Halloween and diwali party

Past weekend was a great one. Lots of excitement.

Lets start with Friday, Halloween. At daycare they had a costume parade. All the kiddies got dressed up in their costumes and had a little parade in the parking lot. I really wish I could have seen it, but I'm sure Diya must have a a great time. In the evening I got Diya back in her costume and we headed out for her first ever Trick-or-Treating experience. She loved it. She would reach in the candy bowls and grab one candy and held it as tight as possible 'till we got to the next house where she had to do it again. She would say 'hi' and 'bye-bye' to everyone. She even said 'thank you' once when I asked her to. We only visiting about 5 houses...mostly just the people we knew on our street. It was a very fun Halloween. Here is Diya on our front steps in her lady bug costume.

Saturday morning was Sushma and Sam's house warming. It was nice to see them all moved in finally. Their place looked great. Many other kids there too so Diya loved running around behind them. She got fed so much food by anyone who took her. She was loving it.

Saturday evening was the ever waited annual samaj diwali party. This year there was a fancy dress, rangoli, mendhi, and dessert competition. Diya took part in the fancy dress...she was a pari (fairy). She was the entertainment while everyone was having appetizers. There was open area and music...what else does she need. I took part in the rangoli and mendhi competition. Didn't win either, but had a really good time taking part. By 9 Diya was getting sleepy. She wouldn't sleep but had her head down and was getting tired. We finally left around 10. Good thing we didn't wait for the end of the party which was apparently 2am! Here are 2 videos from the evening.

appetizer entertainment from Diya Shah on Vimeo.

Diya as pariyo ki rani from Diya Shah on Vimeo.

Sunday we got few things done around the house, made some phone calls, did a little shopping and had a nice dinner at dosa temple. Perfect ending to a great weekend.

Happy Diwali!!

Wishing everyone a very...

Happy Diwali and a wonderful New Year!

getting better

So the bad news first...Diya has a double ear infection AGAIN! We have decided tubes is the way to go now. We were resisting it, but its for the best. Her last ear infection was less than month ago and winter hasn't even started yet. Seems like she gets them very easily. Luckily, the antibiotics are still having an affect. But the docs say it can cause hearing damage. That was enough for us to finalize getting tubes for her. We have an appointment for Nov5th at Children's Hospital for a preliminary exam and I'm guessing they'll put them in soon after. Panic mode has not set yet, but I'm sure it will once Nov 5th comes around. I know its a common procedure and many children (even younger than Diya) get it done it still scares me. It's mostly the thought of Diya put under general anesthesia that I'm afraid of. It sucks that the only reason they have to do that is to keep her still. Knowing Diya that really is the only way to keep her still.

Ok, lets turn to some slightly good news. Looks like she is mostly recovered. She has no fever and even had a good night of sleep yesterday. She 's pretty good like that...rough and tough.

Here are some random pics taken couple weeks ago.

Helping unload the dishwasher.

Ready for daycare.

Long, long weekend

I know…I’m slacking about posts…but there is a lot going on right now. This past weekend was a busy one. Premal and I both took Friday off hoping to enjoy a relaxing day. We enjoyed, but it wasn’t really relaxing. We ended up doing a lot of errands.

Saturday was the last garba night at our samaj. I have a feeling Diya is going to grow up loving garba(like her mom). All night she was running around and getting in everyone’s way while they were trying to do garba. Of course when I tried to get her she wouldn’t have it at all. She didn’t want to be held at all. I had taught her this bit…if you ask her how does Diya do garba…she claps her hands in the air…her nani(my mom) loved that one. She was also enjoying running around behind the other kids and of course stealing their toys even though she had her own.

Sunday we went apple picking. It was Diya’s first time. She had a ball with everything…picking apples, the hayride, the petting zoo…etc. We will definitely be doing more of that in the future.




Unfortunately, Sunday night was when the fun ended. We got home and Diya felt little warm and it turned out she had a temperature. We hoped by morning it will be fine. But again she had a slight fever and as the day went on the temp climbed and reached 102. Doctor told us to give her baby Tylenol and just monitor her for the day. This morning no fever, but daycare called saying she has a temp of 100.5. So we got an appointment with the doctor. Dunno what’s wrong. Usually she has a cough or cold and its due to that, but she has no signs of anything. Only thing it could be more new teeth. Yup, 2 more molars coming in. That makes a total of 8 teeth on top and 3, plus one budding on the bottom.


