Lets play some music !!

I believe music has some healing powers and everybody is musical including children. We don't need to wonder if we have a musical talent- of course we do. It may lie somewhere undiscovered and unused, but it's there. How do people learn music? How do toddlers learn music? Children learn through play, they may want to listen, move, sing  or play an instrument at home, sometimes for extended periods of time. Thus, a child's musical growth occurs best in a playful, musically rich and developmentally appropriate setting.

At home all three of us sing and play and Anvesha thoroughly enjoys dancing to her favorite rhymes. It does get repititive though, but this is a regular routine at our home after dinner :) I happened to bump into Miss Julie from Lake View Music Together at the Sammamish libray and that's where I found out about the music together classes. Curious to know more, I took Anvesha for a trial class last week. Its a music class for children - birth through 5 yrs.  It was such a comfortable and exciting experience for both of us and Anvesha danced a lot that day. I signed her for this class immediately.

So what do we do in this 45 min class? Well, there are wonderful sounds, interesting instruments to play, other children to watch, silly things to laugh at, an inviting Miss Julie to follow, last but not the least, music that Anvesha loves !!! Every child participates at his/her own level in singing, dancing and exploring the musical instruments. It is a great experience for me as well.  It is exceptionally satisfying for me see Anvesha  respond so positively to music.

One of the delights of going to the music class every week is rediscovering my own relationship to music. I  get an opportunity to get an instrument that perhaps I haven't played in years. Dancing suddenly feels new and wonderful, especially when its removed from the anxieties and performance pressure :)

Both Anvesha and me come home smiling and singing- with a satisfaction and joy in making music together :)

Swim Baby Swim !!!

Swimming is such fun and a wonderful way to stay healthy for life. Babies are born with a love for water and studies have revealed that a new born is most comfortable in water as opposed to a normal atmosphere... surprized ???  Well, I definitely was when I saw this video . Upto 3-4 months, bathtub is a perfect place for the little ones to develop a healthy relationship with the water. In my opinion, an early introduction to aquatics is  best as they are less likely to have a negative attitude about water.

I do not know swimming and this is something I really missed especially at our Hawaii trip last year. Not only is it a great exercise, but also a great stress buster and of course fun. I know its never too late to learn to swim and I will certainly learn it one day, but until then I definitely want that Anvesha should learn swimming. There you go...... we got her enrolled in the swim lessons at Bellevue Aquatic Center. The program that she is in currently is the parent tot 1 in which one parent/ caregiver is allowed to accompany the child in the pool. I was a bit hesitant to go there at first since I don't know swimming, but was relieved to find out that this is not a perquisite.

Anvesha's first day at the class was really interesting. She enjoys being in water and was the oldest one among others in her class !!!! The youngest one was 6-7 months I guess.... and seeing these tiny tots made me wonder why hadn't I got her enrolled earlier? But, as they say, "better late than never".These swimming sessions are designed so that the child explores the water and starts feeling comfortable in it. There are songs, water play, getting in and out of water with help, sliding into the pool and many other fun activities that keep the children occupied and entertained. Pairing a melody with the movement can actually help them remember what to do. This is also a great way to develop a good bond between the child and you.

We are already half way through her swim sessions and she will graduate to parent tot 2. Yayyyy !!!! She might not learn swimming independently as of now, but at least she will get a hang of it.

Just out from her first swim class... 

Time to forward face

Experts recommend rear facing your baby till they outgrow their car seat, or until age 2. The rear facing position is not only considered to be safe but also comfortable for the kids. Though we did have many challenges to get Anvesha to sit in the car seat initially... the girl would scream and resist being buckled, making it hard for me to drive her around alone. But then some magic happened- we got her a magical ( yes, that's what I call it ) mirror and she enjoyed it so much that her car seat became a happy place for her:) Going on long drives became more enjoyable and this continued until she turned 2.

