A Little Bit of This & That!

Aashini has been talking up a storm lately. It's so cute to hear her talk. She's even been putting words together lately. She likes to point to something and say: "Ball, it's a ball". It makes me laugh :)

Parenting is a funny thing. There are definitely many strong opinions out there about how things should be done. South Asians are no different from Americans in that aspect. It's pretty interesting to see some of the parenting advice we get or things we see that are typically done here. One thing that is interesting to me is that most kids aren't really disciplined until they are about 6 years old! They don't like kids to cry, so they'll give them anything they want and wait to discipline until they are older.

Another interesting thing is that most kids are hand-fed until they are around 4 years old! You can see in the picture below the Ayah (nanny) on the left is feeding the little girl. She was over 3 years old and was being hand-fed her entire meal - and she was eating pizza! haha! Aashini was very intrigued.

And, on another random note... here's a very unflattering picture of me playing Wii ... I can't think of a better way for a pregnant girl to play - I was pretty comfortable :) haha!

Anyway, that's just a little bit of this and that for now :)

Pop Rock & ABCs!

** There is a short video at the end of this post if you want to go down there and press play/pause to let it load while you read **

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Well, a lot of people have been asking me how this pregnancy is going so far, so I guess I'll answer :) I put in a few random Aashini pics so that it doesn't get boring :) haha! No really, I don't have much to say though. Last pregnancy I was miserably sick! I was pretty much in bed all day and throwing up all day. I couldn't even move a lot of days (or even shower!)! I also had extreme vascular headaches and I was miserable!!

Well, I've been afraid to say anything because it really hasn't been so bad! I feel nauseous every day, but not all day - usually in the evening. I haven't thrown-up at all! (yet)!! Last pregnancy my headaches started at about 8 weeks (there's a technical reason for that if you're interested :))... well, I'm currently 8.5 weeks.... and I've had one headache, but it wasn't too bad. I'm really hoping that it stays like this! I still have to stay inside a lot though - (When I get hot, I tend to get pretty nauseous, and it's over 100 outside most of the day (last night at 9:00 pm it was 95!) (heat experience from last pregnancy - if interested)) Although I've felt pretty blah! it really hasn't been bad at all and I really can't complain. I'm really praising G0d for this!!
So, for fun :) - Here' a video of Aashini :) I saw a friends little girl saying the alphabet the other day so we decided it was time to start practicing :) This video cracks me up for a couple of reasons :)

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1. Aashini loves to see herself! She'll do all kinds of cute tricks and say fun things, but when the video camera comes out, she goes crazy! We always have to point the screen at her so that she can see herself, or else she will keep going behind the camera and looking at the video :) Aashini can't say her own name yet. She calls herself "Ni-Ni". She went through a phase where she said everything in double (dog-dog, bear-bear, ma-ma, etc), so when she said her own name it became Ni-Ni. We call her that a lot too and you'll see her call herself that when she sees herself on video (and you'll hear her say "no, no, no" when Adam tries to turn the video screen back to himself - haha!)

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2. When she says the alphabet she usually gets hung-up on the letter "I". She'll point to her eye and then sometimes move on to other body parts (nose, mouth, etc)... it's pretty funny :)

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3. Aashini's bandanna :) She LOVES to wear things on her head and when we pulled out the camera, she pulled out her bandanna :) haha!

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So, without talking anymore, here's Aashini's take on the Alphabet:

Aashini a Linebacker??

While in Knoxville, we got to meet up with some friends of ours that live there (Chad & Jennifer). We worked together with the Youth at FBC Tallahassee while in college. They just recently had a baby (Ty), so it was fun getting to see them and hang out :)So while we were out together eating, Aashini was wearing her University of Tennessee gear. One lady came up to our table and saw Aashini and said: "What a big little boy! He has a linebacker's head if I ever saw one"... yeah, nice... haha! Someone told her that she was a girl and the lady said: "oh, well she looks like my son..." haha! OK... this girl needs a bow or something :)
So, since Aashini won't keep any sort of bow in her head, the whole next day I made her wear this little tiny clip in her little bit of hair :) Adam kept thinking it was a bug in her hair :)

Aashini has a couple of new tricks :) Now if we say: "How big is Aashini?" She'll stick her hands up (as seen below) while we say "so big" :)

She has also started singing and dancing. The dancing is more like bouncing and it's way cute ;) She also has a few words that she can say now (in order of appearance):

1. Dada
2. WOW!
3. Whoa!
4. Mama
5. Dog
6. Yay!
7. Duck
8. Nose

(and can even point to it!)

And, my favorite trick that she does now, we affectionately call the "fish face"...

Talk to me...

Aashini has been making some really cute sounds lately :) Check it out :)