Biren and Kristen's Universe - Videos

July Update - Weddings and Dance Class

nospam@example.com (Biren) — Sun, 08 Aug 2010 21:57:00 -0600

July was an incredibly crazy month for us. To start, both of our brothers got married. Dave and Leah's wedding was on July 10th, while Niral and Liz's wedding was two weeks later on the 24th. Niral and Liz had an additional party the weekend in between, during which the engagement ceremony was held. The Friday evening before Dave's wedding, Kris headed down to where the wedding was for the rehearsal dinner and spent the night there at the hotel. I stayed home with the girls since our usual babysitters (ie Kris' parents) were also involved with the rehearsal dinner. Kris was in the wedding, so she was busy most of the day Saturday with hair and makeup. I got the girls ready and took them over to Jen and Steve's house who were incredibly kind enough to watch the girls for the night, while I headed down to the wedding myself. This was the girls' first real sleep over, and who better to have one with than their best pal Grace! We were nervous about leaving the girls with them, since they've never stayed with anyone other than us or Grammy/Papa, but they did fine!

Kris and I had a blast at the wedding, and it was nice to see everybody. We partied well into the night, and went to sleep at the hotel. We got up and picked up the girls the next morning. We were happy to see the girls, and they were happy to see us!

The next weekend, we drove down to NY for the weekend to partake in the festivities surrounding Niral and Liz's engagement. Since they live out in California, they had never had a chance to perform the ceremony, so they opted to do it a week before the wedding, since they'd be in town. This was our first really long drive with the girls really potty trained. That meant frequent stops, which resulted in a very long car ride. Once we got to my parents house, we relaxed and chatted with the rest of my family that was visiting for the big wedding. Some of my aunts/uncles from India were there. It was nice to see them, as well as my cousins and other aunts/uncles that continued to show up during the week.

While the ceremony was really nice and fun, the girls were very shy the entire weekend, and clung to us most of the time. I think the sheer number of people at the house for the weekend just freaked them out a little. That trepidation didn't subside the following weekend, either, when we drove back to NY for the actual wedding. Since I was in the wedding this time, Kris had to handle the girls herself while I did what I needed to do. The girls basically latched on to Kris and wouldn't leave her side for a second. They were very well behaved during the wedding ceremony, though... Kath was even smiling and waving at my brother at one point, which was cute. The ceremony itself was just wonderful. They had a Reverend who specialized in inter-faith marriages who basically blended a lot of the Chrisitan and Hindu traditions/cultures for what amounted to a really great ceremony. It was very unique, and I think it went very well. We lasted another couple hours maybe, before we had to leave the wedding because the girls were just not cooperating. There were just too many unknown faces for them to handle. So we wished my brother and new sister-in-law well, and headed to the hotel for the night and put the girls to sleep.

Somewhere between Dave and Niral's wedding weekends, Kris started a 4-week dance/gymnastics class session with the girls. Kris showed up to the first class and found out that parents aren't allowed in the room with the kids. Parents are supposed to go to another room and watch the class from video monitors. While Kris tried to get the girls into the room without her, it was definitely not working. I think had we known parents weren't allowed in there, we wouldn't have even signed up for it. So unfortunately, Kris had to just leave. She ended up being able to transfer the girls to a "Mommy and Me" class instead, in which parents are allowed to be with the kids. So she finished out the remaining three weeks doing that instead. The girls really enjoyed that. The class included some dancing in the dance studio and play/gymnastics in the play room. We are planning to enroll them in an 8 week session with the same teacher (who they loved) starting in Sept.

The girls are clearly in a phase right now where they're very weary around strangers. They even tend to get that way around people they do know, if there are others who they don't know also around. Hopefully they grow out of that very soon, because it makes it difficult for us to do anything, if they're always clinging to us wherever we go.

The girls are also developing fears now, and really learning what it means to be scared. Kath is now afraid of the dark in her bedroom. It got to the point last night, where I had to put a night light in the room. Her fear has been growing bit by bit over the past couple weeks, and now it's reached an apex. The night light seems to have made her happy for now.

They're kids, and these are phases that we expected them to go through. It's just interesting the things that come up out of the blue. As parents, you're constantly being thrown curve balls... it really keeps you on your toes. Logically, you wonder... well, you've been sleeping in your bed like this for two and a half years, without any problems... why now, are you afraid of something? Or, you've been fine around other people for so long, but why now do you get freaked out? These are just phases that we have to support the girls through, and I'm sure they'll come out on the other side soon enough.

