Summer vacation - Part 2: The happiest, most sleep deprived, place on earth

We pick up where the last post left off...

After 5 days in Oregon, we traveled down to Anaheim for the second half of our vacation.  To say that Sonia had been eagerly anticipating going to Disneyland would be a vast understatement.  We have fallen prey to the marketing forces of Disney, and Sonia is their loyal follower, interested in everything from Minnie Mouse to Ariel, even requesting over and over again that we play various songs from Mary Poppins whenever we are in the car ("Let's Go Fly a Kite" being her current favorite).  I know, I know...I can feel your judgement, but if you've ever heard a 4-year-old sing "Under the Sea" phonetically (getting most of the syllables right, but few of the actual words correct) at full volume with a giant smile on her face, you too would just go with it.  And, yes, I realize that it makes absolutely no sense to take a 1 year old to Disneyland, but Deven was happy to be along for the ride (and Sameer was happy that we had decided to not go all the way to Hawaii, since even the flight to Anaheim was a challenge for Deven).

Okay, caveats aside, we arrived at Disneyland at night and went to bed in short order anticipating a big day ahead.  We had fantastic memories of the last time we were at Disneyland, but what stuck out above all was that it was well worth motivating for the "magic hour" early entry where you can get in an hour before the rest of the world if you are staying at the park.  So, like the good Type A parents we are, we woke up at the crack of dawn the next morning and made our way to California Adventure in search of the the new Little Mermaid ride (which Sonia had watched videos of on the computer at home in joyful anticipation).  Before we got there, we took a brief detour to take Sonia on "Soarin' Over California", her first "real" ride.  Last time we took her she was too short to even consider going on these types of rides, but this time, the older, taller Sonia was anxious to cement her big girl status.  She was truly terrified for most of the ride (literally trembling at some points), but afterwards declared it "lots of fun" (and went on it again later in the trip).  From there we then went to the Little Mermaid, which broke down in the middle of it, which sounds like bad news unless you are a 4 year old "stuck" in Ariel's underwater adventures.  In which case you never want to leave.  After a few minutes, we were on our way again, and the rest of the morning hit more rides (including trying in vain to keep 3-D glasses on Deven's head in Toy Story Mania).  We were anxious to get a lot of rides in as the park was filling up, and as you can see from the picture below we may have pushed it too much as Deven hit the wall on the Mickey Mouse ferris wheel. 

10:32AM:  all smiles on the ferris wheel

10:39AM: yes, we have pushed it too far...naptime awaits

By lunchtime, we were all ready for a bit of a break, so we happily ventured over to Ariel's Grotto for lunch and cocktails (Sameer, me), princesses (Sonia), and whining (Deven).  I will spare you the full set of photos of Sonia meeting each princess, but if you like Sonia will happily share with you her autograph book / photo album (yes, I too am a victim of Disney marketing) and give you the play-by-play.  The short answer is that Ariel is her "favorite" and she gave Mulan a hug despite having no idea who she was.  Good to be polite, I guess.

Sonia and "her favorite" Ariel

The rest of the day was pretty quiet.  We took advantage of staying close to the park to head back to our hotel for some afternoon napping and to hit the swimming pool (sadly, probably the highlight of the day for Sonia, which begs the question why we traveled so far in the first place).  Sameer and I even managed a bit of a date night, taking in some adult rides and catching the fireworks while a sitter stayed with the kids. 

The next day we were again up early and went to Disneyland itself.  The whole thing now is a bit of a blur of character hugs, juice boxes, and reapplying sunscreen.  We went on the rides in Fantasyland first, and Dumbo remained a favorite with Sonia, and Deven too seemed to like it.  It was actually nice that we had been at Disneyland pretty recently (2 years ago), so we were much more relaxed about whether we got to take in a particular ride (hour long wait for the submarines? uh...let's just reminisce about when we saw it last time).  After the park started to really fill up, we escaped to have brunch with "Minnie & Friends" on Main Street.  Sonia and Deven were both overjoyed to discover "colored Cheerios" (Froot Loops), which they now request at the grocery store (note: they are denied...even bad parents have limits).

Minnie Mouse visits our table to sign Sonia's autograph book

Sonia hides under the table when Captain Hook comes by

Some of the character visits are kind of random...who the heck is Mr. Penguin?

