Biren and Kristen's Universe

July Update - Weddings and Dance Class

nospam@example.com (Biren) — Sun, 08 Aug 2010 21:57:00 -0600

July was an incredibly crazy month for us. To start, both of our brothers got married. Dave and Leah's wedding was on July 10th, while Niral and Liz's wedding was two weeks later on the 24th. Niral and Liz had an additional party the weekend in between, during which the engagement ceremony was held. The Friday evening before Dave's wedding, Kris headed down to where the wedding was for the rehearsal dinner and spent the night there at the hotel. I stayed home with the girls since our usual babysitters (ie Kris' parents) were also involved with the rehearsal dinner. Kris was in the wedding, so she was busy most of the day Saturday with hair and makeup. I got the girls ready and took them over to Jen and Steve's house who were incredibly kind enough to watch the girls for the night, while I headed down to the wedding myself. This was the girls' first real sleep over, and who better to have one with than their best pal Grace! We were nervous about leaving the girls with them, since they've never stayed with anyone other than us or Grammy/Papa, but they did fine!

Kris and I had a blast at the wedding, and it was nice to see everybody. We partied well into the night, and went to sleep at the hotel. We got up and picked up the girls the next morning. We were happy to see the girls, and they were happy to see us!

The next weekend, we drove down to NY for the weekend to partake in the festivities surrounding Niral and Liz's engagement. Since they live out in California, they had never had a chance to perform the ceremony, so they opted to do it a week before the wedding, since they'd be in town. This was our first really long drive with the girls really potty trained. That meant frequent stops, which resulted in a very long car ride. Once we got to my parents house, we relaxed and chatted with the rest of my family that was visiting for the big wedding. Some of my aunts/uncles from India were there. It was nice to see them, as well as my cousins and other aunts/uncles that continued to show up during the week.

While the ceremony was really nice and fun, the girls were very shy the entire weekend, and clung to us most of the time. I think the sheer number of people at the house for the weekend just freaked them out a little. That trepidation didn't subside the following weekend, either, when we drove back to NY for the actual wedding. Since I was in the wedding this time, Kris had to handle the girls herself while I did what I needed to do. The girls basically latched on to Kris and wouldn't leave her side for a second. They were very well behaved during the wedding ceremony, though... Kath was even smiling and waving at my brother at one point, which was cute. The ceremony itself was just wonderful. They had a Reverend who specialized in inter-faith marriages who basically blended a lot of the Chrisitan and Hindu traditions/cultures for what amounted to a really great ceremony. It was very unique, and I think it went very well. We lasted another couple hours maybe, before we had to leave the wedding because the girls were just not cooperating. There were just too many unknown faces for them to handle. So we wished my brother and new sister-in-law well, and headed to the hotel for the night and put the girls to sleep.

Somewhere between Dave and Niral's wedding weekends, Kris started a 4-week dance/gymnastics class session with the girls. Kris showed up to the first class and found out that parents aren't allowed in the room with the kids. Parents are supposed to go to another room and watch the class from video monitors. While Kris tried to get the girls into the room without her, it was definitely not working. I think had we known parents weren't allowed in there, we wouldn't have even signed up for it. So unfortunately, Kris had to just leave. She ended up being able to transfer the girls to a "Mommy and Me" class instead, in which parents are allowed to be with the kids. So she finished out the remaining three weeks doing that instead. The girls really enjoyed that. The class included some dancing in the dance studio and play/gymnastics in the play room. We are planning to enroll them in an 8 week session with the same teacher (who they loved) starting in Sept.

The girls are clearly in a phase right now where they're very weary around strangers. They even tend to get that way around people they do know, if there are others who they don't know also around. Hopefully they grow out of that very soon, because it makes it difficult for us to do anything, if they're always clinging to us wherever we go.

The girls are also developing fears now, and really learning what it means to be scared. Kath is now afraid of the dark in her bedroom. It got to the point last night, where I had to put a night light in the room. Her fear has been growing bit by bit over the past couple weeks, and now it's reached an apex. The night light seems to have made her happy for now.

They're kids, and these are phases that we expected them to go through. It's just interesting the things that come up out of the blue. As parents, you're constantly being thrown curve balls... it really keeps you on your toes. Logically, you wonder... well, you've been sleeping in your bed like this for two and a half years, without any problems... why now, are you afraid of something? Or, you've been fine around other people for so long, but why now do you get freaked out? These are just phases that we have to support the girls through, and I'm sure they'll come out on the other side soon enough.

In other news, this weekend was Kris' annual trip to Hampton Beach with her college friends, so I was with the girls myself all weekend. Yesterday, we were having a fine time on the deck with the girls' little kiddie pool. The girls were running around on the deck having a hoot, when all of a sudden Kath starts screaming and saying she has a boo boo on her foot. I pick her up and see two very nasty splinters in her foot (pictured right). These weren't splinters, even, they were small spears of wood! I've never seen anything like that before! I, myself, have never gotten anything like that! I calmed Kath down and was able to get the one in her toe out myself, but the one that was in the bottom of her foot was going to require assistance. Unfortunately, I had to have Kris drive back (luckily Hampton Beach is only about a half hour away) to help me get it out. It was a doozy, and we made Kath scream bloody murder, but we were able to get it out. She was fine as soon as we were done poking and prodding her with a safety pin and tweezer. Poor girl...

