Thanksgiving in Brooklyn

Sorry Aeowyn that its taken so long to write (almost two months). It's been super busy (but fun)! You're getting to be such a big girl. The other day, daddy and mommy saw this little baby girl and for the first time, it felt like you were sooo big! You're actually much taller then other girls older then you. You're now 15 months and such a wonderful little daughter. We're so wonderfully proud of you. You now pretty much understand everything we say and can communicate what you like. Your words are still forming, but you can say hi, i want that, daddy home, bye, milk (you still call it Guk), and FINALLY -- you're saying mama! Mommy has only been waiting for 15 months to hear that :-)! You walk very well and can now go upstairs easily but still working on downstairs. You absolutely love to read books and crawl into our lap to read.

So first things first - we went up to New York for your 2nd Thanksgiving Aeowyn. Mommy, daddy, Talin, Rohin and you all traveled up in our car on a 4 hour trip to a three story Brownstone townhouse in Brooklyn were we stayed with Maria Auntie and Chris Uncle and their children (Ava and Layla). We stayed in the basement, where you slept in a crib next to mommy and daddy and the boys in another room next door. You loved playing in the house and were all over the place (esp the stairs). We also realized something new about you -- you sat at the table one day and used crayons so nicely to color (for almost 30 minutes) -- so you definitely have an artist streak in you. We visited the Brooklyn Children's museum one day -- where you loved making pretend pizzas and the Afria room. We also went to the macy's day parade -- where you loved watching the floats. We also went to Harmony park, which we later found out was the same playground that Knuffle Bunny frequents... On Thanksgiving night, we went over to Lulu Auntie's house -- where you and Rohin and Talin were angels. We had a wonderful dinner together with our family and friends (about 30 in total). We then packed up and came home that Sat. We had perfect weather -- it's been almost 70 here recently. When we got home, this past Sunday, we decorated for Christmas and are gearing up for Santa's visit.

You're definitely the best sleeper in the house and love your bedtime (promptly at 7pm) -- where you sleep all the way to 7am the next morning. We do have a sound machine in your room - so later on in life when you need a fan in your room to sleep -- you can blame us. Food wise, you've become a much better eater -- probably because most of your teeth are in now. You love green beans, peas, cous cous, rice, and of course fruits (grapes, strawberries, raspberries, etc..).

In the area of funny things, you love to say "Daddy..." followed by something in baby talk. If Daddy doesn't answer you - you press this issue harder and with more conviction. You currently have a tendency to pull hair and scratch -- so we've been working through that - but we figure its because you have to keep up with your two older brothers :)! You do love the outside and are a big fan of swings still as well. You can climb up the fort steps and go down the slide all by yourself now!

I think you're just going to have to stop growing soon, so we can enjoy how wonderfully cute you are right now! We love you Aeowyn and hope you had a wonderful Thanksgiving and look forward to spending your 2nd Christmas together. It will be magical!

Summer is Over!

Aeowyn -- you're becoming such a big little girl. We cannot believe how much you have progressed this summer. I'll get to that in a moment -- first I have to start with with the earthquake we had,5.8,on August 23, 2011! It was really unbelievable to see the building shake. Everyone was safe though. But it's amazing that we have had two earthquakes in little over a year! About two weeks later, in early September, we had so much rain that the roads around our house were flooded out. We had about 7 to 8 inches or rain in a single day, which flooded our creek across our back yard and along the side and front. Our mailbox was even under water. Mommy and daddy couldn't make it home that night and had to spend the night at a hotel and came home the next morning. You, Talin and Rohin stayed with Giovanna.

Aeowyn -- you've changed so much in so many wonderful ways since the last time we wrote. You're really walking and climbing over just about everything these days. Your language skills are great. You can say "I'll do it", "please" and many other things -- but you still love to call many things Dad-ee and like to call your milk "Guk". It's really funny to hear your brothers imitate you. We all have pretty much stopped using the word milk and just use the word guk! Let's see -- what else. Well changing you is still a lot of fun -- you love to throw toys that we give to distract you down back behind the changing tables so mommy and daddy cannot get them and love to put your left arm down in your diaper area while we're trying to change you (this happens almost every morning).

