10 months!

This little guy just keeps changing! This month's biggest milestone - crawling!! It started from a first few timid scoots to full out movement. Now he is incredibly efficient and loves going all around the apartment. He is also learning that there are certain things he can and cannot reach when he is crawling, so he is curious about pulling to stand.

This month he has also transitioned to consistently saying words - duck, dada, star and ball, to name a few. He loves to make animal noises (tiger, dog, elephant, snake) and to listen to music and has started doing the hand motions to songs like 'Itsy Bitsy Spider'. He still has 4 teeth but chews on his fingers a lot, so we think he might be getting more. He has gotten very good at identifying everyday objects (clock, curtain, ball) and knows the capital letter 'A'. He is still a lover of all food and now that he can crawl he enjoys interrupting our mealtimes and coming over for a bite of our food too.

We were so lucky to have Dada and Dadi come visit us this month and Aayush had so much fun spending time with them! His favorite part was going on walks and now he gets especially excited about any kind of signage (stop signs, yield signs, speed limit signs).

He really loves to knock down towers that we build all around the house since he can now crawl to them. He also likes to get under his high chair and pull all the bibs off from where we hang them. A whole new world of possibilities has now opened up to him! We are looking forward to seeing what next month brings :)

Birthday celebration!

Binita Mami (and Neil Mama) live here in Dallas and Aayush loves going to their place. They have a great view from their apartment and the pool area is lots of fun too! Binita Mami recently had her birthday and we loved celebrating with her. Aayush really enjoyed the balloons and got to see birthday candles for the first time! He was a little confused by the trick candles and a little overwhelmed by the loud singing of 'happy birthday' but overall very happy to celebrate with her!

9 months!

We know that we have been VERY behind on posts as we moved to Dallas and took some time to get settled. We are going to be better about keeping everyone updated, and what better time to start than today - Aayush's 9 month birthday :)

This spunky guy is so much fun and getting big fast! He has 4 front teeth now (top 2 are halfway showing and bottom 2 are completely showing) and his curly hair is always piled high on his head. He has a loving, loud and laid back personality. He loves to watch things moving (people, cars, birds, balloons, flags, planes, etc.) and will scream/yell when he gets really excited. He also does a scrunchy faced smile, as you can see below!

He has been babbling (mamama, dadada, bababa, yayaya, guh-guh, ssssss, thhh-thhh) for a couple months now and we think he might be saying 'duck' and 'ball', but not consistently. He loves to roll his big ball and throw small ones with us - there is lots of giggling involved. His most favorite thing is being outdoors. He loves watching the trees in the wind, the ducks, people, dogs and the cars. He is very good at identifying lots of things, mostly using the Gujarati word (car, dog, fan, light, Mummy, Daddy, stop sign, curtain, clock, tree, duck, elephant, plane, clap, the letter 'A'). 

Aayush loves bathtime and bubbles! As you can see in the picture above, Daddy also loves styling his long hair in various ways. It is long enough to pull back into a single ponytail! He knows how to "splash splash" in the water and loves his Nemo and Woody bath toys (thank you Keshav bhai and Vidya didi!) He is a little skeptical about swings, but he loves slides! He will even go down on his own, and usually balances pretty well :)

Ones of his favorite games is playing peek-a-boo with us. He usually starts the games on his own by pulling whatever is close by on top of his face and waiting for us to notice. He is content playing with someone or playing on his own. He hasn't learned to pull himself up yet, so if he doesn't want to sit anymore, he will whine until you help him up. You can get a glimpse of his complaining at the end of the peek-a-boo video :)  He also loves songs (in English, Hindi and Gujarati). Sometimes he hums random sounds, but we haven't caught it on video yet. We are having so much fun with our little guy and can't wait to see what else he learns!

The Catch-up Post

We have been very behind on posting, but wanted to at least catch up and show pictures of how Aayush has changed over these past months as we've moved to Dallas.


We have enjoyed spending time with family and friends in our new home and celebrating Diwali and Halloween.


We have also been fortunate enough to have visits from Adarsh mama, Krishna foi, Vivek fua, Keshavbhai, Vidya didi, Ekta masi, Dhruvbhai, Rahibhai and Naniji!

  

Aayush is a foodie!

Aayush is a great eater! He loves most food and especially likes trying new things. Now that he has a few teeth, he enjoys chewing and eating food from our plates too. He has tried (and successfully eaten) a lot of food including rajma, chole, daal/bhaat, bell pepper, muffuletta filling, broccoli shaak, kadhi, yogurt, khichdi, and pav bhaji, to name a few.

He also really enjoys fruit, especially apples! He gets very possessive about them and doesn't like it when you take it away. As you can see from the photos, he works very hard to eat as much as his little teeth can get to! We are glad he is enjoying eating and hope that he will continue to try new foods!

 

  

Seasoned Traveler!

April was full of trips and adventures for Aayush! His first outing was to the mandir with his cousins, Foi, Fua, Dada, Dadi, Siddharth Uncle and Niru Auntie. Even though he slept the whole time, we were glad to be able to take him.

His next outing was to Foi and Fua's house. It was his first long car trip and again, he slept the whole time! It was great to be able to spend time with all of them and Aayush especially enjoyed being read to by Keshavbhai and Vidya didi!

Aayush also went on is first airplane ride in April to visit family and friends in Texas! He was so happy to meet Atith Mama, Rose Mami, Hema Nani, Amit Nana, Parth Mama, Aman Mama, Dina Nani and Sameer Nana. We also visited Shweta Dadi, Hemu Dada and Amar Kaka in Dallas. Lastly, he got to celebrate the engagement of Amee auntie and Anand uncle, where he met Poorav Mama and Dyuti Mami! We will definitely be going back to visit many others soon!

Lastly, he took yet another plane trip to North Carolina to celebrate Raj Uncle's wedding! He looked very spiffy in his new clothes (thanks for the shoes Mandira Mami!). He also got to stop by and see Nrupa Nani, Ninad Nana and Kahaan Mama! We are so grateful that Aayush has so many loving friends and family members to go visit!

So many visitors!

The past month was also filled with visits from beloved family and friends! First, Dada came to visit again!

Nanaji came to see Aayush for the first time and they had a great time getting to know each other. Aayush loved talking to Nanaji!

Foi, Fua, Keshav bhai and Vidya didi also came for several visits and got to play with Aayush. We are so grateful that they live so close to us and that they are willing to make the drive down so often!

In early May, Ekta Masi and Dhruv bhai came and Aayush got to enjoy the Providence Children's Museum, Rock Climbing, Duckpin Bowling and lots of frozen yogurt with the whole gang! We are looking forward to seeing Raphael masaji and Rahi bhai soon when we get to Texas!

Lastly, Judy auntie (from Shyam's residency program) came to visit as well! We are so fortunate that so many people come to spend time with us!