Building a nest

It is now close to six months since we moved back to India and we have now finally been able to get our own accommodation on the IITB campus! Fortunately we can set up the new place while continuing to live with my parents - which has taken the pressure off from us and has actually made this a fun activity.

Our new house is a one bedroom flat in the Staff Hostel. I like the place because it has a hostel-like ambiance complete with a mess, tennis-courts, badminton court and kids play area. It is next to the IIT gymkhana grounds which is a very lively area. But the best part is that our new flat sits two floors above Kabir's playschool! I can actually see him playing in his school from our new place :-).

Last few days have involved more shopping than I have ever done in my life. Our first round of purchases included a cooking stove and a water purifier and getting in line for a cooking gas cylinder (which takes about 10 days!). Today we got our refrigerator, microwave, washing machine, water heater and air conditioner delivered. In the next few days we will have representatives come in to install and give demos for each of these appliances (yes even for the microwave!). Tomorrow we also plan to close the deal on our new car. And we haven't even started on the furniture yet!

We also started unpacking some of our boxes today and it brought that bitter-sweet feeling again. Every time I open a box, I start to remember exactly when I had packed it and the conversations, thoughts and people connected to that moment. Even though we shipped more than 100 boxes, I'm amazed how well I remember each and every detail about what was packed in each of them and when/how I had packed them.

I am excited and looking forward to starting our new life in the new year. I hope it will be filled with happiness, peace and exciting new adventures.

Small world

This week is turning out to be a special one for us. By the end of this week we will have met three of our close friends from Portland (who are all currently visiting India)!
On Monday, we met Vaishali and Amit at Vaishali's house in Bombay. Both Kabir and Shreyan remembered each other and bonded instantly. They had a great time playing all evening - in the house, as well as in the playground.

Vihan and Anurag got to know each other a little bit too

Yesterday, we had a brief meeting with Ramya and Ashok at the airport, who were in Mumbai just for a day. And we were glad to be able to spend some time catching up with them!

On Friday, we are all leaving for Delhi, and our first stop will be at Pushkar's house to meet Shaifali, Pushkar and little Sahil. Hope to post those pictures soon!

Little had we known while saying goodbye to these friends in Portland, that our next meeting would be in less than six months. Here's hoping that the next meeting isn't very far ahead in the future either!

9 month update

Anurag completed 9 months this week. He continues to be a small baby at 7 kgs (~15 lbs) but is an active and curious baby. He loves being outdoors and joins Kabir and me every evening to go to the playground in his comfortable ergo baby carrier. He doesn't like to have too many strangers around him and always welcomes them with a frown!

He has been sitting independently for about a month and half now and started crawling a few weeks ago. However, he still hasn't figured out a graceful way to transition from a sitting position to a crawling position without banging his face against the ground. He is also starting to pull himself up to a standing position when provided with sufficient motivation :-)

Anurag now has four teeth. The bottom two teeth came in at about 7 months and the upper two emerged just a few days ago. Needless to say, he has been gnawing at everything within reach. He seems to think that slippers are some giant tasty teethers and goes after them with utmost urgency. So Kabir enjoys policing everyone and reminding that no slippers should be left in Anu's play area. He is turning into a protective and loving big brother. He can be heard saying very cute things to Anu through out the day (I'll have a separate post on his quotes).

Meal-times have been going well except when Anu went through an intense teething phase. We realized that he enjoys textured food more than mashed food so we have now started feeding him regular adult food without mashing. He also likes to hold slices of fruit, bread etc and feed himself. But how much 'feeding' happens this way is anyone's guess!

He has started babbling quite a bit - dada, tata, papa, mama etc. and it gets funny when sometimes he waves his hands in a bye-bye-like motion while saying tata (which happens by pure coincidence I'm sure).

Last month also saw the biggest mommy-blunder I've made so far. I left Anu napping on the bed with pillows propped all around him. I had under-estimated his mobility. Anu managed to climb over the pillows and fell about 1.5 feet down on the hard tiled floor. Fortunately he didn't hurt himself but it could have been really bad. :-(

This week we are leaving for a trip to the North - Delhi/ UP/ Uttaranchal - and will be back after Xmas. Anurag will get to meet more relatives and experience his first real winter!

How we love being silly

Lost and Found

Ever since Anurag started crawling, "where is Anu?" has become a common question in our house. Here are some of his favorite hang-out places.

Other fun things we did in Udaipur

Enjoyed camel rides by Fatehsagar lake (with little Ansh in this picture)

Tried many new rides at the Diwali mela, including Kabir's first time on a Ferris wheel

Explored the streets of Udaipur on hamara bajaj

Got cozy with dadisa

had maalish-times..

...and play time with dadisa

Enjoyed the open space, farms and fresh air

Went on many nature walks that started right from dadisa's home

Played by the river next to dadisa's house

Enjoyed the view by the river

Played with our new friends Pinky, Meera and Navli

Loved the hill-station like weather (got some use for our winter-collection clothes)

Scaled new heights

Enjoyed a trip to Sajjangarh with Sushant uncle, Archana aunty, Ansh and Anay





And finally, loved the 17 hr train ride back home!

Celebrating dadisa's 60th birthday

We celebrated dadisa's 60th birthday in Udaipur which happened to be on the same day as Diwali.

The highlight of the celebration was the card that Kabir made for dadisa.

You can see his sketching if you look closely on the card. However, you would be mistaken if you took his art work to be nothing but random scribble. As you'll see below, much thought has gone into this card!

Anurag on the move

The post on Anurag's crawling is now updated with a video.

Diwali Celebration

This year's Diwali was a special one for many reasons. It was Anurag's first Diwali and Kabir's first Diwali in India. It was also the first time Saurabh & I celebrated Diwali in India in more than a decade. It was made extra special by the fact that we celebrated it in Udaipur with both sets of grandparents. And the icing on the cake was that this year's Diwali also coincided with dadisa's 60th birthday! Here are some pictures.






Kabir with his first fuljhadi on Chhoti Diwali
The family celebration would have been complete if we would have had Kakku bua and Erroll fufaji with us. Incidentally, we had celebrated last year's Diwali with them in Portland. I realised I hadn't posted Diwali 2009 photos, so here are a few, only a year late!
Kabir, this time last year

Kabu with bua and fufaji


Our last Diwali get-together with friends in Portland

Anu and his stuffed toy

Surprise from Portland

Last afternoon, we received a wonderful surprise. Our door bell rang and guess who was at the door?

Our friends from Portland - Sujata, Dipto and Sara!

They were visiting the IIT campus and dropped in to say hello. It was wonderful seeing little Sara again and felt great catching up with Sujata and Dipto! What a lovely surprise :-)

On the move

Anu has started crawling! He is doing a commando-style crawl which is quite funny to watch, but it gets him where he wants to go. He is still a little wobbly when sitting unsupported and I can't leave him sitting unsupervised. But I suppose he decided he was ready for the next milestone without trying to master the last one. Kabir, of course, is thrilled with this development and keeps running to me to say - Mama, Anu is in the balcony! Look, he is under the sofa, etc :-)

My bright spot