April photos

Premal and Diya will be returning this Saturday...I can't wait! I miss them so much. I feel like I haven't seen them for months. Diya must have grown so much. I will have more details from their trip later. For now here are the photos from last month.

April 2009

big news!

Congrats Neha!

The Shah Family has big news...Neha is getting married!!!

The wedding will be on April 27th in Chennai. Yup, that's next week!! Unfortunately, the next auspicious date isn't 'till March of next year which is just too long of a wait. So bad news is that I won't be able to attend. For years I've known this day would one day come and I've been secretly looking forward to it. My bad luck that I can't go. I know everyone is feeling bad that I won't be there, but on the bright side at least Premal will be there. He is going for little over a week. He is excited to be going and at the same time he is worried that #2 will make her appearance before he gets back. I'll be 37 weeks on the day of the wedding. It's cutting it close...I'm keeping my fingers crossed, but I think it will work out just fine.

I hope everything goes fine with the wedding and wish Neha a very happy wedding and a great married life. I know her fiance loves her very much and will take good care of her.

innocent face

She could fool anyone with this innocent face.

I put this dress on Diya on Easter Sunday and she kept rubbing her arms against her body. At first I didn't get why she was doing this, but soon realized that this was the first time in months she had worn anything short-sleeved. Need less to say she quickly got used to it. Can't wait for summer!

Here are some videos that were taken few weeks back. First one is of her feeding herself. She has mastered how to hold a spoon and can coordinate it to her mouth. Now, if she could only understand that she doesn't have to fill it to the max and shoves it all in her mouth. She will not let us feed her at all anymore...at all. Even something like a sandwich...she has to hold it in her hand, but she doesn't realize that she can take small bites. She always take huge bites and on many occasions she has gagged and scared us. Don't know how to make her realize that she doesn't have to fill her mouth everytime.

This second one is of her singing ABCs and Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star. She has actually gotten better since this video was taken. I'm not sure exactly how she learned this. I like to think I had a hand in it because I sing to her all the time, but I'm sure daycare is probably the main reason. She also knows her 1, 2, 3's a bit, but will wait taking a video of that when she's a little better.

Diya's new videos

If you didn't already know Diya loves dogs especially Cody(our neighbor's dog).




Here is a glimpse of what she's like on a normal day at home.

new stuff around the house

Some new stuff in our house. First, its Diya's new bedding! Ended up going with Tinker-Bell. The comforter is so big for Diya. Plus the bed rail doesn't help. It was like a sea of blanket which Diya gets lost in. I've been folding it in half and covering her.

Second, is our newly designed living room. Well, just a new TV with a new setup. We just did this past Saturday. I have to say it looks better then I expected. We moved all the toys in the other room which we now call the 'toy room'.

You look tired....you think?!?!

Get ready cause in this post I am venting my anger. Feel free to stop reading.

If one more person tells me that I look tired I may just explode. Its like telling the sun 'you look yellow'...duh! Give me a break people...I mean lets look at the facts. I'm 8 months pregnant...I'm not getting good sleep...I'm carrying around an extra 25 lbs...I can barely reach my toes...my back is constantly killing me...and I have a very active toddler. So yeh, I am a little tired and when someone tells me that I look tired its not helping. I feel like crap...I don't need to be reminded that I look like crap too. It would be understandable if someone who doesn't have kids or if a guy says this. But, no. Women who have gone through pregnancy are saying this to me. You'd think they would have something nicer to say. Well, I have news for you people. Get used to it cause if you think I look tired now...wait 'till the baby arrives! So the next time you see me, if you could refrain from saying 'you look tired', it would be greatly appreciated.

Phew...ok...I feel better now. I'm done.

not the average fever

What a week! Last weekend Diya started getting sick and we thought 'oh great here we go again'. On Monday we thought she was on the road to recovery...boy, were we wrong. It turned out to be the worst sickness she's ever had. Tuesday morning daycare called saying she had a fever. She ended up having it for almost 4 days after that. She didn't touch her toys. She wanted to sleep or be held all the time. She was very cranky. It was a totally different Diya. She stayed home from daycare for 4 days. I took one day off and Premal took a couple and my mom helped us out on Friday.

Doc said she had a virus and we just had to wait for it to take its course. We could only give her meds(tylenol and Ibuprofin) to help with fever and aches and pain. She also ended up having a slight ear infection. We were very surprised at this since that was the point of getting tubes! Doc said it was unfortunate and explained that some dirt may have gotten in and partially blocked the tubes. That was just great news for us. Anyway, past weekend she was pretty much back to her normal active self.

