is often called a chickpea?

When did this happen?

One year.

Three years.

The chubbiness is gone and she's no longer a baby.

Today she told me that she liked me better when Kev wasn't here because I'm not patient with her anymore. I came close to tears. I know I'm not always as patient with her as I was when she was our only child. I'd like to tell her that I'll work harder at this if she works harder at giving me just thirty seconds of quiet every other day or so, but I guess since I'm the older of the two of us, I have to do my part first and show by example.

Daddies, lock up your daughters....

When I look at this picture I am instantly reminded of the Seinfeld episode where George poses in his boxers.

Kev wanted nothing, absolutely nothing, to do with getting his picture taken. This is the best of the bunch.

Our newest family member

Check out Amiya's art project that she made with Daddy while Mommy was napping. All our names are there and correct - the white letters don't show up so well. And then there's Gabe, too. He is part of our family according to Amiya and he needs to be on the page.

Gabe has been out of our daily life for almost two weeks now as his Mommy and Daddy were on vacation and now the whole family is on vacation. We've got a serious case of Gabe-itis going on. We almost can't go to the bathroom without discussing how Gabe is still on vacation and won't be there. I don't know what kind of havoc we'll witness when we have another prolonged separation in a few weeks when we're by Grandma and Grandpa's house. We might just have to bring Gabe along.

How nice is this?

That's right. They're all sleeping. I'm getting some me time without having to leave the house. Fantastic! I'm working on a cake for a birthday party for one of Amiya's friend and I don't have to chase down play-doh beads or take a break to nurse. So nice!!!

Ahhh. Don't you just love Saturday afternoons?

Two in One Day?

That's right - two posts, one day. Vinay is stuck at the airport with a dead car battery (it is really, really not his month) and there's no way I can fall asleep. So, in an effort to appease Grandma, some photos of our two cherubs. I hope she loves him this much three years from now when Kev is flicking boogers at her little friends at her first sleepover.

Weekly News

By some bizarre coincidence I am home with both kids tonight all on my own and they both fell asleep at precisely 8pm. Our power went out from about noon - 1 PM today and I think there must have been some electromagnetic forcefield or other such high-brow science concept that has altered their sleep patterns. Kev has slept almost all afternoon and Amiya took a three hour nap. (Vinay, you can stay in DC a bit longer if this continues!) So, I find myself with ten free minutes and some stuff to say.

First and foremost - Happy Mother's Day to all the Moms who read our little antecdotes. It's a hard job, but the best one out there, don't you think? If, by any chance, you're feeling guilty about the amount of cash spent on you for Mother's Day, perhaps you should read this. Then head right out to the store and buy yourself something pretty and shiny and nice.

We spent our Mother's Day at the beach where a good time was had by all. Amiya was all about building sand castle after sand castle after sand castle. Both Daddy and I built various sand castles which were indiscriminatly stepped on by Amiya. Amiya is all about The Little Mermaid lately but she was having no part of my burying her and shaping the sand to look like a mermaid.

Kev watched the goings-on from the lap of whoever was least sandy. Our little man is smiling more and more these days, but there were few smiles with the screeching seagulls. Our never ending thanks to the family who came, installed themselves immediately in front of us, fed the birds and then headed out. And really, if you're going to feed the birds, couldn't you do a bit more than Oatmeal Creme Pies? Trans fats?!? Hello!?

Don't you think Vinay is looking more like a born-in-the-USA-American these days? Amiya wears her hat backwards and always says she's wearing it like Mister Mike - the Daddy of a good friend of hers. Now Vinay wants to be like Mike, too, it would seem. Isn't he a cute hubby?


And finally, what makes the hauling of half of our home to the beach a great way to spend the morning? Not only do we get sun, fresh air, kamikaze gulls and the gentle lapping of waves on the shore. We are also all but guaranteed a quiet ride home. Beautiful.

We had a great visit with Grandma when she was here. The big news is that Amiya made it four out of five nights completely dry in big girl underwear. Since then it's been a bit less dry, but still progress is being made. Grandma introduced Amiya to tilapia - let's just say it's not a big hit. But, she chokes it down in hopes of getting a treat or watching Dragon Tales before bed. Sadly, Dragon Tales was not enough of an incentive to get her to finish her fish tonight.

In other news, Amiya has gotten a bit vain. The other day, while shopping at JoAnn's with Grandma, a man said "Excuse me" as he slid past our cart. Amiya told Grandma that he said "She's so cute." The next day, while walking in a parking lot a man stepped aside to let us through. Amiya told me later that he was talking to us "because my hair is so beauful." Needless to say we're working on stressing the non-physical parts of Amiya that we like and letting the physical stuff have a rest. However, if she continues to be the fashion trendsetter that we see here, we can't stop the general public from seeing the same beauty that we see. This hairstyle is brought to you compliments of a sweaty girl exasperated by the elastic headband she had on. Nice, don't you think? It is both flowing locks and natural hair French beret in one.

