School's Out

Today was Vivian's last day of the school year. In the first photo she is standing in front of the Anderson Lane campus where she will be going in Fall. She's wearing a white t-shirt and denim jeans for a concert. It's so strange to see the kids in something other than school uniforms. They look so much more grown-up.

Here she's with Ms. Carmen and Ms. Tati, her teachers. After a rocky start (for us, not her), things settled down. She seems to have made friends and learned something. She's with her English teacher, Ms. Missy in the next photo - whom she adored. And with Mr. John in the last photo. Mr. John was her Spanish tutor and would have been her first grade teacher but he's leaving.

An Early Father's Day

Evan's already somewhere between here and Florida, riding with Grandma into the sunrise. Vivian and Jo leave tomorrow. Vivian got me this tin can and asked me to open it. When I did she said it was my Father's Day gift because she wasn't going to be here on Father's Day. As I looked inside she explained: "There's a coupon for a magazine, The Economist. And there's some Indian money for you."

Thank you, sweetheart.

Running in Tarka

We went to Tarka for dinner. Jo and Evan wanted to go to Musashino and Vivian didn't and they argued and  finally cajoled her into agreeing. We got there and remembered that they are closed on Mondays. So, on Evan's recommendation we went to Tarka.

During dinner Evan made an effort to eat his veggies. He nibbled at a ketchup covered shoe-string potato fry and  spat out a bit of lettuce but in his eyes that counted. In order to encourage him to eat his veggies we have been telling him that they will help him run faster. Then we quietly bribe Vivian to invite Evan for a race and to lose it. So right there from the dining table at home they run to the end of our bedroom and run back and Vivian conspicuously lets Evan win. And we commend him and the veggies.

Back to Tarka. After dinner both kids needed to go to the bathroom so Jo took them. Evan finished first and Jo and Evan walked out of the bathroom. I was sitting and texting with Simran and waiting for them with my samosas to go. That's when I heard a loud dull thud and a softer second thump. Then a sharp collective intake of breath. And then I heard Evan cry. By the time I ran to the front of the restaurant he was in Jo's arms bawling. Turns out that when he got out of the bathroom without any warning he took off sprinting as fast as he could and was headed straight out of the open door. Except it was a tall window. That was the first thud. The second thump was when Evan bounced off the plate glass and fell back on the concrete floor.

Evan recovered in a few moments. There's a nice swelling on his forehead and some redness on a knee. When we reached Teo's where we were meeting Simran for gelatos Jo asked him to run out the "door". Evan laughed and said "Mamma that is a window".

A Slower Sunday

The speed of time is directly proportional to temperature. Someone with a physics degree needs to prove that. Sunday was very hot and very slow. In the morning I firmly stayed indoors while the kids and Jo pottered in the garden. Then Jo put Vivian's new loft bed together (see a pattern). The kids tried it out and loved it. So much that Evan took his afternoon nap on it. Tim and Ava and Vivian and I went out on a bike ride that spanned both parks in the neighborhood. The kids played till they were wet with sweat and from jumping and cycling into puddles.

We grilled for dinner and then cut up a watermelon and took it with us down to Town lake to watch the sunset. It was pretty. The kids enjoyed watching a stream of stand-up paddlers go by. But Vivian put it eloquently when we returned. "Can we just stay at home where it's cool and there are no mosquitoes?".

Tomorrow is going to be hotter and I hope to do even less.