We are definitely seeing more obvious signs of the terrible-two's. She screams so loudly when she doesn't get her way. If we yell at her she will run off crying and go to another room. She is showing signs of mini tantrums. If we take something out of her hands she cries, falls to the ground and kind of bangs it. This will be lots of fun to deal with when #2 arrives ;-)

On a more positive note, I am 2 months away from my due date. Premal brought down Diya's newborn clothes from the attic and I totally enjoyed going through them. I can't wait for him to set up the new dresser so I can start organizing it. We will need to make one more trip to the attic for the bouncer, Diya's old milk bottes, and some other random things. I'm starting to get really excited about #2! Seeing a couple of babies past weekend has gotten me even more excited. I'm also really hoping she will be early.

I'm also excited that Neha will be coming here to help us out. Her tickets aren't final yet, but she's coming begining of May and staying about a month. She is amazing with kids and I totally trust her with mine.

That's it for now.

trip to NC

We made it back in one piece from out NC trip. We all had a really, really great time. I got to relax and eat while Premal got to sleep. Diya...she loved having someone ready to play with her at any time of the day. The weather was so nice there she even got to play outside a couple of time. And of course she got to eat tons of goodies.

Diya's first flight experience was pretty much what we expected. Kinda crazy. We made one big mistake...we didn't bring a stroller with us. We were on the fence about bringing it. We finally decided not to take it thinking it would get in the way and it would mean one extra thing we would have to carry. But in the airports Diya was running around a mile-a-minute and taking full advantage of all the open space. It was difficult to catch her. Thank God Deesh and Vipul were with us. They helped out a lot. But we realized a stroller would have helped. In the plane she slept most of the time both ways. We had her video to keep her occupied when she was awake. It wasn't a long flight so that part wasn't too bad. Hopefully, when we finally make that trip to India Diya will be a bit more managable...she will be close to 2.5 yrs by then. No definite plans on the trip yet, but most likely will be late this year...like Nov or Dec.

Here are pictures from our NC trip. Their aren't too many pics.

Trip to NC

Here are Diya's pictures from the last month.

Diya in Feb 2009

my 19 month old

Diya turns 19 months old today. At what point do people stop counting months anyway? When someone asks how old is Diya, should I start referring in years now? Till now, I've noticed that my answer is usually based on who is asking. Someone whos had kids fairly recently totally get the month-lingo. Others, look little confused and as soon as I clarify with the years equivalent I can tell that made more sense to them.

Anyway, lots of things going on with Diya these days. The biggest thing is her speech probably. She says lot more words that make sense. She's gotten better at copying what we say. Even when we don't ask her she will copy us. The other day Premal said 'thanks Sweety' to me and Diya immediately copied and said 'swee-ee'. She wasn't even looking at us...she was doing her own thing and out of no where she said it. It was cute. She also says 'honey' really cute.

It has been 2 weeks since Diya has been sleeping in her big-girl bed! The change went over much better than I expected. First few days we didn't have a bed rail. So I kept couple of foam mattresses next to the bed incase she fell off. Frist day, not only did she fall of the bed, but she rolled off the foam mattresses and was pretty much on the carpet...and she was still sleeping! The bed rails have really helped. I don't think she will miss her crib anymore. Now, I'm in search for some cute girl bedding. 'Till now we've been using the baby blankets on her, but I think she's ready for big-girl blanket.

We are really looking forward to next week. We are taking a vacation to visit masi's family in NC. Masi and Om visited when Diya was born and Roshani and masa have never seen Diya. Plus, it will be the first time we see Rosh as a married woman. Can't wait to see her photos and hear all the wedding stories. It will also be the first time Diya goes on the plane. We got a direct flight and its only for few hours so hopefully it won't be too bad. This is kind of our test-run for when we make our longer journey to India which may be happening later this year.

Last, I leave you with a photo of me and my belly. Many have been asking me to see a photo of my growing belly. I feel so bad when I say that honestly this is the only photo I've taken this pregnancy that shows my belly...#2 is gonna hate me, isn't she?

fun with editing

Since its way too cold to go outside I've been teaching myself Microsoft Movie Maker during my past couple of lunch breaks. I've been meaning to learn how to do some video editing for awhile now. Finally, I jumped into it and its actually pretty easy. So, below are my first 2 projects.

I had a bunch of random videos of Diya that I wanted to post. I've also been loving the 'My Desi Girl' song from Dostana...so here is what I did.







Premal was singing the Right Here, Right Now song by Fatboy Slim few days back and Diya started copying him. So of course I had to capture it on video.

