Ami's photos from week 2

I know I am a week late with these photos.

Ami's week 2

Three weeks after Ami's arrival and things are going OK. The biggest issue currently is Ami's feeding. I know, in the last post I mentioned it was going great. Well, that took a turn for the worse and Ami started losing weight. I was having some issues so we tried to give some formula, but she doesn't like that one bit. She spits it up every time and its just a mess. I'm doing better now have gone back to the nursing routine we had before. Just hoping Ami is satisfied and started gaining weight or at least doesn't lose anymore.

Diya's jealousy has not gotten any better. She acts up everytime she sees one of us(especially Premal) holding Ami. She even says 'no baby' when she gets angry. We knew this was gonna happen. I guess we just have to deal with it and hope over time it will get better.

Ami doesn't have a set sleeping schedule yet. Yesterday she surprised us and slept for amost 6 hours straight. It sounds nice, but she missed a feeding which stresses me out.

Last week was the first week where Ami and I were alone and we didn't have any help. It went really well compared to when Diya and I used to be alone. Besides taking care of Ami I was actually able to shower, make dinner, and even take a nap before Premal and Diya got home.

Best part of the week was doing a load of laundry that contained my maternity clothes. It felt so nice knowing that I will never be wearing them ever, ever again!!!

photos and more

Hi Everyone. Things at the Shah house hold are busy these days. Ami is over 1 week old already. She is doing good. She sleeps a lot during the day, but from midnight to about 3am she likes to stay awake. Hopefully that will change soon. She feeds great...actually its a little too well. It seems like she is constantly hungry and ready for food at anytime. (Just like her big sister.)

Ami had lost 4 oz when we left the hospital. It is very normal for babies to lose weight after they are born. On Wednesday she had her first visit to the doctors. She had gained 1.5 oz by then. So it looks like she will be back to her birth weight in no time. What a difference Ami's first appointment was from Diya's first appointment. With Diya we had a million questions for the doc and we were full of stress. This time around we barely had any questions and are much more relaxed.

We have a lot of people helping out. Thanks to everyone.

Here are some photos below. We had the '6th day' ceremony. Those photos are below too.

May 2009, Ami Arrives!

Ami 's Shaathi

She's here!!

Baby has arrived!

Date: May 8th

Time: 5:30 pm

Weight: 8lb 15oz

Diya getting to know her sister

It was a Friday I will remember forever. I woke up at 6 am feeling contractions, but at that time I wasn't really sure what was going on. By 2pm we were at the hospital and by 5:30pm we were parents to 2 kids. Everything happened so fast this time around.

We are most likely going to name her Ami Shah. We expected a heavier baby then Diya, but didn't think she would be almost 9lbs!! It was a normal delivery too. We are all doing fine and will be going home tomorrow.

back home safe and sound

After almost a 2 hr delay Premal and Diya arrived safe and sound back to the US. My biggest gift was when Diya called me 'mummy' and reassured me that she didn't forget me. I know lot of people didn't know that Diya was going with Premal to India. I didn't mention it anywhere because it was a surprise for my in-laws. It was well worth it too. They were so surprised and made the whole idea totally worth it.

Diya loved India. I knew she would. She loved no seatbelts in the car, open air, balconies, no high chair, constant food, the weather, the kids next door and being totally spoiled. She or Premal didn't get sick at all. I was very concerned about that.

She hasn't been gone long, but I feel like she looks different and acts little different too. I think she may have lost a few pounds due to heat mostly. She seems as active as ever. She has gotten pretty good at drinking out of a cup. She's learned a lot of new words including some in Tamil that mummy taught her. I can tell she is missing everyone from there. When she sees photos of daddy or mummy she waves and says 'hi dada or hi dadi'. Its really cute.

The wedding seems to have gone over well. I can't believe its over and I missed it. I can't believe Neha is now a married woman. I see the photos and really feel sad that I couldn't go and be part of this important occasion. But, I'm glad at least Premal and Diya got to go.

Below are general photos of the India trip and the professional photos of the reception. The reception was given from the Shah family. Enjoy!

April 2009 India Trip

Neha Reception

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.