What the penguins brought.

For our anniversary, Mike made me a card depicting the changes in our life since May 2008. Cute clip art of a man rubbing a belly of a pregnant woman (ostensibly his partner), and a stork carrying a newborn baby.

No storks have stopped by, but this is the second May in a row that the Pittsburgh Penguins are in the Stanley Cup playoffs. Last May, Rohan was still a small bulge (see photo) on the night we watched the Penguins lose to Detroit.

This May, the Penguins brought Rohan a new tooth, a visit from Dimoni and Dadan, and an exciting trip to the Saugus Iron Works/Rocco's Pizza. Will the Penguins face Detroit again in the finals? Stay tuned... Meanwhile, groove along with Rohan to the musical "octoplush."

First Mother's Day

I wasn't sure what to do for Chandreyee's first Mother's Day. She is a caring, loving, and all-around great mother and wife. I wanted to show her how much she means to Rohan and I and just how much she does for us all the time. I am still living with the rule that for everything new that comes into the house, something of equal volume has to depart it. So instead of buying something, I decided to do as many of the things that Chandreyee does all the time as I could: cleaning, cooking, taking care of Rohan so she could have some free time to garden. Oh, and bake a big chocolate cake from scratch. At first I wanted to have Rohan help me out with the project and make his stamp on the cake. But then I realized that at his age, that's exactly what he would do, stamp on it with his hands, feet, etc. Considering that babies shouldn't have chocolate, what a crime I know but I guess they don't know what they are missing, I had Rohan watch me and play in the kitchen in his exersaucer and with some kitchen implements. I think the cake turned out well and we will finish it up tonight. I really like the frosting. Anyway, we had a really nice and relaxing weekend and got the garden started up.

We also really enjoyed having Chandreyee's cousin Sandip over to the house. After a nice Thai meal, we played with Rohan in the back yard. He still loves his swing (thanks Nana!) and we go out there almost every day. I love that it stays light out until long after I come home.

Rohan gave his mom her gift a bit late (2 days). I guess he had to practice it a bit. Just yesterday, he started to say "mama" and now says it more often than "dada" or "baba". It has really been a lot of fun watching Rohan learn something new and then practice, practice, practice lest he forget it. I can only hope that each new year will be as much fun as this past one has been. I feel very lucky to have such a wonderful family and I am grateful to the mom and son that make every day unique and exciting.



Thanks for listening,

Mike

A shoutout to distant Rohan fans

The great thing about blogs is their ability to bring diverse audiences together.

This post is dedicated to those Rohan fans whom we don't get to speak to personally, at least, not often, such as the devoted staff of Upper Merion Township Library, and Rohan's Krishna-dida, who just got her own computer (yay!).

I hope you'll understand that sometimes Rohan (and his parents) might be too busy learning new tricks, reading new books, and making new sounds, and might not get a chance to visit you in person. We are sincerely sorry for this, and hope that watching little videos like this one might make you part of a day in the life of your friend, Rohan Gage.

dangerous introspection on a Tuesday night

Rohan's preferred way to examine and evaluate is to taste. Whether it is Daddy's watch, my hair, Hansapuppy's ear, or his Octopus shoes, two little teeth and a tongue wreak much havoc with the victims of his oral fixation.

Most tragically, he grabbed my left hand last week and shoved it toward his mouth, attracted by the diamond's sparkle on the ring Mike gave me almost 5 years ago. He cried out in pain, lip bleeding. It was the first drop of Rohan's blood I'd seen since the scalpel nick he'd received at birth.

Later, I took off the diamond ring and put it in the jewelry box, until some ill-defined, "safe" future date, and cried a little more. Though it's temporary, my role as a mother has taken priority over my role as a wife.

Before I write more, I am realizing that none of my blogging parent friends typically moan/groan about the dark sides of life... after all, what gushing grandparent wants to hear about the battles against madness and all too frequent tears? So I will stop by merely noting the poignant contrast between the worlds of blogspot and reality.

Now, back to happy pictures, of fun in the high chair, and "helping" me cook. Picture of Mike above: credit to Dr. C.C-Y. Kung.

Teeth, Spring, Nana, Papa come to Boston

Despite the valiant efforts of relatives to make Rohan into a Pennsylvania boy (with progressively larger Steelers outfits and Nittany Lion shirts), his formative years are sure to mark him as a Beantown native. Most recently, he took his Nana and Papa candlepin bowling (kudos to Mom for her bowling victory) at Sacco's Bowlhaven, a relic of the early 1900s.

Like most of New England's sons and daughters, Rohan will grow up with little wooden balls with no finger holes, no pin resets within frames. He will call this "real" bowling, and he will consider big balls and "duck pins" to be his parents' pastime and therefore démodé.

Nana and Papa brought Rohan a tree swing for our backyard, to mark his first spring. Of course, again, Rohan will grow up thinking that spring starts (in earnest) sometime in May or June. But that doesn't stop his parents from celebrating the end of winter with some old-fashioned swinging and tree-climbing. Forget that the tree does not actually have leaves yet, and that the ground is still pretty bare.

After all, spring technically started at the end of March, in fact, just a few days after Rohan's first teeth appeared. "Now you can eat all kinds of food, going kutush kutush, like a mousie," wrote Rohan's Dimoni, with killing onomatopoeia.