Anyway, we hope its nothing serious and we get over this fast.

Diya is 14 months old

Diya has been having a rough couple of days. It's also the reason I'm late for the monthly post. Poor girl is sick again. She had a cold and then a cough and on Sunday she had a fever. Monday no fever and seemed like she was doing better so we sent her to daycare. But, they called in the afternoon saying her fever is 100.5 if it reaches 101 she will have to be taken home. Premal brought her home anyway. So yesterday I stayed home from work(I wasn't feeling that great anyways) and kept Diya home from daycare. I took her to the doctors. She has bronchitis and a double ear infection. Apparently, its going around in her daycare. That is one thing about daycare...the sicknesses never seem to end. But you can't tell by looking at Diya she is sick. Except for the runny nose she was acting like her normal self. She was playing by herself all day and even let me rest too. It was kinda nice to get a break from our normal routine.

So, anyway, here are the photos from last month. I'll post more later.

2 molars and more

As I mentioned in my last post that Premal had to go away for 2 days. (Well…it turned out to be 3 days.) But no problem, cause taking care of Diya went really well …actually better than I expected. Dropping her off was fun and picking her up was even better. She’d be so happy to see me…its one of the best feelings.

Over the weekend couple of interesting things happened. On Saturday Diya proved what we kinda knew all along...she is a people person. I was giving her lunch after her nap and she was little cranky. My parents, Deesh, and Vipul came over and within seconds she was a different baby. She started smiling…babbling…and didn’t make a fuss about finishing her lunch either. Rest of the day she was happy baby. My parents (especially my dad and Deesh) were totally loving it. On the weekdays she gets cranky sometimes after coming back from daycare. We wondered if maybe she missed all the kids…now we are pretty sure she does.

Another interesting thing I discovered is that Diya has 2 of her top molars! She has 4 front top teeth and 2 front bottom teeth. We hadn’t seen any new teeth for months now. We didn’t think much of it. Then on Saturday she was in my lap and leaned back while her mouth was open and I saw one of molars! I was kinda shocked. It wasn’t like it was just coming in either….it is fully there. Later on I try to get another look to see if there are more and sure enough I saw another one on the other side. Both are on top. So she has a total of 8 teeth and 1 budding in the front bottom. I wish I could get a photo of the inside of her mouth…who knows what other ones are in there. But she never stays still long enough and never mind letting us look inside.

On Sunday we went to visit the Ninans and their new baby, Sanjay. He is so adorable and so tiny. Can’t believe Diya was ever that tiny. Very happy for them. They will have their hands full with 2 now. After the visit we went out to dinner with the Pandes. Diya was copying everything Gautam was doing. He is such a cutie anyways and now that he talks it is so funny. Seeing him interact with Diya and the way she runs around behind him is really fun to watch. After dinner we were walking towards our car while the Pandes were going towards theirs in the opposite direction. Twice Diya pulled her hand away and started running towards them. It was cute(not to mention dangerous).

pizza and past weekend

We had a great past weekend. Initially, we didn’t have any plans so we decided to go to Tulan(my make-shift brother)’s place. He had been asking us to come over for awhile. Of course, he made us come for dinner. Avani(his wife) made some excellent Punjabi food. Tulan had so many stuffed animals and toys waiting for Diya to play with. He loves kids and loves playing with Diya…so obviously he is Diya’s favorite mama. After dinner the rest of the samaj gang came over. We got home really late, but it was a fun time.

Next day we were so tired except Diya of course. She had gotten her regular amount of sleep the night before and was fresh as usual. Then in the afternoon she took a 2.5 hr nap. It was heaven. We all rested and when she woke up we all had more energy. We went for a nice walk.

Something new that Diya has learned…I ask her ‘Diya na pug kiya’(where are Diya’s legs) and she will wiggle her legs. Slowly I want to teach her all the body parts. I’m also trying to teach her how to climb down the stairs. I put her on her belly on the steps and kinda pull her one step at a time. I think she is getting the hang of it, but I have to get her started. I’m also trying to teach her how to get off from a bed and sofa.