Alright, I've rambled on long enough for this post... I will leave you with a couple videos for your viewing pleasure.

Fun on the swings

The Great Jump

[July Photos]
[Niral & Liz Engagement Party Photos]
[Niral & Liz's Wedding Photos]

June/Luau/Story Land/Pool

nospam@example.com (Biren) — Mon, 05 Jul 2010 23:40:00 -0600

June was a pretty fun month for the girls. Two out of the three theme parks we visited this year were visited in June. As you may already know, we went to Sesame Place earlier in the month, and just last weekend, wrapping up June, we went to Story Land. It was our second annual pilgrimage to North Conway, NH with our good friends, the Kings. Last year, you might recall we stayed one night at the Adventure Suites... This year, we decided to rent a house and make it a two night stay. It was actually cheaper to do this, and we got an extra night. The place is owned by acquaintances of mine, and we can't say enough about the place. It was the perfect place for us. Very nice accommodations, and I recommend it to anyone looking to stay up in that area.

Kinda funny story, the house has an old gondola in the basement with a ski racer mannequin in it. The girls saw him and referred to him as "the man", and constantly wanted to see him all weekend. So for us, it was a great bribe... "you can go see the man if you finish eating your supper"... "you can go see the man tomorrow if you stay in your beds and go to sleep"... On the flip side, Grace was a little afraid of "the man" at first, and the opposite bribery worked on her... "Eat your supper, or I'm gonna take you down to see the man"...

Story Land allows you to buy tickets after 2pm (or 3pm in July/August) to enjoy the park for the remaining three hours that it's open and also come back another day for free. So we took advantage of that and spent a couple hours at the park Monday evening, and then planned on going back Tuesday for the day before driving back home. We were able to hit almost every ride that Monday evening, which was great! As it turns out, the next day, Kath would get sick with a raging fever forcing us to leave after just a couple of rides and some lunch. So it turned out to be a really good thing we got in almost all the rides we wanted to get on the day before. The long weekend was really fun, and we can't wait to go back next year with the Kings.

So Kath was basically sick for the next couple days, followed by Karina being sick for a couple days, followed by me and Kris being sick for a couple days. This past Thursday night, I had gotten Lady GaGa tickets as a gift for Kris' birthday, and unfortunately it was near the height of our sickness... We still muscled our way into the city and enjoyed the show. Speaking of Kris' birthday, that just happens to be today! Happy Birthday Kris!

The day before we left for Story Land, we went to Kris' cousin Phil's house. It was Phil and Bonnie's (his wife) 12th annual luau... They had two big inflatable water slides and a nice swing set outside. It was a beautiful day, and while the girls played in the pool at the bottom of the slide, they were terrified of the slide itself. Kris sent each of the girls down the slide once, but that was about it because they didn't like it. We also got to see Monica, Kris' cousin Russ' wife, and Fiona and Maeve, their daughters. Russ and family just returned to MA after living and working in Germany for a couple of years. The party was a lot of fun, and we were happy to have finally made it to the infamous shindig

Going back a little further, a little bit before the Story Land/Luau shenanigans, Kris took the girls up to Hampton Beach to spend a day at the beach with Jen and Grace. The girls have been very iffy at the beach in the past, but this time they did really great and had a fun time. They didn't cry getting close to the water, and even stepped in the water a little bit. Before, we couldn't even stand in the water ourselves while holding them! They had a lot of fun running around in the sand playing with their best pal Grace.

Yesterday, since Kris and I were finally feeling a little better and it was such a nice day out... we decided to head on over to Grammy and Papa's house for a cookout and to enjoy the pool on the very hot day... not to mention it was the fourth of July, so a cookout was definitely in order. The girls are growing more and more comfortable with the pool with each visit, and yesterday they were even stepping down the first couple steps of the pool by themselves, holding on to the railing. They were very careful the entire time, which was nice to see...that they weren't being reckless around the pool. Both girls were even swimming around the pool with their inflatable tubes. Seeing as how it's supposed to be in the 90s this whole week, chances are the girls will be back at the pool this week while I'm at work.

Finally, I will conclude with a potty update... Up until last night, Karina had a perfect record for a number of weeks... going without an accident (number one or two)... unfortunately, last night she had an accident (number 1) during a tantrum she was throwing. It might've been our fault, as we were trying to keep them up so they could watch the fireworks on TV. In the end, neither of them could make it that late and were having major meltdowns (Kath also peed herself around the same time). So they went to bed, and I taped the fireworks, and they watched them twice today. Kath continues to have poop accidents, and has an approximately 85-90% success rate with peeing. She unfortunately still seems to have pee accidents almost daily. We're really glad that at least Karina is basically 100% potty trained, because it would be really difficult to be dealing with two accident prone toddlers in this house.

