Money-Saving Sites

We spent an enjoyable 5 days in Wisconsin with my parents. I'd move tomorrow if I could. Not in with them, although we had a great time at their cabin. Just back to Wisconsin. More on that later though.

Anyway, I was telling my Mom about two sites that save our (nuclear*) family and our local friends a bit of money.

www.paperbackswap.com is the site we use the most. It's great, super easy and a huge savings on books if you are avid readers as Vinay and I are. If you sign up, please use my hotmail address as a referral code - you'll get us more free books and it costs you nothing!'

www.thegrocerygame.com A few friends use this one and if you live in a suburban or urban area, it will most likely save you a lot of money!

Thank You, Roger Ebert

Please click here to read Ebert's take on McCain's actions during the presidential debate on Friday.

It will be interesting to see if McCain's body language is appreciably different in the next debate.

Random Pictures

I finally am getting around to moving pictures from the cell phone to the computer. Or, more aptly put, having Vinay do that because I haven't a clue.

So, some random pictures that are in no particular order:

The kids at Parkesdale Market for strawberry picking way back in April? May? Not such a remarkable picture except look at her posing. Unreal. If that's not Southern Belle posing I don't know what is.

Kev taking his Steak & Shake hat wearing very, very seriously.

Amiya and I went out for a girls morning a few days before school began. She thoughts it was the best thing ever - we went book shopping and got a few books and then spent some time at Starbucks where she enjoyed a hot cocoa and a rice krispie treat. She thinks she's hot stuff now because Starbucks has a drink on the menu that she can actually order!

Kev's water bottle after one swig at the zoo a few weeks ago. This is why one should never ever share water bottles with Kev.

The little guy chilling one day after swimming. He grabbed his blanket, stacked up some pillows and decided that was the place to watch TV.

I just like this one.

The new big thing. Kev likes to play his "macaca" while spinning on this blue stool and holding manatee.

It's a bit blurry, but maybe you can guess how that arch of wetness got right over his tummy? If you lift up his shirt, guess what's peeking out of the diaper? We didn't put him to bed that way!

This is a few weeks old, but how cute is it? I love her expression!

Finally, Uncle Jon-o sent the kids this stuffed husky animal. I don't think he envisioned that it'd be wearing a burgundy velvet jacket with faux fur collar and faux pearly closure. But, Icicle (as the dog has been named) rocks the look, don't you think?

Seattle 2008: The 3 Day

This past weekend was The 3 Day in Seattle. After the overwhelmingly positive experience I had last year, I was gung-ho to do it again and convinced two online friends to do it with me - Marlene and Rebekah. I have known Marlene and Rebekah for roughly 6 years - we met on a pregnancy forum when I was pregnant with Amiya and they were pregnant also - all of us were due in the same month. Here was a great opportunity for all of us to meet up together and do something good in the process.

I flew out Wednesday night and got into Seattle around 11 PM. Got to the hotel and crashed. The next morning I had a quiet breakfast all by myself (when's the last time that happened?) and waited to meet the others. Another online friend, Angela, lives in Seattle and very generously volunteered to pick us up from our airport hotels and drive us to the meeting place for Crew Day on Thursday.

Crew Day was ok - we were part of the (awesome) Lunch Crew. Lots of standing around between sessions and we thought it could have been shorter. But it may have been that those who volunteer for Crew are just naturally gifted men and women and we knew it all already. (Right? Right.) Anyway, it was adventurous in that I took a very hard tumble on the sidewalk whilst buying sustenance at the corner gas station and we I had to get a bit bitchy to get the hotel to send a shuttle. Other than that it was all good. They kept telling us that crewing was as hard as walking. Whatever. No way. Walking was horribly difficult. I say again, whatever. Later that evening, Angela came back to see us at our hotel and we all went to dinner - #1 regret of the week is that we weren't able to meet Amity - yet another online friend - due to a tragic shooting of a colleague and #2 regret is that we forgot to take a picture with Angela. Next time.

Day 1: Up at 3:00 to catch the 4:00 shuttle to the site where we would hop on another bus to go to the first lunch site. We were less than happy to stand around from 4 - 6 AM, but we kept reminding each other that those in the know must have done it that way for a reason, so we tried to keep our grumbling to ourselves.

