What's been up with us?

Summer vacation is sort of like winter in Australia. When it's winter for Aussies, it's summer for us. When it's summer vacation for kids it's overtime for parents. Holy smokes have we been busy.

What have we been doing, you say? Swimming, playing, swimming, clay-making, swimming, reading, swimming, coloring, swimming, beach, swimming, play-dates, swimming, zoo and more swimming. Our drying rack is a permanent fixture in our foyer as the kids walk in the door, strip off their suits, hang 'em up and hop in the tub. We swim at least once a day and have been up to the pool twice on occasion. It is a good thing to live in a place with a big pool - we get our money's worth out of it.

Other things they've been up to:

Amiya has been watching her sunflowers that Grandma sent grow and grow and grow until this week when three straight days of very heavy rain sapped them of all their strength and now they are rotting away into the ground. We have already bought more seeds and will be planting other flowers shortly.
Amiya has a daily assignment that I've set up for her. Each day she does some reading, some math, some handwriting (her kryptonite) and her chores (minimal. Quiet in the peanut gallery.) Eeach day when she successfully finishes her journal she moves the ACG shuttle from one planet to the next in the solar system. She has made the trip from the sun to Pluto once so far and is well on her way to another trip. Each time she makes it to Pluto she can choose a reward - a small toy, a movie from Blockbuster, etc. She loves the whole thing and asks to do it every morning. I love it, too, as I get 30 minutes of calm and she's keeping fresh on all of her facts/skills/etc.

This is Kev on the last day of swim lessons. He got a medal that says "Winner" on it. And now, we wear the medal everywhere. He calls it his "noonle" (also his word for noodle) and the day can't start until Kev has his medal on.

Amiya is currently in swimming lessons and one of these days I'm going to remember to take the camera to get a picture. Her teacher is a second grade teacher who offers lessons during the summer at a local pool. It is fantastic. Amiya has made such leaps and bounds in the last 5 days in this situation - this teacher knows kids, knows how to talk to her and can really motivate Amiya. Most importantly, Amiya sees what she is capable of and has so much more confidence now while in the pool. It was a lucky day when the information for these classes was forwarded to me.

The two, chillin' out after a hard day of Diego and swimming! Kev and Vinay went to the Diego show for some boy time. Amiya and I spent the day swimming and shopping for Vinay's Father's Day gift. Can you see how tall Kev is getting? I think he'll definitely be taller than Amiya.

And finally, the court case. The whole thing was a horrible, horrible experience. The situation was that a house two away from us has 5 mini-Dobermans. They let the dogs run, the dogs leave piles in yards, they bark all the time, etc. The 5 houses closest to them have put up with this for a long time because they're basically not nice guys and we don't want the situation to get worse. Anyway, Amiya was playing in our backyard with two neighbor children while Kev was in the lanai and I was watching all the kids from the lanai. The neighbors let their dogs out and the dogs chased the two neighbor children from my yard, barking and nipping at their heels. The children's Mom called Animal Control and filed a complaint. (And rightly so. Piles of crap are one thing, chasing kids another entirely.) Animal Control leveled a large fine on the guys and they didn't pay it, so off we went to court. The judge questionned my parenting because I let Amiya play in our backyard without a fence while I was watching her. I was angry - it wasn't about the kids at all. They were in our yard, they did nothing - why do we need a fence? More than angry - I was humiliated. Why was this about my parenting? My kids weren't chasing their dogs, their dogs were chasing kids!!! Additionally, our backyard is all of 15 feet deep and maybe 30 feet wide - Amiya is a smart enough kid to know that she doesn't leave my sight and if she does, we go in. So, had I been inside watching soap operas and eating chocolate, sure he can question me. But I'm probably the most overly-protective Mom who has ever been in his courtroom and for him to put me down was out of place. He also called both my neighbor (who filed the complaint) and myself "overattentive" to the neighbor's dogs. So the moral of the story is children in their own backyard with parental supervision = inattentive parenting. Unleashed dogs charging children = overattentive neighbors. And to top it all off, he didn't even tell us what the final outcome of the case was. So, far all I know, Vinay took the day off work, I was publicly questionned for something completely unrelated to the whole sha-bang and the (bad words) with the dogs got off scott-free. I at least hope they had to pay court fees.

I am still really angry about the whole thing, but, Vinay, as always has helped me be calm. I wrote a couple of letters just to express my disgust with the whole case. I don't need anything to happen, I don't want anything to happen, I just wanted to be heard.

So, let's hope they put up a fence and give some attention to their pets and train them to live in a neighborhood.

Christy Goes to Court

I've been subpoenaed (sp?) because of my neighbors (once removed) and their dogs. So, I'll update when that's out of the picture. Tomorrow I will see the workings of our justice system intimately.

Weekend Update

Remember Dennis Miller on Saturday Night Live way back when?

I'd like him to review the Guptas weekends sometime. I bet he'd make them seem far more amusing than they are to those who are living them.

Amiya and Vinay trotted off to work Saturday morning. Amiya loves going to work with Vinay as his grad. students find her amusing and she gets unfettered access to the computer in their office. When she came home, she was quickly heading downhill with a stuffy nose, fever and general lethargy. We thought she just caught a summer cold somewhere. Vinay proceeded to install two ceiling fans (complete with light kits) in our lanai so we can actually be outside now that summer has started in earnest. I have to commend him on his excellent work - he attended a useless class at Home Depot and then came home to knock my socks off with his handyman skills once again. When I took those seven solemn marriage vows oh so long ago, I was sure we'd have a handyman on speed-dial. He's always surprising me!

Sunday was a hectic day with both kids getting up far too early yet again. Vinay headed out for a bit of shopping Sunday afternoon (the one time, ever, he has gone shopping on a Sunday afternoon), I put the kids down for naps and tried to catch one myself. Not to be.

