Madcaps

This morning I took Evan to his first day at Martial Arts of the World Camp or something of that sort and then I went to workout. Jo took Vivian to one of her many dentist's appointments and then went by Madcaps to check if Vivian had lice.

She did. So her treatment took up the rest of the morning.

I have observed that lice elicit a very deep reaction of disgust from many people - the kind Carol reserves for snakes. Vivian last had lice almost three years ago - an infestation at the school in winter where the kid's jackets and hats touch each other. I expressed my surprise that Vivian had picked up lice in summer and the lice picker (she's probably got a better official designation) said that it was high season. "Camps" she announced conspiratorially.

And then I dropped Vivian off at her first day of camp this summer - clay camp - and told her not to stick any lice or clay in her hair. 

Amazing Things

We aren't big Father's Day celebrators - Evan asked on Mother's Day "Why isn't there a Father's Day?" And when he found out that there was, he wanted a "Brother's Day". So we were driving somewhere on Friday and Jo said "So it's Father's Day this Sunday".

And Evan said "We should get daddy a gift. Pipe World has all kinds of gifts for Father's Day"
"Evan - I don't think I need a gift for Father's Day that involves smoking"
"They even have watches and all kinds of things like that"

Kids hear and say the most amazing things.

Apparently he had heard an ad on the radio somewhere the day before and the sweet boy had carefully filed it under Father's Day in his brain.

Speaking of brains, on the morning of Father's Day we went to see the new Pixar/Disney movie Inside Out where they animate what happens inside your head. The kids stuffed themselves with popcorn and cookie shakes and Evan sat on my or Jo's lap for the whole movie.

That afternoon we met some of the old Grace Garden group for a Father's Day barbecue. The kids played and the dads drank beer. And then Vivian's friend walked up pushing a toy stroller with one of his sister's dolls and held it up and said "The baby isn't feeling well - it's had too much crystal meth".

Kids hear and say the most amazing things.

Breakfast with Simran

Simran graduated from St. Andrews and is headed to Boston for a summer class on Shakespeare before hopping across the pond to college in London in the Fall. To celebrate we decided to do breakfast on a Saturday morning. We picked the Omelettry remembering that we had gone there to mark one of Arjun's birthdays more than five years back. This is what Simran (and Shaku's two eldest kids) looked like then.

Things change. The building that the Omelettry occupied for for over three decades up the street from us is being torn down. After consulting google maps, Simran steered me their new location on Airport. We were 17th on the wait list and the waitress wasn't even hazarding guesses on how long we'd have to wait and Evan announced that he was starving. So we changed plans and headed to Torchy's (which used to be a hole in the wall Chinese take-out place with the best Singapore noodles in town in it's previous incarnation) and Jeanne met us there.

Vivian and Evan and Simran laughed at inane jokes. The breakfast tacos were good and we were stuffed. And then we headed to Amy's for ice cream. A good way to start the weekend. Arjun would be proud. 

Date Night

Jo picked a movie for Saturday night date night this time. "Court" by Chaitanya Tamhane - an indie movie from India that is getting  lot of attention. 

Aside. When school ended, Vivian's teachers suggested she get some Spanish tutoring this summer. Coincidentally a substitute teacher from her school gave me her phone number and said she babysits. So when Sarah said she was busy this weekend, I thought - lets call Ms. L and she can talk to the kids in Spanish and it will be just like tutoring without the hefty price tag. 

The babysitter showed up at the appointed time in a newish German two seater. Like most teachers at Vivian's school, she looked like she was 16. And I had no idea how much she charged but I was beginning to think that it would have been cheaper to hire a raft of tutors instead. 

I got Jo in the car and we left. It started raining, then pouring. We'd have gotten drenched if we stepped out to eat. So we drove through a P. Terry's and got a couple of burgers and a shake and parked and ate in the car in the rain and got to the movie theater early enough to observe the chaotic drop-off and parking habits of Indians. And the movie too - which wasn't half bad at all.

We stopped for a drink at the neighborhood Stinson's to fortify ourselves and then cautiously returned home. The kids were asleep. The house was picked up (Ms. L apparently wields superpowers because Vivian and Evan treat her like a teacher). The dishwasher was loaded. The TV had never been turned on all evening. Our kids had spoken in Spanish and worked on projects. Evan hadn't caused her to tear her hair out and run away (though she did remark on how difficult it was to get him to listen to simple requests like "Put on your pajamas"). And her rates weren't stratospheric - she was clearly paying for the AMG parked out front some other way.

And on the way out, the babysitter asked if she could borrow my "very exciting" book on String Theory she found on the couch. Huh?

