This Is My Favorite Song

You can't get in the car these days without hearing Evan say "this is my favorite song". And he hasn't met a song that isn't  his favorite. All efforts by Vivian and I to explain the meaning of favorite have been thwarted by Evan's lack of consideration for logic and Jo's protectionist attitude ("Evan, they can all be your favorite songs, don't listed to Daddy").

Evan tries hard to understand the words and the context though he doesn't always get it right. So he wanders around after listening to Rick Martin just once and hums (on youtube at: http://youtu.be/gMJAwcv46c0 ):

The other day he sang Bruno Mars "now my baby is dancing but she's dancing with an M&M". Followed by a question "Mommy - why is he sad because his baby is dancing with an M&M?".  

Vivian has a cajón at home from her drum class for practice. Later the kids put up an impromptu concert. I shut my ear drums and encouraged them as heartily as I could. As neither Jo nor I are musically inclined I fear that raw talent (or the lack of it) can only take them so far...

Stick Figure

One day while waiting for lunch and the tiny little Brick Oven near home, Evan asked how to draw a face. A few minutes later he had his first stick figure. Watch out Pablo.

Ducks

One morning when Vivian was too sick to go to school but not sick enough to take a walk along Town Lake that's where we went. The kids fed the ducks and the turtles. The ducks tried to eat their toes. Vivian had been droopy while she was sick so it was nice to see her and Evan laugh and run and play and climb and then we got back home and Jo yelled at us all.

As Many As You Want

On the weekend before Memorial Day weekend Evan and Vivian had company. Ava and Eleanor were over for dinner and sleep over. We grilled and then the kids made their s'mores over the grill. After a couple of s'mores, Eleanor asked how many she could have. "As many as you want" I said. The children stared at me incredulously. And then they took up my suggestion whole heartedly.

After I filled them up with chocolate and sugar I left to throw darts. By the time I got back home even Eleanor who had threatened that she stays up "till eleven" was fast asleep. And the next morning I quickly left for a long Rosedale Ride meeting soon after the kids woke up. But I heard that the rest of the sleepover went really well too. Evan now wants sleepovers with his all friends.

That Kind Of Week

I just got off the phone with the Austin Municipal Court. They left me a message on my phone over lunch telling me there was a warrant out for my arrest. Turns out that the officer may have got the phone number wrong.

It's been that kind of week - there's good news and there's bad news. The good news is that the bad news hasn't been particularly bad. Evan fell sick with a high fever after a fun filled weekend last week. Jo was back in town for Stacy's graduation so Grandma cooled him off with wet towels while Vivian helped. But by Monday afternoon he felt pretty good and made it to school Tuesday morning. On Wednesday afternoon we got a call from Vivian's teacher - she had a fever. By Friday she was good and Jo got the fever. By Sunday morning Jo was slightly better and then Evan decided to surf Carol's driveway on his face. He bawled for a while. Then he said it was OK - his main remaining complaint is that "it hurts to make a mad face".

And that' my excuse for not posting to the blog in 10 days. 

Critters

It's warming up around here. Which means the dead possums under the house are beginning to smell. On Thursday, after finishing at the gym I spent an hour army crawling under the house with a garbage sack in hand gathering up any such remains.

Another harbinger of summer are the mosquitos. Evan is already looking like Manuel Noriega. Someone posted this image on Facebook and I thought it's a good reminder that mosquitos are here to keep us humans from looking really bad.

Pool!

It's finally pool weather in Austin. Last weekend we went to Grandma's where eventually four mothers, eight children and I gathered for a lazy Mother's Day.

Vivian had made some jewelry for Jo and put it in a heart-shaped box. We had already eaten some of Evan's Mother's Day gift  so he got Jo a bar of chocolate. And I helped the kids select a photo from the last year (it turned out to be from last month - Easter) an they picked out a frame each for Grandma and for Mommy. But the best part of Jo's Mother's Day was what was inside Vivian's card. The adorable sketch of mother and daughter, in matching dresses, holding hands. And this (after spellchecker):

LOVE MOM. I LOVE YOU. YOU DO EVERYTHING I NEED YOU TO DO

Sweet, short and utilitarian with the slightest trace of a threat in the aftertaste. 

Bangs

Yes - Vivian has a new haircut and she has bangs. She last had bangs almost three years ago - the summer we left for India. So I look at her and I think she is four years old again.

