2007 comes to a close

So this brings us into December. Another crazy month but we all managed to survive. John traveled to Germany for a week. We were fortunate to go to Berlin last year around the same time and it absolutely beautiful there. I was jealous that he got to go again although it was for work and not leisure.

Noah's school put on a Christmas program that was fun to watch. He of course, didn't participate at all. He spent the first 10 minutes howling because he did not want to go on stage and spent the rest of the time watching his friends perform from the audience and was perfectly content with that. I was amazed however that the director of the school was able to get the kids organized enough to perform songs with memorized lyrics considering that the age range is 2 1/2 to 6 years old. I have a hard time teaching that age group to draw in a classroom setting let alone perform on stage. I can't say enough good things about the school.

Noah's language has just exploded this last month and I can't believe the vocabulary on that kid! He is definitely at the age where we have to spell things and really watch what we say. You only have to say something once and he has it down. He has also decided that it is fun to bug his sister, particularly since she is mobile now and into everything, including his toys. It is impossible to get anything done and keep an eye on them both simultaneously. If you turn your head for a second, someone usually ends up crying. But Noah is not to blame completely, Anisha is learning the art of manipulation and it's to the point now where if Noah walks by her, she screams bloody murder.

Anisha got her top 2 teeth this month and let me tell how fun that was! Not so much. She also caught a stomach bug a few days before John was to leave for his trip. She got so dehydrated because she couldn't keep anything down, that we ended up in the ER and that was the most awful experience ever. Once she got some fluids in her though she was slowly able to eat and keep it down and was back to her old, mischievous self in a week. Of course, Noah then caught it and so did I, although not quite as bad, so I felt like I was doing laundry all the time. I don't ever want go through that again. But I do finally understand why my parents get so concerned when we get sick. It's just an inherent part of being a parent to worry and feel so helpless. I'm not sure that is ever going to go away.

Moving on to fun and exciting things...Christmas Eve was pretty mellow with the four of us and my dad, but we sure had a lot of fun. Noah really understood the concept of a gift this year and had a blast opening presents from us. Our family has typically always opened gifts on Christmas Eve. John's usually did presents from Santa on Christmas, so our kids get the best of both worlds. Spoiled rotten, I know. Anisha had a really good time playing with all the packaging, so I'm not sure why we even bothered to get any gifts. John's mom came over Christmas morning and then we spent Christmas day at the Mullin's house in Hugo. John's dad side of the family is rather large so it's always a lot of fun to visit them. John's brother, Dan and his wife Paige, and their 3 kids, Kylie, Ryan and Jesse, were also there, so Noah ran around like a crazy person. He slept pretty good that night.

The best part of the month was the 28th, because my mom finally returned from her trip to India (she was there since mid-October). I felt such relief when she got home, I can't even describe it. Noah was pretty excited to see his Dida. Anisha didn't quite remember her and was a little cautious around her.

John and I ended up trading both of our cars in for new ones. His truck was costing basically a car payment in gas a month because of his commute to work everyday. So he ended up getting a sedan. My issue was a space issue. My SUV was awesome, but once you put the stroller in the back, that was it. No room for anything else. So I bit the bullet and decided being a mini-van mom isn't going to be so bad. Both of them have so many bells and whistles, it's ridiculous. That's the only way to describe it. They make these things so that you can live in them.

So we bring 2007 to a close and I can't believe how blessed we are. I am grateful for so many things, my family, friends, kids and all the opportunities presented to us that makes our lives richer (and I don't mean with money). Thanks to everyone for all your love and support, we wish you a Happy New Year!

Highlights from November

Noah is obsessed with trains. He has many train sets around the house and trains to drive on the tracks. Thomas is his favorite and he enjoys watching the movies as well. I'm not really sure if I like the Thomas stories or not. The trains are always fighting and teasing each other. Sometimes they make up in the end, but I'm not really clear as to what message the children are supposed to learn. They all seem kind of bratty to me. Anyhow, I never knew that we had so much railway history here in the Twin Cities. A couple of Noah's favorite places in the model train museum in Bandana Square in St. Paul. http://www.tcmrm.org/ It has a huge model train set up and running that duplicates what the railroads were like in the Twin Cities during the 30's, 40's and 50's. Noah could watch those trains go by for hours and it's funny because Anisha actually enjoys watching it as well.