In other things…she had her first taste of pizza last Friday. I went to daycare to pick her up and I noticed that all her food that I had sent was still there. I couldn’t find her daily activity sheet so I got really worried and asked one of the teachers about it. She said her sheet was in the toddler room cause she was there all day. She ate what all the toddlers ate on Fridays…pizza. I was shocked…how can she eat pizza…she doesn’t know how to feed herself. Apparently, I was wrong. She is able to feed herself better than I thought. I mean it’s not perfect, but she doesn’t shove it all in her mouth…she actually takes small bites. So all weekend I gave her whole cookies, crackers or bread slices and I watched her eat it correctly.

Tomorrow and Thursday Premal has trip to go on which means I will be on 100% Diya duty. I will have to drop her off and pick her from daycare plus go to work. It will be the first time this has happened and first time the 2 of us will be staying alone over night. I'm not really nervous...I just think it will be exhausting.

Anyway, here are some photos from Sunday.

Labor Day Weekend

I can't believe the weekend is already over. It was a busy one for us, but hopefully it will be the last of its kind for awhile now. Past weekend was my friend Tushima's wedding and Sital's baby shower. We realized how tough it is to take Diya to functions like this now on. At Tushima's sangeet I was one of those typical moms running around behind their kid. Doing that in a sari was no easy task. Diya would not sit still anywhere! It wasn't totally her fault because she didn't have any space to run around. Needless to say we left little early.

So the next day, I decided not to take her to Sital's baby shower. Not only cause she wouldn't have fun, but also cause it was in Springfield and she would have hated to be in the car for 2+ hrs straight. Instead, she spent the day with her nana, nani, masi and daddy. She stayed with them even when we went for Tushima's reception the same evening. Apparently, she was very well behaved and wasn't hard to look after.

Finally, yesterday we had no plans and enjoyed a relaxing day at home. We went out for few random things, but nothing stressfull at all. Here are some random videos from yesterday.

being silly from Diya Shah on Vimeo.


pushing her bubble lawn mower from Diya Shah on Vimeo.


big hug coming for mummy from Diya Shah on Vimeo.

it finally fits

Last weekend we went to a friend's house warming party. The dress code was to dress desi style. Initially, I thought I'd put a dress on Diya...but then I tired on one of her older chaniya cholis and this is what I got...

It finally fits her correctly. Now that she walks all clothes look better on her :)

1 year 1 month

So what is Diya doing now that she is 1 year and 1 month old?!...a lot! She is now fully walking which you can see from this video. Her daycare teachers all say that she runs around behind the toddlers all day and enjoys being them more then the infants where she belongs. She will be moving to toddlers room when she truns 15 months. I've been trying to get her ready for that change. What's the big deal you ask? Well, toddlers have some rules...no bottles...only 1 nap...must be able to feed themselves...no food that needs heating up or that needs to stay in the fridge. Diya is already off of bottles(thank God cause cleaning bottles was a pain)...so she is all set there...but that' s where it ends. She still takes about 2-3 naps a day and that will be a tough change. I haven't really been pushing it yet either. She can feed herself if I make pieces of food and keep it in front of her, but she still doesn't really get that she should eat one at a time...she will keep putting food in her mouth even if she already has a lot in there. That last rule is tough for us. As it is lunch choices are hard since we are not giving her meat yet. So, no microwave or fridge use makes it that much tougher. I'm not sure how strict these rules are, but I'm guessing they have to be a little flexible at least in the begining. We've only seen a flyer about this so no one has actually told us about these rules. I'm hoping they'll give us a little introduction to the program and tell us that there will be an adjustment period.

Diya now walks from Diya Shah on Vimeo.

Diya is making a bad impression at daycare. So far her complaints include taking others toys, biting and a new one of hitting. Great. Where is she learning to do this stuff? How do I teach her to be good? I'm pretty sure she doesn't mean to hurt anyone. She just does it to express her feelings.

Past month we did not take many photos or videos. Every weekend since the in-laws left we have had plans. We've been enjoying it actually. But the summer really is flying by.


In other news...today is Premal's Birthday!!! (Happy Birthday, honey! Love you very much.) We actually celebrated yesterday with some friends. We went out to lunch and Diya behaved really well. By this morning he had totally forgot it was his birthday.

Shah Family photos...