In other news, this weekend was Kris' annual trip to Hampton Beach with her college friends, so I was with the girls myself all weekend. Yesterday, we were having a fine time on the deck with the girls' little kiddie pool. The girls were running around on the deck having a hoot, when all of a sudden Kath starts screaming and saying she has a boo boo on her foot. I pick her up and see two very nasty splinters in her foot (pictured right). These weren't splinters, even, they were small spears of wood! I've never seen anything like that before! I, myself, have never gotten anything like that! I calmed Kath down and was able to get the one in her toe out myself, but the one that was in the bottom of her foot was going to require assistance. Unfortunately, I had to have Kris drive back (luckily Hampton Beach is only about a half hour away) to help me get it out. It was a doozy, and we made Kath scream bloody murder, but we were able to get it out. She was fine as soon as we were done poking and prodding her with a safety pin and tweezer. Poor girl...

Alright, I've rambled on long enough for this post... I will leave you with a couple videos for your viewing pleasure.

Fun on the swings

The Great Jump

[July Photos]
[Niral & Liz Engagement Party Photos]
[Niral & Liz's Wedding Photos]

May Update

nospam@example.com (Biren) — Sun, 13 Jun 2010 23:01:00 -0600

Well, as you've all probably noticed, I've been posting a little less than usual... I think I'm gonna start posting photos on a monthly basis, mostly because we're just not taking as many photos as we used to, so no point putting up ten photos a week, or something. So below you'll find a link to all the photos taken in May (and yes, I know I'm almost halfway into June haha).

We had a pretty good May... we had brunch with Mickey/Minnie, we hosted a Cinco De Mayo party, we visited Sesame Place, and Dada/Dida came to visit the girls, at which point we also celebrated Dida's birthday. At the very end of May, the girls even snuck in their first trip of the season to the pool at Grammy and Papa's house. The girls have been up to all kinds of shenanigans, some of which is evidenced in the video below.

May also happens to be the month we started potty training the girls... and by we, I mean mostly Kris. Kris has been doing an amazing job really getting the girls to use the potty... Since they're just learning, they've absolutely had many accidents, but they're becoming less frequent. The girls are actually doing pretty well with it, and I am very anxiously looking forward to the day we are DONE with diapers. It's only been a few weeks of training so far, so we have a little ways to go before the girls will be total pros, but we're headed in the right direction. Exciting times

For anyone interested in how we're doing it, we bought two Baby Bjorn potties for the girls, and we offer them a treat for every successful trip to the potty. A treat being a little bite sized Snicker's or Kit Kat. We had tried to do it with stickers before, and while they always wanted the stickers, it was nowhere near the motivation a little candy is... they really look forward to that piece of candy (imagine that), so it's been working pretty well.

We're also teaching them to wipe, throw the toilet paper into the toilet, and flush. They love flushing the toilet, so the whole process is going very well. Karina even had her first poop on the potty on Friday! They're basically in undies all day except during naps and sleeping at night... and also if we go out, we don't want any accidents while in a store or something.

Alright, those are the major updates... I leave you with the aforementioned video of shenanigans...

Somersaults and Other Madness

[May 2010 Photos]

Cinco De Mayo

nospam@example.com (Biren) — Tue, 04 May 2010 21:59:00 -0600

This past Saturday, Kris and I decided to kick off the summer with a Cinco de Mayo themed cookout. We had a fantastic turnout! So many friends, and so many kids of all ages to partake in the fun. We even had a pinata for the kids to take turns whacking. Ultimately, as you can imagine, it was the older kids that took care of it, allowing everyone to fight for the candy guts. The girls and the other younger kids still had fun hitting it with a stick. Most of the party was spent outside by the swing set, since it was such a beautiful day. Everything went really great, and we had a blast hosting the shindig. We got to see a lot of people we hadn't seen in quite a while, so it was really nice. All of the kids seemed to have a really fun time too, which was great!

Thanks to Eleanor, I have a TON of photos from the party. Please click the link below to see them all! But before you get to that, I will leave you with a video of the girls playing with their Stand N Spin, er Sit N Spin...

Stand N Spin

Cinco De Mayo Party Photos
End of April Photos

Easter

nospam@example.com (Biren) — Sun, 04 Apr 2010 22:38:00 -0600

It was an eggciting (hehehe) Easter weekend. Although, this post starts earlier in the week, when we let the girls decorate some Easter eggs. We were going to let the girls actually color the eggs, but then thought better of that plan last minute. Instead Kris and I colored the eggs, and when they dried, we let the girls put stickers on 'em and decorate them. They had a great time playing around. I would say the eggs lasted about 20-25 minutes before they were all broken haha!

Yesterday, we had a visit from the Mankad family (close family friends of mine, who I consider actual family) all the way from Pennsylvania. It was the first time Aroon mama, Geeta mami, and Rahul visited our house, so it was great to have them over and see the place. Hiral came as well along with Manisha. Her husband, Mehool, had just flown to Japan for work that morning, so he wasn't able to come. The girls had a really great time playing with Manisha (she's about a year older than the girls). It was such a beautiful day, we spent a lot of our time outside playing aroung the swing set too! It was a great visit, and we all had a lot of fun.