In the afternoon, we saw the parade (a big hit again this trip, especially since Sonia could now identify Ariel, Mary Poppins, and others), took in several rides (including Pirates of the Caribbean...where I was keenly aware that Sonia could now understand the themes and wondered it it was good call to go on it), and ultimately escaped in favor of resting at the hotel.  The kids were exhausted (I've never seen them so happy to stay with a sitter), so Sameer and I headed out in the evening solo to go to "Club 33", an exclusive in-park restaurant where a family friend had hooked us up with reservations (leave it to us to find the only place in Disneyland that has a full bar!).  The experience got off to a rough start as Sameer was initially denied entry because he was wearing "flip flops" (they have a very strict dress code, where apparently leather sandals from Nordstrom are not acceptable, but random lace-up shoes you buy at the concession place across from the Indiana Jones ride are).  But, despite that rocky beginning, the meal was fabulous and afterwards we ate dessert and watched Fantasmic (and patted ourselves on the back for not bringing Sonia as the giant fire-breathing dragon threatened Mickey and friends). 

Highlights from the last day at the park included becoming "honorary citizens" of Toon Town (where Mickey lives with his friends), meeting countless characters, buying souvenirs from the various stores, and hitting some of the rides we missed in the first couple of days (quick plug for the outdoor adventure area at California Adventure...we had always just walked by before, but since we had extra time decided to hit it and it was a highlight of the day). 

The "citizenship" ceremony in Toon Town

The two newest citizens

The whole family meets Mickey!

Since it was our last night, we decided to have the sitter stay with just Deven and bring Sonia out with us to catch some of the evening shows.  She was very excited that Mommy (!) won her a stuffed Dumbo at the midway-style rides at California Adventure, and she was hugging it as we settled down to take in the "World of Color" water show (where huge crowds gather...think the Bellagio fountain show on steroids with Disney characters included).  Literally 5 minutes into the show, Sonia declares she has to go to the bathroom, so despite having gone to some effort to secure tickets for the preferred seating area, we had to bail.  We took it as an omen and ran over to Disneyland to get there in time for the fireworks show, which turned out to be even better.  Sonia was entranced as we watched from Main Street...hearing all of her favorite songs, watching both Dumbo and Tinkerbell fly above her as fireworks went off in the background...a truly magical moment.  Enough to make me forget being up with Deven at 5:30am in the hotel lobby so the rest of the family could sleep, the staggering amount of money we spent on food, and even the crazy toddlers-and-tiaras style kids we saw decked out in makeup and princess costumes.  I've got to admit, when Disney decides it's going to wow you, it usually succeeds.

A lazy morning on the last day when we were flying out included one last brunch at Goofy's Kitchen -- perhaps the most kid-friendly menu on earth, where they serve (I kid you not) peanut butter & jelly pizza as well as "worms and dirt" (gummy worms mixed with crushed Oreo cookies).  Right before it was time to leave for the airport, Sonia posed for one last picture.

Until next time!

At the airport, she suggested maybe we should come back "when Deven is two" (cleverly suggesting that it was for his benefit that we would need to return).  We'll see, but for now I'm really glad we went.  And, writing this months later, I think I am finally no longer exhausted from the experience.

Summer Vacation - Part 1

Not sure why it has taken me so long to write this, but before I forget every last memory of it, I wanted to share a few stories about our vacation earlier this summer. 

Side note: actually, I do know why it has taken so long...a combination of our photos only being on the iMac in the kitchen, the kids never leaving me alone if I try to use the computer there, and wanting to spend the time when they are both sleeping doing more fun things like working or drinking wine or both.  Oh, and did I mention my husband has decided to travel for work *all the time*?  Yes, I believe I have mentioned that to a few of you repeatedly.  :-)

Back to our story...we motivated to head up to Oregon at the end of July to attend my 20th high school reunion (yikes), and then head out to the beach for a half week on the coast.  After that, we flew south to Disneyland, but we'll get to that in the next post.  The trip got off to a rough start when I remembered as we were pulling up to SFO that our flight was in fact out of SJC.  If you are curious if it is possible to make it from SFO to SJC in less than 30 minutes during rush hour, the answer is yes if you qualify as a car pool and you drive like an idiot.  Then we got to Portland and discovered that the car I had rented would not even come close to holding the four of us, car seats, and our luggage.  The days of the sedan rental are sadly over.  With our costly upgrade behind us, we finally left the airport trauma behind and things improved steadily from there. The high school reunion was good, but uneventful.  In the age of Facebook, you pretty much know what everyone is up to, which takes away any of the surprise factor.  And having it be a paid bar was crazy bad news, because believe me more free-flowing alcohol would have livened things up considerably.  Sameer was a trooper to attend, was no doubt bored out of his mind, and as a consequence made an excellent drink sherpa.  Leave it to Sameer to make friends with multiple husbands in the line at the bar who were also responsible for drink fetching.  So, good to put the check in the box, and I'll see everyone again in 10 years.

