Blue

Due to Vivian and Evan's school smashing the set goals for a healthy snack collection for a local shelter, the school head declared a school-wide crazy hair day for Friday. On Thursday evening Jo put some toxic hair color (in their defense, the dye stated that it did not contain any heavy metals) on the kids hair. Vivian's looked slightly blue in the right light. Evan's looked very dark - almost black. Jo slapped some on her hair and then I got the full treatment ("Hey - look! I already have dye on my gloves").

White hair takes on color well.

We had booked dinner at Chez Zee because they were serving Icelandic food this weekend. So the blue family, looking like dark skinned punky Vikings or Goths sat very noticeably in the middle of a very crowded restaurant and enjoyed a nice dinner while other patrons and waiters smiled at us. 

Happy Birthday Minal

We missed Minal's birthday because we were in Florida. So on Wednesday after school and Evan's Tae Kwon Do an early dinner we visited the Shahs with a nice flourless dense chocolate cake from Central Market. Vivian and Evan sang happy birthday in Spanish (that's about all they do with their Spanish - how much cheaper would it be to hire a personal Spanish happy birthday song coach?) and then I cut small slivers of cake for them and myself (well, proportionately larger small sliver for myself).

The cake was so good that the kids and I had to cut many more tiny slivers and we would have kept going if Jo hadn't been the voice of reason and if bedtime hadn't loomed up out of nowhere. 

Suki

On Monday evening Arjun got back from school and Renuka from work to entertain the kids at home while Praveen and I went off to get Suki from the airport. Suki is the reason for the timing of this trip to Florida. She's here from Bangalore to be on a panel with Dr. Oz and Sanjay Gupta, the doctor who plays a doctor on news shows, and other luminaries from the medical profession.

Next morning Vivian, Evan, Suki and I made breakfast for Praveen to celebrate his birthday. Then we made a couple of crank calls to other friends from 35 years ago, and finally said our goodbyes with lots of hugs and kisses and left for Austin. Vivian had to dress in her pajamas because those were her warmest clothes and back in Austin it was freezing. She and Evan were so exhausted from their Florida trip - without Mamma to tell them when it was their bedtime - that they slept all the way back. We walked into the "white wooden house" and Jo and had ourselves a nice family hug.

With my trip to India last month and our time in Florida, that's twice in as many months that the fam hasn't been together every day.  Worrying trend?

Nerditos

So what do you do on a Monday morning in Orlando if you are from out of town and not Disney bound? Arjun suggested go to the superb Science Center.

I had to drag the kids away for lunch after three hours. For most of the time they were inside the Engineering Area. Vivian built free standing arches ("Daddy - help me with the keystone") out of giant foam blocks. And played with gears that had magnetized axles that you could move around on a metal surface and engage in different ways. She worked out how to use gears of different sizes to change speed, and odd or even numbers to change direction. And then she built spindly towers with these spoke and hub like things.

Evan spent his entire time on this robot table. There were four types of cubes (battery pack, sensor, actuator, and a noisy thing) and he had to click them into each other in various ways and configurations to make self propelled things that whirled and spun and raced around the table. At the end he said "Daddy - I think when I grow up I'm going to be an engineer scientist".

Nerdy kids. Yes!

Gator Hunting

On a  beautiful sunny Sunday morning last week we decided to walk around Praveen's high-priced neighborhood and look for gators. The houses are like palaces. The grounds are perfect - a leaf falls somewhere and suddenly there's a uniformed groundskeeper right there to put it away. A golf course meanders past the homes.

We walked towards the first hole. Beside it there was a driving range. In reality it was a large pond (a tank in Texas) and middle aged golfers were swinging away at it from it's manicured edges - using floating golf balls. I guess later someone comes by in a skimmer and collects the balls. And sure enough on the opposite bank an alligator was sunning itself on the edge.  We walked past a huge egret. A hawk swopped down towards the shallows and snatched up a fish. Ospreys circled overhead. Vivian and Evan enjoyed the nature show. And Arjun pointed on where he played with his buddies when he was their age. 

