A wonderful new addition!

It started with:

Me: Hey Aarush there is a baby in mommy's  tummy !!!

Aarush: So, did you eat the baby?

And I just told him in straight terms that he is going to be a big brother.

Because Caillou and Super Why both have baby sisters we assumed Aarush will also have one. We were a little disappointed knowing about baby brother but it didnt last long. 

Aarush believes he is hulk and decided his brother could be named Iron Man and voila! we were all set to welcome our next superhero. I am the black widow spider and Kiran is Capt. America if you must know.

After waiting for 9 long months (No, they did not go by fast) our little man arrived on July 8'th with head full of hair and a curious face.

Aditya Tej is his name! 

Aarush has been a great brother ever since his little brother came along.  There was no hint of jealously or I need more of your time business. He was his usual cheery self.

He adores his baby brother and pampers him more than us. He watches over him when asked to and lets a scream out if he sees trouble.

There was this one morning when both boys woke up at odd hours, thanks to jet lag from India trip. They were playing in the bedroom while i tried to get a shut eye. Aditya started crying and I asked Aarush to rock his swing. The big brother did that and also fed him from the bottle which actually calmed him down. I woke up at that point.

This blog has a new name! 

All About Aarush and Aditya.

Sankranthi-2011

Festival-Family-Food-Fun!That's exactly how our sankranthi was this year!

We were in NJ mainly to visit Aarush's chinna 'maama' and my dear bro-'Sharath' and also decided to celebrate Sankranthi!

A & M had lotta fun playing around. It was the same as last time just that, they now understood each others babbling, well it looked like they were talking to each other!, wanting and snatching the same toy and exchanging their sippy cups!

They loved maama 'coz he had chocos! Megha says "Kacco" in sucha cute way!

We gathered Advika-Hansika, Aarush-Megha and Niyathi for 'Bhogi Pallu'. Aren't they the cutest?

They would sit still for 'Bhogi" pallu only when bribed with some cherries !

My Sis did a great job with 'Bommala Koluvu' and 'Muggu' and also her signature 'Pulihora'.

While the kids had fun.Kiran, BIL and Shannu were busy playing games. Sis and I were busy cooking, cleaning and EATING!

Vacation it is(was)!

We had a much needed( didn't we had one to India th year already?) SoCal vacation in Dec'10( I was too lazy to publish the draft). San Diago and LA marked off the list of the places to visit in US.We also got to met our cousin Kishore in SD. The weather was at its best for this time of the year and the general holiday ambiance made it even more memorable.

For the long flight trip I got this awesome idea( Its my blog and I can totally boast!) of buying Aarush a set of hot wheels and giving it to him only in the flight. What an idea it was, he was fascinated by those little cars which kept him busy (and us sane) for the first few hours and then he slept off!
Relaxing!














Harbor view from our room!














We visited Seaport village, Zoo and Legoland in SD, the best of which for a toddler was Legoland. Although he was not allowed in many rides, there were enough for him to play around. Kiran and I had equal fun and would totally visit it again after Aarush grows up a little older. Aarush straightaway hit the water sprinklers and refused to leave the place. He wouldn't get off the train the first time so Kiran went with him the second time and he was a happy man.

@Legoland

It was so cute watching him pick and give the lego blocks to a mom-daughter building with legos.

The miniland USA was an eye candy. We went on a boat ride, took pics with bob-the builder, whom aarush loved and went on slides ,slides and more slides.

SD zoo is huge. Their effort of preserving soo many animals, soon to be extinct species and building a forest like environment has to be appreciated. Although we incline more towards the idea of 'animals should not be caged', we came to know that their life span increases when under care.
@SD Zoo

There were some exotic animals which we saw for the very first time. Aarush wasn't too excited initially but got into the mood a little later. We might not pay a second visit unless Aarush is into animal research and insist that we go!

LA was more relaxing and was warmer than SD. Though we did not visit any toddler friendly places except for may be malibu beach he had total fun with cousins Chaitanya and Anu. I did not expect them to get along so well 'coz he was scared when my cousin Kishore tried to friend him.

