The end of an era

Today we say goodbye to Portland - our home for the last 5 years and the birthplace of both our boys. We have our entire house packed in a box that's waiting to be picked up by our shipping company. We will see it again in two months after it sails across the globe and meets us in our new home in Mumbai.
Kabir & his cousins touring our container after we finished loading it yesterday

We have been planning this move for over a year now so it is a relief to finally be done with most of it. We have been working so hard in the last few weeks that it hasn't allowed to us to really come to terms with our emotions yet. The boys are taking it quite well so far. Ofcourse, Anurag is clueless but Kabir does understand that we are moving to India. He has been enjoying the novelty of living with cartons all around him. He did show some signs of distress when he started noticing that his toys were starting to go missing (as we were starting to pack them). At first it was difficult to explain that he will see them again after a few months in India. But he caught on pretty quickly and then even started to bring his dearest toys to us saying - please pack this. I will want this in India. :-)
The most difficult part ofcourse is to say goodbye to friends who have become like family. We have been fortunate to have some wonderful friends here who have all come together and supported us in our decision. We will miss you a lot. I hope this blog will become one of the ways in which we can stay connected.
Goodbye!

The Thinking Man

Brothers in conversation

Kabir and Anurag have started sharing some great moments together. Anurag likes to follow Kabir with his eyes all the time and Kabu loves to observe him and play with him. This is a rather long but beautiful video from two days ago. I didn't have the heart to cut any part of it out.

Our little mechanic

Looks like this car needs a battery change..

3 month birthday

Anu is 3 months old today!

Weekend Getaway

We had a wonderful time at the beach house that we had rented at Rockaway Beach for the Memorial Day weekend. There were 17 of us, including 4 children. We had late night conversations, early morning wake up calls by the kids, great food, lot of board and card games, a BBQ, walks on the beach, castle building, soccer and frisbee by the water, movies and overall a really memorable weekend!

Our first family pic

Kabu refused to go anywhere near the sea after his first encounter with the waves


Anurag bundled up in nanaji's arms

Afternoon soccer

Kabu ready to go out

Nanaji and Anu in conversation

Two little monkeys enjoying their snack

Kabir and his digger truck

Pediatrician update

After my last post about our pediatrician, quite a few friends told me about their own horror experiences and asked me to provide an update on my pediatrician search. Fortunately, I did find a new pediatrician for the boys and I'm so glad I made the effort to do so! We've switched to Dr. Paul Thomas at Integrative Pediatrics. He was recommended very highly to me by a lot of Portland mamas who are on the Andaluz family yahoo group and when I met him I wasn't disappointed. The very first thing that impressed me about the office was that they have two separate waiting areas- one for sick children and another for well children. What a neat idea! (Do excuse my naivety if this is standard practice at other pediatrician offices.) Another great thing about this practice is that they have a pediatric urgent care 365 days a year (on weekday evenings up to 10pm and on weekend and holidays up to 9pm) where they welcome walk-ins. I believe this can be accessed by anyone so even if you're child isn't Dr. Paul's regular patient, you could still take advantage of this facility. Check them out for more details. But what I have been impressed with most (in our 2 visits so far) is the flexibility that Dr. Paul offers. Instead of having a one-size-fits-all approach, he makes the effort to personalize his care. For example, I didn't want to follow the standard vaccination schedule for Anurag blindly. Since he came a month early, I wanted to be careful that we weren't taxing his little body with too many vaccines too early. Dr. Paul worked with me on this and helped chalk out a plan for him. He went through the pros and cons of each vaccine and helped me make a decision.
The only thing I can say on the down side is that their office seems to be quite busy. Dr. Paul works with three nurse practitioners. For regular check ups and vaccine appointments, you normally only get to meet the nurse practitioners unless you ask to see the doctor for any reason.
Overall, I'm glad I switched. I only wish I had done it sooner!