Thursday, January 27, 2011

Papa' is The Greatest Dad

Tomorrow we are flying to India to be reunited with papa'. To celebrate, let me bring up a couple of memories.

Italy, Rajiv, three years ago:




Rohan, India, eight months ago:



Papa'- never leave home without him :)

Photos you have missed - part 6 - the final chapter :)

Foto della mattina di Natale e foto della nostra gita a Toronto nei due giorni successivi. Le prime foto sono dello zoo, dove Rohan e Appu hanno trovato le loro due anime gemelle in due cuccioli di orangotango. Le altre foto sono del Science Center, dove Appu si e' divertito a giocare con le dighe e molto altro. Anche Rohan, dopo un bel sonnellino in braccio a suo papa', e' sembrato sodisfatto del nuovo parco giochi.. :)

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Here come the Christmas photos, with only one month of delay.


The first photos are from Christmas morning. I really had to push them to open the presents at first, but then they understood that it was supposed to be fun and played along. Appu of course immediately took complete control of the situation, but we managed to save something for Rohan to unwrap too.



Of course some of the presents were new trains and here they are trying them on the track. Unfortunately, the Thomas train carrying a snowman that Santa had hunted down on ebay for weeks doesn't seem to fit under all the tunnels, so it wasn't as much of a hit as Santa had dreamed. Sigh..




The next photos are from our trip to Toronto, a last minute idea to get out of town around the holidays. We left on Christmas day and spent two nights at a hotel (known in Appu's language as "the biggest tower").

One day we went to the zoo. It was cold, but some of the animals didn't mind and other were kept warm inside. We saw a rhino indoors and as you might imagine his presence really fills the room. Hard to feel fully at ease... :) We saw a beautiful tiger (below) and wolves and polar bears in the arctic section.


But our favorite were hands down the orangutans. There were two little ones climbing around and playing like toddlers. The moms (you see one in the photo) were sitting quietly on the side and every now and then the kids would go to them, drink some milk and then go back to play. Just like Rohan and Rajiv :)
I am sorry for the quality of the photos, the (not so clean) glass between us and the orangutans made it difficult to take good shots in a hurry.





The next day we went to the Science Center. It is a lot of fun for kids and they also have a specific wing for children under six where they can play with stuff that in principle could also lead to an understanding of some science principles. We didn't even try to put it that way to Rajiv of course, but he sure had a lot of fun! His favorite part was playing with canals and dams in the water.




Rohan took a long nap in the carrier with papa', but after that he enjoyed himself too.




Then we concluded our trip with a stop at the Mississagua Ikea store on the way back, as a Christmas present for mamma :)

Wednesday, January 26, 2011

Appu impara a leggere! (In inglese...)

Rajiv has known his letters and the sound they make for a while now, mostly thanks to an annoying electronic toy. However, he just wasn't interested in putting those sounds together to make words. I tried to introduce the idea a couple of times, but he just wasn't ready.

And now, suddenly, he really wants to learn! In the video he is reading from a book that I made for him more than six months ago. He loves that he can more or less read it all by himself. Of course the pictures help and by now he must have it all memorized, but you can see that he is really trying to figure it out by himself.

Anyway, mamma is so proud :)

Note: At Appu's request, I wanted to record the reading of the whole book, but Rohan had some computer trouble and then I finished my memory card, so the video at some point just ends.

Monday, January 24, 2011

Photos You Have Missed - Part 5

Un po' di foto della settimana prima di Natale.

These are photos from just before Christmas.

The first is a typical sight this days: Appu in his "nest". Other times it might be a "house" or a "cage" (which for some reason he thinks would be very cozy) or a "bedroom" or just a "bed". Occasionally we make "boat".




Cello practice.






Christmas decorations. The poor tree will never forgive us for leaving him alone with the two little disasters.



"Oh no, the flash is hurting my eyes!"



"Uhm... Maybe if I come closer... AAAAAAAAAH!"



"Much better!"




And to finish, a little bit of Appu cuteness.




Coming soon, the actual Christmas Holidays. Stay tuned.

Friday, January 21, 2011

Photos you have missed - Part 4

Story Time! (From early November)

And, for the record, they are reading "I have to go!" by Robert Munsch. This is one of Rohan's favorite books, about a boy who has to go pee. If you ask Rohan, very slowly, "Andrew, do you have to go pee?" he will answer, very happily, "nonononono!" :)







Thursday, January 20, 2011

There is no sunshine (literally) when papa' is gone...

.. but we do our best to cheer up!

Big snowfall last weekend. We got knee high snow overnight.


This is the house across from us. Somewhere in the middle should be the road.


And here we come to the heart of the matter: someone has to shovel it, this snow. So mamma did it, with Rohan in the backpack carrier.


And just for completeness, this is our backyard.



Cozy indoor for most of the time, we had a few photo sessions. The kids were enthusiastic, as you can see.














A future in modeling? :)

Tuesday, January 18, 2011

Butterflies

La settimana scorsa Meaghan ha portato i bimbi ad una mostra di farfalle. La nebbia che si vede nel video e nelle foto e' dovuta alla condensa che si e' creata sulla lente per sbalzo di temperatura dall'esterno al clima tropicale creato per le farfalle - beate loro.. :) A quanto pare Rajiv a spinto Rohan nel passeggino per tutto il tempo!

Last week Meaghan took the kids to the butterflies conservatory. They have a tropical environment in there, which explains the mist in the video and some of the pictures (the lens needed some time to adjust, coming in from the totally non-tropical Ontario winter).

They were providing strollers for babies and apparently Rajiv pushed Rohan the whole time. Here is the video:



And some photos:



These are the pupae. Appu loves the word and somehow he knew it even before they went there. He must have learned it in school, I'm impressed!


There was also an owl exhibit, which they liked a lot.




Overall it was a successful expedition and the kids really like to look at the video again and again. I would have had no idea that this event was going on, if not for Meaghan. Same for when she took them to a pumpkin patch in the fall. Having a nanny who knows the area much better than us can be really useful!


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