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.

Kev's Room

When V went out of town last November, I had a painting party and a bunch of my girlfriend's and I painted Kev's room two different shades of blue. I had big aspirations to paint a faux chair rail of circles, too, but let's get real. So, my Dad put up a lime green chair rail instead. LOVE IT! The colors are based on the monkey/surf bedding I got for him at Target and the whole room is finally almost finished. I still have to do a bit of touch-up painting here and there and decide if he's going to have a rocker in there long enough that I need to redo the cover for that chair cushion. I'm also going to move his Nemo/turtle picture from the wall it's currently on to above the closet - it's too busy where it is.

Anyway, here's his room in all its' almost-finished glory. Thanks Mom and Dad for your sewing/chair rail installing expertise and to my girlfriends for your toil!

The monkey and the bedding that inspired it all.

The wall mural that I painted for exactly $0.00! Gotta love that - I had all the paints and brushes already in our craft closet. My monkey and elephant are a little bit wonky, but those were Daddy-requested additions at the last minute!

Grandma sewed the valance, I sewed the changing pad table and both the window curtains and the changing pad curtain.

For his bed, my Dad cut the legs off of Amiya's bunk, I painted it and it became Kev's bed. We wanted to clear out Amiya's room a bit so she got a new, smaller bed and her previous bed went to a neighbor who was furnishing an apartment. This has worked out so well for Kev - he is getting used to a big boy bed without us worrying about him falling out all the time. It's adorable to see him get in and out - he face plants everytime, but giggles while doing it.

Wondering why the pictures are so high? Because if they are even inches lower, Kev stands on the rails of his bed and knocks them down. The monkey bit makes sense now, right?

Now his room is pretty open and really cool to be in. The colors are bright, but it's also sort of serene. He likes it a lot, especially now that the animals are all back up - we constantly have to point and list all the animals in the various art around the room. So cute!

Pop Goes the Birthday Bubble

And the birthday euphoria is gone.

Gone is the scent of glitter hairspray.

Gone is the aroma of chana bhatura.

Gone is the perfume of buttercream.

In their place, the pungent smell of the smear Kev left on my leg when he slid off my lap at 7:15 this morning.

Mother's Day gifts had better be a.m.a.z.i.n.g. from this kid when he grows up. He takes poop art to a whole new level.

Happy Wednesday morning to you. I hope yours is starting off less offensively than mine.

Happy Birthday Baby!

Someone turned five today.

I'm a bit teary about the whole thing. I guess parents always feel that way, but I remember all too well seeing this little girl, no bigger than a loaf of bread, 5 years ago. And now, she's almost too heavy to lift up and too smart for her own good.

So anyway, it's/it was her day today. She's asleep now, totally zonked from all the excitement.

Amiya chose to have an adventure with her friend Aubrey, instead of a party. So, we started the day with pancakes - Amiya's choice - she wanted a candle in her stack, but I said it was too early for that! Before pancakes she tackled her stack of presents:

Her favorite gift was the new series of Rainbow Fairy books from Grandma and Grandpa!

After pancakes, we headed to the Girl Salon with Aubrey. The girls got Princess hair-dos with lots of glitter!

Aubrey knew the words to all the songs! The stylists thought she was pretty cute!

Gettin' glittered! I think this might have been Amiya's favorite part - she was so excited about the glitter spray!

And the future is set - she looooooooved getting her nails done.

Aubrey didn't mind the nail part either!

Amiya said they needed to relax a bit after all the hard work: getting their nails done, hair done and concocting lip glosses and lotions. Check out Amiya's smile - that's genuine happiness there!

The girls were gettin' down on the runway in their saris. It was cute to see them on the runway because they really had no clue what it was about! Practicing their namastes at Miss Sue's when we went to pick-up Kev.
Dinner out with Gabe and Aubrey! Amiya wanted to wear her sari to an Indian restaurant on her birthday, so out we went! Amiya ate her weight in chana once again!

Triple trouble all in row! Gabe, Amiya and Aubrey

The birthday girl and her "Indian Girl" cake as she calls it. She helped me with the flowers and leaves last night and today kept telling me how much she loved it.
The cake full on - I wanted something fun and bright and very Indian. This is what this non-Indian came up with. The figure on top is of polymer clay and meant to look a bit like Amiya - although the dreads weren't quite Amiya. The sari matched what Amiya was wearing. The cookies were a bit for Amiya and a bit for Kev who was very excited to see elephants.

After dinner, tummies full, ready for bed!

A big thanks from Vinay and I to everyone who called, sent an email, sent a card or spent some time with Amiya today! She has told us both that it was a very, very special birthday - so special that instead of doing our usual 3 favorite things at bedtime, we had to do 5.

Happy Birthday Amiya!

Not my doing.

The following sequence of photographs shows you Kev's reaction to Daddy's special ice cream cone.

Allow me to set the scene. Dinner, weekday night, Gupta household. Family members around the table. Dinner was grilled meat, baked potato, vegetables and a small ice cream for dessert. For nothing on earth would Kev eat the baked potato. Nothing. Enter Daddy's special ice cream cone. Baked potato in a cake cone.

I am not responsible. Kev, when you read this one day, please know that this was all Daddy's doing.

"I won. I still got my ice cream."

"Hmm, that's an odd texture for ice cream."

"And the temperature isn't quite right..." "What in the ???"
"Oh, you didn't."
"Look! Look at this! What is this?"
"I can't do it. I just can't."
"I can't believe you Daddy. I'm so disappointed in you."

Eager Beaver

The little man loves to "cook". He stirs the same 2 cubic inches of batter for 4 seconds before losing interest, but if it involves parental-approved climbing of furniture, he's all about it. At left you can see him giving his review of the blueberry muffins we made together. "A little too much flour, Mommy and maybe just a pinch more cinnamon." I think that's what the hand gesture means at least.

If you say the words "go" and "outside" to Kev, he's ready .2 seconds later.* Today we see him ready to help get groceries. In my pink crocs. Without pants.

Sadly that's not considered all that odd in Florida.

*Unless he is involved with a book that contains a picture of an elephant. Then he will not put the book down even with promises of ice cream, chocolate, chocolate milk or the playground. Elephants trump all.

Little Miss

Here is her engineering solution to keeping a pencil next to her job chart. Oddly, it works.
And finally, here you can see her quizzing Daddy on the different types of dinosaurs.