Mundun

It is in the Vedic tradition to perform a Mundun ceremony before a child turns one or three. It is a beautiful ceremony where the child's hair is cut to symbolize the shedding of the burdens of past lives.  A lock of hair is cut by the father at the end of the ceremony, but it is your choice to take it further.  We decided to stick with the lock for Izzie since she has great hair.  Since Max and Sonya were still a little peach fuzzy we took it all the way with them :)

Start with blowing the conch shell

Whole family during the ceremony.

Adam cutting Izzie's hair,

and Sonya's, 

and finally Max's.

Max didn't care for this part, but he let us do it.

Here he is looking like the Buddha.

This was taken right before Sonya screamed her head off! She ended up looking like a zebra because we couldn't finish with her moving so much.  Then Adam had the great idea to use beard trimmers.  He thought it was that vibration that was bothering her.  So a trip to Walgreens and.....

Navy Pier and Chicago Children's Museum

We spent several weekends taking Izzie to see the sights in Chicago. We figured Max and Sonya were too small to enjoy it now, and it was good bonding time with Izzie.

Izzie really wanted to take a boat ride. We saw some amazing views of the skyline.

Horsing around with Papa

There was an amazing stain glass exhibit at Navy Pier that day.

There was also a regatta going on. We watched the sailboats go by for a while.

The very beautiful Auntie Meha joined us that day.

Fun at the children's museum! 

more Chicago

Izzie's first time on a trampoline

A visit from one of Mama's oldest friends Auntie Karen.

I love how Izzie smells flowers.  She gets totally into it and always backs up with a nose full of pollen.

Max loves a game of peek-a-boo.

Max's concurring hero pose!

Izzie putting Emilio to bed.

Love this photo....why is Max bald? Stay tuned.....

Adam had a bike trip from Moab to Durrango this summer. Photo says enough!

Father's Day

My Boys!

Soni getting into cooking also!

Back home....

After four months, we are back from Chicago.  Technical difficulties kept me from posting regularly and from organizing my thousands of photos while at my parents.  Now I have a ton of photos and don't have the hours required to organize them chronologically.  So the next few post will be a hodgepodge of summer fun :)

Here is our July 4th in downtown Flossmoor.  We enjoyed a fun day with our dear friend Vesna.  The firefighters were letting the kids set off the fire hoses, so of course Izzie and I had to try it! 

 Izzie loved cooking with her Nani and Auntie

 My yoga girl.

 Everyday my dad came home from work he handed Izzie his pager.  She loved walking around with it.

 My moms garden soon became Izzie's garden.  Every morning she watered the plants and the lions, whom she names Leo and Leonard. More water got on the lions than on the plants.

Max and Soni had so many milestones while in Chicago. They got seven teeth each, learned to walk, and started talking a bit (well, babbling a lot).  The part I loved was watching all three kids play together.  More photos of that coming.  This Buddha statue was a favorite of the kids.  All three of them liked crawling all over it.

Here is a random one of Izzie at the Brookfield Zoo.  I loved this zoo as a kid and I loved sharing it with Izzie.  I can't wait until we can take all three kids!

It rained all summer, and I LOVED it! Here are some shots of the sky one day while we were walking to the park.  We found a few random trees and Izzie sat for some cutie photos.

Stay turned for part 2......