Baby Anna's Third Week

Baby Anna had a really good third week! Here are some photos we thought we would share . . .

Anna meets her soon to be good friend Lily . . . Lily is very intent on making friends, but Anna wants nothing to do with her. She instead likes to stare at her curtains.

Each morning, Paul and I find Anna enjoying looking at her elephant poster on the wall. She is always smiling at it and talking incessantly to Mr. Elephant.
Anna gets ready to go out to a girls lunch with me, Oma, Kristy and her mom to Tertullia.
Joke comes to dinner one night and rocks Anna to sleep . . .
Oma gives Anna her first bottle . . .
Anna again happily staring at Mr. Elephant . . .
Oma meets Baby Jasmine . . . and Baby Jasmine meets Baby Anna!
Out like a light! Mom and Dad actually got to go on a date night since we decided to try implementing one bottle every other night. Oma babysat Anna and gave her a huge 4 oz. bottle of baby milk . . . and Anna was knocked out for the night!
Madhavi (Canton, MI) came to visit Baby Anna one morning . . .
Bec and Will (Scotland) came to visit Anna the following afternoon after they arrived back in Pune from their trip home to the UK . . .
Lily, Anna and Oma time in the big chair . . .
Oma returned home yesterday. The holiday is over. . . now back to work! ;-)

Baby Anna's Second Week

Baby Anna had a really busy second week in Pune with doctor's appointments, lots of visitors, brunch out with friends, and playing with some new toys. Here are some photo highlights from the week.

Colm, Nate, and Becs come to visit Anna and have a chat with us over some coffee cake and tea. Here are Colm (Ireland) and Nate are watching Becs play with Anna.
Here Becs (UK) and Nate hold the baby . . .


Now, it's Colm's turn . . .

Here is Anna's favorite time of day . . . a ride in the car . . . but this time to Dr. Bafna's office.

Lucy and Katrina (Ft. Wayne, Indiana) come to visit Baby Anna and leave us with some yummy fajitas for dinner . . .

Michele (Ft. Wayne, Indiana) and Marea (Cincinnati, Ohio) come to play with Anna one sunny afternoon . . . Daddy takes a nap with Anna after all the visitors leave . . .

Anna loves her giraffe bouncy chair as Lily looks on . . . (Thanks Kristy and Gadi!)

Later, Dieter (Belgium) and Sabiya (Pune) come to visit Anna . . .

Now, it's bath time! Anna did pretty well . . . though she does not like being outside of the tub . . . she prefers the warm water instead . . . here she is howling in her ducky bath towel. (Thanks Aunt Alina and Uncle Matt ... she really likes it!)

Anna at the Westin for brunch . . .

Posing for Oma in her bed . . .
Paul, me and Anna . . .

Anna with her new friend, Balu . . .

Oma and Anna have some special time together after brunch . . .

Peanut Behrens

Surprise! . . . We're Preggers! ;-) I'm 12 weeks finishing up the first trimester, while as you will see from Paul's photo below, he's further along in his pregnancy.



Who knew that 3 weeks ago, at 9 weeks, Peanut Behrens would really resemble a 'peanut.' Indeed, there was a peanut in my belly 3 weeks ago with a strong heartbeat and moving so quickly that it appeared as though Peanut was dancing the tango or practicing for a gymnastics meet.

Today, we got to see Peanut at 12 weeks. The screen was not facing me, so I did not get to see Peanut's dance moves, but Paul states for the record that it was moving its hands and arms around to some funky beat. Also, the heartbeat was audible today which was amazing to hear. Below you can see a good profile of Peanut's head, its hand close to its mouth, along with its Buddha-belly.
I am feeling pretty good. The nausea is over and the cravings have begun. I have the oddest healthy cravings. All I want to eat is chicken, yogurt, boiled eggs, veggies, fruit, fresh lime soda, and Jell-O. Yes, there's me below with a tiny bump today.

Paul has been having some cravings lately as well. He likes to eat ... hmmm ... well let's just say he enjoyed all the sausages, spatzle, and Weiss bier at Oktoberfest this weekend. See Paul below in his undetermined pregnancy stage.

The Behrens family is currently doing well. We are expecting Peanut to arrive around April 27th, but we still are not sure if the baby will be born at the University of Michigan Hospital in Ann Arbor or at Jehangir Hospital in Pune. Paul and I will be sure to keep everyone posted once we have made our decision.

Rahul Weds Hemlata

We finally just arrived home around 11 pm from Rahul's wedding in Nigadi. An Indian wedding is a little different from one in the States. Instead of cramming all the events into one evening, the events take place over several days. Paul and I decided to participate in the last day, which of course, includes the actual ceremony.

We arrived in Nigadi in time to watch Rahul ride to the wedding hall on his white horse.

Santosh did a nice job decorating the wedding vehicle.

Ok, so the 1 kilometer procession takes about 2 hours to complete. Why, you may ask? Because it is a slow trot to the wedding hall, and the procession stops to dance the along the route. The wedding procession is accompanied by a live marching band and dj.