Tulips

We went down I-35 to visit Carol and for Cade's birthday and to spend the first few days of summer vacation together. And suddenly I found myself with Carol (who is doing an admirable job recovering from knee replacement surgery but there's only so much happiness you can summon up in a situation like that) while Jo left for Austin. And in addition to my kids I had the lovely Ava and the indomitable Cade for the rest of the day and a sleep over. While Carol showed me where she wanted a new fence built.

Jo got some fresh tulips from Whole Foods when she returned the next day but they died. May be they were feeling used.

Rain

It rained again. Can we please have some sun? Not necessarily a drought for the next seven years but just a bit of sun and less than 98% humidity all day.

Vivian played in the pool out front like a monsoon child. Evan stayed indoors. The last time it got cloudy and rained in Austin for a couple of weeks Jo and I took Socrates, my old cat, and left town for the first place that wasn't cloudy. Which turned out to be the Davis mountains a few hundred miles away. 

More Fun With Slime

You can tell we like slime. And this was a particularly good batch. They played with it and made a huge mess and Evan ran around saying "Vivian - the slime polymerized my hand". And Vivian got this manic look on her face. And then they didn't clean up very well so the slime got thrown away. In any case the corn starch was beginning to turn.

But they can't play with slime all summer. So this conversation took place a week or so ago.

"Jo - we should put our kids in camp"
"Why? I like that they have some down time"
"Because we are lazy parents and we don't actually do anything with them and everybody else's children are getting smarter and learning new skills while ours are playing with slime"

So Jo looked up camps and a few minutes later Vivian was signed up for a clay workshop at Laguna Gloria and Evan was set to attend a week of martial arts from around the world at a Magellan parent's Kung-Fu studio. We know people who sign their kids up for camps in January. Their children are learning movie making from Robert Rodriguez or are building Lego robots with C3PO.

Oh well. We aren't camp people. But - at least Evan's hands are not getting polymerized.

Thinking

This is Evan laying on my leg at Ramsey park philosophizing about life and death. He's getting to that age when there are questions. He used to start every sentence with "I tink...". Now he says "think". He had a weird conversation with Jo about cremating him the other day that I won't get into. But unlike Vivian he doesn't just go off into the abstract. He's grounded. For instance when a Taylor Swift song was on the radio. She crooned "Band-aids don't fix bullet holes". Evan responded "but they do keep the blood from falling out of your body".

Here is a picture he got back from school the other day.
"Dad - do you like the picture I'm drawing?"
"Do I need to make an appointment for you to see a psychiatrist?"
"You didn't say if you liked it"
"What is it?"
"I was going to color the whole page black but I ran out of time. Do you like it?"

I've got to take the lad down to Houston to see the Rothko Chapel. I tink he'll like it.

Slime

The other day we made slime. Vivian claimed it was a project at school. Later I looked in her note book and found pictures she had drawn on the structure of methane and then some polymers of methane. We made this batch out of Elmer's glue, corn starch, Borax, water and food color. It turned out really good except Vivian and Evan's hands turn slightly green after they play with it for a while. And Evan says things like "The glue polymerized!". Bu you would be happy to know your grandkids like organic chem.

Summer Vacation

Summer vacation is here and so are the simple pleasures. Sleeping in. Riding bikes around the hood. Baking (though it's a fake cake that Evan is making). Waiting expectantly for a giant bucket of water to tip at the splash pad. And jumping into the pool.

If you observe the photos of Vivian carefully you will also notice that in addition to having a great time, Vivian needs orthodontic work. Apparently 15 months and several thousand dollars worth. Ahh - summer vacation. The simple pleasures.

Makeover

Our front yard is getting a makeover.  The first time around was one of Navaneet's very first jobs when he discovered his second career - landscaping. And he is now handing over the reigns of Blissful Gardens to his son Amiten and this is one of Amiten's first projects.

I think it looks very nice and my timing couldn't have been better.

Normally summer isn't the time to redo a garden in Texas, but this is what the radar looks as I type this post. We are the blue dot and that's Tropical Storm Bill. No shortage of rain and the new garden is loving it!

I suspect the rain is because gays are displeasing the gods. Again. Speaking of which (how often can you segue like that) Jo and the kids went to a rally at the town square in New Braunfels over the weekend to counter a rally the day before where some Christians prayed to God to help the Supreme Court justices reach a sensible verdict about gay marriage. And someone driving by yelled at my kids. Nothing offensive. Just "Why don't you go back to California?" Which confused the heck out of the kids.  

