Pooh Pooh De Potty

Aeowyn -- it's been almost two months since we wrote another blog post -- it's been so crazy busy this fall.  We have so much to blog about.  So let's jump in.  First, I have to talk about pooh pooh de potty.  You're really doing quite well in toilet training now and pretty much are done with #1 accidents but for some reason, #2 is a different story.  So you always love to talk about going "pooh pooh de potty", which quite honestly makes you sound Italian.  Daddy gets a big kick out of this.  Of course, when you #2 in your pants, daddy says it's "pooh pooh de pantalones".  The funniest part is that you like to argue about this and like to say how you didn't do it in your pants.  Anyhow -- it makes for really funny discussions.  we're very proud though how you're doing on potty training honey.  You even make it through the night without an accident many nights, which is pretty amazing.

In other news, school is tough, tough, tough.  You apparently have a great time in school and do a great job according to your teachers, but the ramp up to getting you to school is pretty awful.  You cry so much in the morning -- it's like torture.  You gear yourself up in the morning and say "no teachers" and even sometimes throw a fit by not getting changed without a gigantic fight.  Very strange situation -- we're working through this with you, which pretty much involves not talking about school in order to reduce the anxiety - but apparently when you are there -- you love it!  Quick update -- right before Thanksgiving this seemed to be resolved and no you have no problem going to school -- yeaaa!

So onto the trips.  Since we last wrote, we have been on two majors trips.  One was an impromptu trip up to Cape May New Jersey in the middle of September and the other was a trip down to Orlando, over to Palm Beach for a small boat cruise to the Grand Bahamas and back.  I'll start with the Cape May trip.  So we had rented out a top condo unit in a place called the Merry Widow in Cape May -- it was an old victorian. You three munchkins loved to run up the five levels to the very top.  It was very cute with two bedrooms, a little kitchen, living area and balcony.  On the first day, we went to the beach and you and your brothers had so much fun.   You would do modified hand stands with you head in the sand and all of you loved the sand and played in the tire tracks before we could even make our way to the ocean.  As we walked down the ocean, it was just magical watching you all play.  You went down Aeowyn and were a little concerned with the ocean and would run away when the water would surge forward.  Talin and Rohin were a little more interested in the water -- but you and mommy played up on the beach running around and making sand castles.  After dinner that night, everyone crashed and we spent the whole day on the beach.  You played sand castles and had mommy run out and fill up your water containers and used the sand buckets.  Talin too played with you.  Rohin was down with daddy for quite some time in the surf jumping waves and then they too joined you up a the beach blanket.  In the afternoon, we went to a really neat place that was setup like an old ice cream store and sat down and had HUGE ice cream sundaes.  We did some shopping too, except we had a pooh pooh du pantalones situation which caused some chaos. The next day we came on home -- so it was a short trip but so amazing.

Next up, a couple of weeks later, we took our Orlando trip.  So Ammuma, Thatha, Savitha Chechi, Sadhana Chechi, Mommy, Daddy, Rohin, Talin and you all took an airplane from Ronald Reagan airport to Orlando.  On the plane ride, you rode next to mommy and were a very good girl.  You watched TV and played with the ipad for most of the time while daddy and the boys sat together further back in the airplane.  We got our car rental (a van) and then got checked into an apartment with a small kitchenette, pull out sofa bed and one queen sized bed.  The first night, we pretty much all fell asleep quickly while daddy went our and got some groceries.  The next day, we all packed up and drove over to Disney World.  we pulled into the parking lot and then waited in line to get on the train to take us to the magic kingdom.  We then got to the entrance of the park and put everybody in strollers and headed on inside.  It was about 87 that day, so it was pretty hot and you and the boys weren't big fans of the heat.  However, that faded away on main street when we saw a big parade with all of the Disney characters.  We followed the parade up to the magic kingdom and then headed over to the fantasy section of the park where we rode the Peter Pan ride.  The lines were pretty long unfortunately -- but once we got in -- you, Rohin and Talin loved the ride as we soared through the Peter Pan story.  Afterwards, we went and ate lunch and then headed over to the racetrack over in the future world.  Unfortunately, you weren't quite tall enough for that ride and so you stayed with Ammuma and watched.  Finally, we went over to adventureland and climbed through the Swiss Family Robinson treehouse.  Unfortunately, after that -- you were getting tired as was Rohin and Talin so mommy and daddy took you all back to the apartment for naps while everyone else stayed at the park.  You, Rohin and Talin all took naps and then we went out to dinner at a Joe's Crabhouse -- which was awesome.  They actually had a playground attached to the restaurants, which you loved to play with the stones. We then picked up everyone back at Disney world and all slept soundly that night.