Paul and I pose for a quick photo in our Indian attire. Rahul, his mother, and his sister, Marisha, gave Paul the sherwani suit and me the sari as a gifts. Note Paul has some awesome mojandis on his feet. This being my first time wearing a sari, I was a bit nervous. However, they are extremely comfortable, and if pinned correctly they cover you where you would like to be covered and do not fall off.

All the colors of the saris . . .

Rahul's sister found me walking down the street and decided that Paul and I should start dancing. Here we are as we make our way to the wedding hall.

A photo with Marisha, Rahul's mother, and myself.

We finally make it to the wedding hall. Below is a video of the actual wedding ceremony. During the ceremony, you will notice that we are throwing rice as a blessing on them as they walk around the fire. Pay close attention to Paul's unique filming technique it becomes apparent near the end of the video.

Now, off to Africa tomorrow afternoon!

An Evening of Dinner and Dancing @ Rahul's

Paul's driver Rahul Rajput is getting married on Thursday. His mother invited us over dinner tonight. Paul and I thought it would be a simple, awkward affair to meet the family and eat a nice home cooked vegetarian meal. We arrived at Rahul's home promptly at 8 pm. Of course, we were the first to arrive. We were greeted by his mother, who performed a quick pooja and gave us tikka on our foreheads. We entered the home and we were served kesari, a hot sweet milk dish with vermicelli noodles, raisins, and cashew nuts. After eating our sweet, we were ushered outside to the tented area and the dance party began. Apparently, the intent of the evening was to teach us some Bollywood dance moves! Rahul's sister graciously and patiently taught me some of her awesome stylings on the dance floor. Paul and Rahul danced the robot. And yes, the videographer came so that Paul and I will be forever immortalized dancing badly in Pune. I am certain all of the General Motors driving fleet will be watching Rahul's Sir and Ma'am with their crazy dancing shortly!

The men danced separately from the women. Here this little boy is partying!


Here is a video of little boy dancing machine gettin' down with Snoop . . .


Paul takes a break and plays with the kitten . . .

Here I am tearing up the floor!

Oh yes, here I am with the White-Man's Overbite in this video clip . . .

As part of the upcoming wedding, the bride and groom have turmeric paste applied to their face, arms, and sometimes entire body. Turmeric is a natural antiseptic and cleanser. It also whitens the skin. So, the evening finished by us applying more turmeric to Rahul's face, and then his mother slathered it on Paul and I. Though, I scrubbed my face with the loofah when I got home, I am now a lovely shade of yellow. And our ears are still ringing with the faint notes of "Bra-zil, La, La, La, La, La, La, La, La . . .". (Yes, this favorite for Brazilians at Carnival is also quite popular in India.)

Around 11 pm, we finally were served a lovely meal of chapati, cabbage shorba (yummy!), daal, and rice. For dessert, we had a rainbow falooda, with tapioca seeds, vermicelli noodles, and rose syrup. Now, time for bed.

Green Pune

Today, we went to help our friends Bec and Will plant in their new garden. Will is opening up a NGO in Pune called Solar Cinema (http://www.solarcinema.org) and decided that the backyard garden needed some sprucing. Paul and I really miss working in the garden. This time of year back home we would spend all weekend getting it ready. It was a lot of fun to have our hands back in the earth, we did not realize how much we missed it until we were digging again. Of course, Pauly and I came home covered in dirt. It would not be a successful day without getting a little messy.

Below are some photos of our afternoon gardening . . .

Here Bec is trying to plant the scrawny bougainvilla . . .
All finished with this side . . . let's give the plants a drink!

After we finished drenching the plants, we had a nice barbecue and then the boys played cricket in the alley.

Mamallapuram

As it was Election Day in Maharashtra, Paul and I decided to have a mini-holiday weekend to the seaside town of Pondicherry. Along the way, we stopped in Mamallapuram about 50 km South of Chennai. Mamallapuram is known for its monolithic shrines and rock-cut cave temples that are scattered over a seaside landscape also dotted with boulders. Since I had just visited Hampi a few months ago, Mamallapuram was not as impressive to me, however Paul and I still enjoyed our brief 60 minute detour en route to Pondi.

Here we at the Arjuna's Penance relief-carving stop looking at, well, one of the enormous boulders balancing on this slippery rock surface. As you can see, some local school children are using it as a slide.
Below is Arjuna's Penance known to be the largest relief carving on Earth.

We then went onto the Five Rathas, a cluster or temples named for the five Pandava brothers of Mahabharata.

Of course, Paul wanted to pose with the elephant . . .

Next, we drove over to Shore Temple. The Shore Temple overlooks the Bay of Bengal. It has endured centuries of salt water battering its lovely exterior along with strong ocean winds. However, it is still beautiful to see. It dates back to early 8th century and is believed to be the oldest temple in Southern India.

Bay of Bengal . . .

. . . and the Shore Temple
Here I am posing with Nandi bulls that guard the surrounding area of the temple.

Now, off to Pondicherry!