No Carlo

Evan and us are trying to zero in on what to do for his birthday. We don't really want a Vivianesque crowd of sixty children thundering through our home so soon after her birthday. So we floated the idea of a sleepover which Evan just loves because he sees Vivian going to or having sleepovers all the time and he has never had one himself - not counting trips to Grandma's or his cousins'.

Who to invite? We are looking for a small group - 4-5 boys. One name that came up is Carlo. To which Evan said exactly this: "Carlo? No Carlo. Carlo and I have had several disagreements."

It sounded so Trumpian that it sent shivers down everyone's backs except Evan's. Anyway, no Carlo. Sad. Very sad.

Here's Evan showing off his version of the Dark Mark. Like we need that....

Glorified Taxis

This was one of those weekends when Jo and I felt like we were glorified taxi cab drivers. We split up and still barely kept up with the kids' schedules.

It all started on Friday morning when I went to Evan's school to teach the first graders about light: a touch of everything from why is the sky blue to Special Relativity. Jo took Vivian to her vision therapy. Then we (except Evan) met for lunch at Tarka and Jo dropped Vivian off at school for her Spanish class while I met Simran for a coffee. I picked Vivian up. Jo picked Evan up. Jen came for dinner. I drank too much wine and ate Evan and Vivian's cookies because they were already asleep.

So on Saturday morning I got them cookies and cupcakes for breakfast from Upper Crust (to make up for my behavior the previous night) and we went to watch Vivian sing the National Anthem with her choir group at the opening of the baseball season for a neighborhood league (the amount of speechifying and the layers of bureaucracy in neighborhood baseball impressed and surprised me). Evan was completely oblivious to what was happening around him and sat on a rock and read about Greek gods. A quick stop at Tera Toys to buy birthday gifts, and then Jo took the kids to Esteban's birthday party. In the afternoon I went to Courtney's birthday party and then took Archer to Perry's for his 21st birthday while Vivian went to Rowan's birthday sleepover and Jo and Evan watched movies and ate ice cream at home.

Sunday was just as much fun. I took Evan to Suhan's birthday party while Jo took Vivian to her first team volleyball practice. Evan and I continued on to scouts where he had his first pine wood derby competition - he didn't place but did pretty well. Jo took Vivian and friends to Beauty and the Beast. And Evan and I went to climb. We met back at home a few moments before Evan's bed time.

Thank god tomorrow is Monday. 

Climbing

Both Evan and Vivian love to climb. I took Vivian for a "PE class" to Crux in south Austin last month. And when Vivian and Jo went to see a new Disney chick flick earlier this week, Evan and I went to the Main Event climbing walls. 

Om

I am in Boston for a week. This morning I have some time on my hands. As you can tell.

Looking through my computer I found this photo of the kids spontaneously sitting down in front of a huge stack of giant Costco-sized Oreo boxes and meditating. My mother would be horrified. And impressed.

My mother was somewhat of a pioneer. She was a doctor and researcher at a time a lot of women weren't. She was also a religious person. She woke up at the crack of dawn and meditated in her puja room (the chapel in the house for non-desis) for an hour. I was interested in the meditation part. But trying to make your mind silent when you are ten doesn't seem very interesting. Though I did occasionally try to sit and say Om very slowly.

Mamma - you would have been 89 today. I am hazarding a guess that you would be very proud of your grandkids even as they meditate to The Big Oreo.  And thankful that I finally "settled down" with Jo :) On this International Women's Day,  I wish you a happy birthday and hope that Vivian Bina carries forward the family tradition of beautiful strong smart loving big-hearted women.