This and that

This is an old picture - I think we went on this outing in March.
The Moms Club had an outing to Coldstone Creamery and the kids got to mix their own mix-ins. Heaven. They were in heaven. I'm not sure that any of them actually had things mixed into their ice cream as it takes quite a bit of muscle power but they all thought they were cool. Amiya picked her old stand-by: mint ice cream with M&Ms and sprinkles. She loves it. And now she asks daily to go to Coldstone again.

More recently, Amiya had her first day of preschool. It's not truly preschool, but camp. At this age, it's all sort of the same mix of coloring, gluing (self, not paper) and reading stories. Contrary to what is indicated in the photo, she was very excited to be going. And on Thursday, after three mornings with Miss Clare she boldly proclaimed that she did not want to go see Grandma next week but instead go back to school to spend more time with Miss Clare. Hmmmmm.

And finally, our little cherub has not ceased to create bead necklaces for anyone who even so much as sneaks a peek at her creations. A very good-natured Daddy is seen here sporting his own custom creation, lovingly made with sticky fingers and many dropped beads finding their way into each and every corner of the kitchen. But let it be known that Daddy is not nearly as good of a sport as Grandma. Grandma wore hers out of the house, Daddy barely made it out of the kitchen.

Kevalin Updates

It's hard to be the younger brother to Amiya. She insists on Kev doing all sorts of things - listening to stories about princesses, singing Baby Beluga over and over again and even wearing her fairy tiara that she made at her friend Kylie's birthday party. He looks thrilled, doesn't he? More like, "Get this thing off of my head because I look like a dolt. Paybacks are hell, Amiya didi, just wait and see."

Kev got a new chair recently. It's called a Bumbo and we love it. Kev can be with us anywhere in the house, sitting by himself and joining in the conversation with his own squeaks and grunts. What's especially nice is that he wants to be at the kitchen table with us when we eat meals, but he will not accept being below table level, so the bouncer is out. With a few less dishes at the table, he can join us with his Bumbo and be with the family.

Have we mentioned that the guy wants to held all the time? And I really do mean all the time. The kid is a little lover, snuggling into necks and armpits and always sleeping with one hand on our face. Check out Vinay's solution:

And finally, Kev has started to notice things like television and movies. It appears that he may be a Clifford fan just like Amiya, not out of choice, but out of necessity. You can't not love Clifford in this house. Today, however, Kev was fascinated with a PBS show about one-stroke painting. The host was making the gaudiest tchockes imaginable which may very well be why our little man was so into it - shock. He was chewing on his fist and astounded at the horror of it all.

Amiya Updates

Amiya is definitely our social butterfly. She constantly, constantly wants to be with her friends and if by some sad state of affairs we have a day with just the three (or four) of us woe is she.

Memorial Day was a perfect day around here. Calm until we were invaded by ankle-biters for a late afternoon cook-out. We were joined by Gabe, Aubrey and Aiden, and Kylie and Avery. (And their parents because we are not that brave.) The kids played in the pool, emptying it cup by cup and probably refilling it warm ounce by warm ounce as I don't think any took bathroom breaks. They threw sand and hid behind a very skinny tree while hiding and seeking. And they generally got as sticky as they could with juice boxes, water-melon, ketchup and popsicles. At the table you see the very watermelon-y Kylie in turquoise with an equally juicy Gabe behind her. Then there's Avery in the pink suit on the right throwing us the Toddler Three gang symbol - the T3s are about to infiltrate area preschools - watch out teachers and two year olds. Amiya is in between scheming how to get her hated watermelon onto Kylie's plate and Aubrey closes up the group with her stunning blonde looks!

Amiya was given a set of Disney Princess hopscotch squares for her birthday and we've finally gotten to them. Playgroup was at our house yesterday and the kids went wild for the game to the point that we had to pack it away. Once they left Amiya made a beeline for the game and hasn't left it since. In its' newest use she sets it up like a laptop computer and types emails to her favorite princesses and to her Daddy. Such love!

You may remember Amiya's contentious relationship with Bear. Well, not only is Bear back in favor and how but he/she has also been given a proper English name: Elly. That's right - Bear is now Elly and Amiya's wrath on she who calls it Bear. We go everywhere with Elly lately, although we have agreed that Elly stays in the car because we don't want to lose her. Elly has become quite an entity and she has a whole family. Elly is aunt to an elephant and wife to a purple Care Bear.

And speaking of wives - Amiya desperately wants to be one. We keep telling her that she can't get married until she is done with college and at least 25. We also tell her that lots of people (including Mommy and Daddy) were very happy without being married. She's not buying it. She's on the hunt for a hubsband so if you're male and between the age of 2 and 37 look out. It doesn't matter if you're family, she tells us all the time she is going to marry Kevalin. I suspect the crux of the matter lies not so much with marital bliss, but rather with the purchasing of a car. Amiya seems to think that when she's married she'll get the car of her choice (a pink VW bug with red stripes and multi-colored polka dots) and can direct her hubsband to purchase her second favorite car (a contervibly). If only she knew that marriage often results in losing the sexy, fun cars and finding oneself behind the wheel of a sedate sedan and a wini-ban (mini-van).
School begins next week. She's ready. I'm ready. That means it should have started this week. She is going to camp next week and the theme is oceans. She met her teacher last week and talks about her a lot. The teacher's name is Ms. Clare and Amiya promptly told her that they have the same name (Amiya Clare) and that it's even spelled the same. Ah, toddler/teacher love. A beautiful thing (although maybe not so much in Florida where teacher/student love is in the news a lot).

I wish I got paid for the use of -, /, () and ! in my blog. I'd be a rich, rich woman.

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!