SUPER SOMA

1/7/2016 – Oh the happiness in finding a penny! “I found a penny” Soma says with glee! It’s so magical and contagious, brings a smile to my face.

5/31/2015 – Soma and I took a trip to Mariano’s today. While shopping for veggies and fruits, we saw guava! Soma was so excited! And so was I :). Soma squeeled, ‘guavas from indiaaaa!’. Oh how she makes me smile!

Soma is a Daddy’s girl so Brian is usually the one who does the nighttime routine – brush teeth, read a story, cuddle until she falls asleep. Once in a while Mommy gets a turn and it’s then that I’m reminded how easy it is to fall asleep next to our cuddly wuddly. She still likes an arm around her to hold her as she falls to sleep. While doing that, it’s hard not to just stay next to her, the sweet bundle of cuteness. It’s so relaxing and peaceful listening to her as she goes deeper into her sleep, her breathing getting heavier. I was thinking how she’s 6 today and will be 12 in 6 more years! I have a feeling she will not want to cuddle with mommy and daddy when she’s 12. Which is why I savor every moment, sneaking in kisses and hugs whenever I can, cause right now, she lets me.

Soma is such a happy go lucky girl. All smiles pretty much all the time. Yesterday I had a day off so we spent all day together. We started the day with a craft project for school. We had to find 100 things around the house that we had to put together to commemorate the 100th day of school. Initially we were going to do a book, I thought it would be fun and particularly, easy. However, a couple days back she was just crafting on her own, busy with one of her ideas and the outcome was this crazy scupltural / mixed media type… ‘marble run’. I was amazed. So I thought, why not give her the opportunity to get creative with this? The book then turned into a sort of garden scene where 10 buttons made up a pond, 15 leaves on each tree, 12 pencils creating a frame, etc. It was super fun to work on it together, and honestly, it’s too bad we don’t do projects like this more often, and well, I really need to just make more of an effort to make sure it happens!

Later that day we went ice skating. I admit I was a little nervous to take Soma without Brian around, but I was feeling more confident in my skating and was willing to go since our skating days were numbered. What fun did we have! Soma definitely got better, she didn’t fall *as much* as last time, and no matter how hard the fall, she would just get right back up and give me a big grin. My little cutie never ceases to amaze me. I would ask her if she’s ok and she’d say ‘Mommy, I’m always ok, just keep going!’.

I can’t tell you how lucky I feel. At 6, she’s so brave, such a big girl, but yet, my baby, my adorable sweet little girl. Every year it’s different and it seems to get better and better, but I fear these days where she’s my little one are slowly making way for an actual big girl.

I’ve been trying to take more pics and video. It had been a while with video, but am back on it, want to document as much as I can!

1/7/2015 – Soma is 6 now. She is growing up! But before she gets all grown up, she still has the sweet little voice that just makes me all warm inside. Tonight I was putting her to sleep and said ‘good night’ and then a moment later I said ‘i love you’ and she replied with a ‘me too!’ singing to me in her sweet sweet voice. I really need to record her is what I think. I really do. My parents said the same to me about myself when I was little, they wish they had recorded me speaking in Gujarati when we lived in Bhavnagar, guess I sounded pretty sweet too but guess we’ll never know. But at least my parents remember. And recording or not, I hope I never forget Soma’s sweet little voice.

Soma is a very independent girl. It’s great! She wants to take a bath all by herself, wash her own hair, shampoo, conditioner and all! She listens to us as we show her how to do something and then she just goes and tries it herself. Lately she’s also been brushing her own teeth, putting on her own shoes, tying her shoelaces, pouring her own bowl of milk with cereal! The list is getting longer by the day. What impresses me is her tenacity. Soma does not give up if at first she doesn’t succeed. She will not take the easy way out and let you do it for her – she will do it! I got her the closest thing that came to winter boots on a Tuesday night in the middle of March. Soma’s other boots pretty much fell apart that day and she had also been playing in mud that I refused to clean off. The next day there was to be a snow storm so I went to 3 different stores and found what I found. They were zip up tennis shoes that fit well if you were wearing stretch pants or less, but anything else, it was a struggle to zip up. Soma was wearing jeans the next day and was relentless and just tried tried until her little hands just couldn’t anymore. I offered to help many times, but she refused. Finally, she gave up and I explained to her that these weren’t the best shoes in the world. Soma finally let me help.

How did I get so lucky to have two girly weekends in a row? Brian was getting some much deserved boy time so it was just Soma and I for most of the weekend. We went to the beach – twice! I think that was her favorite part. She would jump and splash in the water and let out a squeal each time. She also managed to get some dancing in! Afterwards on each day I took her to the candy shop and bought her a grape flavored lollipop that kept her happy all the way home in the stroller. Then we shook the sand off of us and took a bath followed by a warm dinner while watching Toy Story 3! It was a grand time! Except at the end of Toy Story 3 when I was crying uncontrollably and Soma gave me a hug – she’s a strong one! Thank god!

Soma’s got “Twinkle Twinkle Little Star” mastered! Watch her sing to her beloved Teddy as they get ready for bed. BTW, this pretty much melted our hearts!

This past weekend Brian and I got to check off 2 things on our “have-to-do-with-Soma” list. I’ve wanted Soma to ride the local bus downtown and Brian has wanted to take Soma to the LB Aquarium. It was great because we got to do both and Soma had a grand time!

As we rode the bus downtown, we sang the “wheels on the bus” song as we went up and down, people that got on moved on back, and the driver went beep beep beep! Soma loved looking out the window and waving hello/bye but got upset when she couldn’t run around in the bus and when we had to get off at our stop. But she cracked a smile as soon as she saw the colorful fountains in front of the LB Performing Arts Center!

On Sunday we took a trip down to the Aquarium. Soma seemed mystified by the beautiful colorful fish floating about and was trying so hard to touch the fish through the glass that separated them. We saw star fish, sea horses, jelly fish, sharks, sting rays, and crabs! eeeew! She even got to touch some of them and enjoyed getting partially in the water and having contact with the wet, slippery creatures! We also went into the birdhouse there and got to feed some beautiful parrots!

What a beautiful, warm weekend! It was awesome to see Soma experience so many new things and enjoy herself! She was definitely pooped! No trouble falling asleep, that’s for sure!

Soma couldn’t stop singing happy birthday to her friend Ayan in Chicago! He just turned 1 and she couldn’t be happier for him!

This weekend Soma and I spent two days just her and I while Brian was getting some much deserved boy time. I was secretly happy to get her all to myself! Yesterday, after a rainy day we went out for an early evening walk on 2nd street. We hit our favorite spot, Jamba Juice, and shared a berry and beet smoothie. It was delicious! We sipped our smoothies outside while watching all the passerbys. I actually found a men’s wedding ring! Looked expensive! Thought about pawning it off but thought better of myself and handed it into J.J.. Afterwards we walked back and that’s when Soma started doing her “I want me” dance, wanting me to carry her. I think she likes to be at eye’s height with everyone else. We came back, popped a story DVD in – a new one with an animated Goodnight Gorilla which Soma loved but she liked the Bear and the Moon’s birthday story best I think, and then ate some lasagna. It was yummy!

The Latest

• After celebrating Bryce’s birthday at daycare, Soma has learned the birthday song very well! She sounds adorable singing it!
• Soma played a great game of throw-and-catch today! She caught the ball quite a few times! I was impressed. She got discouraged though after getting hit in the face a couple of times – I am a bad thrower!
• Soma has a look that just melts. She seems to be observing you with her big brown eyes and then she cracks this big smile showing you all her teeth and it is just sooooo sweet.