(Dibs) Staking his claim...

The D Space
Ryan is a smarty...he gets dibs on being carried, most of the times..Its surprising how he's gotten so good at it..
At any point in time if Rohan starts crying, Ryan will scoot to the nearest pair of adult legs, in most cases that's Mommy..and grabs on to them. He's anticipating that, at some point someones going to be picked up...so it may as well be him...
And then there are cases, when Ryan knows he can't make it in time...So he'll start bawling, for absoultely NO reason other than.."Seriously? Youre going to pick him up before me? Seriously? Waaaaah"
Yesterday , Ryan and fiona were playing in the bedroom, while Rhea and Rohan were playing with the Dora chair, outside...Rohan...with unsurprising regularity, rolled over onto the tile, and started bawling..So Fiona got up and started to walk outside, and Ryan just started bawling too..just standing there and bawling..because Rohan was crying...
There are times when Ryan is the first one to cry, in which case, its really funny to see him following Fiona , arms wide open and bawling...Sometime fiona will just walk in a zig zag and its cute to see Ryan following....We try not to do that too often but it is pretty hilarious..

Fiona's dad's new years letter 2006

Its really great! that soon one more year is through and a new one starts as2006.So here is wishing you a very Happy New Year 2006.During your childhood we were always preparing a balancesheet more preciselydefining in writing what we achieved in the year thats gone and what are theobjectives for the New Year.Hope this habit youll will like and instill with our young ones. I must say nowthat Katelyn and Rhea are grown big day by day we miss them a lot and long tohear them. Soon Allison and Ryan/Rohan will follow.,well it is Gods gift to allof us and I pray for their well being.Tomorrow we will be praying in a special way for the passing of the old year andwe then bring in the the New. So will be attending prayer services arround 11 pmfollowed by midnight mass.Well 2005 we saw all of you and returned only in mid April, thereafter spentsummer in Divar followed by another two months in Oct/Nov and will be hopefullyback with youll soon. Hope all of you have an enjoyable healthy and prosperous New Year 2006.

Look mommy ...there's an airplane

The D Space

Heard this wonderful exchange between Rhea (now 4 years old) and Fiona..

Rhea: Look mommy, i see an airplane.
Fiona: Where Rhea?
Rhea: Look right there...the car is pulling an airplane..
Fiona: Um Rhea, that's a *boat* .....The car is pulling a *boat*

Rhea's birthday party at Toys'R'Us

The D Space

Rhea's birthday was at Toys'R'Us. Which is a toy store, but they have a room, by their playscape where they arrange birthday parties.
After Rhea's party , i highly recommend it.

Rhea's party had a Princess theme, which means, she had Disney Princess cake,
princess plates, cups...and you get the idea.We had a total of 15 kids:Rohan, Ryan of course, cousins Katelyn and Allison, neighbour :Trudy, and friends
from day care : Kate, Ashley, Molly, Stephanie, Rachel, Makena, Jed, Joshua and
Phillip.First they all started by painting, with crayons, a "Happy Birthday" banner for
Rhea.

Then they had face painting and tattos, all the kids got in line for both.and
got them multiple times. Rhea knew it was "her day" of course and i saw her
cutting in line a couple of times.
Then they had the scavenger hunt. The scavenger hunt consists of clues all along
the store (in an order in which, the kids get to see all the cool toys that are
available in the store so they can pester the parents to buy them) the kids go together..they run ,walk , walk fast , scoot,
and hop at various points during the hunt and are led by the two Toys'R'Us employees (both teenagers) who were organizing the party and who were very good.. Everytime they find a clue (a folded sheet of paper), to get the paper to open and to read it, the kids would have to loudly shout (" Happy Birthday Rhea").11 kids shouting is a lot of shout. And they did this all over the store. so everybody knew it was Rhea's birthday.