Why Evan Wants To Be A Chef

Yesterday Evan and I were walking down the aisles at Central Market hunting down dinner for the kids (Jo and I had a date night).

Evan: "Daddy - how do you make a cell phone?"
Me: "It's pretty complicated. It's a tiny powerful computer and a phone"
Evan: "So there are computer parts?"
Me: "Yes"
Evan: "And there are phone parts - like radios?"
Me: "Yes"
Evan: "Who builds them?"
Me: "Mostly cheap labor in factories in China"
Evan: "If they are complicated how do they know what parts to put in them?"
Me: "There follow a design. The cell phones are designed by engineers"
Evan: "What kind of engineers?"
Me: "Lots of different kinds - but mostly electrical engineers. Like me"
Evan: "Daddy - you're not an engineer?!"
Me: "Yes - I am"
Evan: "When I grow up I'm going to be a chef - like you"
Me: "Evan - I cook dinner at home. I'm not a chef. I'm an engineer"
Evan: "I'm going to be a chef and I'm going to have a restaurant"
Me: "But..."
Evan: "And Olie is going to be a race car driver and he's going to come to eat at my restaurant"
Me: "That's good but..."
Evan: "And Nolan is going to be an astronaut"
Me: "You don't want to be an astronaut?"
Evan: "No. You have to go to college for many years to learn how to fly a space ship. I want to do something that doesn't take a lot of work"

Well, there you have it. Honest and straightforward. While I may be grumpy about paying for private school, it's nice to know that Evan's college fund is going to be unspent.

As for the rest of the evening, while Scarlett Johansson is mostly naked in "Under the Skin", it wasn't a good date night movie. 

Reading

I didn't like it when my parents compared my brother and me to other kids. And they rarely did it.

Vivian hasn't shown as much of a passion for reading as we'd like to see. Neighbor Ava loves to read and is a much better reader in English though she's a year younger. So I compared.

But in the last few weeks Vivian has started reading more. Labels, signs, things like that. Then I went to pick her up yesterday she had her nose stuck in a book from her school library while her friends were playing all around her. And she read all the way home. It's an Amelia Bedelia - that kind of humor appeals to Vivian.

Needs Help Listening

We went to Evan's parent-teacher conference yesterday. There's good news and there's bad news. The good news is that he hates chapel. The bad news? "Evan needs help with listening". All his teachers, and even his soccer coach had the same comment.

Ms. Jessica, his unflappable teacher said "even when he's doing donkey kicks during circle time instead of sitting down he gets what we are talking about". And she seemed as surprised as we did. So he's a pain and doesn't listen but he's surprising the heck out of everyone because he's actually learning. Sometimes.

Evan has two weeks left at Grace. After summer he'll start at Magellan. Uniforms and a fullish day at school. God help them. We will miss the good people at Grace. From September 2009 till now they have taken great care of our kids and even tried to teach them a thing or two.

Evan's New Bike

Evan hasn't fully committed to his new bike yet. But here he is. On youtube at http://youtu.be/iiJHYJLNc2k or below.

More Moves

One afternoon we picked Vivian up from school and went to find a book at the Arboretum branch of Barnes and Nobles (I loved that place in the pre-Amazon days). Once we finished there we walked down to Amy's and then went down towards the cows to eat our ice creams. Evan decided to demonstrate some of his dance moves. Here's a sample.

Oh - and the music was playing in his head.

Happy Birthday Karen

Ava and Vivian and Evan and six cousins and two teenage baby sitters (Essy and friend) holed up at home while Karen turned 40 at an epic party. How epic? Hard to describe in words but luckily Jo's evening was chronicled in a series of photos.

Third World

Jo and I spent about four hours in Delta's Terminal C at JFK on our way to Canada and back. I can't recall the last time I was at such an impoverished airport facility anywhere. The only visible upgrades are new self compacting trash cans at ever corner. Everything else is from the 70's or earlier. For security they have netting thrown over the mezzanine floor balcony. And a pillar bristling with security cameras. What will American infrastructure be like when Evan and Vivian decide where to live their lives?

Kid Free Vacation

I'm finally getting caught up on posting. Back in the first week of May Jo and I left the kids with Grandma and took off for Montreal and Quebec for a few days for Jo's birthday. Last year at this time we were in Hawaii. This year I decided to contrast the sun and sand with cold and rock There were patches of snow here are there in Quebec. We had a great time. Wine, cheeses, lazy walks on cobble stoned narrow streets, afternoon naps. and lots of relaxed reading. And an evening at the brand new show from Cirque du Soleil at their home base. Thanks, Carol - the kids enjoyed their time with Grandma. And so did we.