The next day we drove out to Gearhart (with a pit stop at the Vineyard on the way out of town), and spent a wonderful few days hanging out on the coast.  The house my parents rented was super nice, we got to spend time with Kevin & Beth, and even convinced Charity, Kellie & family (plus Gina) to come out for a day.  The kids loved playing in the sand and the waves (although no one but the truly hardy ventures out into the very, very cold water) and running around the yard chasing bubbles.  Sonia got to hit the putting green with Grandpa at the golf course within walking distance, another day we walked to the ice cream shop in "town" (approximately 5 stores comprise all of "downtown"), and best of all the house came with its own playhouse outside stocked with toys (not to mention a sleeping loft reached only by a ladder which Sonia declared at first sight would be her room for the duration of the trip). There was of course lots of wine tasting (these are the Johnsons, after all), good food, and vows all around to repeat it again in the future for a whole week.  A few highlights:

Picking dandelions at the vineyard

"Sissy" gets a hug

Sonia and Jayna scream while the waves "chase them" (while Kellie makes sure no one really gets caught)

Deven sticks to digging in the sand (I know we used this picture in the last post, but it is too cute not to include again)

Sonia proudly points out that she ate 4 pieces of corn at dinner (hollow leg?)

Grandpa tries to explain the comics to Sonia (harder than you think) while Deven mugs for the camera

Grandpa checks on how his future golfers are coming along with their chipping practice

All in all, we were sad to leave Oregon, even if it was to head to Disneyland.  Yet another reminder that some of the best trips are where you get to just hang out with friends and family and not try to cram everything in.  Or, maybe just the best trips are where you rent a place large enough that everyone has their own room to sleep in.  But, we'll leave the stories of the whole family sharing one hotel room for the next post...

18 month milestone

"Hi...I'm one-and-a-half now!"

A much belated post marking the fact that Deven hit the 18-month mark last month (August 8th, to be exact).  In my defense, we've been busy traveling and being sick (and in Sameer's case, doing both at the same time), so only now getting around to reflecting on what a fun little guy Deven is becoming.  Of course, we were also late in scheduling his 18-month check-up, so it ended up happening well after the fact.  For posterity, here were his stats:

• Weight: 24 lbs 9 oz (29th percentile)
• Height: 34 in (87th percentile...but I think that was a pretty generous measure)
• Head circumference: 48.6 cm (70th percentile)

He is nearly exactly in line with where Sonia was when she was his age, although I think he is a little bit lower on a percentile basis on the weight, no doubt due to the fact he never sits still.

And along those lines, before I blink and discover that he is suddenly 4 years old, I did want to note a few of our favorite (and not so favorite) habits Deven has these days:

• Above all else, Deven is the least lazy toddler you have ever met.  His first love is being outside, and in the morning he will often bring you his shoes as a not so subtle hint that he would like to leave the house.  As he gets bigger / stronger, he has also taken to grabbing your hand and dragging you to the door and pointing.  Once outside, he runs with abandon throughout the yard and (alas) into the street.  Yes, we have added a gate to our front fence.  And, yes, Deven figured out how to open it within (literally) minutes, but at least it slows him down slightly as he makes his way to the street.
• The only time Deven is content to sit still is when he is allowed to play with an iPhone, which is his second love (second only to getting to go outside).  I admit with no smugness that we are bad parents, and Deven shows a remarkable dexterity with the iPhone for an 18-month-old because he gets a lot of practice.  Originally, his favorite games were the "talking" games where you say something and some animated figure repeats it back to you (cat, dog, hippo, etc.).  He has now graduated on to Super Why, Dora, and Word World (clearly influenced by his sister's TV preferences).  He also enjoys making accidental phone calls (including calling Sameer's CEO, who was traveling in the UK at the time where it was the middle of the night) and deleting applications off of the phone entirely.  Feature request to Apple:  please user test your next UI with toddlers so that you don't make the delete mode be activated by holding down your finger on a button (although I have to say that the fact that Deven can actually navigate the phone easily to find his favorite games is a testament to Apple's UI design, and again our neglectful parenting).
• Deven remains a super happy kid, much more of a laugher than his sister, and on a daily basis he can be heard cracking up because someone is tickling him, or throwing a stuffed animal on the floor (why this is funny remains a mystery), or chasing him around the house.  It is maybe the best sound in the whole world.
• While Deven is a great laugher, he is not a great talker. He has at most a few words ("mama", "ball", "dada" when the mood strikes him), which he uses with some regularity, but just when you think it can officially count as talking, he will call 5 other people "mama" just to mess with you.  We vacillate between acting like it is no big deal and freaking out and calling speech therapists. Our pediatrician said that he should be talking more, but that it was not uncommon for second children (especially boys) to talk later. Essentially, it's a combination of you / his sibling being able to anticipate his needs (thus decreasing the need for him to talk), and also that you spend less time actively teaching him words because you are just trying to juggle life and two kids (reference the earlier comment about being a bad parent). Net, net -- he is definitely making progress on this front, and we are trying to remain relaxed veteran parents, but we are taking him into the speech folks early next month as a hedge.
• While not a great talker, Deven is a fantastic eater.  Without hesitation he will eat any type of food you hand to him, completely trusting that he will like it.  This is in stark contrast to his sister who has been known to reject even the most appealing of food (french fries, strawberries, candy) because it looks "dirty".  While we are still (alas) in the habit of making Sonia her own food at dinner time, Deven can be counted on to just eat what we are eating.  He will also drink milk at any temperature (again, in contrast to his sister who had to be weaned off of heated milk degree by degree over the span of months). 
• Deven has several favorite pastimes -- he loves all toys that involve wheels (planes, trains, automobiles), which seems like such a stereotypical "boy" thing but is unquestionably true.  We got a large lego set for home, part of which had wheels you could add to legos to build cars, and Deven has just carried the wheels around the house ever since (largely ignoring the rest of the legos).  He also loves climbing.  He has figured out he can carry the stepping stool that Sonia uses to wash her hands in the bathroom sink to any place in the house, and in doing so get a step up on being able to climb on to higher things.  His latest trick is climbing onto the piano bench and then pounding out a few "songs" much to his merriment and our pained smiles.  Not sure we have Mozart on our hands, but A for effort.
• Deven is also a very social toddler for his age (another function of being a second kid).  Whenever bigger kids come over to play, he wants to be included, and especially enjoys playing the role of "the monster" who is "chasing" Sonia and whatever unwitting victim has come to our house for a playdate.  While Sonia would wake up in the morning and be content to play in her crib by herself, Deven starts crying immediately and wants to be with someone else every waking minute.  Needless to say, I think he has inherited his father's extroverted nature.  Perhaps relatedly, it is very hard to read Deven a book as he will actively try to close it the entire time you are reading it (cross reference Sameer's renown "inability" to read).
• Last, but not least, Deven really loves his sister. He usually wakes up before her in the morning, and one of his favorite things to do is "go wake sissy" (which he is allowed to do only after it is an appropriate time for Sonia to wake up, which sadly is usually well after when Deven gets up).  He runs to her room, flings open the door, and immediately crawls up on the bed and attempts to snuggle in next to her.  This usually is met with complaints ("Deven is stepping on my hair!").  But, for all of her "complaining" about Deven constantly trying to sit where she is sitting or play with whatever she is playing with, you can see from the photo below (where she is receiving an impromptu hug from her little brother) that it is pretty nice to be so loved.  

I have this photo set as the background on my iPhone and it makes me happy every time I see it.  What a huge change in our lives it has been to have Deven...happy half birthday, little guy!

Happy Birthday America

We had a fantastic 4th of July holiday, taking advantage of all of the local festivities.  This was the first year that Sonia could really appreciate that it was our country's birthday, and since she is obsessed with birthdays she was pretty excited.  The highlights of the day included decorating Sonia's bike to ride in the local parade (and of course Deven's tricycle too), participating in the "parade" (which had lots and lots of participants, but seemingly no spectators, unless you count the parents running ahead just to take a picture of their child), and of course enjoying the bouncy houses at the end of the parade in the local park.  The weather was sunny and hot, and the kids had their fill of juice, hot dogs, and Dora shaped popsicles.  Good times.

Sonia and Deven ready for the parade

Leah & Ellie (and about 1,000 other people) join Deven & Sonia for the parade

All smiles after the parade

Conquering the first of many bouncy house slides

Boundless energy

Deven wishing he was big enough to be in the bouncy house (next year!)

And of course, no birthday is complete without a rendition of "Happy Birthday", so here is Sonia's tribute to the 4th of July.

Get the picture

We had a wonderful weekend celebrating Father's Day, including making our annual trip to Alice's restaurant to take a picture of Sameer and the kids for posterity.  This year the Glotzbachs joined us to enjoy one last calorie heavy American brunch before they leave for Zurich [sob].  But, it was great to see the kids run around together on the back lawn and imagine that when we are next all together that Deven will be older and somehow magically better behaved.  :-)

This year we managed to capture a motorcyclist in the backdrop along with parked cars...not exactly the most scenic of settings, but oh well.

Father's Day 2011

See below for last year's photo, and for a link to previous photos check out last year's post.  

Father's Day 2010

Somehow, in a year's time Deven has gone from a drooling baby to a little boy, while Sonia has managed to get slightly larger, albeit with the exact same haircut she has sported three years running.  