Alright, that's about it... here are all the pics of the events referenced above

[Luau Photos]
[Story Land Photos]
[June Photos]
[Fourth of July Photos]

May Update

nospam@example.com (Biren) — Sun, 13 Jun 2010 23:01:00 -0600

Well, as you've all probably noticed, I've been posting a little less than usual... I think I'm gonna start posting photos on a monthly basis, mostly because we're just not taking as many photos as we used to, so no point putting up ten photos a week, or something. So below you'll find a link to all the photos taken in May (and yes, I know I'm almost halfway into June haha).

We had a pretty good May... we had brunch with Mickey/Minnie, we hosted a Cinco De Mayo party, we visited Sesame Place, and Dada/Dida came to visit the girls, at which point we also celebrated Dida's birthday. At the very end of May, the girls even snuck in their first trip of the season to the pool at Grammy and Papa's house. The girls have been up to all kinds of shenanigans, some of which is evidenced in the video below.

May also happens to be the month we started potty training the girls... and by we, I mean mostly Kris. Kris has been doing an amazing job really getting the girls to use the potty... Since they're just learning, they've absolutely had many accidents, but they're becoming less frequent. The girls are actually doing pretty well with it, and I am very anxiously looking forward to the day we are DONE with diapers. It's only been a few weeks of training so far, so we have a little ways to go before the girls will be total pros, but we're headed in the right direction. Exciting times

For anyone interested in how we're doing it, we bought two Baby Bjorn potties for the girls, and we offer them a treat for every successful trip to the potty. A treat being a little bite sized Snicker's or Kit Kat. We had tried to do it with stickers before, and while they always wanted the stickers, it was nowhere near the motivation a little candy is... they really look forward to that piece of candy (imagine that), so it's been working pretty well.

We're also teaching them to wipe, throw the toilet paper into the toilet, and flush. They love flushing the toilet, so the whole process is going very well. Karina even had her first poop on the potty on Friday! They're basically in undies all day except during naps and sleeping at night... and also if we go out, we don't want any accidents while in a store or something.

Alright, those are the major updates... I leave you with the aforementioned video of shenanigans...

Somersaults and Other Madness

[May 2010 Photos]

Sesame Place

nospam@example.com (Biren) — Sun, 06 Jun 2010 22:49:00 -0600

After a lot of Disney related stuff going on of late, we switched gears and took the girls to see some of their favorite characters at Sesame Place. We made a long weekend of it driving down Friday and spending the weekend with our friends Ushir and Susan (along with their two sons Evan and Aaron). Ush's cousin Parimal also came along with his wife Tina, son Sahil and daughter Rhea. Going out for dinners with the 12 of us was quite a scene, but we managed pretty well.

We spent all day Saturday over at Sesame Place, which is mostly a water park. We decided we would knock out the few "dry" rides they had first, and then head over to our scheduled lunch with Big Bird and Friends before wrapping up the majority of the day at the various water rides. We started the day with your standard rides... the tea cups, the flying fish (which was like the Dumbo ride at Disney), and the balloon ride (which was essentially the same as the flying fish but balloons that you ride in). The girls did just fine on those, which is a relief since we'll be at Storyland in a few weeks, which will be a lot of those kinds of rides.

Next was lunch with Big Bird and friends (Elmo, Cookie Monster, Zoe, Bert, and Ernie). The girls got to meet each and every one of them, which was real nice. They really enjoyed seeing everyone, and we got some nice pics of them giving hugs and high fives to them all. In between going table to table meeting all the kids, the characters did little performances to further entertain everyone. It was a pretty nice little lunch, and we were happy we signed up for it.

After lunch, we got the girls changed into their bathing suits and hit all the water rides. The girls enjoyed the teeny tiny tidal pool, water slides, and even the lazy river. They just laid on their tube as we slowly went down the lazy river. The girls are doing much better with their fear of the water... the tidal pool was basically mostly ankle deep, so they loved that area, and just kept splashing each other and anyone else that came near them. They never liked it when water fell on their head, but other than that they did real well with the water.

We wrapped things up with a walk down a replica of Sesame Street itself. It was a long day, but well worth it. We all had a fantastic time, and actually look forward to going back next year.

[Sesame Place Photos]

Birthday Party/Mickey Minnie Breakfast

nospam@example.com (Biren) — Sun, 16 May 2010 17:11:00 -0600

Earlier this week, we finally got our new fence put in. I had installed some deer fencing before for Homer, but he kept chewing through it, or digging under it and getting out. After many failed attempts to deter him, we finally decided to tear it down and get a real wooden one put in. The fence looks fantastic, and Homer absolutely loves running around freely down there. Unfortunately, he's still very much a digger, so we still have to watch him, as he's already dug some big holes near the edge of the fence, which if we let him continue, he could eventually walk right under the fence. We've noticed he doesn't dig anywhere there's grass, so we're gonna throw down some grass seed in all the dirt areas, and hopefully soon enough, he won't bother. Regardless, we're very happy with the fence, and so is Homer.