Late last night, Kris and I put together 24 little plastic eggs with little treats inside each of them, and hid them around the great room for the girls' first ever Easter Egg hunt this morning. We couldn't wait to get the girls in the morning for the hunt. Kris had also put together two Easter baskets filled with goodies for the girls that they got first thing this morning. They got some stuffed chicks, chocolates, a slinky, sparkly socks and some other random stuff. Needless to say, breakfast this morning started off with chocolate. We had to bribe them with the idea of the egg hunt to get them to finish their breakfast. Once they ate enough, we let them loose in the great room in search of all the eggs. They were fast! They zoomed around the whole room in search of more and more chocolate. Every time they found an egg, they tried to open the chocolate that was in it to eat it. We had to stop 'em after a couple, cause we didn't want them eating THAT many pieces of chocolate. So the girls collected all the eggs and treats and put them in a basket that they can see on the mantle. And we'll give 'em a little over time. All in all, it went great, and the girls had a fantastic time! It'll be even more fun next year when we can get even more creative with the hiding part, since they'll be older and even smarter.

Early afternoon, Grammy, Papa, and Uncle Dave came by to give the girls some more Easter gifts. We all hung out outside for a while, as the girls played on the swing set, since we had yet another fantastic day, weather-wise. Then we had a nice lunch out on the deck. All in all, it was a great Easter Sunday and we were all pooped by day's end.

Finally, I will leave you with a funny video of the girls "playing" Ring Around the Rosie.

Ring Around The Rosie [March 31, 2010]

[The Mankads Visit]
[Easter Eggs]
[Easter Egg Hunt]

Night Terrors, Stomach Bugs, and "Big Girl Beds"

nospam@example.com (Biren) — Sun, 21 Feb 2010 22:19:00 -0700

So much to talk about!! I'll get right to it... lately, Karina has been waking up with night terrors. The first couple times, we just thought she woke up screaming/crying for no real reason, maybe a nightmare or something, but when we got her and picked her up she was really unresponsive to our efforts to comfort her. She almost seemed like she was having a seizure, with erratic, seemingly uncontrolled arm movements. She just wouldn't stop screaming, and definitely seemed out of it, even though her eyes were open and she was looking around. After this happened twice, we looked into it a little, and we realized that she was having night terrors. I guess it can be pretty common for kids at this age. It's a really upsetting thing to watch your child scream in such pain and anguish, and not be able to do anything to help her. When kids have night terrors, you're supposed to just sit next to them and make sure they don't hurt themselves and let the night terror pass on its own. Picking them up or talking to them is supposed to be a bad thing that actually makes the experience even worse for the poor kid. So we've been trying that, and after about 10-15 minutes, it does usually pass, and she's ok again... Most of the times, we're pretty certain it's triggered by a lack of nap during the day or if she just didn't sleep very well during her nap.

A few weeks ago, right before these night terrors occurred, Karina woke up screaming one night and we did as we usually do and let her cry without going into the room, because 90% of the times she's woken up like that, she goes back to sleep on her own within 5 minutes. After about 5 minutes passed, and we were just about to go get her, she stopped and went back to sleep. Kris thought, maybe I should go in there and at least wipe her face, because it's probably soaked in tears and what not... I told her, just leave her, she just fell back asleep and you'll end up waking her. Kris decided to go in anyway, and thank goodness! Karina had thrown up everywhere! Poor girl had vomited and was then laying in it! Turns out she caught that stomach bug that has been going around up here lately. We cleaned her up, changed sheets and put her back to bed... a couple of days later, Kris started to not feel so great... then later that night, I wasn't feeling so great. Long story short, both Kris and I got knocked out really good by the stomach bug. Luckily, most of our woes occurred after the girls were in bed for the night.

Alright, enough "bad" stories. For the first time since the girls have been born, we've finally booked ourselves a real vacation. We've taken short trips here and there, but never one that required an airplane. In a couple months, we are going down to Florida for a week! Grammy and Papa have a condo down there right near the beach, so we'll stay there. It's close enough to Orlando, so we're thinking we'll take a day trip to Disney World one day. I'm sure the girls will love that. We're very excited about the trip, but also very nervous about how the flight is going to go. Hopefully the girls will love it, and do great. We're flying JetBlue, so at least we'll have the TV screens for them to watch if all else fails haha!

