Attention everyone: We now have a teen in the house!

Thirteen years ago, something magical happened!

Jr. came out and stared at me with those big beady eyes for the very first time.

The nurse said they were all surprised by a few hour old baby looking up at everyone with her eyes wide open. Given San was so overdue, we treated the newborn as a two week old!

That was my 30th birthday present from Sangeetha! 

Today that present has grown to be as tall as me and is funny enough to pose for a recreation selfie. 

We found her "poobie" for this special photo. 

My grandma used to say "eera peen akki, peena perichchaali akkakara madhiri unna ungamma valththurukka".. it loosely translates to "taking a small thing that lice eat in your head and growing it into a lice, then growing a lice into a large rat.. that is how hard it has been for your mom to raise you". I am sure something was lost in the translation there in spite of my best effort.

Relatively speaking Jr. has been an easy kid. She has been healthy and happy and easy going. She always cares about folks around her and holds us very very accountable whenever she gets a chance to do so.

Here's to our big baby!

It does not matter if you turn 13 or 30. Will continue to save that blanket somewhere in the house and if I am still hale and healthy when you turn 30, we can  recreate this picture on your 30th birthday! 

Here is to many more happy birthday's to my little girl who continues to amaze us everyday!

Time to be thankful..

Thanksgiving as a festival always eludes me. The whole Indians-Pilgrims-Turkey-Corn thingy doesn't strike a chord. 

Since getting married though it has been a means to celebrate Sangeetha and my birthday at nice locations as this holiday falls between our two birthdays. 

People tell me "this is a time to say thanks and be thankful for the good things in your life". If there is one thing to be thankful for in this life, it is family!

For the last 16 years we have mostly spent this long weekend with the cousins family at parks, theme or national..

This year was no different. We went to Yosemite Falls for two days. Got to see some wondeful sights, get way more exercise than we bargained for and had some fun times playing board games in a cozy cabin!

The pictures are promising so far..

San turns 29 again today! I am thankful to her parents for their first creation, who gave me a second chance in life and has made a better person out of me than I would have thought possible.

Here's to San, second chances and family!

That special month.. that special day!

November is almost over.

Three birthdays done and one more to go, in this family of all November borns.

First was the little ones birthday, which was celebrated the usual style with a small group of her school friends, sister and cousins at a local "paint your own ceramic" place. She had fun, getting two dresses for her birthday, dressing up, distributing cup cakes etc. We are going to miss this phase soon as our little girl is already eight and has a mind of her own. 

Next was Jr.'s turn. She had a deal. If we skipped a birthday party (which we were not planning to have in the first palce.. we had told her "you get a big party for 10th, then 13th and 16th.. nothing inbetween!") she will get my hand me down iPhone and I get to spend the 200+ bucks to upgrade to a new iPhone. So we ate out at a place of her choice and called it a Happy birthday. There are no birthday photos this year for Jr. ! Here she is, all grown up, at the little one's party. 

My birthday gift to her was a book "Indian Melodies for the Alto Saxophone" which had western notation for most of the entire Carnatic music series with Geethams, Varnams and some Keerthanais. The best part is that the book came with a CD where Kadri Gopalnath performs the lessons on an Alto Sax, so we know what it is supposed to sound like. Jr.' loves it compared to Daddy's hand written notations. We strongly recommend this book for other folks who are learning Saxophone in the Western style trying to do Carnatic music songs. There will be a video of her doing some songs later this week if she works on it. I call her "Nagubaby" in hopes that she will play one of my favorites "Nagumomu" and so far she is givng me the nasty look. 

It was going to be a hit or miss for my birthday as my travel plans were in flux. Last minute we found that I was going to make it back home, just before my birthday. The family was all happy with that news. There is always the plans and reality. Got a massive food poisoning event at the last meal on the trip, that pretty much wiped me out. It was a miracle that I made it back, on a long flight, all weak and throwing up. 

Got out of bed to throw up and saw it was 2AM. Wished myself a happy birthday and went back to sleep. My entire birthday was a blur. Mostly slept through it on a Gatorade and water diet. This is the first time I opened a birthday with throwing up. Well, there is a first time for everything!

The last few days has seen some improvement with bread and yogurt rice becoming part of the diet and so far they have stayed down. It is going to be a long and slow road to recovering from this one as my ability to smell or taste things is gone. 

