Tea Party

Mamma and the kids had a tea party at home the other day... one of many activities conjured up to keep the children entertained.

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Playing soon at a city near you

The boy seems to have picked up something very rock-star-like.  We're not sure at all where he "learnt" all this stuff - certainly not from his parents, and as far as we know he hasn't been flipping the channel to MTV instead of Barney.

Fifth Anniversary at Sunriver

Five years and counting. Lots to thank God for. We decided to celebrate with a little weekend getaway to Sunriver, four hours from home. Naiively, we believed that kids and getaway could be combined under one agenda. Yeah, right.

About twenty minutes into the trip, Yo threw up all over the place and there started the derailing of plans. About an hour later - post cleaning, purchase of disinfectant wipes and more cleaning - we were back on the road. Windy roads and whiny kids don't make for good travel. Mamma sat in the back and fed Mika tidbits to keep her happy. That worked till she threw up. Anyways, long story short, we arrived at Sunriver six hours later in the middle of what appeared to be a tropical thunder storm.

The rain didn't quite stop. But thanks to a super room with a gas fireplace, flat-screen TVs and a rustic setting, not to mention cute kids, we had a great vacation and an uneventful trip back home.

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Another Yo-ism

We got the kids a play kitchen yesterday, which talks a little bit too.

Kitchen: "Hi! Let's get cooking!"
Yo, looking up anxiously when he heard that: "Dada, we not get cooked."

First Day Jitters

Yohan's in pre-school! Today was day 1. Mamma and son trooped off to a nearby preschool at 8:45 am, with diapers, sippy cup and a change of clothes. Both child and parent were having first day jitters. As soon as we drove into the parking lot, Yohan started whining and when we walked into the quiet classroom he burst into tears. Thankfully, Fiji the class fish distracted the little guy. Dada was holding fort at home with Mika, so mamma couldn't stay for too long and there was a quick farewell which involved more tears and the hand-off to Teacher Martha. Thankfully (totally a God thing) he calmed down in less than five seconds and I could hear him talking to his teacher quite happily while I eavesdropped in the corridor. It felt weird driving off - first time I wouldn't be in the same building while he was in a child-care situation.

Two hours later, I was second in a line of anxious parents of pre-schoolers peeking through the window, waiting for their offspring. He was grinning while they sang "Five Little Monkeys". Awesome!

It's only going to be one day a week for 2.5 hours, but our little chap is growing up. Time for mommy to whine!

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Random kiddo stuff

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Malaika's slowing starting to figure out things like 'nose', 'fingers', 'toes', etc - but only when she's in the mood.

From the mouth of babes

Mamma to dada, in the middle of a conversation:
    ... "You are the leader of the family"
Yo to mamma (regardless of whatever else he's doing, any other conversations are always being eavesdropped on):
    "He's not a leader, mamma.  He's a... coconut."

Cast:off

Yep, 'hooray' certainly captures it well :) Yo's cast was taken off yesterday, but it will be about 2 weeks before he will regain full functionality of that arm.  He still can't stretch it out fully, and even with the cast off is very careful about how he uses it.

Unfortunately when the cast was removed we found a severe case of rash on his arm all along the length of the cast.  The poor chap was not at all happy with that, and we've been trying to dose it with cream to help a bit.  To add to it he fell sick over the weekend with a cold/cough/fever that also resulted in a rash on the back of his neck/ears/cheeks.  Hoping and praying all this clears up soon and the little guy gets back to normal.

All dressed up

Raji aunty and Chetan uncle brought back a very cute outfit for Mika from the motherland, and mamma couldn't wait to try it out on her doll.

And of course, our inquisitive friend had to be added to the mix as well.  Btw, he apparently wants to be a clown when he grows up, and it seems he's headed in the right direction.

Susan also picked up another outfit from the last trip back home, and since we were in dress-up mode, that was tried on as well.  Mika certainly didn't seem to mind all this attention.