In order for that trip to be a success, the girls are going to have to learn to sleep on real beds. They're way too big for Pack N' Plays now, and there are no cribs at the condo. There are, however, two twin beds that they'll use. So, in an effort to start training them now, we decided to pull the fronts of their cribs off last night. I did install a bed rail, though, so they don't fall out of bed in the middle of the night. They really like to curl up right against the edges of the crib. But the bed rail still allows them to get in and out of bed on their own. To keep an eye on them during this training period, I also installed a night vision camera in the room, so we can see if they're actually sleeping, or if they got out of bed to play with their toys. They did pretty well their first night. Reeny stayed in her bed, but Kath got out a couple times to walk around, and even climbed into Reeny's bed at one point. After about 5 or 10 minutes, though, she had gone back to her own bed, and went to sleep. Success!! Naptime today, however, didn't actually include any napping. They refused to stay in their beds. As we watched them on the camera, I would yell to tell them to get back into their beds, and they would... but then not even a minute later, they'd be out again. We were afraid of this... the shades in the room don't really darken it that much, so it's usually fairly bright in the room during naptime. So that doesn't help. At least at night, it's dark in there, and they know they should be sleeping. It might take us a week or two (hopefully no longer) to get them properly napping in there, without getting out of their bed to play. Even tonight, Kath got out of bed at one point, but we yelled up and told her to go back into her bed and she did... and then they both went to sleep. So it seems they'll do just fine at nights... it's the daytime nap we have to figure out. It's only been one day, so hopefully it'll get better.

Earlier today Randy, Julie, and Max came over for a playdate. We also planned to go out for lunch together, as they had a gift card they wanted to use for a restaurant that just happened to be in our neck of the woods. The girls had a really great time playing with Max, as they hadn't seen him since their birthday party. Max seemed to have a fantastic time, and really loved the big slide we have in our great room. Lunch went really well too. It was nice to hang out with them, as it had been a few months since we all got together.

Finally, I leave you with a video of the girls singing their ABCs. They've been able to do this for a while now, but I've been incredibly lazy with the camcorder of late. I keep saying "I gotta get that on video", and then just never do. They're really good at singing the Itsy Bitsy Spider too... so one of these days, I'll get that one taped Anyway, here's the ABCs... and listen for Karina's funny "break" in the video

Singing the ABCs

[February 4 -21, 2010 Photos]

January 2010

nospam@example.com (Biren) — Sun, 31 Jan 2010 21:48:00 -0700

It's been a few weeks since I've posted anything! Not even because I've been too busy... There just hasn't been much going on worthy of talking about. It's been pretty low key for the past few weeks. The girls are certainly getting smarter and funnier by the day (as evidenced by the latest batch of photos)... I would have to write a novel if I were to sit down and right every little funny thing they did... I'll let the photos give you a small idea of what they've been up to.

We've been rotating through a little sickness as well. First Kris was sick for a few days, then I got a little sick... and now it's been the girls for the past few days, although they're mostly over it. None of us ever really got a fever or anything, just a cold. The runny noses, as usual, have been annoying to deal with given the high grossness factor. They should be over them fully in another day or two, I would think.

Not many fun stories to recount for this post, but I will tell you that recently Kris let the girls finger paint for the first time, which was interesting. The girls had fun with it and created a masterpiece That's about it for now, but enjoy the photos at the link below. Also, here's a quick video of Karina making this weird high pitched noise. She thought it was hilarious that she could make that noise. Also, that is definitely Karina making the noise, even when it sounds like something or someone else might be.

Karina's a Banshee

[Weeks 111-113 Photos]

Mary and Ian visit

nospam@example.com (Biren) — Sun, 10 Jan 2010 22:00:00 -0700

Not really much to talk about this week... Only reason I'm even posting is because I have a new video to post... but before I get to that, I will mention that Kristen's good friend Mary visited today with her son Ian. Last time I saw Ian, he was so little... he had just been born not too long before. Now he's almost a year old and so much bigger! Mary was wondering whether he'd venture from her side and play with the girls, and he absolutely did. The girls really had a great time playing with him.

Yesterday, Kris had the brilliant idea to setup the ball pit in front of the slide, so when the girls go down the slide, they fly through the doors and into a pile of balls. The girls had a blast doing that and probably were at it for a good hour! Some of the footage below...

Slide + Ball Pit

[Week 110 Photos]

Birthday Party!

nospam@example.com (Biren) — Sun, 06 Dec 2009 22:54:00 -0700

This was a pretty crazy week, but mostly due to the girls' birthday bash we threw yesterday! We spent a lot of the week shopping, prepping, and cleaning to make sure the girls' big second birthday party was the best it could be. And for the most part, the party went great! The girls went the day without a nap, which was the part we were dreading because we weren't sure if that would end up being disastrous or if it wasn't going to matter. In the end, it didn't end up being too much of a problem. There were times when the girls' were clearly tired, but they got their second and third winds and easily made it to the end of the night.

