Aashini is TWO!!!

Today was Aashini's 2nd Birthday! It was so fun to celebrate it with her this year ;) She had fun last year but didn't really know what was going on. This year she knew it was her birthday and kept talking about it and really had a lot of fun! She was hyper all day long!

The night before, we made cupcakes for her birthday. We made regular ones and ones without eggs to share with our neighbors. She loved getting to lick the beaters! She thought it was so fun!

Then she got to decorate her cupcakes :) We made a bunch of mini cupcakes. We gave her a little bowl with sprinkles in it to decorate them and I told her what to do. She stuck her hand in the bowl and got out some sprinkles and ate a handful - haha! Then she decorated... and ate some more ;) haha! She loved the sprinkles!

This morning she woke up for her birthday and was surprised. We decorated the whole dining room area and she loved it! (you can see my packed hospital bag in the background :))...

We decorated her high chair - she thought that was great :)

She LOVED it and started pulling all the balloons down ;)

After she ate breakfast she got her first cupcake :) Every time she got a cupcake we gave her candles to blow out. She loves to blow out candles!! When Adam first lit the candles this was her reaction:

She was so excited and happy!

She had fun blowing out her candles :)

Then came the presents :) She got some fun gloves and she wanted to open her presents while wearing them :)

The rest of the day was filled cupcakes and fun :) She got to play with some of her friends tonight and eat cupcakes with them too :) She had a fun birthday! Yay Aashini!

Don't forget to comment and say your Pop Rock birthday guesses!! :)

Havin' Fun!

So this week Aashini had her first official day of school, so I took her "first day of school" pictures :) It's really hard to take her picture these days. She doesn't want to look at the camera or stay still at all! haha! Here she is!

The other day after school, the upstairs neighbors wanted to play with Aashini, so she went upstairs to play. She plays up there with them here and there, but today was different. They only had sons, so they thought it would be fun to dress Aashini up... They did her hair, put powder all over her neck (very common to do here during hot season), sprayed "deo perfume spray" into her armpits, put on a bindi and then let her put her own lipstick on...

Very nice hunh? hahaha!

35.5 Weeks! HapPy FaLL!

Yesterday I was putting on a shirt that I hadn't worn yet while pregnant (it's still a little hot to wear long sleeves) and realized that my belly looked a LOT like a pumpkin! So, we went to work cutting out a pumpkin face :) Aashini was excited and pulled out her pumpkin :)

When Aashini first saw my stomach she was scared and ran to Adam. After that she kept saying: "Scary Pumpkin!" I did get her to take a picture with me and she was less scared :)

... and this is me trying to stand up after taking that picture :) haha!! I think I look a little crazy ;) It's a lot harder to stand up these days :)

... and one more jumping picture :)

Don't forget to post your day/time guesses for the baby to be born! :)

HaPpY HaLLoWeEn!

Here in South Asia we don't celebrate Halloween, but that doesn't stop us from dressing up and eating sweets :) Adam's dad sent Aashini this Minnie Mouse costume and she LOVES to dress up. We put it on her this morning and she was so excited! Here she is showing off her costume to Shanti :)

We went out to our neighborhood park to take a few pictures. Aashini had a blast!

She felt like quite the princess. She's really into princesses lately. I'm not sure what made her love them so much, but she really does love princesses. Yesterday we asked her if she was a princess and she put her head down and looked so sad (it was the saddest thing I've ever seen!). Then we told her she was a princess and she was soooo happy! It was really cute!

So here is our little princess Minnie :)

OK, so since we have NO IDEA when this baby is coming, we thought it might be fun if everyone puts in guesses for when you think the baby will come ;) A friend did this on her blog and I thought it was fun, So, in the comment section put in your guesses! Date & Time :) Read the blog post below if you need more info. My due date is Dec 5 (we won't have the baby past Dec 7). I'll post people's guesses on the right side of the blog. You guys ROCK!

