Milestone

I have been very bad at keeping a "baby book" for Anjali. But have thousands of photos instead. So this is a note to myself.

Anjali is:
3.5 and 5 days old
asks for "lots of kisses ammi"
still has meltdowns when tired, hungry, overwhelmed
went to the Chinese New Year celebration today (year of the ox)
always wants to be on the stage
refers to herself as the 'brother' sometimes (me think...lack of sibling envy)
plays with "my kids"
breast feeding ...her dolls
excited about her trip to Mexico next week
loves playing with phonetics (like anjali-banjali, pooja-kooja)
sends thaththi to 'jail' when he misbehaves

She will be 18 before I know it... and 13 before that!

The dress-up princess at work

I love this photo. Anjali is all into dress up these days in all kinds of outfits and scraps of cloth, blankets, etc. The costume changes are a little annoying. I dress her up by 8:30 am and at 8:40 she has picked some costume and wants my help putting it on.
Here she noticed me cooking beans and rushed to take over the cooking. She really seems to enjoy it. And the best part is she is more likely to eat any vegetable that SHE cooks.

Koththu Roti

Last night I made Koththu Roti. This is one of those very traditional Sri Lankan dishes we crave for along with hoppers. It came out really good. And here's what I found about Sri Lankans' creativity (or lack there of!) when it comes to this dish.

Christmas Story-Part 3

After months of reading the Nutcracker story, I was planning to surprise Anjali by taking her to the OBT presentation of the ballet. But, we had tickets for December 21 and were unable to leave the house because of the snow and ice. I was VERY disappointed. After quite an ordeal we were able to change our tickets to the 23rd, and ended up getting better seats than I had originally purchased. This was Anjali's first trip to the theater. She was so excited to see the Nutcracker she sat on the edge of her seat for the entire first act! Her favorite was ofcourse the Sugar plum fairy and I got suckered into paying $15 for this photo, or else we were not going home! The Nutcracker story is currently the center of her little life. I will post about her favorite books soon.

White Christmas

We have a very white Christmas ( 2 feet of white!)
Its been beautiful, fun, and frustrating at the same time. But I am ready for the big thaw and some good ol' rain. The confinement really forces you to take things slow.

Christmas Story - Part 2

I have to keep reminding myself that we are non-practicing Buddhists!
Nevertheless, we have a Christmas tree. We shelved our environmental philosophy on this one...
I really wanted to go out and cut a tree from a farm in the woods but the process was producing more frustration than fun, so I compromised on driving to a tree lot 10 minutes down the road and finding a pretty perfect Noble Fir (these are the best, not a needle has fallen!). The excitement and look on Anjali's face was worth it! She was so glad she kept kissing and hugging the tree! I think I am going to start a tradition of getting her a favorite ornament too. This year I got her a Nutcracker (more about that later).Thankfully, she has not associated that Santa + Christmas Tree = Gifts. But, we are making a list and updating her stash of games/toys. We haven't quite decided on how to present them to her.

Christmas Story - Part 1

After a lot of back and forth, we finally decided to give in to the Christmas holiday this year. After all, Anjali is three, and it’s a very impressionable holiday (why don’t we have Christmas lights? can Santa come and stay with us for a month?).

It all started with a friends Gingerbread house party. Quite honestly, I was equally excited as it was something I had never experienced. It was at her friend’s grandma’s house and she has been making gingerbread houses for a good 30 years. We all had so much fun and only a minimum amount of candy went in the kid’s mouth (more ended up in my mouth)! The whole party ended with the kids bouncing on a trampoline.