Bad, bad blogger daddy!

So it's been a little while since we last heard from our hero, through no fault of his own. His official biographer has been letting life get in the way. Daddy, it seems, is an eternal procrastinator, and finding time to blog, as well as keep up with "Nu Nu", is a bit overwhelming at times. Not trying to make excuses, just giving you the facts. No matter, the blog posts may be fewer and further between, but they'll be just as cute :-)

Well let's see, since the last time you've heard from us we've had a Birthday, an Easter, a Mother's Day and a Memorial Day. Too much to try and sum up in one post, and since a picture is worth a thousand words, here are several to catch you up on our comings and goings as of late:

Haley takes Manu for a spin in her Escalade.

Manu opening one of his gifts on his Birthday.


Our future train engineer practices on his new train set.


Mesmerized by the sheer number of candles. Happy 2nd Birthday!!


Picking "flowers" for Mommy.


Mommy and Manu share a smile at the Indianapolis Zoo.


Haley teaching Manu the basics of the trampoline


Manu's first pony ride!

The Wild Wild West

In a scene reminiscent of the shootout at the OK corral, they meet upon the field of battle; fierce competitors bent on conquest, eyes locked on one another with an unflinching determination to claim what both believe is rightfully theirs.

You can almost hear the theme from The Good, The Bad and The Ugly playing softly in the distance. Soon the maneuvers will begin; each exploiting the other’s weaknesses. The old guard eyes suspiciously the Johnny-come-lately who seeks to challenge tradition and upset the balance of power established long ago. Although the young one brings to the battle a feisty passion and nimble quickness and spirit, experience is wielded by the old-timer.

BAM! In the blink of an eye it’s over. As the dust settles, the rookie looks toward the horizon to see his foe riding off into the sunset. In a moment of sheer frustration and panic he sounds his mournful battle cry: “MOMMY!?!?!?!?”—as the dog chomps down on the peanut butter sandwich that he had just snatched from Manu’s little hands.

Hey, you win some, you lose some. That’s how it goes in the Wild Wild West that is our house; it’s every baby and animal for himself! Manu has become increasingly irritated any time the dog comes near. Not that he’s afraid of Casey, but he knows Casey wants whatever Manu’s got, be it food or plaything. A stuffed animal becomes a chew toy quicker than you might think. One treat of Manu's that Casey isn't interested in is ice. Yep, just ice. For a while now he has shown interest in drinking out of a big boy cup, and occasionally we let him sip out of our water glasses. Well, our cups have ice, so he wants ice too! We have a little ice cube tray that makes tiny little cubes; cubes that are too small to be a choking hazard (we watch him carefully anyway mom!) We'll put a few in a little cup and he's content to chomp on them like they're candy. I guess he doesn't have sensitive teeth! We figure with all of the crap out there he could be snacking on, ice is a pretty good compromise. Cutest part of it is, every time we open the freezer door, he starts shouting, "ithe ithe ithe."

Fierce competitors for sure!

Big shoes to fill.

Joe Cool.

How did you find me down here?

Studying for the advance placement exams.

Pasta Fingers

Back by popular demand!

Hi everyone, sorry for the delay in updates. The weather and early nightfall of the past few weeks has made us less than motivated to take many pictures nor do anything else interesting worth writing about. We did venture out to a neighborhood park last weekend when the temps broke into the fifties for a day or so, but all of the snow melt made it a sloppy mess, so we didn't play too long. That park is however located very close to an interstate overpass. Why is this interesting? Because we sat Manu in one of the little kid swings that faced the interstate, and he had the time of his life watching the semi-trucks go over the bridge. Every time he saw a new one he would point and say "WOW" at the top of his lungs. So much so that other families at the park would stop and look to see what was so exciting. He did that for about 45 minutes, and we had to pull him away!

Manu has really taken a liking to all sorts of mechanized vehicles, but trains in particular. We try not to let him watch too much TV, but there is a new show in the Disney Channel called Chuggington that he loves so much, we have every episode on DVR, and let him watch one every day. It's basically a knock-off on Thomas the Train, which he is fascinated with too. Our local Barns and Noble has a Thomas the Train wooden setup in the children's section that he would play with for hours if we let him. Leslie has taken him there a few times and just sits and reads a book while he "choo choos" around the tracks. Can you guess what he's getting for his Birthday? If any grandparents, aunts and uncles need gift ideas, make sure what ever you get are part of the "wooden" series, as I think there are 3 or 4 different lines of trains.

