Father's Day 2012 - The Year the Camera Battery Was Dead

One of our few lasting traditions as a household is that every year on Father's Day (or thereabouts) we venture up to Alice's on Skyline to have brunch as a family and to take a picture of Sameer and the kids. It is one of Sameer's favorite places dating back to when he was an undergrad, and it's just far enough out of the way that we don't usually make it there unless it's a special occasion.

2012 was no different, so we piled the kids in the car and headed up there, with thoughts of french toast and charming photos in mind. Alas, when we got there, I discovered that the battery on our "real" camera was 100% dead, leaving us to make do with our iPhones.

So, I highly encourage you to check out last year's post to see better pictures of the kids, but in the meantime this year I leave you with a collection of outtakes.  Somehow perhaps this is a better representation of the reality of our lives.  :-)

Sad that this is literally the *only* picture where everyone is looking at the camera

"We're not tired...who said that we were tired?!"

Two out of three looking at the camera is not bad

"Does that kid at the next table have an iPad?  Come on, let's go."

Despite the lack of photographic evidence, it was as always a wonderful, sunny, warm, California day, and the kids enjoyed everything from pancakes to impromptu visits from horses to unlimited quantities of orange juice. Next year I'll be sure to double check the camera battery, so hopefully we will be back on track for our annual Kodak moment.

Graduation Day

While I have exactly zero recollection of finishing preschool (and suspect at best it involved a mimeographed diploma), "graduating" from preschool is a big deal these days. Sonia's preschool was no exception, so Sameer and I both took off of work so we could be there to witness the big day. Sonia was thrilled to wear her brand new dress (purchased for the occasion) as well as a cap complete with tassel. I'm not sure she had any idea what moving the tassel to the other side of her head was meant to symbolize, but she loved the ritual and attention, as always.

Definitely the end of an era...when Sonia started preschool she still had crazy baby hair and refused to leave "woof woof" (her stuffed dog) at home.

First day of preschool - July 7, 2009

Preschool graduation - June 15, 2012

In just three years, she has grown up in leaps and bounds, all in large thanks to her preschool teachers who have been a constant, positive presence in her life. When she first started, something like coloring in the lines would have been unimaginable, and now she is writing and illustrating her own stories (admittedly, "writing" is pretty generous, but she at least is labeling herself, since of course she is the star of every story). She has made countless friends who will follow her to kindergarten, and most importantly she has learned to love school. I can't wait for Deven to start on the same journey...although that would of course require him to show at least slight interest in being potty-trained, but that is the topic of a different post.  :-)

A few more pictures to commemorate the big day!

Moving the tassel...it's official

One last hug for her little brother in the playhouse

Sonia and her best buddies

Sonia and her teachers -- thanks for all of your love and attention through the years!

Setting the wheels in motion

We had a wonderful Mother's Day this year, with Grandma, Grandpa, Kevin and Beth all visiting us for a relaxing weekend. There was lots to remember, including in typical Johnson fashion much good food and drink, but the highlight by far was Sonia graduating from training wheels...making her debut on two wheels with everyone watching and cheering.

A few lessons learned from the experience:

• 90% of the battle was getting Sonia the right-sized bike. She had been struggling a bit to learn on her prior bike, but we bought her a bigger bike and immediately she could do it. I have no idea why we waited so long.
• Buying elbow and knee pads made her feel better, but she wore them exactly once and then never again. Next time I am not taking the tags off.
• Little brothers get sad when all of a sudden their big sisters can go much faster and they are left behind...I predict Deven will be riding a bike about 2 years sooner than Sonia.  :-)

The captive audience assembles, ready for a show

No more training wheels

Deven is so distressed that Sonia is missing her training wheels that he runs along beside her trying to put them back on

And she's off!

Deven turns two

In the spirit of better late than never, we finally took Deven in for his 2-year old check up a month late.  For posterity, here were his stats

• Weight: 27 lbs 7.5 ounces (40th percentile) -- 1.5 lbs heavier than Sonia at this age
• Height: 35.5 inches (73rd percentile) -- 1.5" taller
• Head circumference: 50.1 cm (82nd percentile) -- 2 cm larger
• BMI: 15.32 (15th percentile)

So, he remains a lean guy, except in the noggin where I fear he is cursed with his mother's too-large-for-hats head.