The next day, we all just relaxed and swam, swam and swam in the pool that was in our apartment complex. You loved swimming and play with Rohin and Talin in the pool and running to the kiddie pool to play some variant of the fireman Sam show.  After relaxing this day, we headed over to Islands of Adventure and had a wonderful time.  we started off in Dr. Seuss land, where you and the boys ran through the maze area to explore and rode a couple of rides, including the Cat and the Hat.  We then headed through the Harry Potter land, but couldn't ride anything because you all were too little.  we then walked through Jurrasic park and played in the rope playground for a while before heading over to toon town and Super Hero town.  We all had our picture taken with Popeye and Olive.  It was such a fun day -- we even got to see Spiderman and other superheros in Superhero land.  With that part of trip done, we spent one more night and then headed over to Palm Beach where we took a boat over to Grand Bahamas for two nights.  In essence, the boat was nice, but the room was small -- we had all four of us in a 25 X 15 room -- with two bunks and then three of us in a queen bed.  You slept in one of the bunks on the way over and had a great time.  We ate pizza at their little on board restaurant and arrived to the island the next morning.  After a quick taxi cab ride (without any car seats!), we arrived at the Grand Lucaya, which was a very pretty resort.  We spent the next two days playing on the beach building sand castles (which you loved) and also swimming in the pool before coming home and catching our flight home.  It was such a memorable trip.

After coming back home, we settled in for a few weeks and daddy had a conference in Reston.  One night, mommy brought you over to the conference and all of you ran through the halls when you saw Daddy. We went up to the room that night and watched TV and played in the room.

One more big event was Thanksgiving, which we just celebrated.  We had our family and friends come over to the house for two days and had 10 more people living with us for a couple days.  You got to sleep in your bed while the boys slept in the tent in our bedroom.  You had so much fun playing with Avaya and Layla outside in the cars -- with 5 of you at one point in one of the little gators.  that night, we cooked up a turkey and ammumama cooked up the sides and we had a great feast!  You played upstairs with everyone and it was such a memorable evening.  The next day, we went to ticonderoga farms and then finished off our left overs.

Aeowyn -- now that we are reaching the end of 2012, I'm going to consolidate the blogs so I don't have to write the same events 3X as we go forward and to focus more on writing things directly about your development, thoughts and advice as you get older.  These two years have passed so fast and you're such a wonderful little girl.  Just this past week we had a parent teacher conference and they talked about how you put 110% of yourself into what you do.  That's so true and we're so very proud of you. Happy Thanksgiving honey.

Summer and Potty Training!

Summer is coming to a close my darling little girl -- but it's been so much fun. I'll talk more about that shortly.  but first -- let's talk about you!  You're just incredible baby girl.  You are so big now and have definitely crossed into toddler-hood.  You can now pretty talk to the point where we understand everything (almost that you say).  Recently -- I couldn't believe it when you said 'my pants are falling down'.  I didn't know that you could even string words like that together.  You're also potty training right now and doing a fantastic job of it!  By in large #2 is in the potty and we're getting there with #1.  So soon, all of the babies are going to out of diapers in the house!  You get very excited about this -- as do we and we hand out chocolate chips to celebrate.

In terms of likes -- you love the swing set outside.  we recently updated the swing from a baby swing to a full regular swing.  That's worked great and it's one of your favorite things to do outside.  You love riding the gator and have so much with that.  You ride in our lap and sometimes like to pretend like you're driving.  You also love the creek honey and love to play in the water.  Your new found passion is water squirt guns and you enjoy squirting mommy and daddy's toes.  In other news, you're an amazing sponge of knowledge Aeowyn -- you love to read your books and still are madly in love with Sesame Street.  we've been reading a new Sesame Street book about going back to school in order to get you ready to go in a couple weeks.  I think you're definitely ready. You already know many of your colors, can count pretty much up to 10 and know many of your A,B,Cs.  You call Sesame Street your babies.  Pink is definitely still your color of choice -- and you love your pink blankets.  You're also very helpful about the house and love to help us in the kitchen to wash dishes.  I think you could actually do that for hours on end.  You're also a very good artist honey and love to color.  You can sit there and color for the longest time -- it's really amazing to see your concentration for a two year old.

Summer has been just great this year.  Over the summer, we went to Masanutten with many of our family friends,  we went to the farm and you also went on a trip with mommy, Usha auntie, Nisha auntie to New York to visit Savitha auntie.  Summer has been filled with trips to Great Falls park, Smithsonian parks, Sport bounce and children museums. I'd need to write about 20 pages to talk about all of these experiences and am sorry that I didn't keep up with the blogs this summer.  I promise we'll do better this fall.

