Fourteen years fly by

Feels like yesterday this girl made me feel different about everything!

when the nurse handed her to me, my whole world changed.. everything started looking different.. like it was being seen through a pink filter! 

She continues to make me realize how wonderful this world is on a day to day basis!

That was her, all of 10 days old, giving me that same challenging look that I was already trained to receive, thanks to her mom!  I knew right then it was going to be 3:1 in the house with San, her mom and Jr. joining in "giving me that look!"... little did I know that it would become 4:1 over time...

My darling is now 14 and two weeks ago Darling 2- the sequel turned 11 ! 

The sequel has had more air time given I started blogging just before she was born. There are a few pictures that never made it before.. thanks to the Sankara Sastri in me, thinking those pictures were not blog worthy.. so here are some photos even the kids have not seen (dug them out of old Memorex CD's in some cases)

 

The sum total of prettiness of the family is a constant is what I used to say.. 

After revisiting that photo from two weeks ago, I stand corrected.. 

The sum total of "prettiness" of the family is increasing.. they are all looking prettier by the day!

Here is to many more years of the kids making me go "awwww"..

The little one and her violin

The little one has been learning the violin for one more year. She has definitely grown in confidence and has improved in spite of not practicing enough (we agree, her teacher agrees and most importantly, she agrees!) 

Here are some photos and a video snippet from the Winter Recital from the Music school.

There was a big surprise at the recital! Haik, who had come to the US to play on Sunday to a sold out concert came to encourage the students. 

Imagine you are warming up in your schools playground and suddenly the gym teacher says "kids, I have a little surprise for you. Usain Bolt happens to be a family friend and he is here to show you how he runs the 100m and will also answer questions on how he trains and anything else you might want to ask him and you can take pictures with him after the recital! " In violin terms, that is what happened !

The kids loved it. They also saw "how easy" it was to play like that if you practice for only 25 years! 

We enjoyed the evening with the little one doing her recital without mistakes and Haik's little cameo. Next year, if she practices well, the little one might be going on to doing more nuanced pieces. We wait with bated breath... 

The girls go sky diving with Varun uncle..

This weekend was interesting. Came back from Asia and was still recovering from food poisoning and jet lag. Sangeetha's baby cousin (not a baby anymore, just like how the Little One is not little anymore!) came to visit us. I decided to make the most of his visit and cheer myself up. This kid was seven I think during our wedding and somehow I still see him as a seven year old. . . as usual I digress.

He came for a weekend visit from Melbourne. So we decided to go take him bowling and then Indoor sky-diving.

He won the bowling by a wide margin and beat everyone in our house. Then came the sky diving..

he did great! He was startled at first but adapted well and went up the wind tunnel! 

but we had some unexpected surprises.

We learned that Jr. is a natural at this!

The little one surprised us as well.. 

Jr. went up the wind tunnel on her second try and that was something to watch! 

They all came out with certificates and coupons for future visits. Something tells me that we will be going there again. The place is 35 minutes away from home and if we can reserve a spot (which was available that morning) it is a good deal.. especially if you have had a rough three days and just want to watch some smiling faces and family members have a great time! 

Have not been in this tunnel in almost nine years! "Damn I looked young once!" was the thought that came to mind after looking at that old post from 2008.. maybe will go again to celebrate 10 year anniversary of first indoor sky-diving experience in January.. and maybe, maybe, will take Sangeetha with me!

At this rate, not sure if I will ever get to post things from the Pittsburgh trip. It is going to be another hectic week.. maybe this weekend... lots of tea, sit outside and blog!