First swim lessons

Gianna’s was to start with swimming lessons in June 2014. Shobhit decided to introduce her to the pool before her classes start, so she develops her comfort level with the pool water. Gianna has always been a sporty girl and she loved the idea instantly. She did really well as a first timer and after spending a good half an hour of time in the pool, insisted her papa to stay in the water for long.

Rhea’s turn-

As parents, we thought that it would be fun if both our girls go to the swimming pool together. So, we decided to get Rhea also introduced to the swimming pool at an early age of 17 months unlike Gianna who took her firstdip in the pool at 5 ½ years.  Rhea was feeling a bit uncomfortable in the first few minutes but after that she was enjoying her stay in the water as much as her big sister.

Crayola Experience...

 

Crayola Experience is one out of many places that we always wanted to visit. Gianna loves colors and it indeed proved to be a very colorful and joyful experience for the girls, with lots of hands-on activities to spark their imagination.

 

 

 

The kids made their customized crayons, melted-wax crayon paintings on paper, made lots of animal-shape crayons as keepsakes. There was indoor musical play, water play, paper play, clay play which kids loved to get engaged with. Some of Gianna’s favorite spots were – Doodle in the dark, Crayola-inspired indoor playground, light board in the toddler town, melt & mold. 

 

With a packet full of goodies to carry for home, there were big smiles on Gianna’s and Rhea’s faces which gave us equally big smiles on ours making the trip  another memorable visit with the kids. I felt Crayola Experience is a good place to keep the kids busy in a creative way.

Delectable Cupcake!! Indeed.

Saint Mathews Carnival’14

The fun of summers begins with ice-creams, swings, and the popular county carnival – Saint Mathews Carnival. It was packed with lots of fun rides, and so our girls had a ball of a time in there. Gianna had fun on carousel, on the crocodile roller coaster with mumma and even dared to ride on the mini-columbus ride all alone.

Out of all Gianna enjoyed sliding on the longest slide she had ever done. She wanted to make the most of it and so did the slide almost half-a-dozen times. 

We were waiting for this carnival because it was going to be the first of its kind experience for Rhea. Rhea also loved the carousel with mumma, jumbo elephant ride with didi, and train ride with papa. She was really happy and excited to see so many rides and had a constant smile on her face with a hope of doing all the rides she saw there (she got a chance to ride only a few though ;-) )

Daddy Kisses & Rhea Kisses -

What a beautiful book!

“Daddy Kisses” by Anne Gutman and Georg Hallensleben remains Rhea’s favorite book. The book shows how every father has expressed his love to his kids by kissing them. Rhea makes us read the book every day and loves to get kissed as per every page. For example, a line in the book says –“daddy wolf gives his pup a kiss on the nose”, and so Rhea loves to being kissed on her nose.:)

A book every daddy must read to his child.

Summer Holidays'14

Almost a month has been passed since we came back to the States. Gianna is not going to school these days and spends time at home with all these activities summarized below-

Good part- Gianna reads her favorite story books, plays indoor games with Rhea, plays chalks with her, does some practicing in reading and writing, goes to the parks, rides her scooter, loves to take showers with Rhea.  

 

Crazy Part- There is worth mentioning here that despite all these activities, some fights also happen between these girls (mostly over stuff toys). Rhea tries to emulate Gianna a lot. She wants the same stuff that elder sis is having and want to do the same thing that her big sis is doing, so it gets difficult sometimes to settle the argument. I am glad that it is mostly Gianna who tries to make up by giving her share of toys to Rhea.

Fun Part- We paint nails. G & R spend time in putting their hair accessories onto each other’s hair. They look at poems and lullabies on mumma’s android together.

 

Arguing in the car over the songs is a common thing that we all do. The fight is over the movie Tangled’s songs or mumma-papa’s hindi songs..:-) and I am sure you can guess who is the winner every time..;-)??

Rhea’s first trip to the beach..

