Love Notes

Amiya is all about writing right now. It's fun, it's a little bit amazing and a whole lot adorable.

I found this one pinned up to the fridge one morning:

I love you You are miye favrite Mom

This was a message written to me one day while on the phone. I was urgently needed in the "livin" room:

Aftr your dun come to the livin room

Vinay and I went out one night this week and came home to find these waiting by the front door for us:

I love you you are sowe impowrtd to me thak you for beeyign such a mucus Momy. Love, Amiya

Her use of a comma completely negates the fact that she called me a mucus Mommy. The next morning she read it to me and mucus somehow became marvelous. I'll take it!

And this was Vinay's:

thak you such a nuyus dady. Love, Amiya

She knows her Daddy! He likes brevity better than almost anything else in the written word! But how come he didn't get called mucus?

And finally, this one is for Miss Amina on Graduation Night:

You are one of my faovrite preeskool teecher(heart period) thak you for beeying such a wardful teecher

This Extremely Long Pause Sponsored By...

Gastroentiritis!!!

That's right. We were all very down and very out. All four of us seemed to have different bugs, so we had varied responses, but it's only in the last two days or so that things are (somewhat) back to normal. That's not enough of an excuse, I know, but we're back (for now) with a big update and a whole lot of pictures!!!

May has been a lovely month - the first part was fantastic, not too busy, not too calm. The second half (minus the bug) has been the same. And right in the middle? Mother's Day!!! My three favorite people made it into a three day weekend with Friday at Disney World and Saturday and Sunday at the beach! It was fantastic! (Although it's hard when four people are in one hotel room and the littlest will only go to bed when the others go to bed. I'm not sure when the last time I was in bed and asleep by 8:45 was, but hey, it's all part of the big picture!)

On the teacups at Walt Disney World. Amiya, excited. Kev, trepidatious.
Trepidatious? Nah, it's all good!

"Miss Mary Poppins? I have to tell you you are my very favorite Disney character ever!!!"

Vinay says he'll need some motion sickness medication before he does this again with Amiya!

Mother's Day Morning. The best ever.

And then there was other stuff, too! April saw Amiya studying the solar system at school and she is very, very into it. We may be heading to the other coast again to catch the shuttle launch this coming weekend. Did you know they're retiring the shuttle in 2010? The timing for this launch (if it isn't scrubbed) is really good for our family, so we hope to make it!

Amiya's solar system project. This was just for "fun" she said - it wasn't a class project. The balls are polymer clay that she rolled and baked on sticks, then the orbital paths are Daddy's idea and not true to scale or shape, but helpful for a bunch of 5 year olds to visualize what is going on. She's very proud of this project!

Kev continues to grow and is slowly adding words to his vocabulary. We had his hearing checked earlier this month and learned that he does have some hearing loss in his left ear, however it is not significant enough to warrant a course of action at this point. We may find out that he has no loss, he just skewed the tests when he wouldn't quit wiggling at the first appointment. His speech is within the normal range for his age and so it seems we're too worried about nothing, but holy crap does he get frustrated when he tries to tell us something and we just can't get it.

Swimming lessons are progressing as expected. He is fearless in the pool in our neighborhood. It's going to be a loooong summer with him if he continues to jump in, walk in, fall in, etc. The good news is that swimming is making him take beautiful naps and lovely night time sleeps:

How can that be comfortable?
And I'll throw this one in just for good measure. How can she sleep like that?

Amiya and Kev are definitely fully into the love/loathe phase. If she even looks at a toy that he's playing with he shrieks like a zebra being felled by a lion. It seems to occur a great deal when I'm on the phone, but it's by no means limited to those occasions. However, upon waking from a nap, Kev doesn't want me - I'm the mean Mom who put him there! He wants Didi and only Didi:

Isn't she the best? She eats this up!

And she pulls him around for hours in his little wagon.

By the way, do you notice her very dirty dress? I sent her to school in that dress in pristine condition and she came home looking like a chimney sweep. She's the only one in her class who can manage that task - her teacher and I are both baffled.

