Story Time !!

Anvesha is very fond of her books and enjoys it when I read to her. So every day I come up with innovative ways to read out to her... whether it is singing along, using a prop, a puppet or any toy. In my opinion, its never too early to start story times for kids. No matter what age your child is, reading together is a great opportunity for cuddling and bonding. By developing a regular reading routine from the start, books will become a natural part of your child's play and he/she will start associating fun with it.

Anvesha has few books that she loves..... her favorite one being the Tinker Bell :) Here's a small story time corner for Anvesha at home.

We live very close to the library and its loaded with some great books for kids, so I never fall short of books for Anvesha. They also have story time sessions for different age groups. So  I make it a point to take Anvesha in their story time sessions which she thoroughly enjoys. This is also a great indoor activity for kids especially during the winters where we are restricted indoors and it gets difficult to engage them :) Erin- the story teller at the library does a great job and I love the way she keeps the kids engaged through her interactive story time session. There are songs, rhymes, stories, puppets and some dancing around as well :) After the story time I let Anvesha hang around in the library for some time and let her choose what books she wants this time.

Taking photographs is prohibited during the story time sessions, so I only managed to take few clicks after the session.

Summer Recap

We are almost nearing an end to a warm, bright and a sunny summer of 2014. This year the summer was super sunny in Seattle. This was Anvesha's second summer- last year around this time she had just begun to crawl and this year she  runs around exploring new places and things.- she is more mobile now and is more curious about her surroundings. This summer was full of loads of outdoor expeditions, many weekend getaways and our much awaited trip to Hawaii :) We had a rather excellent summer and I am already feeling low as we are nearing its end. So as a bit of an ode I thought it would be fun to share the highlights of the summer of 2014...

To kick start the summer, we went strawberry picking and it was more from a fun perspective as strawberries are Anvesha's favorite.Summers were still not at peak in Seattle till May and so we planned to make a trip to the bay area around the Memorial Day long weekend. It was warm in California and it was a perfect day to spend time at Santa Cruz beach.... finally Anvesha got to wear her cute little swimming dress !!! She had so much fun digging in the sand. The best part of the whole trip was when we went to Gilroy theme park. Anvehsa had so much fun at their rides, especially the carousel and the fountains..

We spent the Father's day weekend at Portlnd, though we really didn't do much there, but it was a good change from the normal routine. Throughout the summer we tried to be outdoors in different places like Rattlesnake  park, Crystal Mountain, Olympia, Snoqualmie, Whistler.  At my end , I guess there is not a single park that we might not ave visited locally. Every day after picking Anvesha from the daycare, I used to head straight to a park, where she used to spend a good amount of time.



And finally the big annual vacation.....this year it was Hawaii !!!!!! We were super excited as its an all together different world out there. We didn't want to make it exhausting, so decided to cover just one island this time. Honolulu it was !!!! Hawaii is loaded with so many water activities and me  and Prateek took turns to baby sit Anvesha. Anvesha had her share of fun as well, especially at the beaches where she played with the sand. We had lots of pineapples and fresh coconut water there and at the end of the vacation, all three of us were tanned despite the sunscreen !!

Last week was officially the last week of summer and I can see leaves turning yellow and red..... While we bid adieu to summer this year, we are a bit melancholy to see it go despite the fact it has been the hottest in years. 

Finally some hair :)

So its been 8 months ever since we had Anvesha's mundan ceremony. She had very thin hair earlier on and we were hoping to have some good hair after the mundan. We shaved off her head again after two months so as to get some good hair growth. All this while I kept waiting patiently so that when the time comes I can dress her hair with cute little accessories like clips & hairbands. Though her hair are still not long enough to be tied with a rubber band, but finally she has some hair !!!!!!  I had been collecting head bands, hair clips for her and at last I can put them to use now :) Like I have said earlier, I love dressing up Anvesha in the cutest outfits and matching accessories.... its so much a girl's thing :) I really want her to look dolled up and I guess a  large part of this habit comes from my mom who was a teacher and was always smartly dressed up. She always ensured that me and my brother were dressed up well. Anvesha is my cute little princess and she must look adorable always.... PERIOD !!!! I am gonna make her a girly girl until she chooses if she wants to continue being one or be a tomboy, or maybe a blend of both :)

Here's a collection of Anvesha's head bands that I have been collecting all this while. They were getting non manageable so I got a great idea from pinterest to organize them in one place. (P.S: this is an old  box of  Quaker Oats..... a great way to recycle it :))

 Though its a bit of a task to get them onto Anvesha's hair as she gets irritated when I comb her hair, so I have to keep her distracted while I clip them on. She looks so adorable and so different with hair accessories, but I try to be practical and limit their use to special occasions. For moms  like me who love dressing their daughters with cute accessories, you may want to click here.

Here's Miss Anvesha in her new look :)