Rian's first ice skating class

Yes yes, I'm so excited to be doing another "Rian's first" post :-) Today Rian went for his first ice skating class! Daddy took him in the middle of work and school from 10am to 11am. Rian was super excited about it this morning. Daddy tells me my beta did really well in class. I'm so so so proud of him! Here's a picture of him, standing without holding, and smiling!

We have 5 more classes on Wednesdays. Tons of hugs and kisses to Daddy for making it happen in the middle of his work day!

Rian's first A+

Yesterday was a happy school day for Rian. He came home with an A+ sticker. It seems Rian did very good "reading" yesterday in class. The teachers and the class students all clapped for him and he got an A+ sticker :-)

Proud parent moment!!!

Rian's first visit to Disneyland

This post is long overdue. I wanted to pen down the memories here before they disappeared. Just before my bday this year, we took a trip to Disneyland, Rian's first trip. He was super excited before the trip, and we got a lot of things "done" from him with the lure of the trip :D Ya, we're evil sometimes :D

We researched a bit about 3 yr olds going to Disneyland, and talked a lot with each other - is this the right time, the right age, blah blah. Finally we had a plan and touch wood, everything, almost everything, worked out perfectly as we planned.

We planned to spend a weekday (Fri) and a weekend day (Sat) in Disneyland. This is a 7 hr drive from our house, and we decided to take a whole day to drive down. The plan was to take a break after 6 hrs at our friends in Simi Valley (the Vashas), and spend some playtime and dinner time at their house.

On Thursday August 25 though, we got late in leaving from home. Instead of getting on the road by 10am, we were out the door at 11:30am. Our plan of reaching by 3:30pm was definitely out the door. We were traveling at a good speed, and after our lunch break, we ran into a very bad traffic situation. A major accident on I-5 south made it a parking lot. We traveled 3 miles in 3 hrs. Even though traffic was bad and it was 100F outside, we stayed very cool as a family, and a big thanks goes to Rian. He engaged with Daddy on many games, some on the iPhone, some with his fingers. We were surprised to find out a paper plane can fly very well inside our compact BMW 325i :-)

Unfortunately Rian ended up skipping his nap. As we got closer to our friends' place though, the exhaustion caught up with him and he fell asleep at 8pm, without dinner, without his night milk. We carried him into the house, asleep, deposited him in Samyak's bed, had a wonderful yummy dinner ourselves, and left with him asleep. He had some bites on his hands and forehead, possibly mosquitoes in our house the night before. We picked up some Benadryl cream. Zankhna packed some yummy theplas for Rian and some chocolate pudding.

We did a smart thing: we booked a room in a hotel right across the street from Disneyland's pedestrian entrance. We also made sure they had breakfast in the hotel. It is very important for all 4 of us to have breakfast in the morning without hassles, and "right away" when we get ready. These decisions helped us a lot in our stay. We stayed for 3 nights and on all 3 mornings we had a good breakfast and full tummies to fight the possible crankies :-)

Right at 11pm Rian woke up and I was so stressed: when will he sleep now? Thankfully after we finished checking in, and Rian had some thepla, he asked for his milk and went to sleep by 12:30am. We were all in bed at 1am. The next day Rian woke up without efforts despite the short sleep time. He was so excited! Pictures can tell the story of how our Day 1 was spent. Things that we did right on both days:

• Start with a good breakfast
• Carry the stroller - lots of walking inside, and helpful to carry our bag as well
• 2 hr break in the afternoon - we all went back to hotel and lazed around in AC
• Carried good snacks - there is no end to unhealthy temptations in a theme park, although I have to say Disneyland offered many healthy choices. We carried apples, oranges, Clif bars and lots of water

Rian did not sleep in the afternoon, and got bit tired, but he was not cranky. He kept observing and commenting and noticing and looking. Everything was new and he was soaking it in. He didn't complain about food or water or heat. When the fireworks started at 9:30 though, he was plain uninterested. I put him in my Ergo carrier and he was stuck to me. On the walk back, we put him in the stroller and for the first time in the life of the stroller, Rian fell asleep in the stroller, completely wiped out. We mainly stayed in Tomorrowland area, and covered Fantasyland too.

On Day 2 we started off nice and fresh in ToonTown meeting Mickey and Minnie. The heat started to get to us pretty quickly and we cooled off sitting in a nice theatre watching the Disney Princesses sign autographs. In this trip, we forgot to carry any of Rian's cars - surprising isn't it? We always have 2-4 stuffed away for emergencies. That's how Rian ended up with one more car from the gift store - Raoul, from Cars 2. This made him super happy. We took the opportunity and finished shopping for gifts in the downtime.

