Girls day at the park

With Pooneet in New Orleans having some bachelor party fun, the girls
and I have had a fun bonding weekend :) After breakfast, we went to
the park where the kiddos had fun on the swings!

Amisha Turns 1!!!

Our little Amishooo turned 1 on March 19th! It's crazy for us to imagine how this year flew by - it's been hilarious and exhausting, magical and precious. She has brought so much love and light into our lives and seeing the instant and incredibly strong bond between Ananya and Amisha is a real blessing. We celebrated her day blowing out candles on her cake with Adhara and then with Avva and Thatha, a visit from Anju Mausi who brought lots of balloons that Amishoo loved kissing, lots of "Happy Birthday" songs, opening presents, and squeals of delight all day long.

Yay to Pooneet and I for surviving this year, a BIG thank you to our parents for helping us through major sleep deprivation, and the happiest of birthday wishes for our little Amishoo!

Here are some pictures from her day of fun!

Pooja night

My parents were leading a Shiva pooja tonight, so Ananya and I wanted
to attend. We dressed up, Ananya got to stay up way past her normal
bedtime, and she even joined Avva and Thatha on stage, where she
helped with the ceremony!

Feb Fun

Here are some pictures from hanging out at home, and from Ananya and I before we went to Jessica's baby shower!

Jean's bday

It's been a fun few months for Ananya because we've had lots of birthday to celebrate! We celebrated Jean (aka. Eemo)'s birthday at our house - balloons, cake, dinner, presents. Ananya was thrilled - she really thinks of Jean as her special friend - and was so excited to celebrate her Eemo's special day!

11 months old

In February, Amisha turned 11 months old. She loved crawling, clapping, talking up a storm (Mama, Dada, Ada - for Adhara, Avva, Thatha). She loves playing with toys, especially Ananya's favorite toys. She absolutely loves stuffed animals and hugs them so tightly when she sees them. She's fearless, strong, and very daring - if she bangs her head or falls down, she barely whimpers. But she REALLY cries when Ananya says "no" to her or takes a toy away from her. Doesn't bode well for the teenage years ;)

She eats up a storm, enjoys all kinds of different food, but again, especially loves eating Ananya's food. She's consistently sleeping through the night, taking 2 naps a day, and is super friendly - she'll go to anyone, be held by anyone, and play with anyone. Probably the result of all the playdates she's gone to with her big sister!

Here are the many faces of our little rascal:

Fun photos

Here are some random fun photos. Every morning, Ananya and Amishoo love playing a chasing game - it begins all of a sudden, and Ananya starts chasing Amishoo and let me tell you, Amishoo can crawl so fast that half the time, Ananya can't catch her!

Diamonds are a girl's best friend

We were always too scared to get Ananya's ears pierced, but since Amisha seems to be so completely fearless, we thought we'd get her ears pierced. We took her to Claire's in Valley Fair, where they do this all day long, and picked out some simple, pretty earrings for her. While Amisha was getting her ears pierced, Ananya was playing outside with Adhara.

Amisha sat in my lap, didn't really squirm, and cried for maybeeeee 30 seconds total. And then she was her regular smiley happy clappy self! Phew! Easy!

Then, Ananya comes back into the store and decides, with a bit of cajoling from us, that she, too, wants earrings just like Amishoo. But then it went completely downhill from there. She proceeded to SCREAM bloody murder for literally 10 minutes straight - while the Claire's employees were cleaning her ears, marking the piercing spot with a pen, and, of course, when they did the actual piercing. SCREAMING. FLAILING HER ARMS. SCREAMING. I can't emphasize enough how much screaming occured.

Of course, when it was done, she calmed down and decided she wanted a treat, so just like that, as if nothing happened, we went to the food court and got her (and us) some frozen yogurt. Yum!

I don't even think Amisha realizes that she has earrings, it doesn't bother her at all. Yay! For Ananya, it was more traumatic - every time we touched her ear, whispered to her, put a headband on her hair, stood next to her - she's complain that it was somehow really hurting her ear. But day by day, it got better for her (mentally and emotionally b/c I'm pretty sure that physically, she wasn't in that much pain) and now she just absolutely loves having her "shiny diamonds". She now notices other people's earrings and proudly shows off her own to pretty much everyone she meets!

Lesson for other parents out there: if you're going to do this, do it while your kid is young!!!

Kite flying

In January, we spent a lot of time flying kites at Shoreline. It was beautiful! Pooneet and Ananya went to buy the two kites - one for Ananya and one for Amisha - and then we spent several weekends taking the kites flying. Ananya insisted on flying the princess kite, even though the Sponge Bob (or "Bob the Sponge") kite flew much better. She was so excited and after Pooneet taught her how to fly it, she was totally able to do it by herself!

Amisha's first swim class

We started Ananya swimming at 3 months, when she could barely lift her head up. Lesson learned! So we just recently started Amisha, when she was about 10 months old, and she LOVES her class. No tears, no crying, just a super chill water baby. She's loved the water/beach/ocean in Hawaii, so we weren't too surprised, but still - it was nice to see how relaxed she was in her first class!

Leela and Jay

Ananya's cousins, Leela and Jay, came to visit in January - we saw them for a family reunion lunch and then we had Ranjit, Stacey, and the kids over for dinner and playtime. The adults, of course, had fun catching up and the kids just loved playing with each other. Ananya and Leela became really good friends and Jay and Amisha played together all night. So cute!

Fiona's birthday

Ananya loves celebrating birthdays. LOVES it. Clearly she gets it from me :) So every other day, she decides that it is one of her friend's birthdays and then we try to celebrate it :)