30 Days of Thankfulness

What a great idea! For the month of November, I am joining an incredible set of women that share a passion for photography to document each day of November with a picture of the things and people in our life that we are Thankful for.  This is a good test run for me to decide if I can accept the challenge of doing a 365 Days in picture of my life in 2013.

Day 1, November 1st: I am thankful for this precious camera and my nifty fifty lens that enables me to capture our family's memories one click at a time.

Day 2, November 2nd: Today, I am thankful for the two Dick's Sporting Goods gift cards that I won at a company raffle.  With these gift cards, I bought my new running shoes (which were quite expensive) just in time for my upcoming 5K on Sunday, November  4th.

Day 3, November 3rd:  Today we did what we always talk of doing on a weekend. Wake up early and go for a walk.  Now early on a weekend means wake up before 8.00 AM and head out of the house before 9.00 AM.  By our standards getting out of the house by 9.00 AM is early; unless our chunky monkey wakes us up before 8.00 AM.   There is a new trail in Grapevine that held promises of offering spectacular views of Lake Grapevine.  The trail was good, but did not have great views.  We did enjoy our walk/run and soaked in the sun midst meandering paths with canapes of lush trees.
This is a picture I am thankful for today.  Walks with my Family.

Day 4, November 4th. Today I ran the 5K I had been training for for the past 6 weeks.  I am proud that I met my goal of running the entire race and not walking it.  The icing on the cake was my timing.  I finished the race in 36 minutes and 38 seconds.  This is record time for me.  I could not have gotten through the end of the race running without the encouragement and support of my dear friends Shilpi and Vishal.  Dhruv is now almost 15 months and I kept telling myself that I needed to get back in shape.  All I did was compain and not actively work towards shedding the baby pounds.  My dear hubby who knows me better than I do finally helped me get over my inertia by signing me up for a training program.  Today, I am thankful for my supportive family and friends.   My hubby is a rockstar!  He made me the perfect playlist for today's race and was there to cheer me with Dhruvi in tow at the finish line despite sleeping only for three hours last night. My friends really helped me challenge myself and run the 5K and finish strong.  I am truly blessed.

Day 5, November 5th.  Today I am thankful for my son and my best friend's oldest son being friends and enjoying each other's company. Aditya, my friend's oldest son is 9 years old and excels at regaling my 14 month old.  My little guy worships Aditya bhaiya (which means older brother) and loyally follows him around.  This evening they were goofing around in my friend's backyard and Aditya put a ballerina clip on my son's hair who thought it was super funny.

Dhruv's First Professional Haircut

We went for our first haircut today, and I capitalized on the opportunity to take some lifestyle pictures of my handsome baby.  Technically, this is not Dhruv’s first haircut, but it is his first haircut at a professional salon.    He was born with a lot of hair and has had 3 haircuts to date courtesy Papa The Barbarian, oops, I mean Barber.   I was pretty determined to take my sweet boy to a “real” salon and decided on taking him to Cool Cuts.  We had no idea how Dhruv would react, but took our chances.  He is not yet at the age where we can reason with him (bribe him).

The Before ( I know his hair is not super long, but I wanted it to be even).  This was taken on a bench right outside Cool Cuts

 The Ride.  This was our first time at Cool Cuts and I was pleasantly surprised to see how kiddy friendly the place is.  We picked the red car since Dhruv has a red Little Tikes car at home and hoped some form of familiarity would assuage his fear if any.

 We finally put the cape on Dhruv and he was ready for this exciting ride.

After he was done being distracted by the cool car and Dora blaring in the background.  His look says it all…. “What are you guys doing to me?”

 The comb in his hands served as a good distraction for sometime

Dhruv is a good boy and sits obediently  through this part

 Proud Papa admiring his son

Oopps… it finally happened.  Dhruv realized something was different and he had tears in his eyes

Papa consoling Dhruvi

Dhruvi sporting a Mohawk (My personal favorite)

 Perfectionist Papa ensuring a clean cut

Dhruvi gets his bribe, a car for being a good boy

 The After  - Handsome like Papa 

We had a great time taking our chunky monkey for his first real hair cut.  Life is good :)

Dhruvi Loves Hair

I am two weeks shy of going back on maternity leave and I can't hardly wait.  One of my resolutions when I go back on maternity leave is to capture Dhruv's life one picture at a time and share his every day moments which are oh so precious to us with our close friends and family.

Today Mandar had the opportunity to work from home and this made for some very sweet and special moments between father and son.  Off late, Dhruv pretty much puts anything and everything in his mouth.  The omnipresent hair is no exception.  Dhruvi loves pulling his Mammma's hair, but Papa's hair tastes the best (I am sure it is the expensive metrosexual Aveda styling products Mandar uses). 

Here are a series of pictures I captured in a span of 10 minutes.  Moments like these make my heart melt and make me eternally grateful for my two boys whom I love and cherish more than life itself.