The other place that we found is the Jackson Street Roundhouse in St. Paul. It has actual train cars that kids can play in, train sets that the kids can play with and a little gift shop with, of course, Thomas and Friends toys. The best part of this museum is the caboose ride. Noah was pretty excited about riding in a real train car, but he wasn't so fond of the noise.


John is still at Boston Scientific in a management position and I'm sure you have heard about all the layoffs. His job is safe for now but it requires a lot more of his time and he has been traveling quite extensively lately. While this has been a little rough for the family, he has been fortunate enough to see some exciting places. He spent a week in Japan during the month of November which turned out to be perfect timing because Noah's school has been studying Japan this month as well. There was lots of material for show and tell. I'm jealous of all the fabulous sushi he got to eat. There is link to his photos on the left.

This was Anisha's first Thanksgiving and we were spent it at the Mitra's house, close friends of the family. Noah had a blast playing with his cousins, Natalie and Nicholas. Anisha had fun too, but she is at the age where strangers and large crowds are a bit overwhelming, so she stuck close by me most of the night.



A couple of days later, we went to the Mustaphi's house to celebrate the engagement of Rai and Scott (finally!). We had a lot of fun catching up with everyone and we are looking forward to another exciting wedding-reunion! Although we will have to wait until 2009...

Highlights from October

October turned out to be an exciting month for us. Noah went on his first field trip with his school. They visited a local apple orchard and I was fortunate to be a chaperone. The day ended up being pretty cold and rainy so we didn't actually get to go and pick apples from trees. But we did make apple juice and all the kids picked some apples from the boxes in the giant cooler. This was also Noah's very first ride on a school bus. I thought he was going to explode with excitement.







Anisha had a big month developmentally. She cut her first teeth on the 20th and started crawling shortly after. She doesn't do the typical crawl though, it's more of an army crawl and man, can she move!

It was also Anisha's first Halloween and true to form, I waited until the last possible moment to buy both costumes. Anisha was a peapod and Noah was Thomas the Tank. He was a little confused about walking up to the neighbor's houses and ringing the door bell, but once he saw what they were giving he had a good time. The turnout was pretty low this year in our neighborhood and so we had a lot of leftover candy. Noah's a big fan.








I was excited to get some girl time and visit my friend Monisha in Chicago over a weekend. Rai came in from D.C. and the three of us had a fabulous time eating, shopping and relaxing. We are already looking forward to next year and making this an annual event.

Highlights from September

So it's literally been almost 3 months since I posted anything and I can't even believe that much time has gone by. So I am going to take it one month at a time to catch up here. September started off with Anisha's Annaprasan on Labor Day weekend. Everything went off without a hitch and was a ton of fun, but I felt so rushed that it seemed like it was only 15 minutes long. Anisha was a complete angel and really enjoyed all the food. She ended up picking the gold bracelet which I think means wealth...but so does the money, so I'm not really sure. All I know is that since then, she has shown an interest in any type of jewelry so I'm sure the teenage years will be a blast. There are pictures from the Annaprasan in link to the left.

Noah started Montessori school in September and this was a really huge adjustment for the both of us. He still attends 3 full days a week like he did at daycare, but the school is 20 minutes away (instead of 2 minutes) and the school day begins at 8:30am. Those of you who know me well, know I am a huge night owl and 8:30am is early. Especially since we need to wake up at 7:30am to get there on time (kind of). The first 2 weeks there, they really focused on manners, like standing in a single file line with hands behind their backs. And when they sit on the floor during group time, they have to sit with legs crossed (which they call criss-cross applesauce) with hands in their laps. Noah immediately caught on to this and liked it so much that we have to sit like that at home. He really connected with all the teachers and enjoys the structure of his day, which is something I couldn't give him at home. My schedule changes so much from day to day that I was thankful he adapted so quickly.