Spring weekend

Spring is here, and I'm trying to keep the momentum from our busy winter skiing alive, and go right into hikes. It's not as much the distance, but just the fact that we're outdoors enjoying and exploring nature that appeals to me. Last weekend we went to Uvas Canyon for a hike and Rian really loved the waterfalls. His sports shoes were not that great, so Rian got a "reward" upgrade to hiking shoes for doing a 3+ mi hike with dad and mom, minimal complaints. In fact Rian kept saying "This is the best hike ever, I want to keep coming here every weekend, I want to build a house here" :-) We were enjoying every moment of his revelations.

This weekend was jam packed with activity and meeting friends too. On Saturday morning, Rian had a chess tournament, his very first. He's been doing some after school chess class on campus, and we do not get much feedback of his skill level. So we just put him in a tournament. Lots of points for participating. He won one game, drew one, and lost two. He seemed pretty miserable that he didn't get a trophy, but we cheered him up about the medal of participation. After a brief lunch at home, we went to Picchetti Winery for a hike with 4 other Stratford families, and our neighbors. It was a wonderful hike and kids enjoyed the picnic area afterwards. Next time we will definitely get some wine. Picchetti Winery Hike, March 22, 2014. Zankhna and Bhavik, our friends from LA were visiting. So we hopped over to Rachana's place after that. The boys (big and small) played basketball. I boiled spaghetti and poured sauce in. But Rian was so proud of it, he was telling all the other kids, it's just the second time my mom has made spaghetti, it's really yummy. I think I'm getting popular with kids thanks to the pasta. The "made in Italy" whole wheat pasta is so good, lots of fiber and protein, my big kid had it today with no other sides :-) 

On Sunday morning Rian got some much needed "alone time" with his toys. It was Daddy's turn to work today. Mumma cut some "pear apple" and Rian chose to eat Daddy's raisin bran cereal today. After that he says to me "Mumma this is the best fruit ever, can you please give me this pear apple every day in snack for school" :-) We rushed to get ready for a potluck in the park thrown by our neighbors Pallavi and Parikshit. Rian enjoyed his razor bike, stomp rocket, and some dodgeball. We were headed to the library when Rian insists, twice, "Mumma let's go to the library on my razor, let's leave the car here". So off we went from Washington Park to the Sunnyvale library, half a mile one way. It felt so good to be outside and walking. Rian enjoyed the 1mi razor. We secured a copy of "Home Alone" DVD, planning to watch it with Rian this week. Rian is practicing his drums with Daddy now, and then we are off to dinner with Rian's best friend Shayona. 

What a wonderfully packed and satisfying first weekend of spring… Loving it!

It's been 7 hours and 15 days

Yes, nothing compares to you…

Yes, it's almost a year since I've written in this space. The last one year has passed by very quickly. It's a cliche to say time flies when you're having fun, but it's so true. In the last one year, there have been so many magical moments, and stories and experiences and travels we've shared with you, Rian. Each day I keep thinking of writing here, and each day it remains a thought. The barrier to writing is I want to capture the "whole experience", your face, your enthusiasm, your voice, and the whole story from my angle. But there's never enough time to write all that. I've been capturing a lot of moments in the camera, though, and almost processed and uploaded everything till Nov 2013, so I'm good there.

Here's a recent one that I must save:

I'm having a rough couple of weeks and come home yet another day without much "work done" according to my own definition. As I'm mentioning to Amit that "I've had a horrible day today", Rian chimes in to ask "Why Mumma, what happened?" I was certainly surprised by how coolly and calmly he posed that question. I decided to be all grown up talking to him and shared how I had a number of things to do on my plate, but ended up spending the whole day talking to others and explaining ideas and concepts to others, and didn't get any of my own work done. He says "Oh mumma, you should be happy, you helped so many other people, that means you did a lot of good work today!" Amit and I were just standing there, jaw open… speechless!

We say this often nowadays … I'm going to freeze you now, I want to freeze this time.

While I'm here, let me also mention Rian's improved his skiing a lot. This year Rian's skiing mostly blue slopes. He's also tried a beginner black at Dodge Ridge. Zoya has been an amazing company on the slopes this year. I even managed to ski with the 2 kids together for an hour :-) Woohoo… We've had 7 days of skiing already, Rian and me. Daddy's accompanied us 6 times. On most of those trips, Zoya's been with us. Shayona's joined us on quite a few of the ski trips too. Rian's really excited to ski with his friends, and also practices with us. Mommy and Daddy are really proud of Rian's progress. Mommy's really keen on getting Rian onto a ski team next year. We've missed a couple of birthday parties with close friends, mainly because we're hibernating on the snow capped mountains… hehehe…