Happy Birthday to Me!

This is my birthday card from Uma.




Today is my birthday. Uma now understands that a birthday is a special day for someone, but she was frustrated that it could not be her birthday and thought that I was getting a birthday before she was because I was bigger!
Last night she went with Adhipen and picked out a card. He was amazed because on the inside, it actually said, "Happy Birthday!" But Uma had chosen the card because it make her think of her and me. She came to me this morning with the card behind her back and said, "Mommy, here is a card for you." When I looked at it, she pointed to the unicorns and said, "This is Mommy and this is Uma. Same!" She also let me "honk" her nose (a game we play together) 5 times without my getting honked back! This was her special Birthday treat to me!

It was about a month ago that Uma seemed to make a major shift cognitively, socially and language wise. It was almost as if she had some major growth spurt in the neurons of her brain! She has really become talkative and confident with herself. Two days ago, I took her to Giggles N Hugs, and they were having "kid Karaoke." Much to my astonishment, Uma got up on the stage and sang! There were about 50 people watching. The children, most older than she, took turns getting up and singing their favorite song. After one of the children finished, the DJ said, "Who's next?" Uma got up on the stage. He asked, "What's your name?" She said, "Uma" He said, "what do you want to sing?" She said, "Twinkle." He knew what she meant since most of the kids had sung the same song. and so put the music on, and she began. Her pronounciation was less than perfect, but she finished the entire song, for the most part correctly, smiling all the way. I was so proud of her, I almost cried! I also felt like crying because I could not remember how to use my cell phone video, and it was pretty much out of charge anyway. I was torn between looking at her with a big beam, or having my head down to figure out the camera. I opted for the former. She had her eyes glued on me the entire song, so I think it was a good choice, though it was one of those precious moments that I would have loved to film!

India Photos

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Uma meets a camel (above left) Taj Mahal (above right).

We get Henna done in Anand. Uma was a real trouper during the wait. (above right) Uma has a nice hot bath (our first and only one) at Le Meridian in Ahmedabad, Gujarat.

(above left) Taj Mahal. (above right) Uma with Gandhi at the Gandhi ashram in Ahmedabad, Gujarat. (Left) Uma in her new outfit while in transit at our hotel in London.

(above) We are at a Chai house.

(above) Fatipur Sikri (below)Uma makes a friend!

Lotus Temple

Back from India!

Well, I just updated my other blog, so I am sitting down to update this one. It seems that I start every blog with an apology for being such a bad blogger, so this time I won't do it! I will just write!
I am sitting at Uma's favorite place (next to Disneyland) called, "Giggles and Hugs" Today I discovered taht they have an electrical socket and Wiifi and so while Uma plays happily, I get to get caught up on all sorts of things. It is fantastic except that I feel obligated to buy more and more food to justify sitting here for hours, so I am thoroughly stuffed right now!
Uma is now three and a half. She reminds me constantly that she is "not a baby more" when I call her my baby. I try to explain that no matter how big she gets, she will always be my baby, but somehow, at this age of burgeoning independence, she finds that very offensive. EVERYTHING now is "I do it self!!!!" and she grins from ear to ear when she does!

Uma is a master puzzle builder and it seems that we cannot find a puzzle that stumps her. She is fast, effective and just plain fantastic at it! She loves school, and really looks forward to going. She attends 5 days a week from 8:30 to 11:30. I was worried that 5 days was too much, but it turns out that it has worked out amazingly well because Uma is so happy there. She continues to be behind in her speech, though her receptive language skills test to age 6. She still has alot of trouble with grammer and articulation. We are practicing alot, and I am looking into more speech therapy for her to try to catch her up. Still, she remains undaunted and tries to express herself whether people understand her or not. I am able to understand about 95% of what she says, and now, we are making games out of the words that she misprounces that make it that other can't understand as well. She is a trouper and she is confident in herself, and that really helps.
Our biggest event was that we just went back to India. It was the first time that Uma went back since we picked her up two years ago. I asked her if she remembered when we were here when she was a baby, but she simply shook her head and said, "no member, Mommy."

It was really interesting to see how Americanized she had become! She cannot stand spicy food now, and chose toast with butter over her formerly loved parathas. For the first few days, I kept asking her if she liked India, and she would reply, "not yet." Finally, after she saw her first cow wandering freely, and got to ride in the front seat with daddy and no car seat or seat belt (yikes!) she told me that India was fun and loved it thereafter!

She especially loved seeing all the animals, including monkeys, camels, cows, bulls, tons of dogs and other farm animals. However, towards the end of the trip, she somehow sensed that we were going, and she told me, "India all done, Mommy. I miss my house."