Manu continues to love school, at least after the obligatory crying fit at drop-off is over most mornings, LOL. It gets mentioned every day, how much energy he has. They tell us they've never seen anything like it before; he's so fast. We did have one interesting report a week or so ago. Apparently one day Manu took to pushing other little children down and laying on them until they cried! We were concerned about this, as we had no idea how to try and correct such behavior, as obviously he doesn't do that at home. They said that it looked like a new type of play for him and nothing malicious toward the other children. They asked us if we let him watch professional wrestling, LOL! No. Apparently that was a one day thing and he's back to playing nice again.

Finally, he's growing like a weed and talking up a storm. He's just starting to put multiple words together to express his desires. It's still confusing, but getting easier to understand what he wants...usually something we don't want him to have. He loves the word no, and uses it frequently. He says "peas" and "tank ooh", almost to a fault. "Luv ooh" is our favorite though!

Manu-versary

It's hard to believe that a year has passed since we first held our new baby boy. At times it seems as though it was only yesterday, but in our hearts he has been there forever. It is amazing how someone so small can have such an enormous impact on the world around him. We hope that one day we'll be able to adequately express to him how we felt on that special day, and that his presence in our family has changed our lives eternally. We love you Manu.

And to close out what has been the best year of my life, here are a few more pictures of the most wonderful two people in it.

Me, You and Manu, The Year in Review: Part Two

It was obvious to us by the time we started towards Delhi that this parenting thing was going to take a little practice in order to get it right. Click here to read our account of Manu's first road trip. We arrived in New Delhi over a long holiday weekend, so there was plenty of time to check out the city and all of its sights and attractions. Our embassy visits were relatively painless, and with Manu's Visa in hand, it made the last few days before returning home very relaxing, knowing that he was now ours to take home! Here are a few more pictures of our Delhi adventure.

Mommy and Manu enjoying a mid-afternoon snack.

The three of us near the entrance to the Taj Mahal grounds.

The Taj from a different perspective. It was one of the most beautiful sights we have ever seen.


One of two identical mosques as seen from the Taj platform.


Workers demonstrate the art of marble inlay, similar to that adorning the walls of the Taj.


Daddy and Manu at a restaurant in Agra.


School children on a field trip to Humayun's Tomb.

Humayun's Tomb. Similar in architecture to the Taj, but constructed of red sandstone.

Mommy and Manu sit down and relax after a hard afternoon of sight seeing!

These ladies all but begged us to take their picture, and then wanted 100 rupies each as their fee, LOL. We gave them 10 each.

This is the room in which Ghandi spent his last days before his murder. It contains all of his worldly possessions

Haley meeting her new cousin for the first time at the airport.

Me, you and Manu, The Year in Review: Part One

It's hard to believe it's been almost a year since we traveled half-way around the world to meet our son for the first time. Our "Gotcha" day, a day that we will celebrate forever as the day we finally became a family, is January 21st. Leading up to this momentous occasion, we thought we would reminisce a little bit with some photos of our adventure that have been previously unpublished. In part one we'll revisit Bangalore and our time at Ashraya Children's Home, in part two we'll travel to Delhi for a recap of our week of sightseeing and random adventures!

A typical street scene in Bangalore, taken just a few blocks from Ashraya on CMH Road.

Leslie standing outside the nursery and toddler building.

Leslie enjoys afternoon tea while Manu naps in the crib behind her.


Manu in one of his last naps at Ashraya.


Rani, one of Manu's Favorite Aunties. I noticed a few tears as we took Manu away.


Devi was Manu's other favorite caregiver. It was obvious that Manu was loved by all of his Aunties!


Daddy and Manu back in our room at the Daffodil.


Mommy and Manu enjoying a latte at Cafe Coffee Day.


Our last meal before flying out the next morning for Delhi. The food was spectacular everywhere we went. And cheap too!

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

Throughout most of the Christmas season, Manu didn't really understand what was going on, but he did know that he liked it! Christmas lights, Christmas songs, gifts and attention; all things Manu now loves. His little head is still spinning in awe of all of the new toys, books and clothes that he got...well, mostly the toys. Santa, and the family spoiled him rotten. Mommy and Daddy got the best gift of all though, in completing his adoption. This has been a special year for us, and Christmas was simply icing on the cake. It was so much fun experiencing it again as a child through his eyes. We're already looking forward to next year, when he'll really know what's going on!

Today is New Years day, and we're celebrating by taking down all of the decorations. Manu seemed to be OK with it, until after his afternoon nap, when he pointed to where the tree was, and said, "more, more, more."

Manu in his Santa hat, playing around after court.

Manu admiring his handy work.

Opening presents from Mommy and Daddy on Christmas Eve.

So who broke in and left all of these toys?


Will the gifts ever end? I hope not!