The day before Halloween special

Sometimes I underestimate my little Appu. It didn't occur to me that he might have an opinion about his Halloween costume until last week, when I asked him and he surprised me by saying that he was going to be a pumpkin. I asked him what Rohan wanted to be and he said Rohan should be a small pumpkin. The very uncrafty mom that I am, I searched the local second hand listings and found two nice costumes just the right size. Appu was very happy to drive to pick them up and bring them home, but he didn't try on his costume until yesterday.

Today we expect to have more Halloween fun, but for the moment you can enjoy some snaps from the rehearsal.

A few pictures

Appu dressed up for the birthday party of his friend Kalena, a couple of weeks ago.


And Rohan trying to be cute.






I have lots of pictures of the party as well, but I'm not sure the other parents want their kids on the net, so this is the only one I will show.


Little brothers sleeping in the stroller.


For something completely different, Rajiv skating on two building blocks in the living room.


Baby in a box.


And last but not least, we can only hope, mamma with glasses!

Words roundup

Rohan is beginning to talk. He says "bye", mostly unprovoked. He also says "mamma" and "papa'", somewhat interchangeably, and he says something like "ta-ta" when he is offered milk and he wants to express his enthusiasm (in Italian "milk" is "latte".)
He says "ba" for "ball" and "wawa" for water. The word he uses most skillfully though is "NO!!", exclamation marks included. :)

Rajiv, in the meantime, is getting more articulate and I wish I kept a notebook with all of his noteworthy expressions.

A few recent favorites:

Mamma offers him some pasta with broccoli. The big chunk of broccoli have been of course removed, but a few offending green fragments are still sticking to the pasta. Appu looks at is sadly and then tries: "I want to wash it..."

"I want a new computer!" (wasn't this supposed to happen at least ten years from now?)

Papa': "Are you a baby?"
Appu (with the confidence of who has just spotted a trick question): "No, I am a girl!"

Appu: "Rohan is so cute"
Mamma: "He is, and Appu is cute too!"
Appu (smiling at the silliness): "No, I am big!"

(whithin a few seconds)
"I am sad... I am mad!! .. I'm all better" :)

A tale of three continents

Un sacco di foto che documentano il nostro percorso dall'India verso il Canada a fine giugno.

...

I have some cute photos from our last days in India and then our stay in Brussels and Torino on the way to Canada. All of this happened about three months ago, but "better late than never" should be the official title of this blog.

But first, a disclaimer:

It might appear that Rajiv is always wearing the same clothes in these photos. In fact, he is. He has strong opinions about what looks good on him and purple or stripes are his favorite. However, we do wash his clothes, occasionally, if he allows it.

Here we go:

June 19th 2010 - dinner at Kuttamama's house













June 20th 2010 - Rohan's birthday party at Vanilla Place (these were mostly taken by Anu)











June 23rd - Brussels, Emiliano's home after a long long trip







June 24th 2010 - at the playground near my place in torino







September 30th - very early morning in Torino getting ready to catch our flight



June 30th - in Brussels with Emiliano again - some people very tired, some people not so much




And then the day after we left Europe and finally reached home here in Waterloo.




The end.

Appu fa le capriole sul letto

E molto altro! E' passato piu' di un mese da quando il blog e' andato in vacanza e naturalmente ne sono successe di cose... I bimbi crescono e fanno passi da gigante. Il nostro piccolo Rajiv parla molto meglio adesso e ha un letto tutto suo in cui dorme con il suo papa' per buona parte della notte - solo verso mattina si trasferisce da mamma e Rohan nel lettone. E' un fan di Michael Jackson e della musica di Bollywood.
Rohan invece e' come un grosso orsacchiotto di pelouche, tutti lo trovano irresistibile. Sa indicare la luna sul suo libro della buonanotte quando mamma glielo chiede e riconosce molte altre parole. La parola "biscotto", in particolare, porta sempre un sorriso sul suo volto. Uno dei suoi passatempi preferiti e' abbracciare bambini a caso in biblioteca e al parco. Sorride quasi sempre e preferisce stare con il suo papa', pero' assomiglia di piu' alla mamma :)

Sane abitudini

Ma niente paura, e' solo il secondo giorno :)

Here we are, all geared up for our evening run. See how I make it sound like it's an old family tradition? You would never guess we have done this for a grand total of... two days!

Back in Canada

We came back yesterday. The trip was smooth. Some sarcastic genius at the airport looked at our six suitcases and commented "Traveling light, eh?", but his life was spared. Our house is looking good and Appu seems very happy to be here.

We went to see his school today morning and he ran right in. He seems to remember the place from last August - could it be? It was a short visit though, we will see how it goes on Monday when he starts for real.