Even with all this going on, life is not without a lighter side. A few days ago, I felt barely alive and was half asleep fighting my stomach and lying down. It felt like a dream. A small hand reached out into the comforter, pulls out my right thumb, presses it down somewhere and places my hand carefully back in position. When I woke up, realized it was the little one "opening" my iPhone using my thumb print, to play games! Reminded me of the villains in old Tamizh movies who get the dying man's thumb print on a document that wills away his farm!

We are now down to San's birthday which involves "more travel" as part of the birthday gift. Prayers are already in effect for me with family and friends so I recover fast. Someday I will write a book for folks with food allergies as a "travel guide". In the meantime, it is time to go back to sleep and get back to normal! 

Could it be...

The last 5 days saw what was definitely our best National Park trip in recent memory. The family got Daddy Narayanan a L series wide angle lens and a Neutral Density filter kit and volunteered to walk behind for pictures in heat and cold, on dry desert beds to badwater wetlands at the Death Valley National Park.

In the middle of this trip which spanned almost 1600 miles of driving over the five days, an important milestone was reached. Daddy turned 40!

We had a great time driving to and from the park as well as seeing some amazing views. 

When everyone was wishing daddy on his birthday, we happened to be at the sand dunes. 

When daddy Narayanan looked up to catch the dunes he saw an almost unbelievable site. A beautiful woman that very closely resembled his wife was looking down at him with a beatific smile..

"We are in the middle of the desert and it is freaking hot.. Could this be... a mirage?" he thought to himself and clicked away. To his surprise the smile stayed through that day and the next and the next.. and it changed into the stare and frown only after reaching back home and Daddy declared that he had caught a stomach bug! 

Now life is back to normal again.. Daddy is still as immature as ever and the magic day that had such hopes of turning dad into some kind of older mature person having ended, the usual routine continues. 

Death Valley was totally worth the drive and the Cousin family made it all the more exciting! 

Have been hiccuping for 8 hours now with no end in sight. These four photos are the only ones I managed to edit yesterday. The other 3000+ have to wait a few weeks. 

The trail through Golden Canyon, aptly named!

The beautiful Kern river that runs along the freeway 178 on our way to Death Valley..

Darwin falls in the middle of a desert reached after a 1.5 mile hike. Truly spectacular!

Thanks to everyone for wishing me a happy 40th. Your wishes and prayers were definitely answered !

Birthday season is now open

The first few November birthdays are rolling in.. let's count the number of November folks in the immediate family.

Me, my sis and my mom

San and her dad

Jr. and LO

and my parents wedding anniversary falls in the middle of this! 

We just call all over the globe or get calls from all over wishing each other.. It is a festive month.  The kids celebrated on Sunday with as large a group of friends. 

It was great to watch them be happy and in the moment. Also this year their behaviours are noticeably different and you can also see it in their friends. They are all acting more mature for their age and they are so "polite" for a change.

Last year  3/4 friends of Jr. would respond "I know" if you told them "Hi you look really pretty in that dress!". This year it is "Thank you uncle". That is a good thing! The little one's friends still have a few years to go!

Here are some shots from the birthday that will bring back memories when we look at them 10 years from now.

The lipstick was uncalled for.. but my girls would simply not listen to me..

A thoughtful Jr. gets ready to bowl her turn..

 The little one bowled like a pro given her tiny frame!

Notes to self:

1. Never pick places that have dark walls and have ceilings that suck the light out of your flash or pictures for a birthday party. While the kids have fun, the photographer in me is truly tormented. Had to use every bit of my 24 years of Photography experience to get anything out of this place. 

2. Take enough shots of my head in different angles to photoshop next years photos. The rate at which the hair is disappearing.. will need Adobe's help to fix that problem!

 

Think this semblence of a hairstyle will last me another 6 months at this rate. Should send pictures of my head from the last six months to the scientists who study carbon footprints from analyzing colors in satellite images of the earth and predict when certain forests will disappear or when certain glaciers will disappear.. they should be able to provide an accurate timescale for when my hair will disappear!

We had a blast and it was great to see the kids so happy!

In other news, this year I gifted myself a nice present (Camera related of course) to celebrate my big birthday. Made it look like it came from San through Amazon....  Husbands who are desperately trying to get approval for big ticket birthday gifts, try this method! It has better than 50/50 odds of working. She was thinking of getting mad, then she changed her mind, smiled and said "Fine! Be Happy!"

Starting to like 2012 finally.. when it is almost over!

It is time to make the most of what is left...