Back in the US!

Hi all,
My family and I had been away for a long vacation to India and we just got back a couple of weeks ago.

I couldn't get back to blogging cause we were having way too much fun after coming back visiting the beach, attending some birthday parties, etc. I will fill in soon enough. Until then!
Sri

At Long Last!

It has been busy the last few weeks making it a little difficult for us to update the blog. In terms of an outing, we did manage to take our daughter to the annual Lego show in Tarrytown NY that I wrote about 2 weeks ago in our blog.

Other than the few times my wife took our daughter for some play dates with her friends, to the park etc., combined with work and other commitments, the time went by very quickly. I am going to try my best to be as up-to-date as possible.

I also wanted to share that we finally hit upon a way to reduce my daughter's dependency on TV as a means to get her to eat her dinner or lunch. Instead of this forming habit which was on the verge of escalating, we decided to have our dinner/lunch together as a family on the dining table, daughter included. We hoist her up on her small cushion chair placed on top of the dining chair, and not on her high-chair, no straps, nothing so as to give her that freedom while sitting. She fits in nicely except that she slips down her chair from time to time :-).

Maybe its this practice of 'sitting together as a family' or sitting at the same level as her parents, that has brought out some positive results. Our daughter has not only started eating really well in terms of the food portions but is also experimenting a little bit on different foods. We involve her in our dinner conversations and she loves that.

Although she is still coming to terms with the different kinds of food we cook, and scrutinizes the food very closely before eating anything. I think observing what we eat on a regular basis is also making her familiar to the different foods, their color, look and feel, etc.

So far, so good!

- Sriram

3rd annual weekend of LEGO® Fun at Lyndhurst, Tarrytown, NY

This weekend we went to the 3rd annual weekend of LEGO® Fun at Lyndhurst (a historic site overlooking the Hudson River in Tarrytown NY http://www.lyndhurst.org ). Here's a review for the readers.

The event featured master LEGO® Builder, Arthur Gugick and his New LEGO® buildings from around the world (http://www.gugick.com/, http://www.mocpages.com/home.php/2138 )demonstrations by award winning FIRST LEGO League Robotics Teams (http://www.usfirst.org/what/fll ), and most importantly for us activities and fun for kids. There were also LEGO creation displays by children.

Lyndhurst Mansion Replica (by Arthur Gugick)

Each of the rooms in the mansion had several Lego Creation displays of children varying from ages 3.5 to 12 years old. The displays gave a glimpse of the imagination and creativeness of the children. Here's a sample of a few of them.

Children's creations: 1

2

3

4

5

The second building had all of Arthur Gugick’s Lego creations at display. Gugick has been doing this for 40 years now. He was present at the event to answer any questions people had.

There was a huge room with several tables where children were busy making models with Lego that they could take home. There were raffles, prizes and all kinds of activities for the children.

The building was really crowded at that time (around 2.30 pm) and it was a little tough to move around or find a place to sit at the tables. As compared to the mansion, this building wasn’t too conducive for 2 year olds, but was fun all the same.

Santa Maria del Fiore, Florence, Italy (by Arthur Gugick)

The Taj Mahal, Agra, India (by Arthur Gugick)

Children's Lego Play Room 1

2

The mansion property grounds is huge and sprawling with lots of green grass and trees with blooming flowers everywhere. Children were running around, rolling down the sloping ground and having a great time with their parents.

All in all, it is definitely an event to take children of all age groups. Adults can go check out the mansion, or just get out on a beautiful spring day and play with their children on the grounds, and if you are a Lego enthusiast, that’s even better.

We had a great time. My daughter and her friend had a great time as well with the Lego show and also tiring themselves playing and running in the grounds in abundance.

This will definitely be on our list of places/events to visit annually and we would recommend this event to all parents.