Anyway, here we are - Rebekah in black, me in the middle and Marlene on the right. Don't we look chipper? It was a Western themed day for the lunch crew, so we had pink bandanas with little shamrocks on them (because the babes that brought us together were all born in March).

After that picture, we were off to empty cargo containers and set up lunch. This involved schlepping a whole lot of really, really heavy metal frames and canvas tents (the pink/silver tents below), tables, chairs, garbage containers, dry Gatorade, wet wipes, toilet paper, etc.,). And then once all of that was set up, it was time to bring out the consumables - plastic bags (seemingly millions - #1 critique of the weekend was that The 3 Day produces an incredible amount of unnecessary waste), cutlery, more wet wipes, and the food. Each day we fed approximately 3,500 people - walkers and crew. It was craziness - working from 6:30 AM until 3 PM every day - non-stop. Wet feet from the dew, chilled from the cool morning air, sweaty from the afternoon sun.

The smiles are just a wee bit less exuberant, aren't they? Yep, we were tired. Day 2. The grass was drier, so our feet didn't get quite so wet and we were a lot closer to the big ol' truck that held all our food, so the guys (and Marlene) who were running food for us had less distance to travel. This was the hardest day for the walkers and we could tell. While most remained in really good spirits, some were cranky and we did our best just to let it roll. Day 2 is hard - your feet hurt, you most likely had a fair night of sleep at best and you know that you've got another night in a tent and another day of long walks tomorrow.

Day 2 also seemed to be the day that it really started to sink in - I teared up more times than I had on Day 1. I think the fuzzy-headed ladies who were fresh out of chemo and the signs held by men who had lost their wives at ages younger than me really slapped me in the face. Working alongside women who survived and men who were crewing because they loved these women was overwhelming at times. My voice cracked a lot when I tried to encourage the walkers and there were many times when my eyes were teary after reading the dates on the back of a shirt. It's difficult to stay nonchalant about something when it's right there in your face.

This is how we camped after Day 2. I take full responsibility for my ill-preparedness. It was cold in Seattle and after four years in Tampa, I couldn't hack it at night. After Day 1, I went to bed and got three hours of sleep tops. At some points I was afraid to fall asleep as I was so cold I didn't know if I'd wake up. (That's probably crazy talk, but in the wee small hours of the morning, the brain goes a bit wonky.) Anyway, I caved and had Vinay reserve us a hotel room. Best. decision. ever. We got there, showered and ordered pizza. Mmmmmm. And then we crashed.
The above is the end of Day 3. And we were trying to look tired for the picture. But when I look at the one where we're not trying to look tired - it's not much different. Behind Rebekah you can see the big containers that we had to fill. What a pain in the butt that was. There's a legend and everything - very specific, very heavy. Ugh.

Day 3 was definitely the hardest. The physical misery that so many of the walkers felt was evident everywhere. Limping, swelling, ice packs - everything was all around us. It was also the day when I (and a lot of other crew members) gave up trying to not cry when we were with the walkers. It would have been impossible to keep it in. It's impossible to describe if you haven't been part of something like this - but seeing ordinary human beings give every ounce of themselves to better society as a whole is phenomenal. It is breathtaking and awe-inspiring and especially appreciated in this time of rancorous political debate.

Some of the others on our crew:From left to right: Meg, Judi (our Captain), a very nice lady whose name escapes me and Janet .
I'd schlep sandwiches again with these ladies any day! Judi had a really great way of being the boss without being bossy - loved her!

This is Mike, but I called him Bill a lot. He was (almost) ok with that. He was the sandwich man in our tent and he was fabulous. He always had a one-liner ready and was quick to make the walkers laugh.

This was Bill - our #1 schlepper. It was his job to keep our tent equipped with all the stuff from the truck. He did a great job and never complained (out loud) about the constant back and forth he had to do on Day 3 - we couldn't keep anything in stock.

And finally, Closing Ceremony. It was, as last year, a time to remind us all why Kleenex will always be a safe stock.

Rebekah had to leave early to catch a bus home, so Marlene and I made sure to flash her our gang sign from the field:

I'd tell you what it means, but it's just really silly and non-important. What is important is that meeting Marlene and Rebekah was just a really cool bonus to this weekend - and I can't wait to see them again. Five years of chatting via the keyboard and three days of really hard work has made for a great relationship.