Unfortunately, it seems whenever the girls go an entire day without a nap they end up waking up in the middle of the night crying. The girls were up from about 11:30pm through 1:30am on and off. Poor girls must've been sooooo overtired, their bodies just didn't know what to do. After about 1:30, they were fine and slept through the night. It seems odd to me that they can fall asleep just fine after a long day like that, and then a couple hours after having been asleep, they can just wake up like that. It's happened enough now, though, that we definitely need to plan for it in the future. No-nap days should be avoided as much as possible

The party itself was Sesame Street themed, as the girls love their Sesame characters, especially Elmo and Abby Cadabby. We had a bunch of Sesame decorations on the walls, and even got them Sesame cakes. They absolutely loved all of the decorations, and I have a feeling they're gonna be on the walls for many more weeks haha! We had a couple cancellations due to sickness, which was unfortunate, but all in all we had a great turnout and the girls had a blast playing with everyone. Thanks to everyone that came and many more thanks for all the thoughtful gifts. A special "shout out" to Eleanor for being my photographer at certain points... thanks for that El!

My dad, Dada to the girls, was able to make the trip from NY for the weekend to enjoy the shindig and spend some time with the girls. My mom, aka Dida, was unable to come as she is many many miles away in India right now As would be the case for any grandfather, my dad was very happy to be here for the weekend to see and play with the twins.

In non-party news, we attempted to take the girls to their first professional photo shoot this week. Unfortunately, I think we scheduled it for a bad time. It was an evening appointment, and apparently they were a little short-handed that night... so they were running very late, and it seemed like things were kinda rushed as far as the actual photo shoot was concerned. Neither of the girls cried or anything, but between the two of them, Kath was the better "listener". Karina had a hard time staying still and staying put in the spot she was told to... While the pictures didn't come out horrible, we feel they could've been better. We're currently contemplating whether to keep the order, or cancel them and try again elsewhere, maybe not in the evenings, but sometime during the day when it might not be as busy.

That's about it for the week as far as worthwhile news goes... To wrap things up, I'll leave you with a few short videos I took with my phone this week. The first one is of Kath trying to tell me what's on her shirt.

"Kowawa"

This next one is a real quickie of Kath getting ready for her big party...

Ready to party

Finally, this one shows the girls playing a new game Kath came up with where you say "ready? ready? ready?" and then throw yourself at the couch. C'mon everyone, it's a lot of fun! Play at home!

Ready?

[Week 105 Photos]
[Birthday Party Photos]

Thanksgiving and Music

nospam@example.com (Biren) — Sun, 29 Nov 2009 22:52:00 -0700

A couple weeks ago, Kris' friend and former boss Glen visited along with his husband, Dave. It had been a very long time since they had seen the girls, so it was a long overdue visit. I was at work while they were here, so I didn't get to see them, but I wasn't the main attraction anyway... the girls were, of course! The girls had a great time and so did Glen and Dave.

The girls are really into music now. They will often start dancing when they hear a random song, even from a commercial on TV. Here's a list of some of their favorite songs right now:

The theme for Sunday Night Football, as performed by Faith Hill - Kath especially likes this one, for some reason, and often asks for more before the song is even over!
The theme for Between the Lions - Another one of Kath's favorites. She likes to dance to this one with Kris
Party in the USA (Miley Cyrus) - Reeny throws her hands up in the air when she hears this one and says "put your hands up".
Pat-a-Cake - Both girls like singing this one at random times. You'll often hear "pat-a-cake baker's man"... "roll it"... "pat it"...
ABC Song - Both girls like to sing the ABC song pretty often. Reeny especially is really good at doing the Q-R-S part through to Z. She basically will do A-B-C-D, and then shoot up to Q-R-S haha! Impressive, nonetheless!
Dance in Smarty Pants (Between the Lions) - This is a funny/cute song/video that's shown during Between the Lions that the girls love. They always do the "oooh ahh" part... but instead of singing "dance in smarty pants", they always sing "eminem-mum-mo". No idea how you get that string of sounds from "dance in smarty pants", but in this househould, that is now the official lyric.
Rock-a-bye Baby - Reeny loves to do rock-a-bye baby, and will often replace the word baby with whatever it is she has in her hands and is rocking. So if she has her stuffed Santa, it becomes "rock-a-bye santa" while she rocks him in her arms. She usually also follows with the "on the treetop" lyrics as well.
1234 (Feist, Sesame Street edition) - Lately the girls love the version of 1234 Feist did on Sesame Street. They watch the video all the time, and always sing the "1234" part, especially Kath.
Moon, Moon, Moon (Laurie Berkner Band) - Karina absolutely loves the moon, and therefore loves the Moon, Moon, Moon song from her Laurie Berkner Video. She usually does the "Moon, Moon, Moon... I can see" part of the song... along with the hand motions.
I Gotta Feeling (Black Eyed Peas) - Kath likes to go "woo hoo" when you sing "I gotta feeling". She also likes to sing the part where they go "...and do it. and do it." Here's a video of them watching the video for this song and kinda getting into it. Unfortunately, they're not singing any of it in this video.

