And Arjun Turned 1!

The little man on his first birthday.

Although Arjun is almost assuredly going to hate me in any event because this blog has very few posts devoted to him relative to his older brother, I thought I should at least make some effort to get a post up celebrating our little guy's first birthday before he's old enough to read this and realize just how neglected he's been.  (And now it's been nearly two months since he turned 1.  I'm too late.)  Besides, look at Arjun in the picture above.  Ridiculously adorable.  The fact that I haven't written more about him is a travesty.  I don't blame you (or him in the future) for being mad at me.

The little man is now a year old!  I'm not sure how this year went by so quickly.  I still remember the months leading up to Arjun's birth, when I was stuck at work until the wee hours of the morning every day preparing for a trial that made the entire Vohra family miserable.  And on the day after it ended, Arjun was born, and everything was immediately awesome again. 

When babies are born, they don't do much other than eat sleep and poop, so to say that Arjun was born smiling just isn't true.  But once Arjun did start displaying a personality, around 4 or 5 months, he's been the ultimate charmer, smiling constantly and generally being the happiest baby I have ever seen.  Don't believe me?  Look at all of these photos of him smiling at you!  I dare your heart not to melt. 

This is not to say that Arjun is always happy.  He has a horrific temper, which manifests itself in the form of Arjun throwing himself backwards to the ground, oftentimes with his head hitting before anything else, leaving us horrified.  When given something he doesn't want, he whips it across the room like a steroid-fueled Roger Clemes.  (Yes, it is adorable.)  He's also a bit of a bully - he likes to hit, and his teachers have told us that he tends to push around the other kids in his class.  (While I expressed some serious concern upon hearing this news, I actually think it's sort of awesome.)

In addition to being super smiley, Arjun is also our tiny garbage disposal.  He is a machine, eating everything from pizza to Indian food to hamburgers and every fruit in existence.  It's totally awesome.  (And a 180-degree turn from Saavan, who continually breaks his grandparents' heart by boasting that he "doesn't eat anything.")  There is literally nothing that Arjun won't put in his mouth, which is problematic, because has has attempted to devour Hungry Hungry Hippos marbles, bottle caps, and Saavan's shoes.  (This, for obvious reasons, is not so adorable.)  But this is a small price to pay for being able to take him places without having to pray that they serve french fries and/or mac and cheese. 

Speaking of Saavan, he's been a greater big brother to Arjun than we could have possibly imagined.   He is a super-protective big brother who tries to stop Arjun from playing with things that are "dangerous," demands that we pick Arjun up whenever he starts crying, constantly makes him giggle, and puts Arjun's pacifier back in his mouth when it falls out.  They play and laugh together, and lately, much to my delight, wrestle and fight constantly.  (Saavan has the reach and advantage in coordination/motor skills, but Arjun has established himself as a surprisingly effective figher using brute force and the ability to fall on his older brother.)  It's amazing to watch.

Happy birthday Arjun!  Our lives are unquestionably better now that you're in it.  Here's hoping that your amazing smile or incomporable appetite remain with you for the rest of your life.  We love you.

P.S. - Your mundan!  It was a smashing success and you let us shave your head without any fuss at all.  Another blog entry coming just for that amazing event!  Presumably before you start balding naturally!

Arjun At 7 Months! And 8 and 9!

This is a lot easier when I commit to posting something only once every two and half months.  My bad!

Arjun is now 9 months old!  Here's a recent photo of our little big guy (a few days before his 9-month b-day):

9 months (with special guest, Dadi)

And here he is at 8 months:

8 months old!  (With special guest, Avani Chachi)

And at 7:

7 months!  (Battle scar on forehead self-inflicted)

And just because, a recent adorable photo of the Vohra boys:

Exponential handsomeness.

In the past two and a half months, Arjun has learned to crawl and has gotten very close to pulling himself up on furniture and "cruising."  He's also far more prone than Saavan ever was to put everything he finds into his mouth.  This, coupled with his newfound mobility, and resulted in us having to constantly be on red alert for anything he finds on the floor or anywhere else in arm's reach.  Last weekend, when we were out for brunch, Arjun nearly swallowed an entire ketchup bottle.  My sheer terror at the scene prevented me from realizing until well after the fact that it was pretty impressive.  On a less happy note, he still has very little hair.  He may have to wear a wig for his mundan.

In the last two and a half months, we've taken a trip to NYC to visit all of our friends and family up there, hung out with Kavi and his new baby sister, Syra, been visited by 1) Uncle Rich; 2) the Gupta Bros. (plus wives) and the new princess of the Gupta family, Meera, and 3) all of Saavan and Arjun's grandparents.  We also took a family vacation to Amelia Island, Florida.  We're still recovering from it all.  Here's pics:

Some belated Christmas photos!