This is Pat - she's a fellow Lunch Crew member, mom to Judi, our Captain, and a Survivor. On Day 3 I couldn't take being around her anymore without crying. She reminds me so much of my maternal Grandmother who passed away last year. She has that way of inhaling slightly before saying a word that starts with W that is so prevalent in that generation. She is hard-working and strong-willed. She keeps herself so gracefully and yet doesn't shy away from whispering a naughty word if it's germane to the story. Being around Pat was like getting an unexpected ticket to spending time with my Grandma again and it was really, really wonderful. We walked into holding after the walk and there was Pat in her pink t-shirt. She looked absolutely strong and beautiful. I can't wait to see her again.

Just like last year, closing ceremony was most touching in the tribute to the Survivors. Marlene and I stood there holding a shoe up in tribute while the Survivors walked in and then three women - younger than me - filed in right in front of us. Two had full heads of hair and one had less hair than our children when they were born. Her fuzzy skull was protected with a baseball cap and her body was held by her friends on either side. It's all just too much, it really is. No one should have to face this or any other cancer. No one. And yet we will. And in coming together like this, women with fuzzy-heads and flat chests are supported by friends and strangers. All together for altruistic reasons, doing what we can to celebrate life.

I remember, again, seeing Amiya sitting way up on Sherri's shoulders last year while I limped in to closing ceremony in Tampa. I don't want her ever to have to wear a pink shirt as a symbol of her health. I cannot walk away from this and so will participate again.

Some of us from Lunch Crew are talking about crewing in Boston in 2010 - please consider joining us. I promise that you'll have one of the hardest experiences of your life - I'm a believer now when I hear someone say crewing is as hard as walking - but also the best. You can't know how good it is until you try it and you can't know how good you'll feel until you're finished. And all to celebrate life. It doesn't get better.

Lucky Girl

Sometimes the little things in life just smack you right in the face and make you sit up and take notice. Tonight, while Amiya and I were baking in the kitchen, I turned off the mixer expecting quiet and instead heard Kev laughing so hard he couldn't breathe. I peeked around the corner into the den and saw that Vinay had Kev on his lap and they were playing some sort of peek-a-boo game on the computer. Each time a face popped up, Vinay jumped and feigned surprise and Kev thought it was the greatest thing in the world.

Not a lot of people see the many sides of my husband because he's such a quiet guy. I feel so lucky to see the part of him that let's his (figurative) hair down and gets silly. And the kids see it, too. Just this weekend I asked Kev if I could play with him and he said (verbatim), "Not now, Mommy. I have fun wif my Daddy now."

We are lucky indeed.

Must See

I love this.

Sleep Issues

This is how we found Amiya at 10 PM last night when we went to check on her before going to bed. Hanging off the edge of the bed, deep, deep in sleep.

Tonight, we were watching someone blather on television and out popped Amiya. This is not an uncommon occurence. Usually she comes out to say she needs a drink, can't fall asleep, etc. It's annoying but it's fine, it's Amiya. But tonight was different. She marched out of her room, hair damp from her bath, eyes open but not seeing. From her room to the kids art table in the kitchen, mumbling under her breath the whole way.

Sleepwalking.

This is a new realm for us - Vinay is used to it from me, but this is the first time we've seen it in Amiya. So all the doors are locked, the alarm is on and hopefully it's just a one time thing. From what we've read online, it's a normal part of growing up and fatigue plays a big part of it. Nonetheless, it was a bit disconcerting to witness!

If You Can't Beat 'Em...

That's right. He's not giving an inch on the sleeping on the floor bit, so we found an itsy bitsy sleeping bag for him to have something to sleep in. He loves it. So do monkey, manatee, giraffe, two blankets and seventeen pillows.

Forever and a Day

I know, I know, I know. But it's been crazy busy here and mostly because with the pick-up time of Amiya's school at 2:15, Kev is not taking an afternoon nap, which means I don't have any child-free time in the day, so the things that would normally get done in the day when they would nap/rest don't get done until the evening. This is a big adjustment and I'm not quite sure where it's all going to end up!

