A diksha and me overdose

Well, anyone who's been reading here knows the frame of mind I'm currently in, so ride at your own risk :)

Diksha and I decided we'd pick one of our pictures, print and make two frames, one for me to keep and one for her to take. I started to look.....and I looked and I looked and I looked.

Out of that came this beautiful journey in pictures.

A picture story for you deech......starting at the very beginning.

Yet within..... and likely anna's first communication with you. I so love how focused he is..... hand covering the other ear, eyes turned inward......so intent.

You entered the real world the next day. May 1st....my may day baby.

So little....so cute.....around six months old

In tirupathi, not yet an year old

An overflow of love happening there, our home in adarshnagar....your first home in fact

A picture I just love and have on my desk. Even through the picture you feel like a spring of energy, ready to jump out of my hands. I used to call your hugs 'my instant cup of energy' (you know I still do)

Likely your first experience with the ocean....and you just loved it. Just over an year old... I think Mangalore.

All arms and legs....visibly enjoying each other....at our earlier home in Bangalore

we still have the shells we collected here.....mahabs i think.

you look like you were expecting the lamp to sparkle...there's that sparkle in your eyes....our first diwali in Bangalore

Goa or was it kovalam......it's no wonder you love the beach....we seem to have done so many trips with you even so little

at pedda polam, in jangareddygudem.....where you went on to create our own little 'enchanted farm'...... with it's geese and goats and hens and guinea fowl and rabbits and cows....lovely. (and what's more, it's as I write this that I received your message that you're hen shopping for the farm in jangareddygudem...enjoy your visit deech !)

Also jrg...naana, anna and you....actually getting your legs and hands in the mud.

you so loved the swings and slides

This I think, was you already in Australia....or was it Mangalore  :)

Another picture I love...you were holding naana from falling off....in kodaikanal

Another cute picture of you and naana

This one looks so dicey....crazy dicey.....a picnic we'd gone on to ganganchukki bunganchukki falls 

Back home in Bangalore....nicely colour coordinated

helping me make the thoranam ....you sure made festivals so much fun

Older and naughtier, at Qutubminar....you had us go back the next day just to feed the squirrels out of your hand. Quite clearly, your deep love for animals showed up in little ways right from the beginning.

a trip to some theme park.....likely vpg near chennai

high up in the mountains......at Kufri. 

We saw our best ever night sky there......naana woke me up at 3 in the morning as he knew it's something I'd like, and for what I saw, I woke you and anna up too....a sight and an experience that has just stayed with me. We've shared so many such.

Gosh, there's so many pictures too, that I think I'm going to do it in lots. I started with thinking about fifteen pictures, but somewhere along I fully lost count.

This can be the baby picture series, let's say 'an under ten'.

And no excuses for it being predominantly you and me.... anna and naana were the after thoughts here you see :)

These were days before phone cameras, in fact even before we had a digital camera, making each picture that much more precious. No options of check and retake, or even multiple pictures in the same place, as each picture not only cost money, we'd invariably be counting the films we carried.

A whole different world for sure.......from the camera angle, and my own emotional angle as well. I owe you a thanks for even enabling this journey for me deech, for not approving the first three pictures I selected for the print :)

Even as I was looking I kept showing Diksha some pictures I was picking for our frame.....and was nice to hear her observations "what was I even doing....  I never seem to stand straight.....my hair was so straight....... looks like I was such a happy child"