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?
Outside Costco today, Rhea chirped, " Papi, everybody has so little in their carts today ..."
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)
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 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.)
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(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...
| 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....
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 | The Egypt trip photo fatigue sets in . I seem to have taken NO photos for 4 months ! | |
| Mar | 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? |
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