Ryan

My lill Rino... the lill whirlwind in my life!

Ryan Lakshay Prem - means 'Young Royalty' 'Aim' 'Love'

Must say life has never been dull after he came into my life.
Full of charm... cutest smiles ever...never ever still (even when asleep!)... needy... whiny... super jealous... strong and brave - that's my lill son'na.

I swear no kid else would have so many nick names...
Rino T Rino, Jolli ram, Mr Chabakker, Dhum, Shaitan, Gentleman, Golu, Bread basket, Laddu, Gunda-cha d gunda-cha, Rascala, Chunky Monkey...the list continues to grow.

his name has been so mispronounced as well..
ri-yaan, ray-an... my poor Mom - Ryan is a major tongue twister for her!
I have been easier on raising Ryan that i was with Rehwa. I guess it's the mommy experience kicking in.
With rave even a spike in temp. would have me rushing to the pedi. n monitoring her temp. by the hour. With ryan I have built a lot a trust on tylenol / motrin to do its job.
Also with rave i would fly into a panic if God forbid she had a fall.
I have learnt to not make such a huge deal of falls / scrapes... and yes that's helped Ryan be much less of a sissy!
he has had some major knocks..hez 22 monhs and already has a chipped front tooth to show off for his heroic tumbles.
he hardly cries..picks himself up and gets rite back to whatever he was doing w/out so much of a whimper!
Hi-5's to me on that!

Food - can a toddler really be that much into food... you think?
Ryan has such a sophisticated palate and cookin for him is like trying to please one of the most discerning chefs on food network!
and yes i am put on the grill about what's cooking EVERYDAY...
first the husband and now the son! bah! :)
Ryan - can't ignore him even if u want to... loving cuddly and vivacious... my sweet boy!

Life sure is worth it!

Rehwa

Rehwa... my diva...my first born... my first ever 'doll' and the center of my life (err....at least until my lill Rino came hurtling into my life!! lol!)

Calista Rehwa Prem - her name means 'Most beautiful' 'Ancient name for river Narmada' 'love'

Rave... everything about her is special... she is my first born after all (i now understand why my oldest sis gets so much attention!!!)

She was so amazingly beautiful as a baby... roses and cream complexion and chubby as a cherub!
I often wondered... is she really mine?

she was mostly a calm n content baby... and EVERYTHING about her went according to the books. well I was mostly a book parent... all the reading I did kinda helped raising her pretty easy AND fun!

She could spend hours feeling the satin ears on her teddy rattle n sucking on her Binky staring into space!

Which had me rushing to the fabric store to but a yard of satin n make her a pillow with satin tags ALL around for her to touch n feel! A couple of hours later of painful hand stitching and embroidering with 'Rehwa we love you' on it I presented it to her with a big 'ta-da' only to receive a blank look from her.
hmmm... not the exact reaction i was looking for...never mind she may take to it over time thought the first time mommy... but alas.. many failed attempts at trying to get her to 'love' the pillow, it now lies trampled on in the garage (the big indoor dumpster!) haha!

when she was ready to sit up... she was happy sitting still in one spot watching the world go by...
my sis Jones even labelled her 'bai-so' (marathi for old aunt - i think)

Even now she is more of a thinker and enjoys mind related challenges much more than physical activity like t-ball (which I signed her up for this spring... n must say she didn't enjoy AT ALL!!!) Oh well... at least she tried!

At 7 months - she picked herself up on all fours and was crawling in a day.

At 1 she was speaking over 20 words and could point to all objects in an alphabet book! She learnt to talk faster than she could walk! There was my cue on how her brain was going to shape out to be!

At 18 months she was into stringing 4 / 5 word sentences!

At 2 she got a 'learn the alphabets' vtech toy at her birthday... which was actually a toy for a 3 yr old. She took to it immediately and would spend hours together playing with the talking toy. within a couple of months and much to our amazement she had taught herself the alphabets... the sounds it makes... and the order in which they are... and also how they looked!
My child... A genius - A child prodigy - ivy league at 15 - brain surgeon or a rocket scientist at 20 - Nobel price at 25....dreams on the proud mommy!! LOL!

Potty training - she figured it out in less than 12 hours... she was 2 yrs n 8 mnths and ready to start pre-k. I did have help from my cousin Niru who was visiting.

When Rave puts her mind to something she picks up the skill in under a day! that's how amazingly fast and adept she is!

I have learnt not to push her tho' and give her her space (which she needs a LOT of) to grow!

Rehwa - skinny shy n lanky... always curious... a thinker... creative and sensitive... mostly an easy and helpful child... loves her baby brother dearly...very loyal to her friends / toys she likes... my sweetie... big time drama queen...n yes - (one of ) the love of my life!

Sometimes you do need to 'Ask a scientist'

Even as a baby Rave was more of a thinker n 'happy to be by herself' kinda kid...
which made life pretty easy for Prem n me to raise her.

The tricky part came when she put her noggin to use to ask me some amazing ?s
- Mommy where does the sun go at night?
- Mommy why are clouds grey?

and her latest... while dropping rocks into a puddle of storm water she asks...
- Mom why are ripples always round? and why are there so many ripples?
her latest ? had me googling ASAP.

Here's a nice web site to quench your kindergardner's thirst for knowledge

http://www.ccmr.cornell.edu/education/ask/search.html

boy it sure answered some ?s I have had rumbling in my head since I was a kid.
n-joy!

new 8 'natural' wonders of the world

http://news.yahoo.com/s/livescience/20080709/sc_livescience/eightnewnaturalwondersnamed

Hi y'all... bright n sunny summer day here! can't wait to get off of work n pick up my kiddies from the sitter! Rehwa my five and half year old amde me a pretty bracelet yesterday which I am proudly showing off today! and Ryan my almsot 2 yr old adds new words to his vocabulary everyday!