Two

Darling S,

Last month you turned two. Unbelievable, but true.

You are growing up very fast, losing the baby-ness. You look more like a little girl than a baby. You speak clearly, question and answer perfectly. You speak in complete sentences, with almost perfect grammar and use the right words. Your Marathi vocabulary is really impressive. Your English is improving too. Still, you are more comfortable with Marathi and want to know English and Marathi words for nearly everything you notice. Your Hindi is limited to the old songs like Lakdi ki kathi, ek chidiya anek chidiya, nanha munha rahi hun and of all the songs, Nakhrewaali...I know. Your baba's choice is, um, awesome. Your favorite songs now range from Pop goes the weasel to Priye paha to Shriramchandra kripalu bhajman to Sakal tirthahuni pandhari mukut mani. Nursery rhymes, marathi devotional, natyasangeet, old hindi film songs, nothing is off the table here.

You love meeting people - old and young, and dont let language barrier come in between. I feel bad that you hardly get to meet anyone because of the treacherous winter we have had so far. But, but you are not the one to complain. You love watching snow from the patio are content with the bowl of snow I give you to play with your sharkie, octopus, seal and crabbie (all bath toys).

The day before your actual birthday I baked a simple, eggless chocolate cake and frosted it with Nutella. A little decoration with colored fruit loops and paper flags and a cute cake was ready in a jiffy. Since your birthday was on Tuesday baba had to go to work. So when we came back we all dressed in our nice clothes. You wore a dusty pink lace frock and looked absolutely lovely. You wore silver trinkets and were happiest. Baba got you a minnie mouse balloon. I did a small aarti and you were amused with the fuss. Then we headed out to Barnes and Noble, your favorite store and played at the kids section. Then we made the mandatory visit to the small kiddie cars at the mall which you love. No money spent and we had a wonderful time together.

Your birthday party was on Saturday evening. Baba took care of the decorations and the living room looked beautiful with read and black giant balloons, the tables decked in red and white and a fun scene setter to complete the Minnie - Mickey Mouse theme. There was ragda pattice, tortilla chips and salsa, cupcakes, fruit yogurt, and juice. Your cake was a delicious pineapple cake with an ombre petal style in peach color. You just loved it and surprised us by actually eating a slice. Talk about setting low expectations. There were just three other families with three little kids. You all had a nice time and the whole affair was quite stress free. Though the cleaning and cooking and decorating part had me worried for a few hours. I know for your next birthday you will have opinions, ideas and I am wondering how that will be.

You videochat with your grandparents, uncles and aunts, and cousins. For a whole week people wished you and you very sweetly, to their great delight, thanked them. "Thanks, thank you for your birthday wishes", we have small audio clip recorded which you love to listen to, over and over. :)

Dear S, wish you a wonderful life ahead, may you be healthy, happy and smiling. And may your Akku Baba be gracious about your growing up. :)