Fall Traditions Continues

It feels really cool to have established family traditions.

One of our traditions since Radha has come along is the annual trip to the pumpkin patch. This is the third year we have visited Fir Point Farms in Aurora, Oregon.

Going to the pumpkin patch gives our family a couple of opportunities. It's about saying goodbye to Summer and saying hello to the Fall harvests, a preview of Halloween jack-o-laterns, and time to explore farmland and where some things are planted and grow.

This was the first year that Radha got to ride a pony, and boy was she excited!

Life Happens

Greetings faithful blog readers!

Just a quick note to let you know that we have not abandoned this blog, and Radha is still actively growing, learning, laughing, and loving as much as documented already on this blog.

Day-to-day with a two-and-a-half year-old toddler is quite a ride. A VERY exhausting ride at times!

We are still in the process of uploading pictures from our Labor Day weekend adventures. That was only a month ago, but it feels like ages ago already. We've come to accept the fact that we are usually just too busy living life that we don't often have time to document, reflect, and share about Radha's development and happenings within the means of this blog.

There will be updates again. Thanks for your patience and interest in keeping tabs on the most amazing being in our lives.

P.S. If you're here mostly for some cute Radha pictures, I recommend you bookmark or add my Flickr stream to your favorite links.

Word Explosion

Our household has encountered a verbal explosion of words and sentences lately.

Ro and I have been waiting for these moments for a while, for when we could carry an actual, real conversation with Radha. And now it's happening! It's so much fun to hear Radha put words together, and sometimes the results are pretty hilarious. We have no idea where she heard some of the things, or where she got the concepts from, and others are fairly obvious.

Here is a sampling of sentences and phrases that Radha has been repeating a lot lately:

• Have a good day, Momma.

• Radha Simone Wiley-Sood is eating strawberrries.


• Mommy come too? Daddy come too?


• Let's eat the chocolate (pronounced CHALK-OH-LOT) Momma.


• This is the best book ever.


• It happens.


• Hop on the Dana! Hop on the Max! (reference to our neighbor's kids)


• I like broccoli trees.


• Baby Mook crying.


• Daddy driving to work. *makes sound of car driving*


• Ladybugs sleeping. (said during daycare when her class was exploring soil and looking at bugs and plants in the soil)


• Go away Momma! Go away Daddy! (usually said in fun when she wants one of us to hide and play hide-and-seek with her)

• You said it a long time ago.

• You said it, boys and girls!

• No problem! (said when pretending to talk on the phone with a real phone or her play "cell phone")

Of course, this list will only be growing, but we wanted to share a sampling of the word fun before we forget to document this fun stage.

Little Lady Meets Ladybug

Radha was mesmerized by a ladybug we found on the beach recently while exploring Kelley Point Park in Portland.

All Work and No Play

A rare dry and sunny day recently gave Radha an opportunity to help us with some yard work.

Nothing like a little dress-up for playtime after all that hard labor.

Happy Valentine's Day

Radha sends her love to family friends across the globe.

xoxoxo

Treehugger

A teaser of a sunny afternoon day in February. I can't remember if the groundhog saw his shadow or not, but at least on this particular afternoon it felt like spring is around the corner!

If We Took a Holiday

(from Terri)

What a relaxing and mellow Christmas myself, Ro, and Radha had! Although I always miss seeing my family at this time of year it's nice to avoid the stress of holiday travel (and it will be much more enjoyable to visit the Midwest later in the year!).

We spent Christmas Eve and Christmas night at Ro's parents in Vancouver, and it was Radha's first milestone overnight at Babaji and Dadima's house. Radha also got some long overdue quality time with her aunts visiting from Seattle (Geeta) and Vancouver, BC (Vandana).

Nothing makes the holidays sweeter than a generous gift of delicious homemade cookies sent from my dear friend April, all the way from St. Paul, MN. (Thanks April!)

Christmas Eve morning at our house, checking out the new table & chair set from Grandma Sandy & Denny:

Super excited to have a reading & art table!

Still figuring out this whole wrapping paper thing:

Singing and drumming with Dadima later at their house:

Santa's Little Helper:

Decorating the tree with help from Babaji:

After all that decorating, time for shoulder rides on Dad:

Learning the in's and out's of the iPhone from Bhua Geeta and Bhua Vandana:

On a walk on the wonderfully sunny and dry Christmas Day:

Run, Radha, RUUUUNN!

Chilling out story time:

Yoga lessons from yoga teacher Vandana:

You learn fast, young grasshopper!

More pictures can be found here on our Flickr page. Hope your holidays were magical and filled with good food and love!

Bath Counting

Radha continues to talk up a storm. She tries to repeat most things we say, and is often amusing herself with songs, naming family members, and anything else that crosses her mind. For some reason, after bath time is her favorite time to practice counting. Her counting song from school ends with the words "How many ducks did it take", followed by a count. Since this video was taken, she's almost made it up to 20!