June Bug!

June Bug!...RAJA

...life is good...... just me a'smilin'......living in the hood with dad...and......grasping for...

...leaves.

It's June after all, and I love being out in nature...

My backyard is so great, I even bring my visitors here...

...and we admire flowers...

...I match in my pink dress!

I also eat in the backyard (no, not leaves and dirt...yet!)

Two close friends came to visit me. Satish and Pastor Valdex!

After many attempts at convincing, my parents finally took me to the beach. Grandma Burke made me my own sun hat, it's a little big yet! I didn't get in the water, but got to crawl on the sand. Dada carried me in a pouch, too. It was a beautiful day!

Come back in July, I've gots lots to show you! (hint: our vacation!)

Hope you are all having a great summer! Come down to Florida (Jacksonville) and visit me anytime! We love guests! I entertain!!!

Love in Jesus,

David Raja Leonard

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