After our breakfast at Alice's, we headed up to Tracy for the weekend to celebrate Father's Day with Dada, Bebe, Sanjay, Melissa, Maya and Kai.  We had a fantastic time hanging out at Lake Del Valle, eating home cooked meals, and splashing around at the neighborhood pool.  Apparently we were enjoying ourselves so much we could not be bothered to take any photos, so you'll just have to trust me that everyone had fun.  

Happy Father's Day to Sameer...and to all of the other Dads in our lives!

Hitting the highlights

Hi there, long time no blogging.  So much to catch up on that we'll just hit the highlights (at least we can manage the major holidays).

First off, we had a fantastic Easter, celebrating on both days of the weekend with egg hunts.  You may recall our less-than-successful outing to Burgess Park last Easter where Sonia ended up with one single egg (and then only because Sameer essentially boxed out another parent so she could get at least just one).  This picture told the whole story...one sad little egg, one sad little kid.

Easter 2010

This year we were determined to find something a bit saner, so we registered to go to the Easter egg hunt at Gamble Gardens in Palo Alto.  It was almost too serene with its puppet show and a few dozen well mannered kids (Sameer declared it the WASPiest event we had ever been to Palo Alto, which is saying something). Nevertheless, there were eggs everywhere, so much so that Sonia had to be cut off when she reached the maximum allowed, and even Deven got a whole basket full.  Note the change of expression this year (yet, the same basket, the same haircut, and of course the same pink color scheme).

Easter 2011

On Sunday, we headed up to Oakland to celebrate Easter with Sameer's family, including finding the many, many eggs the Easter bunny had hidden both inside and outside the house.  Undeterred by the wet weather, the kids thoroughly enjoyed themselves, and the adults found that mimosas and Easter brunch are a natural combination.  A few pictures of the festivities...

Follow the leader

All smiles with a full basket of eggs

Maya and Kai say "ha ha"

After a great Easter, we kept up our track record of fun holidays with a great Mother's Day weekend.  Grandma and Grandpa were visiting from Oregon, so we celebrated with lots of home cooked meals and a few outings, including one to the Stanford baseball game where Sameer had a heroic save that prevented a foul ball from hitting Sonia in the head at high speed (needless to say, good thing he took her and not me given the difference between our hand-eye coordination skills).  On Sunday, we capped off the weekend with a Mother's Day brunch at Macarthur Park (which was packed...I guess a few other people had the same idea). We attempted to get some family pictures afterward, with basically zero success of getting everyone to look at the camera and smile at the same time.  Oh well, "A" for effort...this one manages to get at least most people looking.

Mother's Day 2011

I'm skipping over many, many other fun things we've been doing of late.  A few highlights include trips to Tracy, Moss Beach, and Trevor & Paige's guest house at "the ranch", attending the Holi festival at Stanford, and lots of playtime at nearby playgrounds, U-Me, and Happy Hollow.  We still haven't managed to clean out our garage our deal with getting rid of Sameer's old dining room table (any takers?), but at least we're getting the important fun stuff done.

For true fans of Team Dholakia, here are a lot of photos dating back to January.  Until next time!

Deven's First Hair Cut (sorry, too tired to attempt a witty title)

After much procrastination, we finally motivated this weekend to take Deven to get his first hair cut.  Despite the fact that his hair was growing over his ears, we had hesitated because he is constantly in motion and I just couldn't imagine how he would get through a hair cut without suffering from some scissor related injury.  But, finally this weekend it was time for Sonia to get her hair cut, and it seemed like as good of time as any to motivate.

From the beginning, Deven was a bit wary of this whole procedure as evidenced below...

Despite a constant stream of animal crackers, there were a few tears (but better he cry because his head is being held still than because we have had an inadvertent Vincent Van Gogh moment).

But, in the end, he emerged unscathed and sporting a new spring hair cut.  Here he is back at home, riding on his sister's old bus toy (new to him, thus the big smiles).

The brief clip below should give you a sense of how difficult it is to cut the hair of someone who is constantly moving (and also a sense of how many animal crackers Deven ate during the experience).  Needless to say, we were good tippers when it came time to pay up.

"Happy birthday dear Deven"

Here's a quick video of Deven's birthday serenade (celebrated two days early while we were in Tahoe, with cousins Maya and Kai in attendance). Note Sonia's reaction when she sees the cupcake and starts to get upset that it was supposed to be hers (which is why I am seen to be explaining that we have two cupcakes of the same type). Apparently sisterly generosity only goes so far, although she was eager to "help" blow out the candles.