18th month

Diya is officially 18 months old today! I can't believe she is 1.5 years old. She has already started showing signs of the dreaded terrible -twos. People tell me this is about the time it starts to show. I've bulleted some random points about Diya below:

• she weighs over 25 lbs now and is almost impossible to carry
• she wears size 4 diapers
• she wears 18 month pants, 24 month tops, size 5 shoes(toddlers)
• not only can she say 'mummy' and 'daddy' she knows how to use the words
• she is definitely a daddy's girl, gone are those days when she loved me more
• she will say 'no' to show she does not approve
• she can run away very fast when she is trying to get out of doing something she doesn't want to
• she isn't afraid of getting lost in a store
• she can't play by herself in a different room
• she understands almost everything I tell her in Guju and English
• she can repeat any word you ask her to
• she likes to eat almost anything
• she loves to dance and knows the difference between doing garba and doing 'balle-balle'(punjabi dance)
• she has fallen out of her crib and fallen down the stairs
• she thinks there is a baby in everyone's belly including daddy's
• she gives great kisses and hugs now

Her photos from last month:

a video from last month:

Goodbye 2008

It was that time of year again when Xmas, Anniversary, New Years and Bday all happen in span of 10 days. We kept everything pretty low key this year.

For Christmas Disha, Vipul and the Kansagra family were the only ones around so I invited them to our place. We had a good time. Diya and Eshaan actually played nicely with each other. It is the first time that they have played so well together. It was nice to see that.

For Anniversary it started out boring, but ended nicely. I had to work 'till 8 that day. When I got home Diya was asleep and there a candle-light dinner waiting. It was a really yummy dinner and a nice time. It was our 6th.

For New Years we had planned on getting together with some friends at their place. Due to the weather we ended up having the Pandes come over our place. They brought Thai and after the kids fell asleep we stayed up late just chatting. It was relaxing.

For Bday I wasn't really in the mood to do anything big. Granted it was my big 3-0 bday, but still. After getting a ton of phone calls to wish me we finally ventured out for a nice dinner at Minerva. A place I've been wanting to try out. It was alright, but not as good as Curry Leaf which used to be there.


Now all the holidays are over and just looking forward to all the family getting back to US and hearing about their trip.

fun in the snow...

Some videos from our fun in the snow.

1.Diya had just walked outside and she goes face first in the snow. (Ignore my laughing.)

face in the snow from Diya Shah on Vimeo.

2.Then Premal pushes her around in the sled.

daddy pushing the sled from Diya Shah on Vimeo.

3.I finally take her for a real ride down the driveway.

on sled with mummy from Diya Shah on Vimeo.

recent photos and video

Here are Diya's photos from last month.

Diya 17th month

This is a video of her saying sorry. This was hard to capture and this is the best I could do. She only says it once in the begining so listen carefully.


saying sorry.. from Diya Shah on Vimeo.

Holidays are coming..

The holiday season is definitely upon us. I love this time of year...the lights, decorations, parties, music, presents...everything. Diya is already getting a lot out of this year in comparison to last year. She loves the xmas tree...or I should say she loves the lights on it. She kept pulling on them after we first put it up. So we ended up putting a "wall" around the tree.

Last week a scary thing happened. She was in her crib while I was putting her clothes away. I had my back to her for just a second as I turned around I was just in time to witness her falling out of her crib. She went head first. Thank God we have nice carpeting in that room. She didn't really get hurt, but she got really scared and starting crying. Her tounge was bleeding. My guess is that she must have bit it during the fall. She was back to playing in few minutes. But the whole thing got us thinking about maybe getting her a toddler bed. Anyways we will need the crib for #2 soon. We are holding of on that project 'till next year.

She now repeats 'ok'. If I tell her "Don't do that, ok?" She will say "ok". That doesn't mean she won't do it, but she just likes to repeat the word. She does same thing with 'alright' and 'oh God'. The 'oh God' is really cute.

Being Thankful

We had a lot to be thankful for this Thanksgiving. Main thing was that Diya's tubes procedure went really well. Whole thing was much better than we expected. We got to the hospital at 8am and were out by 10. It was little scary when we first arrived, but the nurses and doctors were real nice. They had a special gowns for all the little ones. Most of the other kids were there for the same reason. One parent was allowed to go in while they gave her the anesthesia. Due to my condition I was not allowed so Premal went in. She was down in just a couple of minutes and then Premal joined me in the waiting room. Not even 15 mins later doctor came out saying they were all done. We saw Diya in the recovery room where she had just woken up. She was a little cranky, but was soon babbling like her old self. She was 100% back to herself by the time we reached home. She had a nice big lunch then a nice long nap. She is a trooper.

Rest of the weekend we stayed in Burlington. We all had a really great time. At times it was tough to say who was enjoying more Diya or my dad. Diya quickly learned the word 'nana' and was calling for him soon as she would woke up. It was cute. She had also become nani's little helper as you can see. We were little sad when it ws time to come back home.

Diya also got a haircut. It was long over due. Although it didn't come out how I had pictured it I am happy with. I know many others may not feel the same, but not having to run around behind her every morning to do her hair it really worth it. Not to mention the easier head baths.

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.