Six pack of peaks, Norcal

In preparation for climbing Mt. Kilimanjaro, Rian and me signed up to hike up 6 peaks in NorCal.  https://socialhiker.net/six-pack-peaks-challenge/northern-california

We've logged 2 hikes so far, and I'll update this blog post with all hike logs as and when we finish them.

• May 4, 2019: https://socialhiker.net/hike_log/upside-down-mt-umunhum/
• May 11, 2019: https://socialhiker.net/hike_log/rians-longest-day-hike/

First post from Rian

Hi! This is my first time writing on a blog. Here are a few things that I like: Shell Shockers, sushi, pizza, and the new computer that I just got!  By the way, it's awesome.  Excellent speed and it rocks with the new butterfly keyboard to replace my old tiny keyboard.  All right, please comment on this post about what I should write about next!
👆💥😎B{D

9th birthday poem

It's happening soon, Rian's last single-digit birthday is sneaking up on us!!  Here's something mommy and daddy put together to remember his year by.

Rian is turning nine
And this doesn’t happen all the time
He’s turning out to be a modest boy
But makes mommy and daddy super proud!

He scaled the mountains this year
Climbed to top of Nevada falls without fear
If he could have had his way
He’d have summited Half Dome on the same day!

He was a star at YMCA family camp
Basket making, improv by lamp
Leather bookmarks and a tie dye t-shirt
This was more fun than playing in dirt!

He helped daddy assemble his bunk bed
Now he's ready to host instead
Countless sleepovers and playdates
Arya and Auhon are his best mates

Their first FLL junior project, each did a third
With spinning flowers and a hummingbird
To save the bee population of the world
Met a bee keeper and remembered every word.

We hosted Marco, Mocha and Scotty
But Rian is yet to take on the responsibility
of caring for a hairy friend
His ways now, will he have to amend?

He's gyming, and swimming. Soccer's fun!
A spin class or elliptical - Why choose only one?
32 miles in Utah, did we hike!
In one single day: 8.8 miles. I like!

Did a trip to Belize: snuba on the waves
And hiking through wet dark caves!
Fly alone to Canada, sure can prove!
His aunt's fiancé did he approve!

He learnt the trumpet, his halloween costume was a box
Changes in school, he can handle it.  He rocks!
A nanny, a day care, or Stratford again?
In RSM Math, a first in class did he gain!

Can't stop this poem without his Legos
He'll take them wherever he goes
We've had a Porsche, an EV3, and a Saturn Five!
Bricks, bricks!! They make him thrive!

Although mommy and daddy enjoy date nights
We absolutely miss him on sleepover nights
He's growing into a sensible, caring young boy
And this nine year old is our favorite toy!

8th birthday poem

It has been a long time since I've blogged.  Today I wanted to capture Rian's 8th birthday poem.  We had a wonderful celebration at home, with a them he chose, and games he planned with us.

Our little darling is turning eight
A fine reason for us to celebrate.
So come on over, and grab a seat
I'll read you a poem (that's no mean feat).

It's been a year of change
New school and friends may have felt strange
But fear ye not, coz Rian had it all
Figured out before the end of fall.

Skiing was a blast, and the blacks were no match
Rian would come barreling down without so much as a scratch
And when daddy stumbled, and had to sit down
The king of the mountains - t'was Rian who took the crown.

Soccer ruled Rian's spring time
Learning Ronaldo chop all the way to bedtime
Tennis was our individual sport
And he's mastered the serve cross-court

Drone Rangers, Flight Science, Horse Riding camp
Fill up Rian's summer and make him a champ
With grandparents doting over him
Fulfilling Rian's every little whim

Activities galore, sleep-overs and more
It's been a busy year for sure.
And as another anniversary marks its closure.
It's time to start all over :)

Changes

In summer 2015, we moved homes.  It was a herculean task, but the iron was hot and the hammer struck at the right time, as all pieces came together.  The first year of home ownership was rough on all of us:

• Amit handled most of the heavy lifting, literally, and LOTS of things broke in the house in the first year.
• My rotator cuff repair recovery from the surgery in spring was super slow, and a constant source of pain.
• Rian missed the old house, and was content over summer to spend part of it in India.  When school started and we moved him over to a public school.  He got a nanny to take care of his after-school time.

Rian did very well with the transition.  There were hiccups, but he continued to be a happy boy on most days.  The level of academics was a 2 year setback for Rian, but he adapted to more independence, free thoughts, a new way of learning in public school classrooms with much less structure and discipline.  This is supposed to be "good" for kids long-term, so we stuck with it.  With the nanny, we added back tennis classes, soccer classes, and Rian started doing "catch up Math" every day at home, along with "catch up vocabulary".  There was no science fair, but kids did some hands-on "STEM projects" initially and Rian was all excited.

Cut to third grade, and I realized having "no standard" in public schools means the teacher chooses how much she can manage to do, in addition to the core curriculum.  Rian's teacher was new to the school district, and it was her first year.  There were no STEM projects (at least Rian never shared), no emails from the teacher about what happened every week, and Rian started "getting in trouble" consistently.  He would complain he's "bored" in class all the time.  Teacher caught him reading a book under his desk.  He continued to have comics and story books under his desk all the time :-)  Perhaps the teacher was trying to teach him self-restraint, but Rian is not mature enough to learn that, and his greatest gravitation is towards books!  He continued to read under his desk, leading to more and more "boredom" in what the teacher says - that happens when you pay half the attention you are supposed to.  At the parent-teacher conference, we shared with the teacher that he does Math at higher levels at home, and it would be good to challenge him.  She had tools that she showed us, but Rian would have to do his "regular" Math, and only after that would he be given the "challenging" Math.  Rian does not like writing, and he never managed to finish his "regular" Math on time in the class, as he found it -- you guessed it -- "too boring"!