Grandma's here...

...and we're being harassed (albeit lovingly) about not posting anything new. We're busy. Grandma's got Grandkids to cuddle and I've got naps to catch up on!

Here's what we've been up to - that's right we're big into theater in the Gupta family lately. Last weekend we saw a (not) sold-out performance of The Rainbow Fish and this weekend it was Clifford! Live!(do I need a period here?). Amiya was less than enthralled with The Rainbow Fish - truly theater - and very, very enthralled with Clifford! Live!(?.) She is a bona fide Clifford groupie - yelling "Clifford!!!" for at least three completely inappropriate minutes. I finally had to tell her it was Emily Elizabeth's turn to talk and that got her quiet.

A few questions - why was Emily Elizabeth's hair curly in the show? It's not curly on TV or in the books. Why was Charlie a dork? He's a cool, confident kid on TV. And finally, of all the adults they could have used from the books and the show - why did they choose Mr. Carson? He's almost irrelevant to 99% of the stories - I wanted Mr. Bleakman. He would've taken a little bit of the sugar out of the show and given the grown-ups some semblance of a plot line. But, for $10 a seat I can't complain. Kev slept through almost the entire thing missing not only the fabulous T-Bone costume and his sister's amazing dancing, but also the little girl right next to us who almost lost her Puppy Chow all over us. And just a thought to the other parents who read - why is it that we would never, ever allow our kids to butt in on another kid at the playground but we have no problem pushing and shoving to get to the souvenir t-shirt table? They weren't that hot of a commodity (or mockaty as Amiya says).


Grandma and I have been doing some sewing and discussing a lot of projects - we'll never have time to finish all of them so it appears that Vinay will be sent to another conference far away so she can come down to play again. To the right you can see the PJs Grandma sewed for Amiya - covered with all things and words French. Amiya, of course, loves them. So much that she is currently wearing the bottoms inside out and no top at all. The worst part of Grandma being here is that these two goofballs are in the same bed and Amiya refuses to sleep until Grandma gets there. Grandma whines and complains and blames it on Amiya's vitamins but we all know that she loves it.

And finally, in what is the height of sophistication, Grandma can be seen here wearing her lovingly crafted acrylic bead necklace and sipping her martini from a blue plastic cup. Don't be fooled - I know it looks like a swanky, frosted glass hardball glass - it's not - it's vintage IKEA and yet another concession to the whims of Amiya. Grandma had to drink out of that glass because Amiya was drinking out of the turquoise one. Mommy was not invited to the party. Story of this week. At least Kev still needs me!

And to Daddy - we miss you!

Ain't this purty?

Monday morning was a rough one for Vinay. He was being a good driver, waiting patiently at a light when someone rear ended him. Happily, luckily, thank the goddess, he's completely ok. The air bag didn't deploy and the only damage (that we know of at this point) is exterior. It's a big ol' hassle to arrange all of the various factions: insurance, body shop, rental car, etc. But again, the bottom line is that Daddy is ok.

Just a few pics.....

Isn't this the Church Lady face??? "Well, isn't that special?"

How sweet is this?

Like I said, Bear is back and in a big way. He/She (Bear changes gender often, Amiya is very supportive of transgender issues it would seem) is always with her lately. I went in to tuck Amiya in a few nights ago and, I'll admit, to make sure she was still breathing (When does that worry stop? She's three already!) and I found that not only was she tucked in all snug and tight, but so was Bear with his/her very own pillow and blanket formed into a little sleeping bag just for him/her. It was actually pretty artfully arranged - the blanket is underneath and over Bear with a tab folded over in front. Lucky Bear - such love!

Everything's Cronkly

That's Amiya's new word. She uses it for just about everything and it can mean just about anything. So, if you were wondering, everything is just cronkly around here lately.

Today was a day at the beach at the invitation of Gabe and his parents. I felt a bit like the paparazzi as I snapped photos of the two chums from afar. I think they look a bit like Brangelina and I may try to sell my shots to the tabloids.

Ok, so clearly she's not buxomy enough to be Angelina and his sideburns aren't quite Brad yet, but with a little imagination we could all just as easily believe that they are on the beaches of Namibia as the truth that they are at Fort De Soto. I even pixelated it for you to give it that extra grainy feel - good, eh?