35 Weeks!

I am now officially more pregnant than I've ever been (I had Aashini at 34 weeks)! I definitely feel pregnant! I know I'm supposed to keep getting bigger but I just don't see how that's possible! Here's a few belly pics... I look pretty rough :) haha! And yes, my belly is "pointy" looking. I always end up with a torpedo-looking belly!

So I really have no idea what is going to happen as far as WHEN we're going to have the baby and HOW. We originally thought we were just going to plan a c-section because we didn't think we could do a VBAC (natural birth) here in our city. If you want to know more, I'll explain more, but basically we didn't think the hospital was equipped for it. A couple of weeks ago we found out that the hospital is equipped for it and my doc does them all the time and actually prefers to do them.

With all of that said, that means that we could possibly have a natural birth. There are a TON of factors involved with that though... first of all, for her to even consider it, everything has to be going perfect (my Blood Pressure has to be perfect and I can't have any big signs of preeccampsia, along with a few other things), AND I have to go into labor on my own (she won't induce me for a VBAC). So, along with all of that, we weren't planning on having a VBAC, so we didn't do an extra visa run, which means that we have to leave the country by January 7.... SO, that means that I can't have the baby past the due date because we need about a month to get the paperwork in AND a baby can't fly unless they're at least a month old.... SO I have no idea what is going to happen :) (I sure said "so" a lot!).

We went to the doc yesterday (thank goodness my doc is back in town!!). My BP is a little higher than normal, and my weight registered much higher than it should (I gained 4 kg ~ 8.8 lbs in 2 weeks) - which is a sign of preecclampsia. It was a different scale than normal at the doc's office, so I think that's why (at my home scale I had only gained about 2 kg). I'm also swelling in my hands, face (yes, my lips, eyes & nose... so nice) and some leg swelling. It's normal to have swelling in pregnancy, but the way I have swelling is usually related to preecclampsia, so my doc was a little concerned. She wanted to CHECK ME INTO THE HOSPITAL! I am NOT ready to go into the hospital, so we talked it through and she decided to have me run some tests and come back on Tuesday.

In the picture below you can see how I feel about all of this - haha! I look scary in that pic!

Sooooo.... all of that said.... I have NO idea what is going to happen :) Hopefully I won't have to be checked into the hospital on Tuesday but we're going to be prepared for it anyway (my bags are packed!)... I'll keep ya posted!!!

You guys ROCK!!!

Can You Read This?

Hey! This is just a quick blog post.... Some of you are having trouble reading my blog. If you have trouble reading the white writing (and you don't see the pink background) then you can do one of a few things...

- If you're using Internet Explorer, then you just need to update it :) If you have Windows XP then you can click here to update (or you can click here if you have another Windows version).

- You can also use another internet browser like Firefox or Google Chrome. They are both free :)

I don't really have time to re-do the blog again anytime soon :) so I hope that helps!!

you guys ROCK!

First Day of School!

Today was Aashini's first day of school!! Well, today started the acclimation week. She'll officially start next week, but this week we go with her for an hour or two each day to help her get used to it. She didn't need us, she LOVED it! She got to play in the balls again:

The whole school is covered in mirror walls. They have some education theory behind it (something to do with kids and their moods and they'll change their mood if they look in the mirror and see their sad face... something like that). Anyway, Aashini loves the mirror and is constantly looking at herself in it :)

Here is one of her buddies that started this week too (her batch-mate). Her hair clips cracked me up!!!

Aashini got to play on the computer (which she loved!).

They had snack/lunch time. Most people here eat breakfast at 6 am or so and then eat a snack type lunch at 10:30 or so and then eat another lunch at 2:00... so she gets to eat at school too. They gave the kids roti and a paneer dish. Today she learned how to eat South Asian food! She tore off her piece of roti and scooped up her paneer and ate it! It was awesome!

