2013 Recap

An year in Megha's life.
January: Megha was all but one year (well, 2 weeks older) when we entered 2013. She had just celebrated her first birthday and I was marveling how much she had grown. That also meant that my one year maternity leave came to an end and I had to return to work from Jan 02, 2013.
The hardest part was leaving her at the daycare. Oh, how she cried for the first 7 working days! Big fat tears would roll down her cheeks and I was feeling so sad all the time when I was at work. But in 7 working days she decided that she had enough and stopped crying after that! What a relief to see her happy again!
Picture in Jan:

Feb: One snow storm after the other rocked in our province leaving us longing for summer. It was so hard to get Megha ready in her snow suit before taking her out to the daycare at 6:20 am. She also fell sick in Feb (ear infection).

March: Megha started walking with out support in March 2013! What a proud day for us! We also made a trip to the cottage and Megha went sledding for the very first.
Since she was getting more teeth, she also started brushing her teeth! below is a picture taken at daycare...she has a small paper in her mouth...which she was made to spit, much to her dismay.

April: Megha started speaking small words. She says Ba for ball and car for ...car. She has also started eating a lot more new foods than before and since she can now slowly walk, she is up on and into everything!

May: Mother's Day! We went to Orlando, Florida to visit Appu, Ramana. We went to Disney World and Megha had a much fun looking at Mickey Mouse! Megha also learned to sort the shapes and a few colors. She also started eating small pieces of chicken. Before all she used to eat was puréed of mashed food. She is growing up fast.

June: by now, Megha can recognize quite a few animals. We had been teaching her with the help of soft toys and she gets to learn so many things while playing with them. Megha started eating her dinner all by herself! Of course there was lots of mess in the beginning but June is when she first started eating her dinner by herself (with some help from Anand and I).

July:  middle of summer and it was getting really warm. We enrolled Megha in swimming lessons and she absolutely loves to play in the pool! At daycare too almost everyday they get into the pool. She had her very first taste of cheese omelet and she seems to like it. She also completes the rhymes (last words) when I sing a rhyme.

August: we celebrated Anands birthday and Janmashtami in Aug. She also started calling me Momma for the very first time! She can say many more words than what she was saying in July.
Unfortunate incident: Megha slipped on a girls foot and fell. Her forehead split a little a lot of blood came about. This was her very first big boo boo (and last for now and hope it holds good for future too).

September: Megha said her very first sentence in September, "Hi Oso". A proud day for us all! The month was cooler than Aug and we spent a lot of time outdoors. We also taught her to say thanks and welcome and she is using it inter-changeable. Lol

October: Megha can now count upto 10! She also says all the last words of the rhyme twinkle twinkle. She loved playing with the fall leaves at the daycare. She had dosa for the first time this month and she managed to finish 1/2 of it! She also said her first 3 word sentence, "I love you". She was penguin for Halloween.
We also went to Cancun, Mexico in mid October.

November: Megha started speaking a lot. She talks so much gibberish but if you listen carefully, you will know what she is saying. We had a fantastic Diwali and Megha really was looking pretty in her pattu pavadi.

December: Megha turned 2. Happy Birthday baby! We had a good birthday party with limited guests. She helped us set the Christmas tree. She and her dad bought me earrings for birthday!

Happy New Year darling!

Eat!

Today Megha made us soooooo proud. We were going to pick something up and I think she was hungry. She said, " Eat", indicating that she wants to eat!!!
This is the first time ever she communicated that she wants to eat! Love you baby.

Tomorrow....

Tomorrow is Megha's second birthday and we have planned so much! Snow storm made its way today. Hope it all goes as planned and everyone shows up.

Terrible two's?

Megha is almost two and is starting to show some preview of how a two year old usually behaves. She gets really upset (not sure if she does this with Anand though; never saw her do this with him). When I say no to something, she pretends that she falls to get attention. If I ignore, she tends to really do something like kick the toys. It lasts for about 5 mins. Sometimes I just give in and sometimes I let her calm down.
This evening her day care provider told that she did this at daycare too. Not sure how to explain to her; she is still very young and would do anything to get complete attention. 

Megha loves to talk!

And I love to hear her talk! Some of the things she says are:

Momma wait! (If I tell her I am going downstairs for 2 mins and will be back)
No momma no momma (when she finished her dinner and I try to offer more)
Momma this (first time she said this yesterday pointing to one outfit in her closet)
I love Oso!

Unbelievable but she picked up 1-10 number is Spanish! By watching Dora!

Diwali 2013 (Nov 03)!

We had so much fun on this Diwali! I cannot believe its already 2nd Diwali for Megha. Last year this time we were in India celebrating Diwali with my parents: Diwali 2012

The day before Diwali, Megha Anand and I went to buy some jewellery for Megha. Anand was complaining that I had blackmailed him into buying jewellery! lol but its Diwali! She is wearing pattu pavadi gifted by my Kumari aunty, Sai uncle (Megha's tatha and paati) and Dimpu mama. Thanks all! As you can see, she looks oh-so-adorable.

 The morning of Diwali, Megha woke up at about 7:30 AM. By then Anand had returned from his night shift and has started cooking. He did soooo much! ALL by himself! I only helped chop veggies...that and I also made payasam but thats about it.

Diwali Menu:
Idly
Rice
Vendaka kootu
aloo-baigan
Drumstick sambar
Rasam
coconut chutney
dosaka pickle
payasam
Meanwhile I setup the puja table.

Megha was running around and it was such a nice, festive and warm feeling with her yelling, Anand cooking and me helping both! She had so much fun taking things off the table as I was arranging them! Here is her tiny hand trying to sneak something to eat :)
After this, I applied oil on her head and Anand gave us our new cloths to wear.

Anand lighting aarathi:

Megha tastes her prasadam

Here is us!

Here is my darling Megha

Here is me, of course...

After puja and a heavy brunch, we all went for a quick nap.
Then Rocio and momma Rocio visited us with her twins to wish us for Diwali. After they left, we went to visit Neeta, Sasha and the little Naomi...She is so very cute! After that we also went to wish Anita aunty, uncle and Vishya..We also lit a few sparklers! We are saving the other crackers I bought for cottage.
Dad and Megha, both ready for a nap:

I forgot to add, Megha also had her very first taste of drumstick leaves dal rice. She loved it.

Halloween 2013

How time flies! Here (ctrl+space) is Megha on her very first Halloween party last year. She was a little pumpkin :)
We couldnt go trick or treating as that was the day we were flying to India.

This year she is little penguin! Here she is in front of our home :)

  This was take at the daycare by her daycare provider, Sherry. She was kind to take lots and lots of pictures of Megha.

Aren't they all looking cute?

Here is megha collecting trick or treat candy! For the first few times I said "trick or treat" and then she picked up. As soon as someone's door opens, she said "tith or teeth"...and when she got the candy she very sweetly said "thanks". yes, yes, she needed a little prompting in the beginning :) By the time we came back home, the little pumpkin bag was FULL!

While we were gone (Anand was working night shift), I left the candy out on the porch so that kids can still help themselves to some candy even though we were not home. When we returned, my lil penguin gracefully gave out the candy to everyone who had come!

And when we finished all the candy, she wanted to give out her own candy which she had collected!! I said No and then she was prepared to give out the Fall decorations instead of candy...lol

God bless you sweety pie!