The sun was hot. So when Evan complained that he was thirsty and we were walking past the clubhouse it did make sense to drop in for water. But the young English bartender who didn't look like she was old enough to drink did make him and Vivian a couple of nice Shirley Temples. Which got the rest of us into ordering wine and beer and then the day got away from us and Arjun drove the kids around in a golf cart while we did nothing. No - Evan hasn't just finished giving me a two handed one-finger wave though it looks that way in the picture.

Later, back in Austin when I saw Evan's teacher, she said she had asked him if he visited Disney while he was in Florida. He said no. So what did you do, she asked. "We hunted for gators" he apparently replied. I had to agree that he was mostly right.

Tree Folk

Last Saturday morning Praveen and I picked up a picnic lunch and then headed to Blue Springs State Park with the kids. Because of the cool weather in Florida we heard that the manatees and thousands of beautiful river fish were gathering at the relative warmth of the springs.We set out along the boardwalk beside the river. You can see the massive manatees in the blue green waters behind Vivian and Evan in the photo below. Just laying around like river rocks. And the water was thick with large gar and tilapia and bass.

Praveen offered to take the photo and quickly learned of Evan's weird aversion to posing for pictures. Then we got to the end of the trail where the springs gushed forth from a huge black crevasse in the riverbed. Sticking out of the boardwalk at the very end there was this old tree stump. Evan and Vivian jumped on to it. Evan pushed his legs down into a hole in the stump. It looked like he was a part of the tree. Then I heard Vivian telling Evan a story in tones reserved for scary stories.

"Once upon a time there was a kid who didn't like veggies. He didn't eat 'saparagus' (and she grinned at Evan, using his pronunciation of asparagus). He didn't eat green beans. He didn't even like bok choy. The plants wondered why he hated them. And then one day they had their revenge. He got stuck to a tree. His feet became roots. His blue pants turned brown. His hands grew leaves. And to this day he sits there like a tree".

Evan: "Oh my god. My blue pants are brown now. Oh. They were always brown. Vivian - for a minute I thought you were talking about me".

And then we walked back to the parking lot and tailgated in the back of Praveen's car. The kids ate cookies and we drank beer.

Florida

On Thursday morning we awoke to the news that there was a family medical emergency and Jo drove off with Carol and Nicolle to Lubbock. I dragged the kids to school and after school activities. Then they played with Ava and got us invited over there for dinner. After a lovely evening at the Valby-Delasandro's, I tucked the kids into bed with hugs and kisses and reminded them that they needed to wear red shirts tomorrow to school to celebrate the Chinese New Year of the Goat Or Sheep. And that there was a strong possibility that we would be in Florida by the next evening.

Once the kids were in bed, Jo and I chatted and we decided that the kids and I would continue with our trip to Praveen's without Jo. Next day I packed, moved car seats, bought snacks and picked the kids up from school about 10 minutes before school lets out. By 3:30pm we had parked at Bergstrom and the kids were running wild through the airport, still dressed in their Year of the Goat or Sheep red shirts.

Evan slept the whole way - from take-off to landing. Vivian watched one of those mind-dumbing tween shows on the Disney channel. Like Jessie, but not.

Praveen met us at Orlando airport. Vivian and Evan were perhaps the only kids in an airport bursting with children who were not on their way to Disney. It took Praveen and me about 30 minutes and several consultations with online guides and forums on our phones to get the car seats installed in his Tesla before we could leave the parking lot, but we finally managed it.

Here's a photo of Vivian and Evan doing their homework the next morning. Then they got to go sit in the steaming spa and dip their feet in the cold water of the pool - chilled by the arctic vortex that had brought freezing temperatures all the way down to Florida.

I mentioned to Arjun who is a high school senior how Vivian had watched the Disney show the night before on the flight over. Then I said that when that happens I tell the kids that their IQ is probably lower and challenge them to say something smart to prove otherwise. And because Evan says the funniest things when you ask him to "say something smart" I did. He mulled it over for a minute. Then he solemnly said:

"Blue blood vessels in your body carry blood that's not been oxygenated"

Arjun gasped. "What grade are you in?"
"PP4. Preschool" Evan replied.
"See how these shows are making them dumber?" I added.

Birthday Giifts

For her birthday party Vivian asked her friends to bring gently used books that she plans to take to children at the Southwest Key school where her class volunteered last year. Her friends contributed generously and Vivian has ended up with a big box full of books.