Then in September, our nanny left.  Dad passed away.  We hired a new nanny who promised to stay through Rian's third grade.  Huge change for Rian, as the new nanny was stricter, but also played sports with Rian.  We discontinued Rian's classes for tennis and soccer, so the nanny could have more time teaching Rian 1-on-1.  It turns out, there was very little of the sports stuff going on :-( and we found out after the nanny left -- yes -- broke up with us over a text message -- while we were on vacation in December!

We recovered from this, and enrolled Rian for the short term in a day care.  The idea was to find a third nanny.  Three weeks in, and we had one candidate who could only stay till the end of June.  Which meant finding another nanny for fourth grade, setting expectations again, communicating daily schedules and lesson plans every day.  I also noticed with both nannies that they totally depended on me to "tell" them every day what to do with Rian.  My expectation was after 2-3 weeks of knowing (from me) what to do, they would set their own schedules with Rian - but no such magic happened.  Retraining new nannies is definitely a lot of work. 

Within a month of third grade starting, the teacher announced she was expecting a baby due end of January.  The new teacher that was assigned to their class (and had already started substituting), had never been a teacher in formal capacity before - first time!

We also started noticing Rian's lack of interest in reading anything academic or learning anything.  The kid used to have a thirst for knowledge which seemed to have disappeared.  Perhaps being driven by nannies rather than his parents also had played a hand - we all know delegating is easier, but quality is always different.  We made the decision to go back to the old formula that worked: private school.

This is another change Rian handled really really well.  I started this post with that end goal in mind.  To acknowledge how well this kid has responded to changes.  He's had a school change every 2 years:

• Pre-school and pre-K (1.5 yrs) at Champion School
• Kindergarten and 1st grade (2 yrs) at Stratford - Sunnyvale at Washington Park
• 2nd grade and half of 3rd grade (1.5 yrs) at public school - Cupertino School District - Stevens Creek Elementary School
• 3rd grade onwards at Stratford - Sunnyvale at De Anza Park

We are very thankful to Rian for being such a wonderful kid, and adapting to changes in his friend circle every so often.  We are also lucky our "friends circle" has been enriched with every school change Rian has had.  We are 2 days into the new school, and keeping fingers crossed and thoughts positive.  We love you Rian!

Happy 7th birthday

On this birthday, you turn seven,
As perfect as an angel sent from heaven.

A little boy, but grown up inside,
Never letting any emotions hide.

He really loves school, and he finished first grade,
It’s amazing to see all the progress he’s made.

He learned how to ski black diamonds with flair,
Dad running behind him and gasping for air.

And when it was time to show his talents at school,
He drummed Seven Nation Army and it was pretty cool!

And when we are tired from working all day,
He’ll jump in our arms, hug our troubles away.

And though he gets cranky, and stubborn at times,
Books usually get him all smiles.

At night when he’s tired he won’t go to sleep,
‘Less read to in bed and tucked in covered deep.

Our Rian Butala stands apart from the crowd,
We wish him the best and he’s made us so proud.

Rian Butala - Seven Nation Army

Rianisms

Rian: Daddy, I am strong, I broke metal!
Daddy: No way, Rian.  What did you do?
Rian: Yes, I tore aluminum foil :D

Daddy: Let's sit on the kitchen countertop and drink milk.
Rian: No, granite is an igneous rock, I don't want to sit on a volcano!

Skiing and Holi

This past weekend was a total blast with skiing and Holi celebrations.

More than 20" of snow came down pouring as a spring storm in the Sierras so we decided to make one last trip skiing to the Lake Tahoe area. We were season pass holders for 2 seasons at Sierra-At-Tahoe (SAT) and it is the resort Rian first started learning skiing at. This was Rian's third season and we wanted to go at least one day to SAT. The start was a bit rocky. Instead of waking up at 4:30am, we were asleep till 5:30am. Both Amit and me made the same mistake in setting the alarm - we modified our "weekday" alarm. Sigh. Thanks to that tho, Rian and I were well rested as we go an extra hr of zzzs. The drive started at 6:15am and we reached the parking lot at 9:45am. We were fairly quick and were at the lift at 10:30am. From the very first blue slope, the confidence in Rian kept soaring. Terrain was a bit icy in the morning, but softened up just the right bit. We did Marmot and then headed straight to Dogwood. This is a run I found really tough to ski down last year. Rian's first run was a bit rough and he kept his wedge really solid. Then Amit worked with him 1-on-1 while I went for 2 runs on this slope. What Rian did in that run was amazing. By the time I was done with 2, Rian and Amit were down and waiting for me. He was super happy with his own speed. He went up with me next while Amit went to get some of his black runs in. Rian skied as fast as I did on this downhill!

Definitely a proud parent day, and it lasted all throughout. Rian was very keen on all 3 of us skiing together as a family and we got a fair bit of that in Saturday. Amit and I tagged off at lunch so both got a couple of extra solo runs. These really help. What helped more is Rian challenging me: Mumma take my video, take my video! Only problem was he was way too fast for me! Amit came to rescue and took this amazing long video. At 3:30pm Rian and I were down at the bottom and we were "well done". Amit had a blast on his blacks and was all spent too. Rian got a gift magnet.