Before the in-laws left they really wanted to get some professional portraits done. Luckily we were able to squeeze it in the day before they left which happened to be Diya's exact birthday...July 20! Here are the proofs. Enjoy!

Diya's 1st Birthday!

Diya is officially one year old! I totally can’t believe it. The other day we were thinking about what we were going through exactly 1 year back…how on our way to the hospital we were convinced it would be a false alarm and would return home empty handed. How shocked we were when the nurse checked me and announced I was almost 6cm already and she assured us we were not going home without a baby. Then the first time we saw Diya…it was sooo amazing. She was so tiny and helpless….so precious. I had tears of joy. Here we are a year later. She looks nothing like she did when she was born. She is no longer tiny…she is no longer as helpless… but she’s definitely still our precious baby.

We had a big birthday party for her past weekend. She did really well. She was playing with anyone that would take her. Even after everyone left she still wanted to play.

Thanks to everyone who helped out with all the preparations and to all that attended and thanks for all the wonderful presents too. It was definitely a memorable time and it was nice to see everyone. Below are the pictures from the party.





In other news…Diya went back to daycare yesterday after a 4-month break. We are sending her for half days this week so she can get used to it. She did ok yesterday. She had trouble with food. She didn’t eat too much. I want to try to give her more table foods. She doesn’t have her chewing teeth yet…so I’m not sure what kinds of foods to give her that she won’t chock on. We give her some green peas…small pieces of fruits…cheerios…but what else can I give her? If anyone has ideas please let me know. Keep in mind that we are trying to stay away from offering her non-veg at this time. I know it was only the first day and she was probably too distracted to eat. Teachers had warned me that this week will be an adjustment period for her and she’ll probably do better as time goes on. Good thing was that she was able to take a nap which I was concerned about.

So the reason Diya is back in daycare is because(as some may already know) the inlaws are leaving. In fact mummy and daddy already left yesterday and Neha will be leaving tomorrow. It’s a bitter-sweet feeling. Bitter cause we are gonna miss them. It was nice having them around and that Diya was so well taken care of. But at the same time it will be nice to be just the three of us again and things to be less hectic. I know they totally enjoyed being with Diya and were very happy to have gotten this time to spend with us and so were we.

12 months (part 1)

I know its not 12 months yet and I'm already posting. Since this is a big month for Diya I've decided to post it in two parts. There is just too much for one big post.

Past weekend was a busy one for us. Saturday was just insane. We went to the Kansagra house for a backyard party, then ran a bunch of errands in preparation for the party, then went to masi’s house and ended the day with Deesh and Vipul’s dinner. It was hectic, but it was really nice hanging out with Pintu and family after a long time. Can’t believe how big Shivani and Sahil have gotten.

Diya 12 months

On Sunday we went with the Pandes to the zoo. It was Diya’s first trip to the zoo and she seems to really like it. Her favorite animals were the lions and the seals. Unfortunately, our camera ran out of batteries half way so we couldn’t take as many photos as we wished. It was nice hanging out with Amit, Soni and Gautam after a long time. We used to hang out all the time before either of us had kids. Hope we can do more stuff like this now.

Trip to the zoo

This past month we’ve taken a ton of photos. That was another reason for posting in two parts. I didn't want to through all the photos in one post. There will be more photos (and stories)to come from her Bday party I'm sure.

wisdom teeth removed

Well…there they are…my wisdom teeth! I know I said my appointment was for Saturday, but day before I got an unexpected call from the dentist office asking if I wanted to pre-pone my appointment. So I went for it. So, how did it go….great! I mean great as a teeth pulling can go. The doctor was not my normal dentist, but he was good. He was able to get both out in half an hour. I think I got lucky cause neither of my teeth shipped or crumbled (as you can see from the photo). Also, they both came out pretty easy and he didn’t need to cut my gums or anything. Worst part was hearing the teeth crack as he was pulling them out. He showed me each tooth as he pulled them out. At the end of it all he asked if I wanted to take them home. I obviously did.

Before I left the office he put a big gauge in my mouth and prescribed some meds. I went to CVS straight from there and people were definitely giving me looks cause the gauge was so big that it made it look like the side of my mouth was swollen. I was feeling fine until the numbness started to wear off…that is when I started feeling the pain. I took a pain killer and was good for the rest of the day and night. Only bad part was I had a constant taste of blood in my mouth. Infact at night I had to get up twice to rinse my mouth cause it was filling with blood. That was gross, but as of this morning it’s all good. No pain, no blood.