And the rest of the highlights from the last few months:

Less photos more text!  I give the people what they want.

In Which Arjun Turns 5, and Then 6 Months...

Arjun cannot hide his excitement about a new blog entry! (5 and a half months)

In previous blog postings that occurred after lengthy layoffs, I provided a myriad of excuses for my poor blogging performance and promised that things had changed and that going forward, I would be the model of blog-entry consistency.  Well no more.  Given that it has been over two months since my last post and in that time, our beautiful younger son has gone from adorable baby boy to basically a grown man, I have no choice to embrace my true identity:  I am a terrible blogger.  Please read anyways.

 For posterity, here's a picture of Arjun on his 5-month birthday:

Yes, we do always dress him in this sweatshirt.

And here's Arjun on his 6-month birthday:

Unamused upon learning that the 5- and 6-month blog posts are being consolidated, and are still incredibly late..

In the past two months, Arjun has taken his place as the world's most smiley baby, as confirmed by the fact that when he wakes up from naps, all he does is look at us and smile.  It's amazing.  For comparison's sake, Saavan used to wake up from his naps by screaming at the top of his lungs.  (He sort of still does.)  Arjun has also demonstrated a great proclivity for eating solid foods.  He's taken fondly to squash, avocado, and even zucchini (which, as we all know, tastes like nothing).  As a result of his great eating so far (knock on wood), I now refer to Arjun as "the garbage disposal."  I challenge you to come up with a more delightful nickname.

The past two months have been quite eventful.  In the fall, a farm near us holds a big "pumpkin festival" with a petting zoo, slides, a corn maze, and, um, pumpkins.  Naturally, we took the boys.  Arjun spent most of the time during the festival hanging out in the shadows...

Mysteriously adorable.

...but we were still able to lure him out for at least one good photo with mom and dad:

Arjun looks a little bit conniving here, but I assure you he isn't, and in any event, it's a nice photo.

Saavan, on the other hand, used the trip to the festival as yet another opportunity to eat his staple meal, french fries and ketchup (this time with some friends):

Saajan and Rania join Saavan for some healthy eating.

Smartly, after eating all those fries, Saavan and co. burned off their calories by dancing:

What moves!

One of our biggest mistakes since Arjun's birth is not taking more photos of the four of us.  Here's one that turned out alright, notwithstanding the fact that the boys look like they'd clearly rather be elsewhere.  

Whipped after a long day at the pumpkin festival.

The pumpkin festival was a precursor to Halloween, which saw Saavan and Arjun's dad carve this incredible pumpkin:

Way better than any picture of the kids.

Arjun actually passed out and missed all of the Halloween festivities, but before he did, we were able to get a couple of photos of him dressed up as an adorable puppy.  Prepare to have your heart melted:

Please ignore unfortunate tail placement.. 

Here's a picture of Arjun with his buddy Shaan the Lion:

Shaan the Lion's mane: breathtaking.

Because he passed out, Arjun missed our Halloween party, which featured a diverse cast of characters:

L to R: Michael Jackson; Shark; Lionel Messi; Monkey; Lion

The Halloween cuteness was overwhelming.

Instead of spending Thanksgiving in Chicago this year, the extended Vohra family ignored the threat posed by the ongoing Mexican drug war and headed down to sunny Puerto Vallarta.  Fortunately, none of us were beheaded.  Even better, we ended up with some great photos!

He can swim!  (Really, no.)

He can swim! (Really, sort of.)

No caption necessary due to awesomeness of photo.

Man whoever took this photo knows how to work a camera.

Vacationing with the grandparents means free babysitting!

Slingin'

Adorably sunburnt.

Finally, a decent family portrait.

Finally, we always get asked about Saavan and how he's getting along with Arjun.  And I'm happy to report that after 6months, the two boys have developed quite the relationship.  And while that relationship consists mostly of Saavan putting Arjun into headlocks and us freaking out in response, it's (almost) always done lovingly.  Saavan has, unsurprisingly, become a great big brother.  (For some reason, blogger is not letting me add my hysterical captions to the photos below.  Just pretend that as you're looking at the photos, you're also reading adorable quips that are making you laugh hysterically.)

 

So there you have it: another great blog entry that has resulted in you totally forgiving me for the infrequency of my blog posts.  (Hooray for adorable photos!)  And while this post will invariably leave you pining for another one, rest assured that we have compiled a great collection of Christmas photos that I easily could have put into this post, but am saving for a separate entry.  So there's a decent chance you won't have to wait another two months (no promises)!  In the meantime, enjoy this one last picture of Arjun with shaving cream on his nose:

And...fin.