Brand Rhea

First two days of my life ...

Mars Vs Venus?

Rhea and I were fooling around with lego blocks today afternoon and had an impromptu design contest.

We built little cars

 

 

 

 

 

Here is mine.

Stark in black and white.

Military-sh.

Macho.

Single seater.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

This is hers. Audacious colors.

Beach buggy.

Centered driver seat. Family car.

And flowers! Flowers on a car where headlamps ought to be !

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Which one would you buy?

Rhea's homage to the great man ...

  

 

 

This is just an unbelievable accurate caricature by a 6 year old. The large ears, the unmistakable beard, the longish face...

Wow!

Rhea notices the oncoming recession ...??

Outside Costco today, Rhea chirped, " Papi, everybody has so little in their carts today ..."

Laugh at this one ...

Rhea asked me, "Papi, why did Clifford sit on Emily Elizabeth's hand and say tic-toc tic-toc?"

While I searched for a nifty reposte, she said, "Because Clifford is a watch dog"

(for those unfamiliar with the characters in this Rhea created joke - atleast that is what she claims - Clifford is a american icon of a dog)

Solve that one ...

For the last few days, Rhea has an acute fear of monsters. She refuses to go upstairs unaccompanied. A curtain swaying in the wind sends her dashing in our direction, eyes wide open.

I sat her down and asked her, "Outside of movies, have you seen any signs of monsters? Outside of books, have you heard of anybody seeing them? If you can't see them and can't hear them, do you think they exist?"

Rhea countered in a split second, "Papi, do you think aliens exist?"

Rhea reads Robinson Crusoe

Rhea devoured the illustrated classic a good 60 pager in a day. Raging fire (and an urge to go to the potty) would not separate her from the book (she toted it with her to the sacred place).

Here is a illustrated diagram of her understanding of the book. Very neat language, though spelling needs some work

(In Robinson Crusoe, Robinson wants to live a life at sea but his mother and father don;t want him to go so Robinson Crusoe runs out of the house when he boards a ship.)

(He was washed on a island. he managed to live on the island for many years then come back come and live happily ever after.)

Then she followed it up with her podcast...

Christmas in three steps

	Chismus by Rhea :)
	Some familis lite cadl (Some families light candles)
	Some famlis give presents (Some families give presents)
	Some familis have fun (Some families have fun)

The last one disturbed me. I asked her, "How come only some families have fun?".

She thought that one through and said, "Papa, I meant a lot of families have fun". Somehow, her mind still knew that not all families have fun....

Have I changed?

An innocuous Gauri comment inspired this 8 hour project.

While my top notch photo organization helped me in a big way, the trick was not to find just another photo (lots of them) or a good Rhea photo (all of them), it was finding a photo that captured the context of her life in that month in that year.

Here I am. The blank cells are a shame on me. If anybody has photos of her for those slots, mail it to me. If you don't have my email id, you wont have her photo either :)

	2002	2003	2004	2005	2006	2007
Jan	Rhea ...4 months old ... 2 of those in US	Purva Park, Bangalore. The house she came back to as a newborn.. Rhea was sick when this photo was taken	The day it snowed in Redmond...	Still in Pune.The perpetual animal lover ...	Snoqualmie: Skiing...	Abu SImbel, Egypt
Feb	Early signs ...	Sammamish house, taken on Sweety's birthday	This is all I caught of her in that month :) Like all kids, Rhea was very difficult to capture on photo.	Space Needle, Seattle, visiting with Momcy	Seattle Aquarium. Spirit accompanying	The Egypt trip photo fatigue sets in . I seem to have taken NO photos for 4 months !
Mar		Rhea used to  love the open space behind the house in Sammamish	Courtesy Mayank during his visit us with his mom (Mrs. Usha Desai) who works with Momcy		Aai's birthday with Abhay in town
Apr	Learned to turn on her stomach ..	Her first Tulip festival	Getting ready to garden. Aai-Baba's first visit to US. She also toured SFO, LA, SD, LV in this month	Getting ready for her first day at La Petite	Sunil's birthday at Winthrop, WA
may	Greenlake Park , starting to sit up	Brat !	Savoy restaurant in  Redmond with Anagha, and Abhay celebrating Prabha maushi and Bhai's wedding anniversary.	Getting the master bedroom in order...	Shaniwarvada. Pune Her third visit to India and her first without Mama	Pratapgad, India Her fourth visit to India, this time again without Mama
Jun	Her first dip in the pool. She did not like it much...	Started to use her tricycle	Farmer's market in Redmond	Anand's place, Sammamish, WA	Mama's new bug	Her first graduation
July	Crater lake, Oregon. Rhea's first road trip. She was not the best of travelers in those days ...	Microsoft Company picnic	A bright summer afternoon on Kirkland waterfront	Helping with the garden in Redmond, WA	The eternal free bird... Crystal Mountain, WA	On the river tail .. Her first cycle fall ..
Aug		Fascinated by "Nemo" at the Seattle Aquarium	Her first complete Lincoln Logs house	Kirkland waterfront, Aai's second trip	Redmond Town Center	Snake museum in Sultan.  Holding a baby python
Sept	At her birthday party...	Yellow Stone National Park	Vancouver, BC, Canada	Butchart Garden, Victoria, BC when Sweety  was here...	Rattlesnake hill hike with Annett and Rick	On the train to Puno, Peru
Oct	Comfortable walker ...	New Redmond house...	Second trip to India. A long one as Gayu was over in India for a 4 month training. Here with Siddhu's football championship	Attitude is everything ... getting ready to leave for Khushi's birthday party	Sahil's party	Amazonia, Peru The piranhas are scared of her ...
Nov	Diwali party at Redmond, Ridge	Even Energizer bunnies sleep... Her first Halloween. Lioness she was ..	Amit's wedding, Pune. Loves festivities and people around her	Getting ready for Thanksgiving dinner at Kelly's	No school today - it snowed in Redmond...
Dec	Vilu Maushi's farmhouse during her first India trip. All she was interested in were the goats and the chicken.	Watching either Ice Age or Nemo with rapt attention. Those were her favorites then	Kolhapur, the very same step of the house her papa sat 22 years ago.	She saw Zoro and was fascinated enough to get  me to handcraft her a mask.  Here she is in full battle regalia ...	Giza, Egypt See the similarity?

Past Haloweens

2003

2006