Mira Marie Wallace

Mira Marie was born on Tuesday, September 7th at 5:03 pm. Although Ami had to be induced, the delivery went incredibly smooth. Ami only had to push for about 20 minutes and not very hard at that. Mira was as pink as cotton candy and got to lay with Mommy for a good long time (unlike Priya who was blue and rushed to the nursery to brighten up!).

After Daddy cut the cord and Mira spent more time with Mommy, they got around to measuring up Mira: 7 pounds 11 ounces and 20.5 inches. She weighs 9 ounces more than Priya did and Priya was 10 days late (Mira was induced 1 week early).

About an hour after she was delivered, Grandmaman brought Priya to visit Mommy and Mira. She was super sweet with her little sister. Priya wanted to immediately hold her.

It was great having both grandmothers in town for the birth. They were both beaming when they got to finally meet Mira. We couldn't have done it without both of them - especially with Priya and Sona (the dog) around needing love too.

Priya finally got her wish as we sat her down the on the couch and let her hold Mira while Nani and Daddy hovered closely, ready to catch. Priya celebrated by stealing Mommy's water.

Everybody is happy and healthy. Mira looks exactly like Priya did when she was born. We will head home tomorrow and introduce Mira to Sona. Then the fun begins!

Back in Room 362

We are back in the same hospital and actually the same room in which Ami delivered Priya. We even had one of the same nurses last night - and she remembered us! Ami is being induced a week early. She had gestational diabetes and her OB didn't want the baby to get much bigger.

Things are progressing slowly with induction. Ami eagerly awaits enough progress to warrant the epidural! It is cloudy and wet outside. Hopefully we will get some sunshine and a rainbow like last time when Priya was born.

More details to come....

Random Spring/Summer pictures

Time for some updated pictures. It has been a busy month of July. Ami and I spent a week in Whistler while Priya hung out with Grandmaman. That was great for all involved. Other than that we hung out. These pictures are from late spring and summer. They are in random order. The first one is Priya helping us pick out vegetables for our summer garden. She loves wagons.




One of my favorite things about summer in the NW is berry season. Sauvie Island is about 15-20 minutes from our house and you can pick any kind of berry you could imaging. Strawberries, blueberries, raspberries, blackberries, boysenberries, marionberries, and blackberries! Pounds at a time. I thought Priya would be somewhat helpful this year. Not so much:

Mommy and Priya went to the park in late spring and Priya wanted to take pictures. That is not quite how it works, but she is getting there. I think that is the last time that camera worked properly (seriously).

Back at Sauvie Island. This time picking snow peas. There is no way to tell if this was the same trip or a different day from the berries as this is her favorite pajama top and we often go in the morning after she wakes up to avoid the crowds.

This next one is from the spring in Hermiston. I just never downloaded it until now. She was playing in the camping chair. I love this picture:

I started this blog a month or so before Priya was born and if I remember correctly, the first pictures were of Ami pregnant with Priya. So, with just a month to go before daughter #2 arrives here is a picture of Ami pregnant again. Keep in mind that this picture was taken in Whistler in mid July when she still had two months to go!

Like I said, less than a month to go. We still don't have a name picked out for her. Hopefully one will come to us soon.

July 4th Parade

I hope everyone had a great time on July 4th. We joined some friends for a neighborhood parade and picnic. Priya wore the patriotic dress Nani bought her. She was having a hard time guarding her wagon and trying to steal the neighbor's ball before the start of the parade:






The parade started and we were off down the hill. Priya started out in the wagon but quickly wanted out. She loves to walk Sona now. We had to make sure Sona didn't take off after something. Luckily she didn't.

The park at the end of the parade route was full of all kinds of fun things. After playing with her wagon a little bit, Priya went and got all messy playing with the bubble soap. She doesn't care much for the bubbles themselves as much as the soap. She was covered with soap when we left - inside and out!

She loved the fire engines. She was second in line for the huge ladder truck and I basically had to pull her out. Then she took a turn in the driver's seat of the hose engine. She loved that. She wanted to push all the buttons though and who knows what those buttons might do.

We had a great time. She made it about 1.5 -2 hours past her nap time without having a meltdown. She simply looked at me from the bubble soap bucket and said "Home". So, home we went.

More Pictures from Colorado

Priya had a blast visiting all of the different parks in Summit County. This one was the biggest and is at the elementary school in Frisco. Pappy and Grandmaman were waiting at the bottom of the slide.

This one is the smallest and is located in my parent's neighborhood The Ponds. It has just a couple of swings and two spring loaded dinosaurs. Just enough for Priya and Grandmaman:

We visited Breckenridge one day and Priya wore here pretty dress from South America. Of course she had to represent Portland with her Trailblazers hat to keep out the sun!

Priya also enjoyed watching the dogs swim in the pond. She was ready to jump in with them. Below she is wearing her new dress Grandmaman bought her at the Dillon Farmer's Market.

Soaking in the Sun in Colorado

The weather has been miserable in Portland this spring. Luckily, Priya and I had scheduled a trip to Colorado to visit Pappy and Grandmaman. A nice 6 day weekend to soak in the high altitude sun in Silverthorne, CO. So far we have had amazing weather and lots to do.