I Gotta Feeling

As we all know, this past Thursday was Thanksgiving and we spent most of the day with Grammy and Grampa at their house watching football, playing with the girls, and enjoying a huge and delicious dinner. After dinner, we headed over to Kris' Auntie Kathy and Uncle Jimmy's house for desserts. Most of the Marino clan was there, so it was nice to see everyone. Unfortunately, we did not get to see my parents this holiday weekend as my mom has flown to India and my dad was busy working for a lot of the long weekend.

The rest of the long weekend was spent finishing up yardwork for the season (getting rid of leaves and giving the lawn a final mowing) and putting up Christmas decorations! This year, Kris and I finally got a nice big tree to put up as opposed to our usual "Charlie Brown tree" that we've used for many years. Friday afternoon, I spent about three and a half minutes decorating the tree (how'd I do it so fast you ask? Watch the video below and find out!) and earlier today I spent the afternoon putting up lights on the outside of the house. It's starting to feel very festive around here! I love it!

Christmas Tree 2009

Finally, I will leave you with one last video showcasing our li'l goobers having some fun on the slide that is a part of the Neighborhood Fun Center they got for their birthday (yes, as an early gift).

Slide Antics

[Thanksgiving Photos]
[Weeks 103-104 Photos]

Week 102

nospam@example.com (Biren) — Sun, 15 Nov 2009 16:53:16 -0700

Not too much to report on this week, but there were a couple of fun things that happened. First, this past Friday my friend Dean came over to help me install a new lightpost at the end of my driveway. We have a long curving driveway that's annoying to back out of at night, so I thought adding a lightpost at the end of the driveway might help with the visibility. Now when I say Dean "helped" me, what I mean is Dean masterminded the whole operation, while I helped him. He's amazingly handy and a great friend to come install that thing with me. On top of that, I had to leave the house later that evening (more on that shortly), and we weren't quite done yet... The fantastic friend that he is, he insisted on staying and finishing it up while I went out. Unbelievable! After we got back, we had a brand new light shining bright at the end of the driveway. He did a fantastic job wrapping up the job while I was out! Thanks again Dean, you really are the best!

Now where was it that I had to run off to while poor Dean stayed behind to work on MY project? Well, it was Grammy and Grampa's anniversary! We had had plans for a while now to go to dinner with them, Dave, and Leah. We went to one of my most favorite restaurants, Tokyo Japanese Steakhouse. The girls love it there (they love all the fire tricks the chefs do on the grill) and the food is fantastic. Everyone had a great time at dinner, especially Grammy and Grampa! Happy Anniversary Bob and Marsha!

Finally, we gave the girls their big birthday gift a little early. We wanted to get them something big and fun for their second birthday. Last year, they got the Kangaroo Climber which they have played with and continue to play with to no end. We wanted to top that gift somehow. We found the Neighborhood Fun Center and decided we had to have it. It's pretty big, but we decided that the girls needed to have it! Since it was a large purchase (physically) and had to be delivered by a trucking company, we wanted to get it ordered sooner rather than later and not risk it arriving after the girls' birthday. Well, it arrived this week... Instead of letting it sit in the garage for another couple weeks, we decided to just put it together and let the girls enjoy it early! They absolutely LOVE the thing! The bigger slide is a huge hit. They've been sliding down that thing non-stop! Sure, it's a little big in our great room, but who cares. We have room for it, and the girls love it

Here are a couple videos of the girls playing with their new birthday gift...

Playing in the Neighborhood Fun Center

Neighborhood Fun Center Slide

[Week 102 Photos]

Week 98

nospam@example.com (Biren) — Sun, 18 Oct 2009 22:12:00 -0600

Monday was a holiday for me, not to mention the final day of my "staycation". We used part of the day to carve one of the pumpkins we had gotten from pumpkin picking the previous week. The girls sat in their high chairs eating dinner while they watched me carve it. Thanks to some movie magic, you too can sit in your high chair and watch me carve the pumpkin. So grab a high chair, sit back, relax... and watch me carve a pumpkin

Pumpkin Carving

Thursday, my brother-in-law Dave came over with his fiancee Leah, to just hang out and visit the kids. The girls enjoyed their visit very much, as they happily played the night away with them. They even brought the girls a couple of fun light-up headbands with pumpkins and bats on them. The girls totally loved them as they're very fascinated with pumpkins and headbands. Yes, they really are fascinated by headbands haha!