He would comfortably say bye to us when chait was around and only played with him the whole time. Chait and Anu gifted him a cute tricycle and he was all the more excited. Looking at the fun he had I wish we stayed closer to atleast some of the gazzillion cousins we have.
Kiran insisted that I write about the “Wasabi” experience. This is something Not About Aarush;) He slept peacefully while we were at the restaurant! So Chait & Anu took us to this Chinese restaurant called Wokcano in LA and suggested we eat the vegetarian sushi with wasabi. Wasabi is a spice from Japan and is a root. Now, it‘s not spicy like chilies but it slowly explodes in your mouth and the effect is believed to irritate your nasal passage. So it was kind of a thrill to eat and experience wasabi with sushi. The effect ofcourse is for a short time and goes off  as you take the next bite of food.We enjoyed it so much that Kiran and I had to eat it twice and chait and anu did not want to stop.

Flight back to home was a little rough, Aarush was sleepy but refused to sleep and so was cranky for a good 1.5 hrs. After which he slept off and so us. In both of our flights, our co-passengers were nice enough to not mind Aarush's frequent hand poking towards their window side or grabbing their cups. Infact in the first flight she even took a picture of Aarush and was wishing for a grandson and the other lady mentioned about her 2 boys and that shez been through this age. Nice ppl they are!

Back to reality!!!

We are back from a fantastic vacation in India. Aarush got to meet all of his family, extended family and friends. There was always somebody to entertain/distract/console/play with Aarush. I wish it was like that forever.There is so much to write about our India trip and I don't know where to start, but let me try:

The Clan at mama's wedding

 

The journey went fine- he slept through the first flight and was on and off in the second leg. Big thanks to those bassinet seats, Aarush could sleep comfortably. Aarush had no stranger anxiety until our trip in fact when we took him to the temple just before we left he went to random people and happily ate the prasadam they offered. But in India he would cling on to me the whole time. he was fine if he doesn't see me but the moment he spots me he wouldn't go to anybody else.

It was scorching heat in India and we traveled to a million places, Mr. Cool guy was so adaptable and never bothered me.

Thanks to Aarush's Nannamma for a warm welcome

 

We offered his hair at Annavaram, all went fine and Aarush became Gundu Boss

It was so nice to see Aarush and his great grand mom play together. Aarush also met his great-great grand mom ( my grand mom's mom), she of course was not in a very good shape at that time but I was happy to meet her. 

 

One of the highlights of our trip was Aarush's walking milestone. He took his first few steps in Vizag home and there was no stopping after that. He walked and fell and walked again and fell again. Now he runs!

The 3 musketeers( Aarush, Megha and Nishanth) played (read destroyed) as a team and would want the same toy/thing/crap to play with at the same time. They successfully made pieces out of my parent's landline telephone.

Aarush's fav spot was the balcony in my parent's home. He would go there the moment we opened the door and stand there looking at people, vehicles, dogs etc.

Like they say, 'History Repeats', Aarush did exactly what Kiran did in his childhood, take things from home and throw them out on road this time it was throwing out from our balcony.

We did a bunch of things leaving the kids to our parents..aah bliss it was. I never wanted the vacation to end but all good things come to an end and so was our vacation.


Just the day we were to start Aarush was super cranky and when I checked he developed diaper rash, I was terrified imagining the journey but  "all (was)is well" I changed him every 2 hours with a good amount of desitin and voila it was gone by the time we reached home. I must write about the huge baby room in Frankfort airport- it was THE BEST PLACE, I could give Aarush a good shower and he was so fresh and ready for the second half of journey.

Aarush slept by the time we reached home (Hello Jet Lag!!) and felt out of place when he woke up in the middle of night. He caught some stupid stomach virus and has been sick since we came from India. It is only now that he is getting better and back to routine.

3 on 3!!!

Last week was our 3'rd wedding anniversary and we are 3 on our 3 'rd. And somebody joked about if it will be 4 on our 4'th, 5 on 5'th?no, we might want to stop the sequence at 3 on 3:)