School continues to go very well for Amiya. Her teacher says that we should be very proud of her - it seems as if Amiya has shown herself to be very caring and helpful. We are definitely proud! On the academic side of things, Amiya is beyond what is currently on tap in her classroom, so her teacher has pulled work from first and second grades for her to work on when things are too easy. So, she still does some work with the class and some on her own. We are very happy with this arrangement so far - she is enjoying the cutesy stuff that kindergarten offers while being offered a curriculum that is more challenging.

To supplement the at school stuff, we have instituted a program called Book Bucks. Amiya is in love with the Rainbow Fairy series of books by Daisy Meadows. She has read the Rainbow Fairies, the Weather Fairies, the Jewel Fairies, and is just starting the Pet Fairies. These are each a series of chapter books consisting of seven different books each - all about two girls: Kirsty and Rachel and their quest to help rescue the fairies from Jack Frost. Mundane stuff for grown-ups, but for a 5 year old it's like The Other Boleyn Girl. Can't. put. it. down. That is all well and good, but at $5 each, we were shelling out a fair chunk of change every week for these books - they are too new to be at the library or for a good price on ebay. And it appears there is no end in sight - at present there are six series yet to make their way across the pond. And that's a long-winded introduction for Book Bucks.

Vinay and I decided that instead of just buying these books, Amiya was going to have to earn them. So, we've found a couple of websites that we like - one especially that involves Amiya reading books (non-Fairy, thank you oh so much) and answering reading comprehension questions about the books. When she amasses 500 points on this site (meaning she has read 5 books and gotten a 100% on each of the quizzes), she gets 1 book buck. She can also play a general computer game that runs the gamut of topics included in a school day - when she reaches a certain level of points, she gets 1 book buck. And finally, I've been making her packets of worksheets on various topics - the packets vary in amount of book bucks awarded depending on the size and level of difficulty.

Sometimes I feel like it's a bit much with school and all, but it's all at her choosing. She can do these things, she can not do these things. But if she wants these books, she's going to have to earn the money to buy them and since we're not ready to start an allowance, here's one way she can do it. She didn't do anything today - but that's because her nose was buried in one of three books she bought yesterday with her book bucks. 150+ pages and she finished it in 24 hours - despite a birthday party, a pool party and a 3 hour nap. So you see what we're up against? It's a mini-Vinay busting out of her shell into the world of speed reading and voracious book consumption. That picture above? That's her after Aubrey's gymnastics party Saturday afternoon - she wanted to earn a few more book bucks before we went to Borders Sunday morning, so she came home and hopped right up there before she could even be bothered to change.

And then there's Kev.

I'm not really sure what is happening with all of the various stuffed animals in the picture, so let's skip that. I'll just make note of the fact that he will not even go to bed on his bed anymore - it's directly onto the floor. Just this very moment I went into his room (9:48 PM) to try and place him on his bed and he awoke out of a deep slumber to crawl back to his floor. Twice. Oh my little Kev. Your Uncle Mikey is so proud.

Interesting things seem to take place while he is on the floor, too. After putting him to bed tonight, Vinay and I went back into his room to see if he had fallen asleep. Of course not. But he had tiled the floor from one end to another with the diaper wipes from the wipe box on his changing table. Of course. Makes perfect sense.

He is continuing to talk more and more. Today the four of us were in the car and Vinay was trying to ask Amiya something. Kev interrupted Vinay with, "Not wight now, Daddy. I talking to Didi now." How can we argue with that?

That's all for now. It's somewhat late and this new school schedule has us getting up early in the morning. Hopefully I'll be back soon!

Boot Camp

Kev has taken to sleeping on the floor. This picture was taken last night around 10:30 PM. A similar picture could have been taken today around 1:30 PM. Amiya, trying to "help," laid down with Kev yesterday on his floor to get him to take his afternoon nap. Ever since, the floor is the place to be.

He lays out Grandma's quilt, surrounds himself with monkey and giraffe and puts his head down for a snooze. I think it's very much toddler basic training - sleeping on a hard surface, no blanket, etc. Except I don't think the Marines wear footed pajamas and get to sleep with not one, but two cuddly stuffed animals.

The First Day of Kindergarten

Ah.

It was fabulous. Amiya woke up when I went into her room and was up in (almost) a flash. She was dressed, coiffed and at the table for breakfast by 6:35. By 7 AM breakfast was done, teeth brushed and backpack on. Then thirty minutes of little bits of this and that.

