Our Tiny Tiger Gets Her Orange Belt

Isha has been taking Taekwondo for about 4 months now and today she had her first test and earned her orange belt. This is her instructor, Mr. Coakley. He is amazing with the kids!! The kids all love and respect him and he makes Taekwondo tons of fun!!!! I am so impressed with how well he deals with all the kids, especially the little ones that have very short attention spans.

So proud of herself. She goes to class three times a week so she was definitely ready for her test today.

After all of the kids have had a chance to do their form there is a ceremony where they all get their new belts. Here is Isha with her old white belt.

Mr. Coakley presents her with her orange belt and puts it on for her and takes her old white belt and ties a knot in it.

Here she is doing her form, Songham 4. The kids have learned all the colors of the belts and the order they are in rank. Isha has really enjoyed making new friends in her class and it has been good for her to learn some respect. I also like that they teach the kids about strangers and what to do if they are approached by a stranger. They also teach them who is a "safe" person to run to. It amazes me how much these little kids can learn and remember!

Congratulations Isha, Mom and Dad are so proud of you!!!

Life Is Going To Get Messy!

Diya has decided that she is grown up enough to be feeding her self full time. Most of the time she refuses to let me feed her and the problem is that she has no idea how to use a spoon yet so most of her eating is still done with her hands. Here she is with a nice warm bowl of cream of wheat that she smeared all over her body and I spent the rest of the day cleaning up!! She will be taking baths more frequently now and it is always fun when I change her diaper because food starts falling out of all kinds of hidden places. The other day I thought she smelled like Chick Fil A nuggets and lo and behold she had a few bites of one in her pocket!! Fun times. I took her to the pediatrician's office the other day for her 12 month check up and she is doing great. She weighed 17 pounds 9 ounces and was 28 1/2 inches long. So she is in the 5th percentile for weight and the 25th percentile for height. I looked up Isha's 12 month stats and she was almost a pound heavier at a year but Diya is almost 2 inches taller that Isha was. I informed Isha that Diya was probably going to be taller than her some day. Isha didn't seem concerned because she said she will always be the big sister. The doctor was impressed that Diya can say 5 words. He said that most kids her age only say one word. I told him that what my kids are lacking in height and weight they make up for in vocabulary. Lucky me!!!

Diya says dada, mama, bye, hi and uh-oh. She loves to wave and clap at everyone. She is still not walking, but she is letting go of the furniture more often and can usually stay standing for a few seconds before she realizes what she is doing and falls on her bum. She has 6 teeth now and is doing a good job using them. The other night she chowed down on a piece of corn on the cob. She is the happiest baby and every day she gets cuter and cuter!!! For the most part her and Isha are getting along pretty well. I love watching the two of them play together. It is really sweet. September is going to be a busy month so we should have lots of fun stuff to post!

Happy 1st Birthday Diya!

It is hard to believe that it has already been a year since Diya was born, but it is true, our baby is growing up!!!

I love this picture. The pure joy on her face makes me so happy. As a mom it is always great to see your children happy.

We had a "garden girl" birthday party complete with sunflower cupcakes with ladybugs. At first I was disappointed in how my cupcakes turned out, but after I got up the next morning and my feet weren't sore anymore and the frosting had hardened I was happy with how they turned out. I am glad that I did them for Diya and hopefully she will look back on these pictures some day and see the love I put into these cupcakes.

I made Diya her own smash cake with lots of pink cake, tons of frosting and few Oreo cookies on top. This made for a great color combination for Diya to smear all over her body.

Diya dressed up in her strawberry dress so that she blended in with the party theme. She even had her very own 1st birthday girl sash!! I figured I had a better chance of keep a sash on her than a tiara.

Diya giving Tony some good snuggles. Just when I think that she can't get any cuter or sweeter, she does!!

Diya loved her cake. It took her a few minutes to figure out what to do with it, but once she did it was all down hill!!! I don't think that the high chair will ever be the same again because it was covered in frosting and cake crumbs.

This is our little neighbor, Ashton, enjoying his cupcake.

Diya and her big sister. We had a great time celebrating Diya's first birthday.

Diya's Baptism

Diya was baptised on August 8, 2010 at the 8:45 Mass at St. Edward The Confessor Catholic Church. Getting Isha to smile nicely in pictures is almost impossible these days.

Mommy , daddy and baby Diya at the baptismal font.

James and Karina are Diya's Godparents.

We are so lucky to have such amazing friends in our lives.

Shawn and Sara drove down for the day to help us celebrate Diya's big day. Sara and I have been church buddies since high school so it meant a lot to me that they were able to be there for the baptism.

Isha and her Godparents, Adam and Laura. Our little group had certainly grown since the last baptism!!

Diya wore the same gown that Isha wore for her baptism.

Diya did a great job! There was no crying even when the priest poured the water on her head. Isha asked me the morning of the baptism if, "that guy was going to throw Diya in the water?" I explained to here what was going to happen and had to crack up at her blunt way of putting things. After church we all went out to brunch and it was nice to sit down with good friends and enjoy a meal together.