Yesterday, we headed on down to the James' residence to celebrate Max's birthday! Li'l guy turned two, and the girls had a blast at the party. It was such a great day, we were able to be outside the whole time. I have to also acknowledge Julie's amazing Elmo cupcakes. Those suckers were so freaking delicious! Karina enjoyed eating Elmo's eyeballs (chocolate chips) the most! They party was a really fun time, though. It's great at this age now, you can just let them run around and have fun, and not really have to chase them around. So it was much more relaxing for Kris and I too. Last year, the girls wouldn't stop eating rocks haha!

Earlier this morning, we went to a restaurant that does character breakfasts every other weekend. Today, Mickey and Minnie were scheduled to be there, so we had decided a couple weeks ago to make a reservation and go. We invited Jen, Steve, and Grace to come along as we thought it'd be fun to go together. The girls had a great time and were very well behaved. Minnie was the first to come over to our table, and both girls went right over to her and even stood next to her for pictures. A little later, however, when Mickey came over, Kath was a little scared and didn't want me to put her down... But Reeny, the usual scaredy cat, was fine, and went right over to him. Not sure why Kath was frightened by Mickey... Oh well, at least she didn't cry. As far as the breakfast itself goes, it was a buffet, so there was a ton of food including an omelet station to choose from. We were pretty stuffed by the end of our "adventure".

Cinco De Mayo

nospam@example.com (Biren) — Tue, 04 May 2010 21:59:00 -0600

This past Saturday, Kris and I decided to kick off the summer with a Cinco de Mayo themed cookout. We had a fantastic turnout! So many friends, and so many kids of all ages to partake in the fun. We even had a pinata for the kids to take turns whacking. Ultimately, as you can imagine, it was the older kids that took care of it, allowing everyone to fight for the candy guts. The girls and the other younger kids still had fun hitting it with a stick. Most of the party was spent outside by the swing set, since it was such a beautiful day. Everything went really great, and we had a blast hosting the shindig. We got to see a lot of people we hadn't seen in quite a while, so it was really nice. All of the kids seemed to have a really fun time too, which was great!

Thanks to Eleanor, I have a TON of photos from the party. Please click the link below to see them all! But before you get to that, I will leave you with a video of the girls playing with their Stand N Spin, er Sit N Spin...

Stand N Spin

Cinco De Mayo Party Photos
End of April Photos

Florida Vacation

nospam@example.com (Biren) — Sun, 18 Apr 2010 22:04:00 -0600

After much anticipation and built up excitement, our vacation to Florida came and went. We were incredibly nervous about how the girls would do on the flight itself, but the girls ended up doing really well, both ways. While they didn't cry or scream at all, they were very loud when they talked. Karina, especially. If that's the worst thing that was gonna happen, we'll take it.

While the flight itself was great, the rest of our first night in Florida was a complete nightmare. We will never EVER rent a car from Budget again... The only reason we had booked with Budget was because we got a rate that was over a hundred dollars cheaper than everyone else. After our experience, we've decided it was absolutely not worth saving $100, or any amount really, to have to deal with Budget. Kris sat in an area away from the line with the girls, while I waited in line to get our car. In the end, I waited in line for just under TWO hours before we got our car. Meanwhile, about 15 minutes into waiting, poor Karina pooped in her diaper... but Kris couldn't go change her, cause I had to wait in line, and she was also guarding 3 suitcases, camera bag, diaper bag and her purse. There was no way she could make it to the bathroom with all the luggage and both kids. The girls got very cranky very quickly while having to wait... I was completely miserable from standing in that line for 2 hours... and when I get up to the counter, the guy tries to offer me a 90% discount on an upgrade to a convertible. I'm like, what is wrong with you? I just want the car I reserved, and the two car seats I requested. WHY would you offer me a convertible when I've requested car seats? His response? "You requested car seats? I don't see that on the reservation." Next thing you know, he's holding my iPhone with the confirmation email (which I had forgotten to print out), scratching his head. In the end it got worked out. The really crappy thing was, EVERY other car rental company there had NO line. Budget was the ONLY one... we should've just gave up our reservation and just walked over to another counter. Stay away from Budget, is my advice.

Orlando International Airport is about an hour away from Grammy and Papa's condo, where we would be staying, so after we got the car and got the car seats installed, we were on our way. We were ALL starving, so we found a McDonald's to grab some quick food. We finally got to the condo around 10:30 (plane had landed at 6:30). We got the girls ready for bed, and put 'em down. They fell asleep immediately. It was the first time they slept in real beds (twin size). Grammy and Papa had taken some bed rails we bought down with them the last time they were there a month or so ago, and kindly had already installed them for us. So the beds were all set for use. The girls absolutely loved sleeping in real beds. They looked so cozy in 'em! Soon after, Kris and I also passed out... we were so exhausted.