There are too many wonderful, silly things about Deven to list, but a few highlights I hope I remember in the future:

• His vocabulary is slowly, but surely growing. His go-to words include Mama, Nana (Sonia), Dada, choo choo, NO, down, car, "I did it!" (complete with accompanying fist pump), "cheese" (instead of "please"), "Ha" (instead of "yes", and also -- strangely -- it means Mickey Mouse).
• He is very self-congratulatory...I guess when you're kid #2 you have to be president of your own fan club, but Deven is the first (and sometimes only) one to point out whenever he has accomplished anything, big or small.
• He loves, loves, loves his sister -- constantly asks for her, is devastated when she unexpectedly leaves the house without him, and is very generous with his impromptu hugs.
• He is pretty much a mama's boy these days, which is obviously from my biased point of view, but even Sameer admits he is a distant second most of the time.
• Very different from his sister, Deven is a complete dare devil. If it has wheels, he wants to ride it. If it can be climbed, he wants to stand on top of it. Unfortunately, I see stitches and casts in our future.
• Just like his sister, he is tragically mesmerized by the iPad / iPhone. Sigh.
• Deven is a bad traveler (I think he has inherited my infamous childhood car sickness), a good eater, and a wonderful son and little brother.

Happy (belated) birthday to our little guy!

Ready for scooting (apparently too excited to wait to change out of his pajamas)

"Excuse me, your antics are distracting me from my iPhone."

"What, is this not a good place to read?"

"I have a cookie, but I'll take another."

Hauʻoli lā hānau, Deven!

Dear loyal reader(s): in the spirit of FIFO, I am finally writing up our wonderful trip to Hawaii earlier this year (and back-dating it accordingly). Much has happened since then, but don't worry, I'll get there eventually...

For reasons that are not worth describing, we had four tickets to Hawaii that were due to expire in mid-February. Nothing like sunk cost as a forcing function to take a vacation! So, we decided to "celebrate Deven's 2nd birthday" by taking the trip, and since we had to go to Oahu (long story, but basically because of the way the tickets were purchased originally that was the case), we decided to try out Aulani, Disney's new resort in Hawaii. Yes, we are those people. Sonia was elated (having devoured every piece of direct mail marketing we received about the property, which was a lot), and we were psyched to stay at a brand new property where we would be able to get a room that was essentially a little mini-apartment (living room separate from bedroom, kitchen and w&d included, etc.). If you would like the scoop on how to book Disney Vacation Club properties at a discount when you are not a DVC member, drop me a line.

After a relatively uneventful flight (thank you Steve Jobs), we got off to a bit of a rocky start when another passenger mistook our luggage for theirs, and so we were short one bag. Of course, it was the one with all of the kids' stuff in it, so while Sameer toured the property, I made an impromptu visit to a nearby Target for swimsuits and Froot Loops, the latter because I have told Sonia that the cereal is only available while you are on vacation (miss smarty pants recently asked me if that was true, then why is it sold in our local grocery store, but seemed to accept 'because people come here on vacation too' as an adequate response).

After being reunited with our luggage the next morning, we proceeded to spend the next week on a vacation I would describe as relentlessly fun. I have never been on a cruise ship, but I can only imagine it must be something like this. Each day there is a schedule printed of all of the activities going on in the resort (all family-oriented, and largely included for free while you are staying there). So, instead of sitting your a** by the pool as we have done for all previous Hawaii vacations, you find your self taking "surfing lessons" with Chip n' Dale (note: on land, we're not there yet w.r.t. swimming ability). The kids *loved* it, and Sonia has asked to go back on a weekly basis ever since we've been home. Sameer and I were left to wonder a bit what happened to our relaxing week in Hawaii, but it is hard to imagine that there could be any destination that was more kid friendly (and I will say that their spa was an amazing refuge, easily on par with other high end places we have stayed). And I was very impressed by the multitude of lifeguards on hand (literally, several constantly positioned around each pool), to the point that if our kids could actually swim well, I could envision a very different vacation where we are firmly ensconced in our lounge chairs while "keeping an eye" on the kids. Pencil our reservation in for 3 years from now.