Do you get the feeling that she was excited? She was.

You can see her here - please note the lack of cheesy five-year-old hamming for the camera smile. These are the real deal.

She has to wear a big ol' white foot on her shirt for the next week and a half until everyone knows how everyone is supposed to get home. Three guesses as to how she feels about being emblazoned with a big ol' foot. She looked adorable in her uniform and I kept thinking to myself that she looked so old, so big, so grown-up. (Until I saw the fifth grade girls and then I wanted to swaddle her and put her back in the crib!)

On the way to school, Amiya rode with Vinay in Bob (the blue wonder car) and I drove with Kev in the other car. I shed a few tears but got it all under control before Amiya could see it and either get nervous herself or be a little stinker and make it worse.

At school we walked to her classroom, dropped off her bookbag and lunchbox (more on that later), cookies for the teachers and snacks for the kids. Her new teacher, Mrs. Jefferis, wanted to take a family picture so we did and off we went. Amiya was ready, it was a bit "You're still here?" when we were in the room.

About that lunch box - I packed a perfect first day lunch for Amiya. Half of a PBJ on sneaky whole wheat bread, carrots, applesauce, granola bar, cookie, a bottle of icy cold water and a cute little note from both Vinay and I. All things she likes, all things she'll eat, all things relatively healthy. But for some reason, Amiya was told she was supposed to have a hot lunch. ????????? What!??! It's all fine, but when this little one comes home and tells me she's ravenous because she didn't like the egg roll, so she only ate the snack packet of goldfish crackers, I'm not thrilled. Not angry, but definitely want to figure out what happened so that it does not happen again.

On our way from school to the car, we talked about how the day went and she was very talkative - a pleasant change from last year. I'm taking the Miss Lauren approach and asking who got in trouble - that seems to break the ice. All pining for Miss Amina has gone out the window it seems, because the child could not sing the praises of Mrs. Jefferis enough. I suspect it has something to do with the smelly stamp that Amiya got, but can't say for sure.

All in all, a very, very good day for the first day of kindergarten. I will let you know how day 2 goes as soon as we have it! School was called today on account of the very innocuous "Hurricane" Fay who couldn't even be bothered to tinkle on Tampa. (Which is good, all things considered, I know.)

The official first day of school shot that my Mom made us do for years. Amiya was very excited to continue the tradition. Please note that she is not wearing tights, they are knee-highs, but on Amiya, they're thigh-highs. She wanted to wear them - I tried to dissuade her - 90 degrees yesterday, but the girl has got to do her thing, I guess.

It's the night before kindergarten....

...and I'm just not sure how to feel about all of this. Vinay and I have both been marveling at how she could have possibly gone from unable to get her fist to her mouth for the first month of life to ready for kindergarten and yet, here we are.

More important than our feelings are her feelings and she is good to go! Here and there she will make a complaint about not having Miss Amina for her teacher, but we think she'll like her new teacher very much.

In an effort to make the most of this last week of freedom (because really, when has someone outside of our immediate family dictated our schedule for 80% of the calendar year before? That's what I'm struggling with the most, but I digress. Again. I know.) we planned a week full of fun and merriment.
Monday morning at the aquarium. We saw fish, sharks (mammal? fish? not quite sure), turtles and penguins. We also purchased one plastic manatee that has not left Kev's side yet.


Tuesday we spent the whole day at Fort DeSoto beach in St. Pete with Amiya's original playgroup pals. It was a really fabulous day - the kids played together well, the little guys are old enough that they're (mostly) not eating sand and the sun played hide and seek with the clouds, so not too hot. The trench that you see was built by the kids - and the help of Ms. Sherri - and they were very proud!
It was bittersweet for us Moms - we're all pretty good friends who met because of the kids and now they're moving on.



Amiya and Kev in a moment of sibling harmony Friday night. Did you catch that jump? That's right, we've skipped from Tuesday right to Friday. Wednesday was chock full of playdates at our house and then the horror of Kev's toe. Thursday was a very rainy day in Tampa, so we laid low and watched Kev carefully.

