Diva

My parents came over this past weekend to see Girija. My mom brought her a new purse which is her favorite thing to play with now. She instantly put on her sunglasses, strapped on her purse & hopped into her mom's shoes. What have we created???

Peas

Girija has enjoyed all of the new flavors of food. She especially likes fruits and vegetables. I took some fun shots of her eating peas the other night.



She also likes to put peas in her hair.

Hair Clips

Christi bought Girija a variety of hair clips so I took the opportunity to fix her hair with every clip. She got a good laugh out of it.

Bubbles

Girija is enjoying her new family & home. Since the weather has been perfect we have been enjoying our backyard for once. We blew bubbles & enjoyed watching her belly laugh as they flew by.

Heading Home - September 29

We were able to get a very short nap in before heading to the airport at 11:00 for our 1:00 am flight. Earlier Girija waved goodbye to New Delhi through our hotel window.



She did great on the flight. She ate a bite and then fell asleep all of the way to Amsterdam. We played and walked her around the airport during our four hour layover. On our flight back to Dallas she got a little fussy at the beginning and then quickly fell asleep for the remainder of the trip.

Everything went well through customs and we had a warm welcoming committee waiting to shower her with gifts and affection. She smiled, laughed and quickly won everyone's hearts.

She has been adjusting well to her new life in Texas. She keeps our living room floor littered with toys, our dining room floor speckled with food crumbs & our hearts filled with joy.





This is the end of one short and life changing journey and the beginning of another one filled with skinned knees, laughs, temper tantrums, birthday parties, graduations, artwork for the refrigerator, broken hearts, first jobs & never ending joy.

A Day of Shopping - September 28

Since we had a free day before our flight back to Dallas we decided to take advantage of it and go to the coolest shop in New Delhi, The Central Cottage Industries Emporium. I could spend a ton of money in this place. They have some of the most beautiful handmade items. Everything from clothes, fabrics, wood carvings, marble carvings, paintings, toys & furniture.



We picked up some cool hand carved elephants.



Somehow they carved an elephant inside of an elephant.



I also picked up some beautiful Mithila paintings. This unique artistic tradition has its origin in the ancient kingdom of Mithila. Nowdays, this art form is identified with Madhubani District in the State of Bihar and hence is also known as Madhubani Painting.

Practiced exclusively by women, the pictures are made by them on walls and floors of their traditional homes on auspicious and festive occasions. Since the late sixties, this art form has encompassed the medium of eco-friendly hand made paper.

Devotional in theme, these paintings depict scenes from the ancient Epics and Legends and are rich with Vedic and Tantrik symbolism. They are, in fact, simplistic manifestation of the philisophical heights achieved by Indian civilization. Tatoo, also called Godna, is a very distinct form of Mithila Art. Traditionally people get their body tattooed in the belief that it enables them to meet their kith and kin in heaven.











I found some goodies for the kids.





And some tapestries for the living room.

Back to the Embassy, on the Roof & Celebrations - September 27

The girls went with Rajeev back to the American Embassy to take care of paperwork while I went up on the roof of the hotel to take some pictures of the city. Rajeev said this is the most modernized portion of New Delhi. From what I've seen I have to agree with him even though it's hard to believe looking at the buildings.



















I went to the front of the hotel to people watch and to wait for everyone to return. The doorman kept asking me to take his portrait and wanted me to mail him some prints. I snapped a few and he wrote down his address for me.





The girls showed up soon after with the good news that the missing paperwork was sent over and we have the green light to travel back to the states with Girija. We went back to the room to celebrate & rest so we could have a celebratory dinner with Rajeev later that evening. Girija was happy with the news too.





Rajeev took us to a place similar to Dave n' Busters. Girija got to play on her first playground.



We also found out she loves french fries.



Rajeev bought us all a popular Indian desert. It's basically a mixture of rice, sugar & milk. We got to see another side of Girija this evening. The hyped up on sugar side. She was screaming and belly laughing all the way home. Note to self: don't feed her sugar on the plane ride home.