Friends

Vivian and Ava needed to spend some time together. Ava has been in camp since our kids started summer vacation and Vivian has been at Grandma's when Ava was free over the weekend. This afternoon Vivian jumped up when she heard Ava's trademark knock on the door and Ava rushed in and said "Vivian - I've missed you guys so much". We biked to Ramsey park where they merrily chatted and followed each other around.

Then we got back home and Jo announced that she was hungry and asked Vivian what she wanted to eat. Vivian looked up innocently and asked "Ava - where do you want to go for dinner?" and wrangled a dinner invitation for her friend. Then Evan announced that he wanted to go to Musashino and so did Jo. But Vivian and I had already had Asian for lunch (pho at Tan My) so she managed to get Evan to change his mind by bribing him with an after-dinner froyo. And arranged the world just as Vivian wished.

Done!

We finally got a date night last Wednesday. For the last couple of months Jo and I have been bad about scheduling something or the other every evening and we haven't been able to do date nights. Even Jen complained that she had been dropped from the A-list when we met her for a lunch date at Buenos Aires Cafe a week before that. But on Wednesday we got our shit together. Sarah came over and we left. For Target. First item on the date night agenda was to buy a t-shirt with no writing or pictures on it for Vivian for her end of school concert the next morning.

The rest of date night proceeded just as nicely with dinner and drinks at the Violet Crown downtown followed by a movie by our neighbor Steve Mims. It was an odd but interesting movie called Arlo and Julie - I enjoyed it and Jo thought it was nice enough which is a huge improvement over our previous date night at the Crown when we saw Scarlett Johansson picking up unsuspecting boys in Glasgow and devouring them while she is naked (Jo said she would have left the theater if her seat had been any closer to the aisle. So this time I avoided Ex Machina).

Enough about us.

On Thursday morning we woke up slowly and made our way to the Norris Center and dropped Vivian off for the first round of performances. We had opted to be on time so we had to stand. With Evan alternating between riding on my shoulders and slumping in Jo's arms.

Vivian's class was clearly the best. They sang "Colores Esparanza" - a lovely Spanish song. Vivian is in the first row flanked her other short friends - Grace and Emmett. When the first round finished, we picked Vivian up from backstage and dropped Evan off, and his class did another very nice song "Carta Viento" - though they dressed rather dorkily for it. The song's title literally translates to "Wind Letter" and so did their outfits. And Evan's stature won him a place on the first row too - waving that green thing.

They have practiced their songs so many times that they know each other's songs well. And I have pulled the videos up on youtube so often for them that google now gives me results in Spanish when I search for anything.

In the morning when we were laying in bed before the concert Jo asked Evan what his song was about. He wasn't sure. So Vivian explained that it was about a boy who sent a letter on the wind. And she sang some of the lines and translated. Then we asked her about her song. "Oh - it's just like the songs on the radio".

After Evan finished, we snatched him up and chatted with Ms. Mara for a few minutes and fled. Here's a picture of Mara and the kids and Etseban and Sofia who are classmates of Evan and Vivian. As usual, Evan is trying to ruin the photo - by displaying a mint on his tongue.

This will go down as a very good year for the kids. Evan started his Spanish emersion and is very comfortable with people speaking to him in Spanish. He can read English slowly like a whale. His numbers are improving (though he still calls 9 'up-side-down 6') and occasionally baffles us by doing basic math, either by dumb luck of some deep intuition. Marisol was a very good teacher.

And Vivian developed a love for math and science and managed to make some improvements in reading Spanish and English and seems to have a flair for writing (though a definite unwillingness to write when asked to). Mara will go down as one of her best teachers ever and a lovely human being. And we got invited to visit her next year in Colombia.

Which makes me wonder what's with teachers our kids love - Mary, Mara and Marisol. Who's next - Marzipan and Marmaduke?

Unsleepover

Due to some shitty timing on our part, later in the afternoon after Field Day, two families dropped off their 2nd grade girls for a sleepover with Vivian. Jo could hardly walk and I was pretty slow on my feet and didn't know what to expect. Turns out that the three girls and Evan were a delightful group for the most part.

Here they are getting ready to put a cake in the oven. The kids whisked the cake batter and Jo is pouring it into a pan over sliced fresh strawberries, a box of strawberry flavored Jello, and a large bag of mini marshmallows. Vivian is doing her happy dance. Evan isn't missing a thing. I tried to get him to go see the Spongebob movie with me but he declined - he was worried the girls may have more fun.

In the photo above the kids are eating dinner. Then they went off to finish a movie and I toodled off to bed. At some point, Jo got the girls into bed and took Evan upstairs to sleep with her. Then at 3:00am she had to come down to shhh the girls because they were chatting. That woke me up and I read and finally managed to fall back to sleep at 4:30am. Till I felt that someone was staring at me and turned over to find three girls peering at me and Vivian announcing "See. He snores". That was 5:45am.

