Alex Meets a Cousin

Alex was lucky enough to meet a cousin for the very first time a few weeks ago. He met two (going-on-three) year old Carina who lives in Ohio. Her mom Sonya is my first cousin.



This year, Sonya and Carina's visit coincidentally fell during rakshabandhan aka brother-sister day.

Some history:

Raksha Bandhan (रक्षाबंधन the bond of protection in Hindi, Marathi, Bengali Language, Punjabi, Oriya, Assamese, Gujarati, Telugu, Nepali and many other Indian languages) is a Hindu festival, predominantly in Northern India, which celebrates the relationship between brothers and sisters. It is celebrated on the full moon of the month of Shraavana.

The festival is marked by the tying of a rakhi, or holy thread, by the sister on the wrist of her brother. The brother in return offers a gift to his sister and vows to look after her as she presents sweets to her brother. The brother and sister traditionally feed one another sweets.

It is not necessary that the rakhi be given only to a blood brother; any male can be "adopted" as a brother by tying a rakhi on the person, irrespective of whether he is a cousin or a good friend.

(thanks wikipedia!)

We got together on August 24th to celebrate. Alex clearly as no idea what's going on.

Samir (my cousin/Carina's uncle) explains to Carina where to tie the rakhi

Carina attempts to tie the rakhi. Alex is still pretty clueless.

Carina checks out the gifts Alex gives her in exchange for the rakhi. Alex. Clueless.

We skipped the whole sweets part since Alex isn't exactly eating solids. He did
chew on his book later though. Symbolic.

We were lucky enough to Sonya and Carina more than once throughout the week. The day before they left, we arranged one last quick visit and got to see Jessica and her 18 month old, Pablo. I met Jessica six years ago when we were both bridesmaids in Sonya's wedding and were planning a bridal shower together. It's funny how much can change in just 5 years ago. We couldn't get over the fact that we're all married with kids now!

Here are the three kids together. This was a really challenging photo to take. I'm surprised we actually got all of them to sit still together...

Pablo played a tune for Alex. Honestly, he wasn't THAT bad. Alex is just being a snob.

It was so exciting to have Alex meet a cousin. I loved Carina's reaction. It was too cute. He will be meeting his remaining two (Asha and Lexi) during Thanksgiving. So far they have only talked (or in Alex's case stared and slobbered) via Skype. We can't wait!

Alex Chews on Everything

Always running behind, behind, behind.

Here’s our happy little goober nearly a month ago. His eyes are sometimes blue, sometimes grey, but mostly lost between hazel and brown.

Alex sporting a new type of hat. He looks so much older with a baseball cap on.

Every Wednesday, Amber, another mom and I try and get together for a walk with the babies. Her son Jake is about 3 months older than Alex. They are so cute together. Here’s one of my favorite photos of the two.

Alex is listening intently as Jake recaps his day.

He has become a very smiley baby, especially when he sees Matt or me. He has a
really nerdy chuckle as well and finds the most random things hilarious (like when my hair
is up in a towel turban after I've washed my hair). He can laugh for minutes on end.

He outgrew all his 3-6 month outfits so quickly. There are still lots of brand new clothes that we never even got a chance to wear. He was briefly on to the 6M stuff (maybe a few weeks?) before moving on to the 6-9M category. While I had the chance, I thought I'd make him look like a chav. Cutest chav ever I might add!

For my American chums who are thoroughly confused on what a chav is, here's the best definition I could find.

Chav (pronounced /ˈtʃæv/ (CHAV)) is a derogatory term used to describe certain young people in the United Kingdom. Also known as a charver in Yorkshire and North East England^[1] "chav" is often used to describe aggressive teenagers, of white working class background, who repeatedly engage in anti-social behaviour such as street drinking, drug abuse and rowdiness, or other forms of juvenile delinquency.^[

Alex started a new phase of oral exploration. He likes putting toys, fingers, blankets, the cat, basically EVERYTHING in his mouth. He loves to discover the taste and texture of different objects. The faces he makes when he eats something new is priceless. Especially when it's a look of disgust.

Eating Sophie...

\\

Eating his book...

Trying to eat Mau snacks...

Thinking about eating his hands...