Art time

In questa puntata, il nostro Appu disegna con i pastelli. Non si sa bene quando sia successo, ma improvvisamente il piccolo Rajiv sembra essere capace di stare seduto per un po' di tempo a fare cose tipo giocare con le costruzioni, sfogliare dei libri e farseli leggere, o disegnare. Ovviamente assaggia anche i pastelli, ma molto meno di una volta, e soprattutto... non gli piacciono! Li sputa! Evviva!

Today we had fun with crayons. As some of you know we have been more or less confined at home for a few days because I had tendinitis and we have had to come up with ways to pass the time. Fortunately this coincides with a new phase of my little one's life in which he suddenly seems to have a decent attention span - he even lets me read to him... So today we sat down and made pictures for more than an hour (!!!).



I put on the floor the top of an ex Ikea coffee table and we used that as art station. He sat on it for the whole time, it was amazing. In fact he sat right on his "canvas" for the whole time, I think it might be the beginning of a new art wave.












As I said, he likes to sit on his work, hence only half gets colored, but the result is quite attractive (says the mom...).



The happy artist!

Morning madness

These photos were taken today morning before daycare. We were chatting with S. on Skype (notice the laptop on the table) and Appu was demonstrating his screaming and climbing skills to the dad - you might observe that the climbing performance was not documented by the photographer, but the screaming one was.





A casual observe might think that this is just a chaotic kitchen, but everything in fact serves a purpose. Please notice the rice-cooker box on the floor, strategically located so that little Rajiv can step on it and look at his dad on the screen - and scratch it if that's what he feels like doing. The box is also absolutely necessary to climb on the little booster seat on the chair, and from there the sky is the limit.

Why is the packet of instant noodles on the floor? Well, there would be a beatiful answer to that too, but unfortunately the time at my disposal is too short to write it.




What would you do if somebody were taking pictures of you? You would try to assault the photographer and run away with the camera, no doubt. Appu feels just the same.



More exploration of our kitchen. Please note Appu's personal pot on the floor, he likes to put in the cabinet and then take it out again. You might also wonder if that blue object is in fact a baseball bat. It is. Appu uses it sometimes to play his little piano.



After a last almost successful attempt of the subject to get at the camera, the photographer retires for the day.

We are thankful to Emiliano, but especially to Ilaria I suspect, for Rajiv's outfit.

Celebrating 18

Il piccolo Rajiv compie un anno e mezzo! Per festeggiarlo abbiamo raccolto un po' di fotografie scattate nell'ultimo mese o poco piu' in momenti tipici della vita quotidiana di un kunjappu.

Our little one is one year and a half now! This gives me the perfect excuse to unload here a bunch of pictures that I was keeping aside for posts that I will never have time to write. They were all taken in the past month or so and they do capture a lot of appuness, I think, if pictures ever can...

Winter travel

The blog is back after a sad incident with spilled soup that has kept my laptop at rest for some time...

A quick update on our future movements:
S. is leaving on Monday to go back to his job in Chennai. He will reach on Tuesday night Indian time. Appu and I will follow at the end of the month, with a two day stop-over in Torino to say hello to the grandparents. We will be in India for three months, then we will return to Canada in time to see the bears coming out of hibernation...:)

We are a bit worried about how Appu will take these three weeks without his dad and we wish it were December already. On the bright side, it seems there will be a lot of snow here next week, so maybe little Appu will have fun outside. It is time to try on the new snowsuit!

First words

Little Rajiv is beginning to form his first real words and it is a fascinating process.
It is a bit difficult to keep track of his vocabulary, because sometimes he will use one word one day and then never again. For example he said his name - "Appu" - a few times, with a strong American accent by the way, but just when we were getting all excited about it he dropped it. Sometimes he makes vague "m" sounds that could be interpreted as mommy requests, and occasionally he will say "mamma", but now he hasn't said it for a while.

The one word we are sure he understands and speaks himself is "ball" ("palla" in Italian). He has a toddler sized soccer ball and if I ask him for the "palla" he goes around and looks for it. He also looks for it immediately if he sees a picture of the ball in a book or on his alphabet blocks. For a while he was saying "ba" or "pa" for it, but now he seems to have settled for "bai" or occasionally "pai". If he sees the picture of the ball he screams "bai!" and then we go to find it.

He probably thinks there are many other things he says, in his cute tonal babbling, but unfortunately his his parents don't get it. Sorry Appu, please don't give up on us... :)

News

Colour blind parents

Apart from making a fashion statement, I am posting this so that everybody can admire the nice sweater that was knit by aunt Zarina especially for our little hero. Now that his drooling has subsided a little it is safe for him to wear it...

Prego notare il fantastico golfino, fatto a mano dalla zia Zarina. Naturalmente lei non sospettava quali abbinamenti avremmo osato...

