Christmas is coming...

Katie is delighting in the holidays this year and, just like Halloween, we're finding Christmas is even more fun with a two-year-old.

We started celebrating this year by decorating a gingerbread house. (Thanks, Thatha and Achi!) Katie took responsibility for decorating the roof, and she did a fantastic job. She spent about 30 minutes very carefully placing all of the candies then, in the end, covered them all with coconut snow. Luckily, we caught the pre-snow house in the video below.

Around the time we decorated the gingerbread house, Katie started noticing that other people were decorating the outsides of their houses too -- and she loved it. We drove circles around the neighborhood checking out all the lights one night until we got to our house and she asked Mommy and Daddy, "Why our house not pretty?" Shortly after, our house was lit up, as well.

We then moved on to decorating the Christmas tree. Katie was a huge help, although most of the ornaments did end up on on the bottom third of the branches. To our surprise, she has left the tree alone and only occasionally pulls off the ornaments to play with them. In this video, there's a little hanging and a little playing. Her requests for "Help, help!" always make us laugh.

Midway through, we stopped for a dance break to one of the songs on Anne's favorite Christmas CD - John Denver and the Muppets:

Happy holidays from the Krishnans!

Happy Halloween!

After tonight, I am positive that Halloween is even more fun with a child than as a child -- unless you're a hyper two-year-old for whom everything is magical.

Katie's costume was Abby Cadabby from Sesame Street. She was thrilled about it, although there was a tense moment when she decided at 5:30 that she'd rather be Cinderella instead ("with a dress and a crown"). We talked her out of it, given that we had neither a blue dress nor a crown, and Cinderella doesn't get to wear wings or carry a wand. We got the costume on her before she could change her mind, then she ran circles around the house in delight.

While Daddy stayed home to man the door and hand out candy to our trick or treaters, Katie and Mommy went door to door in the neighborhood.

Coopertown is a fabulous neighborhood for trick or treating, with friendly neighbors, great treats and lots and lots of children. While Katie needed some prompting to say "trick or treat," she did wish everyone a happy Halloween and thank them for her candy. She did a little caroling, too... when the stars came out, she sang "Twinkle, Twinkle" at the top of her lungs all the way down the street.

The best part might have been when we got home. Katie loved the idea of greeting the trick or treaters at the door and helping Sri give out candy. (By the way, she knows our first names now -- and her grandparents' -- and likes to introduce us by them.)

In fact, she was so excited that when it was time to settle down and eat a snack, she insisted on sitting in her high chair facing out the open front door so that she wouldn't miss anything. Sorry, no pic of this one, but here's some video from earlier this week and tonight:

All in all, it was a great evening, and Katie will be enjoying her loot for weeks to come! Click below for a few more pictures of our Halloween fun.

Katie Halloween 2010

Today is Katie's second birthday!

It's hard to believe it, but Katie turns two today. Somehow, in the blink of an eye, Katie has transformed from a helpless infant into a full-fledged child. A child who can do somersaults, who's getting the hang of using the potty and who loves to be tickled. An adventurer who loves worms, the iPad, puzzles and puppets. A chatterbox who frequently amazes us by the things she says, and almost as frequently baffles us with long rambling stories that we can only hope to understand. A kid who can count to 10 in Spanish (to some degree) but is still figuring out how to hold up just two fingers. A daredevil who insists on sliding down the biggest slide and climbing into her own car seat. A little girl who offers a taste of her water ice, who makes sure everybody has a drink and thanks her friends for coming over to play.

Katie is a character, a free spirit, a sweetheart and a joy. She brightens our lives and those of others she touches. We can only imagine what the coming weeks, months and years will bring.

We captured Katie at two yesterday and are happy to share these new photos after a long drought on the blog. We prepped Katie ahead of time, and when it was our turn, she marched right in and sat down on the backdrop, ready for her photo shoot.

It took a few gummy worms to get her totally warmed up and smiling, as above, and by the end she was running in circles. Kudos to our photographer, Stefan, for managing to keep up with her.

Finally, we managed to grab her for a few seconds of cuddle time with Daddy and Mommy.

We pledge to do a better job of keeping the blog up to date. We'll post more photos soon of our summer and the rest of Katie's birthday festivities. Until then, here's the album for the birthday photo shoot:

Katie's 2-Year Photo Shoot

Watch out world...

Like other kids her age, Katie is a sponge right now, absorbing knowledge like crazy. This is particularly true for language, and since she's an early talker, she's really able to express to us what she's learning. Here are a few videos from just the past six weeks.

The first, taken tonight, is a review of her numbers, animal sounds, alphabet song, fruits and veggies and more. She says so many cute things, we've had a tough time recording it all. Sriyesh even had to pretend to turn off the camera to get her to count (fooling me too, hence my reaction). It's a little long, but it's fast-paced. She's 18.5 months today.



This next video came about because Katie was interested in the letters of her name on her bedroom wall. Sriyesh started spelling for her, and before long, she surprised him by chiming in! She's almost 17 months in this video.



Finally, here's a cute video of how Katie and Sriyesh spent the day when I went to a wedding shower in NYC back in January. From Guitar Hero to Beyonce, they had a terrific dance party. By the end, Katie could barely stay on her feet!

Playing dress up

Katie came back from NC this weekend with an off-kilter sleep schedule and a beautiful new dress from Thatha (Sriyesh's dad). The two combined a few nights ago when she couldn't sleep and found the dress while I was unpacking.

She proceeded to reorganize our medicine cabinet...

And go through her shoe collection (all the shoes she's ever worn or refused to wear). What can we say -- she's all girl!

It's not the first time she has enjoyed playing dress-up. Sunglasses are one of Katie's favorite accessories (along with scarves, watches and hats -- see below).

And recently she got to play fairy princess and rock star with a few beautiful dresses sent by Sriyesh's family in India. (Thanks, Abitha and Kamali!)

Click on these albums for more photos from the past couple of months and some pictures from our recent vacation to Florida and NC.

Katie at 16 & 17 months

Katie Indian Dresses 2010