Living Things

Earlier this month Simran organized a party to celebrate Arjun's birthday. He would have turned 47. We met old friends and chatted and ate and planted potting flowers and listened to Simran play the violin.

We explained to Vivian that it was a birthday party for Simran's dad. She occasionally asks "where is Arjun ?" or "where is Simran's dad ?" I'm not sure what I would tell her. I can't do the "he's in heaven" thing. When is a child ready for the reality that people die.

In some sort of round about preparation, Vivian and I often discuss how plants and trees and flowers and leaves die. We are working ourselves up to living things. And that an intrinsic property of living things is that they die.

But then, after the party I had my phone and got a quick shot of Simran and her friends outside the Omelettry. It made me think that above all, living things live.

D is for Dinosaur

A couple of weeks ago, Vivian got to the letter D at school. D is for Dinosaurs. Last week she burst into this song with plenty of hand actions:

Brontosaurus have a big long neck

a big long neck

a big long neck

when dinosaurs ruled the earth

T-Rex have big sharp teeth

big sharp teeth

big sharp teeth

when dinosaurs ruled the earth

Stegosaurus have spikes on their backs

spikes on their backs

spikes on their backs

when dinosaurs ruled the earth

pterodactyls fly high in the sky

fly high in the sky

fly high in the sky

when dinosaurs ruled the earth

and then she paused for a moment and used her hands to form a big crown around her head and said: "Daddy what is the name of the brown dinosaur that has a big crown of horns?" and I said "um..errr". And she burst back in tune:

triceratops have a big old crown

a big old crown

a big old crown

when dinosaurs ruled the earth

I am beginning to get a complex from my almost three year old daughter. Jo is harder to impress, and I caught her with a raised eye brow.

The next day when I went to get Vivian after school I found out that the class had been taught the dinosaur song by Ms. Sally, the music teacher.

If someone can teach a class full of three-year olds that kind of stuff in a one hour per week class, I going to send Vivian back to her when she's getting ready to take her LSAT or whatever.

On the Phone

I'm on a ski trip - left my prego wife and child back home. Last night I was eating dinner at a noisy restaurant and missed Vivian's goodnight phone call. So this morning, Jo called and handed the phone to Vivian.

Vivian: "Daddy - what's the problem? Why won't you talk to us on the phone?"
Me: "Err - good morning Vivian. How are you?
Vivian: "We are having a girl's trip. How is your boy's trip?"

And so it went on and on. She took the phone from Jo four times and added something more each time.

The skiing is great. Fresh power this morning. I miss my girls.

The Big Girl Bed

For over a month we've been telling Vivian that the lovely maple Oeuf crib that has been her home and sanctuary for her whole life would soon belong to her younger sibling. Finally, on MLK Day, we went to U-haul and Ikea and ended up with a large flat pack that would become a bed.

Jo and I are a good team. We can do many things well together. We have managed to raise a 3 year old without too much bickering. But unless you are Pandorans and have a pony-tail synapse connection thing, try to avoid assembling Ikea furniture with a divorce-able entity. Patrick came to our rescue and soon we had a Big Girl Bed. Here are some pictures of Brandon and Vivian trying it out moments after we threw on the mattress.

Vivian adores her BGB. She will walk up to perfect strangers and tell them she she is a Big Girl now and sleeps in her BGB. It fells very different tucking her in for the night. And in the mornings when she wanders in to our room and jumps into bed with us for a little extra TLC from Mommy.

I'm in New Mexico as I type this. Here's an email I got from Jo yesterday:

Vivian just had her first fall out of her big girl bed. I heard a small thud, but thought it was crazy [the cat]. Then she opened her door and came in with her blanket trailing behind her and said in her sleepy voice "mommy, I falled out of big bed." It was pretty cute. No crying and said it didn't hurt so I put her back to bed. I think she was asleep before her head hit the pillow...

Patrick's Workout

Some time back Patrick tried explaining how he runs for his workout. It involved so many stages of "run at intensity x for y minutes" that my head got a workout just thinking about it. But last week I saw it in action. Turns out it was a lot simpler.

Dancing Queen III

Vivian is now in dancing school. Yes - she is excited. But I suspect that the best fun was shopping for dancing school. Jo and Vivian went off to the store and returned with a bag of loot and a very excited little girl. "Daddy - I bought ballet shoes and tap shoes and a lil'tard ("leotard") and a dancing skirt with flowers on it."

Here Vivian is getting ready for dance class.


Why is this post "Dancing Queen III"? Recall this video (http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-5414256490314695475#) from when Vivian was less than 2 weeks old. And this post (http://arunzadad08.blogspot.com/2008/07/dancing-queen.html) from when she was about 16 months.

Lollipop

There was a time when dark chocolate truffles reigned supreme in Vivian's confectionary universe. But now lollipops are the undisputed leader. Here Vivian is hamming it up with a lollipop given to her by Ms. Mary at school.


Vivian was doing something with Mommy when she came out shirtless with lollipop and her matching red sweats. I grabbed the camera.

Bye Potty Chart

It was a simple mid-morning ceremony in the bathroom. At my request, Jo took a photograph. Then she and Vivian unstuck the four pieces of blue painter's masking tape that have held the potty chart to the bathroom walls for the last few months.


Vivian's potty chart has been unused for some time now. It was pressed into service during a particularly intractable part of her potty training. Jo gave Vivian stickers for the potty chart to commemorate success. But the story starts long back. I posted Potty Training 101 in October 2008, the day Vivian spontaneously used her "dewa potty" (Dora potty) for the first time.

Vivian's potty training started in the summer for 2009 and was constantly interrupted by a dozen or more vacations and travels. By late Fall, she was pretty good at home, but was still wearing diapers to school. By the end of the year, she was doing great, but we weren't ready to declare victory yet. Last week, for threee days in a row at school, Vivian went to the bathroom, asked Ms Mary "can I have book and some privacy?", and then did her business. Which led to this morning's retirement of the potty chart.

The parents are proudly looking forward to three months of poop-free existence. By the middle of April we should be back elbow deep in shit.