All sniping aside, many, many highlights to remember:

• Sonia was able to see her beloved Disney characters (or at least the ones who are "visiting" Hawaii, namely Mickey, Minnie, Goofy, Donald, and Stitch, whom she deemed weird, but still hugged to be polite). And that whole experience was much more low key than Disneyland, which was nice.
• The hotel itself is really amazing, with a pool area that was the best for kids I've ever seen. Sonia is still raving about the slide you go down in rafts, and even braved the "big kids" slide once (due to some ill advised daring on the part of her father). Deven was more of a fan of the lazy river, and everyone was thumbs up on the hot tub. The pool was so nice the kids were practically complaining when Sameer insisted they go to the beach (literally 50 feet from the pool).
• There are tons of activities around the hotel for kids, so on the couple of days the weather was less-than-sunny, we were able to hang out at the kids' club, do a very cool high tech scavenger hunt with custom configured loaner iPhones, watch tropical fish being fed in their big salt water aquarium, etc., etc. Way too much to describe. See my reference above about the "relentless fun."
• I was very grateful that they were very prepared to make Deven's birthday a big deal (obviously having children celebrating their birthday at the Aulani is not a new concept for them). We attended a "character breakfast" that morning where Deven received special attention from Goofy, Minnie, and "Auntie" (not clear he was happy about all of the attention, but his big sister enjoyed the spillover effect), and then at dinner that night they were able to provide a birthday cake complete with a tropical Minnie & Mickey decorations on top. I looked like I had my act together, even though that was not at all the case.
• Not to be outdone by the special attention being paid to her little brother, Sonia was delighted to get to go to the spa for the "keiki package", which I thought was sort of girly hula lessons, but turned out to be a full blown toddlers-and-tiaras style makeover. I drew the line at makeup ("pixie dust"), but since we had already gone through a manicure, pedicure, full updo, and a new dress, Sonia didn't mind. Yikes. Still, if you ask her what was the highlight of trip, she will definitely mention it, so I guess it makes the list here. :-)
• I should also note that they have a deal where if you buy one of their plastic mugs, you get unlimited self-serve refills on soda, so I had as many Diet Cokes as I could conceivably consume. Given that Deven stubbornly refused to switch timezones (causing us to be frequent visitors to the lobby to pick up the day's schedule when it is released at 5am), I very much appreciated this all-you-can-drink access to caffeine.

Not included on the list of "highlights" include several lowlights, most notably the absolute fit Deven threw on the plane ride back to California which caused a complete stranger to offer us his iPad just to get Deven to stop crying. Note to self: do not book flights during naptime with the overly ambitious goal that your child will sleep then, because odds are they will get too riled up, skip the nap, and then be a complete nightmare.

But, I digress from the fun...and there was tons of that...here are just a few of the many moments:

Sporty Spice

I was never really into soccer when I was a kid. In my defense, it was Oregon, so soccer in the fall = cold and muddy, and there was also the fact I had zero natural skill for the game.  So, I acknowledge that it was pretty hypocritical that I decided it was time to sign Sonia up for soccer, even though she wasn't that excited to start.  She did get more excited when I explained we would be buying her a new soccer ball, cleats, shin guards, and matching soccer socks (all pink, of course). At this age, soccer is just a once per week class on Saturday where they play various skill building games before "scrimmaging" for 5 minutes.  And by "scrimmage" I mean run around in a pack somewhere in the vicinity of the ball, while the one kid who is naturally skilled scores goals at will (needless to say, not our kid).

In yet another reminder of why we deal with California's high cost of living, the weather has been beautiful, even though the classes started in January.  Sonia has learned how to kick the ball with the "power spot" on her foot (not her "stinky toes"), the basics of defense in a game that involves "kitties" chasing "doggies", and a bit of goal tending (where the ball is an "insect" which she has to keep out of her "house").  I don't think any of it has really sunk in, but I am just happy that she is having fun, and Sameer is working on controlling his facial expressions when Sonia allows the other kids to take the ball away from her when they are scrimmaging.  Apparently we have over taught her the importance of sharing.  :-)

The kids line up for the first day of soccer class (Sonia second from the right)

Running around, nowhere in the vicinity of the ball

Time for a juice break -- for the record, if you added in orange slices here you would have captured all of my positive memories of soccer

Sonia walks away after scoring a goal (of course, note the lack of goal keeper)

Showing off her "soccer pose"

Besides soccer, Sonia also goes to swimming each week (and she used to go to gymnastics, until we missed the cutoff date to renew her enrollment, so there went one shot at the Summer Olympics).  She has been working on getting her "red ribbon" (the next level of swimming) for what seems like at least a year, to the point that Sameer had considered enrolling her in more frequent swimming classes (earning him the nickname "Tiger Dad" from Molly).  After our recent trip to Hawaii (a blog post to come), the extra practice paid off and Sonia finally managed to get her ribbon. That means she can do 5 "up faces" in a row (essentially taking a breath five times while she swims), can "pencil jump" into the pool, can float on her back, and two other things I forgot. Next up is her "white ribbon", which requires her to swim underwater for 16 feet, pick items up off the bottom of the pool, and dive in from the side (head first, feet last).  Stay tuned for the post where she earns that ribbon...in about a year at least I would guess.

