Santa Claus is coming to town

It's that time of the year again..... days filled with holiday lights, candy canes, cookies, cakes, pies, gifts and of course that very special picture of the kids with Santa which you want to take every year.

But meeting Santa may or may not turn out to be a pleasant experience. You get in the long line and hope that your child's meeting with Santa goes well. Some times it does and sometimes it doesn't. For some reason young kids, especially toddlers find Santa very scary. Anvika too is afraid of such characters. When we went to Great Wolf Lodge, she was so scared to be even close to their mascot. Keeping this in mind I did not want to stand in a long line, pay 25-30$ only to find that my dearie gets scared by the sight of the big fat old man.

With Prateek gone to India these days and the weather so cold, it gets hard to keep the kids engaged and entertained. Come weekend and it gets even more challenging. So I am always on a lookout for some fun things to do with kids. Since it is December, Santa pictures are in great demand. I took the girls to meet Santa Claus and hopefully get a good picture of them with him. I am so glad the picture turned out nice without a single tear.

Santa was super friendly and the girls loved to chat with him. Anvika also gave a high 5 to him. Since pictures with Santa are in vogue in December, everywhere we go we always see Santa house. The other day we went to Cougar mountain zoo and we had a Santa house there as well. It was a fun day. The line was long but there were reindeers along the way and the girls were super excited to feed them along the way up to the Santa house.

Santa asked Anvesha what she wanted for Christmas and she replied that she wants ear rings that glow in the dark. That was a wonderful moment and I am glad I was able to capture it.

One thing tick marked in my December to do list :) I am sure the girls will love to watch these pictures when they grow up. 

Wishing everyone a fun filled holiday season and warm hugs from all of us here :)

Baby Dolls

A favorite doll is the child's first best friend, often much before they actually develop real friendships. To some kids it's a cherished security that they find in snuggling them and they begin imitating how their parents care for them, eventually playing out real life situations that sometimes astonishes you.

As a child I loved playing with dolls, combing their hair, giving them bath, changing their dresses. I remember while playing games like family, I actually had my doll get married to a friend's doll :) So when it comes to my girls, it's no surprise that they love playing with dolls too :) May be it's more of  a girl thing. Don't get me wrong, I want them to have interest in sports, board games too, but believe me, Anvesha and Anvika are both naturally drawn towards playing with dolls. They have a huge doll house where all of their Barbies are kept- Elsa, Anna, Beauty, Supergirl, Snowhite, Ariel..... and many more.

Speaking of dolls, their current favorite is playing with baby dolls. From the moment they both wake up in the morning, till the time they sleep, it all about these silicon creatures. And we have these baby dolls in various shapes and sizes too :) In order to avoid any conflict among the two (which of course will still happen no matter what we do), we have a baby designated to each one of them. These days the baby dolls come with a magic milk bottle where the milk magically disappears when you feed the baby. Isn't it so cool?

So the way it works out is that Anvesha is responsible for HER baby and Anvika is responsible for HER baby and by responsible I mean feeding their babies, putting them to bed with blankets and pillow, giving them bath, reading a book etc. One day I was really amused when I found all the babies next to each other and I asked Anvesha what was going on. Very innocently she replied that our babies are having a sleepover :) 

Conflict arises when Anvika takes away Anvesha's baby and the two get into a fight. So, no matter what we do, they will still fight. 

Keeping the fun part aside, I feel there are also some developmental benefits of playing with baby dolls that apply to girls as well as boys. One main one is that they develop caring and nurturing skills. Looking at the adults, the kids learnt about caring for their baby- feeding them, keeping them warm, cleaning them etc. Some dolls come with zippers and buttons and that is one great way of helping a child learn how to button- unbutton, use zippers, tie a knot etc. With the help of Anvika's baby I am also able to teach her about the body parts and to Anvesha I am able to teach her about the 'good touch' and 'bad touch'. 

 I don't care if people call my girls doing only girly stuff and I do not want to develop any kind of pressure on them to play with something else too. If that's how their personality is shaping up, so be it. Yes, sometimes it does get overwhelming to watch my girls play with only dolls, but I just want to cherish this phase. I am pretty sure when they grow up, they will have a smile on their face watching the old pictures of them with their babies.

