I Made It!

I made it for the second consecutive week! Sahana is napping and Paras is at Little League, so this is my time to fulfill my resolution to write at least once a week.

It's been a good week at the Dodd household. Paras completed his second swimming session, and has been promoted from the Seahorse class to the Pike class. In his progress report, he got 4-5 (out of 5) for "Confidence" and "Listening," and a solid 5 for "Caring, honesty, Respect, and Responsibility." His promotion means that starting next session, he'll be in the water with just the teacher, and without a parent (or in his case, Allyson, the au pair).

Paras also earned a trip to the zoo via his sticker chart, and went yesterday with Allyson. He loved the prairie dogs and the tigers, but was scared of the grizzly bear. Here are a few shots from his trip:





Sahana is growing huge. Her fine motor skills are improving and she can pick up Cheerios and slimy pieces of avocado. Her lack of teeth is not stopping her from chewing away, which is a relief: Paras never learned to chew when he was a baby (because I was too afraid to give him textured things) and so until he was about 18 months old he was like a reptile and would swallow his food whole. It was extremely stressful. So glad that Sahana has that skill under her belt. It looks like she's almost ready to walk, too. She's a pro at pulling herself up and can balance with one hand steadying her. I have to say though, that I think I'd prefer her to get teeth than to walk at this point. I mean, if she doesn't walk for a while, we can get her a skateboard or something to get around on. But with no teeth...? It's not like they make baby dentures...or do they?

Anyway, I've got a full week ahead, with Commencement and a faculty retreat, and auditions for the community theater play, "Annie." I have to come up with a song to sing for my audition. Not sure whether Annie can accommodate an 35 year-old Indian female, but the nice thing about theater is that you can get creative with casting, so we'll see. It would be nice to be on stage again.

OK, that's it until next week!

Summer Resolutions

OK, I really fell off the wagon with the blog. For me, things get really busy in the winter and spring, so it's hard to keep up. I've decided to make my New Year's resolutions, but I'm starting them in June since that's really when I regroup -- I'm on an academic calendar, after all. Anyway, one of my resolutions is to write this blog at least once a week.

So, I have to catch up from February. Sahana is almost one year old -- she's now crawling at full speed and pulling herself up. We have yet, however, to see any signs of a tooth. She's still all gums. It's kind of strange, but it's nice because I remember how much Paras' face changed when his teeth came in and as long as she's got her gummy smile, she's still a baby. Sahana is already starting to love fashion -- we have to keep her closet door closed because she loves to explore her wardrobe and take everything out one by one (usually to chew on it). I recently did a home photo shoot because I was going to enter her in a cover baby contest in some magazine, but then missed the deadline. Anyway, here's one of the good ones (I am planning to get some professional ones done soon, but that's around #6 on my resolutions list):



Paras has also made huge strides in the last few months. He's started to do Hooked on Phonics, and understands rhyming sounds (it seems weird to me but that's what the program starts off with). He's continued his soccer and swimming classes and can now be in the pool by himself (and the teacher). He's also gotten started in Little Dragons tae-kwon-do, during which he gets kind of spaced out and doesn't really know what's going on but he seems to have fun. And, two weeks ago he started playing in the Hamden Bam-Bam Baseball League. (NOTE: Mothers and More is a local group which is sponsoring his team. Not clear of the meaning of "Mother's and More" -- like, the kid wearing the t-shirt belongs to the mother, and more?) Here he is on his first day:







One of the biggest changes in our household has been the establishment of a family dinner time. I, Andy, and the au pair were about to fling ourselves out a window at Paras' refusal to eat anything besides Sponge Bob mac n' cheese, pasta and tomato sauce, or pizza. My friend Lauren gave me a tip to try to eat together. So I changed the routine around a bit to have Paras and Sahana take a bath together, and have him join us for dinner. It has been nothing short of a miracle. In the last three weeks, he has eaten three-bean chili, polenta with zucchini and spinach, swiss chard tacos, broccoli-tofu stir fry, (veggie) meatball pizza, spinach and goat cheese pizza, gnocchi with zucchini ribbons, etc. etc. And he loves it all! It's been a huge relief for us, both in terms of being able to avoid cooking separate meals for him and making sure that he's getting some balanced nutrition.

Sahana, meanwhile, will only eat avocados.

We're gearing up for the summer, where we have some exciting plans. My parents, my sister, and her family are coming in a few weeks to celebrate Sahana's first birthday here at the house. I hope that we'll take some days to do some fun things around CT like go to the beach and the aquarium, and also visit NYC. After that Andy and I will go to Mexico for a week. This is a reprise of our honeymoon trip, which was canceled the day before we left because Hurricane Emily hit our hotel. (If another hurricane spoils this trip, we're going to just assume that the Universe is trying to tell us something.) At the end of August we're heading to Dallas to visit my sister. And Paras will be spending the summer in the YMCA summer camp, so he'll have a change of pace from his regular routine.

OK, I'm going to sign off -- more to come within the next week! I'll close with a video Andy made of Paras' Daddy Date to the beach (which he earned via his sticker chart):