 By 22- 23 months, Anvesha used to be all cramped up with her legs and feet struggling to get some space and her shoulders were way above the straps of the car seat.  from the look of it, she wasn't very comfortable too. So on her second birthday, we decided to transition her from rear racing to a forward facing seat. I had kept my fingers crossed, hoping that she will find this position more exciting. So we told her that now she will no longer sit in her old car seat - now she will sit in her "new-new" car seat. She seemed thrilled to get some newness into her life.

The first few trips were more of experimenting with the new seat.... what is the best position for her...whether she can sleep comfortably or not. For this we made a trip at her nap time so as to check and be sure its comfortable. Yes, we can still rear face her car seat, which we would have if she was even remotely uncomfortable. But we decided to keep her forward facing as the rear facing position was rather boring for her now. She can watch me drive the car, sing along "wheels on the bus" as the wipers move from side to side. While getting into the car, all that she says is "new-new" car seat :)

Here's my happy baby in the forward facing car seat.

Holi Hai !!!!!!!

Holi- the most colorful festival that we celebrate in India. It is celebrated as a festival of love, frolic, happiness and of course colors !! The adults and children throw gulal on each other and the sky and the streets are full of colors. I am not a very big Holi fan- the after effects of Holi are so dreadful. But I wanted to go out and play this year- play it for the sake of Anvesha - get her exposed to our festivals as it brings a larger understanding of the culture she is a part of.

To start with I made some gujiyas at home followed by malpuas. This was my first attempt and wasn't so bad :) Traditionally in India there is Holika Dahan- where Holika is burnt and Prahlad is saved. Wish I could get Anvesha to see Holika Daahan as well, but that will be possible only in India.

I have been teaching colors to Anvesha and she has been following quite well ( proud me !!!). She can identify red, blue, pink, white, purple, green, yellow and last but not the least orange which apparently is her favorite color. With Holi around the corner, I had decided in my mind that this year whether its rain or shine- we will go out and play Holi- the festival of colors as it its rightly called. The weather Gods had been very kind and it was bright and sunny that day with temperatures hitting the 60s. The CRY foundation had organized the CRY Holi at Crossroads Park where over 3000 Indians had gathered. It was a huge crowd and Anvesha was overwhelmed to see so many colorful faces. I guess this was her first time she saw such a sight :) We were mesmerized too :)

I hand held Anvesha so that she could apply gulal on Prateek's face and after a while she got a hang of it. To my surprize, she was calm and did not panic when people applied gulal on her face. She was rather fascinated by all the vibrant colors, the singing and the dancing. This could be because we had planned our visit at a time when Anvesha would be awake and well fed- a lesson I have learnt over time. She is less likely to be fussy on meeting strangers if her basic needs are met.

So this is how we spent our Holi weekend, we surely missed family and it would have been a lot different for us, had we been in India- more colors, more fun, more mithais..... but we did our bit to create a mini India for Anvesha here. It was a whole new thing for her and she will probably appreciate it more next year :)

One Sunny Day

Sure, Seattle has quite the rainy reputation, but the last few days we witnessed a sunny weather and those who live here would know what it means like to have a sunny day especially  in winters :) When the sun bursts forth, we rush to every park, trail, beach and playing field in sight, savoring every warm ray, knowing that it's precious !!

We too spent a lot of time outdoors. The park was crowded with children and you could make out from the busy parking lot  that apart from us there were so many other people who had come out to soak up that vitamin D :) There was something about the air- it was so refreshing and it made me wonder is it spring already? Well, not entirely, but flowers have begun blooming and green buds have started appearing on the tree branches.

Anvesha and me spent some time at the Medina Beach park. There were ducks in the pond that she  loved to watch and there were slides and swings as well..... but what she enjoyed the most was playing with the trucks ( they have few construction trucks in the play area for children to play with). The older kids even took a ride on them from the slope. What I like the most about this park is that Its close by, it has these trucks which are a hit amongst kids, a sea saw that reminds me of my childhood days and last, but not the least the ducks and the beach.

In sunny days like these you really don't want the day to end, the entire mood lights up, there are smiles everywhere and we look forward towards having an early spring this year. I see few cherry blossoms here and there. Its still cold though, but sunny days like these makes you forget its winter and you just want to be outdoors.