On Sunday morning I finished off groceries in the morning as the boys took care of each other. We were out ~noon to play Holi at Stanford. There was no water this year because of the drought. It is definitely the socially responsible thing to do, but Holi was just not the same. A welcome change was Rian's attitude to Holi. Daddy definitely helped by talking to Rian about Holi and how we should have fun by chasing people and coloring them. Rian's buddy Sreekar was very enthusiastic and they were happy to see us. We also had our Gujju Gang friends. Namrata, Zoya, Zubin too joined. We all had a blast. Rian kept running to the color station to get more color and chased uncles and aunties. Most awesome was Amit picking me up on his shoulder and dancing :-) Way to go my Superman! 

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… 

Life in weekend bites

Many a times I feel we live life in weekend bites. Slog through the week just to get to Friday evening, to be relieved from "schedule", to not have to worry about an alarm clock. Saturday mornings are always the best, when I get to sleep in long enough that my alarm clock is a cute walking talking one in pajamas and usually comes in saying "Mumma, good morning Mumma, I love you Mumma" :-) Oh those moments are to live for!

On Saturdays, Rian goes to learn Tae Kwon Do. His classes started from 12 Jan this year, and he's started his second quarter now. This class is a great mix of physical strengthening, discipline, honor, and self defense. Rian enjoys Dad's company for these Saturday morning classes.

This weekend was super crazy, nothing new there. We wanted to go skiing, so Amit and I packed on Friday evening. On Saturday morning, Daddy duo were ready, and out for the Tae Kwon Do class, and Mommy finished the last bits of packing and food assembly. When they came in, we went to Ansh's place to cut his and Parikshit's bday cake - black forest from Hot Breads, best Indian pastry with fresh cream. Then it was off to Rian's favorite Auntie Andrea's house. Andrea, my officemate, has a special place in Rian's life - he loves playing with her, talking with her, eating with her, everything. Andrea auntie made special cheese fondue for Rian, and filet mignon steak, with green beans.

After checking out all cameras of Andrea's new car, we were back at the Tae Kwon Do place, as Sir said Rian was ready for testing. Rian had learnt Kee Bong 1 sequence from 1 through 16, and he tested very well. He got a promotion from white belt to the next yellow belt. Rian was super thrilled!

Rian received his promotion at Tae Kwon Do to yellow belt

After that, we came home, and put our bags and food into the car. At 5pm, we started driving to Tahoe, and we were a bit unhappy with our 9:15pm ETA. The roads were empty and it was such a quick drive that we were in our hotel room at 8:45pm and done with dinner at 9:15pm. We stayed at Motel 6, and the Dominos next door has our favorite thin crust pizza, and we order it half plain cheese and half Pacific Veggie. It was delicious, we all overate :-) and slept at 10pm.

We woke up at 7:15am, and were all ready and driving off at 8:30am. Our room had microwave and fridge, so we carried our milk, sugar, coffee, butter, bread, jam and peanut butter. In the morning, as Amit made Rian ready, I quickly made coffee and 3 PBJ sandwiches. This has been our standard for most ski trips this season. We have the routine worked out to such a T that we're pros at it now!

We had Rian enrolled for ski school but he was not very happy. He kept telling us ski school is too easy, and everyone goes too slow. I think the problem is there are 4 kids to every teacher, and Rian does not get enough attention. With us, he's used to too much attention, and all praise every time. He cried and didn't want to go in. At 10am we got a call saying he's out and wants to talk to us. We cajoled and sent him in again, this time with a ziploc full of Mike and Ikes. At 12:30pm he was out again, crying for us and refusing to go in again. He kept saying I want to ski with you. We checked on what he had done since morning - the kids were on a bunny slope since morning. No wonder this kid was bored. We decided to take him with us.

Unfortunately in the morning, I had 2 bad falls, and Amit too had hurt his knee. Now we are not used to falling as much, since we ski well. These falls were kind of unexpected, and my right knee was badly twisted. To top it all, I didn't realize when I fell, how bad it hurt. I kept skiing. By 1pm, I was definitely limping. The weight of the ski boot was also too much for my knee.

We all had lunch at the top of the mountain, at BBQ Smokehouse 360 - nice restaurant that we had not tried till then. All 3 of us skied down Sugar n Spice. Then I called quits. Rian and Daddy went for 2 more runs on Sugar n Spice. On the first run, they went through the tunnels and forests, did a blue run called Shortswing in between, and also did a second blue run called Lower Castle! My babe was awesome! He was so excited that at 3:20pm, these 2 went up again for a second run through Sugar n Spice. This time around too they did the short blue Shortswing! At 3:50pm when I finally met them, both were exhausted and totally done for the day. I was in line for the hot chocolate already, when Rian said - Mumma, I want a second lunch, I am too hungry! He had a whole pizza slice! Our drive back was peaceful as Rian unexpectedly went to sleep. I guess he was too tired, and his tummy was full. We also bribed him that if he slept, he can watch Diego at home. Our drive back started at 5pm and we were home by 8:15pm. Record time. Record weekend. Awesome weekend. Fun family times. This is life and we are totally loving it!!

Rian and Daddy after 3 back-to-back Sugar-n-Spice runs

A tale of two skis

OR... the SKI is the limit :D

Amit is an avid skier. When we got married, Amit introduced me to skiing in the second month. My first ski experience was my worst - I was neither in shape, nor had the energy required to sustain the learning phase of this activity. Over time, and slow cajoling, and repeated ski trips, I learnt how to ski. The important thing was the desire to ski has been kindled, and it was something Amit had maybe not-so-innocently slipped in - honey, I want to be on top of that snow-laden mountain, with you!