We took it easy the next day, going to the beach and just hangin' around... but the day after, we headed back to Orlando to visit Disney for the day. BIG shout out to Nisha for hooking us up with a couple passes to Disney. We didn't get to the park until about 11 or 11:30 since it was another hour or so. It was a long and exhausting day, but certainly worth it. Kath did a little better than Reeny, I would say, as far as the rides go. Karina cried on every single ride we went on, except the merry go round. She even cried on It's A Small World. Kath liked that one, although like Reeny also cried on Pirates of the Caribbean and the Winnie the Pooh ride. I think it was the darkness they didn't really like. They both HATED the drop in Pirates, cause it gets pitch black before your boat goes down that hill. I think next year, when they're older, hopefully they'll do much better with those rides. Kath absolutely loved meeting the characters. We met Cinderella, Belle, Sleeping Beauty, Winnie the Pooh and Tigger. Kath LOVED that part the most, I think. Karina did ok meeting everyone, except Belle and Sleeping Beauty for some reason. She just met with Cinderella and did fine. We walked right over to Belle and she was done. Wanted to be picked up and wouldn't stop crying. No idea why. It was an incredibly busy day at Disney (we found out later that they had actually closed the park for a little while because it was at capacity!), but we did pretty well. We didn't really get on that many rides, as there was a lot of walking involved, but the rides we did go on, we didn't wait for more than 20 or 30 minutes... that includes the character meet & greets. After about 6 hours at the park, we did a little quick souvenir shopping (we had to get 'em some Mickey ears), and then headed home. The girls really did great at the park. They only really cried on the rides they didn't like, but otherwise were really good.

The rest of our time was mostly spent at the beach near the condo or the playground that was also nearby. We took the girls down to the pool once, and Karina wouldn't go anywhere near the pool... It was a very slow process, but Kris finally got Kath in on the second step in, so the water was up to her belly. That's about as far as she would go. She was still kind of afraid, but at least got in there, unlike Karina. They absolutely love swimming around in the tub every day, so I have no idea why they're so weird around the pool. We're gonna have to work on that... They were also still very upset by the water at the beach, so when we were at the beach, we pretty much stuck to playing in the sand. The girls and Kris walked around a lot looking for seashells (of which there are a TON of there).

We also drove up to Cocoa Beach one day (about 15 miles away) to hang out on the pier there. The girls really liked watching all the surfers and birds everywhere. The pelicans get real close to you there too, so it was cool to see them up close. Other than that, we sampled a lot of the fine dining in the area and just enjoyed ourselves. The trip came to an end really quickly, as you can imagine. We really wished we had made the trip a little longer, but it was really nice nevertheless. As I mentioned before, the girls were fantastic on the flight back as well. Unfortunately, the very next day, Kath was sick. Fever and runny nose. So maybe it was good that we came back when we did... although, it's possible it was the extreme temperature change that got her sick... probably a 20-30 degree swing in temperature. The day after, Reeny started getting sick. It was only yesterday morning that they started feeling better, but up until then, they were miserable. Kath had a horrible cough too.

Speaking of yesterday, Kris' cousin Phil came over for a visit with his wife Bonnie and their daughters Kate and Jess. Jess is about the same age as the girls, maybe a few months younger, and Kate is about 4. We had a great time hanging out and watching the girls play. Today, I spent most of the morning alone with the girls, while Kris was out at a surprise baby shower for her friend Iz. Kris had a great time, and we all wish Iz the best in the coming weeks! Can't wait to meet the li'l tyke!

Well, that does it for this post. Stinks to be back from vacation, but we have a lot more fun to look forward to this summer! We'll be visiting Sesame Place and Storyland in June, not to mention all the cookouts we'll surely be attending! Yeay summer!!

[Florida Photos]

Easter

nospam@example.com (Biren) — Sun, 04 Apr 2010 22:38:00 -0600

It was an eggciting (hehehe) Easter weekend. Although, this post starts earlier in the week, when we let the girls decorate some Easter eggs. We were going to let the girls actually color the eggs, but then thought better of that plan last minute. Instead Kris and I colored the eggs, and when they dried, we let the girls put stickers on 'em and decorate them. They had a great time playing around. I would say the eggs lasted about 20-25 minutes before they were all broken haha!

Yesterday, we had a visit from the Mankad family (close family friends of mine, who I consider actual family) all the way from Pennsylvania. It was the first time Aroon mama, Geeta mami, and Rahul visited our house, so it was great to have them over and see the place. Hiral came as well along with Manisha. Her husband, Mehool, had just flown to Japan for work that morning, so he wasn't able to come. The girls had a really great time playing with Manisha (she's about a year older than the girls). It was such a beautiful day, we spent a lot of our time outside playing aroung the swing set too! It was a great visit, and we all had a lot of fun.

