Pumpkin Patch

Pumpkins are out for picking !!!!!

Fall- to many of us is the best time of the year and one key ingredient to a picture perfect autumn is visiting a pumpkin farm. Its not just about picking out a pumpkin- its about winding your way through a corn maze and taking pics of the kids on a hay stack and admist those lovely yellow pumpkins. These are attractions built specifically for families. You can take the kids for a country side experience, buy them a treat and burn a couple of hours off of the day.

I have been teaching Anvesha about fruits and vegetables and there is a rhyme on pumpkin that she likes these days- "Peter- Peter pumpkin eater". So this year when we went to visit the pumpkin farm she could relate more to what she was seeing around her. She tried to lift pumpkins, ran around, sat on pumpkins, studied the dirt, the leaves, the bugs, the pumpkins and everything else she could see.

Picking out pumpkin isn't just about buying it and carving it- its about exploring and learning about the world around you, seeing how things work and how they grow. Its also about creating wonderful memories with your children that you can cherish for life.

Here's a pic of our art work for Halloween this year.

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 :)

Sleeping Through the Night... Yayyyyy !!!!!!!!!

I am so glad that I finally did it !!!!!!! I night weaned my baby and bingo !!!!!!!! Anvesha has now started sleeping through the night :))))))) This is such a major developmental milestone, just like walking. It has been 1.5 years of waking up every other hour at night that I actually forgot what it was having a peaceful sleep. The initial few months were the toughest. I had people telling me that its probably because she is hungry, or things will settle down once she starts eating solids- but they never did. I secretly envied moms whose babies slept through the night, I can confess it now ;) I am so much against the cry it out method. I feel it is fundamentally wrong to expect a tiny baby to fall asleep on her own and let her cry till she falls asleep.Plus, I really do not have a heart of letting my baby cry while I walk out of the room- that's just not me !!!

We did try every trick so that Anvesha sleeps through the night, by which I mean sleeping for 9-10 hours straight. Maybe she is hungry- so I began my mission- a mission of feeding her well before going to bed. This often times resulted in overfeeding her :) No luck !!!! Is she under tired ??? So I ensured she has loads of physical activity; by which I mean running errands with her to the play areas, parks, neighborhood. I don't know about Anvesha, but I definitely was dead tired by the end of the day. We even checked the temperature of the room in order to ensure she is neither too hot nor too cold at night. I also ensured she is well hydrated. But all in vain !!! The sleepless nights followed and I was sleep deprived.There were days when I looked more like a zombie with hair undone, clothes improper for the occasion..... but I had to be on my toes and always smiling at least in front of Anvesha- I guess thats the biggest lesson I have learnt after becoming a mother.

So this continued for 1.5 years and her pediatrician even recommended me to try the sleep training which meant trying the cry it out method, which I am so much against. In the meantime it was time to night wean Anvesha. This was harder than I imagined it to be. She would wake up every other hour like usual and often times I would nurse her back to sleep. Refusing that was a nightmare for Anvesha and she would cry uncontrollably and would eventually fall off to sleep. This continued for almost 10 days and by the end of the tenth day I noticed she was sleeping for longer stretches and finally one night she slept through the night !!!!!!!! This was such a relief and I got the much needed sleep :)

Every child is different and what worked for me may not work for others and vice versa. All said and done, as long as the baby sleeps well, its all good :) A happy baby is equal to a happy mommy !!!

Radha Rani :)

Hare Rama Hare Krishna ... Krishna Krishna .... Hare Hare !!!!

The festive season has just started which means lots of great fun, food, pooja, temple visits and good clothes :) Anvesha has now reached an age where she attaches meaning to objects, actions, places or people. Like I've said earlier, it doesn't matter which place in the world we live in, inculcating values in our kids rests on us; and if we can make it more of a fun activity, the kids will show more interest as well.

Janmashtmi is one festival which is so much fun for kids. Celebrating Lord Krishna's birthday is a great way of involving kids.  I love dressing up Anvesha and this Janmashtmi Anvesha was dressed up in a cute Rajasthani lehanga choli that I had got from India. We also had matching accessories to go with the dress.... a headband, pearl necklace, silver anklets, silver bangles and a matching bindi.  She looked so cute dressed up as Radha Rani. She loved  her bangles and was dancing around like Radha as though she was waiting for her Kanha.

At home, we had decorated the temple with colorful lights. We made a small swing of garlands for our Laddoo Gopal and Anvesha loved to pull it back and forth. As we performed the aarti, we sang songs of Lord Krishna. Anvesha looked confused in the beginning, but soon got a hang of it. We headed to the temple after the aarti.

Seeing Anvesha in that cute little dress reminded me of a bollywood song, " O Radha Teri Chunri" :)

 Here are few glimpses from yesterday.

"Shri Krishna Govind Hare Murari, Hey Nath Narayan Vasudeva".

Wishing you all a very Happy Krishna Janmashtmi !!! 

100 % Weaned !!!!

So the day is finally here.... the day I say a long goodbye to the 1.5 yrs of an exclusive bond that me and Anvesha shared. As I type, my heart is filled with mixed feelings as nursing for me was more than just providing nourishment for my baby. I often nursed for comfort and despite of what friends and relatives said, I continued to nurse past 6 months. I had, in my mind set a limit of an year to start weaning. But it was difficult than I imagined it to be- it required a lot of time and patience. Anvesha showed no signs to stop nursing and so I had to wean her very gradually. Sometimes it was the sick days and sometimes it was the teething that added a speed breaker to the weaning process. It was getting harder for me as nursing takes up a lot of calories and I constantly felt weak and tired.

I wanted to go gradually and not stop abruptly as this would be very traumatic for Anvesha. So, here's what I did ever since Anvesha turned one:

• Don't offer, don't refuse: Since Anvesha is very attached to me, I never intended to go cold turkey when it came to weaning her. So I held back from offering her a feed and at the same time didn't refuse when she asked for one. This works pretty well in the initial stages of the mother led weaning.

• Skip a feed: I skipped one feed at a time during the day each week and for several weeks. Morning and night feeds are usually the last ones to go, so I did not bother about them initially. As a substitute, I offered her a healthy snack or whole milk  so that she remains full. This was so gradual that it gave her time to adjust.

• Distract: I postponed the day time feeding sessions and often distracted Anvesha if she got really upset. I often times took her out for a walk or read her a book, soon she forgot about it and was back to her usual self

• Shorten the nursing time: I gradually started limiting the nursing time. It was confusing for Anvesha initially, but eventually she got a hang of it.

• Cold Turkey:  Here's the tough part- Anvesha was completely weaned off during the day as it was much easier to distract her.The night time feeds, the morning feed and the bed time feed were so hard to give up and I was left with no choice than to go cold turkey. It was so difficult to have a stone heart and refuse her all together. She used to cry and whine and I constantly kept repeating to her that she is a big girl- its night time- she don't need me to fall asleep. The first day was the toughest. She cried for almost an hour and a half and eventually went off to sleep. I followed the same thing for the night time feeds and for the morning feed, Prateek pitched in to distract her. But this did not end abruptly- like all other feeds it was dropping one feed at a time each week.

So it took me exact six months to wean her off completely.This has been a gradual transition and Anvesha now sleeps for longer stretches at night. She does wake up once, but goes back to sleep after a cuddle and a hug from me.  I am now left with mixed emotions about letting go. Some part of me experiences this as a loss.  Suddenly Anvesha looks like a big girl to me. Please baby !!!! please don't grow up so fast :(

But I guess a  part of loving our child is grieving as she moves from one stage to the other, and we as parents need to honor that grief.