Introducing...

Viola "Lila" Rosalind Ashok

What could possibly prompt me to resurrect the blog after months of silence?

Well, it shouldn't be hard to guess :)

Some of our relatives have already received the news and at first I thought that I would wait to be further along in my pregnancy before spreading the news. After all, I am only 4 weeks pregnant, which means that there is no guarantee at all that this mustard seed sized lump of cells will hang in there for the distance.

Obviously though I changed my mind about the early announcement. The reason is that I really would like everybody to know that we are very excited and very happy at the idea of having another baby. It was discussed at great length and it was planned. If this time it doesn't work out we will most likely try again.

All this to say, I know three kids sounds like an excess to many people, but please be happy for us and show it next time you see us :) Just like the other two times...

Chicha's wedding

With the fact that I didn't tell you much about our trip - and just showed you our photo album instead - I almost forgot to share the little video I took at Vijay's wedding in Guruvayoor.

As you will see, I better hold on to my job, because it's unlikely I could make a career as a wedding reporter. I must say though, that I could have been placed in a more favorable spot (you know, somewhere where I could actually see the couple) had I not wasted valuable time looking everywhere for my husband to make sure that he didn't miss the ceremony.

I later discovered that he was there, just on the other side. Unfortunately, he is not in this video, but almost everyone else is. Even the - by then - married couple, in the last few seconds.

Photo Album - Rohan and Rajiv in India

Cliccando su "Read more" piu' in basso potrete vedere le pagine di un libro ricordo del nostro recente viaggio in India. Per ingrandire ogni pagina basta cliccarci sopra, pero' purtroppo per caricare le immagini sul blog ho dovuto ridurre la qualita', quindi le foto non sono nitidissime. Sono graditi commenti! E chissa' se riuscite a scovare nel muchio le foto scattate da Rajiv?

Maybe you have been wondering when I was going to start posting some photos from our recent stay in India. And probably you kind of expected me to start my usual 37 part series of "Pics you have missed" posts. I admit such a thing was on my mind, but then it occurred to me that I could save myself some work (this somehow ended up being a wrong estimate..) and you some pain by showing you the book I have made for Rajiv to share with his friends here in Canada.

Below the fold you will find all the pages of the book in individual jpg files. You can click on the picture to make it bigger. The book was made using iPhoto with one of the standard templates. Even so, it did take a long time to make; and converting each page to jpg format and uploading them on blogger was another epic enterprise. Just to say, I hope you appreciate my efforts :)

Some final notes and disclaimers (see how professional I'm getting?):

Please consider the target audience for the book are Rajiv's teachers, friends and some of my friends here in Canada. If you are a family member you will find some of the captions unnecessary and if you are Indian you might find that I have oversimplified some things or maybe made some plain mistakes - in that case please forgive me and then let me know..

I really like some of the photos. Some other ones are of poor quality, but the purpose was to collect some nice memories and to give a more or less full coverage of the whole trip, so quality was not a very important factor. I have also included a couple of photos taken by Rajiv: I wonder if you can spot them? Let me know in the comments and the winner will get a hard copy of the book or a signed hand print from Rajiv, you choose :)

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 :)

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!

Pictures from Ooty - Round 3

Last batch of photos!

Ultime foto di Ooty!

The first group of photos is from a little family walk, only the four of us. We saw the train coming out of the tunnel down in the valley and that cheered up Rajiv who had woken up from his nap very pessimistic about life.

Le prime foto sono di una breve passeggiata con solo noi quattro. Con la partecipazione straordinaria del treno che esce dal tunnel! Ovviamente Appu era al settimo cielo.







Papa' is walking Rohan to sleep.

Papa' mette Rohan a dormire.



Bubbles early in the morning.

Bolle di sapone la mattina presto.







And then we run (literally) to have breakfast.

E poi di corsa a fare colazione.




Later, we ride on the little toy train - you have seen the video already.

Il trenino - quello del video.





Just before leaving: Appu with his "ouch" taking gardening lessons.

Appu e' caduto poco prima di partire. Per consolarlo, gentilmente il giardiniere gli ha fatto vedere come si innaffiano i fiori.


And to conclude, a couple of experimental shots with Rohan.

E per concludere, un paio di foto "artistiche" con Rohan, sempre disponibile a fare da modello.

Pictures from Ooty - Round 2

Sunday trip to the park:





Then Monday is B-day. We start the day blowing bubbles in front of the hotel (What a view!). After cake and breakfast Rajiv and Jayadev open their presents: matching sunglasses! Then we are off to the botanical garden.