Swim Fan

We've started taking Tara to swim lessons the past few weeks. The thought of her getting into a pool was enough to terrify me. Since I don't know how to swim I obviously didn't get in, ok I know it's only 3 feet but still no thanks. Tara kicked away furiously, splashed her hands in the water, gulped down some water and then went back to kicking furiously. I stood at the end of the pool going "Mr.Shandekar careful, hold her closers, don't dip her in, that's not funny" it was an exhausting hour. The only part I enjoyed was shopping for her cute swimsuit, the rest of it makes me plain nervous. I'm glad Tara has taken to the water naturally and maybe one day I'll put my foot into the pool and wet a toe. For now, father and daughter seem to enjoy their time together in the pool while I chew my fingernails and watch for the hour to be up.

Bambino

Tara had her first taste of Italian food at the Fiesta Italiano. She enjoyed the cotton candy from the Seattle Center more than the fettucine alfredo. We then went to the fountain which always seems to amuse her. It's hard to tell if she's happy or scared silly as she swings her hands furiously up and down for almost all emotions.

Speed Reader

Tara's latest obssession is books. She loves her Pee-A-Boo book and turns the page before you can say Pee-Ka-Who? She goes through all her book in about 10 minutes flat and then starts to whine for more. We then go back to book number one and thanks to her tiny memory it's a brand new book all over again! I've started to mutter "red hat-blue hat-yellow hat-oops" in my sleep now.

I forgot to turn the mike on so this is a silent video ... oops.

Pictures, Pictures

I downloaded Googles Picasa and tried out the Web Albums. At first glance I prefer it to MSN Space, no surprises there. It took me forever to get the picture links formatted on the nav-bar to the right, someday I'll learn more HTML. Luckily Tara is sleeping and I was able to post a bunch of pictures. I'm guessing you've all seen most of them but I'll start posting more often now that I have things figured out ... atleast I think I do.

Tara survived

After 8 months I decided it's time for Mr.Shandekar to have some alone time with Tara. This meant separating Mom from Tara and it proved harder than I thought. So I bought tickets to Bombay Dreams and told mom it'll be fun considering she loved Mamma Mia. Mom laid out everything for Mr.Shandekar and ran over the instructions not once but over and over again. And all the while Tara sat in the hall wondering what the fuss was about and why pa-pa (yes she mutters pa-pa!!!)looked so very nervous.

Mom and I set off and I saw the fear in her eyes when I turned the cell-phone off. The play could not get over fast enough for both of us, even though we didn't really say it we wanted to dash back home after the first shimmering, gaudy curtain came down. Desis singing in english just does not cut it for me.

We got back to see, Tara very happy in the company of the Oretega boys and even though we tried to convince ourselves that she missed us, she probably didn't notice our absence. Good job pa-pa, you survived and now I am off to book my Spa appointment.

Shamu or Balu?

There was a big debate going on yesterday between all the "oldies" (Buddu, Mom, Auntyo, Mani) on who Tara looks like now. Tara has always resembled my dad, Shamu but the new consensus is she is looking more like my dad's elder brother Balu. All this started when we shared pictures of Tara on a swing taken by Mark.

Why don't you take a look and decide. By the way, nice pictures Mark!

More pictures taken by Mark

Hooked on Blogs

So finally, after reading a few blogs and wanting to read more and more I figured I'd start one of my own. Not sure how long this will last, probably till Mom is in Seattle and I have the time for such a whimsical activity! Plus, more that anything else I have something to talk about - T A R A.

Tara is about eight and half months and there is much to say about her. She's not crawling yet but just sits around and directs us all with her "ta-ta" which basically means "Why aren't you picking me up, already?!" She wants to be constantly entertained so Mr.Shandekar and I spent most of Sunday morning driving from Shoreline to Lynnwood to Bier just to find 2 toy pianos to amuse her...the money we spent on gas probably equalled the saving we achieved by shopping on Craigslist.

Here she is enjoying the toys for 2 long minutes.