Anvesha's Ballet Recital

Anvesha has been doing ballet ever since she was 3 years old and I can't help recall my old post, "Anvesha learns to dance". She has come a long way from a 3 year old ballerina to an almost 6 year old ballerina. Her dance movements are more refined now and she loves to do her courtsey in style at the end of each dance.

Yes, she still goes to learn ballet and tap from Miss Sue and she absolutely loves her. I like her too- very professional in her teaching approach and young girls are very fond of her.

Every year Miss Sue runs two ballet recitals- one at the end of school year around June and the other one is mid year around Nov- Dec which is called the nutcracker.

Yesterday was Anvesha's nutcracker performance. We were not sure if we will be around during the recital so I had pulled out Anvesha's name from the performance list. It was so kind of Mss Sue to add her back in the list at the last minute.

Anvesha performed on the tunes of "Spanish Chocolate" and it was such a delight watching her on stage. She looked more confident and her movements were more refined.

And here's  the video of her ballet earlier this year in June. She danced on "Let's have fun". I loved her costume. All the girls looked adorable, but my eyes were glued on my butterfly :) She looked so pretty in her pink ballet dress.

I hope to post more videos of her performances. Over the years it gives such joy to watch these videos. I am sure Anvesha would love to watch them too.

Love you sweetheart. You're the cutest ballerina in town. All the best for all your future performances.

Hugs, Mamma

Anvika's first haircut

Anvika had entered the world of luscious locks and wanted to comb her hair herself everyday. Little hands trying to comb those curly locks often got tangled and it took me a lot of effort to untangle them, not to mention the effort and patience it took to have her stay still while I comb her hair. I was shocked one day to see scissors in her hand and she actually cut her hair because she couldn't take off her rubber band. So we decided to get her a haircut. Don't get me wrong- I love her two piggy tails and she looked adorable in them. We call them aeroplane :) But with 2 kids and that too girls, trust me 10 mins saved in combing their hair each morning mean a lot.

First things first- I gave her a heads up that she will be getting a haircut and she will look super cute. To make her feel more comfortable we took the two girls together for a haircut. These days kids salons are super fancy and have fun chairs to sit on- like an aeroplane or sheep or giraffe. Kids can choose to see their favorite movies while they get a haircut and thats what I call cherry on the cake :) Often kids get very anxious and that makes it difficult to have them stay still. So while Anvesha chose to watch Tinker Bell, Anvesha chose Mickey Mouse.

Anvika also got her favorite baby to the salon so as to have her hands occupied. She refused to wear a cape and after several attempts I gave up and  had her sit without one. I must say the lady did a very good job keeping her clothes clean.

Here's a small video from that day

Iam so proud of her. She did great !!! I have known kids who cry their hearts out while getting a haircut. But my little doll was just fine :)

Here's Anvika in her new look

Here's a certificate from the salon

Well this wasn't technically her first haircut, but yes, first haircut after the mundan.

I am grateful for.......

Dear crazy munchkins of mine,

It's me- your Mamma, yeah I know I am not sleeping with you even though I pretended to be, just so you fall asleep and I can sneak out to get my break. Yes, I need a mini break from you gals because you sure know how to drive Mamma insane. I mean, can you two get along for the 5 minute that I am finishing up my work? Or give me some break when I am cooking for you a nice well balanced meal? Why do I need to watch "My little pony" or "PJ Masks", or "Super Monsters" everyday? You know what, I think I have learned all the lyrics better than you! ha ha

Even though it may seem like I am complaining, which I am, I just want to say that your Mamma loves you. Like a lot a lot a lot !!

But sometimes, I feel like I am not the best mom that you may want me to be. I feel bad that some times I am not able to play with you when you want me to. I feel terrible when I shout at you when you dropped milk on the sofa. I feel like I am not there yet, being a good enough mom.

But then I look at the two of you, I look at your faces and let's try to get passed the fact that you two look like your papa and not me, even though I try to convince myself that you look like me because I am the prettier one here :) Looking at your angel faces I realize that I am not doing a bad job after all- I see that you smile when you see my face first thing in the morning. All you want is Mamma when you get hurt. You eat the food cooked by me like it's the best thing in the world. You laugh at my not so funny jokes and smile when I make silly dances. You listen when I am teaching you. You cuddle and hug me when I read you a book and love my make believe stories.