Amit is a good teacher - he has lots of patience, and lots of motivation or cunningness ready to be doled out at any point. Through the next few years we both began enjoying skiing as our winter activity. It became our thing to do when the temperatures dipped and the body just wanted to curl up in bed with masala chai and pakode! Instead we were out there, on top of the mountain, together. He inspiring me to try the next tough slope, every time.

In fall 2007, we were not "planning" to get pregnant, and in fact looking forward to a full season of skiing. Our plan was to start trying after skiing season got over in May 2008. But nature has its ways, and I was pregnant with Rian in Nov 2007. We took a trip to Sierra-at-Tahoe with our friends Vidyut and Sarika, and I decided to sit it out, spend time with my Sudoku book, and possibly snow-shoe. Around lunch, I couldn't just sit anymore, I just HAD TO SKI. I pleaded with Amit and he was more than supportive. I got rentals and off we went, skiing, less than 2 months pregnant :-) I think that's the start of Rian's skiing, to be correct! That's where this story started.

When Rian was little, Amit and I would take a bus to Lake Tahoe ski resorts - leave at 4am and come back the same day by 9pm. The nanny used to stay over 3-4 times in the ski season. We had our ski fix. There were few years when I just could not make it. After WW and losing weight, I realized it is important to have outdoor physical activities that we love and enjoy and are good at. Specially in winters, it is hard to motivate oneself to go the gym or go outdoors for a run or a hike. Slowly we stocked up on better gear - outerwear which was ski appropriate, thermals, ski goggles, ear covers, you name it. Then I had to buy some of it all over again for my new size ;-) It was all fun, but we were PREPARED!

We used to see lots of small kids on the slopes, and we had started to cultivate that dream of having Rian with us on top of that mountain. Rian was first introduced to skiing last year in 2012. Our neighbor friends were planning to put their son Ansh in a full day skiing class. Rian really looks up to Ansh, and was getting excited about skiing with him. We reached on a Saturday afternoon and just put skis on our little guy, with his best teacher - Daddy! Rian seemed very comfortable with the skis on, and was clearly enjoying Daddy's one-on-one attention. Amit realized to handle Rian on the slopes, he would need to cultivate some more skills himself, but Amit is a guy who's always up for a challenge and gets excited by a new one every time!

Capitalizing on the buddy chance, we enrolled little Rian (3yr 9mo then) into a full day ski school next day from 8:30am to 3:30pm. He was very excited in the morning. There were hiccups though - Rian came back out at 11am and refused to go in. A big bribe helped him go back in again - The Lego

7939 City Train, with tracks and the works. It was a long weekend, and on the third day, we bought a harness for Rian. This helped Rian to maintain a correct stance going downhill, and helped Daddy slow Rian down in case we had a runaway skier. Rian skied with us, with the help of the harness, and we were surprised how well he had picked up the art!! The harness helped, and so did the train bribe.

Encouraged by Rian's progress, and wanting to capitalize on the momentum again, we went the next weekend again - back to back. Just one day, Rian and us on the slopes, with the harness. Rian's train craze helped him sustain the harness adventure as a train engine Rian towed his carriage which was mostly Daddy. April 15, 2012 goes down in history as the first day Rian got into a ski lift, at 3yrs and 9mo :-) Proud parent moment! Rian skied the "Sugar n Spice" green run at Sierra-At-Tahoe resort. We took quite a few breaks, but made it down those 2.5mi in an hr. Most importantly we had that picture - all 3 of us on the top of the mountain, together, having fun, and happy!

This year we decided to continue his ski training. We've made 4 trips to Lake Tahoe so far, 3 of them on back-to-back weekends. 2 weeks after coming back from India, we made it to Tahoe on Sunday 20 Jan. On the first day, we just warmed up Rian and skied for an hr on the bunny slopes with his harness. Ansh and Rian had some snow fun together. On the second day of the same weekend, Rian was enrolled in an all day ski class - this was a not-so-fun class for Rian, without Ansh. He feigned tiredness and sleep, and pretty much didn't ski. After some prompting from us, he skied again in class. We next went on 17 and 18 Feb. On both days, Rian and Ansh had private instructors from 8:30am to 10am. This made a big big difference. After the first lesson, Rian started skiing ON HIS OWN, with no harness, no hoola hoop, and NO FEAR! He got the skiing rush, and would keep saying "Mumma wooooeeee, look at meeeeee". We were on top of the world!! Just before lunch, Rian, Amit, me, Parikshit and Ansh we all went to Sugar n Spice, a long 2.5mi green run, and Rian was a happy camper coming down it, ALL ON HIS OWN. On the second private lesson, Rian learnt how to make his turns, and practised on the half pike. Teacher Phoenix Hunter made a big impression. After the second lesson, Ansh and Rian went to big ski school and were on the slopes with the big kids.

There were some hiccups - not all a smooth journey :-) Rian likes attention and given his relatively young age, the ski school instructor had a hard time with Rian on Sugar-n-Spice after a small meltdown. Luckily Parikshit let me know, and there's nothing that a few Skittles don't solve for Rian! Rian gets tired pretty quickly, 1.5-2hrs is the tops, then he needs a good one hr break! From what I've heard from other parents, this is pretty standard. The good part, as I found out, once Rian gets his break, he's keen and eager to go back out there. I think a little bit of this rubs off from Daddy. I know it rubs off from Daddy for me :-) When a tired Amit comes in, finishes his lunch, and beams "I'm going back out there!" there's something magnetic about his spirits and it rubs off on me, edges me to go out there, have fun with him, like him!

