Saturday, January 26, 2013

2013 India Trip

We were a little skeptical about our India trip this time since both kids got sick and we had to cut short our last India trip. We were little hopeful at the same time since the kids had grown up a little since our last visit.

Overall, we had a good India trip this year. It was great to meet family and friends. Everyone was so welcoming and loving - the kids felt right at home and easily mixed in with everyone.

They had nothing much to do. So, they kept themselves busy with various screens : TV, phone and ipad. They became fan of Chotta Bheem cartoon and watched it everyday. They also enjoyed watching the various ads and picked up punch lines like "Ehh , Du kya" from poppins and "Mummy khatam" from Quaker oatmeal ad.

We had planned a 3 day trip to Kumbhalgadh and Shreenathji. However, just an hour into the road trip, both kids complained of stomach ache and Ishaan even threw up. So, we took a U-turn and came back. Glad we did, because Ishaan had very bad diarrhea that day. Also, it was very cold in Khumbhalgadh. So, we felt good about our decision and got some time to relax and socialize.

Kids had fun playing games with the society kids. They would play "Stop and Party" which is very much similar to hide and seek and ride bike/scooter. Kids also loved it when anyone would give them a ride on Motor bike or Activa - they were both ever ready to go out.

Gaurav had a couple of sick days - got diarrhea and then some cold/fever. So, overall kids did better than Gaurav on this trip :)

We celebrated Ishaan's 4th birthday there with all the friends from the society. The highlight of the party was the pony ride. We got a person to bring his horse for an hour and the kids took turns at riding on the pony on the society road. Kavya and Ishaan were super excited and had lot of fun. The next thing Ishaan enjoyed was a Chotta Bheem chocolate cake.We had ordered pizza from Dominoes. At the end of day, everyone had fun and we were glad we celebrated on a smaller scale.

Gaurav and Kavya returned on Jan 13th. Ishaan and I stayed back for Tulsi's wedding. We enjoyed Uttarayan on Jan 14th (although it wasn't very windy and Ishaan was more interested in the food I had packed for him than in kites :) ) and also the wedding. We were able to go to all the marriage festivities. Ishaan mingled well with all his cousins. The games on phone kept them busy and also gave me some time to meet and greet friends and relatives. I was also able to go for some shopping during the last week. Having the driver was a big help.

For the first 2 weeks, Ishaan just listened and absorbed all the Gujarati that was spoken around him and then starting 3rd week, he started talking in Gujarati. Although slightly broken, he speaks Gujarati/English mixed and looks very cute when searching for right words to form his sentence. He has continued speaking in Gujarati even after coming back - lets see how long it lasts.

The plane journey both ways went pretty good - again Thanks to the private screen in Singapore air - the kids were entertained throughout with their choice of movie and episodes.

Overall, a good trip.. lot of good memories.. good experience for kids as well. Looking forward to the next trip.

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