You're also fiercely independent Aeowyn.  You love to do things on your end and love to run around the house without clothes on.  You pick out your own shirts and pants now and even brush your own teeth at night.  You are very much all about mommy right now.  You play the same game as the boys about wanting mommy to put you at bed at night instead of daddy -- and howl in protest if daddy puts you to bed -- but soon get excited about rocking in the chair, singing our good night song:

"Time to go to sheepy sheepy sheep... time to go to sheepy sheepy sheep.  time to go to sheepy sheep -- it's time to go to sheep.  Mommy and daddy love you very much, mommy and daddy love you very much, mommy and daddy love you so much it's time to go to sheep"

Mommy and daddy are so proud of you Aeowyn!  We cannot believe that you're starting school already. It's come too soon -- but you're going to be simply incredible!  We love you!

Easter and More!

Aeowyn – our little girl, I’m sorry it’s taken so long to write.  For some reason the Spring has gotten away from us.  Let’s start with just how incredible it is to watch you grow into such a wonderful little girl.  You’re really quit an independent little girl and want to do everything yourself.  You have absolutely no problem with walking and stairs now.  You’re such a loving little girl – and love to cuddle your blankets, or mommy or daddy.  Even today, with daddy on travel, you were cuddling the phone when daddy called.  Speaking of blankets – PINK – is the operative word.  You LOVE your blankets and don’t want anyone to touch them.  Specifically, you had this favorite pink blanket that you would never give up – or sleep without until mommy took you to target and let you pick two new blankets yourself.  So at least we have some options now.  But for some reason, you think that everything that is pink is yours. Even if we give Rohin or Talin a pink sippy cup – you tend to have a problem with it J.  But you’re such an adventurous little girl and happy.  Your speech is really excellent for your age – and we pretty much know 70% of what you are saying now as you  transition from baby talk.  You have a propensity to ask “why” now to everything  -- but still hold onto the word GUK for milk.  But you love to call mommy – mama and are very expressive of what you want.  You still love water and love to put things in cups of water or stand at the sink on the step stool.  You also still love you “babies” – or aka – Sesame Street characters.  You’re particularly a big fan of Cookie monster, Elmo, and Abby. 

It’s been a very busy spring and nice and warm spring so far.  We’ve spent a lot of times outdoors, and exploring the current hot spot – Great falls park.  Mommy also enrolled you in JW tumbles class, where you love to play and explore  -- you even follow directions when they ask for you to sit in a circle or play games.  You also have a best friend in the class that you like to play with. This fall is going to be a big transition for you honey, as we prepare you to join your brothers in pre-school.  We cannot believe that our little baby girl is growing up so fast.  But to keep on growing – we need you to keep eating!  You have this really funny habit of not eating sometimes – then eating a ton at others.  One of the big surprises about this came at a Japanese steakhouse that we went to – where they cook in front of you.  You had such a good time watching the chef cook – but then proceeded to scarf down the won ton soup and shrimp! 

At home, you’re still an excellent sleeper --  you love to go to bed at 7pm and never put up a fuss.  Mommy and daddy sing to you and rock you while you drink your milk and lay on your blanket.  We then put you in your crib and you go right to sleep.  You love to play outside as well and love riding around in the cars with the boys – but really – your passion is the swing set.  You’re now migrating to a big swing – rather than a baby swing set.  Let’s see – other events – I don’t think we talked about easter.

Wow – I cannot forget about Easter – it was so fun!  First, the weekend before, we had so much fun – Talin and you went over with daddy to the Reston zoo, where you got to pet sheep and goats, horses, and even a little pig.  You fearlessly fed the goats and love to pet the horse and the baby sheep.  We then hoped in the iron horse (our car) and drove down to Ticondergoa farms – home of the outdoor slides!  They had their annual easter egg hunt going on and our children were real  contenders J.  Imagine, 75 children gathered for one gigantic easter egg hunt.  Daddy sat down with all of you and reminded you to not follow other children – he recounted a story when he was a child and used to chase other kids – who would pickup the eggs first!  Well – you all did a great job and came back with three huge basketfuls of candy! You also go to see the easter bunny.  The rest of the afternoon was spent going down slides, bouncing on the big bouncy hill and climbing up hay stacks (which you loved).  The following weekend, we went over to Grandma and grandpa’s for Easter weekend – where you got to dye easter eggs (pink of course), and we road on the gator – and got our big easter baskets from the easter bunny.  You definitely are no stranger to candy! 

I think that’s it for now baby girl. Mommy and daddy are pretty busy with the birthday season. We have your birthday coming up soon – where you’ll be two years old already.  Daddy is working hard to try to devise a time machine in order to keep you a little baby girl forever.  We love you honey!