The first clue was something to the effect of "I love to hang upside down from a
tree....etc...) Answer: Monkey (so they go to the soft toy section of the store
and find another clue) the kids have to guess the answer, and they were pretty
good at it..The second clue was i'm tall , and blond, and have a lot of pretty
dresses etc. Answer:Barbie. "How does Barbie travel ? Does she walk?" asked the Toys'R'Us host.To which Ashley piped up quite innocently " But she's *not* real..."Note to self: Do not let Ashley talk to Rhea about Santa Claus.The answer was "A Car". One of the other clues was "I swing across buildings, and can even climb up them" Ashley was confident it was "Diego" (from Go Diego Go, and Dora the Explorer)
Everyone else said "Spiderman". Ashley wasn't convinced.
The trail eventually leads them to a treasure chest. Which is a chest full of candy and other goodies. All the kids were told to pick 3 candy bars. Some picked 4/5. Katelyn picked four, so Rhea kept telling her sternly "You're only supposed to pick 3 Katelyn" until Fiona stepped in and said it was ok.

Then they all returned to the room, where we had cake and pizza, and fruit drinks. Rhea blew all the candles out in a single blow, so that was impressive.
Once we were done with the cake and pizza it was time for the pinata. we had a heart shaped princess pinata that we had stuffed with goodies that fiona had bought, like candy, kids sunglasses, blow pops, and other stuff that kids love. It was a string pinata, so all the kids hold a string at the bottom of the pinata and pull and that releases the candy.The kids then put this into their goody bags. And then go home, eat all the candy and drive their parents nuts.
As if that was not enough, we had also arranged for all the kids to get a plastic ziploc bag, that they can then go to the ToysRUs candy stand and fill up to the "grey line" on the bag.And they have a huge assortment of candy..so the kids love it. Of course this time they were supervised by the parents. (who would pick candy *they* liked)
Then it was time to leave..All in all, all the kids had a great time. Even rohan and ryan, who were in a playpen watching most of the time. They were pretty happy too, since they got to eat some cake..And everytime we would take them out, they would make a break for it, crawling to the door of the room and trying to leave.Rhea got a lot of cool gifts too, but more on that later..

New Years letter for 2006 - written by Nandan

RHEA
Rhea is growing up fast, too fast. She knows to say her numbers till 100, colors and a few other words in spanish, write almost all the letters, say her prayers (Our Father, Hail Mary) among many other accomplishments.
She is an excellent big sister – she brought wash cloths for them when they spat up (which was quite a bit in the first 3 months) and brought toys for them to play with before they were mobile. She loved lying down between them on the mat on the floor.
She loves sitting in the crib with them and read to them (when they listen). Most importantly, anything nice that any of us say or do for Rohan & Ryan, Rhea remembers it exactly and does it herself for them at the appropriate time.
She has gotten much better at soccer and at catching the ball. She finally started pooping in the potty and also sleeping through the night w/o a diaper. She goes to ballet class and even performed with the others at a retirement home for Halloween. She has started coming out of her room by herself some days after nap and bed time too.

Hopes for 2006: For her to be able to put on her own clothes and be less shy in front of people and start on reading skills.

ROHAN
Or Baby A as we used to call him, has made a lot of progress. He had a fever in the second week of his life but recovered nicely. He initially seemed like the quiet one(Papa use to call him the gentleman), but we soon realized that he can yell as has as anybody when needed.
He is very efficient – he uses one name (Adda) for everybody and use to use one hand for a lot of tasks when he was 7-9 months old. He says Mama and Nana now too. He first learned how to open the entertainment center, then take out all the CDs and DVDs out of their jackets and has now learned how to open the faucet on our bathtub and let the water run. He has also learned how to use his toy chair to climb up onto the couch so that he can look out the window. It should all get more fun when he learns to walk!

