My little bhalu - First Halloween

Dear Vedant,

I wanted to make a note today so that I remember this change in you. You are now 9.5 months old and since last week you have been doing something that I have craved for so long. For as long as I wanted to be a mama, I wanted my baby to rest his/ her head against my chest, wrapped tight in my arms and contently sleeping. This is what has been our story these past few days and that just fills up my heart and makes me feel so complete. Like, I have served my purpose in life, that of being a Mom.

Here is a pic of daddy giving you all his love the same way. Enjoy this sweetie, we love you very much.

big hug my little tiger, or bhalu as you were for halloween! A pic from then too!

love, amma

Happy Diwali!!

Dear Vedant,

Here is wishing you a Happy Diwali! You my dear are the light of my life and this is the festival of lights. When you are little older, I will explain all the stories and legends about our festivals. I wasn't a very religious or traditional person earlier, but now, with you, I am doing as much as I can so that you learn about where your come from, what our traditions are and why. I want you to have memories of your childhood, happy ones about little things we did, like how we celebrated diwali or hung out at the zoo.

Diwali this year was on a weekday, and being in the US, we didn't have a chutti. I took a holiday. Daddy worked from home. Aunty was home with us and helped us out with all the prep. I made Dahi Puri, poori, raita, rice, paneer burji, bhindi and chole. For dessert I made kheer and attempted to make Badam burfi, but that didn't work well.

I couldn't spend as much time with you as I wanted too, but that's for now. When you are older, you will be able to participate in the Diwali celebrations, we will light diyas together, decorate the house, puja room and do an aarti. It is going to be so much fun!

You looked so cute in your dhoti-kurta. First new dhoti-kurta for you, avva sent it. She has excellent taste. We also had Arshiya, Rohini Aunty and Anurag Uncle for Dinner. We all had a great time, it really felt like Diwali. Otherwise, it would have been lonely.

Chalo bacha. Amma has a busy Sunday. I have got so much to do sweetie. I need to flannel body suit for you.

Take care,
Taruna

Clapper, Crawler and my little sippy cup wonder

Dear Vedant,

The past two weeks have been so full of joy with you. We had many firsts, your milestones and together. We went playing Dandia Santa Clara convention center and boy, did you have a good time! I was amazed that you were unfazed by the crowd and loving it all.

You learnt to clap on your own about 3 weeks ago, that was 25 September to be precise. You loved clapping and were very happy doing it. It seemed as if you knew you were doing something new. And a couple of days later, I was singing a rhyme for you and there your were, clapping in response!

You have also become very independent of late. You do the commando crawling on your own. You are mighty fast and true to what they say about kids, you go for the shoes, dirty mats and all the dirt around the house. If I bend and ask you to come towards me, you do that too. My cute potato. We were at Aarti auntie and Varun uncle's house today. They have a lovely home, you were crawling all over. You learnt to go over a little step and kept doing it.

I have just started doing Bikram yoga and because of that I miss being away from you in the morning. Auntie comes in early to take care of you. Daddy spends a lot of time with you in the morning too. I just bought a Camelbak bottle to make sure I am hydrating enough coz the hot yoga is tough sweetie. But why I am mentioning this to you is because, you little smarty boy took my sipper bottle, tried drinking from it and figured it out in less than 1 minute! And you were giggling like crazy when you realized you can drink water from it. I just ordered a sippy cup for you and want to make sure you are able to graduate from the nipple bottle. It is bad for your dental health. I want to give you the best start in everything :)

Anyway, thank you for making my life so full of joy. Your smile brigtens every day and I LOVE YOU!

love,
Amma

PS: Busy preparing for your first diwali, Avva sent a new kurta for you, it is super cute! Also your first halloween is coming up.