You're wearing size 5 baby shoes and look so cute in skirts. Mommy is trying to put berets in your hair because its getting so long but you love to pull them out and throw them on the floor. But you're so smart Aeowyn and pick up things so fast. You love to play with your brothers and recently when they were jumping around and saying Tada -- you imitated them exactly. One day, when we took you to Rohin and Talin's school -- the three of you were playing the three little pigs with daddy as the big bad wolf -- you joined in and played it perfectly. You love to make this cute little sniffing face (that you get from mommY) where you show your teeth and look a little bit like a horse eating peanut butter. You also still love to grind your waist around at night when mommy and daddy try to pat you to sleep. You're also now sitting at the table in your own high chair and are getting very adept at eating by yourself. You're not a fan of being fed at this point. Mommy and daddy are just so proud of you Aeowyn -- your really an incredible daughter.

You're a great reader Aoewyn and love to carry books over to us to read to your or to open to a specific page that you sit down and look at yourself. While its hard to say whether you have a favorite book -- you like the little books that fit in your hand easily.

Eating wise - you're a little picky about eating. Mommy always worry about your weight. But you really like your chicken, green beans, peas, corn, pasta and broccoli.

We had such a wonderful summer, we're sorry to see it end already. recently, we visited grandma and grandpa at the farm one weekend. We had a great time visiting with them and rode the Gator and visited a really quaint town called Chestertown, where we walked through the farmer's market and had lunch together. You loved crawling all over grandma's sofa and flopping off of it. On another weekend, we had a very special Indian holiday that we celebrated over at Ammuma and Thatha's house.

Well, that's it for now Aeowyn. We love you so much! Welcome to fall little girl of ours!

You're walking!

Aeowyn -- big news -- on July 19, 2011 -- you took your first steps. Mommy was playing with you on the floor and you walked over to her after chowing down on some pistachio nuts. You took about 5 steps! We're so proud of you! You're growing up so fast. You're even talking now -- saying words like yogurt, and milk (gilk), yogi, daddy -- and yes -- you are finally saying mama!!!

Also -- very big news this week -- while you're a great sleeper -- typically something goes on with one of the three of you. Last night, for the past three years, all children slept from 8:30 to 6:15am uninterrupted! Horray!!!

We love you Aeowyn!

Happy 1st Birthday!

Well little girl, sorry it's taken us so long to write this blog entry -- but happy 1st birthday to you! You've changed so much since our last post here in April. Let's start with the changes and then talk about the spectacular birthday party that you had. First, you are now not only crawling, but able to stand on your own. We're still waiting for you to walk -- you can take a step or two -- but prefer a crab like variation of crawling. You also love to crawl around sometimes and make these really funny piggy noises. You are trying to talk and love to say the word dada for about everything. You love to wave goodbye and and can the word yogi and bye and hi. You definitely know what you want and have quite a pair of lungs in the moment when you don't get what you want. For example, if you want mommy or daddy to carry you -- you come over and pull on our pant leg and then belt out a little squeal. Eating wise, you are a little picky when it comes to eating -- but you seem to really like to eat oatmeal and LOVE to eat yogurt. You also like to eat popsicles with your brothers as well and recently had your first brain freeze -- where you made the funniest face.

Otherwise, you love to play outside and are particularly found of putting sand in your mouth and playing with pools of water when you can find them. Recently, you also have been excited to ride with daddy on his lawnmower with Rohin and Talin!

So onto your birthday our wonderful little girl. We had about 120 people attend the event in our backyard and had three big bouncies (one slide, one obstacle course and one ball bouncy). We had a live band and Jacob uncle catered the event. We had so much wonderful indian food and chiken, and even a ice cream bar! Everyone had such a wonderful time celebrating with you. Mommy made your cake -- which was strawberry and in the form of a number 1. Your aunties Nisha, Usha and Anita made your cupcakes for everyone (75 of them). You ate your birthday cupcake in a high chair and pretty much wore it all over. You got to watch everyone run through an obstacle course -- which included a sack race, soccer goals, the bouncy obstacle course and rolling two big balls through the finish line!

Aeowyn, mommy and daddy love you so much. You are such a wonderfully happy little girl and are so very special to us. We hope that you have an incredible 2nd year of life and look forward to celebrating next year together the birth of our incredible little daughter.