It went so great I’m thinking of getting the other 2 removed too. The doctor said it’s a preventive measure which is better to get done while I was still young (yes, he actually called me young). My next appointment for a cleaning is in November…will think about it then.

annoying screaming baby

Diya’s birthday is July 20 which is less than 2 weeks away. Mummy and daddy are going back to India on July 21st and Neha on 23rd. So between getting ready for Diya’s birthday party and doing some last minute shopping before the in-laws leave we have been super-duper busy. In the mist of it all mummy got very ill the day before and Neha has a continued bad cough which Diya seems to also have. I just hope everyone gets better by the 19th.

Diya continues to get naughtier as the weeks go on. She can scream like nobody’s business now. She screams when anyone tells her ‘no’ or takes away a toy or leaves her alone….basically anything she doesn’t like. We have officially become that couple with that annoying, screaming baby. I always thought when we reached this stage we would get really embarrassed, but honestly we don’t really care as much as maybe we should. I mean we don’t just let Diya scream...we try to distract her the best we can, but if she screams again…oh well…we just deal with it. We haven’t reached the point yet where we won’t go out cause of her screaming. Of course we tend to go to places where it’s already a little noisy hoping no one will really notice (or care).

As Diya gets older a new behavior is starting to emerge. She seems to ‘attract’ older kids when we are out. We’ve mostly noticed it with girls in the age range of about 5-8 years old. They seem to be fascinated with her. They come and kinda jus hang around Diya. For example when we go to the park there is a little girl who will swing next to Diya’s swing then follow us when we go on the slide and will continue to follow us and just stare at Diya…at one point I sat down with Diya in my lap and the little girl just sat down right next to me. She didn’t say anything…she just kept looking at Diya. Another time we went out to dinner and Diya was in a high chair and these 2 little girls just came over and started playing with her. And yesterday, we were at the outlet mall and Diya starting fussing in her stroller and a little girl out of nowhere came over and gave her a balloon to play with and was dancing in front of her to make her stop crying. Of course Diya absolutely loves all this kind of attention. Dunno what it is, but I’m not complaining since it keeps Diya quiet :-).

Last thing…on a totally different subject...I wanted to update everyone that this coming Saturday at 4:30pm is my appointment for the wisdom teeth removal. For those that have gotten this done before I had a question and it may sound silly so I warn you...Will I be able to drive myself after the whole thing is over or should I have someone come with me? Also, is there any 'prep work' I should do...like not eat or brush my teeth before I go? I'll be calling the dentist to ask also, but never hurt to get more than one opinion. Will keep you posted on how it goes.

new and old video

This one is pretty recent. It's real short, but cute. It's of Diya with her favorite doll.

Diya with her favorite doll from Diya Shah on Vimeo.


This is an old video of her laughing or should I say screaming with her daddy.

playful screaming from Diya Shah on Vimeo.

11 months

Diya's is 11 months old and she is getting heavy. I remember when she reached 11 pounds I complained about how my arms hurt while rocking her to sleep. These days never mind rocking her… I can’t even hold her for more than few minutes at a time. I'm out of breath by the time I reach the top of the stairs while carrying her. (It is very possible that I could just be out of shape ;-) Of course it doesn't help that while I'm going up she has to reach out to touch every light switch, and wall hanging on our way. She is very active so one would think she would burn off everything she ate and she'd be lighter, but nope....not Diya. I think she must weigh at least 22 lbs by now.

She's learned a lot of new things lately. She learns things much faster now too. It took us a month to teach her ‘ta-ta’, but these new things she learned within days. Ask her where is Diya's 'bhodu' (belly) and she will pat her belly. Ask her where’s daddy and she'll through her hand up (kind of imitating a plane). Ask her to do 'jay-jay'(like praying) and she will put her hands together and move them back and forth. Most of these things the in-laws have taught her (obviously). But it’s amazing that she can learn something new in just a day or 2.
She also has a favorite doll now. Well it’s really a teddy bear, but we call it her doll. Infact, we call it 'nani Diya' which means ‘small Diya’. When we ask her to get nani Diya she will get that same doll every time. Then if you ask her to put nani Diya to sleep she will put her in her lap and rock back and forth. It’s really cute.