With her brand new red ribbon (note: I did not sanction the wearing of this 2 piece swimsuit, but maybe the lack of clothing propelled her to swim faster)

So You Think You Can Dance

As mentioned in the last post, one of Deven's favorite Christmas presents was a musical Thomas the Train toothbrush, which plays the Thomas theme song at surprisingly loud volume for such a tiny thing. Encouraged by his sister, Deven has taken to playing the song over, and over, again, each time "dancing" when he hears it.

Based on the video below, I fear some awkward moments during future school dances, but at least they've got enthusiasm. Perhaps Deven's dancing moves will improve once he figures out how to get his feet to leave the ground.  :-)

Closing Out the Year in Pictures

It's been a while since we posted pictures from all of our various comings and goings (since before the 4th of July!), so below is a random assortment of pictures from the second half of 2011. Definitely for true Team Dholakia fans as there are a ton of them...lots of great moments to remember!

Holidaze 2011

Taking another trip back in the time machine, here is a recap of the holidays...now backdating properly so things are less confusing.  :-)

2011 did not disappoint with another wonderful holiday season, even though we managed to take far too few pictures to document all of the fun occasions.  We started off by spending nearly a week up in Oregon for Thanksgiving, which gave us plenty of time to try new recipes, hit the zoo (which you have nearly to yourself when you're there when it opens and it is rainy and cold out), and even get in a little bit of wine tasting. The highlight was definitely our family Thanksgiving dinner at Julie & Randy's, featuring some amazing food and lots of kid antics. Sonia and Deven were active participants in building the barricade to the living room, which involved dumping every article of clothing, toy, and pillow they could find to wall off the room. Needless to say, the adult clean up crew was required to put everything back in order.

Somehow we managed no pictures of the great living room wall, but here are a few from the trip that we did manage to take.

Thankfully the play structure did not collapse under the weight of lots of cousins

Deven thoroughly enjoying his wipeout from the slide

Braving the weather at the zoo

Close encounters of the polar bear kind

Close encounters of the sea lion kind

After Thanksgiving, we returned home to discover that somehow it was almost Christmas and we were completely unprepared. Thankfully, we have one of those blasphemous (to Oregonians, at least) artificial Christmas trees, so we quickly put it up and not-so-quickly put up lights on our house (the latter involving more than one trip to Costco because apparently we can't do basic math to determine how many strings of lights we needed to buy) and overnight we were in the holiday spirit. Sonia in particular really got into the meaning of the season, which for her is requesting potential presents from every catalog that came in the mailbox. Which, as all parents know, is about 5 catalogs per day during the holiday season.

A new tradition we started this year was going to the Nutcracker ballet in San Francisco. Sonia was thrilled to have another occasion to wear her fancy holiday dress, and even more excited when it turned out that cousin Maya and Melissa were sitting right in front of us (an unplanned coordination, which is pretty remarkable given how large the auditorium is).  Note to self: next year smuggle in flasks and juice boxes as the intermission lines were crazy, and chugging champagne before you have to rush back to your seat is nearly as enjoyable as it sounds.

For the holiday itself, Grandma and Grandpa came from Portland, and Uncle Kevin came up from Los Angeles, and Dada and Bebe drove down from Tracy so we could all celebrate together. Santa and his elves were very busy Christmas Eve when Santa delighted Sonia and Deven by bringing them both a "mini" trampoline and a train table. Santa must have mistakenly thought we live in a big house! But, the rather large additions to our family room were well worth it based on the beaming smiles that lasted for days. I don't believe Deven was more than 3 feet away from the train table for at least the first week it was in our house.

