Weekend with Papa

In a way I look forward to every other weekend when Tish is at work because it gives me a lot of one-on-one time with Priya. Since I don't get a lot of quality time with her during the week, it's a great way for me to catch up with her. Here's some stuff from the weekend.

Friday evening Priya threw one of the biggest fits I have ever seen. She just would not stop howling. It took a while for me to figure out what the problem was. She had seen Tish's long beaded necklace on the table, and couldn't get to it. The result:


This is classic fit-throwing. She will take her head and bury it in the ground - carpet or tile - doesn't matter.


Strollers are still something to climb in. It's cute to see her wheel the stroller up and down the hallway.


Then Sunday evening we went to Dari-ville for a strawberry sundae. After about half a dozen spoonfuls, Priya was satiated. I think she enjoyed the cherry more than the ice-cream itself. After that, we went to the park in our neighborhood for some play time. There was a nice breeze, and we had fun swinging.

Nothing on the mind.. Just some pictures.

The first time I went swimming with Priya. Even though I don't much care for it, it was evident to see that Priya is a water baby like her mummy.

Look dadi! My outfit fits me, and I loved the bangles.

Check out our friend Christy's blog.

Indian Princess

This past week was a long one for me, and the coming one is going to be the same. I was in St. Paul, and I'm heading back there on Monday. I won't be back home till Thursday. In the meantime, here's what I missed...

When you have a pool, you have friends. :-)

Priya is now starting to like showers. A lot easier than giving baths.

My mom got these outfits when Priya was 8 months old. I never thought she'd ever grow up enough to wear them. My baby...

I had to add my own diet Coke and Mentos video to the thousands of them out there. It's fun when you do it yourself. I have some other ideas on how to make this even better, so stay tuned.



And now here's version 2 of the mentos-coke show. Ernie is pretty fascinated by the demonstration!

A Growing Girl

Tish's sister, Shawn had flown to Michigan for some training, and Tish went there for a couple of days. Here are some pictures.

My baby is growing up

The Gundersons

The two sissies. I mean sisters.

Priya with Auntie Shawn

Priya with Great Grandma MJ

Priya with Grandma Kathie

Chocolate bandit; Biking; Water baby II

So now that Priya has found mobility on two feet, she is able to do all kinds of cool things. Like get to the fridge, open the right drawer, and pull out a huge slab of chocolate. Unrepentant little tyke!
We had a good time today riding our bikes. We both got Schwinns for Mothers Day and Fathers Day respectively.


Here is a classic example of a cheap fun thing that isn't all that cheap. We got this nice inflatable pool for a little over 20 bucks. Great deal! Priya loves it, as can be seen. But to get a decent air compressor to blow this baby up in less than a week was 50 bucks. So much for the great deal. Still, this promises to be hours of fun.

Anniversary, Zoo, Water baby

This past weekend was our anniversary. Six years. Wow - time flies. That's probably the most repeated thing ever said. Saturday evening we went for dinner at Cafe Borgia. For the morning, we decided to take a family trip to the zoo. Some pictures to now follow.

Tish was a beautiful bride

The groom wasn't bad looking either

It was blazing hot - but Priya refuses to wear a hat

Giraffes -Papa's favorite

Pachyderms

The most fun Priya had all day was playing in this stream

I'm ready to go home - it's still too hot

Homo erectus

Priya is starting to walk, but finds that since crawling still takes her to her desired destination faster, she dives for the ground after 5 or 6 steps. I was recently assured that a vast majority of the human population is indeed bipedal, so I shouldn't be too concerned.

Christy reading to Priya in German

We remember when Priya's head barely reached the top of the seat

Vlad versus Priory of Sion

These days I'm in the middle of reading "The Historian" by Elizabeth Kostova. It came around the same time as Da Vinci Code, but didn't get anywhere close to the same press or acclaim. The Historian is the story of Vlad the Impaler - also known as Dracula. The book is written in the form of historical fiction, where history is interwoven with fiction. So far, it's been a great read. I know I'm really getting into the book when I dream about it at night. Not very pleasant dreams, but nothing too scary. My own review of the Da Vinci code wasn't very good. The book is poorly written, and if it didn't have a shocker as a central premise, it would be no better than most pulp novels that hit the shelves this time of the year.

This reminds me of the granddaddy of all historical fiction. I don't know how many of you out there have read any of the books by Lloyd C. Douglas. His two most famous books were The Robe (made into the movie) and The Big Fisherman (on the life of Peter). I remember being very young when I read them, and they were fascinating. I would thoroughly recommend a stop by at the local library to pick up a copy.

No pictures of Priya here. Things have been so busy that we haven't clicked off any. She is coming along fine. An update soon.

Hindi - haan ya na?

There must be something about being a non-native that makes people ask if you're going to teach your kids your language. It's not just recently. I've gotten this question from the time I moved here.

I don't know if there is an easy answer to this one. To start out with, I don't have a natural knack of languages. Every Indian kid with a high school education knows two languages - English, and one other. That makes us a nation of talented linguists... Mmm... Maybe not. There are many households in India where the primary language of the house is English - complete with a funny accent, and bad pronunciation. I've had two years of formal Hindi, and 12+ years of English. Starting to get the picture?

So I'm not sure how it's gonna go with Priya. I'm sure she's going to pick things up along the way. But I haven't made a conscious decision yet to make sure I always talk to her in Hindi. Also I don't know how much difference it makes that I'm not with Priya all day.

Hey David, is Connor speaking Afrikaans yet? :-)