A year in the life

A happy 1-year-old

Today Deven had his 1-year check up (a bit late as his birthday was actually last week)...amazing to believe that last Valentine's Day we were the blurry-eyed parents of a 6-day-old.  Which made a pretty good excuse for why we did not celebrate the occasion.  I'm not sure what our excuse is this year (since we didn't manage to celebrate again), but I digress.

In any event, Deven checked out as perfectly healthy.  His stats were that he was 46.8 cm head circumference (62nd percentile), 30.25 inches for height (64th percentile), and 20 lbs 1.75 ounces for weight (12th percentile!).  So, he remains a sort of average sized, wiry guy.  May he maintain this metabolism later when it is more useful.  :-)  He was a very active participant during his check up, including attempting to help the doctor type up her comments on the keyboard, actively "assisting" by grabbing any instrument he came near, and finally providing very vocal feedback when he received multiple shots.

While his life is not as reliably documented as his sister's (yes, yes...the irony since I am a second child complainer on that topic myself), I wanted to take a moment and note for posterity what he is like as he hits the 1 year mark.

• First and foremost, Deven never stops moving.  If he sees you, he will walk over and put up his arms so you pick him up.  Once you pick him up, he will lunge and wiggle until you put him back down.  Then he will repeat this whole process again.  I cannot think of a single instance where he sat in my lap and was just content to hang out. The only exceptions to this rule are a) if you are holding a magic electronic device that he would like to try to eat (remote control, iPhone, iPad, etc.), and b) he is exhausted and you are giving him a bottle.  The only good thing about him waking up in the middle of the night is that it is a rare opportunity when he would like to be held, which almost makes seeing him at 3am acceptable.  Which brings me to my next point...
• Deven is a terrible sleeper.  Despite being 1 year old, he continues to reliably wake up between 3-4am each night. It is so bad that Sameer at times has called into question whether or not Deven is actually his son (Sameer being notoriously borderline narcoleptic). Sameer is also accepting applications for the position of night nurse in our household. I would like to extend a belated apology to my friends who have had troublesome sleeping habits with their children for our previous smugness on this topic. I get it now. You are not soft. You have tried everything. You are aware that there is an approach called "crying it out." Nothing you do matters.  No matter how stubborn you are, the child is more stubborn.  Deven's latest tactic in our ongoing battle of wills on this topic is to poop in the middle of the night (sorry for the TMI here) which you basically cannot ignore (both because he continues to wail, waking up his sister, and because it is disgusting).  Thus, his latest nickname is "midnight pooper" as in the following lyric (sung at 3am to the tune of "The Joker" by Steve Miller Band, and yes I am aware it is not an age appropriate song):

I am super

You're in a stupor

'cause I'm a midnight pooper

I sure think this is lots of fun

• I'm sure we'll be receiving notice from the Grammy's any day now for consideration of this artistic masterpiece.  All I can say is that our bar for humor is very low these days because we are sleep deprived.
• Speaking of nicknames, one of the longstanding honors of being a second child is to be the recipient of countless nicknames from your older sibling.  As has been noted in the past, Sonia is partial to repetition, so Deven is generally referred to as one of the following:  "Gaga" (my personal favorite, as in "Baby Gaga"), "Gogo", "Coco" (Sonia's current favorite), or "Bobo".  I believe the original origin of these names were sounds that Deven was making, which is a bit odd because I don't think I've ever heard him utter any of those syllables.
• On that point, Deven remains in no hurry to talk.  We sometimes pretend that he has just said "hi", or that when he says "da da" he is referring to Sameer, but I think we are mostly kidding ourselves.  He has long since learned that he best communicates his points by crying, whining, and grabbing you and not letting go, so thinks this whole "words" thing is something he can ignore.  But, he is slowly but surely picking up new consonants, so I'm confident that eventually he will acquiesce and agree to string these together into words, but no time soon.
• Deven is a remarkably good walker for his age.  He has been walking with confidence for a month already, and as of this past weekend is now the owner of a "real" pair of tennis shoes. He is still working through how to keep his balance while wearing them, but I suspect he'll have it down in no time, and then will probably use his newfound traction to pick up speed. And while I have no intention of breaking down and buying one of those child leashes, I am admittedly no longer judgmental on the topic.  :-)  
• Deven is also a pretty good eater, at least as compared to his sister at this age.  He is most interested in eating what you are having, least interested in eating anything on a spoon, and is able to easily sort his foods into likes (into the mouth) and dislikes (onto the floor, typically with a flourishing hand wave).  If I never step on another Cheerio again (or worse, green pea), it will be too soon. 
• Despite being a good eater, Deven is a terrible restaurant visitor. Every month or so we try and take him again, and each time the meal ends with one of us in the car with him, waiting while the other person and Sonia get our food wrapped to-go.  As noted above, Deven is constantly on the move, so sitting in a high chair for any length of time is just unimaginable to him.  Darting through the bar area of a restaurant while you chase him is, however, a good time.  All I can say is that while the other patrons laugh, the waiters frown, and we exit sooner than later. 