Spaghetti

It's getting cold around here...

Note the completely off-centered picture due to dad's request not to be in it...

Italian family

When you thought they would not come anymore, here they are: a few pictures from Italy!

In the first two our little hero is at my aunt's place, playing with her super-cute puppy shaped cushions. Appu loved my aunt's house so full of little glass objects and every sort of expensive and very fragile things... - we had to be faster than lightning to keep everything safe. In spite of that apparently now she misses him. Go figure... :)





The next pictures instead were taken at the airport the day we left.

My mom had a great time with Appu. They went to the park once while we were busy at the university for S's talk and apparently she demonstrated baby somersaults for him and even got him to try it once. Unfortunately we do not have pictures of that. Here they are together in a more quiet moment.



We end with a family picture. After several attempts and pictures we better not make public, I managed to trick my dad into smiling. Here we are!



Unfortunately I don't have any pictures with my sister, we will have to remedy it next time.

Poked... :(

Today morning we went to the doctor for Appu's 15 months vaccines (just a bit late, as usual - that's us... ). He didn't have much fun but seems to have recovered fine. He is also teething though, so we might have a rough night ahead of us, we shall see.

At the doctor's our little one was also weighed and measured. He weighs around 10.5 Kg and is 84 cm "tall". In case you care, he is in the 25th percentile for weight and in the 75th percentile for height: lean and tall, in short!

In other news, I found my camera and memory card reader today. They weren't really hidden, but somehow we couldn't find them and that is one of the many excuses for why there have been no pictures posted for ages. What excuse will I find next? Stay tuned...

Foto con la sposa

As some of you know well, one of the main attractions of our trip to Italy was the wedding of our friend Emiliano. Unfortunately we didn't take any pictures, so we are counting on the generosity of the newly weds to gift us some. For the moment we have been given permission to post this picture of our little Rajiv with the bride Ilaria.

The smashing kurta that Appu is wearing was shipped from India by Appu's grandmother, so let us take this chance to thank her again! And hopefully she will not mind when we will tell her what happened to the matching pants during the long day of celebrations....

Daycare update

Rajiv si sta trovando molto bene al suo nuovo nido "casalingo". Va da una signora di nome Sally, che guarda lui e tre o quattro altri bambini a seconda dei giorni. Da quando abbiamo cambiato nido non e' piu' triste di salutarci al mattino, che sollievo!

Today Rajiv and I had our longest separation so far. We dropped him at Sally's house at around 9 and we picked him up at 3:30. Apparently he was fine, he napped easily at the same time as the other kids and didn't cry at all. He really seems to enjoy this new daycare solution and this is such a relief.

There are three or four other kids there, depending on the day. They are all older than him so he has fun trying to imitate them. For example there is a small toddler sized slide and after seeing the other kids he is now sliding down on his own, without help. Mommy is so proud...

He is going to be at Sally's every day from now on, until our next big trip in December. We are so happy that this seems to be working out!

Appu loves balloons

Back to Canada

We had a good trip back, we slept a lot last night - with the exception of a certain somebody who tried to get up around 5... but we made him see reason :) - and now we are about to drop our little one at his new daycare for a few hours. A few pictures of our trip will be posted later.

Home

We are in Italy visiting Appu's grandparents. Unfortunately we no longer have an internet connection at home, so this will probably be the only post until we go back to Canada next Sunday.

Our friend Emiliano got married on Thursday, it was a very nice ceremony and Appu was admired by most people present. Of course, the parents almost collapsed with exhaustion trying to keep up with him while he was running around like an energizer bunny. More details and pictures will follow.

Haircut!

Ieri Rajiv ha ricevuto il suo primo taglio di capelli. La prima foto e' stata scattata in uficio poche ore prima dell'ora X e i riccioli sono ancora visibili. Il salone dove siamo andati e' specializzato in bambini e Appu si e' divertito un sacco: per il taglio e' stato seduto in una sedia-macchinina con un bel volante da far girare e davanti a lui c'era uno schermo con dei cartoni animati.

E' andato tutto liscio quasi fino all'ultimo, quando Appu ha cominciato a voler scendere dalla sedia. Ma ormai era quasi fatta ed e' bastato un po' di intrattenimento da parte dei genitori per permettere alla parrucchiera di completare l'opera! Alla fine Appu ha anche ricevuto un palloncino blu, del quale si e' completamente innamorato. Verso il fondo potete vedere il risultato finale, la sera a casa. Niente piu' riccioli... :( ...per un po'!

L'ultima foto non c'entra ma non potevo resistere al piccolo Appu nella scatola di plastica...




Appu with mom, already mourning the upcoming loss of the beloved curls...



We went to a place called "Cookie Cutters". They have chairs shaped like various vehicles - Appu got a green car - and they show videos while cutting the hair. It was much smoother than we had anticipated.