As she does every year, Sonia monitors Santa's progress online with help from Uncle Kevin

Sonia works on making Santa cookies (an annual tradition, despite my resolution each year to just go with store bought)

You know you have too many presents when they stop fitting under the tree

Santa's cookies, milk, and carrots (for the reindeer) are all set

Sonia no doubt wonders how Santa managed to get such a large train table down our chimney

You can't imagine how tired Sonia was at the end of the day after jumping on her trampoline for hours

A lesson in frugality: Deven's favorite present was this musical Thomas toothbrush from his stocking

While Christmas was a true highlight, New Years was a bit of a lowlight as I rung in the new year slightly sick (two years running!), and for the first time ever called it a night long before midnight. But, we managed to rally to attend the Fiesta Bowl to watch Stanford lose (alas) in a heart breaker. But, it was great to see so many good friends in Phoenix, even if the outcome was not what Andrew Luck probably had in mind when he stayed one more season. I suspect next year we will not have the luxury of worrying about which bowl we'll be in, but you never know.

All in all, it was a wonderful holiday season...great food, lots of time with friends and family, spoiled children who managed to be (mostly) on their best behavior, and great memories that are finally posted here for posterity.  :-)

Family Photos

One of my new year's resolutions was to get back into a regular pattern of blogging updates, and since it's now February with no updates, it's obvious that that resolution was as successful as all of the others.  :-)


But, you've got to start somewhere, so going back in our time machine to last November (where we last left off), here is the next post I should have written....

Just in the nick of time for holiday cards (and with the weather only somewhat cooperating), we managed to get our "annual" family photos taken (annual in quotes since we don't seem to manage it every year, but two years running is almost a pattern!).

Here were our favorites...

The whole family, in our attempt to be coordinated in our outfits without being too "matchy matchy"

Two little munchkins (Deven's strange expression due in part to the fact he is chewing a pretzel)

"If I look at you long enough with my large eyes perhaps you will give me anything I want."

"Who me? I couldn't have done it...I look so innocent!"

Praying for divine intervention as Deven declares that the photo session is officially over

Sonia turns 5!

Earlier this month, we hit a big milestone in our house when Sonia turned 5.  This is a day that had been eagerly anticipated for months. I think it may have even taught Sonia to fully grasp dates and subtraction, as in, "My birthday is on November 7th, which is only 8 days from now." We were able to gently steer her in the direction of wanting to have a party at Pump It Up! again this year (yes, we outsource), and she took to the planning process in earnest. She helped pick out the proper Evite to send, confirmed the guest list (everyone from school plus a few others), selected the cake (Ariel the Mermaid, of course), chose the treats for the goodie bags, and helped pick out a new "5" t-shirt to wear to the party.  The day of, she was like the proverbial kid in the backseat asking "are we there yet?" -- literally counting down the hours until it started. We were all ready for it to start (Sonia) and be over (Sameer and me) when the time finally arrived.

The party itself was a blast. Sonia enjoyed running around and reveling in silliness with all of her friends...I don't believe she stopped moving once. Deven was considerably less excited about all of the people and screaming preschoolers, and had a true moment of terror when he went down the slide with Sameer. But, it all ended in pizza, juice, and cake -- smiles all around, especially from the birthday girl.

A few photos of the happy occasion...

Wheee....down the slide

Taking a breather in the middle of the obstacle course

A brief sneak preview of what Sonia will look like in 5 more years

Everyone making their "silly faces"

Admiring her very large Ariel cake (complete with Ariel candle!)

Now that Sonia is officially 5, I wanted to note a few things that I'll want to remember when some day she is 25...and maybe a few things I'll have happily forgotten.  :-)

