Four Years?

Happy Anniversary to my wonderful husband. You are patient, kind and warm.  You're an amazing husband and father and I don't say it enough.  I can't believe it's been 4 years already.  We have accomplished so much in such a short period of time - we moved to Hawaii from Boston, bought a house, took over an ophthalmology clinic (and in the process, became bosses for the first time), and had 2 boys!  Yowser!

It makes me remember the write-up in the New York Times about our wedding.  I had submitted our wedding, more or less, as a lark.  I had some extra time between patients at Boston Children's one day and I figured - why not?  We have a cute story, met in NYC and I thought that might peak someone's interest. My college roommate had this amazing article about her wedding and I thought I'd give it a try.  So, I emailed off the one paragraph summary of our wedding and promptly forgot about it.  On the submission form, you have to list the names of your parents, priest and contact information.  Well, I completely forgot to tell anyone that I had submitted our wedding, mainly because I really didn't think we would make it in to the paper.  Then, a few weeks later, I was talking to my father and he mentions he got this strange phone call, from someone claiming to be from the New York Times, who was clearly trying to steal his identity - asking all of these personal questions.  Ooops!  So, I finally explained that he was a real reporter and here's the story below.

And, here are some pics from our multicultural wedding.  We had a Hindu ceremony in the morning (we had to fly a priest out from California since there are no Hindu priests in Hawaii), followed by an Indian vegetarian lunch.  Then we had a Presbyterian ceremony in the afternoon, followed by a dinner with a band, Chinese lion dance and interludes of Indian music! My colors were a deep red and pink (to echo the Royal Hawaiian hotel), with more gold in the morning to reflect the Indian ceremony.  Everything was DIY for the wedding - the programs, place cards, name cards, etc.  It was hard getting everything over to Hawaii from Boston, but I'm glad that we did.  Not only did it save money, but it added a personal touch.

If anyone wants help with ideas for creating an inter-faith, multi-cultural wedding, just let me know!  There are some things I would have done differently now in retrospect, but it was a beautiful day.

Introducing Taj

It's crazy to think that my due date was yesterday and that this little person who has been with us for 2 weeks already should only just have been born!  With the bed rest and the 2 previous trips to the hospital, we were actually somewhat prepared even though he was early.

We were blessed to welcome Taj Cameron into this world on October 26 at 6: 21 am at 8 pounds 4 ounces and 21.5 inches.  He was actually born on Diwali, which is the Hindu festival of lights, one of the most important holidays.  It signifies the triumph of light over darkness, so very auspicious.  That makes us a family of holidays, Jeff, Nikhil and I were also born on holidays.  Taj means "crown" in Hindi and Persian.  We're also going to have a Chinese name for him, which my mother-in-law is figuring out as we speak!

The only reason that I'm even semi-coherent now is because of my parents.  They have been phenomenal.  My mom came out to Hawaii early when I was on bed rest because she retired at the end of September.  My father came out a week before Taj was born and they've been so great with helping out with Nikhil.  They totally take care of him, dropping him of and picking him up from school, getting him ready in the morning.  It's so nice because I can spend time with Taj and catch sleep when I can.  Jeff and I really could not do this without their help.  And, did I mention that my Dad has been doing all of the grocery shopping and my mom has been cooking and cleaning every day?  Yeah, I know, we're totally spoiled.  I feel bad because they haven't done anything here in Hawaii for themselves yet, but they want to spend time with their grandsons which is nice for me!

Here are some hospital pics of Taj.

Taj with his Popo.  He's her 9th grandchild.  Should we make it an even 10?  Don't tell Jeff!!

Big brother, Nikhil, looking on.

My parents with Taj.  This is their 3rd grandchild.

Right now, he looks pretty Chinese and very similar to the way Nikhil looked at this age.

On the 11th day of Taj's life, we had a Hindu "Naming Ceremony" .  I posted the wikipedia link there, which describes the different types of Naming Ceremonies in various religions.  I guess in the olden times, they didn't want to name the baby before he was 10 days old because of the high infant mortality rate.  So, to ward off evil eye, they avoided naming the baby initially.  We had my mother-in-law, Jeff's sister and aunt come over for a quick little ceremony which my father conducted.

And, last, some pics of Taj at home.  Nikhil is a good big brother.  If Taj is crying, he runs to the bassinet and tries to give him stuffed animals or play music for him, saying "Don't cry baby Taj."  Very sweet.  Though he does get a bit jealous when Jeff carries Taj.  He doesn't mind when I do.  I guess somehow, he kind of knows I need to hold the baby and as a result, Jeff has been spending more time with Nikhil.  So, when Jeff is unavailable, then he sometimes gets a little more territorial.

The hardest part so far is trying to work from home to continue doing the admin work for our practice with a 2 week old.  There's not much time between the nursing and diaper changing to be processing payroll and other fun admin issues, but I'll figure it out and of course it's well worth it!  Jeff has been great, seeing patients and doing what he can at the office too and we're lucky to have a wonderful staff.