Late last night, Kris and I put together 24 little plastic eggs with little treats inside each of them, and hid them around the great room for the girls' first ever Easter Egg hunt this morning. We couldn't wait to get the girls in the morning for the hunt. Kris had also put together two Easter baskets filled with goodies for the girls that they got first thing this morning. They got some stuffed chicks, chocolates, a slinky, sparkly socks and some other random stuff. Needless to say, breakfast this morning started off with chocolate. We had to bribe them with the idea of the egg hunt to get them to finish their breakfast. Once they ate enough, we let them loose in the great room in search of all the eggs. They were fast! They zoomed around the whole room in search of more and more chocolate. Every time they found an egg, they tried to open the chocolate that was in it to eat it. We had to stop 'em after a couple, cause we didn't want them eating THAT many pieces of chocolate. So the girls collected all the eggs and treats and put them in a basket that they can see on the mantle. And we'll give 'em a little over time. All in all, it went great, and the girls had a fantastic time! It'll be even more fun next year when we can get even more creative with the hiding part, since they'll be older and even smarter.

Early afternoon, Grammy, Papa, and Uncle Dave came by to give the girls some more Easter gifts. We all hung out outside for a while, as the girls played on the swing set, since we had yet another fantastic day, weather-wise. Then we had a nice lunch out on the deck. All in all, it was a great Easter Sunday and we were all pooped by day's end.

Finally, I will leave you with a funny video of the girls "playing" Ring Around the Rosie.

Ring Around The Rosie [March 31, 2010]

[The Mankads Visit]
[Easter Eggs]
[Easter Egg Hunt]

Busy Weekends

nospam@example.com (Biren) — Sun, 21 Mar 2010 23:24:00 -0600

The last two weekends have been pretty busy. Last weekend, my parents (aka Dida and Dada) drove up from NY to visit. My mom had been in India since November and just got back recently, so it had been a while since she saw the girls in person. They brought lots of clothes and toys for the girls from India, which they loved. The girls had a great weekend with Dida and Dada.

Later in the week, on Thursday, the girls got their new swing set installed in our yard! The installation was complete around 9:30am and the girls were out there trying it out right away! They absolutely love their new swing set, and I'm glad we got the one we did. It's perfect! With all the beautiful weather we've been having all week, the girls have been out at least twice a day to play on it!

Yesterday, my father in law (Papa) came over with his chainsaw to help me knock down two giant dead trees in our backyard. We are going to have a new stockade fence installed in the backyard and I wanted to get rid of those trees before the fence goes in. In addition to getting those trees down, I removed the fence I had installed last year and dug up a bunch of bush stumps (that is back-breaking labor, whew!). Since Homer continues to get out of the fence I installed last year (which was basically a type of deer fence), we decided it's time to give up on it and get a proper wooden one installed. The yard is too sloped and uneven for me to be comfortable attempting to put it in myself, so we'll hire the pros to do it. We have some more cleanup to do in the backyard, but we'll be soon within the next week or so.

Later in the day yesterday, Dave and Leah came over to help celebrate Grammy's birthday. The girls love birthdays and very much enjoy singing "Happy Birthday". They do it all the time, even when it's not anyone's birthday, haha! It was such a beautiful day, we spent a number of hours just sitting on the grass, watching the girls play on the swing set, and just run around. We wrapped things up with dinner and cake. It was a nice day, and the girls enjoyed themselves, especially with the great weather. They got to be outside for a long time.

Earlier today, we headed out to visit Dan, Ange, and their newborn baby son, Balin. As usual, Kath was all over him, and gave him many hugs and kisses. Kath really loves babies, and always has to hug and kiss them... repeatedly. So we weren't surprised today as she doled out the love. Balin's so cute, and it was great to see him in person. It had been a while since we saw Dan and Ange too, so it was great to get together for a bit today.

Finally, here's a fun "before/during/after" photo of my face. Laziness consumed me for a number of months where I didn't shave or cut my hair at all... The itchiness of my beard eventually overtook the laziness, and I finally decided to shave it all off... That middle picture was Kris' attempt to give me a mohawk, haha!

Two weeks til Florida!!!!!!

[March 10-20 Photos]
[Swingset photos]
[Grammy's Birthday]
[Visit Dan, Ange, and Balin]

Lots of parties!

nospam@example.com (Biren) — Sun, 07 Mar 2010 22:29:00 -0700

Last Saturday, Kris and her Regis friends had their annual post-Christmas get together at the King's house. Usually the "boys" are not allowed at these annual get togethers, but this year girls and I went too. In addition to Grace, Susan's son Chase was there. The four kids had a fun time playing together and we had a great time catching up with everybody.

We had a long day yesterday, filled with parties. In the morning, we headed over to the Klubhouse, for Jack's 3rd birthday party! Jeff and Amy chose a great location for the party, as the girls had an amazing time. The Klubhouse had so many different things to play with, the girls never tired.

After spending the morning there, we came home and thought the girls would be exhausted enough that they would take a good nap before heading over to Will and Corri's house for their housewarming party. That wasn't the case. Karina was being a troublemaker... They were able to sleep for about 40 minutes. Not ideal at all, and it was evident as we woke them up to go to Will's and Karina was very cranky. Even when we got to Will's house, she wasn't herself. It took a little while, but both girls finally mellowed out and had themselves a good time. There were a couple other kids at the party too including their friend Juliette so it was nice. It was great to relax and see some friends as well.

