Chechis, Annas, Mamas and Mamis -First installment, Dubai

We stopped at Dubai on our way to India. There, Milind met some of his cousins for the first time & I met some of mine after a very long time. We all had a blast - with Ammu chechi taking amazing care of Milind and keeping the peace between M and Appu. Ranjeet also finally got to hang out with some of my family.

Our hosts went all out - we got to see all the sights in the city, check out the entertainment at night and do a desert safari, all in 3 days! @Atlantis here:

The safari - which involves driving over the sand dunes in an SUV - was definitely one of the highlights. The riders were R , all the women - Kavi, Saghi, Priya, her mom and me - and Appu, Govind and Milind. The roller coaster ride was thrilling(and, I must admit, a bit scary) and the women screamed with excitement everytime the Land Cruiser tilted dangerously or went downhill(down-dune?) at breakneck speed. Our screaming struck terror in the hearts of the poor kids and Milind would break out into sobs and screams, keeping time with the ladies. Appu and Govind were unusually quiet the entire time, Appu covering his eyes to see if that would help. When asked if he was doing OK, Goving firmly replied "NO". When all the excitement was over and we were headed back to base camp, Appu broke out into a soothing "Row, row, row your boat...". What can i say?

Taking a break here:
We even got to ride the dunes on our own:

Varun showing us how its done:

Overall, a very good trip. 4 weeks later, we got back to CA and Milind was still chanting the names of his cousins - Ammu Chechi, Appu, Sidhu Anna, Govind, Varun Anna...

Looking forward to seeing the gang again soon!

I go India!

He's not quite sure what or where India is, but he knows he's going there..

Has been saying "I go India, I go on plane!" for the last month now. He knows that Valiyachan and Dada are in India, so he's been planning all the stories he will tell them when he gets there.

He also knows exactly what kind of car he wants them to buy him.. :-)

I ate rock!

Yup. It finally happened. Milind was playing with some decorative pebbles that I have in a vase - that's happened before, so nothing unusual there.

And about 15 mins later, we look around and he had TWO of those in his mouth!! :-O I reached in immediately and managed to get one out. But as I reached in for the second one, I saw him swallow. A very distinct and big swallow. Uhh ohhhh.

While we looked on in shock, he continued with his affairs with absolutely no acknowledgment of recent incident. While my first(and only) instinct was to bust out laughing, D was trying very hard to impress upon Milind the seriousness of the situation. Didn't quite work. All we got was him walking around saying "I ate rock!" all night long. After looking it up online(Google zindabad) and re-assuring ourselves that the editors of Wikipedia could be trusted with our son's health, we went to bed.

We did call the doctor the next day and supposedly, the only thing to do was to inspect any "output" with great dedication. Which D did. Nada next morning - just the usual contents, which parents are all to familiar with, so I won't go into much more detail here.

Upon Milind's insistence, we informed the grandparents that he had eaten a "rock". So now, we had 6 people eagerly awaiting pebble-studded poop. And without much ado, the pebble arrived that night - with a loud "clink" announcing its safe arrival.

We had a glass of wine to celebrate the occasion and reflect on how far we had come in life. Indeed.

'Appy HHHalloweeeen!

Milind's first Halloween. He wasn't quite sure what it was all about, but he had a blast! With 3 halloween parties in 2 days, I think he finally figured it out.

The season was kicked off with a trip to the local Pumpkin patch to pick a pumpkin. We went with Anjali and family. Here Milind is seen showing Naina how much fun pumpkins are:


Once he had the pumpkin picking under his belt, he was strutting at his school outing to Emma Prusch Farm - been there, done that. Confident enough that he had the guts to do this(with Kavana here):

With his BFF's - Eeshan and Reyansh - here:

Now, let the parties begin!

First stop - school on Friday. My lil' Pirate was "Arggh"-ing his way to school. And apparently all pirates say "I'm a pirate!" all day long.


Saturday morning, at Yerba Buena garden in the city with the iChild gang. By the time this picture was taken, half the costume was off and our un-cooperative pirate was trying to find someone who would give him more candy.


Last(& best!) stop: Halloween @Aanya's home. There was a "March of the penguins", with Aanya, Akhil, Arin, Milind and Naina all dressed as penguins - it was fanstastic!! Unfortunately, but not surprisingly, pics were pretty hard to get, so this is the best I have:


A very very memorable first Halloween. Or as Milind would say "Appy HHHalloweeeeen!"

Weekend at the beach

Very very late, but wanted to put this out there so we don't forget..

We had a lot to celebrate in October - Papa's Happy B'day(which went on for about 3 weeks, mind you) and Papa completing his second marathon, in "Chee-caa-go", no less!! We had also had a hectic few months with both of us being swamped at work, so we headed off to Pismo beach(Oct 17th weekend) and stayed at a fancy-shmancy place right by the ocean for a weekend.