So much is changing

Aeowyn -- you have really blossomed these couple weeks. The weather is starting to finally get warming. One thing to note is that you still really love to dance. We have this little cow that plays a song if you press it -- and you bounce up and down so hard you even flip over sometimes! You're so adorable. Also, a while back, daddy thought he heard you say the word book -- well sure enough, you were playing with blocks last week and there was a little book and you said "book"... It's amazing that you're talking at such a young age. Teeth wise, you have your two front teeth coming in. Your hair is getting longer and curly now -- still light brown. You are one pretty little girl.

You also love to imitate your mommy. The other day, mommy sneezed and you kept practicing how to sneeze after you heard her. Mommy also love to smell you sometimes, and the other day you started sniffing like mommy and even made her face!

Time is really flying our little girl -- it's hard to believe you're almost 1 year old.

You're crawling now!

Aeowyn our little girl, March has been a big month for you. The big news is that you officially started crawling on March 5th. After rocking back and forth for the last couple weeks, you finally started crawling for a toy that resembles a mirror that a dentist uses in the mouth to look behind teeth. So you're truly a dentist in the making. As of March 15th, you're crawling all over now and also just in the past couple weeks, you figured out how to sit up. So now you sit with your brothers and you love to paw over them and try to grab toys and food.

In addition to moving all over, you also this past week decided you didn't want anything to do with baby food. You had been eating solid foods for a while but we were still able to give you cinnanom granola baby food for breakfast and chicken vegetable at night. But now you want to eat what everyone else eats. You love pastas and oatmeal and also love fruit loops and cherios (soaked in milk).

It really is amazing to see what just a month's time means our little baby girl. We're so proud to see you grow. You also started really talking in the past couple weeks. And it's official -- your first words were dada. Dada was very happy about this! You will say it when mommy prompts you too! Also, you're now waving goodbye when someone says goodbye.

You love to read books and your favorite toys still include toy phones and a little thomas the train pop-up toy. You also really enjoy a little piano and love to play with the keys.

In other news, we had a great picnic this past weekend to celebrate the arrival of spring. Usha and Nisha aunties as well as Vena auntie and Ahmeet uncle along with Bella and Jovin came ove to play. We had a fire in the fire pit and played outside for so many hours. We setup a little picnic blanket around the playground and you played with a cow toy for the longest time. When you squeezed it -- it would play a noise and you would bounce up and down -- dancing to the music. We had such a great time together.

This upcoming weekend, we're going to celebrate Rohin's birthday -- he's turning 3 years old. You all are growing up so fast! We love you Aeowyn!

2011 is here

Wow -- Jan flew by and we're just getting caught up on the past 45 days. You're growing so fast Aeowyn and are 8 months old now. We had a pretty mild winter so far, with just one day where we had about 8 inches of snow. You're now wearing 12 months old clothing at just 8 months of age and are really moving into solid food. You ate spaghetti recently and have fallen in love with yogurt! You also love when daddy leaves his cereal in the bowl and chops it up for you to eat. You're getting picky now about eating baby food -- so that stage may be coming to an end soon. You're still eating three times per day now.

Aeowyn -- you're such a wonderful little girl. You love to smile and stare at mommy and daddy until you get their attention -- and then you cast this really big smile. Speaking of staring -- you really find Thatha fascinating and will just sit there for the longest time staring at him. You also have a funny thing where you like to suck on mommy's chin when she holds you.

The big news is that you're almost crawling! You can get on all fours and rock back and forth and wiggle backwards. We're all waiting for that moment when you start crawling which is going to be really soon. You love to move around and roll around your crib and you even love to grab things and pull them into your crib if they're hanging down (like blankets). Also, if mommy or daddy are holding you, you really enjoy being picked up and tickled with our noses on your chest -- where you laugh so much.

You still really enjoy your bouncey in the kitchen and enjoy playing with your doll and rattles. You also have two cute little bottom teeth. Sleep wise, you almost always go to bed at 7pm and get up around 4pm recently for milk and then sleep in until 7am.

Of course, your brother really love to play with you. Talin and Rohin both like it when you sit on their lap. Your new trick is that you love to lean over and grab their sippy cups or blankets when they're sitting next to you!

This week, it's been 70 degrees in Feb -- and soon we'll be playing outside so much in the meadow behind our house! We're so lucky to have you as our daughter Aeowyn! Mommy, Daddy, Rohin & Talin love you so much!