It was a beach day for our family and Mommy has nice red stripes on her arms and back to prove it. It was perfect weather - 86 with a breeze and blue skies. The kids played in the water and the sand and stole branches from each other all afternoon. Us parents rotated through supervision and visiting and it was very, very nice. Amiya and Gabe are perfecting the boy/girl relationship thing - they claim each other as best friends and then act like they will wither away if they have to share anything at all. They whacked away at some croquet balls for all of about three minutes and then exasperated Mr. Matt by pulling up the stake everytime he walked away. Ah, gotta love it!

Kev was a trooper at the beach, as always. He wowed all the grown-ups with his extremely loud poops and then stayed quietly in his little seat until he wanted a meal. That's him in the infant seat beneath the umbrella. He was content for about 45 minutes in there and then wanted to eat. After his meal, Mommy rocked him and sang Baby Beluga (the only song Amiya wants to sing lately) while he checked out the displays at the beach.

I wasn't lying...

Remember when I said it's really, really difficult to get a picture of Amiya smiling these days?

(My personal favorite)

Amiya News

I was too much of a nervous Mommy
and I didn't let Amiya have nuts until she was well past the recommended age of two. The child is making up for it with a vengeance. She's got her Daddy's love of cashews and begs for them whenever we go to the store, claiming they're for Daddy. We don't often buy cashews because really, who needs extra cashews around the house? So she then turns to almonds, pecans and peanuts. Also not always in the house, but when they are, look out! In this picture, you can see her discovering the joys of the hazelnut. I didn't think she'd like them all that much, but she did. Almost to the point that there were none in our cookies and a whole lot in Amiya, our very own semi-naked chef.

Grandma told me that someone has been wondering what's up with Bear after he was cruelly tossed aside for the flashy Sherbet. The update:

That's right, Bear is back. And not only back, but back in favor in a big way. He's never been breastfed until now, but apparently Amiya is hip to the magic of breastmilk and Bear must need it something fierce because Amiya nursed him many times yesterday.

The Eyebrows Have It

Like any new parents, we spend a fair amount of time looking at Kev and generally proclaiming him the most (insert fabulous adjective here) baby on earth. But maybe our favorite feature of this guy is his eyebrows. Each eyebrow has at least four seperate sections and he seems able to move each section independently from the others. These are his stern eyebrow looks - they are definitely our favorite.

And now, if I hear even one single comment that he gets this from me and not his Daddy, I might just go ballistic. If ever he looks like his Daddy, here it is! I think Vinay should show these to his students the next time he has to deliver a scathing lecture about study habits or work ethics. Maybe he could just take Kev in and have him do it?

Smiles

These make the sleep deprivation worthwhile, ya know?

Happy Easter!

We don't really celebrate Easter and until Amiya clues into the concept of an Easter basket the Easter Bunny isn't stopping by our house so it's been a quiet day. We were able to get some minor cleaning projects done and we've officially converted to cloth diapers. They double the size of Kev's bum at least and they look pretty cute. We have twelve eggs waiting to be colored but Amiya doesn't seem to want to do it and I am not going to force a project involving food coloring on a three year old. If she doesn't want to then who I am to argue?

Anyway, we tried to do a few Easter pictures only because we did this with Amiya when she was a babe. Not nearly as successful this time. I think it's a combination of the wrong size basket (he wouldn't fit) and having a very busy three year old bustling around who either A. wanted nothing to do with the plastic eggs and screamed her little heart out or B. wanted everything to do with the plastic eggs and holding her brother.



No matter what we did, we couldn't coax a smile or even a non-grimace out of him. He was either screaming himself red or giving us a very stern look of reproach. Something about pastel colors and being too far away from anything offering sustenance.


We finally got this one - it's the only one where both kids weren't pulling a Mikey and making crazy faces. Why is it that when they hit 2.5 they think a smile is a contorted face? To get a normal shot of Amiya we count to three, wait until she checks if we've taken the picture and only then actually take the picture. She told me the other day that she is never, ever leaving me and she will be with me forever. I told her she had until she was 23 or had her bachelor's degree, whichever came first. Maybe if I figure her out before then she can stay through a Master's. But if not, she and all her crazy antics are out the door!

It has been a long time....

and I should maybe have a fabulous excuse, but I don't. I just haven't had the desire to try to be even moderately witty. Not that the kids haven't had their amusing moments, it was just too much effort to get here, log on, sit down, transfer pics and write about them. But I shall try because I know Grandma is probably on the floor, writhing about without pictures of her Grandkids.