Kev screamed until I took him into our bed for a rest. Not to be. Poking, tickling, general mayhem ensued. Ok, whatever, at least I was horizontal and he wasn't screaming, just not sleeping. I was making lemonade out of the Kev lemons handed to me that afternoon.

Or so I thought.

Twenty minutes into the mayhem of napping (ahem) with Kev, Amiya came screaming into the bedroom clawing at her ear. Um, I thought we had passed the age of ear infections? Apparently not as the doctor later confirmed that she has one and thank you very much to Publix for offering free antibiotics.

So, that's the story of our weekend. I think this about sums it up:



We were in the aforementioned Publix getting Amiya's antibioitics, when we detoured down the frozen/beer aisle to grab some items. Vinay wandered off towards the beer and grabbed himself a Foster's. He has never, ever, in our married life grabbed a beer without the purpose of entertaining others. And please note, he didn't just grab a 12 oz. size. Oh, no. It's Aussie size.

Let's hope next weekend is only half as exciting.

Summertime and the livin' is.........

.........early.

(sing it with me)

Kids are spastic
and the weather is hot.
Your Daddy's readin'
and your Mamma's not awake yet,
so hush little children
don't you wake.

Alright, that's all I can manage. George Gershwin was a far better lyricist than I.

What in the world is up with these kids!?!?!? They are up at 5:30/6:00 these days. I say again, What in the world is up with these kids!?!?!?

That looks like a picture that would have been taken at about 2 in the afternoon, right?

Don't I wish.

7:32 AM Tuesday morning.

Enough already, enough. They were in the pool for 4 (1, 2, 3, 4) hours today and we kept them up until 8 PM. They better sleep until 7 tomorrow morning because there is not enough coffee in this world to get me through the day if they don't.

Seriously. Because if not, I'm going to paint their rooms black and put plywood over their windows. And then I'm going to switch to decaf and have a big ol' nap.

Delusions of Grandeur

I will only say this. For the past two days, Kev has called himself an elephant when in the bathtub and during diaper changes. That's all.

Shuttle Launch

Saturday saw the Gupta family witnessing a shuttle launch! It was fantastic!

Vinay used his super sleuthing skills to find us a great hotel room Friday night, so we set off for Orlando after dinner. Upon arriving, we cruised the strip for a bit and the kids were excited by all the sights. We turned in for the night at 9:30 PM with the hopes of sleeping in a bit as we didn't need to leave the hotel until noon. It was not to be, even with a 2.5 hour delay in bedtimes, Kev was up at 7 AM on the dot. Bah!

A hot breakfast and a splash in the pool and then off we went to see the launch. Titusville, FL (home to NASA) is about 40 minutes from Orlando and traffic was great. We arrived at Space View park just in time for a 15 minute downpour, but after that the weather was absolutely Florida. Broiling hot and lots of sunshine. We found seats and then waited. And waited. And waited.

The kids were a little punchy by the end, but behaved more than admirably during the four hour wait. Amiya was a goof and Kev played wet t-shirt contest for most of the time. On the plus side, it appears that he is not far from mastering drinking from a non-sippy cup type apparatus. Half of the beverage goes down his shirt, but it's just a matter of time.

While we were waiting, I mentioned to Amiya that one of the seven astronauts aboard happens to be a woman. She was not impressed. So, I guess what they say is true. My Grandmas' generations faught to vote, my Moms' faught to work, my generation reaps the benefits and my daughter's generation will be completely clueless. And that's a good thing, maybe? It's great that for her it's nothing special that a woman is an astronaut - it's just as it should be.

We opted to head to the free park for viewing instead of paying NASA prices. We could see the launch pad (directly under red dot below), although we could just barely see it. We could see fire and smoke and the shuttle launching, but couldn't make out any details. Perhaps if we go back before the fleet is retired in 2010, we'll pay for the good seats. But for the age of our kids, this was more than enough.

All in all a really great day. Amiya tells us she needs to go to Astronaut High School (the public high school in Titusville) because she now wants to be an astronaut when she grows up. A Buzz Lightyear doll went up on the shuttle and will be "blogging" from space, so it seems that space might be a big theme around here this summer. Could be worse, right?

And the best part of all - we were walking away from the park after the launch and Amiya gave my hand a huge squeeze and said, "Thanks for bringing us here." Really, after the emotional high of seeing such an amazing feat it was all topped up with a five year old's unprompted gratitude. Stellar day indeed!

Amiya Gupta, Graduate

So, today was the day. Amiya graduated from preschool. It was very exciting stuff - for her! Vinay and I were guardedly excited. It's hard to balance our beliefs that finishing preschool is really not that much of a challenge v. the frenzy that seems to be taking place around her. Balloons, flowers, freakin' class rings!!!!! For preschool!!!!!

Anyway, off we went for her little ceremony. She wore a cap and gown and looked like a mini-version of what I imagine she'll look like when she gets her real diplomas twelve and sixteen (and twenty and twenty-three) years down the road. It was a little odd, really. A lot of the girls had curls and pigtails and the like - but Amiya chose to wear her hair down with a string of pearls. She really does look older to me!



Here she is with her teacher, Miss Amina. Miss Amina has been fabulous this year and Amiya is going to miss her terribly. We're almost to the point of tears on a daily basis because she doesn't want to leave Miss Amina.

And here she is after graduation, enjoying an ice cream cone at the ice cream shop. All in all, a very good day!
And, in a very important addendum to the graduation hoopla, we opened Amiya's portfolio to find that she has been given the Math Superstar award by Miss Amina. Vinay, who had been rolling his eyes almost constantly all night long, couldn't hide the way his chest puffed up with pride upon hearing his daughter got a math award!

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.