Springtime photos

Finally catching up on posting our photos...here are a bunch of shots dating back to March.  Probably you have to be related to us to want to see this many photos, but highlights include:

• The Holi Festival at Stanford (Sonia is still talking about how maybe she'll get "dirty" when she is "older")
• Sonia and the rest of the family playing in the yard...finally the sunshine has arrived!
• Easter at Burgess Park, or as I like to call it, the "running of the yuppies"
• Sonia "swimming" (really, just very expensive monitored floating)
• Lots of photos of Deven either lying around or coming along for the ride to various events -- I think patience and low maintenance may be a requirement of all second children (or at least we have been lucky that he is just happy to come along for now)

Rhymes with Shamu

Lately Sonia has been developing her own vocabulary and cracking herself up in the process.  It involves mostly rhyming, as in calling Sameer "Daddy baddy faddy."  Unfortunately, in the process of riffing on various combinations of syllables she landed on "boobies" as a word, which of course must have gotten a reaction, because she now says it all the time.  We are trying our best not to laugh and act like it is any other word and hope that the fad will die off soon.

Before I forget, here is a vocab guide for the uninitiated:

Laura = "Mamoo" (not sure why I only get one word, and why it had to rhyme with Shamu like the whale...sigh)
Sameer = "Daddy baddy faddy"
Deven = "Deveny Heaveny Keviny" (combining her other favorite of adding "-y" to all words)
Chuki = "Chuki bo-Booky"

In other news, I'm way behind on posting photos, but rest assured Deven continues to get bigger (and sleep a bit more, although not as much as we would like).  He remains a sweet, smiley baby who if he could just figure out how to keep his food inside his body would be perfect.  But, at least he gives you a big grin after he finishes spitting up the contents of his stomach onto your shirt, so that's something.

Holy Holi

Despite the recent wintry weather, we have managed to start celebrating Spring's arrival with a couple of fun events, and rack up some multi-cultural points as well. (How many families celebrated both Holi and Easter?  Okay, come to think of it in the Bay Area probably lots.)  For starters, last weekend there was a Holi Festival at Stanford (a few weeks after the actual holiday), so we trekked on over to campus and managed to convince Melissa, Maya, Kai, Dada, and Bebe to join us.  For the uninitiated, the main activity at an Indian Holi celebration is dousing each other in "color" (handfuls of colored powder), so that by the end of the event everyone is covered head to toe.  If you have met our OCD daughter, you will not be surprised to learn she would have nothing to do with this activity (this is a kid who washes her hands constantly while playing in her sandbox because they are "dirty").

Here are Melissa, Maya, and Sameer who had a blast getting each other nice and colorful:

A still pristine Sonia clearly disapproves of Daddy's dirtiness:

This past weekend brought another holiday, and Sonia was very much looking forward to Easter (not the least of which because she was told she could not open the candy-filled eggs Chuki bought her until the actual holiday).  We went to the Menlo Park Easter egg hunt, which despite the cold weather was a complete madhouse.  Even though the kids were divided by age and they repeatedly said over the loudspeaker that each child was limited to 4-5 eggs maximum, the hordes of small children and their overly aggressive parents mostly ignored this instruction so there were too few eggs for too many kids.  The picture below tells the story of poor Sonia who because of a poorly timed bathroom break found herself at the back of the pack, and sadly only got one egg as a result.

The good news is that all kids upon exiting the field were given candy, and it turns out that a whole thing of Starburst candy is *way* more appealing than plastic eggs, so Sonia did not mind the turn of events at all.  (Side note -- what kind of an adult takes pride in "winning" the egg hunt by allowing their child to take way more eggs than is allowed?  Seriously, people,  you need to find an outlet for accomplishment in some other facet of your life.)  We did also get to see the Easter bunny and jump in a bouncy house, and by the end of the event, Sonia was all smiles (no doubt fueled by all of the sugar in her bloodstream).

A fun day, but someone please remind me next year to find a less crazy Easter celebration (and didn't I resolve to do the same thing last year?).

Getting Bigger

Deven is rapidly approaching the 2-month mark, so he went in to the pediatrician to be checked out and receive a bunch of vaccinations (we went a bit early as our pediatrician is going on vacation for 2 weeks).  The good news is he is growing like a champ and received a "he looks perfect" review from the doctor.  The bad news is that despite switching to new medication (Prilosec) for his acid reflux / spit-up issues, he remains our little Vesuvius -- reliably refunding a decent percentage of most meals.  Since he is gaining weight at a healthy pace, the doctor said that it is probably just something to live with, and never fear he will likely outgrow it by 6 months (ugh).  Given the next step would have been to have him do a "barium swallow" and subject him to a bunch of scans, it is probably just easier to buy more burp cloths and laundry detergent.

He did show off his growing muscles to the doctor, including propping himself up on his arms and rolling over onto his back from his stomach (alas, not captured on video and not repeated since).  The doctor said he was a pretty strong little guy for his age and predicted he will be more mobile and active than Sonia was.  Our days of leaving him on the playmat unattended are numbered.

For posterity, here were his stats:

Weight: 10 lbs, 8.25 oz (32nd percentile)
Height: 22.25 inches (56th percentile)
Head circumference: 39.1 centimeters (38th percentile)

While he is by no means a big guy, he is putting on weight faster than predicted (going from 25th percentile to 32nd), so we are all hopeful that will lead to less spit-up and longer stretches of sleep at night.

On the sleep front, this weekend we decided a small amount of "tough love" was in order when it appeared  he was actually trending backward and waking up more often at night.  So, we decided that we would try for a 3-hour minimum stretch between each feeding (yes, a low bar).  We took Sonia out of her room for two nights (since it neighbors Deven's) and let him cry as required, but it turned out that there was very little crying involved, and indeed he even went 4+ hours at times.  It is remarkable how 4 hours of sleep can feel like a lot, but it is a welcome trend for sure.  Sonia is now back in her room and Sameer and I are slightly more capable of coherent thought.