Yesterday, we decided to take the girls out to a japanese restaurant so they can try some sushi. We just got them some avocado sushi. It was funny to watch them trying to eat it. They kinda ended up unwrapping the roll and eating the rice and avocado on the inside and leaving the seaweed. I think the seaweed was just too hard for them to bite through. They also ate a TON of edamame. They LOVE edamame, and we give it to them at home a lot too. They like it as much as candy I think! haha! Good thing, I suppose, since it's also very healthy.

Finally, being that it is the Indian New Year, we would like to take this opportunity to wish everyone a very Happy Diwali and a prosperous New Year!

[Week 98 Photos]

Week 97

nospam@example.com (Biren) — Sun, 11 Oct 2009 22:21:00 -0600

So while I recently forgot to publish a post and it looked like I forgot a week, last week I purposely didn't post anything. There just wasn't much to talk about, and there were only a few photos... I figured after 90+ straight weeks of blogging, I could take a week off

I decided to take this past week off from work so I could take care of a bunch of things around the house, and spend some extra quality time with my three ladies. This past Thursday, we took the girls to the Cedardale indoor play center, where they have a fun play area for kids. We took them there in January or February earlier this year but now that they're older we thought it might be fun to go back. Papa met us there for extra help. Turns out, we went at the perfect time, because the ENTIRE place was empty. We were the only ones there for a while, and even then only two other kids showed up! So the girls had the place pretty much to themselves. They had a fun time running around the place, playing with all the toys, etc.

Yesterday, we took the girls to a local farm for some pumpkin picking. Karina is absolutely obsessed with 'punkins'. We've put up a few pumpkin decorations in the house, as well as given the girls a few of those mini pumpkins. Everywhere we go, if there are any pumpkins, Karina won't stop saying "punkin! punkin! punkin!"... she'll even start crying sometimes, after they're no longer in view. So we figured, perhaps it's time we took the girls pumpkin picking. They had a fun time running around the pumpkin patch. Ultimately, we picked out two pumpkins to bring home. We are planning on carving one tomorrow, the other we put outside for decoration. It's been quite a while since I've carved a pumpkin, so we'll see how I do haha!

Earlier this week, we also did a little shopping and bought the girls' halloween costumes. We're excited, because they're old enough this year for us to go to a few houses with them on our street for some trick or treating. Kris got them their own little pumpkin baskets for the candy too! But you'll have to wait and see what costumes we got for them

Developmentally, the girls are doing some great new things. They're both incredibly verbal at this point, but Karina is taking it a step further and putting together some three and four word sentences. For example, the other day Kris was feeding them in their high chairs and I was walking towards them, and Karina said, clear as day, "I see daddy coming". Kris and I looked at each other with this look of amazement. I was so impressed! Kath is impressing us every day with how well she's able to put on articles of clothing. She's an absolute pro at putting on her slippers and socks by herself. She tries to put on her own pants all the time too, but half the times she ends up putting both legs in one pant leg, but we're impressed with it nonetheless. Today, she got her onesie on but without her arms through the arms.

Finally, here are a couple short impromptu videos I took with my phone earlier today. There was some wackiness goin' on

Kath sits on Karina

Kath rides Karina like a horse

[Pumpkin Picking Photos]
[Cedardale Photos]
[Weeks 96 & 97 Photos]

Week 92

nospam@example.com (Biren) — Mon, 07 Sep 2009 16:41:00 -0600

This week really flew by at an amazing pace. I was really busy at work this past week, working late hours. On Thursday, I was graced with the presence of my three girls, as they met me for lunch near my work. It wasn't anything extravagant, just a trip to Panera Bread, but it was really nice to see them for lunch. We're not sure why we didn't start doing this sooner, but we're thinking maybe we'll get together for lunch every other week or so, for fun. I'm all for it

Saturday, we took the girls over to Will and Corri's place for a cookout. There were a couple other babies there that day, Juliette (Sean and Amanda's daughter) and Charlotte (the daughter of one of Will and Corri's friends). The girls had a great time playing with them, and running around the yard. Later in the evening, we started a firepit, which the girls were fascinated by. Kath kept saying "hot hot", and didn't really go near it. Karina, on the other hand kept trying to go near it, while also saying "hot hot". I definitely didn't want her to learn the hard way that fire will hurt.

Yesterday was Leah's (Kris' brother Dave's fiance) 30th birthday, and Dave threw a big party at their house. So, Grammy and Grampa were nice enough to come over and watch the girls for us while we headed over to Dave and Leah's place for the shindig. We had a great time and the weather was perfect!

Finally, here's a short video of the girls practicing their tumbling...