Our third trip was a solo adventure - single parent me and Rian. We hitched a ride with Shayona, Mausami and Gunjan to make a day trip to Dodge Ridge. Rian had a 2hr private lesson signed up with Ms. Maggi. I think Rian was smiling ear to ear after hearing her name, and they hit it off pretty well. Rian mostly practised turns. At the end of the lesson, he was doing almost parallel turns! Unfortunately she spent all 2hrs on a small beginner slope, and Rian was a bit bored at the end of those 2hrs. Meanwhile I scouted out the rest of the small mountain to look for good slopes to take Rian on. His classmate Zoya was there too, and the fact that Zoya was doing blue ski runs was encouraging Rian. After an hr of lunch break, we were off to chase Zoya and her mom to the other slopes. Rian wanted to go faster and faster and just didn't want to slow down!! He fell down twice, and both were my faults - at the beginning to get onto the lift, and while getting off. We were trying to chase a blue run. Unfortunately falling twice didn't help him physically and he was just down. We took a good hr break again. After that, Rian and Mumma skied again for an hr+ till the lifts shut down at 4pm. Now that's the kind of skiing Amit taught me - taala lagaake nikalna!!

Rian at Dodge Ridge ski resort

Our fourth trip was the most fun - Rian saw the big buses at the ski resorts and really wanted to go in them. On a third consecutive weekend on 2 March, we woke up at 3am, and were out of the door at 4am to catch a 4:30am bus. We reached Sierra-At-Tahoe at 8:30am and totally enjoyed skiing till 3. Rian and me did 4 runs of Sugar-n-Spice. Daddy did some awesome black ski runs. Rian also did a short blue run. He was very fast and very scared, but the experience really helped him to gain confidence. The bus journey was super convenient, with no overnight packing required. Rian was also free to move around in the bus. He was a very good boy and didn't scream and shout in the

bus. He was the only kid in the bus!

We are hoping to go one or maybe two more times this season. We are super happy with Rian's skiing progress, and more so with the fact that Rian's face lights up when we talk about going skiing. He wakes up at 4am and 5am to go to the slopes with us, and most importantly enjoys the whole activity :-)

Alaska: Day 5, Mt. McKinley Flightseeing

Day 5 was our drive from Denali NP to Anchorage city. The original plan was to spend some time in Anchorage, exploring the city and native Alaskan culture. But after driving through Anchorage and into Denali NP on Day 1, we had seen it was like any other city. Also we had missed our flightseeing experience in Talkeetna on Day 2 as it was cloudy. Talkeetna is midway from Denali NP to Anchorage, so we had postponed our flightseeing to Day 5 in hopes of better weather, so the revised plan was to stop at Talkeetna today. In Alaska, weather is often unpredictable and the locals are very aware and accomodating because of this, and fairly flexible towards changes in bookings. They are willing to offer a change of date, or even a refund of monies if requested.

We started off Day 5 with Rian a bit cranky at not having his toasted peanut butter jelly sandwich. My experiment of waffles with apple compote (breakfast at Salmon Bake) did not sit very well with Rian. Removing the compote did not make him happy either. He finally ended up eating bread and butter, and after a while we were all happy and adjusted with it.

Amit's camera was very impressed with what we had seen so far, and had happily eaten more than 75% of its CF card capacity. We were hoping to drive into Anchorage and buy a CF card, but we decided to look around here in Denali NP first. Luckily there was a shop offering CF cards for twice the price of amazon.com :-) At least there was a choice. As we guessed, we weren't the only ones underestimating our camera storage in this beautiful place. We were all set with a new 16GB card. Trouble for the photo processor starts when the photo taker has extra memory ;-) With pictures and videos at a high resolution from Amit's Canon 7D, we ended up with a total of 25GB for the 10 days of our Alaska trip. Now you know why I've been super slow processing and uploading the photos and videos! The drive from Denali NP to Talkeetna was smooth and very scenic.

Zoom zoom zoom

When we reached Talkeetna at K2 aviation, we were originally booked to fly at 2pm. Having hard a hearty breakfast, we just grabbed coffee from Nagleys and were all set. This was the first time I gave Rian 'lunchables': turkey, crackers and cheese. He really enjoyed it. With our usually fresh and healthy meals, once in a while 'junk and processed food' is allowed :-) and according to Amit, when we're traveling, anything goes! Throughout the trip, I took good care of Rian's meal schedule. We also bought half a gallon of regular milk - it's easy to carry, fills you up, gives a good, natural protein boost, and goes with even bread to make my favorite snack :D

There was some time for our flight, so we made the best of our time in downtown Talkeetna. There was a broken down train, and Rian spent his time examining it and squealing in joy. I also got some a chance to pick up memorabilia.

Rian's most memorable aspect of Alaska was the Denali Star train

Somehow 2pm became 4pm and we were getting a bit agitated at the slow slippage of time. Lunch for us was screwed up beyond repair - the milk and fruits helped later. Now we had no time for Anchorage, we knew. We played around the little park outside K2 aviation.