• Sonia is the "biggest" (oldest) kid at her school, since she has a November birthday and thus is quite close to the cut-off to go to kindergarten.  We had decided it would be great for her to get another year of social confidence under her belt, but I think we perhaps underestimated just how confident she would get. Not a day goes by where we do not review the relative ages of everyone in her class, and note with pride for the millionth time that she is the oldest. At our parent-teacher conference this year, the feedback was across-the-board positive, except the new issue of Sonia becoming a bit of an instigator of silliness in the classroom combined (ironically) with her tendency to proactively enforce the rules on the little kids since she "knows everything about school." We now receive a daily report where Sonia self-grades whether or not she made "good choices" (and receives a stamp / sticker if she does). Yesterday Sonia told me she made "a few bad choices" but still gave herself a sticker. Grade inflation starts early.
• As noted in our Halloween post, Sonia is obsessed with Ariel (and pretty into princesses across the board). I have decided to just roll with this, citing the fact that I too had a pretty mean Barbie habit when I was little, and have somehow managed to not have warped views of gender roles as an adult (I can almost hear the snide comments on that front ;-)). Nevertheless, I do hope that we outgrow this phase soon, if nothing else so I never have to answer the question, "Mommy, who is your favorite princess?" again.  For the record, it's Belle because her favorite thing to do is read (like me). Sameer pointed out that I should have said Tiana, because she is an entrepreneur, but it was too late and Sonia requires that I always answer the same.
• On that last front, it is still remarkable to me what an incredible memory Sonia has. I imagine this is true for all little kids...maybe their brains are just super efficient because they're not yet full of decades of junk. But, whatever the reason, Sonia can recall long past details in an uncanny fashion. So, if your favorite princess was Belle five months ago, and you answer Tiana this time, she will correct you. Or if you said in January that when she turned 5 she could get a 2-wheel scooter, then she will make sure you know it when the time comes. Or, if you say that she has not read a certain "Fancy Nancy" book, she will correct you by reminding you that two years ago at Thanksgiving she got it from the library in Beaverton when visiting Grandma and Grandpa.  How foolish of you to forget.  It is like living with a stenographer. She does seem to forget when we make new rules about whether or not she is allowed to eat dessert, so there are some unexplained lapses.
• While Sonia is seemingly doing well on all cognitive fronts, she is [ahem] perhaps more like her mother when it comes to all things athletic. This is of course quite troubling for Sameer, and perhaps it is too soon to say how it will play out in the end. She has started taking "gymnastics" (read: mostly somersaults) and her teachers have reported back that she is showing much better balance of late. But, her pace of learning to swim remains glacial and I don't see her cruising around on her 2-wheel bike anytime soon. Peer pressure is a strong force, though, and it is sad to see her near tears when she realizes that Leah (her 4-year-old friend) can ride a bike and she can't. But, apparently peer pressure is not a strong enough force to get her to continue to try things she is not good at (like practicing riding a bike)...perhaps she has a bit of Sameer in her after all.  ;-)
• Sonia is a fantastic big sister, almost all of the time. She really loves her little brother ("gaga" these days, although nicknames change often in our house), and is clearly adored by him in return. Deven cannot say "Sonia" (or many other words, for that matter), so calls her "Nana" which I think is him trying to say "Nia-Nia" (the end of her name). One of the first things Deven says every morning is "Nana?" to ask if Sonia is awake yet. He almost always hears back, "No, Nana is still sleeping," (because of course he is awake too early), and he is visibly sad. When it is an acceptable hour, all you have to say to Deven is, "Go wake Nana up!" and he will run to her room, push open the door, and run over to the bed and start to make noise and touch her until she is awake. Sonia pretends to be annoyed, but is clearly pleased that she is Deven's favorite. At nighttime, she will sing him songs, and then gives him a hug and says, "You're my favorite thing in the whole world." Every time it makes me want to just hit "pause" on life and stay in that moment forever. 
• Despite being a great big sister, there are (of course) the occasional moments of not being so loving. Sonia does like to take advantage of their height difference by holding toys Deven is interested in well above his head and watching him reach up in vain to get them. When you scold her for it, she quickly says, "What? I'm giving it to him!" in an indignant tone which does not bode well for future teenage encounters. Whenever Deven gets a new toy, there is also quite a bit of jealousy and tattle-telling ("He won't let me play with it!"), which we are actively trying to curb. But, in general, they are two little peas in a pod, and it is easy to imagine the future when Deven is bigger and more articulate and her little partner in crime on all fronts.
• Sonia is also becoming quite opinionated about her own appearance, putting together some very interesting outfits (her ideas of what goes together and my ideas are quickly diverging). Also, she really wants her hair to be long ("really, really, really!"), so we are slowly growing it out, despite my efforts to convince her that it looks much better when in a short bob. Clearly, the days where I get to choose what she looks like are officially over. At least Deven is happily still wearing whatever I pick out (but does think his Thomas the Train PJs are the best).

All in all, Sonia is fast (too fast!) becoming a fantastic big kid. Quick to giggle, eager to try out her new jokes on you, loyal to her friends, and a remarkable combination of silly and serious all at the same time. She has all of our best traits, and some of our worst, but is already her own person. I can't wait to see what the next year brings, and all of the ones after that.

Happy birthday, Sonia...we love you!