Maybe the biggest reason for not feeling like blogging is because we've hit a rough spot (approximately the size of a football field) with Amiya. She loves Kev to pieces, she just doesn't love sharing all of Mommy's and Daddy's time with him. If only she could talk to him when she wanted and then stick him in the toy box while Mommy and Daddy play/paint/read/ walk/sing/whatever with her and only her. Her unhappiness has manifested itself in hitting us (although rarely), tantrums of massive proportions (complete with pee - she's our very own cocker spaniel) and sassiness. We've been talking up the good stuff that she does and praising even the very smallest of good behavior. "Good job sitting down Amiya!" "Good job eating your toast Amiya!" "Good job listening Amiya!" A lot of this is on us - it's way too easy to compare a helpless baby to a three-year-old and fall into believing that she is older and less needy than she is. She's three. It doesn't excuse everything that she's done, but it explains a lot and we need to be more mindful. We've sort of scheduled her day very, very strictly now and have ixnayed naps unless she chooses it. She does have to do two hours of quiet time in the afternoon - they're usually not very quiet, but at least she and I get some down time. We are also trying to make sure we do something fun with her every day if (that's a big if - get it???) she hasn't had a tantrum. She loves to play with sand, so we've been to the sand park many times and she even got her very own sand & water table for the lanai - all because of tantrum free days. It's not eally a sure thing though - yesterday was tantrumy despite having a great Tuesday complete with a trip to the sand park AND Cold Stone where she chose her very own toddlerish concoction of ice cream delicacies. We'll keep plugging away. Despite all of this, she remains a loving and lovable little girl. She is sweetness defined at moments and sometimes the only one that can get Kev to stop crying. When she sings, he listens and seeks her out. They have a sibling bond already and it's lovely to see.

Kevalin is a sweetheart of a baby - doing all the things a baby should. Pooping, crying, nursing and sleeping (but generally only when Daddy is around). Daddy and Kev camp out on the couch every night. Daddy complains but I secretly think he loves the closeness and the boy time. Kev is starting to maintain eye contact for longer periods of time and finally starting to smile. It's tough to not compare as Amiya smiled early on, but Kev's are hard-earned and very precious. They're also a bit like the Loch Ness Monster - impossible to catch with a camera.

Our little man is starting to enjoy baths a whole lot more - he's not really smiling for much of them, but at least he doesn't scream his way through them anymore. You can also see that he's growing more and more pudgy with each passing day. He's gone from scrawny little chicken legs to fleshy drumsticks that invite us to nibble. Vinay gave him his first belly raspberry the other day and it did not go over well.

And with that I must end as Kev is watching me type in the bouncer next to me and his little face has just gone from calm, serene newborn to beet red. The accompanying noises tell me this is not a tantrum but rather a heinous mess needing attention ASAP. One hour 'til Daddy gets home - I don't think I can do that to either Kev or Vinay so off I go to clean up. Oh my, more noises. It's going to be a doozy. Girls are so much easier to clean. I think I'm just going to hose him off in the sink.

What is going on???

Kevalin and Amiya received a package in the mail
today. Kev got a cute little outfit and Amiya a stuffed bear all courtesy of Ms. Lori and Mr. Jim, great aunt and uncles (sort-of) to Amiya and Kev. Amiya so loves her new bear, an aquamarine Ty Beanie Buddie named Sherbet, that she calmly gave me Bear and told me to throw him away. Bear has been with her for her entire life. The earliest picture I can find of her with Bear is at 21 weeks, but I know he was around before that as I remember hauling him both to Rochester, NY and Minocqua, WI prior to her being four months old. I can't imagine that she really wants to part with this dear friend who has travelled all over the US and beyond clutched in her sweaty toddler hand. So, I'll hold on tight to Bear and keep him loved until she bellows out for him at 3 AM some night very soon. She may think Bear isn't as soft and cuddly as Sherbet, but sometimes Mommies know best.

Happy Blogiversary!

Today marks one year of blogging. 258 posts have been written to etch in bits (or bytes???) what Amiya and, to a much less extent, Kevalin have been up to. I started this blog because I'm a bad Mommy and had never updated Amiya's baby book past month four. I figured she needed something to look back on. I also started it because it was way too much to meet the demands of a few select individuals who wanted pictures every.single.day. Several times a day. So now, they come here, get their fill and we're all quite content. I'm happy to have stuck with it for this long - I didn't think I would. Happier even moreso that Vinay backs up the blog onto something that will be around for a really, really long time in case Blogger ups and quits on us. Amiya and Kevalin will have a way to read this because their Daddy is a good guy.

So, happy anniversary to the blog! Thanks for reading and especially for the comments which I love to get. If you haven't left one go ahead and do it - it's not hard. And if you have, thanks much and I look forward to many, many more. Someday when Amiya and Kev are reading through this they'll be able to pick out the quirky, fun traits of all of us (who will by then be gray-haired and middle-aged) just by what's been left in the comment box.