For all of my tongue-in-cheek negativity and sarcasm above, no post about Deven should go without mentioning that he is a really happy, good natured baby (toddler!). Almost always smiling, quick to laugh at his sister's antics, able to make his eyes look particularly large and Bambi-like just when you are thinking of throttling him...in short, a cutey patootie if ever there was one.  It seems like both yesterday and a lifetime ago that his smiling face came into our lives...can't imagine what it would be like without him.

Happy birthday Deven! 

Winter Wonderland

Now that Sonia is four (and a "big girl," she would want me to add), we decided it was time for her to make her debut on skis.  I'm hoping that if she starts early enough that she can somehow overcome what I recognize as an innate fear of going too fast and falling down (I can't imagine whom she inherited that from).  We headed up to Northstar with Sanjay, Melissa, Maya and Kai for the weekend and in an optimistic move signed Sonia up for two full days of ski school.

I am happy (and truthfully a bit surprised) to report that she had a great time.  While she didn't show any signs of being a skiing phenom, we were more than satisfied that she was all smiles both days (except for a bit of a meltdown the second day when she got stranded in the middle of the slope, but we're blaming the instructor for that one).  A big part of it was her head-to-toe pink wardrobe, which she was pretty excited to get to wear.  It also helped that her cousin Maya clearly loves skiing (and, at age 8, is already a better black diamond skier than Sameer).  And, perhaps most of all, it was my promise of treats at the end of each day...if a new Minnie Mouse Pez dispenser is all that it takes to get Sonia to love skiing, then that was $2.99 well spent.

It was our first time to Northstar, and we had a great time.  In addition to the kids' ski school run like a well oiled machine, we also took advantage of the pizza place steps from our condo, the ice skating rink right next door, and (of course) multiple trips to the outdoor bar to get spiked hot chocolate to enjoy by the fire pit.  It was so nice that it almost convinced us that the bumper-to-bumper drive up there on Friday night was worth it.  Almost.  :-)  A belated thank you to the patrons of the random Wendy's we stopped at on the way for tolerating the advances of a not-quite-1-year-old who needed to run around a bit after being stuck in the car for so long.

Here's Sonia in her full skiing wardrobe (along with her equally pink cousin Maya):

Here's Sonia cruising down the itsy-bitsy baby slope on the first day (the second day she graduated to mid mountain)...not exactly Lindsay Vonn, but not too bad for her first day ever!

Walk the walk

In less than a month, Deven has gone from stumbling a few steps to being a confident walker. Crawling is pretty much a thing of the past (unless he is trying to get his hands on some tiny object from underneath the couch he can then try to swallow). Here's a quick video below of him on a quick tour of the kitchen...next stop running!

Closing out the year in pictures

It's been so long since we've posted, I no longer know if this really constitutes a blog anymore.  But, in the interest of making up for lost time, here are a *ton* of photos from 2010 that we have been too lazy to upload.  Given the quantities here, definitely only for true Team Dholakia fans, and/or those with small children who need to mesmerize them in front of the computer with slideshows of pictures of other kids (no judgment...we've been there).

Highlights (dating back to September) include:

• The last days of summer, complete with an inflatable pool in our yard
• Lots of Halloween festivities, including many pictures of Sonia's costume which she wore on four separate occasions 
• Something like time lapse photography where Deven just gets bigger and bigger (and teeth magically appear!)
• Sonia's 4th birthday, complete with Pump It Up party, Hello Kitty cake, and enough pizza for an army
• Thanksgiving up at Grandma & Grandpa's house (alas, too few photos taken)
• Professional family photos we finally motivated to get
• And lots and lots of family and fun at Christmas, complete with homemade cookies for Santa and some very happy (albeit terribly spoiled) kids

As always, here's hoping we do better on our 2011 resolution to post more often!

One small step for a man...

Clearly we need to post more because our last post was that Deven had started cruising, and low and behold today he took his first steps! Well, maybe it was more like repeatedly stumbling, but he was upright and no one was holding on to him, so it counts in our books.



Since we're doing such a great job of keeping track of milestones, I should also mention that Deven got his first tooth...uh...and then four more. Whoops. Must post more often. But, he is now happily chewing his first finger foods and already is developing a love of macaroni and cheese just like his father.

Not one to be left out of the milestone game, Sonia decided now that she was four she would no longer sleep wearing a pull-up. For the most part this has been a success, but the occasional accident in the middle of the night is not making anyone happy. But, such is the price of progress.