At lunch time we decided to let Aaji take care of Rian in the afternoon while we caught a few rides, just Amit n me together. I went back to the hotel room and dropped them off. Plan was for Amit to pick them up in 2 hrs. What ended up happening is after 1 hr 45 mins, Rian fell asleep :-) Mom called us to let us know and we got an extended time to go for rides. We went twice into Splash Mountain, and Amit was completely drenched on the second round as he was the front passenger. We went into the Indiana Jones ride which had some awesome decor. After some silly rail road ride, we ended up at Space Mountain, and that was our super fav ride, all in darkness! FastPass was the way to go, in all these rides. We zipped past lines and lines of people and felt so sad for them :-)

We had dinner in New Orleans part of Disneyland. Without planning, we caught a very nice show called Fantasmic. It is definitely not to be missed. Our dinner was amazing good, and we finally indulged in dessert. The triple layer chocolate cake was every bit as decadent as it looked! We saw the fireworks from here too, the best place to see them from anyways - lakefront. It was gorgeous. Rian bid a happy good bye to the place.

Breakfast was not very great, although good enough for us. I picked up a butter and honey (small 1 Tbsp packet) from one of the restaurants in Disneyland, hoping to make a difference in Rian's day 3 breakfast. Rian started off with: I don't want to eat! But for some reason he loves butter :-) I showed him how I dipped the croissant first in butter and then in honey (which was collected by the bees, buzz buzz) and he was instantly ready to try the first bite. That is the only battle I have to fight. After that the food does it's job. Rian had a full croissant and I was super duper happy!!

We set off to see the Vashas after that. We again had a delicious lunch at their place. We felt a bit bad for imposing on them twice during Paryushan, but the kids had a blast, and we got good time to catch up with them too.

All in all, an amazing trip to the world's happiest place on earth!

Tee Ni Ni

Wingo: Hey DJ, we got ourselves a nodder.

DJ: Tee Ni Ni, Ni Ni Ni, Ni Ni Ni (Kenny G's Songbird)

Mack: Ooh, pretty music!

If you identify that, you are totally in Rian's good books! That's a scene from the Disney movie Cars that Rian is a fan of. It's been viewed more than 200 times in our home, and we have copies on all our iPhones, laptops, desktops for that "in case of emergency" situation.

Anyways, back to the point. During Rian's bedtime routine, we would play some soothing music from our vast collection. One day we thought of playing Songbird and Rian became an instant fan. Every night, I see his face light up when Songbird starts streaming on our Airport Express.

Sometimes we forget to put that single song in a loop, and another Kenny G song started after this one. Within 10 seconds of the new song starting, Rian says: Daddy, this is not Tee Ni Ni :-)

Weekend blur

Weekends with Rian go super fast, and life is almost a blur. I do my bit in capturing pictures, and neatly labeling and uploading them. Sometimes though it doesn'tcapture the essence of howmuch Rian's growing up. A few examples from this weekend that I wish to capture.

Saturday morning started as usual with a rush to run to Rian's gym class, and we got out of home at 8:50am. Rian had a majorly cranky morning, and was not very nice to Daddy. On the drive to the gym I tried to "talk" to him. Turns out he was crying because he thought we are going to school. I explained to him that Daddy must have felt really sad because of how Rian behaved, and we decided to tell Daddy two things when we reached home (1) Daddy, I love you (2) Thank you Daddy for the awesome massage you gave me. Gym class finished, we had our twosome cozy breakfast in the Sunnyvale city center (there are a bunch of tables and chairs outside), and on the drive home I wanted to remind him about the two things to say to Daddy. Fellow outright surprised me by remembering both points!

We got home and rushed out again to see the Mountain View Arts & Wine festival. We had a wonderful time strolling through Castro street. Rian walked most of it too. The highlight for him was the visit to the library and we were supposed to pick up the audio CD for Wiggles - Hot poppin' popcorn. He was excited when he saw the CD on hold and we leafed through the booklet of songs together. When we put the CD into the car and it started playing, in less than 30 seconds, Rian says - Mumma, is this hot poppin' popcorn? Turns out, I had another Wiggles CD on hold :-( and the fellow actually recognized it within a minute. Kudos to my little one.