She normally won't eat any sort of bread, but she LOVED this and kept saying: "roti yummy!". I was so proud :)

They got to go outside and have dance time - it's so cute! They turn on the music and dance! Then they got to play all around the outside area. Aashini was really into exploring and at one time a bunch of kids followed her around :)

Of course Aashini got to slide (one of her favorite things) :)

Then we left. She talked about school the whole way home :) I'd ask her what she did at school today and she would say: "Boys, girls, boys, girls, balls, school fun" :)

We got all her school books today, her cover-up thing (for painting and messy days) and her school backpack. All of the kids have the same backpack and they bring it to school everyday. It's cute :)

Although it's only been one day, it's been GREAT! She loves it and has been talking about it all day. She was in a good mood all day too. It's awesome!!

Preschool!!

Most of you know by now though our newsletter that Aashini is about to start preschool (if you don't get our newsletter and want to, let me know and send me your email!) :)

This week is her trial week, where we take her for about 30-45 min a day and we stay with her for the first week to help acclimate to the school. She probably won't need this, but it will be fun for us :) haha!

We weren't sure about starting her in pre-school so early. Most kids start at age 2 here, but that seemed early to us. Then we started thinking about it...

Aashini has soooo much energy these days and once the baby comes I'm afraid she won't have a good way to get out that energy. She LOVES to play with other kids and she doesn't always get the chance to do that. Those are just a few of the reasons. One of the BIG reasons is that we REALLY want her to learn Hindi as early as possible (so that she can learn it without actually having to LEARN it - if that makes sense) :) So, for us this seems like a great thing! This school teaches in both Hindi & English, and most of the kids speak Hindi so she should learn pretty quickly.

We were at a Diwali Fair the other day and there were people from a school there that we talked to... school names here crack me up. This school is called Mother's Pride :) haha!

We decided to visit them a couple of days later and just check it out. They let Aashini run around to the different classrooms and play around while we talked to the teachers. Aashini LOVED it! She didn't want to leave! After we learned about the school we decided to do it! :) They do a mix of the Montessori system and the Australian system. It seems really cool. Here's a picture of Aashini at the school. She LOVED the desk! (she looks grumpy in this pic because we were telling her it was time to go :)).

A few days later, after we signed up for the school, they brought a gift to our house for Aashini. They brought her this desk! (Don't look at her clothes in the next pictures, Adam dressed her... a pajama top and a skirt - haha!). She LOVES the desk and keeps talking about school!

Her hair is funny these days. It's finally growing but it's pretty crazy :) It makes me smile :) Here she is at her desk :)

So, on Monday we do the "trial week" and then Nov 2 she starts school!!!

I'm sure we'll have TONS of stories to share about that :) It's going to be fun!

Mickey Mouse!

In the mornings Mickey Mouse comes on our TV. It's usually at a time when we both need to get something done (or are in a language lesson), so Aashini now loves Mickey. The other day (it was one of the holiday days) they had a big display set up in our mall for Hong Kong Disney. Aashini was so excited when she saw Mickey! It's funny, the first thing she did when she saw him was to touch his feet (which is a way to show respect here). It made me laugh :)

Then she realized that Minnie was there too and went running over there!

She thought that Minnie was so cool!

She loved Mickey's chin and the buttons on his pants... it was pretty funny :)

After a while of walking back and forth, she stood next to Minnie and didn't leave her side until we told her it was time to go :)

That might have been a boring blog post - but I thought it was cute :) haha!

Mela Fun!

I took a funny belly picture today :) I'll explain the Disney part in the next post, but thought I'd post the belly picture part of it before I'm further along (if that makes sense). Here's 32.5 weeks! (I love how Minnie is pointing at my belly :))

Last night we went to a Diwali Mela (Fair) in our neighborhood (I wrote more about it on the other blog if you're interested) :). Aashini is finally big enough to ride on a lot of the rides, so that was fun for us as well as her. She loved this ride!

It's just a bunch of cars that go around in a circle (man-powered).

She didn't want to get off!! She loved it!

There was a booth there that had diyas (lights/lamp) that kids could paint. Aashini thought it was AWESOME! She was so cute painting. She painted so carefully and everyone watching was amazed and how meticulous she was painting. It was funny!

Here's her diya :) I think she did a good job :)

Holiday time is fun!!