31 December 2014

40th birthday photos from Phuket

My 40th birthday party photos from Phuket. Some published previously. Phuket is highly recommended.

























20 May 2012

Naina's 4th birthday

Really, time does fly. It was Naina's 4th birthday a few weeks ago.

I've uploaded countless photos to Facebook.

Lots of screaming little girls, not much planned activity by me (my mistake - pass the parcel and statues next year for sure) and lots of great food by Deepti. Updating more regularly from now on.

Naina's 4th!


18 February 2012

Facebook photos

Facebook is easier to load photos on to that Blogger. So I've posted a whole heap here.

These are our five years of marriage photos...

Five years...

So it was our fifth wedding anniversary a couple of weeks back.

Deepti and Naina and Sarva had spent 10 days in Perth and I was on a work trip in Philippines. We got back on the Wednesday evening (my flight arrived 15 minutes before Deepti and the kids). The kids were as usual, excited, shy, un-sleepy and rowdy.

All seemed to be going well. Five years is a big number. Five years of anything, five years in the same job, five years in a house, five year old birthday. Plans were made. Temple at 8am. Check. Lunch at the beach, check. Dinner at White Lotus Malaysian Vegetarin. Check. Fifth anniversary wedding gift for wifey, check.

Saturday approaches. Thursday night, Sarva starts vomiting. Every time anything goes in, something comes out. The unusual wrong way. 24 hour bug, surely. Friday night, Naina wakes up, goes to the bathroom, vomits. Sarva, curious child he is, wakes up, follows and walks through said vomit. Finally, Saturday afternoon (said 5th wedding anniversary), I start feeling sick. Crawled into bed at 6pm, cursing the boy for ruining 5th wedding anniversary and manage to sleep until 10pm, before... well.. you can tell what happened next.

Glad to say we all recovered on the 29th of Jan. Yep, the day after.

We did get to White Lotus. An enjoyable fifth wedding anniversary dinner was had. One week late.

Five years....

28 October 2011

Reading

The little guy loves books. A good book can distract him from the worst scenarios of a 15 month old's mind.

On return from India, his eyes almost popped out of his head when he heard me read to Naina. He then cackled and laughed through the whole story of the Hungry Little Caterpillar. Just saying the name "Greg" is enough to distract him from eating, TV, playing, throwing balls, crying and running out the front door. Greg is the leader singer of the Wiggles, he loves to sing Hot Potato Hot Potato. And Greg wears a yellow shirt and black trousers. And Sarva is obsessed with that book.

He's now progressed on to books such as Where The Wild Things Are, Dear Zoo (can say Haathi, Snake and Giraffe and make the sounds for dogs and lions), anything else that's nearby. He's been known to read books on dinosaurs and colours and monkeys and zebras.

Funniest of all, is his demand for books exceeds all other demands, to the extent that if I read "All about my day" twice and put it down to read N a separate book, he will stand over me and hit me with said "all about my day" book. To the extent that I have to stop reading the baby dinosaur story for Naina and return to "All about my day".

Zoe and Beans: the story of binky boo

Sarva photos

Hold the boy back, there's food on the table

Silenced by sister

Who doesn't like balls?

Standing getting easier

Starting to get big

Catching up with sister, post first steps

Super size me?

Hazard perception test

Sarva

I've been a little distracted in the last few months so blogging has not been a priority. But my mind keeps coming back to how different little boys and little girls are. Sounds obvious. But let me explain.

Sarva is physically quite the specimen. There's no other way to describe it. He runs harder, he falls harder, he pinches harder and he eats... harder. His head is larger than N at the same time, as is height, weight, strength and pound for pound mischievousness.

At 9 months, Sarva was already talking clear words. On returning from India he could say "catch" very clearly, then pick up a ball, lick it like a fast bowler and then throw it. By 12 months he had progressed on to two words such as "haath hatao" meaning remove your hands from that object you shouldn't be touching little boy as well as "giraffe" "haathi" (elephant) and "haaat" (hot from hot potato). He's now at 15 months saying phrases such as ball gone and snake. However, what's been amusing us the most is his penchant for asking how we are at all times of day.

Sarva: "Hi"
Me: "Hi"
Sarva: "Kaise Ho" (How are you)
Me: "Teek hai (fine), tum kaise ho (and you)?"
Sarva: "Accha. Hi" (and repeat)

This conversation usually occurs at the bathroom door at 6:45 in the morning. It's hilarity. Obviously arguable that he's learnt a lot from his sister and how to get our attention by non-physical means, but it is such a pleasant surprise when he comes out with a new word. Like when at friends house recently he came out with "No touching". Seriously.

He's also been climbing stairs from about 10 months. On one occasion Naina opened the gate and left it open. He silently and confidently followed her up. And I've caught him counting on the steps as well. Deepti likes to walk him up the stairs in the evening saying the numbers. He's got to six already. I'm flummoxed. The boy's a verbal genius destined for reform school. You see....

In recent weeks I've caught him in the flour cupboard throwing rice and flour everywhere, about to hit me with a hardback book because I can't read fast enough, biting all three of us when we're not expecting, running out the door at great speed for the road, breaking both ducted vacuum door flaps through sheer force, breaking several dishes, breaking into the wipes bag and throwing wipes everywhere, breaking into the kitchen draws and throwing items everywhere, starting the washing machine by himself and most recently (which awarded him a smack), tipping the formula tin on to the floor, opening it and contentedly eating away at dry formula. Other favourite meals - wood chips, mud and spicey foods.

I'm sure this phase of naughtiness will evolve into something less destructive, but I'm not putting a date on it. Did I mention he likes to hit me with books when I don't read fast enough to him?