Rhododendron Garden

It has been a rough month. It seems Priya caught every bug under the sun. Bronchitis, cold, flu, viral gastroentiritis etc... That last one she shared with everyone. Not fun. That is why there has not been many pictures to share. But, we are all healthy for the moment.

Last Friday was a nice day in Portland and Priya and I had the day off together while Mom was at work. So, we headed to the Portland Rhododendron Garden. Priya got to work, playing with the dirt:

She was rocking her Puma track suit and new Nike kicks. Looking good amongst the blooming Rhododendrons.

The flowers weren't holding her attention. The ducks sure were though. She ran around saying "Qack, qack". She also threw rocks at them. Maybe I should have bought the duck food?

I managed to find some flowers with rocks in front of them. She told me to sit - that is her big thing right now, getting everyone to "sit, sit". So, while she played with the dirt and rocks, I snapped pictures of her in front of the flowers.

She would not sit still. She was running around the whole time, unless she was throwing things in the water and getting right up on the waters edge. Not very relaxing that part.

A fun day at the garden. She slept well that night. Me too.

Priya Tickling the Ivories

Look for Priya on stage soon:

Houston in March: Rodeo and Warm Weather

We just got back from a week in Texas. Priya and Ami spent the whole week in Sugar Land with Ami's family while I snuck off to Austin for a few days for SXSW. It was Shrayen and Dhilan's spring break, so early in the week we all had a lot of fun outside. Here are some highlights:





Priya loves her cousins as if they were bhais (which means brothers) and that's what she calls them. She was giving them hugs all week long, whether they liked it or not. Dhilan did not like the hugs for the most part! She also loves holding their hands when walking. Priya also got to spend some time with her bhais and her friend Maria Elena at the Houston Rodeo:

We stood in line for this carnival ride at the rodeo only to find out that I could not ride it with her. She was supposed to be too small to ride alone but carnies are not the most strict workers out there. I was pretty nervous letting her ride by herself but I strapped her in pretty tight and motioned for her to keep her hands on the wheel the whole ride. Not surprisingly she loved the ride and had to go again before being forcefully led away upset that she could not go a third time!

Priya loves wagons, this we know. What we found out is that she really likes being in wagons with other people. Everytime she got in the wagon she would pat the other seat which meant - "hop in". Shrayen was the only taker. She even managed to pull Shrayen around in the wagon (I think mostly downhill)!

One of Shrayen and Dhilan's friends had a birthday party on a rare rainy day. The party quickly moved from the zoo to a ceramics painting place. We were not sure if Priya would have fun but she jumped right in and did a great job painting this elephant piggy bank pink and purple.

Priya really enjoyed the warm weather. The first day she kept rubbing her legs because she wasn't wearing pants for the first time in a long time. She especially liked her new skirt.

More pictures and videos are on the way...

San Diego Part 2: Friends and Fun

Sea World had Priya totally exhausted. Although, she was really really enjoying facing forward in her car seat.

After taking a quick rest in the Bumbo it was time to party with some friends.

Tobin and Priya were a handful for me. I guess I better get used to carrying two! Tobin was kind enough to show Priya around his play area:

On our last full day, we stopped by the Snyder house where we had a nice relaxing afternoon in their backyard watching the kids play. We really really need a backyard. We had a great time in San Diego. Might have to come back soon.

Fun and Sun in San Diego Part 1: Sea World

We managed to escape to San Diego last weekend for some warmth and sun (although it has actually been a fairly nice winter in Portland with many sunny days). We visited with some old friends and braved a couple of trips to Sea World. Sea World is super pricey but if you pay a full fare single day admission it is good for a year. Go figure. Priya had a blast at Sea World, especially in the Sesame Street area.

She loved crawling through tunnels. The bottom one moved and she needed a little encouragement from Mom.

I took her on Ernie's Rockin' Eel - basically the rocking pirate ship but it does spins and rocks sideways. These were Priya's first rides and we weren't sure how she would like them. As you can tell above, she was having a lot of fun. She held on tight but had a smile on her face the whole time. Mom took her on the Flying Fishes ride and she loved that one too.

Below is Priya on Sea World's version of the teacup ride. You should have seen Dad's face. It was much worse.

Priya really enjoyed checking out all of the animals as well. It was hard to get good pictures of her and the animals because she was always looking into the displays and the pictures are all of the back of her head. The walrus was one of her favorites. We had to pry her away from this big fella.

More San Diego fun soon....

Priya's Dangerous Sweeping Technique

Priya gets a little bit of OCD from her mom. They both love to clean. Fortunately, Ami is much better at sweeping than Priya. Poor Sona:

Happy Birthday Grandmaman!

Priya's grandmother (Jason's mom) celebrated a big birthday last week. She celebrated on a carribean cruise with Pappy. Priya made her a big card and sent her a video of it.

Peek-A-boo Video

There are certain times that children do things that make you stop and marvel at how big they are getting. This was one of those times. She opened the gate and went through it. She shut the door and then started opening and closing it to play peek-a-boo! Enjoy Mommy being Debbie Downer at the start of the video too (wha-wha).

Random Photos from December/January

Here are some random photos from the last month or so. First up, Priya driving the shopping cart. You never realize the power of this device until you are done with your shopping and realize she didn't make a single fuss:

She did so well in the cart car, I took her straight out for her own set of wheels:

Priya looking fly in her Puma track suit:

Priya and I enjoying the snow after my 4.5 hour commute home. Luckily she stayed up past her bedtime so we could enjoy a few minutes outside in the snow:

Videos soon...

Bath Time

I hope to get some more posts up here shortly. I want to get some recent videos up. Since I know it has been a couple of weeks, I wanted to get some pictures up. Priya loves bathtime. She never wants to get out.

You would think the colorful plastic animals would be her favorite. Nope. She loves to fill these small cups with water. They have holes in the bottom and she loves to watch the water spill out of the bottom.

She likes to stack the cups too. She could spend all night in the tub. I have to pull the plug and tell her it is over when the tub is empty. She still pitches a fit when I pull her out.

More posts to come shortly....