Hope we have ample sunshine in the coming days as well :)

Weekend getaway- Great Wolf Lodge

It was Valentine's Day weekend and my birthday so we went out for an overnight stay at the Great Wolf Lodge- an indoor water park about an hour's drive from our place. We had it planned months ago. Winters have had us confined indoors so we wanted to do something different. Great Wolf is a spacious , fun-filled, sparkling indoor water park with a huge wave pool, toddler area and thrilling rides- something for everyone :) In addition to water park area there are many other activities that go on around the clock like story telling, character appearances.

The place was crowded, probably because of President's Day and mid winter break for kids. The first thing I noticed was how clean the place was- sparkling and how safe too with attentive lifeguards everywhere. We entered the water park in the afternoon after checking in. It was 84 degrees inside- pretty warm for a winter outing :) Anvesha loves to play with water and enjoys her bath time. She was so thrilled to get into the wave pool, although the water was a bit cool for her. We got her a cute little bumble bee swimming dress this season which she loved and didn't want to come out of it.

There was a separate toddler area with slides and stationery water scooters. Anvesha played there to her heart's content. Splish-splash , splish-splash was all that she says saying throughout. There were tons of other toddlers there and Anvesha made few friends too.

It was close to dinner time  and my poor little baby was tired as well, so we headed to our room where she had her dinner (packed from home) and after resting for a while we headed for the story time. It was great to see so many kids sitting in an arcade for the story hour in their pajamas and blankets, cuddling close to each other.

The check out was at 11 AM the next day, but we can enjoy the water park the entire day of the checkout. We were all pretty much waterlogged by 1 PM, which was the end of our stay. It was a warm- yet wet winter weekend getaway and we all had so much fun. We surely will visit this place again.... till then b  bye !!!!!

Rainbow Birthday Party !!!!

So, Anvesha turned two last week... time flies !!! This year we went for a RAINBOW theme and it was so much fun pulling it all together. Why a rainbow party ??? Well, there are many reasons,.... Anvesha naturally gets attracted to bright colors and girls love rainbows !!!! Love it when she gets super excited on seeing a rainbow and delightfully calls out "ainbo" . She does not have any favorite character as such, so the Minnie Mouse, Dora, Tinker Bell, Barbie or Cinderella can wait for now.

Having decided on the theme, I began my research on what all to include in the RAINBOW party and came up with some ideas, thanks to Pinterest.  For starters, I wanted to try out and have as much rainbow-inspired decor as possible. So the plates, napkins, spoons, glasses, balloons, streamers were mostly either reds or yellows or greens or blues. The next big thing on my list was designing the cake and this took more time than I had imagined. I wanted to have a rainbow cake for sure, and didn't want to compromise on the taste or the appearance.Google can be your best friend or your, well... lets just say worst friend. I was super confused seeing the images of all the rainbow inspired cake on the net and finally came up with something that I thought would be most appropriate. The cake was custom designed.... though the rainbow didn't quite come out how I had imagined it to be, but it nevertheless brought smile on Anvesha's face and that's what is most important.

The dress code for the day was... yes !!! you guessed it right.... rainbow inspired color(s). We wanted to have a colorful birthday party and  Anvesha's birthday dress was especially bought from India keeping the theme in mind.

Kids can make you learn so many new things. The rainbow jelly for instance, which apparently was the showstopper of the party. I had never imagined I would make this beautiful piece myself!!! It required lot of time and patience as every layer of jelly was painstakingly allowed to set before the next one was added. It took me 2.5 hrs to make these beauties, but was pleased to see the end result. The transparent condensed milk layer  in between the pop colors was a tasty surprise.

Now for the fun part...... kids loved to play the "rainbow treasure hunt"..... whosoever finds the maximum number of rainbows wins !!!!  The second game was "pin the cloud on the rainbow", though the little ones were not blind folded and the tiny ones took help from their mommies :) It was so much fun watching them figure out where to pin the cloud.

There you have it! A two year old's RAINBOW extravaganza !!!!