Raja's Monthly Memories:

January

The weather is still chilly, so you will always see me in a hat and with gloves! This cute hat was from Aunt Juliana from Slovakia!

Well, here's me in my red-neck hat! Don't I look grown up?

This is my Amma and Dada on mommy's birthday! I stayed home with Aunty Maria while they went out to eat at Biscotti's. Don't they look festive? Two days later, we had a huge birthday party at home. I was told it was a grand slam: food, Tamil movie on the big screen, the house decked with saris (thanks, Kaleem). Well, I helped celebrate by sleeping all the while in my swing! But, I heard it was a big hit. In fact, they all loved the big screen movie so much, the sheet is still on the wall!


Oh, I forgot to introduce you to Kaleem! He's a friend of Maria's who came and stayed with us for three months. I learned Hindi songs and ate (vicariously) scrumptuos biryani and stuffed parathas... Kaleem worked for Uncle Nate at Outdoordecor.com (check it out!). Here's a picture of him with Maria and friend Andrea...
hey, where are we?


Vineyard Church, where we go too (the other one is Christ Church Presbyterian) wanted to honor me with a baby shower AFTER I was born! We went to a beautiful home on a lake! Thanks Richard, Susan, Miss Cathy, Barrett and Andrea for all you did!
here's papa and Barrett on the swing! And my beautiful cake with FROGGIE! my favorite toy!

Aunty Smitha likes to come visit me. I got to go to the walk-through of her new condo. It's beautiful and I just love her new tv (especially with cartoons!)

This is my first piano lesson with mommy. I'm not very good yet, but when I'm ready to give my first concert, I'll let you all know! Oh, and I found out it's hard to play the notes with these gloves on!

See you in February! Bye for now,


David Raja

Raja's Monthly Memories

December
yawn, busy month...this is really serious...
you're making me think...

Okay, so December can be a busy time! But, we remember our Saviour's birth and share His love with everyone...







mom made this for a neighbor...

mom made this for us...

Christmas this year was extra-special! Last year mommy and papa were in India, so this was the first Christmas celebrated in our house in Jacksonville, and I was here to enjoy it! We tried something a little unusual and went to Daytona Beach the week before Christmas... someplace "warm" for Aunty Maria.

here's the view from our room!!

here's me crying, mommy and Aunty Maria

this is my favorite picture, see how they just love me!

Christmas morning!!!

these are our stockings all lined up in a row, can you guess which one is mine?!our friends, Nag, little Anish and Sheela came to visit me on Christmas Day all the way from South Carolina!

this is me in my zebra suit with Miss India (aka, Aunty Maria, shhh, don't tell!)!

After Christmas, everyone thought we should take a wild trip up to Atlanta for the New Year holiday! What a better way to introduce Maria to daddy's friends (he lived there before he moved to Jacksonville and met mommy) and show me off! We stayed at Andre's house and friends who wanted to meet me came there instead of me gallavanting all over the countryside!

meet Anu and Kishore!

and Stephen and Marie

and here we all are with Sandeep and Shivani!

One day during our week in Atlanta, we traveled to Lookout Mountian, GA where mommy went to college and visited her friends, the Pettit's. We had planned to stay for tea, but Aunty Maria offered to stay and cook a full Indian meal for them. With all of us, that was 17 people! It was so much fun!

here's Linda and Ethan Pettit

The Georgia Aqaurium was new in Atlanta, so we went with Andre and I slept mostly...

here's Andre, Maria and mommy

these sea anemones attracted mommy's attention for their ethereal beauty, like watching a silk scarf ripple in the wind...isn't God's creation just amazing!!!

daddy really liked the sea horses, can you see why? Si? If only I could lasso one and ride on it's back, but it may be hard to catch my breath!

We went to daddy's old church, the Marietta Vineyard too. the former pastor, Rick Coffin now lives and ministers in India! Isn't this mural pretty? Bangalore, where daddy and Aunty Maria are from, is painted there too! Hope I can visit soon!

Raja's Monthly Memories...

October:

Since I was born on the 23rd, this month was already hopping along. Although I entertained many different visitors. Here's some I'd like to introduce you to...

meet Aunt Juliana, she just loves me and talks in Slovak, I want to learn a few words!
these are my friends Joy and Mitasha. Don't I look tiny?
this is Shiju, mommy, and Roslyn.
this is Uncle Jerry. He sings and dances with me, I think I can fit in his hand!
this is Martin Luther King (Allengarraraj?)! Oops, I'm sleeping again.
this is Jodi and son, Jude, I'm trying to tell you!
this is Smitha's cousin, Smitha, and her friend all here at once. I love Smitha's voice, she says, "Hi cuuutttiiieee!!!"
And finally, Arunava. He lived with us before I was born and said if I were a girl, he'd call me "Strawberry", but since I'm a boy, he calls me "Groundnut". He wants to give me driving lessons, but daddy says no.

What did you all do for Halloween? In India, they don't celebrate this holiday, but since we live in the USA now, we hatched an egg of a plan. I wore my BOO! bib, and mom and/or dad stood sentry at the front door as children paraded their costumes. We gave each one candy and a Christian tract. We want to reach our world for Christ, so this was one way to share His Love with our neighbors! Here's my garb:
BOO!!!

November

I slept allot. My mommy was happy to take some naps too. Aunt Maria was busy cooking. Mom and I stayed home always that first month. Sundays, dad went to church to represent us and we found our pastor's sermons on-line and listened in. His voice put me to sleep, too.

Yep, Aunt Maria and Grandma share the same birthday, November 16th. We had a party and I gave my first "real" smile to everyone the night before! They were watching Sylvester Stallone in Cliffhanger, I thought it so amusing!

You probably saw a couple pictures of my baptism in the previous blog entry, but here's the inviation daddy sent on-line, you can view it all if you click on the link.

http://sarlamusica.googlegroups.com/web/Raja_Baptism_InvitePdf.pdf

Mommy is going to show a couple more pictures of the day..

starting from top left to right: meet cousin Katie Burke, she lives in Kansas; Aunt Christina (Katie's mom) with Aunt Maria; Maria, me and cousin Barbora who I'll lovingly call "Awuka" like her sister Matilda calls her!; cousin Joey (Katie's brother) and daddy; Barbora; Matilda (or Matik) with her usual donut!


It was so fun having so many family and friends over Thanksgiving! Uncle Timmy even came to see me from Seattle!

here's Uncle John and Aunt Christina
here's Uncle Timmy (me!) and Hannah

Well, gotta run (well, roll over) so, bye for now and keep checking in on me as mommy records each month up to the present. She better hurry cause I'm growing fast! Love you guys!!

-David Raja