Hill country

We missed the best wildflower season of a lifetime. But there are still some left over here and there. Like at my favorite park inside Austin city limits - St. Edwards Park. The kids are familiar with the park. And they are hard to impress. So the display of flowers must have been good because it got their attention. Even Quinn - with his languid I'm-so-bored with everything tween attitude. It was hard to get them to leave.

In case you are wondering, Quinn and I went to see MIB-III yesterday and he kept the 3D glasses.

Evan wandered off quite far. He couldn't see us from where he was. I waited thinking he'd panic or at least be slightly anxious when he realized that he couldn't see anyone. Nothing like that. He strolled down the path stopping to look at flowers till he eventually came around a corner and spotted us.

Trip to Grandma's

A few pictures from two weekends of trips to Grandma's and around.

The Millican House

The other evening Simran and Jo and the kids and I were driving around west campus after filling ourselves with TCBY. We stopped by the old Millican House to look in on her. She looks strange. Like a plumb painted straightened out version of her old self. I peered in through the glass next to the front door and took a picture of the lobby.

A lot of history in these walls. Short. Intense. Sweet. Simran was three back then. The kids weren't even a glint in their mamma's eye.  Their mamma was my date at the old Millican house twelve Christmases ago.

Amber

We met Lane at - where else - the Dog and Duck the other day. The kids were introduced to Amber. She is cute and handsome and listens so well. And looks very smart with her police badge. Then Lane took a family photo on his outdated cell phone. Here it is. Because we get so few family photos. And because this one is at Conference Room A.

Walking

Yesterday I woke up to Evan telling anyone who'd listen "Daddy. I want go walk". That's the most complex sentence he has ever said. But he's a big boy now. For the longest time he stayed a minimalist and called both Jo and me "mamma". Then he slowly tried on "daddy". Hesitantly at first, and only after he had first said "mamma". As in "Thank you mamma. Daddy", even if I was the only one around and he was talking to me. Then he gradually dropped the preceding "mamma" when he wanted to say "daddy".

So we went and walked around Laguna Gloria museum after we dropped Vivian off at school. He gleefully pointed out "tree" and "flaow" (flower) and "ant" and "bug" and "roipoi" (rolly-polly) and "lava rock" (sorry kiddo - it's just limestone around here), and "wawa" (water - as in Lake Austin), and even "li bulb" (light bulbs) as we walked.

Later after we came back home, I was in the back bathroom when Jo was looking for me. She told Evan to go call daddy. I heard him getting all self-important and yelling out "Arun - come here".

So the boy is talking up a storm. But it's funnest to hear him talk when you are driving around. His favorite things to look at, point out and say are: school-bus, bish-tuk (big truck), house (yep - any type of building from a single family home to a twenty-story downtown VMU is a house), and back hoe. And as you can image, when driving around Austin, he is always running into at least two of the above four. And the bigger they are, the louder he gets.

"Bis tuk, house, HOUSE, school-bus, BIS TUK, back hoe, BACK HOE, bis tuk....". Non-stop. I think it's driving Jo insane. Literally.

Last Day at Grace

They had three more days of classes after graduation. Pajama Day, Water Day and then the very last day was Pizza Day. "Vivian - this is the very last day you will be going to Grace Carden", I said. "Uh" was the best she came up with. No biggie.

Evan seemed more solemn. He's going to miss dropping "Vivi" off to school. And "Go pick up Vivi", as he reminded us. On the other hand, in about three short months he'll be at Grace. God help them.

Deja vu vu

This is a picture of Vivian high-fiving Ms. Cas. It was her first day at Grace Garden. And then for the next three years she walked, stumbled, fell-off and climbed back on to that stone ledge above the sidewalk on her way in and out of school. And she stopped at every one of those disabled parking signs and smacked the pictogram of the wheelchair and shouted "wheel chair".

Saturday morning we were on our way out from Grace Garden. Vivian had just graduated. Evan hopped on to the stone ledge. He held Jo's hand. As he approached the first sign he smacked it with his other hand and yelled "chair".

Here's to the spirit of the wheel chair. And to three more years of Grace.

The Brandon connection

This is a picture of Vivian getting ready for her first day at Grace Garden. Brandon was with us because his mother had just given birth to his little sister in her car on the way to the hospital.

Friday night Brandon and Vivian had a sleepover. Hailey and Evan were sequestered in their cribs. But they were all within shouting distance of each other. I was knocked out on benadryl, but I hear they had a rocking time. Friday night Brandon's dad graduated from UT with his MBA. Saturday morning Vivian graduated from Grace Garden. Congratulations to the new graduates.

Graduation

After sufficiently thanking supernatural powers and their local reps and pledging allegiances to multiple governmental administrative blocks, our little caterpillar became a butterfly yesterday!

I thank many people from the bottom of my heart. Saint John's for creating and maintaining such a fine institution. Ms Kim for inviting Vivian to finish her senior year even after Vivian played hooky for the last nine months. Ms Cas, Ms Andrea, Ms Melissa and Ms. Katie for being such great teachers. Vivian's wonderful classmates for making me like other people's kids. The good folks at Kangaroo Kids in Hyderabad for filling in more than adequately during our travels. And Ms. Mary for all of the above and everything else.

We chatted with parents and teachers after the graduation while the freshly minted butterflies horsed around. They mentioned one word frequently in the same sentence as Vivian - spirit.

Congratulations on your graduation, my dear. And I do hope that this is the first of many more.