Our "villa" had ocean views from almost every room - and yes, there were multiple rooms. It was ~1000 sq feet(bigger than the apartments we rented in the city!!) and Milind made himself at home right away. He had even packed his own bag, stuffing every car that would fit and some of his favorite books in there.


Went for a walk before sunset and made our way down the cliffs to the ocean. It was a really warm day, so the water was actually refreshing.
After a very satisfying dinner of Mac N Cheese consumed on the balcony looking out at the ocean, M drifted off to sleep to the sounds of the ocean.
The place had no A/C - just kept our windows open, which worked really well! Of course, M was up at his usual unearthly hour, ready to go play. But waking up to the smell and sounds of the ocean is such an amazing feeling - doesn't gets old. Had a relaxing brunch at the hotel restaurant(consisting of Oysters, no less):

And then we headed out to the beach. Or so we thought. But.. there was no beach!! The tide was still high and the narrow strip of beach by the hotel was ...well, missing. So we headed back to the hotel and jumped in the pool(a saline pool) and M loved it! We ended up back there again after lunch and an afternoon nap. Once the pool got a little cold, he discovered the hot tub. Or as he called it - "hot water".


Later that evening, we drove out for a little bit, got some wine and picked up some *really* good Pizza. M wolfed it down and went to bed at his usual hour - after new games which involved crawling inside tables.
We stayed up and before the day was done, D got a little "cake" to end the day on a high note.
Next morning, we checked out and decided to hunt for this supposedly great Clam Chowder place..and we drove smack into a Clam Festival! Which, it seems the whole world except us knew about. All of us wolfed down some really good chowder(& even got some frozen to go!!).

Tummies full and hearts content, we drove back home..

October accomplishments

Long time no see! Hope the audience is holding up OK, what with with the lack of updates and all.
Things have been busy, so can't really remember what we've been up to lately. But rest assured, it kept us on our toes. The highlights of recent weeks have been:

- Su-su-Potty in earnest at school. Underwear is part of M's outfit now - yaay!! And so are wet pants, but we can live with the accidents for now :)

- Aneeesh mama's visit. This is not really an accomplishment in our eyes, but I'm pretty sure Milind disagrees. We got to spend some time with Anish mama while he was here on a business trip, hob-nobbing with the Intel elite. Milind managed to get two cars out this visit, hence the reference to accomplishment. This is them trying to figure out how to put together his brand new radio control car -


- Help!! Someone flipped a switch and we don't know how to get Milind to stop talking!! Again, two different view points on whether this is an accomplishment, but worth a mention nonetheless. We had gotten used to the incessant "What that??", "Where going?", "What doing?", "Go Mama car?", but suddenly its a different ball game. Its NON-STOP talking, about anything at all. There is also circle time and story time at home, reading aloud, singing. Good Morning song, ABCD song and Happy Bday song are constantly heard echoing in our house.

Two incidents of interest -

Ranjeet was recently rough-housing with Milind while M was in a cuddly mood, and suddenly he turned around and said "Papa, no bother me!". What the.


As M and I were leaving the house to run an errand, he asked me "Mama Susu or OK?".


Most of the time its totally cute stuff, but as this list keeps growing I wonder what else will end up here..

Su-su Potty Right now!!

Ahhh music to the ears.. Potty training started in full earnest a couple of weeks ago and we seem to have turned the corner!

Poor baby was ready a good while ago - we just didn't have the discipline to take the time and stick with it. He has been using the potty for the "serious business" for about 2-3 months at least. It was the pee-pee that was not getting enough attention.

Without going into gory details, let me just say that he as comfortable as a king on his throne now. Even the morning starts off with "Mama, su-su potty right now" - while he's still in bed with his eyes barely open and hangin' on so he doesn't fall off.

The school potty was a bit of a hurdle somehow - he just didn't like going there. But some magic over the weekend helped him turn the corner - still not quite sure what it was. He came back from school on Monday with a swagger in his step, a sticker on his hand that said "You're awesome" and asking for a new car, chocolates, anything he could think of.

He did get all he asked for today - second successful day in a row at school! He got a fire truck, a Hot Wheels car, stickers and car buttons(that i have to sow on somewhere now!).

Bye Bye Huggies!

Random stuff

Stuff that doesn't quite make it to its own post is being collected here, for now..

Over the past few weeks, Milind got a couple of "new" toys. I say "new' because these were gifts that had been stowed away, out of sight till the time was right. Too many toys at the same time means he doesn't appreciate any of them enough.

Short-term memory is a wonderful thing - each time an old toy is re-introduced to the mix, it is accepted as new toy, with all the excitement and joy that accompanies that experience :)

One of them was a gift from Meher didi and Muskaan didi - a Choo Choo train! It was in pristine condition under Bhabhi's care, even arriving in its original box. Wonder how long things will stay that way in this household..