Vivian asked Jo and me for one gift -  Monopoly Empire. A bastardized commercial filled version of Monopoly that arrived from Amazon and we played the next evening. And On Sunday morning we drove to the Bicycle Sport Shop after breakfast at the Shah's where she got more gifts and she selected a beauty of a 24 inch Trek to replace the bike she burnt last summer. It looks disproportionately huge. But Vivian jumps up on top and rides like a champ.

Till now Evan had been resisting riding his "pedal" bike, preferring his old balance bike from when he was three. But the lad can't stand his sister outdoing him at anything - so he's out there riding his big boy pedal bike like a champ too.

On Vivian's actual birthday which was on Monday they had a small celebration at her class. I produced a bundle of asparagus first - to horrified shrieks from Vivian and her classmates. Then Ethan produced a drum and the class sang Vivian happy birthday in Spanish and Jo handed out popsicles and a good time was had by all. Now if I could just get used to saying "She's eight".

Jo's Nose

The night before Vivian's birthday party Jo went to make a drop off at the nearest Goodwill. By the time she returned the kids were asleep. I was already reading in bed. I heard the freezer door opening and ice being removed noisily (there's no way to do that quietly). Then she walked into the bedroom holding an icepack to her nose.

"The car hit my head" she said, speaking through the icepack. At first  I thought she had had a wreck. But I soon learned that Jo had lowered the hatchback on to her nose. Here's a photo of the resulting damage taken by Vivian a couple of days later at breakfast at the Shahs. Small but painful.

If there had been a security camera at Goodwill that night, I understand the footage would have been a thing of viral beauty. Jo hopping around the car yell "Fuck! Fuck!" at the top of her lungs. Then reaching into a bag of old clothes and coming up with Evan's old t-shirt to stanch the flow of blood. And finally continuing to unload donation items with her face half covered in a bloody old t-shirt.

Anyway, I made it through Vivian's birthday party without having to go into any family violence explanations. 

Happy Eighth

On the way to school this morning we practiced. I started.

"This is Vivian. She's eight". 

"Oh My God! That sounds crazy, Dad"

Yes it does. Jo and I made something (okay, mostly Jo) and that thing is now eight years old. Oh My God! 

And that thing is about the sweetest thing I know. Even when she grumbles before homework. Or punches her brother "because he's not being nice". And when she reaches for my hand when we cross a street or she demands a really good goodnight hug and kiss before bed. Or how she effortlessly jumps up on my back and then my shoulders and sits up there like she owns the world. And rolls her eyes when I try to read her homework aloud in Spanish.

About a month ago we started the business of deciding what to do for Vivian's eight birthday. If there was to be any celebration, it would have to be on Saturday, Valentine's Day. At first she wanted to invite three girls over for a sleepover. The number quickly swelled to eight (as Evan and I made plans to spend the night at the W downtown). But there was no way she could accommodate all her friends in the sleepover format. Especially the boys - her "snot nut army" (yes - badly named indeed) who chase her all over the school playground as she lets them "capture" her. And neighbors and cousins.

Jo made an evite. A few days later she said that 75 people of various ages had said they were coming. We sacrificed a couple of Upper Crust cinnamon rolls and prayed for good weather. Amiten showed up with three yards of mulch and a bag of pruners and shears and in the course of one afternoon transformed the back yard from a thing of neglect and shame to a place where we could conceivably host a party. Miguel helped me contact Pedro the Taco Guy who said he would show up at noon on Saturday and roll out al pastor and steak tacos for the guests. We made our customary semi-annual trip to Costco and bought a couple of cakes, a case of beer and half a dozen bottles of wine. I went to Lowes and bought supplies to turn old ipe decking into picnic tables. Jo organized a massive cleanup of the garage. And half an hour before the first guests walked up on Saturday morning, we were ready! Fucking amazing if I may say so.

The kids painted river rocks and stuck glittery stuff on them. Others climbed the old pecan where I had affixed a couple of "steps" the day before and they brandished Evan's swords and other weapons. At times, the entire collection of children inexplicably disappeared without a trace for many minutes at a time into a tiny (though dense) patch of bamboo. The dads gave up plans of dropping their kids off and going to the gym and drank beer instead. The moms sipped Jo's potent concoction of Chardonnay, limoncello and fresh basil. Everyone ravenously devoured chips and guacamole and we awaited Pedro the Taco Guy. And came to the slow realization that he had stood us up. Just a good old no show.