Back Home

So we are back in Austin. For 13 days now. And I've been avoiding posting because I feel like I need to put down our return in black and white and I have been unable to find a definitive emotion or even a clear thought to wrap the blog post around. Partly because it's been a whirlwind. But also because it's been a bit anticlimactic. Like slipping on an old pair of shoes. After being on a constant diet of new experiences for so many months, same old feels like, well, same old.

Getting back to our home was weird. I can't remember which cabinet holds the towels and where the frying pans are. But things from muscle memory work automatically.

I wasn't sure that Evan would remember the place but two minutes after he walked in through the front doors he had retrieved his old favorite toy - a hulking lump of noise-making and synthesized talking plastic in the shape of a train that Stacy had given him on his first birthday. Over the course of the next few days he blossomed. His vocabulary and sentence-making  improved in leaps and bounds as did his seeming understanding of the world around him. It's as if he was almost ready but waiting to return home before pulling all the pieces together.

Vivian sometimes acts like she never left. Maggi noodles and school uniforms may have just been temporary hallucinations. When asked she remembers all that. But by silent observation alone you'd never know that she was anywhere but Austin for the last school year.

When we were getting into month eight or so, Jo and I would fantasize and strategize how we'd visit all our favorite restaurants. In the first 36 hours, like our own version of NYT's 36 hours in Austin. On the way home from the airport, we stopped at 24 Diner. But since then we've hardly eaten out. Musashino, Contigo and HopDoddy.

People change. Amanda and Gordon are parents. Jen is single. There's the business of the new nephew. I haven't yet met my business people. Old friends but different. Not in a bad way.

We are trying Austin back on a bit gingerly. Starting soccer and working out at Red/Black are big steps. Today - breakfast at Taco Shack, a run around Town Lake and lunch at China Cafe - was huge. I almost feel like I'll be back home. Soon.

Cover photo

Back when this blog was formatted differently, you may recall that there used to be a cover picture. First of Vivian and then of both the munchkins. When an exceptional new picture came along I'd change the cover photo. If I needed a new cover photo today this would be it. We have just finished hiking to the bottom of Waipio Valley in Hawaii and back up.

Vivian's year in pictures

For her graduation from Grace Garden, they requested ten pictures of Vivian from the last year. We narrowed it down to these eleven, presented in no particular order.

 With Kangaroo Kids friends at her birthday party. InOrbit Mall, Hyderabad.

 Shravini applying mehndi on the balcony. Banjara Hills, Hyderabad.

Practicing Chale-Chalo for her school concert. Banjara Hills, Hyderabad.

 Aloha. Kealakekua Bay, Hawaii.

No smiling. Windsor Castle, England.

Top of the jungle jim, Kangaroo Kids, Hyderabad.

 With Peyton and Aaron. Amber Fort, near Jaipur.

 Rajashtani dancing. Chokhi Dhani, Jaipur.

Dressed in her first lehenga. Banjara Hills, Hyderabad.

Fireworks on Diwali. Ameerpet, Hyderabad.

Morning visit. Taj Mahal, Agra.

Back at Grace

Less than twenty four hours after we landed back in Austin after being gone for nine months, Vivian was back with her friends in Grace Garden. A new class with a new teacher - but she walked right in and it seemed like she had never left.

Since then she's been to two play dates, two birthday parties, and one school fundraising party. And school four days a week. It all ends at the end of this week when they graduate.

I am completely surprised by how much she missed everyone and they missed her.  And humbled by the depth of their friendships. In a week they will take off in different directions like particles scattered in a super collider. I hope they keep in touch and build on their amazing time at Grace.

Captain Cook

Probably my last post about Hawaii - though it's now two weeks since we left. One morning while Jo took the kids to our neighborhood Manini Beach, I drove to the top of Napoopoo Road and then clambered down several hundred feet to the Captain Cook memorial. In the panorama picture below I stitched four different photos together. And at the leftmost end, above the bluff you can make out the distant finger of land at the other end of the bay. Jo and the kids were frolicking on a beach there.

Most people arrive here in kayaks and SUPs and tourist boats from the pier about half a mile down from Manini beach. It's a sad decaying spot where one of the greatest explorers the world has ever seen first landed in Hawaii and then was killed a couple of years later.

She's not my mother

Here's the menu for this year's she's-not-my-mother feast.

white corn chips and salsa

grapes and cheese

jalapeno poppers

bison and wild boar sausage

grilled scallops

rosemary salmon

sweet corn with paprika

Spanish rice (leftovers)

chocolate dipped strawberries

chocolate chip cookies

Five years ago Nicolle asked me what I was going to do for mother's day - Jo's first. I have a severe allergic reaction to Hallmark Holidays. So I replied "She's not my mother".  And in honor of that indiscretion, every year since I cook a mother's day lunch or dinner for the Clark-Perry mothers in the neighborhood. Four mothers and now eight children in one sitting. This year all the kids old enough to help pitched in. And Vivian staged a puppet show. Damn Hallmark.

More birthday pictures

We are into the second day of Jo's birthday celebrations.

Happy

You've woken up on more than four thousand mornings with my smiling face next to you. And then you've flapped the sheets.

Law school. Austin. Kids. Travel. Salmon. Broccoli. And that's not even the half of it. And you are still here. We've sheltered two lovely cats and a couple of kids at some time or another. And today and yesterday and for the next several days we'll celebrate your birthday - the twelfth one together. Every time, a hundred times a day I hear Evan and Vivian ask for their Mamma and I feel this surge of love and affection because they have a wonderful Mamma. And then I want to tell them that their Mamma is mine. All mine.

The road goes on forever. And the party never ends. Wish you a happy birthday. And that the cakes get bigger to hold all the candles you ever want.