More delay in flight, so we make a flight of our own

A little bit about K2 aviation and our tour: we researched most of our tours based on feedback from tripadvisor. We also tried to see the flexibility in schedule offered by the tour operator for starting times. e.g. K2 had flights going out every hour or so. Talkeetna Air Taxi OTOH was very constrained - only 2 flight times in the day. With Rian, and the fact that we were out and about the whole day, I personally wanted to have hearty meals. If the tummy is not full, things get out of hand. So we chose K2 based on the reviews and the flexibility of lots of flying times. We wanted to definitely do a glacier landing, but were unsure how long Rian will last - 2hrs was our guestimate. So we decided to do this McKinley Flyer route. Although Day 2 left us disappointed with weather for flight seeing, Day 5 more than made up for it. It was an excellent sunny day to see the mountain. We weren't even wearing jackets - even after landing on the glacier! This was our flight route. We were outfitted with overboots and that's all we needed.

Our flight route

Our pilot was very cool. People can get very strict about rules and safety and all uptight about it. This man was experienced enough to tell us everything, but did not pain us about anything. Rian got all settled in and was wearing his headset. He was curiously listening to everything the pilot was saying. The set was too heavy though for his head, and then he lost interest.

Mt. McKinley from a distance

Seeing the highest mountain peak (in US country and North America continent) was breathtaking. From far away, we could make out Mt. McKinley. The approach showed us wonderful landscape with snow untouched by humans. Seeing fresh powder less than 24 hrs new brought back memories of ski trips in Tahoe. We approached via the Kahiltna Glacier which is 36 miles long. Rivers of ice... Most epic photo of 3 of us, with the tallest mountain peak in the background is here:

Behind us is the tallest peak of Mt. McKinley

Rian and Daddy had a blast playing in the snow. They made a snow "Mt. McKinley on top of Mt. McKinley". This line really got Rian very excited! Daddy and Rian were soaked in snow from top to bottom, with just regular clothes :-) I stayed far away, dry and warm :D

Amit truly making it fun for Rian

On the way back, Amit volunteered to be in the co-pilot's seat, the view was very different from his perspective.

Amit is in the co-pilot's seat

Lots of teeny glaciers feeding a big one

By the time we were done, all of us were super thrilled and super tired. We had a mini snack - that was our substitute for lunch - with milk, fruits, and some junk from our car and drove straight to Anchorage. Rian caught a good nap on the way. We reached Anchorage just in time for dinner ~9pm at a Sushi restaurant. That night we stayed at a BnB. It was a very good big house, with many rooms. Our host was very welcoming and polite. We slept very well, with Rian having his own small bed in our room.

42 lessons of life

This is a forward I saw on Facebook today, and it's a great list. Resonates with some of the self-help books I've read in 2012 (yes yes some of them were good material indeed). Here goes copy-pasted, not verified via snopes ;-)

Written by a 90 year old

This is something we should all read at least once a week!!!!! Make sure you read to the end!!!!!! 
Written by Regina Brett, 90 years old, of the Plain Dealer, Cleveland , Ohio .
"To celebrate growing older, I once wrote the 42 lessons life taught me. It is the most requested column I've ever written.
My odometer rolled over to 90 in August, so here is the column once more:
1. Life isn't fair, but it's still good.
2. When in doubt, just take the next small step.
3. Life is too short – enjoy it..
4. Your job won't take care of you when you are sick. Your friends and family will. 
5. Pay off your credit cards every month.
6. You don't have to win every argument. Stay true to yourself.
7. Cry with someone. It's more healing than crying alone.
8. Save for retirement starting with your first pay check.
9. When it comes to chocolate, resistance is futile.
10. Make peace with your past so it won't screw up the present.
11. It's OK to let your children see you cry. 
12. Don't compare your life to others. You have no idea what their journey is all about.
13. If a relationship has to be a secret, you shouldn't be in it...
14 Take a deep breath. It calms the mind.
15. Get rid of anything that isn't useful. Clutter weighs you down in many ways.
16. Whatever doesn't kill you really does make you stronger.
17. It's never too late to be happy. But it’s all up to you and no one else.
18. When it comes to going after what you love in life, don't take no for an answer.
19. Burn the candles, use the nice sheets, wear the fancy lingerie. Don't save it for a special occasion. Today is special.
20. Over prepare, then go with the flow.
21. Be eccentric now. Don't wait for old age to wear purple.
22. The most important sex organ is the brain.
23. No one is in charge of your happiness but you.
24. Frame every so-called disaster with these words 'In five years, will this matter?'
25. Always choose life.
26. Forgive but don’t forget. 
27. What other people think of you is none of your business. 
28. Time heals almost everything. Give time time.
29. However good or bad a situation is, it will change.
30. Don't take yourself so seriously. No one else does..
31. Believe in miracles.
32. Don't audit life. Show up and make the most of it now.
33. Growing old beats the alternative -- dying young.
34. Your children get only one childhood.
35. All that truly matters in the end is that you loved.
36. Get outside every day. Miracles are waiting everywhere.
37. If we all threw our problems in a pile and saw everyone else's, we'd grab ours back.
38. Envy is a waste of time. Accept what you already have not what you need.
39. The best is yet to come...
40. No matter how you feel, get up, dress up and show up.
41. Yield.
42. Life isn't tied with a bow, but it's still a gift."

Happy New Year

This post has been wording itself in my mind over the last 5 days, so here I am, penning it down.