You trust me
You believe in me
You know I will protect you no matter what.
You love me unconditionally.

You two are my best friends- for real- yes you are- even though this may sound silly. Even though at times it may seem like all I do is scream, clean, change poopy diapers, know that I am watching you, I smile when I go down to the basement and see the two of you playing.

I just want to say THANK YOU to the two most beautiful monsters in my life.

Thank you for reminding me that my mistakes and flaws do not affect you- all you want is your Mamma. Thank you for reminding me that there's no such thing as perfect mom but a mom who is the best mom for you two.

Thank you for the good night kisses and morning hugs.

All I want is for the two of you to be happy and loved. I am happy that I am achieving that everyday. The rest will come in time.

Love you,
Your silly Mamma 

Happy Children's Day

 There are some things that we can't buy, one such thing is our childhood. 

Today is children's day, a special day for the kiddies. This day is set aside to celebrate and appreciate the children in this entire universe. Every child is different and unique in his own special way and deserves a special treatment.

A very happy Children's Day to my butterflies. I love the way you girls are growing up. You deserve a wonderful treatment because we as parents are so blessed to have you two in our lives.

ANVESHA means quest, discovery- quest for happiness and discovering happiness in an all entire new way. Happiness in seeing you happy :)
ANVIKA means powerful and complete- you made our family complete in every sense.

Seeing you two play together brings back old memories of my childhood. Both of you are so different yet so similar. The house is so annoyingly quiet when we don't hear your chitter chatter, laughter, cries and constant fights.

There are things you do or say that changes me as a person. These things may be small or forgetful to some, but mean a lot to me, like how Anvesha brings home a new rock every day from school and gives it to me saying, "Mamma this is a special rock that I got for you from school."  The way Anvika kisses me out of the blue and wants to keep giving me kisses for the next 10 minutes. All these little gestures make me feel so special and complete.

I might be biased here, but my girls are the most affectionate humans I have ever known. I am also afraid as the outside world is hard and so I want them to remember few things:

1. Be kind and generous
2. Love deeply and at the same time let yourself be loved too
3. Trust God and most importantly, trust your instincts
4. You are worthy of all the good things, so never ever settle for the second best.
5. NEVER EVER give up and don't be afraid to fight for your rights.
6. Never let the child in you go away.

Absolutely the most joyous time of anyone is without doubt their childhood, so never grow up. Keep the child in you alive. A smile of yours can show heaven on earth and the twinkle in your eyes can still us for ages.

It's Children's day today- YOUR day!! So have a hip-hop-happy time.

Halloween Fun

This Halloween was technically Anvika's first halloween. Last year I was in India with the kids and the year before that Anvika was still a newbie. This makes me go back to the days where I struggled with 2 kids after my parents left. Phew!!!! gone are those days of feeding every 2 hours, spending sleepless nights trying to calm a colicky baby.  Fast forward, 2 years..... how life changes. Anvika has beautifully evolved from a new born to a headstrong 2 year old. She has her likes and dislikes and is very particular about few things, like her pillow.

This Halloween I let the girls choose what they wanted to be for trick treating. Anvesha had many options. One day she wanted to become a rockstar, the other day rapunzul next day a cowgirl and some day a super girl. So after a lot of options, we finally settled down with a supergirl.

As far as Anvika goes, she had 3 choices- either to be a witch, or a ladybird or tinkerbell. Maybe she liked the word Tinkerbell, so she chose to be Tinkerbell this Halloween. I don't blame her- coz her big sister also became Tinkerbell when she was 3 year old and it's the same costume that Anvika also wore.  

Both the girl looked so adorable in their costumes

Rain or Shine..... they don't care.... 

Both of them were so high on sugar that day. Here's what they earned...

Anvesha was so impatient to go for trick treating, she couldn't wait for dusk, so they kept waiting at the doorstep while Anvika was busy eating her lollypop :)

Anvesha also had a Halloween party at school where there were a lot of games, food, craft activities.