Jo ordered a dozen pizzas from Marco's up the street. Nicolle and some of the older cousins drove over and picked them up and we served them to the starving kids who gobbled them as fast as we could dole them out. And the day got really warm and the parents sipped more beer and wine. And the kids stopped painting rocks and started painting themselves.

We ran out of beer and Tim ran over and got some more from his fridge. Zinnia was passed a from hand to hand and she entertained us endlessly while the children ran wild. And Jo took a refreshment induced nap and by the time she woke up the last of the parents had moved indoors and we had moved on to bourbon shots and the kids had taken to drinking lemonade directly from the spout. And by the time the last guests got on their bicycles and rode away the house was destroyed. A college frat party would have been gentler.

Next year it's going to be a quiet sleepover. For sure. Happy birthday, my sweet Vivian.

Catnip Party

I'm home by myself this weekend. Late this morning Jo and the kids drove off for a couple of days with Grandma. I sat outside on the back deck in the beautiful weather and read. Soon enough Crazy wandered out too. She hopped up into the catnip planter. Here's evidence of her shameful drug habit and it's effects. Then she and I lay down for a nap exhausted by the morning's activity. 

I caught the flu finally (thanks, Evan). I think yesterday was my worst day so things should be looking up by the time the fam returns tomorrow evening. Meanwhile I'm partying it up on the recliner by the fireplace. I suspect I look quite a bit like my dad.

Field Trip

I'm a room parent for Vivian's class. Which means that I help suggest field trips once every few months and send out email soliciting parents to be chaperones. On Friday I unapologetically utilized the full authority of my office to bump off two moms and be a chaperone myself. We went to the Jourdan-Bachman Pioneer Farm for an architectural tour. I chaperoned all of three kids - Vivian, Gracie, and little Ethan. We had loads of fun and explored important architectural questions like the pros and cons of a double seater outhouse that Vivian and Gracie decided to sit in and pretend poop. With noise effects.

In the last picture I ran into Ms. Mara's group and she and the kids posed for a photo under a huge ancient live oak. I suspect that Maya is the only person in this group that may be white. Diversity!

On the way back to campus, in the bus Ms. Mara said how she would love to do this everyday. Experiential learning she called it. The world as the classroom. She thanked me for coming out and said that I would make a great teacher. Then she enquired how I was doing. I made the universal sign for "ready to shoot myself in the head" as I mentally struck "2nd Grade teacher" off my list of career options. 

An American Summer

We are planning ahead. Crazy shit, I know.

Jo has plans for us to drive from Austin to Dawson to Jackson Hole to Yellowstone to Idaho to Utah to Colorado and back home (through Clovis, because all roads go through Clovis). With Carol, Nebraska cousins, and Nicolle's crew for various parts of the trip. Around 4000 miles, 35 days. 

Here they are- Jo, Vivian and Evan, walking back down to town on the island of Mykines towards the end of last summer. Yes - I do remember (read the last line of War and Peace in Faroe). Thirty five days in close quarters was about 7 days too many. But we are suckers.

So I booked my tickets for a 11 day trip to Alaska right after we get back to Austin. Quiet. Peaceful. Hiking and kayaking.

Sick Day

Neither kid has had a fever in the last 24 hours but when Jo asked Vivian how she was feeling this morning, she coughed into her elbow to indicate deathly sickness. So the kids got the day off. They ran, jumped, played, sketched, walked to Pacha for chocolate pancakes and smoothies and dressed as knights, and even took a nap.

And Vivian wrote a letter to her old friend Andrew. His parents moved to Denver halfway through first grade. Vivian wanted us to find him so they could be pen pals (this was a non-materialistic gift she wanted for Christmas, along with a donation made to WWF for adopting endangered animals. Cry your eyes out, Target). So Jo found Andrew's parents and Andrew sent the first letter. Vivian started hers with "Dear Andrew, Nothing has been the same since you left."

Whoa. Easy girl.