Mirror friends

In our living room, Rohan has a very good friend who looks a lot like him, and appears to live just behind the door to the coat closet. They smile at each other, bounce up and down the same way, finish each others' sentences, and give each other sloppy kisses. They're so much alike, it's sometimes hard to tell which one is Rohan. Here's a video of the two friends having fun.


This past weekend was otherwise a typical summer weekend of parties, playground, beach and pool. Rohan loves swimming in his baby float, in Upper Mystic Lake, ringed by trees and quacked at by ducks. And, tickled by a gaggle of pretty little girls. Unfortunately, we do not have a good photograph of the ladies' man in action, fawned over by the 4- to 7-year-old set.

Rohan begs to be taken to the lake whenever he sees his float now -- we've tried to appease him by setting the float on the lawn and pretending that the grass is water. Now, where to find a bunch of adoring girls?

Big Steps, Little Steps

I know what you may be thinking with a title like that. But let me be upfront about what I do not mean: Rohan hasn't started walking yet. At least without help. As you can see in the picture though, he has started to climb steps. One more reason to keep the door to the cellar closed. He seems pretty confident about going up the stairs, but has some problems going down. At least going down in some sort of control.

After a very busy week for Chandreyee and I at work, it has been a wonderful start to the weekend so far. We grilled some burgers last night and went to the Middlesex Fells today as an early birthday present for me. I wanted to go mountain biking and eat at the Korean BBQ place for my birthday. So we loaded the bike on the car and had the baby backpack so Chandreyee and Rohan could do a little hiking while I was riding. I had a great time zipping along the trails, fire roads, and single-track. I got a bit of a surprise when I called Chandreyee after my ride and found out that she had ditched me and was at home instead of hiking with Rohan. In fact, she said "I am not where you think I am, but the story is more complicated than that. I'm in front of Li and Eunice's house. I'll call you back in 10 minutes." Perplexed, I waited the 10 minutes to find out that our friends were locked out of their house after flying 18 hours back from Hawaii. That was certainly a good enough reason to ditch me and I had an extra 20 minutes of road biking to get home and see the exhausted Kung family patiently waiting for the locksmith guy to come to the house. Luckily it only took the locksmith 30 seconds to open the "new, unpickable" lock on their house. Unfortuneately, those 30 seconds of work were very expensive.

Here is Rohan taking some little steps behind his walker. He just loved pulling himself up on his great grandmother Kay's walker, and he is starting to use this one. At least until he gets distracted and sits down. I've been thinking a lot about grandma Kay and we have all been praying and wishing her well. We are also thinking about Rohan's other great grandmother Dimoni, who has a bit of fever this weekend. Our thoughts and prayers are with both of you and please know that we love you dearly.

Sometimes, I wonder what little Rohan is thinking. Like in the picture below, is he thinking "what am I doing riding a big yellow bug with my mom?" I can hardly wait for him to tell us with his own words what his world is like. We hope to make it a loving and happy one for him.

Thanks for listening,

Mike