Daddy and Amiya after Vinay's victorious initial foray into the gaming world of Pretty, Pretty Princess. P3 is a riveting game where Princesses race each other to accumulate jewels. Whoever attains her jewels first wins the game and Vinay won masterfully. He was very proud of his earrings, especially.

And finally, the only cake for May! Whoohee! It's a vanilla and caramel IMBC cake with fondant and gumpaste accents.

And 40 sugar cookies to match!

A Picture is Worth...

... a thousand words, especially when I've only got ten minutes before Gray's starts!

Painting on the lanai a few weeks ago. Amiya paints, Kev dumps water. I love that her pictures are now landscapes, portraits, etc. as opposed to blobs.

They can hardly stand to be together, but holy cow try to separate them and see what happens.

If you squint and put your face right up next to the screen, you might be able to see Amiya doing her best princess wave from the front seat of that camel. This was a big deal. Followed by a big allergic reaction. Poor kid can't even ride a camel without getting sick!

The monkey exhibit at the zoo.

You see? I wasn't kidding about the headband thing. Here we see him channeling Jordy on Star Trek: The Next Generation.

Swimming lessons. Day 1 - dinosaur trunks, not a tear in sight. Day 2 - surf trunks, cries of terror. We'll be trying the dino shorts again on Day 3 to see if they hold a hidden power!

Kev's artwork. On the floor!!!!!!!

Saturday afternoon naptime. Kev sleeps for about 45 minutes alone and then has Vinay trained to come get him so they can cuddle on the couch.

She's all about writing us notes write now! LOVE IT!!!

And she's all about finding good deals. I looked back the other day while we were erranding around town and this is what I saw. Ha!

This must be from sometime when my parents were here in December. We just found it now - isn't it sweet?

And finally, not too much baking these past two weeks. I took the two weeks off because it was non-stop for a while! Above are the boxes that Vinay took in for the Administrative Assistants during that week. Each had 6 (or 8?) sugar cookies with fondant and royal decorations.

These were the boxes that Amiya took in for all (all!!!) of her teachers during teacher appreciation week. She absolutely positively had to thank 8 of the teachers at her school, so they only got 2 hand-painted apple cookies, as well as 4 more bags of assorted drop cookies. I love these cookies, I think they turned out SO cute!

Hey Moms

Did you ever have a moment where you wanted to smack yourself because you knew you weren't being the Mom you could be and the Mom you should be?

We had a particularly rough afternoon here yesterday. A lovely morning, a shitty afternoon. Amiya needed rest (recovering from a cold) and she needed more attention than I had available to give. She made particularly bad choices while I was on the telophone with another Mom trying to finalize plans for her teacher's surprise party. I got short with her, she had a tantrum (well, hello old friend) and I got even shorter.

And then today, at Muffins for Moms breakfast at school, she gave me a fabulous book. It was fill in the blank - her words are underlined.

Title: My Marvelous Mom

Page 1: Handdrawn picture of me and "This is my marvelou s mom. Her name is Christy"

Page 2: Picture of hearts and "The most beautiful part of my mom is her heart."

Page 3: Picture of us together and "I just love it so much when she kisses me."



In these days when she talks like a ten year old, wants to dress like a ten year old and emotes like a ten year old, it is so easy to lose sight of the fact that she's five. She can only be put off for so long, she can only "wait one minute" for so long.

So yeah, she could have behaved better, but the same can be said for me. And because I don't ever want her to think my heart is not the most beautiful part of me, I'm going to work extra, extra hard on that.

I know

it's been a long long time. But sometimes life gets busy and there just aren't moments in the day. And sometimes there are moments but they are better spent closing eyes and savoring the calm than typing on a keyboard. It is what it is. So, while I'm sorry for not posting any new news, I'm not sorry for getting a nap here and there. These two are action-packed lately!

Lots of exciting stuff going on here:

He's done a stinky poop on the toilet! (This is not from the actual event, he was not wearing his Cookie Monster backpack for the actual event.) Once and just once, but it's a light at the end of the tunnel.

This is his new sleeping position. He moves everything to the lower 24 inches of his bed and sleeps there.

I'm not sure if I put this up already or not, but it's too cute to risk not being out there. If Didi is wearing a headband and I am wearing a headband then Kev will find himself a headband to wear. And if he goes missing, we know we'll find him hunting around the bathrooms for a headband of his very own.