For the last 3 years, our Christmas and New Year's has been an amazing celebration. Starting with Dec 21 and ending on Jan 5, we're celebrating all the time. It's such a wonderful time. Jan 21 is Amit and my official wedding anniversary, the date we were legally married. We usually have our private celebration on this date. Jan 5 is our Vedic marriage date, and this is the date our parents, relatives and friends consider us officially married. It's our public wedding anniversary.

Amit and I completed 10 years of marriage this year. It has been an amazing journey together. We had planned our India trip meticulously this time around. I think we met a lot of our goals :-) We managed a 3-4 week whirlwind world tour spanning 5 cities in 3 countries: Bombay (India), Pune (India), Siem Reap (Cambodia), Chester (UK) and London (UK). I got a week of "me time" with my parents and enjoyed shopping without any responsibilities of husband and son. Amit and I got away for 4 days to visit the temples in Cambodia. All 3 of us enjoyed a week of bliss with my brother and his sweet wife in the UK.

Lots of things went well.

The flight timings worked out really good. I left mid-Saturday from here, and that gave us a good Friday evening to relax and unwind, and a Saturday morning to pack the bags. Amit and Rian left on the next Sunday morning, so Amit had a whole Saturday to pack the bags with Rian. Rian missed having people to play with as the better half was busy packing, but in the end it worked out well, Rian helped Daddy pack bags :-) Amit and I flew to Cambodia on a red-eye flight, after putting Rian to bed, and we were back on a really late night flight so when Rian woke up after 4 days, we were there with him. Our flight to London landed at 8am after a late night departure from Bombay so at least Rian slept well on the flight and we too managed 4-5hrs although in cramped seats. Good thing is we were fresh to go through all the motions of moving 6 big bags and 3 small ones, plus kiddo, through airport checkout.

Jetlag? What's that :-) We were in perpetual jetlag mode, after Amit and Rian landed in India. The stay in India for them was a mere 11 days for Rian, and 7 days for Amit (4 days in Cambodia). Their flight landed after midnight and it was 4am when we all went to bed. But everyone woke up at 8am and went to my cousin's wedding. We literally reacted as if there was no jetlag. Rian refused to sleep in the afternoons, so he was definitely a little crankier towards evenings, but he would doze off by 7pm and wake up 5-6am the next day. So pretty much he was all set. It was like the "zhatka" jetlag that we all have as adults -- we just look outside and behave that way!! Only caveat was we were super hungry in the mornings and had paltry dinners for 3-4 days while our tummys took time to adjust.

Virtually sickness free! Yup, all 3 of us did not get sick on this trip to India, Cambodia and UK. Ya there was that little sore throat for me and a bit of upset stomach for a day, but asides from that, touch wood, Rian was all well and so was Amit.

We met family! We are fortunate that our folks come and spend the summers with Rian. The kiddo enjoys grandparents' company a LOT. It makes huge leaps and changes in his growth. Aatya also comes and spends time with him, 4 times in 2012 alone :-) Rian is lucky he's close to her too. We had missed out on spending quality bonding 1-on-1 time with Mama and Mami, and this trip fixed that. We spent a week of fundoo time with both of these lovely people in the UK. We also met Shweta and Prashant in London. We met almost all of my side relatives at my cousin's wedding, and met my grandma. We made a special one day trip to Pune to meet Amit's grandpa and Amit's relatives. That made things complete.

10 years to us. Yup, unbelievable as it sounds to me, it was our 10th wedding anniversary. We had a wonderful relaxing and active trip to Cambodia. We relaxed a bit on the first day and explored the local food and markets. On the second day we explored temples all day long, ending with sunset over Angkor Wat. On the third day we did the main temples in Siem Reap, starting with sunrise at Angkor Wat, and we had a guide with us. On the fourth day, we went to floating village and flooded forest Kompong Phluk on the lake Tonle Sap there, and we flew out in the evening. It was a perfectly timed trip, and the hotel ugpraded us to their Apsara suite, so we had a wonderful stay. Food was very yummy and cheap in Cambodia (I'm thinking in $ here). We had fresh nariyal pani every single day.

No mosquitoes. We're always bitten, and Rian gets big boils from mosquitoes every time. This time around the mosquitoes seemed to be dwindling and good measures were employed to keep the houses mosquito free. For Cambodia, we were both on anti-malarial medications.

Some things sucked big time.

Lost luggage. Cathay Pacific lost one bag from US to Bombay for Amit. Luckily for us, that was our UK bag, so we didn't need any of that stuff right away in Bombay. It was delivered at our door step, thanks to Amit's efforts.

Beware of customs officials at Sahar. This one really pissed me off. They wanted Rs.23,000 from me for carrying MY OWN camera lens, iPad, and some of my jewelry (which I got to repair in India). Most ridiculous experience of my life in my own country, that too at one of the top international airports. Sure I understand, lots of people skip duty and bring in lots of things into the country. But hey, dare you touch me when I'm not crossing any lines!

Luggage situation. Yes this is always an issue when we go to India. The better half complains and complains and we fight every time we pack. But we enjoy the rewards as well. We took a decision to store our bags at UK airport which cost us a lot more money, but we saved some headaches, specially tube being unreliable on weekends. But we also learnt about contract cabs that should be called for more luggage - something to remember for next time ;-) Now we're enjoying the chakalis, shankar palis and candy at home.

Some jewels to remember.