The second toy that made an appearance was the garbage truck - a gift from Aabyr. After some sightings of the garbage pickup on fridays, the idea of the garbage truck is now more or less understood. He was so excited with the truck that when we had to go out that day, he refused to sit in the car with us unless accompanied by the garbage truck. Here is what ensued:


Barely visible here, above the ginormous truck in his lap-

My first Onam

Onam is normally quiet over here, but this time was different. With M around, we had .. well, a (very) mini celebration. Half of an Onam Sadhya & the flowers, with "Tambachi" overseeing all of it. Every step was an adventure - from picking flowers from the garden to picking the Kurta to wear(or finding one that fits..) to picking a spot to put the flowers(on the table, out of Milind's way). Milind was chanting "Happy Onam" all day, wishing anyone who would listen.

My first songs

You might need an interpreter here, in spite of these being in English.. FYI, the rhymes are Mary had a little lamb and Three Blind Mice. See if you can figure out which is which.

Khushi's visit

Its been more than 6 months since we came back home and we've been waiting for Khushi and Milind to meet. Finally happened in August - Anoop and family came over for a weekend trip. Short it was, but packed with fun. We were so glad to see them! It was even more heartwarming to see the kids get along so well(most of the time!)..There was a fair share of reluctant "sharing" and a sprinkling of timeouts, but overall they figured out a good working relationship. We managed a trip to the Discovery Museum where they promptly went their separate ways, but had fun nonetheless. Even made a trip to the mall, with lunch at a Mexican place in Willow Glen..Good times! Looking forward to the next meeting.. Some highlights below.

Helping Khushi with her shoes - they actually managed to put them on by themselves..
At the mall:

At the discovery museum:

Hangin' out:
Maan, these conference calls take so much time..

Concerts and Camping

Concerts hadn't been on our agenda much because as soon as a vocalist got on stage, our own lil' vocalist would start "Too loud, go home!" We started small, with Santa Clara's "Dancing in the park" one Friday evening, ready to head home in about 15 mins(i.e, one quick beer). Instead, we went home 2 hours later, with Milind head-banging to some 80s music and goofing around with 3 red-haired Irish brothers(who seemed like quite a handful!), while gulping down some California rolls on the side :)

Same weekend, on Sunday afternoon we ended up at the San Jose Blues and Jazz festival. Great music, lots of food and hot as hell. Milind managed to have fun, of course - even managing to get a car "tattoo" on his arm.

I love it, Papa!!
Car Tattoo:

Camping: Dirt, tents, friends, trucks, cars and bicycles. Need I say anything more? Oh yeah, Bears! Turns out we were camping in bear territory(Sequoia National Park), so we had some visitors we hadn't accounted for, but should have probably expected. Except for that, it was a blast.

One of the rare peaceful moments:

Water fight!
All the boys:
And the lil' ones:
Too young for Choppers, no?
All in all, a good time.

Museums and Choo Choo trains

No, its not a tongue-twister. Just a preview of Milind's summer. So much to see, so much to do! In the past month(or two?), Milind hasn't had much time to sit around pondering existence like he usually does.

Discovery Museum:
A few weekends ago, R was home recovering from a long run(did I mention he's training for the Chicago Marathon?) and I was prepared for a quiet saturday at home, getting my Bollywood fix with Showbiz India. But after his cuppa Joe and some Chocolate Chip pancakes, hubby dear was suddenly re-energized and wanted to go out somewhere.
We ended up at the much-touted Children's Discovery Museum - and loved it!! Fire Truck, Ambulance, Planes, bubbles, water fun..the list was endless. Milind had a blast and we had to literally drag him out of there. He was crying all the way back to the car & stopped only after we promised to buy him a fire truck. Of course, as soon as he got to the toy store later that day he forgot all about the fire truck and only wanted a car. The fickle mind of a toddler!
Fireman in training:
Practicing his pen-manship:

Water fun:
Can this be any more fun?

We ended up going there two more times over the course of summer - once with his class and once when Anoop & family visited. Dancing with Alison here:

And baking some pizza:

Look mom - I painted myself:


With this favorite Ms.Dobrila and friend Akul:


Choo Choo train:
"Tomas Choo Choo Train" is on his toothpaste and after watching a couple of episodes of Thomas, M developed a (temporary) fascination for trains. So we decided to take him on a train. R was headed to SF for a baseball game with some work buddies, so M & I joined him on the Caltrain for a trip up to the Mountain View Farmer's Market. To say he was fascinated is an understatement. The trip to MView was way too short and drama ensued as we stepped out onto the platform & Papa and Co continued to SF. About 15 mins later, the situation was a little under control and we managed to make our way to the market, M safely tucked away in this stroller. While the market was fun for me, all he wanted was to get back on the train.

So we got back on the train, headed past our Santa Clara stop, all the way to the last stop in SJC. Then headed back on the next train from there, back to Santa Clara, in less than 10 mins. M was in heaven. Wish i had taken pictures, but how can i forget that grin plastered on his face? :)