Ariel for a day

While in typical fashion, we are way behind on posting to the blog, I did want to make sure that I had a chance to go back and write about the fun Halloween season we had.  And I say "season" because Sonia has obsessed for so long about her costume (literally months and months of anticipation), and there were so many activities, it is hardly just one day at this point.

First off, we had to decorate the house (Sonia was quite insistent on this as she saw more and more neighbors get in the spirit of things).  After putting up our "Happy Halloween" sign on the door and our ghost lights, of course the critical missing ingredient was pumpkins.  Slight complicating factor was that Sameer was out of town on an epic European tour for work, so Sonia, Deven, and I hit the pumpkin patch without him.  Deven was a huge fan of the outing, Sonia enjoyed the bouncy house, and I was proud that I managed to wrangle two kids and a cart full of pumpkins without incident.

"I am smiling to distract you, then I will run off and see how fast you can chase me while not losing my sister or dumping all of the pumpkins on the ground.  Weeee..this is fun!"

After acquiring the pumpkins, of course it was required that we carve them.  Sameer was back at this point, but quickly declared himself to have no skills in this area, mostly because he seemed a bit squeamish about reaching into the pumpkin to scrape out all of the seeds and guts.  Cross reference his "inability" to carve a turkey at Thanksgiving.  In a fit of stupidity, I told Sonia that she could pick out the designs she wanted from the book that came with the pumpkin carving set.  Mind you, when we were kids, we cut out some triangles for eyes with some huge chef's knife and called it a day.  We were lucky to manage one snaggly tooth in the mouth.  Sonia instead elected for a cat pumpkin again ("because I still like cats"), and also the "castle" pumpkin (I think because somehow this could be princess related?).  By the time I finished both, I have to say that I felt like the Michelangelo of pumpkin carving, so wanted to make sure to preserve for posterity these masterpieces...

"Cat Pumpkin" makes an appearance for the second year running

That's right, be impressed, because it was a complete pain in the you-know-what to carve "Castle Pumpkin"

More important than pumpkins, of course, are costumes.  They are so important that a 4-year-old will talk for an entire year about what she wants to be for Halloween.  Sonia's latest obsession these days is Ariel the Mermaid, so despite my constant efforts to encourage other ideas, she was determined to be her for the day.  I ultimately relented, spent an hour (no exaggeration) going through every possible mermaid costume possibility online (holy cow are there lots of choices...trying to get to the right level of cute but not weirdly adult with spaghetti straps), and in another fit of stupidity (a trend?), acquired an Ariel wig at Target to complete the look.  Go ahead and judge, but Sonia was glowing with happiness as she was magically transformed into Ariel for the day, and happily endured the itchiness of the wig and her inability to take normal size steps (oh, the agony of the mermaid skirt) without complaint.

Ariel graces our doorstep...needless to say, the wig was a hit at preschool

Sonia and her friends during the preschool Halloween "parade"

Finally, Halloween itself arrived and it was time for trick-or-treating.  It was Sameer's turn to take the kids out (while I stayed home to hand out candy), so he was asked repeatedly by Sonia what his costume would be.  He finally relented to wear a set of ghost deely-boppers (?) and a glow necklace.  We also put Deven in his train conductor costume (given his obsession with "choo choos"), although he refused to wear the hat for more than two seconds. 

Off they went (with our neighbors who have two kids the same age), and Sonia was a pro this year at rapidly going to each house and acquiring candy.  Deven (in his rookie season) was a bit slower to pick up on the pattern.  At the first house he accepted the candy, but then tried to hand it back.  At another point he tried to give his entire pumpkin bag full of candy to the person who greeted him at the door.  But, eventually he got it, and seemed to really enjoy running up to new houses, ringing the doorbell (admittedly, a favorite pastime), and then accepting gifts from strangers.  Not sure why we are teaching him this is a good thing.  :-)

Sameer and his "costume"

The only photo we managed where Deven is wearing his hat

The whole family

Of course, the night ended with the ritual sorting of the candy.  Deven was asleep, so not there to complain when his big sister swiftly combined his candy with hers and declared it all one big collection from which she could choose her favorites.   I suspect the dynamic will be different next year.

Sorting through the bounty...Skittles were declared "my favorite"

Sonia was allowed to have a couple of pieces of candy right before going to bed, which turned out to be as smart of a decision as it sounds.  Oh well, once a year, sugar highs are allowed.  Sonia is already planning her costume for next year (current leading contender is Minnie Mouse...a return to old favorites!).  Only 11 months more of debating this topic to come...