Bubble Terror

We discovered recently that Divya is totally freaked out by things that are sticky.  We realized this when she was playing with Deja's jelly window stickers last week.  She was happily playing, then all of a sudden out of no where, she started screaming and acting completely freaked out.  It took us a while to figure out what scared her, but we finally did: it was the sticky!

Here's a video from tonight.  Arie and I were dying laughing.  Check out how Divya reacts to Arie's bubble gum after she realizes it's sticky...

Nine Month Pics

I'm not sure who enjoys the wagon more-Divya or Clemson!

Gotta love bath pictures!

My cutie pie

Words cannot describe how much I love this picture: Divya doing liase mikha (fluttering her eyelashes).

She loves playing in the kitchen...just like her mommy!

Divya getting some Erica love.  This picture makes me smile.  Erica looks so beautiful and radiant with baby Williams growing in her belly!

Sweet moment with Khairie....(made possible only by the fact that Divya had just been holding food. Khairie was hopeful)

'What? Is there something on my face?'

She thought it would be hilarious to give herself a shower with her sippy cup while we were driving back from Madison.  She is insane.  Gets that from her daddy.

Telling Clemson to keep all paws inside the moving vehicle.

Playing while daddy works

Eating the blanket out of her book. Such a silly monkey!

Divya is 9 Months Old!!!

It's hard to believe that Divya has now spent more time in the outside world than in my tummy.  It seems like she has grown up so quickly!  I think the last time I did a Divya update was when she was 4 months old, so it's amazing to think how much she has changed since then.  Here are some of the highlights:

• She is becoming more mobile on her feet.  She gets around on furniture (or whatever she can hold onto) pretty easily now.  She can also walk pretty well holding one hand--though she prefers to hold both hands because she is much faster!  She has gotten better at dropping down to her butt from standing (as opposed to going timber!).  In the last couple days she has gotten good at holding onto furniture and reaching down to pick up something off the floor again, and then return to standing.  
• She is a great eater.  She loves all and every kind of vegetable.  She even loves eating onions and garlic!  It is so great to have her sitting at the table with us and eating what we eat.  It was really important to me instill a family tradition of sitting around the dinner table while enjoying each other's company and enjoying food.  Right now, our schedules allows us to sit together for breakfast and dinner, which is awesome!
• When she eats something she really likes, she says, 'mmmmm!'  She also does a happy food dance when she's eating something she really loves...must have gotten that from her mommy ;)
• She is very generous.  She is happy to share her food with the dog.  I think she takes pity on Khairie and want to share her food with her.  It's sweet, but still makes me cringe! 
• She is learning more words everyday.  She is starting to understand phrases in both Nepali and English, and I'm hoping she will become equally comfortable with both languages.
• She just started to shake her head.  A couple weeks ago at dinner, Arie was being his usual goofy self, so I shook my head at him and said, 'daddy's silly!'  She immediately started shaking her head as well!  So now, I say 'daddy's silly!' and we both shake our head at him.  She also shakes her head when she eats something she doesn't like.  Yesterday it was avocado and today it was yogurt.  She makes a face after tasting, so I ask, 'you don't like it?' and she shakes her head no!
• She has also learned 'No'.  Well, sort of...I don't actually say no.  I read somewhere once that a child hears no like a billion times, and only hears yes about thirty times or something like that.  So when Divya puts something in her mouth that she's not supposed to (such as paper, the cat ball, or a computer cord), I'll say, 'that's yucky!' and she will remove the object from her mouth and say, 'ugh' as if to say, yes that IS yucky! 

It's so amazing how quickly the time has gone.  We love her so much and she is such a blessing to us.  She makes us laugh every single day!

I no pics on this post, but I will upload some recent pics soon...stay tuned! :)

 

'Bow wow wow'

Our little puppy dog says, 'bow wow wow!'

Sabotage

Martha Stewart, I love you.  I really do.  I have your books, I subscribe to your magazine, and I frequent your website.  But I am convinced you are trying to sabotage me.  Last week, I had a craving for cookies, and fitting with my resolution to only eat junk food that I make myself (thank you Michael Pollan), I decided to whip some up.  I have always used the same chocolate chip cookie recipe, but I had just finished thumbing through a copy of Everyday Food where I came across a recipe for 'Giant Chocolate Chip Cookies'.  So I decided to give it a whirl.  I really should have known better.  What did I think was going to happen when you bake 1/4 cup balls of dough at 375 for 15 min??  Not good.  Would have been better off just eating the batter-that part was good.  Then, this morning I decided to try out her recipe for quinoa breakfast cereal (like oatmeal, minus the oats, plus the quinoa).  I've really been on a quinoa craze lately and I really liked the idea of quinoa for breakfast.  I followed the recipe to a T.  According to Martha, my quinoa breakfast cereal should have been ready in 15 min.  Nope.  35 minutes later, I settled for al dente quinoa.  It's a good thing quinoa is a complete protein, because by that point my blood sugar was really low and I was really crabby.  That's not to say all her recipes turn out this way...her rigatoni with chicken sausage, spinach and cream tomato sauce and her buttermilk banana pancakes are absolute family staples of ours.  So, I have created some guidelines for following Martha's recipes.  First, only attempt a new recipe when I'm in the right frame of mind.  That would be the 'oh, wow, failed again. That silly Martha!' sort of mood.  Second, wait to entertain with a Martha recipe until it is been tested and the kinks have been worked out.  Lastly, keep in mind that this is a dysfunctional relationship and just accept it.  All that being said, Martha I still love you...but I am watching my back. 

mmm....Peas!

This child is a pea lovin' fool.  Here is a (short) clip of one of many (very long) peafests. 

Where's your Monkey?