Last year Christmas fell on a Thursday and we got 4 days off. The nice thing about this year was Prashanth was not working, except on Christmas day, so we enjoyed the long weekend. When I asked my colleagues at work, what Christmas meant to them, they said it was the time to meet friends and family. It really seemed so this year for us. On Christmas day, me and Aditi went over to the famous Balaji temple at Birmingham, along with a friend, chatting happily on our 2-hour journey. Prashanth was working that day, so he could not join us. At the temple, we met Prashanth's cousin and family, who were travelling to Scotland and stopped on their way for a quick darshan(and free lunch). It was a surprise, for neither of us knew about each other's plans to visit the temple. We had wanted to meet them for a while, but on our recent trip to London, they were away in India. And all plans to go to London would be scrapped off even before we could think about it. We caught up on all the latest happenings in the family and after lunch, headed back home. I had packed Aditi's rice and dal, but she surprised me by eating the sambar sadam that was distributed for lunch at the temple. We headed back home and Aditi slept throughout the journey. Our friends dropped us at our place and I served them dosa and chutney with the previous day's sambar - as a thank you for the trip. So typically as on Christmas day, we met family and had friends home for dinner.
On Boxing Day, we went over to Kettering to visit a couple of my school friends. We wanted to take Aditi to meet more children of her age and she enjoyed that evening with the friends's children. The four kids had fun playing train, reading books, and basically playing with every possible toy that they could lay their hands on. Aditi tried the kids' goggles and was very happy. She was excited to find people as small as her and not having to pull mummy and daddy into her games. I was delighted to find her enjoying the company of her new friends - in contrast to what I had imagined - she wasn't shy at all. We left the next day and were supposed to visit Leicester, a typical Indian(gujarati) city, but the traffic out on the motorway made us change our plans and we drove straight home. As usual Aditi slept during the return journey, only to wake up when we pulled into our driveway.
And we shopped on sunday looking for deals to buy a flat screen 42 inch plasma TV, making maximum use of the winter deals.(A 40 inch Sony LCD TV is now the focal point of our living room!)
PS: This was started long ago , and was left midway. Managed to complete and hit Submit today.
Wednesday 28 January 2009
Sunday 25 January 2009
Nursery update
2008 wasn't a great year for us, and a bitter disappointment in December, made it worse. We tried to cheer up by visiting friends and meeting family over the Christmas weekend. And Prashanth was working on New Year's eve, so me and Aditi rested at home. There's been lots of things happening with the little girl at home. She's been talking in small sentences and imitating what we say and do. She's trying to string a few words together and is aiming to make proper sentences.
At the nursery, she's moving from the baby room to the toddler room where she'll meet many two to five year olds, and to make the transition easy, the staff have been taking her to the toddler room every now and then to make her familiar with the surroundings. She's been enjoying herself there and is learning to sing new rhymes everyday. Action rhymes are still her favorite and new dance moves are always tried out. Every evening we are treated to a little performance by the little girl, dancing and singing all by herself, sometimes just dancing to the music on the telly.
Aditi loves shopping and picks up anything that she sets her eyes on and expects to be bought. Her love for new shoes and dresses, even at this age is really alarming. She would happily wear the new dress and shoes even before we deposit the shopping bags on the floor. Her present craze is a new knee high boot, which is being worn even at sleep-time!! At supermarkets, she walks nad randomly picks up toys and quitely places it in the shopping trolley. Of course, we scan for her items and promptly remove them before we hit the cash counter. And one day while we were shopping, I noticed a new toy while we were waiting in the queue. I assumed Prashanth might have picked it up, but turned out that Aditi had herself chosen the toy.
This one loves her books. Her favorite is the farm book - My first farm, where she points out and indicates the various animals and her babies, fruits and vegetables. This also lists the various dairy farm products and different types of tractors and so on. Counting has taken on a new turn. Previously she would count up and down the steps randomly from one to ten, starting at four and finishing at eight. She's improved now and counts in an orderly fashion.
While on the bus, she loves to point to other buses and cars on the road and draw my attention to it. A few weeks to go for her second birthday and we plan to have a prty at her nursery and spend the day at Weston Park .
Will try to be more regular this year with updating my blog.
At the nursery, she's moving from the baby room to the toddler room where she'll meet many two to five year olds, and to make the transition easy, the staff have been taking her to the toddler room every now and then to make her familiar with the surroundings. She's been enjoying herself there and is learning to sing new rhymes everyday. Action rhymes are still her favorite and new dance moves are always tried out. Every evening we are treated to a little performance by the little girl, dancing and singing all by herself, sometimes just dancing to the music on the telly.
Aditi loves shopping and picks up anything that she sets her eyes on and expects to be bought. Her love for new shoes and dresses, even at this age is really alarming. She would happily wear the new dress and shoes even before we deposit the shopping bags on the floor. Her present craze is a new knee high boot, which is being worn even at sleep-time!! At supermarkets, she walks nad randomly picks up toys and quitely places it in the shopping trolley. Of course, we scan for her items and promptly remove them before we hit the cash counter. And one day while we were shopping, I noticed a new toy while we were waiting in the queue. I assumed Prashanth might have picked it up, but turned out that Aditi had herself chosen the toy.
This one loves her books. Her favorite is the farm book - My first farm, where she points out and indicates the various animals and her babies, fruits and vegetables. This also lists the various dairy farm products and different types of tractors and so on. Counting has taken on a new turn. Previously she would count up and down the steps randomly from one to ten, starting at four and finishing at eight. She's improved now and counts in an orderly fashion.
While on the bus, she loves to point to other buses and cars on the road and draw my attention to it. A few weeks to go for her second birthday and we plan to have a prty at her nursery and spend the day at Weston Park .
Will try to be more regular this year with updating my blog.
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