Second Halloween

For Radha's second go round of Halloween, we ended up doing things more geared towards her compared to last year. She got all dressed up in her pumpkin outfit send by her Grandma Sandy, and we headed out. At first we went down Alberta looking for any Halloween action at the stores, but nothing was going on. On our way back home, Terri had a bolt of inspiration, and we went to Kennedy School. It was pure Halloween mayhem, and Radha loved it. Surprisingly she wasn't overwhelmed by the crowds, and even asked to go back for another round when we were thinking of leaving. Luckily this year, she wasn't too interested in the candy, and mainly looked at the offerings. After we got back home, we trick or treated at a few neighbors' houses, and called it a night by 6pm.

Little pumpkin taking a breather outside the Kennedy School.

Excellent instincts - she's suspicious of creepy clowns with candy.

We Have Lift Off

(from Terri)

It's official...Radha started walking last month and has been enjoying her new sense of mobility and independence since. Granted, she is still walking with a bit of a drunken sailor swagger but she can move from Point A to Point B if she is determined enough.

We just had her year and a half check-up this week. She has grown an average of one inch a month in the past three months! No wonder the 18-month pants seem to be fitting like capri pants on her.

Radha was also very happy to be reunited with her Dadima last weekend too, as Dadima had finally returned from a several weeks long trip to India. In this video Radha has fun with a wooden flute that Dadima brought from India, and she has been having fun showing her teddy bears how to "play" it. We have recently started a music class and maybe she's getting some new ideas from class.

Fall Traditions and Pumpkins=Apples

(from Terri)

Along with many other families, we ventured out to the country a few weekends ago to our favorite farm for their annual Fall Harvest and Pumpkin Patch festivities.

This is our second year visiting Fir Point Farms in Aurora, Oregon. It's barely a 20-minute drive from Portland and less crowded than some of the other farms we've visited in the past. We've decided that this is definitely one of our family's new traditions.

It was even more fun this year with Radha being more mobile, talkative and interactive. She is obsessed with kissing pumpkins (even cardboard versions of them at the grocery store, as discovered yesterday). One funny bit from our visit this time was some "fruit confusion" that Radha had between apples and pumpkins. She can certainly identify and say "apple" but when she saw all the pumpkins she kept calling them "apples". Pretty funny:

And remember this picture from October last year?

Radha was mostly still drinking momma's milk and barely eating baby rice cereal at the time. She looked up at her dad so longingly as he ate that delicious fresh apple donut!

Flash forward a year later and Radha finally gets to try the donut this time. Not surprisingly, she enjoyed every cinnamon-sugar-coated bite. (Hey, is that the same grey hoodie from last year that Ro is wearing?)

Pancakes

The latest installment of our ongoing series, Radha In the High Chair. This episode: pancakes!

Heading Up Rocky Butte

(from Terri)

It took a while but we finally put the hiking carrier to use again with a hike up Rocky Butte last weekend. The weather was just too great to pass up getting out in nature.

Our family shadows on the way up:

It was windy at the top, but the park has a nice lawn area:

Mount Hood was visible to the east:

Radha was happy to be out in nature:

Radha and I at the start of the hike. I was not used to carrying this much weight on my back, not to mention uphill, (Ro and I took turns) but it was a good workout!

Counting Song

(from Terri)

Last week Ro and I noticed that Radha was singing a song that we didn't recognize over and over. The song has hand motions with it and a very dramatic "Ahhhhhh!" towards the end. She was singing this in the living room, during meals, and during bath time. It was driving us crazy that we didn't know the song and couldn't sing along with her!

We finally got her singing on video and then asked her daycare teachers about it. Turns out it's a counting song (of course!). Silly parents, we should've guessed that.

A short video of Radha and her Babaji the other week at the park. Although not shown in this video, Radha has really taken to going down slides and stairs head first (with assistance, of course)!