At the end Appu also got a blue balloon, that has been his joy ever since!


Here you can admire the final result, but no fear, the curls will be back! (mommy hopes...)



And for added cuteness, little Rajiv decided to sit in a plastic box. How could we not take this picture? :)

Yesterday night's picture, just like that...

Happiness is...

... being fed yogurt by your dad while wearing your new red shoes.



Happiness is also getting the yogurt all smeared on your face, of course...


..,but dad is quick with the napkins!

Older picture: the little elf

This is from before we moved, one of the last days in the old house. I forgot to post it earlier, but it is S's favorite and so here it is...

Questa e una vecchia foto, scattata uno degli ultimi giorni nell'altra casa. L'avevo dimenticata, ma e' la preferita del papa' di Appu e quindi eccola qua...

La nuova cuginetta e' arrivata!

La bimba di Nandu e Niddhi e' nata oggi a Calicut. Il nome non e' stato ancora scelto, ma le diamo il nostro benvenuto e facciamo le nostre congratulazioni alla mamma, che purtroppo ha dovuto subire un parto cesareo. Auguri a Niddhi e speriamo che possa andare a casa presto con la sua bambina!

Appu's Wonderland - The Movie

Appu's Wonderland

Family time at the park at the end of the day.

Niente di meglio di un'oretta al parco per concludere la giornata!

Bits

Sorry, there doesn't seem to be time for proper posts these days, so bullets will have to do:

• Rajiv has learned to clap his hands. Now if we clap, most of the times he claps back. I know it's a basic skill, but mommy is amazed!
  
  Rajiv ha imparato a battere le mani, dopo vari mesi passati a cercare di insegnarglielo. Adesso se uno di noi batte le mani lui ci imita felice.
  
  
• We think he might be getting some words, apart from "mamamama". Yesterday we noticed he was saying "bukbukbuk" while holding a book and his babysitter Kristen confirmed that she also heard suspicious "b" sounds in presence of books. So it seems that little one is starting with English. What a disappointment... I mean, great!
  
  Il piccolino sta iniziando a dire qualche pezzetto di parola. In particolare ci sembra che stia cercando di dire "book" ("libro"). Vai Rajiv!
  
  
• By the way, Rajiv is happy with the new babysitter and so are we. She helps us out for a few hours three times a week and will stay with us until the first week of August. After that we have a very promising home daycare lined up, with a lady called Sally who was recommended to us by our neighbours.
  
  Rajiv ha subito fatto amicizia con la nuova babysitter Kristen. Lei ci dara' una mano fino alla prima settimana di Agosto e poi Rajiv iniziera' pian piano ad andare ad un nuovo nido che promette molto bene. Speriamo!
  
  
• In the meantime the work on the house goes on. We painted our bedroom, a major effort that involved working late at night while little one slept and camping in the living room for about a week to avoid the fumes. The color turned out to be quite different from what we expected, but we like it (and even if we didn't we would repaint).
  
  Next big project: dishwasher installation. We managed to remove the old one yesterday night. Now all we have to do is remove the small dead mouse from behind the cabinet and install the new dishwasher. That should be fun...
  
  Intanto il lavoro nella casa nuova procede. Abbiamo ridipinto la notra camera da letto - dormendo nel soggiorno per una settimana - e adesso ci prendiamo una meritata pausa dalla pittura. La prossima impresa invece e' installare la lavastoviglie. Ieri sera abbiamo rimosso quella vecchia e domani da bravi idraulici tenteremo di installare quella nuova. Le risate...
  

And now, for something completely different...

...sunset on Mars! (courtesy of NASA - and Appu's dad who insisted on posting it)

Appu nella casa nuova

Che cosa ne pensa il piccolino della casa nuova? Il trasloco ha portato grosse novita': il bagnetto nella vasca grande invece che in quella da neonati, le scale - in pochi giorni Appu ha imparato a salire, ma non ancora a scendere purtroppo, e molto altro. Ma la novita' piu' grande e' il mondo al di la' della porta d'ingresso. Quando vivevamo in un appartamento oltre la porta c'era solo un lungo corridoio, ora invece Appu sa che a pochi metri c'e' un mondo da esplorare. Come risultato, quando e' in casa raspa alla porta costantemente per essere portato fuori e si dispera quando e' ora di rientrare. Nelle foto potete vedere il nostro piccolo eroe in strada di fronte a casa.

Does Appu like his new house? I would say, yes. He is learning to climb the stairs, he is taking his baths in the big clawfoot tub instead of the small baby tub, but what he like the most is having a whole world to explore just outside the door. When we were in the flat he never seemed to be specially attracted to the front door, probably because there was just a boring corridor outside, but now he would spend most of his time outdoors and when we are inside he moans by the door to be let out. In the photos you can see our little Rajiv exploring the neighborhood!