I love dressing them up and Halloween definetly gives an opportunity for them to be what they want to be and of course eat candies :)

Anvesha's first day of Kindergarten

The day has finally come, I am now a mom of a Kindergartner, How did that happen?? This feels like a graduation day. I am as excited today as I was on Anvesha's first day of preschool. The last 5 years have been filled with so much parenting intensity. There's been joy, exhaustion, love, self doubt and all the roller coaster of emotions that go with the early years of parenting. I have survived the sleep deprivation, tried to keep my patience during those terrible twos, managing the ups and downs of potty training and now I have a 5 year old who hardly resembles that little baby we brought home years ago,

So on the first day of Anvesha's Kindergarten, I decided to gift her a book called, "Oh the places you'll go" by Dr Sues.  I had earlier thought of getting her this book on the last day of preschool, but today was the right time to gift her this book since she is starting a new journey.

Here's a small message for Anvesha on her first day of Kindergarten,

To my sweetest girl Anvesha,

Today is your first day of Kindergarten, Your backpack is packed, your new lunch box is set to go and snack box is ready too. You are so excited to carry your brand new Elsa backpack- and yes this is the one that lights up:) You are a big Elsa fan. You wanted to save your light up Elsa shoes for your first day of school too. In a way it took us forever to get there, but in another I can't believe you are starting your BIG school.

I hope that as you start school, your exuberance doesn't wane. Your curiosity is going to get you so far and help you move past things that are difficult for you. It's 11.30 AM and I know you will be at school eating lunch. The house suddenly feels so quiet and I am not liking it one bit. I cannot wait to see you when I come to pick you up this afternoon. I wonder what you'll be thinking and feeling sitting in that big seat. I hope you are having a great day and participating in class. I can't wait to hear all the stories from school today.

Your first day at Kindergarten is a big deal for me too. You're my little girl, but this is the beginning of your big girl life and even though you are ready, I am not sure that I am.

Ek hazaaro me meri behna hai

Today is Raksha Bandhan - a festival to celebrate the pious bond between a brother and a sister. Sisters tie rakhi to their brothers and brothers promise to always stand by their sisters through thick and thin, protecting them against all odds throughout their lives. Well, I have my own questions regarding this. Why should brothers only take the responsibility of standing by their sisters? Shouldn't sisters too make a promise to be there for their brothers and stand by them? What about those girls who don't have a brother? Does that mean they should get a feeling that since they don't have a brother so no one will be there for them?

Having a daughter and a son in a family is indeed an ideal combination. But we never ever wanted our girls to grow up feeling the need of having a brother in their lives. They should have such a strong bond that they don't feel the need of having anyone else in their lives. Anvesha and Anvika don't have a brother, but that does not mean they cannot celebrate Raksha Bandhan. Right from the time Anvika was born we have been celebrating Rakhi with them. It's not about feminism, it's basically questioning the meaning of the festival itself. It's not about a brother protecting his sister, rather siblings protecting each other. 

So on this special day, Anvesha and Anvika tied Rakhi to each other- making a promise that they will protect each other throughout their lives. 

Having or not having a brother doesn't really matter. What matters the most is the special bond that siblings share and grow up knowing that their sibling will stand by them no matter what. And it's that promise that we celebrate as Rakhi.

Quack Quack Party

My butterfly # 2 turned two last week. "Quack quack" was amongst the first few words that she learnt to speak and this girl would jump with joy seeing the ducks at the pond every time we went to feed the ducks. So this year we decided to have a ducky theme for her second birthday party. I absolutely loooovvveeeed putting this theme together and give it a final look. I am so glad it turned out the way I had imagined. Anvika was so thrilled to see all the duckies on her birthday.

To begin with I first made the backdrop frame from pvc pipes. The overall theme was yellow and blue and the whole party decor involved so many DIYs. I absolutely love hosting kids birthday parties. It gives me so much satisfaction seeing my girls' expression when they see the final outcome. I will continue to host the perfect theme parties for my girls year after year. Yes, they will grow up soon and will no longer need me to host their birthday party. They might be even embarrassed to see me around, so thats the reason I want to enjoy this phase of life where I have a say in deciding the theme and overall look.

Here's the final look of the cake backdrop. I think I did a decent job in putting it all together.

Anvika has a collection of duckies in all shape and sizes and we made good use of them on her birthday. We hosted the party at Ebright Creek park. It was a fun filled afternoon. Here's the birthday girl in her lovely red dress.

