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 :)

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.

Long weekend

Rohan is still very sick and of course it always happens on a holiday or on a Sunday - or both :) like this time.

Appu was very sad in the morning as well, because his sleep was again interrupted by Rohan throwing up (which he calls "spitting" and thinks that Rohan does it on purpose) and also because mamma neglected him in favor of his "silly" brother. Fortunately Kalena and her mom invited Appu to go for a walk and although Rohan and I missed him a lot while he was gone, he came back a new happy boy.

Rajiv didn't eat much today though and I am hoping he is not going to be sick like his brother. We spent the day watching cartoons, mostly, and eating microscopic portions of very plain food. Mamma too, because you never know.

In spite of all this though, we still managed to have some fun. The kids played with the Aqua Doodle (a mat on which you paint with water) and after fighting over the who is going to use the brush and who the pen they moved on to pouring full cups of water directly on the mat - just to see what happens, I guess. What happens is that the mat turn completely blue, then puddles form and finally the water starts rolling off onto the wooden floor of the living room.

The cutest moment was when I decided that Rohan needed a little reward for how bravely he was facing his troubles and so I opened a doll that I had purchased at some point by mistake and had kept in storage ever since. Look how cute he is with his "baby"...



To distract Rajiv from watching "George: a very monkey Christmas" for the third time, I decided to put away our small and beaten Christmas tree. The kids helped me to take the few surviving decorations off the tree and then we put them in a small box, that we proceeded to decorate with stickers. At first Rohan was having trouble and Rajiv was putting all the stickers, then Rohan got it and became an unstoppable sticking machine, while Appu moved on to posing for silly pictures with the tree.







Since the boys wanted to attack the Aqua Doodle again, which hadn't recovered yet from the earlier play, I redirected them towards a different water game instead. We put a plastic mat on the floor, filled some tupperware with water and played with a bunch of car- and truck-shaped sponges. They got all wet and that was a good excuse to move upstairs for pajama time.

Certain days, I think I deserve a mommy medal.

Papa' is building a house

Yesterday S left for India and we will follow him in a month. Among other things, in this month he is going to make sure that our new flat is finished, so we have told Rajiv that papa' is building a house for us and we will go when it is finished. Of course he already asked "is it finished yet?" after a few hours, so it's going to be a long month.

We are feeling a bit sad, but our friends Andrew and Anna Marie invited me and the kids to a little children party for new year's eve, so yesterday night we weren't alone in an empty house. They are the parents of Kalena, who is Rajiv's best friend - he told me :) . Other two kids were invited and some relatives and we all had fun.

Unfortunately Rohan was sick during the night and Appu doesn't seem to be in great shape either, but we still managed to have some bright (figuratively) moments in our day. It was a rainy but surprisingly warm day and Appu wanted to go out to make his balloon fly in the wind. Finally he decided that the balloon should not get wet, but we still went out, with the boys wearing their rainsuits.



Appu had fun and kept saying "I don't get wet" but as you can't see from the next picture, Rohan wasn't so sure :)




We took a short video for papa'. Enjoy!

Family pictures

The photos below were taken about a month ago. I have been very lazy with my blogging recently, but before the holidays are completely over I felt that I had to at least post these.

And by the way, please don't underestimate the challenge of taking a family photo with a one year old, a three year old, big wrapped presents as props, and a photographer who won't take the shot unless everybody is at their places in a traditional family pose. By the time our photo session was over, the wrapping paper had been ripped and fortunately there was only one more family after us (it was a charity event with lots of families having their picture taken), but they had to hold the presents at strategic angles so that the damage wouldn't show too much.

Happy new year!

Better Late Than Never - Part III

That's it, these are the last photos from Christmas! More kids than usual, as you can see, and it was a lot of fun - at least for them :) . I hope the aunties don't mind appearing on the blog.

Le ultime foto di Natale, finalmente! Niranjana (nel vestitino che le ho regalato io: ooooh.....), Jayadev e, naturalmente, i nostri due piccoli eroi.

Better Late Than Never - Part II

Ancora foto delle vacanze di Natale a Calicut. Piano piano ce la faremo...
Le prime sono di Appu con il cugino Jayadev; seguono le mie foto preferite di Rohan, prese sfruttando una quindicina di minuti di luce perfetta.

More pictures from our two weeks spent in Calicut around Christmas time. No Christmas references in these photos though, just cute kids. We start with Rajiv and Jayedev being happily together and we conclude with some Rohan cuteness. I couldn't help posting these pictures of a younger Rohan, I think his expressions are priceless. (By the way, that book is quite good and officially recommended by this blog, in case you were wondering.)