Busy times!

Cruising Along

Even though today was all about his sister, Deven is deserving of some attention too since he has recently started "cruising". One of his favorite pastimes is doing laps around our coffee table (enticed by an ever-moving toy), or going back and forth between holding onto the couch and holding onto the table while standing. Everyone who sees him remarks that he will be walking soon, which is meant to be exciting, but is mostly just scary. Here's hoping his balance catches up quickly with his desire to be on the move.

Pump It Up

For anyone who missed Sonia's birthday today and wondered what it was like, all you need to do is watch the video below repeatedly for about an hour and a half and then you will have lived the same experience. No, four year olds never get tired of going down slides. Over, and over, and over again.

Good times had by all!

Happy Birthday Sonia!

If you have seen Sonia recently, she has no doubt told you that she was "almost four."  Today, after much anticipation, she finally got to drop the "almost" and celebrate her birthday.  Truth be told, the celebrations started on Friday when she was feted at preschool (where we celebrated, of course, with pink flower cookies as is traditional).  On Saturday, Sameer convinced her (for the second year running) that going to the Stanford football game was part of her birthday celebration.  And, finally, today was her actual birthday, and we celebrated at Pump It Up with many of her friends.  Given that it was pouring down rain, we were pretty glad that we had decided on an indoor venue.  For those of you not aware (i.e. not the parents of a young child in the Bay Area), Pump It Up is an indoor bouncy house extravaganza, and as soon as we entered into the first "arena" the squealing began, and did not stop for the next 90 minutes until finally complete exhaustion set in.  Then, of course, we countered that with juice and cake (sorry other parents!), so predictably everything was all smiles until the inevitable meltdown struck (sobbing tears at the thought that she would not receive a goodie bag at her own party...I guess rookie mistake to not have realized that when everyone else is receiving a bag fully of random party favors, the birthday girl will want one too).

The rest of the day was filled with family visiting the house, much excitement at the opening of presents, more sugar highs and lows, and a final collapse out of complete exhaustion (I'm referring to Sameer and me, of course).  It's hard to believe that it's been four years already since our lives changed forever, and seeing all of the smiles and hearing all the laughter today just reminded us again how much they have changed for the better.

Happy birthday Sonia...we love you!

Celebrating Sonia's birthday at preschool (cookies for everyone!)

Even Sonia enjoys being the center of attention when it means getting a crown and a pink flower cookie

Opening presents on the  morning of her birthday (thanks for the piggy bank, Grandma & Grandpa!)

Climbing through the obstacle course at Pump It Up

Getting ready to climb the rock wall

Smiling as everyone sang "Happy Birthday" (in front of the world's largest Hello Kitty cake...slight miscommunication with the bakery)

9 months old

Yesterday Deven had his 9-month check-up (a bit early, but close enough).  We learned several things at the appointment:  1) it is difficult to give a child a flu shot who will not stop squirming (thankfully we are not nurses), 2) if you tell a 3-year-old once that if she is "brave" at the doctor's she can have a lollipop, she will assume this is a permanent rule and cite it during future visits (Sonia was there too to get her flu shot), and 3) Deven has been busy growing for the last three months.

For posterity, here were his stats:

• Head circumference:  46.1 centimeters (76th percentile, slightly up from his 6-month checkup)
• Height: 29.5 inches (90th percentile, which is way up from his 6-month checkup...we're still a little suspicious of the measurement, eventhough they took it twice, because again he is a moving target at all times)
• Weight: 17 lbs, 15 oz (14th percentile, which is down from his last checkup, but also somewhat a function of essentially growing taller while his body mass doesn't keep up)

The doctor laughed outloud at Deven's "squirmy wormy" nature and kept repeating things like, "Boy, are you in for a fun ride."  For the record, this was not reassuring.  :-)

Happy Halloween!

We had a *great* Halloween season (since Sonia wore her costume on 5 separate occasions, it hardly seems right to call it just a "night" anymore).  Deven wore his costume for approximately 30 seconds before spitting up on it, but such is life.  After multiple parties, many visited houses, and one candy-induced meltdown, we're ready to call it a year.  Sonia is already thinking of plans for next year...Daddy will take her trick-or-treating, and she will be Ariel, "except in the dress, not in the fishy costume."  Lovely.  :-)

Ready for Halloween Party #4 (this one had a bouncy house, so was deemed "the best" by Sonia)

The whole crew is dressed up (per Sonia's "request" that Mommy be a witch to match her kitty cat costume)

Wrestling Deven to try and convince him to let his picture be taken, right before he spit up all over the place

One happy kitty cat

Sorting her loot

Our cat pumpkin to match our little kitty cat 

Until next year, Happy Halloween!