Amiya went to a girlfriend's birthday party this past weekend. It was a cooking class party - the kids made their own dough and then constructed a pizza on top of it. Amiya was an old pro at this stuff. She chose to sit at a table by herself as she didn't know any of the other girls (besides the birthday girl), so she and I had a really nice few hours chatting and kneading and chilling together. It was a great party for both of us!

In her new party dress that she picked out because it had a matching dress for a doll. So, for the first time ever, Kelly (the stuffed bear) has clothes beyond her fluorescent pink romper. Lovely. Both of them!

Little Desis

(Sometimes when an Indian is referring to another Indian, they use the word desi. Sort of like when women refer to each other as chicks.)

Just to be clear that our two little ones are true desis, despite the fact that they are only 50% desi, I offer up the fact that last night for dinner these two ate their weight in tarka dal (yellow lentil stew), baingan bharta (mashed & spiced eggplant), raita (spiced yogurt), rice and naan (delicious bread). Amiya ate more than I did and Kev rivaled Amiya with his second helpings, plus he washed it all down with a fruit yogurt for dessert. (Never have intestines been filled with more acidophilous.)

Anyway, they would most likely thumb their noses at Polish and Irish fare, but put a plate of Indian food in front of these two and Vinay and I get a quiet, complaint-free meal 100% of the time.

Bliss.

I wasn't kidding...

...when I said April is a month for purging. That's 5 bags of old clothes from Vinay and myself, 2 bags of blankets and household linens, 2 diaper boxes full of toys, and then random household things that we had double of (still, after 8 years of marriage).

We can walk into our closet now. Fabulous!!!

The Week in Review

So, it's been spring break here for Amiya. The rigorous demands of preschool meant she had to have a week off to recuperate. Or something like that.

Sunday, at USF, feeding the ducks. They ate white chocolate cake. They ate good! Kev was no fear. Of anything. Ducks. Squirrels. Crows. Amiya was all fear. Of everything.

Monday at the beach. Gabe seems to be rescuing Amiya, but maybe it's actually the reverse. That's Gabe's foot sticking up. Maybe I don't want to know.


Tuesday night saw Amiya's first pajama party. Six little girls, three hours, pizza, popcorn, sundaes and a fashion show. There were attempts at karaoke and watching a movie, but those activities couldn't compete with the allure of dress-up.

Wednesday is photo free, but there were two separate playdates! One in the morning with Gabe and Ethan. One in the afternoon with Benjamin and Freddy.
Thursday saw us at a strawberry farm picking the last berries of the season. Amiya is nature's cutest pesticide. There are no bugs left in the field because she brought them all home!
Kev striking a contemplative pose amidst the berry plants. When he stood up he was red from cheek to cheek.And here he is eating his weight in berries. This is an early shot, by the time we left his shirt was more pink than white. The best part? He was eating not only the berry, but the leaves, the bugs, the stems. Everything. He's taking the reduce of reduce, reuse, recycle to heart and leaving no waste.
Friday. Beach day again with Aubrey, Aiden, Kylie and Kendall. We got home and the kids decided the frivolities must continue. Here you see both decked out in beads left over from The 3 Day.

And still plenty of energy to tackle Daddy.

And the big cake of the week! It's a Scrabble cake (are you saying, "No sh*t, Christy!"?) for a friend's sister-in-law's birthday. Everything is edible except the board and the bow. It's cookies, gumpaste, fondant and really delicious caramel Italian Meringue Buttercream with buttery yellow cake.

Yeah, yeah, yeah

Can you hear that?

That's my Mom grumbling about how there aren't any new pictures of the kids up here.

I'm feeling overwhelmed. Not with her grumbling (it's a lovely sort of murmur since it's all the way from Wisconsin - I can barely detect it, really), but with clutter. Our house is bursting at the seems with stuff. And we profess to being non-materialistic sorts of people. And yet, our house is full of stuff.

That's why, you may remember, my April to do list is so full of cleaning and organizing tasks. It must be done.

And in that spirit, please read this. Funny, but also true.