It was a lovely weather on Mother’s day and so, we decided to celebrate it by going to the beach. Gianna was very excited as she was wishing to go to the beach from a long time. Rhea was happy to see that everyone is dressed up and sensed that we are going outside.

After reaching at the beach, Gianna got busy collecting sea shells. Rhea did not like her feet to be dipped in the water, she was shivering as the water was icy-cold. We tried to make her comfortable but she was not willing to try out this new adventure. Soon, she joined her big sister in sand-play and was happy watching the sea from distance and filled her bucket with sand. The short visit ended with some home-made food and yummy chocolate-vanilla ice-cream. We all had a good time and we hope to visit more to the beaches this summer to make Rhea more comfortable in the water.

India Trip – 2013

Will miss you, mom!

On 26^th Dec – My mom lost her battle against cancer

On 30^th Dec - We went to India, at my home town, Saharanpur.

My dearest mom was suffering from tongue cancer since past two years. Prayers and hopes walked along with us through this entire journey – from the day she was diagnosed of this illness to her last day of life. My mother was a very pious lady, firm believer of God, a kind and optimistic person at heart, and was very dear to all the people who worked in our house and our clinic.

 This trip to India holds a very different meaning for all of us, emotionally and mentally. We wanted to spend some time with my father- my papa, is a very simple and hardworking man. He gave his heart and soul to give my mom every bit of comfort during her illness. His thoughts and concerns for mom in the last two years took him into a deep sea of sadness! My main aim of this four-month long trip was to give papa some stress-free time with kids.

 Gianna who last met her nani three years back and is very fond of her, would often ask me about nani and I would tell her that she is with the God. Gianna used to say that “mumma, don’t be sad, nani will come back soon”. I think that how good it could have been if Rhea too could have got her nani’s blessings in person.

Four months have been passed since you left us, mom! It is still difficult to accept that we lost you!

Nana & Rhea!

Surrounded by so many new faces, nanaji was the first person Rhea got attached to! She would call him “nana” very lovingly. With G and R around and seeing their playful activities, nana surely felt happy and to some extent it helped him to heal mentally. Nana spoiled Rhea with chocolates and gems (for at least three times a day). Nana would even wake up late nights to cater to Rhea’s food demands. By now, R knows whom to call, when mumma is angry. 

                                                                      friendship with nana

godi time nana

                                                                      love your laptop nana

                                                      nothing could be sweeter than a kiss

                                                                 hearty laugh with nana

                                                             love your singing nana

                                                          let me comb your hair nana

This is my favorite out of all

                                                             spoiling with chocolates

                                                                  before going to sleep

Nana even let Rhea taps his computer keypad with her tiny fingers and which she enjoyed doing the most. Nanaji also loved to feed cheerios to Rhea. Every night before going to sleep, R would first play with his medicine bottles, then would hug nana, gave him a lot many good night kisses and wave him a bye-bye.

Rhea at 14 months!

Rhea loves to toss balls. She is still not very comfortable with so many people around her and always prefers to stick to mumma. She loves to wear bigger size shoes, jackets and tops. At Rhea's age, Gianna was too picky for food than clothes but for Rhea it looks completely opposite, she looks picky for clothes than food. I am happy to see that Rhea is quite fond of fruits. Her favorites amongst many are bananas and oranges.

R has started speaking few one words –“mumma, nana, babu, aati (aarti). Rhea’s favorite rhyme is “baba black sheep”. Both my girls look like a big fan of JB( Justin Bieber).

Gianna and her new friends-

Gianna made some new friends in this trip. Jaya takes care of children very well and has been a great help to me. G spends some time playing with her and Aarti didi. They all like to listen to the songs of Justin Bieber and Hannah Montana. 

We decided to start Hindi and Maths tuition to make G bit busy amidst the loud, noisy and chaotic plays. Gianna is very fond of her teacher, Ritu and waits eagerly every day for her. Ritu also finds Gianna super naughty, very talkative and sweet girl. G also loves to talk to Pooja didi.