In other news, only four weeks til we go to Florida! Woohoo!!

[Regis Get Together Photos]
[Feb 25 - Mar 2, 2010 Photos]
[Jack's Birthday Party Photos]

Night Terrors, Stomach Bugs, and "Big Girl Beds"

nospam@example.com (Biren) — Sun, 21 Feb 2010 22:19:00 -0700

So much to talk about!! I'll get right to it... lately, Karina has been waking up with night terrors. The first couple times, we just thought she woke up screaming/crying for no real reason, maybe a nightmare or something, but when we got her and picked her up she was really unresponsive to our efforts to comfort her. She almost seemed like she was having a seizure, with erratic, seemingly uncontrolled arm movements. She just wouldn't stop screaming, and definitely seemed out of it, even though her eyes were open and she was looking around. After this happened twice, we looked into it a little, and we realized that she was having night terrors. I guess it can be pretty common for kids at this age. It's a really upsetting thing to watch your child scream in such pain and anguish, and not be able to do anything to help her. When kids have night terrors, you're supposed to just sit next to them and make sure they don't hurt themselves and let the night terror pass on its own. Picking them up or talking to them is supposed to be a bad thing that actually makes the experience even worse for the poor kid. So we've been trying that, and after about 10-15 minutes, it does usually pass, and she's ok again... Most of the times, we're pretty certain it's triggered by a lack of nap during the day or if she just didn't sleep very well during her nap.

A few weeks ago, right before these night terrors occurred, Karina woke up screaming one night and we did as we usually do and let her cry without going into the room, because 90% of the times she's woken up like that, she goes back to sleep on her own within 5 minutes. After about 5 minutes passed, and we were just about to go get her, she stopped and went back to sleep. Kris thought, maybe I should go in there and at least wipe her face, because it's probably soaked in tears and what not... I told her, just leave her, she just fell back asleep and you'll end up waking her. Kris decided to go in anyway, and thank goodness! Karina had thrown up everywhere! Poor girl had vomited and was then laying in it! Turns out she caught that stomach bug that has been going around up here lately. We cleaned her up, changed sheets and put her back to bed... a couple of days later, Kris started to not feel so great... then later that night, I wasn't feeling so great. Long story short, both Kris and I got knocked out really good by the stomach bug. Luckily, most of our woes occurred after the girls were in bed for the night.

Alright, enough "bad" stories. For the first time since the girls have been born, we've finally booked ourselves a real vacation. We've taken short trips here and there, but never one that required an airplane. In a couple months, we are going down to Florida for a week! Grammy and Papa have a condo down there right near the beach, so we'll stay there. It's close enough to Orlando, so we're thinking we'll take a day trip to Disney World one day. I'm sure the girls will love that. We're very excited about the trip, but also very nervous about how the flight is going to go. Hopefully the girls will love it, and do great. We're flying JetBlue, so at least we'll have the TV screens for them to watch if all else fails haha!

In order for that trip to be a success, the girls are going to have to learn to sleep on real beds. They're way too big for Pack N' Plays now, and there are no cribs at the condo. There are, however, two twin beds that they'll use. So, in an effort to start training them now, we decided to pull the fronts of their cribs off last night. I did install a bed rail, though, so they don't fall out of bed in the middle of the night. They really like to curl up right against the edges of the crib. But the bed rail still allows them to get in and out of bed on their own. To keep an eye on them during this training period, I also installed a night vision camera in the room, so we can see if they're actually sleeping, or if they got out of bed to play with their toys. They did pretty well their first night. Reeny stayed in her bed, but Kath got out a couple times to walk around, and even climbed into Reeny's bed at one point. After about 5 or 10 minutes, though, she had gone back to her own bed, and went to sleep. Success!! Naptime today, however, didn't actually include any napping. They refused to stay in their beds. As we watched them on the camera, I would yell to tell them to get back into their beds, and they would... but then not even a minute later, they'd be out again. We were afraid of this... the shades in the room don't really darken it that much, so it's usually fairly bright in the room during naptime. So that doesn't help. At least at night, it's dark in there, and they know they should be sleeping. It might take us a week or two (hopefully no longer) to get them properly napping in there, without getting out of their bed to play. Even tonight, Kath got out of bed at one point, but we yelled up and told her to go back into her bed and she did... and then they both went to sleep. So it seems they'll do just fine at nights... it's the daytime nap we have to figure out. It's only been one day, so hopefully it'll get better.

Earlier today Randy, Julie, and Max came over for a playdate. We also planned to go out for lunch together, as they had a gift card they wanted to use for a restaurant that just happened to be in our neck of the woods. The girls had a really great time playing with Max, as they hadn't seen him since their birthday party. Max seemed to have a fantastic time, and really loved the big slide we have in our great room. Lunch went really well too. It was nice to hang out with them, as it had been a few months since we all got together.