A toothy mouse, and also a mighty mouse -- sitting up by himself now, and rolling all over the place, Rohan today accomplished the Great Escape from his Bumbo seat in order to reach a plastic egg. "Look out, Easter Bunny! Your teeth are nothing compared to mine!"

Greetings from Paradise

Rohan's first vacation in the sunny Florida Keys. We planned our escape from the cold winter of Boston and were on our way. We actually had some trouble finding a spot for our car in the economy lot at Logan airport that wasn't full of snow. Just one more reason to get out of town for a week. We made it through security fine in this direction and Rohan made an uneventful first flight. He slept through most of it and then we relaxed for a day in Fort Lauderdale, taking in the sun and walking along the beach. The drive down to the Keys couldn't have been nicer and this was just a foreshadowing of the week to come (70F nights/80F days the whole week with no rain). Rohan loved the sun and more importantly what that meant for him, fewer clothes.

We tried him out on a swing and slide and he liked those, but he absolutely loved being in the pool. Rohan was kicking away furiously to try and propel himself around the pool. It's a good thing he has been practicing kicking for the past 15 months or so. He loved watching the showboat kids doing funny jumps into the pool for whatever audience would watch them. I guess their parents tired of this long ago. Rohan was also a hit with the major demographic in the area where we stayed: grandmothers. He suffered the cheek pinching and lavish praise well.

Most of our time in Florida was spent doing the normal touristy things like walking along the beach, swimming, visiting the dolphin research center, and just plain relaxing and enjoying the warmth. But for as long as I have known Chandreyee, she has had a penchant for the unusual. One of the scheduled activities was a trip to Key West to go to a pirate museum, an aquarium, and something a bit off the usual track. Chandreyee entered (and won) a conch shell blowing contest. Contestants were judged on length of the note, purity of tone, loudness, and novelty of the blow. Not having a conch of her own, she borrowed one from a guy dressed up as a pirate and this "good conch" was a key to her victory. The winning man blew a song from Frank Sinatra on his conch and the winning group ("the Conchestra" from Boca Chica FL) dressed up as flappers and other wild costumes and performed a rendition of Jimmy Buffet's classic "I don't know where I'm a gonna go when the hurricane blows". It has really been a while since I have seen something so odd. You can see Chandreyee's TV interview on the web if you are so inclined ( fast forward to about minute 20-21 or so to see Chandreyee, the entire conch blowing spot starts at 17'15" if you want more background).


As if that wasn't odd enough, we walked to the Key Colony Beach fair and looked at the baubles that people were selling and they also had a few games of chance including barracuda races where you bet on the winning fish. We were most excited about the funnel cake however. We split one and some arepas and a gyro for lunch. We definitely enjoyed the food while we were on vacation, especially dessert. In our week in Florida, the two of us were able to eat half a chocolate cake, half a pecan pie, 2 pints of Ben and Jerry's ice cream, the funnel cake and two cones of frozen custard. I really need to start biking again to work off all the yummy food.

Another fun this that we did was to rent a fishing pole and try to catch dinner one night. Chandreyee caught her first fish on this trip and he was yummy. Chandreyee used the web browser on my phone to learn how to clean a fresh fish and then she fried up this little guy for an appetizer one night. Eventually we had to return to Boston and leave all the warmth and fun of south Florida behind. The last interesting thing that happened to us was when we went though security on the way back. We were prepared to have to answer questions about the big metal object in our carry on luggage (conch trophy), so it was with little surprise that when Chandreyee's bag went through the scanner, the lady shouted that she needed a "CIC". After waiting about 10 minutes, and holding up the entire security line for that time with a row of increasingly nervous and grouchy looking fliers, the bag was inspected and the offending article was not the huge trophy, but a bag of corn meal that we decided to take back with us. I guess CIC stands for "Corn meal Inspection Crew". Another good flight for Rohan and I was pleasantly surprised to find that our car was not covered with snow or ice when we got back to Boston.

Anyway, we had a wonderful time and next vacation we are thinking of expanding it to include other members of our family and renting a bigger place. Thanks for reading my long-winded tale of our Florida adventure.

Mike, Chandreyee, and Rohan

Little moments

Rohan has been "hoovering" oatmeal for a couple months now, but on February 15, he had his annaprashan, or rice-eating ceremony, at which he had his first taste of rice pudding, lentils, and even a little fish. Dimoni, Dadan, and Tinkumashi arrived days in advance to help prepare the feast for 30 people.

After the ceremonial spoonful of payesh (rice pudding) from his uncle Kaushik, Rohan chose the symbolic book (from among the coins, gold, crystal, earth, iPod, and pen). All the serious deliberation made Rohan hungry, and he proceeded to "hoover" the entire bowl of payesh, while friends and family showered him with countless and diverse blessings.

Rohan was lucky enough to receive the gift of "great knowledge of physics" (thanks, Will), and the gift of musical talent from future Broadway star, Amy. One memorable gift was from our friend, Li, who hoped Rohan would enjoy many "little moments."

After all, we'll never forget big days like Rohan's annaprashan, but here in this blog, we should take care to record Little Moments, such as

1. Rohan's first Rude Noise (see video),
2. Rohan's first fun bath (see photo), and
3. The Time Rohan Sneezed Yams All Over Daddy (yesterday).

"Nothing like a faceful of yams," sputtered Mike, as Rohan cracked a huge, orange, goopy, yammy grin. I know you're hoping there's a picture of that; however, we are currently trying to keep our camera Yam-Free.