So I took them to Taco Shack for breakfast. It hadn't opened yet. The girls stood on their benches and sang while Evan gamely photo bombed. After breakfast we went to Rosedale Park and played till it was time to return home and start getting the visitors ready for pick-up.

One of the girls was picked up by her dad at 9:30ish. We took the other and our kids to Waterloo Ice House for a second breakfast and a meeting with a different set of parents about Girl Scouting for next year. Vivian and her friends played like they were fresh and full of energy. We got back home by noon and all four of us were in bed in minutes. The kids napped for four hours. And then Sarah came to sit them while Jo and I went off to a "Big Leboswski" party with a third set of Magellan parents (don't we have a pitiful social life) and made it back home by midnight. Thank the lord tomorrow is Sunday. 

Swim & Gym Khana

A couple of weeks ago on a weekday evening Evan had his last swim class and Vivian her last gymnastics class of the semester. Crenshaw's ended them with a swimkhana and gymkhana respectively - an event where parents could come and watch their children participate in their last class. Evan's swim instructor went one step further - he placed the trophies in the shallow end in about three feet of water and lined the students up on the deep end. And asked them to go get their trophies. Here's Evan with his. And Vivian passed with flying colors too.

The British Raj popularized the use of the gymkhana. A khana is a house or place. I've never heard of a swimkhana before but a hammamkhana is a Mogul style bath house and a paikhana is a shitter. And there ends my vast knowledge of Udru.

Field Day

The school's Field Day has been hanging over us like a dark cloud for a few weeks now. Jo is one of the main organizers and this is the third year she's done it. At first we hopefully thought it would never stop raining and that would be that. But the weather didn't oblige. So we got the kids ready an hour before they normally would and headed out to the Murchison school grounds in two cars. 

And about five hours later we were done, packed, and headed back home. The entire event went off without a hitch and Jo was probably the only person who noticed when something wasn't running on schedule or wasn't being done the way it should have.  

Vivian's class had the best, longest, most cheerish cheer though I didn't understand a word as it was all in Spanish. 

Saturday Afternoon

Last Saturday morning, after a quick trip to Edwards Park, we made our way to Terra Toys to buy a gift certificate for Adrian and then we drove up to Pump It Up - Austin's premier indoor jumpy castle place. It's a good thing both Vivian and Evan like it so much, because it's not a great venue for parents. You get to stand in one of two large rooms with jumpy things in them where kids scream and shriek and you distract yourself by listening to bad music. The second room is better - it's dark with UV lights providing the only illumination - so it's easier for me to avoid having to make polite conversation. I suppose if you are white you would glow.

The most awkward portion of the two hour ordeal is the snack and cake section. All the kids and all the parents are crammed into a small room with two tables. The kids sit at one and have a blast eating pizza and cupcakes and drinking from juice boxes. The parents mournfully sit at the other and try not to consult their phones too often. And a not-so-bright teenage employee sings happy birthday to the lucky child as if it is the most important thing he's going to do in his whole life. While the next party queues up in the other room.

I asked Evan how he liked the cupcake - his second one. He was too busy eating, so he gave me the thumbs-up. So I contemplate how shitty my Saturday morning is. I'm glad he's enjoying his.

After the party we get back home and shower and change and head off to Zach Scott Theater to see a bilingual performance of Cinderella. The play is staged in the round by a single actor who looks like she is a young high school girl. She does a superb job and then spends several minutes afterwards asking the children about the play. Both Vivian and Evan enjoyed it and were amazed by how much you can do with a very limited set of props and one actor.

Two Weekends at St Edwards

Evan and Vivian have had a fun week with friends. Unfortunately for not such a great reason. Our friends' house flooded during the Memorial Day rains in Austin and while their bamboo flooring is being ripped up and dry wall fixed,  they are staying with us. And their kids are old friends of Vivian and Evan's from Grace Garden days.

This morning we all went to St. Edwards park. The water is still high though it hasn't rained a drop in two weeks. The kids jumped in and played in Bull Creek and swam. Then we walked upstream to find another swimming hole where I hoisted Vivian on to a rope and she swung and splashed into the water while the other sat on the shore and watched.

And last weekend while Jo was out of town, we woke up on Saturday morning and went off to Edwards Park. The water was too high to do much hiking, but we did find a little turtle on the trail and the kids picked it up and put it back down closer to the creek while learning somewhere along the way the turtles have sharp claws.