Jai Ho

Back in February and March of 2012 when Vivian was turning 5 in Hyderabad she learned three Bollywood dances for a preschool talent night. Here is a post from back then.  As you can see, Evan - who was a couple of months short of turning 2 was very much involved.

And here's a link to a youtube video of her doing the Jai Ho dance for her Grandpa at our Banjara Hills flat.

Vivian's current unit of enquiry at school is "The Artist Within Me". Which is probably hard on the parents of one of Vivian's class mates who wants to be an artist and her parents want her to be a doctor or a hedge fund manager.

So every morning this week for about an hour a few students each day have come to school prepared to display a talent in front of their class. It has ranged from piano recitals to skate boarding, from lego work to rock collections. Vivian decided to revive Jai Ho from two years ago. She studied her own video a few times and tried on her old costume and was ready. So was Evan who considers himself a full participant in spite of all our efforts.

See it here or at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-k45b9LBi6U and below it there's a screen grab from the video where I caught Evan giving one of Vivian's girl class mates the come hither look.

Later that afternoon Jo had a surprise children's dance party for Karen's birthday and Ava and Karen joined them to do Jai Ho and it looked much more Bollywood, especially Ava in her dazzling outfit.

Soccer And Salsa

Evan's semester is winding down. Though school will carry on for a few more weeks the extra curricular activities are coming to an end. Today at school Evan finished his last Soccer Shots game. He has been sitting out the last few minutes because he doesn't like the scrimmage part. But today Jo said he jumped right in. Got rolled over and landed in the dirt on his face. Went got a drink of water and got back into the game. He got the ball. Passed it to Hyder. Hyder scored. Game over. Season over. "Everyone wanted to high-five me, Daddy".

Yesterday was the last day of Evan's cooking class. Ms. Tammy is an amazing cooking teacher and an accomplished chef. Yesterday she wanted the kids to make something for Mother's Day. She thought of cake and cookies and lots of other things but they all had eggs and she knew Jo can't eat egg. So she had the kids make salsa and chips from scratch (rolled out tortillas and cut them and fried them) and Evan brought home a beautiful little jar of salsa and fresh chips. 

Sad Face

Evan needed to visit Dr. Griggs for his four-year check-up. Easy peasy. But he knew that he was going to get shots. Two of them. TDap (Tetanus, Diphtheria and Pertussis) and polio. I pulled the short straw and Evan and I walked into the good doctor's office one afternoon last week.

The physical went smoothly. Evan chatted with the doctor and his medical student-in-training. When Griggs wanted to check Evan's eyes he put his thumbs under Evan's eyes and pulled them down a bit and asked "Why are you so sad?". Evan found this very funny and told him he wasn't.

Then we breezed through the vision and hearing exam. At which point we both knew what was left. The nurse walked in with her needles, syringes and bandaids. She laid everything out while I explained to Evan that it would only hurt for a little and then it would stop. And that the medicine in the shots was going to help him not catch diseases that could kill him and that at one time did kill a lot of children. And that his Grandpa helped to get children vaccinated with the polio vaccine and that India is now polio-free. And that both his Grandmas have given many a children many a shot. He seemed to understand. The nurse asked him to sit on my lap. I held him in a hug. The nurse gave him both shots in quick succession on his left thigh. And she left. Evan's lips quivered. Then he sobbed. By the time we paid and left he was dripping tears and snot. But he finished before we reached the car.

Later that evening at dinner he said "Vivian - look - I can make a sad face". And I just happened to have my iPhone out and ready.

The Dude

Last week one evening we decided to walk and bike down to the Epicerie for post dinner cookies, and in Vivian's case, a cheese plate. We sat outside. The speakers were playing funk and R&B.

After Evan finished, he sprang up and started this slow funk move. There was a table with six young ladies who started oohing and aahing. This egged him on. Soon he was throwing them smoldering looks and beckoning them over with his hands while making James Brown moves. I have no idea where Evan learned any of this but we had to get him out of there before things got too hot.

I'm happy to report the Vivian danced very awkwardly and wholesomely and was never in danger of being mobbed.