She was a little overwhelmed seeing so many people and it took us a while to get few good pictures of her.

Finally the birthday cake :)

For the goody bags I decided to give a wooden birdhouse to the kiddos as a thank you gesture

 which they could paint. By the way, these goody bags were decorated keeping the theme in mind :)

The kids loved the bubble machine as there were gazillion of bubbles to pop.

Here's some pinata fun.....

Thanks to everyone who took out time to attend Anvika's birthday party and a very very happy birthday to my darling Anvika.  I absolutely love quacking with you:)

Happy Birthday my Butterfly # 2- ANVIKA

Dear Anvika,

A very happy birthday to you my love. You've been with us for 2 yrs now and I really can't imagine our life without you.  You live by your name, ANVIKA, meaning powerful and complete. You are the perfect kick of happiness and spice to our lives.  You are bossy- yes you are!! Even though you boss around your big sister, pull her hair, even bite her at at times and forcefully sit on her car seat instead of your own, we love you all the more sweetheart.

Here are few things I never want to forget about you. I never want to forget how you smell when you sleep- a mix of baby and a little girl- of sweetness and a little dirt. I never want to forget the way you say, "okay" when we ask you to do something, or the way you wrap you arms around me to hug me. I even don't want to forget the way you will hit and push your big sister- Anvesha and then act like you did not do anything wrong. I never want to forget the fact that you are your sister's tail. You want to do everything that your sister does. All this adds up to the sister bond that you girls share- really.

You are my fearless fighter and I know for sure you are going to light up the world on fire and I will be there to cheer you in every step.

A very happy 2nd birthday to my butterfly # 2. This song is especially for you

Fun with Legos

Anvesha has found a new love for LEGOS these days. Actually she loves knocking down all the things we build with legos, but as long as she is having fun, I really don't care how she plays with them. I remember we had been to Legoland with Anvesha when she was 2 year old. At that time she didn't understand much about legos. Anvika has started to play with legos too and seems to be occupied with it for a fairly long time. She loves to play with Mega blocks as well. I really wish both my girls benefit from lego play some day.

Playing with legos can be fun and educational. It opens up their creative side and builds concentration as well. It can keep a child quiet for hours- total bliss!!! When I was a kid we never had legos. But I remember going to my friends home and playing with legos. All I did was build a house- the same house over and over again. But it's completely different now. You can build so many things with these tiny bricks with a little imagination and plenty of patience.

Lego certainly is a fantastic toy. It's amusement potential is infinite, but not all kids like to play with them. It has taken me a while to get Anvesha to like legos. With summer break these days, we spend a lot of time doing legos and creating different things. She does a great job making something by looking at the instructions, but I want her to get imaginative and make a something unique. We WILL get there some day.

This is today's lego project.

So whenever I am stuck with what to buy as a birthday present for anyone, LEGOS are a safe bet. You can NEVER go wrong with legos :)

Berry Picking

It's just the onset of summer and week one of the summer break. Everyday is a new experience for us and though exhausting for me, but full of action for Anvesha. By the way, we gracefully survived week 1 of summer break.. Yayyyyyy!!!!

This weekend we went for strawberry picking with few of our friends. It was a fun filled afternoon and we collected around 6 Lb of strawberries. It was a perfect day for picking berries, by which I mean that it was neither too hot nor too cold.

We collected these super sweet and juicy strawberries, although the kids ate a lot right from the strawberry bushes :)

There are many reasons to take the kids to strawberry picking. First and foremost, its fun:) It's so important to get out as a family and the fact that strawberry picking pulls you and kids away from television is an added bonus. Life is crazy, chaotic and fast paced. Getting out at the farm, smelling the ripe, juicy berries and getting your hands dirty at the farm is indeed worth it. 

The strawberries are cheaper at the farm. We don't have to pay the added cost of  someone else picking, packing and shelving the produce. I am AMAZED at how much more delicious our freshly picked strawberries were as compared to the ones we get at any store for which I may have paid a fortune so far.

It was fun teaching Anvesha where food comes from. U pick farms are fun ways of educating kids about about farming. Anvika is too young to understand all this, but she had her own share of fun at the farm.

And finally here is the team with all of their hard work at the farm