And then, get to work. Even if your house isn't bursting at the seems make it a point to get rid of (preferably via recycling or Goodwill) at least three things this week. Anyone who posts about the three things you got rid of will receive a surprise in the mail before the end of April. And in that spirit, for every three things that each of you get rid of/donate/freecycle/etc. we will match! Each of you can play a collective role in helping us reclaim our closets!

April To Do List

March's List - almost completely done!
That means we handled:

• Amiya's Birthday ... done with a bang!
• Drop In And Decorate Cookie Class ... done and The 3 Day fundraising done, too!
• Pink & Brown Card Party ... done until May!
• Minnie Mouse Cake ... done but I forgot to take pictures!
• Tot Swap ... 3 two year olds, 3 hours, 3 Motrin
• Spring Cookies ... done!
• 3 Aprons ... 13 aprons for Amiya's class.
• USF Book Club ... done - we read A Long Way Gone. So-so.
• The Panhandle ... who knew it took so long to drive across Florida?
• New Tampa Book Club ... done - we read The Dive From Clausen's Pier. Loved it.
• Playgroup ... hosted. At the park. No pre or post cleaning. Love it!
• Finish Kev's Room ... love it!
• Stroller Bag ...glaring exception to my list. Maybe in April?
• Lunper ... done and someone else's turn in April! Whoohoo!

April's List

• Craft Closet ...what a mess, must organize!
• Master Closet ...not even a mess, a catastrophe.
• Amiya's Closet ... done, until she "plays quietly in her room for an hour." Start over.
• Kev's Closet ...done
• High School Musical Pajama Party ... seven girls, 3 hours, pajamas, Zac Efron
• Kitchen Cabinets ...what a mess, must organize!
• Stroller Bag ...for real. Maybe.
• Hope Chest ...it dawned on me the other day that I haven't opened this in at least 2 years and yet it's stuffed full of stuff. Maybe time to purge?
• New Tampa Book Club ... we're reading The Weight of Water Eh.
• USF Book Club ... we're reading Cold Sassy Tree Blegh
• Tot Swap ... yep 3 tots, 3 hours 3 Motrin, again!
• April in Paris ... a French cooking class hosted by moi
• Baptism Cake & Cookies ... weekend #1
• Scrabble Cake ... weekend #2
• Beach Cake ... weekend #3
• Pizza Cake ... weekend #4

So April seems to be about organization and cakes. And that's good. Two things I like, one thing I'm good at!

If posts are infrequent it's because Kev thinks he owns the computer. Fisher Price has an animal site that he *must* play each time someone even looks in the direction of the computer and if one of us has the audacity to actually use the computer, we get pulled away repeatedly. He's a sweet little boy, except when he wans his Animal ABC time and then he's a tyrant!

So Long March, Hellooooooooo April!

March was a very busy month, capped off with a fun, fast trip to the Florida panhandle for a quick meet-up with Grandma and Grandpa. We're home now and I've been trying to concentrate on getting the house organized a bit - that seems to slip quickly and before I know it it's an all out really bad word that I shouldn't use in polite company.




It seems that I don't have many pics of our time in the panhandle. Indicative, perhaps, of enjoying the moment too much to bother taking a picture? I don't have a single picture of anyone but Kev - Amiya was so busy pulling Grandma all over the place that I missed her! Hopefully Grandma has a few?

Kev found a big hole to sit in on the beach. And so he did. For about an hour.

Grandma bought Kev a pair of swim trunks from Hawaii. They're size 1 (toddler). Too big for this boy, so he ended up in the baby version of a Speedo. He loved the waves and now

we know where all of our gas money will go this summer - to the beach!

Saturday morning was overcast and gray. Not bad enough to stop the guys from golfing, but too gray for the pool. So, what were we to do? Shoe shopping!!! We quickly found a pair of sandals for Kev - brown, simple, leather. All the requirements for a boy sandal. He was having none of it. Why should Didi get bright and colorful shoes when Kev gets brown? Here you can see him modeling the newest wedge heel, preppy plaid sandal in Amiya's size. Neither child got this pair of shoes, but I think Kev was far more disappointed than Amiya.