Sempi and I are sitting at the dining table eating dinner. Sempi is munching on homemade fried rice chips (vadaam) made by his Paati (grandma). He has a plate full of it and I’m trying to get him to share some of it with me. Me: Sempi, this plate of vadaam is for the both of us. Sempi: *pulls the plate towards him, suspiciously* Me: How about I take just a few of them and you can have the rest....

I’m happy to announce we welcomed our new addition to the family on May 2nd 2016. Our second son, Vianvilari Takeru Ramanujam. When the baby came out I was grinning like an idiot for a whole 5 minutes before I realized it. I was ecstatic and filled with joy, even though the baby was crying. More than once I caught myself staring at the baby while he was sleeping. Oh and then there is this: I don’t remember why it was so hard to raise a newborn last time....

We started a new routine for dropping off Sempi at his pre-school. We walk to the school and on the way we find flowers to pick. This morning we found a dried dandelion and Yoshi taught him how to blow the florets. She blew half of it and gave it to Sempi. Sempi wasn’t all too interested but he wanted me to blow the rest. His stipulation was I have to blow the rest with my nose and not with my mouth....

Sempi and I are playing with a marble run game. I just built a pretty complex structure. I was quite proud of my creation. Me: Sempi, look at this run that I built. Is it pretty cool or is it pretty cool? Sempi: Appa, pretty cool and pretty cool are the same thing. Tread carefully when fishing for compliments from a toddler.

Sempi and I are at the swap n' play (an indoor play area). He’s playing with a crane toy and I’m sitting on a chair staring at my phone. He deicides to rescue me from my boredom and brings three dinosaur toys to me and says “Appa, here, play with me”. So I join him at the table with three dinosaurs. Here’s the ensuing conversation: Me: Here’s a Triceratops, it says, “Woof, Woof”....