The Tumblers

[Week 92 Photos]
[Will & Corri's Cookout Photos]

Week 91

nospam@example.com (Biren) — Sun, 30 Aug 2009 22:10:00 -0600

Pretty uneventful week as far as the girls are concerned... but we had a little bit of a scare with Homer this week. He's had this little reddish lump on his front leg for a couple weeks and at first we didn't think much of it, figuring he probably just hurt himself while running around in the backyard. Since it still hadn't gone away earlier this week, we thought we better get it checked out, especially since he started licking and chewing at it more (causing it to bleed a couple times). Kris took him to the vet and it turned out it was a tumor. He had just turned one earlier this month, so we were very surprised that he had a tumor, let alone a potentially cancerous tumor. It was an anxious couple days as we waited for the lab results to come back, but thankfully the tumor is benign. Poor guy was wearing a lampshade for a couple days to keep him from chewing on it. Since it's benign, the vet told us it would eventually go away on its own. Let's hope it goes away quick!

This morning, I went into the girls' room to get them, change them, and bring them down. As I was getting a couple new diapers, Kath hit the button on this Minnie Mouse Radio they have, and it started playing a tune. Immediately, Reeny looked at me and said "row row boat"... and sure enough, the song that was playing was Row, Row, Row Your Boat. I was really impressed!! The radio plays music only, no words. So I thought it was exceptionally cool that she recognized the song!

The girls keep blowing my mind with these kinds of things on a daily basis. They're picking up new stuff at an incredibly quick pace, it's just amazing. We're pretty sure Karina has entered the phase known as "the terrible twos", despite not being two yet. If you take something away from her (something she shouldn't have, but she wants), she now gets mad and actually hits you. She'll then cry and scream and run away. She loves to just look at you as she does things she knows she's not supposed to be doing. She stares at you with this sinful grin on her face as you tell her not to do something, and she continues to do it anyway. Kath can throw her tantrums too, from time to time, but in general she seems to listen more often when told not to do something. Don't get me wrong, none of these things are horribly out of control or anything, but we're seeing more and more of it. Karina does say "sawwy" when she knows you're upset with her, so that's good. At least she's learning to say sorry.

Earlier today, Kristen's former boss Rick and his wife Trish came over for a cookout and to meet the girls. It was such a beautiful day today we sat on the deck the whole time. I had never met Rick before, so it was nice to meet him, and his wife.

In the almost 21 months the girls have been alive, I have never had a week where we had NO pictures. Folks, that streak has come to an end. After 90 weeks of photos, unfortunately, somehow not ONE photo was taken this past week. To make up for it, I have a couple videos to share with you. The first one showcases the girls' love for grapes, while the second one shows Karina with her shoebag. What's a shoebag? Watch, and find out.

We Love Grapes

Karina's Shoebag

Week 87

nospam@example.com (Biren) — Sun, 02 Aug 2009 22:03:00 -0600

Well, this was a rough week. The entire Shah clan has fallen ill this week, one by one. Reeny started us off on Monday... By Wednesday, Kath was sick... Wednesday evening, I got sick... and then Friday morning, Kris woke up not feeling so good. The noses have been running all week. Unfortunately, this weekend (today and tomorrow, actually) we were supposed to go to the Cape with our friends Jen/Al and Randy/Julie along with all the kids. Jen/Al have a family home up there, and it was going to be a nice relaxing weekend at the beach. We had to cancel due to all the sickness. We didn't want to infect the other kids... We're real bummed since we had been planning this trip for a while now. What can you do...

In an effort to do something even though everyone was under the weather, we headed out to the mall yesterday afternoon. There's a big carousel at the mall that we figured we'd ride with the girls. Neither girl would sit on one of the horses, so we had to sit on 'em and put them in our laps. Karina, being the scaredy cat that she is, was not happy at all with the ride. She settled down after a minute or two. Kath had a good time going around on my lap. While at the mall, we decided we would have dinner at Ruby Tuesday. That went pretty well, actually. This whole "eating out" thing is getting easier and easier Finally, we capped the evening with some gelato... Mmmm... Both of the girls enjoy it but Kath is turning into a little piggy - she eats it so fast and never stops asking for more! Lucky for her we're happy to share.

Today, Kris and I didn't wake up feeling the best, but after the day got going we were doing a little better. I ended up taking a nap this afternoon while the girls took theirs, but after we all woke (and the girls ate), we took a trip down to Winnekenni park to get the girls outside for a bit. They ended up loving the park and had a blast! Although, Reeny was none too happy when we put her in a swing. She can be such a scaredy cat, it's crazy. Kath loved the swing, and we had her goin' pretty good on it. Karina eventually settled down, but she didn't like us pushing her too hard.

Since I already have the day off tomorrow (since we were supposed to be at the Cape through tomorrow), we're going to try and take a trip to the Aquarium with the girls, so look for that update next week! In the meantime, check out this video of the girls playing on the Kangaroo Climber...

Kangaroo Climber Playtime

[Week 87 Photos]