We arrived on a Thursday. We headed straight to Boulder from the Denver airport in order to give Priya a chance to nap in the car.




The heart of Boulder is the pedestrian mall on Pearl Street. Shops and restaurants line the pedestrian only street over several blocks. Each block has a small park, which comes in handy keeping the kids interested. Priya found a few things to climb on.




It is great to see Priya running around in shorts, t-shirts, and dresses. Grandmaman bought her this cute tie-dye dress at the farmer's market in Dillon on our second day in Colorado. Priya loved the tie-dye tent and was playing with all the shirts.

Priya starting saying Pappy during this trip, which is really cute. Pappy showed his princess how to dance in the backyard overlooking the Blue River. What a view. The beautiful weather has kept us outside almost the entire day. Priya has had so many trips to many different playgrounds.

This is the small playground in my parent's neighborhood. It is small but the surroundings are amazing. More pictures to come....

Some Spring Photos

Well, another delay in posting on the blog and another excuse. First, I spent two weeks in early May in the lovely town of Hermiston, OR. Ami and Priya stayed in Portland with Ami's mom. So, I didn't get to spend a lot of time with my girls. Second, the weather has been miserable. I am talking worse than normal. We are on our 20th straight day of rain. This is more like January than June.

This is Priya playing with her new water and sand box all the way back in April when it was a nice sunny day. She hasn't played with it since. It has been collecting water though!


This one must be from back in April too. The playground hasn't been this dry in a long time. Priya is all decked out in her Puma track suit. This is one of her earliest turns on the tire swing. She loves it.

Here she shows off here perfect sweeping technique. I have a video of this too that I will post.

This last picture is actually from last weekend. It managed to not rain long enough for a walk around downtown. Kids were actually playing in the water fountain but it was a bit too cold for Priya (according to Mom. Priya was trying to take her clothes off and get in.) Here she gives the bear sculpture a kiss. More to come soon....

Priya Singing and Calling Her Cousins

Here is a cute video of Priya. At the beginning of the video she is singing "Ba Ba Blacksheep". I caught her mid song. Then she picks up the phone to call her cousins. You can hear her say "Hi Bai". That is Gujurathi for "brother". She has much to say before calling out to our dog Sona. That is when she says "B" - one of Sona's nicknames. Enjoy.

Priya's Birthday Party - Wallace Family Edition

In late March, Grandmaman and Pappy were kind enough to join me and Priya in Eastern Oregon in the small town I work in every other month. While I spent all day at the hospital, Priya got to spend some quality time with her grandparents. She also got them both sick! I made it through the week only to get the cold the following week back in Portland.

Back in Portland before my parents left we took the opportunity to throw Priya a birthday party. That way her grandparents could watch her not eat cake! There she is acting like she really wants the cake in the first picture.





Heck, she even played with it a little bit with utensils. Don't be fooled though. None of it was making it into her mouth. I did manage to smear a little bit on her face and give her a chocolate cake mustache!



I will post the pictures from the Patel family party in Houston soon....

Priya's 2nd Birthday Party

I cannot believe Priya turned 2 years old last Friday. Time flies. We had her party at our local park, Wallace Park, on Saturday. The day started out cloudy and we spent the morning and afternoon watching the skies, hoping for the sun to come out. Sun breaks would be followed by a quick drizzle. Even as I was setting up the party in the park the clouds were thick. Then as if I had planned it perfectly, the sun came out right as the party started. It was a nice semi-warm spring day and the party was a lot of fun.

Just like any visit to the park with Priya, the party started with some swinging. Priya loves the swings. She has to hit all of them - the baby swing, the seat swing, the big kid swings, and the tire swing. Watching her on the tire swing with her friends was very cool. She is getting to be a big little girl!

After spending plenty of time on the swings and the playground, it was time to bust out the Pinata! I couldn't find a bat or good stick so a rake handle would have to work. Mom gave Priya a hand, but that donkey wasn't in much trouble at Priya's hands.

Soon the bigger kids took over and the donkey was fearing for it's life. The boys gave it a good effort but the girls did the real damage. First, one girl knocked off one of the ears. Then she delivered the death blow and knocked the donkey in half (that is our heroine on the left in the picture below!). A riot ensued:

Once the pinata was destroyed and we took a moment to enjoy the fruits (well the cheap candy and toys) of our victory, it was time for cake. It looked much better than it tasted:

We all sang Happy Birthday and then Priya helped me cut the cake. I have to remember that not everyone eats as big a slice of cake as me, especially the kids. I was ridiculed repeatedly for doling out massive slices. As usual, Priya didn't eat any cake. Someday....

It was a great birthday in the park. Priya had a great birthday weekend. We all spent the day together on Friday, including Nani who is in town. Saturday we had the party. Sunday she went with Mommy to see Sesame Street Live and had a blast. This was also her third birthday party of the year. We celebrated twice before with both sets of families. I will try to post those pictures soon.