Happy February

Well our bouncing baby girl, you’re growing so fast! It’s unbelievable. You’re such an adorable young lady and mommy and daddy are so proud of you. You’re really so independent now and love to feed yourself and want to have the same things that your brothers have as well. For some reason, you just don’t like forks and insist that you have a spoon – which is really so funny. When we offer vitamins and we ask who would like one – you can say “I do” in a very cute voice. You love to sing at night time “time to go to sheepy sheepy sheep – time to go to sheepy sheepy sheep – time to go to sheepy sheep – it’s time to go to sleep”. Then it goes – “mommy daddy love you very much, mommy daddy love you very much, mommy and daddy love you so much – it’s time to go to sheep”. You love to sing along and love to change the second part of the song to say daddy DADDYYYY and also love to finish off the rest of the song with HAHAHAHA. BTW -- you are a huge Sesame Street fan and love cookie monster, elmo and abby the best. You even make cookie monster sounds :-).

Merry Xmas & Happy 2012

Merry Christmas our little “kuger chinger wampe” (imagine mommy saying that in a very high pitched voice) and 2^nd happy new year to you! Another year has drawn to a close and what an incredible year for you and for our family. Let’s dive into it then. Aeowyn, you’re really quickly moving out of the baby phase. You’re now wearing 2T clothes and size six shoes. You’re so communicative now Aeowyn. If we ask you a question – you will say yea or shake your head and say unh unh…. You ask for guk (milk), you can ask to be fed, and even are now telling us when you need to go potty. Yes, at 18 months, you are starting to use the potty. You love to try to talk and are very focused. You look so cute with your long curly brown hair that hangs over your bangs – so you always are having to look up at us! You definitely are very independent and want to feed yourself - you get very frustrated about this. We do think that you will be potty trained very soon Aeowyn! So this point is really important BTW – you love, no – ADORE Sesame street. We have this grover doll and elmo doll that you call your babies. You love reading books about the characters and point at them and say “baby” or “look”. You love to play with your brothers and one of the latest games you all like is when you turn off the lights and use your flashlights to find each other. Like the boys, you also love to throw all the pillow off the sofa and jump off into them.

As for Christmas, Santa Clause really took care of you kids this year! For starters, I have to say we picked a really small tree this year for you guys, which worked out great. All of you worked together to decorate the tree standing on your step stools. This seemed to have taken off the fascination with Christmas ornaments – we can all thank mommy for this brilliant idea! This year, leading up to Christmas, we also read our advent calendars and you boys opened the windows in the calendar. You can now even blow out the candle when we pray Aeowyn. For Christmas eve, we had over Ammuma, Thatha, Savitha and Sadhana and Das uncle and Provanti. We had a big indian meal for Christmas eve and had so much fun together! Then late on Chirstmas eve, Grandma and Papa came over and spent the night. When you all woke up the next morning, there was a huge pile of toys. Toys from Santa, mommy & daddy, from each other, from your grandparents and aunts and uncles – it was pretty amazing. We opened presents from 7:30am to about 3:30pm in the afternoon. Your favorite present Aeowyn was a sesame street dollhouse. You could play with that thing for hours – it’s really amazing how much you love Sesame Street. On Christmas day, we spent the time outside riding around on cars after we finished presents and topped off the evening with a great dinner. You love driving with Rohin and Talin in the passenger seat and also love riding with daddy on th lawnmower. On Christmas night, we had ham and filet mignon, seafood casserole, crab dip, etc… We watched Christmas movies (the barney Christmas special was a bit hit btw). Over the holiday we also went over to the National Harbor and looked at an indoor ice sculpture show – which was really neat, but super cold (the temperature was 19 degrees inside). You wanted nothing to do with that at all – so we had to rush out of there…

We rang in the New year very calmly this year. We were home with ammuma and thatha and Sadhana with us and just had a really nice dinner. On New Year’s day, mommy and daddy hosted a big party of all of your friends – Jovin, Bella, Raquel, Sophia, Adam, -- it was so much fun! 2012 looks like it is going to be so much fun! This past weekend, we spent two days outside as the weather was simply gorgeous. You and Talin and Rohin played outside in your cars and helping to build the bonfire. Daddy got out the chainsaw and cleared part of the property line – which you all loved seed the chainsaw. All three of you drove on daddy’s lap – which probably isn’t going to last much longer as you all are getting so big! It was so much fun being outside. We also had Ms. Salini and Sandeep come over with their children – and we all warmed ourselves by the fire and you all played in your cars until night time. Even then you had your flashlights out.

In other news, while you’re so adorable, you also have little cat like claws and aren’t afraid to use them! But you are a truly gentle and sweet little girl. You’r e growing up so fast honey. We hope that you are finding tremendous love, happiness, and satisfaction Aeowyn in your life that you are leading. It’s a pleasure and an honor for momy and daddy to watch you become the little girl and eventually, the woman that you will become. We love you and look forward to a wonderful 2012!