We had a neighbor potluck planned in the evening, the first one in our community. There were 3 other kids of Rian's age. I'm a proud mumma to say Rian sat down and had almost 90% of his meal sitting next to me. I've stopped pushing him for quantity now, but I was just happy that he was sitting down next to me as long as he was eating. He asked for specific things, and tried 3 new things too. Rian was a very well behaved boy. He carried 5 of his toys, and shared with all the others. He didn't complain at all when one of the other Dadas snatched a toy out of his hand. My little boy is growing up. Now we just need to teach him to snatch his own toy back :-)

Rian's crazy about his new bicycle, and his new friend Ansh. Rian bicycled in the morning with Daddy and Mumma - all of us in our PJs :-)In the afternoon, the 3 of us bicycled the Los Gatos Creek Trail. In the evening, Ansh invited Rian for 10 more mins of cycling time. All in all an amazing display of interest by Rian. We bought his bicycle last weekend, and he's been riding it almost every single day. He's gotten very good at it already. After we were done cycling at Los Gatos, he sat down next to my bike and kept moving the pedals, keenly noticing what the pedals do to the chain, and how the gears are put in together. He was muttering to himself about "machine, cycle, goes round and round" and a whole bunch of cute things.

Rian's favorite thing to calm him down is his books (of course Lightning McQueen is the undefeated champion). Last weekend our shopathon, and today after our long bike ride, when Rian was super cranky, just plop open the "step into reading - level 1" books that we have and Rian is lost, turning page by page. I must give credit to his school here, they've nurtured his reading very well. He had moved into the 3 yr reading class while he was still in his 2 yr class. Mumma is super proud of Rian's reading.

A 3 yrs and 2 months, Rian has built 4 small Legos. These are not duplos, they are the Legos for 4+ years. Mumma and Daddy help Rian by reading the instruction booklet and finding the parts for him. But he puts them in himself. When we were making the first Lego more than a month back, we were all skeptical of his finger dexterity and things would slip and fall from his hands (they do occasionally even now), but he's taken such a keen interest to following exact directions - now when I tell him to hold the Lego with both hands and put in a piece, he does exactly that. I think he loves creating his vehicles by himself :-) His Legos are (1) Fire truck with a tow of tools (2) Aeroplane (3) Garbage truck (4) Luggage truck with a tow.

First flower for a girl

It's been a while since we've been doing weekly play-dates on Tuesdays for Rian and Shayona. Sometimes we manage to meet only once a month, but we keep rolling. Today, on the way to Shayona's house, Rian stopped and here I was trying to rush him. I said, Rian, what are you doing? Let's go! Rian says, Mumma, I'm going to pick a flower for Shayona.

He looked around and found a good flower to pluck. We reached Shayona's door and Rian gave her the flower. Shayona took the flower and super excited ran to Mommy to show it to her :-)

May you always pick flowers for your best friends :-)

Oh btw this weekend, Rian said to me: Mumma, you are my best girl! Yes, sweetie, I will be, for a long long time, I hope.

First dentist appt

Today Rian had his first well-baby dentist appt for teeth cleaning and examination. A friend of mine suggested a good pediatric dental practice. They have TV screens on top, and Rian was super excited when the dentist's assistant said they have Cars. Rian was all set, lying down and enjoying his favorite movie. Did I mention: he is a super huge Lightning McQueen fan!

The dentist's assistant was very good. Every new instrument that she pulled from the panel first had an explanation for Rian, then a touch and feel for Rian's hands, and only after that, it went into Rian's mouth. Rian totally felt involved and loved every bit. Rian loves being explained everything and generally behaves well if you treat him like an adult, a secret mantra that Daddy figured out ages ago. Turns out this pediatric dentistry practice too knows what they're dealing with :-)

They first cleaned Rian's teeth by brushing. Then came some suction, and water. After that, some sharp instruments cleaned out his plaque. It turns out we need more attention to "inside" and "outside" his teeth, especially towards his last tooth. There was some more brushing, and then his first ever floss! Rian behaved particularly well. We rarely complain when Lightning McQueen is in front of us anyways :-)

When the dentist's assistant's hand blocked him a couple of times, she asked him: did I block you? After that our very friendly Mr. Rian kept telling that lovely lady: don't block me, don't block me :-) Ha ha ha ... The dentist then examined his teeth, and his injury. It seems his teeth are growing up really close together. We need to watch out when the permanent teeth come in, they are wider and need more space. Let's see what the next checkup brings up on x-rays.

On January 24, 2010, Rian chipped his front tooth. Mom (me) had a hysterical reaction as I got no time to react when Rian banged his mouth on the outside tiles of our master bath tub. Dad later took him to a pediatric dentist for examination. This was Rian's first dental appt but the experience was ghastly! 18 month old Rian's head was strapped, and some pointy things held it in place :-( His hands and legs were strapped. The poor thing yelled and yelled. My nanny hated the place too. Ever since that experience, we were all scared of dentist visit for Rian and delayed it. Rian is 38 months today, 2 months after his 3rd birthday, and we finally had a good visit, touch wood.