What's going on???

We haven't been posting lately and we're asking for a thousand apologies. We've been very, very busy with a Hurricane Katrina relief drive in our community and so all of our time has been going towards that until last night. But, things should be back to normal for us now. Sadly, five days of work exhausted Amiya and I, I can't even begin to imagine the despair of those who don't have a house and a warm meal to come home to.

Some of our efforts included going door to door in our neighborhoods with the kids and that meant explaining to Amiya exactly what Hurricane Katrina had done. She knows that the storm took away the families houses, their clothes, their food and their medicine. She also knows that the children don't have any toys. As we went door to door, she made impassioned pleas to the homeowners stating, "But the shildren have no clothes." or "But the shildren need mecin. (medecine)" Yesterday as we worked with many other Moms and kids in our neighborhood to box up all of the supplies we collected, she helped and talked nonstop about what the children would be getting. On our way home from a doctor's appointment later in the afternoon, she was listing for me everything we had packed. "Clothes. Mecin. Food. Ketchup. Shampoo. Diapers." The list went on and on and then she got very, very quiet. All of the sudden in a very, very sad voice, she said, "Mommy, the shildren don't have any cheesecake!" And now we know Amiya's priorities. Food, clothes, roof over the head, hugs and kisses and cheesecake.

In other news, Amiya has a new favorite game: pretending to be Clifford. She puts on her Clifford ears that her cousins Ravi and Nisha sent, gets down on all fours and barks her way around the living room. It's all well and good until she starts licking her plate at the dinner table. Now, if only she'd clean up all the crumbs on the floor - it'd be almost as if we had a real dog. (Bad Christy, bad, bad Christy.)

And finally, it appears that the tube in Amiya's left ear has worked its' way almost out. There is a bit of fluid behind the eardrum now, so we have to go back in a month and see if it's still there. If it is, a new tube will have to be inserted. Argh! Come on already - just sign us up to put the tube back in. What this means if you're not familiar with tubes is either that fluid is going to disappear (unlikely) or continue to amass and cause yet another painful ear infection. Give us the tube!!!

That's all for now, but more soon. We promise!