RYAN
He was the scamperer even before birth. Once Rohan was delivered, Ryan scampered away from where he was supposed to be and it was a full 7 minutes before the OB tracked him down. He’s been scampering ever since. He learnt to crawl first and while Rohan would contemplate how to do things, Ryan believes in the adage that actions speak lot louder than words.
Ryan knows no fear, except the pressure cooker and the noise of the water when Rohan turns on the tap. That does not however prevent him from egging Rohan on turn it on. So when you are in our house and open the bathroom door, remember, the Army of Monkeys is on the move…..

FIONA
Not many 5ft 5in mamas can carry twins to almost full term, deliver them naturally and then return to their original weight in one week. That’s what Fiona did. So the start of 2005 was very busy for her. In all of our best interest Fiona had to stop working at Silabs. Of course they promptly offered her a consulting position and even paid her more than she asked for!! How often does that happen in America? That was how important she was to them. Of course raising kids is even more important and eventually Fiona had to stop working. They still call her occasionally.
Fiona has been active in the church choir, taking the kids of playdates and even found time to have a girl’s night out. She continues to teach Rhea as well, especially Spanish and reading to her.

NANDAN – He wrote this letter, so I (Fiona) wrote a little bit about him.
He got our green cards this year! He was a huge support when Rohan and Ryan were born and in all the following months, He did night feedings w/ me and let me sleep-in so many times I felt sick. He gave me an awesome 30th birthday surprise gift of a day at the spa. He is the best daddy and spends time playing with the kids from the minute he comes home, gives all 3 kids their baths and does not ever complain of having to do all this.
He’s been going to the gym a lot more and is very motivated to lose weight. He goes to the gym after work and putting the kids down to bed in-spite of being so tired.

Nandan’s Mom and Dad
All this could not be done if Mom and Dad were not here. They continue to help us a lot with Rhea, Rohan and Ryan as well as other things like cooking, cleaning and laundry. They are awesome w/ all the kids.
Almost 33 years of knowing Mom and Dad, and I still learn something new. I never knew Daddy knew how to whistle and juggle, and Mom continues to be tireless. And they are still taking up new challenges. Dad is an expert at feeding and burping the boys as well as brushing Rhea’s teeth and playing “pretend” with her. He and Rhea continue to have conversations but they understand each other now (most of the time).
Last time, Mom wore salwar kameezs, this time she started wearing pants. She has also become and internet wizard and is very fluent at writing emails. As always, she’s taken an interest in all the stuff I watch, including football. This morning I heard her talking about Vince Young’s strong character J

Fiona’s Mom and Dad
They were with us when 2005 started and without them here, we would have been in complete disarray. From day and night feedings, to putting the boys to sleep, cooking and cleaning, and taking care of Rhea, they did it all. There wasn’t anything they did not do. While Fiona was busy feeding they were such a great help to us. We will never forget that. Our hope for this year is to see them son and be able to spend some quality time with them.

For this year – 2006, I hope we all remain in good health. We will miss Mom and dad, and miss Fiona’s mom and dad too, not only because of how they all help us, and are so great w/ the kids, but also because we now realize how difficult it is taking care of kids, and imparting the correct values.

Rhea And the Spider

The D Space

Yesterday after putting Rhea down for a nap, i heard her screaming and crying hysterically. Fiona went in and turns out that she saw a spider in her room... (it was pretty far away, and , as we found out later, pretty small) but she freaked out...
We put her to bed but couldn't find the spider.
Until one hour later that is..
This time it was strolling into the living room...Fiona got it...
Rhea, at this point was still napping.
When she woke up the conversation went as follows:
Fiona: Rhea, mommy got the spider , he was in the living room..
Rhea: Really? He opened the door and came outside?

Instant classic

Who do you miss from daycare Rhea?

The D Space

Listened to this gem of a conversation between Rhea and Aaji (mom)
Mom: Rhea, daycare tomorrow, after two weeks of holiday?
Whom are you missing from daycare?
Rhea:Ummm Kate, Josh.
Mom: Not Molly? I thought you liked Molly..
Rhea: Yeah but Molly's there...(she's not missing :-) )