Rian's non-stop badbad
How excited he was in airplanes, and how well he behaved in general
Mera sangeet, sabka meet - now we're listening to it every morning and evening
Push present revamped - yup I got it exchanged in India for a new one!
Lots of shopping done for me - 3 sarees, 3 dresses, 3 jeans, some western wear for me
Some shopping for Amit and Rian too - something unique that we do not get here in the US
Bonding with mama mami

Overall we all had a wonderful, although a bit exhausting trip. Now we're fully recharged and refreshed for the year. Happy New Year everyone... 

The nest is empty

Tonight, the nest is empty. The baby bird has flown away. He'll return tomorrow morning. His mom and dad are missing him. I'm sure he's having a wonderful time with his best friend. Rian's first sleepover tonight is at Shayona's house. My baby's growing up!

Rian and Reading

Rian has been going to Champion School since Jan 2011. The main reason to select this school was their claim that they can get 3-year old children to read. Before Rian went to school at 2 and a half years, he had his A to Z and his 1 to 10 down pat already, so we thought this is a good school fit for Rian with his natural inclination towards reading and books.

Sure enough by his third birthday Rian knew the phonics for all alphabets and was reading single vowel words. The school has encouraged and moved Rian (along with other kids) to higher level for reading. At 4 years and 3 months, Rian reads a lot, flawlessly. We encourage him a lot at home and read every day with him, and extra reading on weekends. He loves it and keeps asking for more and more.

Every 4 weeks we get a different set of books from the library. Every library trip Rian decides which books he's done with and okay to return, and which ones he wants me to keep and renew. I just love this interaction with him about books and library and his curiosity for new things. Big thanks once again to Daddy for fueling his curiosity - else Rian's natural selection is always just train books :D

Here's a page from a level 4 book about Submarines that Rian read without hesitation. This is grade 1-2 reading by school standards.

Page from a level 4 book about submarines

His favorite Mausami aunty picked a kite gift for him and Rian read all the assembly instructions himself. Here's a video on youtube.

May you keep this love for reading always...

Rian's world of trains

Rian's most favorite thing in the world is trains. I've mentioned this earlier on the blog. Ever since his third birthday though, the craze has gotten more intense. Cely had gifted him a Geotrax train set, and with it came a Geotrax DVD with 4 stories. This is one of his favorite things to watch on TV (the first TV craze was watching Lightning McQueen in Cars, and the latest one is watching Lego trains). The occasional trips with Cely via VTA were the highlights of his week and his love for Cely. In April this year, Rian learnt how to ski and one of the motivations for him was to get a Lego train. This would combine his love for Legos with his love for trains. Lego City 7938 became a major hit with Rian and has been one of our best bribes to him. Accessories started flowing in, Rian got tracks, flexible tracks, switching tracks and his train set spanned our family room floor all the time. Andrea gave him the Emerald night and Rian was overjoyed.

In summer this year, Rian transitioned to longer school hours. For a year and a half from Jan '11 to June '12, Rian went to school from 8:30am to 11:30am. In summer school this year, Rian stayed from 8:30am to 3pm. It was hard for Rian to fall asleep at school, without Cely, without us. One of the main bribes we used again was his playtime with his trains - you sleep at school, you get to play with your trains. Rian understood it and gets to play with the trains 90% of the days now.

From the day Rian grasped the concept of "what will I be when I grow up", it has always been something to do with trains. First it was a monorail conductor. Disney monorail was his favorite after visiting Disneyland around his third birthday. He stayed at the "I want to be a train conductor" status quo for a long time. One day Cely told him the person who controls the train is actually the "train operator", so off Rian went around, telling everyone that now he wanted to be a "train operator".

Night time stories just before bed were a good time to expose Rian to new concepts. Rian always wanted to hear train stories. They get a bit repetitive for parents after a while. One day Rian asked Daddy (or maybe Daddy convinced Rian to hear) about how trains are built. Off went Daddy describing the design process. On the following night when it was Mumma's turn, a sequel to "how are trains built" followed. Slowly, Rian grasped the concept that the "train engineer" was an important person and he got to design trains the way he wanted. We started reading in various kiddie train books that the "train engineer" was the one who operated the steam trains. So Rian's latest is "I want to be a train engineer when I grow up".

Last night, Rian impressed me again - which is the main reason I'm writing this post. We were coming back from his swim class. Rian loves the fish aquarium in his swim school, I think it's a perfect addition in a swim school. Here's the conversation as I remember it:

Rian: Mumma I will have some fishes my train.
Me: Oh, like the fish aquarium in swim school?
Rian: Yes, and there will be many fishes. And there will be one big fish.
Me: Wow, very cool! What color will be your fishes?
Rian: Any colors, they can be anything. Mumma, I will ask my train conductor what his favorite color is. If the conductor likes red, I'll have red fishes. I can have any color like red, pink, orange.

I was stunned to hear this fellow wants to have fish of a color that is someone else's favorite color! What do you say to that? Good thinking Rian, you are already thinking about how to make others feel loved! Definitely Dad's traits again ;-)

Tod phod bites

This Saturday morning, we decided to stay at home and consolidate our old electronics. Daddy was also playing with Rian to put together his broken Lego City train, 7938. After ~2hrs of repairs, Daddy is happy that Rian's toy is back and fully functional. Rian is also happy and playing with Daddy. Then Mumma spins the question to Rian: Are you happy now that your train is all fixed? Daddy repeats the question to Rian (sometimes the batteries of his listening ears are weak!). Rian replies with super tod phod answer in clear crisp words: Daddy, you are happy because of your work. I'm happy because of the love!

Daddy and Mumma are standing there, speechless! True, this is a moment that has taken our breath away!