Finally, I leave you with a video of the girls singing their ABCs. They've been able to do this for a while now, but I've been incredibly lazy with the camcorder of late. I keep saying "I gotta get that on video", and then just never do. They're really good at singing the Itsy Bitsy Spider too... so one of these days, I'll get that one taped Anyway, here's the ABCs... and listen for Karina's funny "break" in the video

Singing the ABCs

[February 4 -21, 2010 Photos]

Children's Museum

nospam@example.com (Biren) — Fri, 12 Feb 2010 17:05:00 -0700

I took the day off from work today for a couple reasons. One was to give myself an extra long weekend, as Monday is a holiday. The second was to take the girls to the Boston Children's Museum. Why didn't we just go tomorrow or Monday? To avoid big crowds. I think it worked out nicely, because it was an excellent experience today. It wasn't very crowded at all.

The girls had the best time. We probably spent about three hours there. I'm gonna go out on a limb and say that the girls' favorite part was the Arthur exhibit. They also had a Peep's World exhibit, which is a newish show on PBS (as far as I know) that the girls really like.

There were a couple sections that were more suited for slightly older kids, so we'll definitely be making another trip either closer to the end of the year or this time next year, when the girls are older. I think they'll enjoy it even more. But regardless of that, the girls had the best time today. Kris and I even had a great time!

[Children's Museum Photos]

January 2010

nospam@example.com (Biren) — Sun, 31 Jan 2010 21:48:00 -0700

It's been a few weeks since I've posted anything! Not even because I've been too busy... There just hasn't been much going on worthy of talking about. It's been pretty low key for the past few weeks. The girls are certainly getting smarter and funnier by the day (as evidenced by the latest batch of photos)... I would have to write a novel if I were to sit down and right every little funny thing they did... I'll let the photos give you a small idea of what they've been up to.

We've been rotating through a little sickness as well. First Kris was sick for a few days, then I got a little sick... and now it's been the girls for the past few days, although they're mostly over it. None of us ever really got a fever or anything, just a cold. The runny noses, as usual, have been annoying to deal with given the high grossness factor. They should be over them fully in another day or two, I would think.

Not many fun stories to recount for this post, but I will tell you that recently Kris let the girls finger paint for the first time, which was interesting. The girls had fun with it and created a masterpiece That's about it for now, but enjoy the photos at the link below. Also, here's a quick video of Karina making this weird high pitched noise. She thought it was hilarious that she could make that noise. Also, that is definitely Karina making the noise, even when it sounds like something or someone else might be.

Karina's a Banshee

[Weeks 111-113 Photos]

Mary and Ian visit

nospam@example.com (Biren) — Sun, 10 Jan 2010 22:00:00 -0700

Not really much to talk about this week... Only reason I'm even posting is because I have a new video to post... but before I get to that, I will mention that Kristen's good friend Mary visited today with her son Ian. Last time I saw Ian, he was so little... he had just been born not too long before. Now he's almost a year old and so much bigger! Mary was wondering whether he'd venture from her side and play with the girls, and he absolutely did. The girls really had a great time playing with him.

Yesterday, Kris had the brilliant idea to setup the ball pit in front of the slide, so when the girls go down the slide, they fly through the doors and into a pile of balls. The girls had a blast doing that and probably were at it for a good hour! Some of the footage below...

Slide + Ball Pit

[Week 110 Photos]

Happy New Year!

nospam@example.com (Biren) — Sun, 03 Jan 2010 21:58:00 -0700

Happy New Year everybody! Hope everyone had an enjoyable new years! We certainly did! Thursday evening, I took the girls over to Grammy and Papa's house for the night. Then, we went out to dinner with Jen & Steve and Jen's brother Stephen. After our very delicious dinner, the five of us came back to our house where a few more friends eventually met us. We played some games, chatted away, and rang in the new year together. All in all, it was a very nice evening with friends.

The next morning Kris picked up the girls from Grammy and Papa's and brought them home. The girls had a great time at their sleepover. We had gotten some snow on Thursday, and then more yesterday and today. So we didn't really get out to do much over this long weekend, but we DID get outside to play in the snow today. Kath did much better this time. I pulled them both around on the sled for a bit, we made and threw snowballs... and Kris and I even had some fun on the sled ourselves as we slid down our hilly yard a few times. The girls seemed to enjoy watching us whiz by them on the slide more than riding on it!

Earlier in the week Kris and Grammy took the girls to Rainforest Cafe for lunch, since Grammy was on vacation this week. The girls really love the "animals" there and the rainstorms. Not much else to report on... Karina can now sing Itsy Bitsy Spider all the way through, by herself which is kinda neat. We let the girls play with Playdoh a few times this past week for the first time. They liked that, except they kept trying to eat it, which was not good. It was new to them, so can't blame them too much. They're getting better with it, and like it when we make things for them out of the Playdoh.

[Week 109 Photos]