She continues to 'speak' better too. If you ask her to call Cody(our neighbor's dog) and tell her to say 'aav'(come) she clearly says 'aav aav aav..'. This word used to be a little muffled before.
We are trying to teach her to say mum-mum(food) for when she wants to eat . I’m also trying to teach her to say ‘mummy’ (can you blame me), so I hope she doesn’t get the 2 confused.

Here are last month’s photos.

Diya 's 11th month

Below are 2 videos. In this one she is doing everything I ask her to like saying ‘ta-ta’ and doing radhe-radhe.

Smart Diya from Diya Shah on Vimeo.

In this second one she is in her swimming pool which initially she was very scared of, but as you can see in the video she’s gotten over her fear.

Swimming Pool from Diya Shah on Vimeo.

few more photos

Neha and Diya before Naam Karan Vidhi (naming ceremony)

More Father's Day Photos

Past weekend

It was a big weekend at the Shah residence. On Saturday we invited some family over for dinner. We hadn’t invited them over in awhile and we were waiting for the in-laws to be here. So finally past weekend worked out. The menu went like this…we had strawberry milk shake as what Neha calls ‘Welcome drinks’. The main dish was Idli-sambhar, rasam-vada and dosa with coconut chutney. For dessert we had rass-gula and ice-cream. These are all typical south Indian dishes that the in-laws decided on...do you see why I think of them as south Indian? There was a lot of food, and it was good.

Backing up a bit, there were 2 other reasons for inviting the family besides ‘it’s been awhile’. First, it was Deesh(my sister) and Vipul(her husband)’s ‘vaynu’ dinner. Basically, it’s a dinner for the newlyweds. Although, Deesh and Vipul have been married for awhile and they have also had dinner at our place before…this was the official vaynu. Second, we did a mini naming ceremony for Diya. It is a traditional ceremony when the fai (in this case Neha) holds the newborn and rocks him/her in all four directions then placing him/her in a blanket and officially ‘names the baby’. I can’t really explain it all, but we have it on video. Although, Diya is no longer a newborn and she has already been given her name we wanted to do it for fun. Plus, Neha was so excited about finally getting her rightful chance as a fai we couldn’t let her down. I think everyone enjoyed…especially Diya.

So that was Saturday. Sunday was Father’s Day. It was pretty low-key. I got Diya ready in her ‘I Love Daddy’ top. Daddy and grand-daddy absolutely loved it. We took bunch of photos. Since we had leftovers from the day before we didn’t have much to cook so we spent most of the day out. We made a stop at iParty for some decorations for Diya’s first bday party. They have such cute stuff. We ate out and returned home where Premal packed. Packed for what you ask? He has another trip to Jacksonville, FL this time. He left today and won’t be back ‘till Wednesday after next…it’s a week and half long trip, his longest yet. Thank God his parents are here so I don’t have to be alone or make any arrangements.

Diya is almost 11 months old. I will be doing a seperate post for that later this week.

pulling teeth

I had a dentist appt few weeks back. Last two times I was there I was pregnant so they couldn’t take any xrays. So finally at this last visit they did and get this…they found 3 cavities! I was expecting one…two tops, but not 3. One is on a tooth on the bottom and in the back on the left side and the other two are on my wisdom teeth on the right side. I had the left tooth filled yesterday so that one is all set. Dentist said its best to just pull out the wisdom teeth with the other cavities. My wisdom teeth otherwise are not causing any problems. In fact she was impressed with how straight they had come in. So now I have to decide what I want to do. I’m little scared about getting the teeth pulled. For one thing I get tired of keeping my jaw open for more than 15 minutes and the procedure would take 1-1.5 hrs. Second thing is that since the bottom tooth is a little set in they would have to make a cut on the gum to get to the tooth which means I’d get stitches. And recovering from that doesn’t sound like fun. Third thing is I like my wisdom teeth…I mean isn’t it a waste to remove them if they aren’t bothering the other teeth? And couldn’t she just do a filling on them? I’m pretty sure she’s too lazy to do the fillings. Anyone have any experience with getting wisdom teeth pulled? Any advice for me?