This picture was taken at the restaurant we went to Friday night to meet long-time friends Paul and Yvette from Illinois, along with their two children James and Daniel. We had a very nice dinner with them and Amiya came away very fond of both boys.
On the way home from dinner out, both kids fell asleep just as we pulled into the driveway. Amiya had me in tears for most of the drive because she was requesting all the songs we used to sing to her as a baby. It just rubbed a bit more proverbial salt into the wounds I've been licking with her going to kindergarten. Vinay laughed, I cried. Amiya caught on to me and seemed to be encouraging the sobfest. Ah, classic Amiya.

In retrospect, I guess it's very, very sweet that she's big enough to go to kindergarten but still young enough that she wanted Mommy to sing her a few songs to help her fall asleep.

Pageant Mom Am I

Doesn't she look like she should be entering beauty pageants?

Here's the story. Amiya has wanted her ears pierced since foreeeeeever. And we've been stalling and putting it off for foreeeeever. Well, no more. Amiya's cousin Nisha was in town and so off we went to the mall one sunny Sunday morning to get Amiya's ears pierced.

Now, I can't say for sure how these things are done as my ears were pierced (at my request) by my Mother at my Grandmother's house when I was 12. I remember ice, alcohol (for sterilization, although perhaps it should have been for consumption as well) and a needle. And it wasn't horrible. My ears were pierced and I wore earrings just fine.
It was horrible for Amiya. I'm not quite sure of the profit margin for this chain and their ear piercing racket, but holy crap. We walked out of there with over $60 bucks on the card and there was no numbing of any sort. Even compressed air is a bit cold - come on! The girl (and she was, truly, just a young girl) dotted Amiya's ears with a marker, cleaned 'em with some alcohol and lined up the gun with the (can you even believe it!?!?) $26 pair of starter earrings and took to Amiya's ear. She was agonizingly slooooooow with that damn gun and Amiya's right ear. I could see her squeezing and kept thinking that she was going way to slow. But who am I to know?

Let's reflect on how Amiya probably reacted.

Anyone? Anyone?

That's right. Hysterics. Mayhem. Sobbing. Screams of "No, Mommy! No!" for roughly 30 minutes. (I kid you not.)

And that's where the pageant mom thing came in. I didn't really have a good way to say how I was feeling at that moment until discussing the whole shabang with my friend Lauren. She very aptly stated that I must have felt like people were looking at me like I was some sort of pageant mom, forcing my daughter to do something against her will to be beautiful.
Now, I don't know if I know any pageant moms. It's not something that is always floated out there over the juice boxes and goldfish at the park. I'm sure that there pageant moms who are completely fabulous, so I'm not knocking the group. That being said, I couldn't be further from the stereotypical one, so holding a screaming five year old next to the gaudy jewelry at the mall while receiving glares from other shoppers was not my most cherished moment.
Eventually Amiya came to terms with the idea that she would either have to get ear #2 pierced or that she would forever have a hole in ear #1 as we would have to take that one out, box up both of the (did I mention?) $26 starter earrings and go home, not to repeat the process until she is legally able to do it without my signature.

She decided to go forward with #2, but only if I held her. Fine by me. This time salesgirl's caffeine seemed to be working properly and it was done lickety-split. I am not sure why it could not have been done lickety-split the first time, but I guess what doesn't kill Amiya makes her stronger, right? And now she has a brave story to tell.

Spa Gupta

On Wednesday, Kev opened a door over his foot and tore up his right big toenail pretty badly. It's mostly lifted off of the nail bed, but still attached at the base so it does a lot of oozing and blushing. It's not fun for us, but he's more or less oblivious. We have been keeping it clean and dry and trying to protect it from him picking at it. But today it seemed more red than previously and more crusty, too. So it's been long soaks in epsom salt and water and then antibiotic salve, bandages and socks. It's very spa-like around here for Kev lately. We put on an entertaining video (Caillou, naturally), made sure manatee was with him, delicately removed the bandages from his feet and then massaged the skin around the offending nail while he sat and watched his favorite whiney four year old.

Tomorrow we'll head to the doctor just to make sure nothing is horribly wrong (beyond that which is, obviously, horribly wrong) and to make sure that, unlike his Great Granfather on his Grandpa's side, he will retain all ten toes for a good long time.

Growth Spurt

It's official. I am going back to work.

I have to. Between rising prices on every basic item (except lobster - that's cheaper this year than last!) and a son who is on a massive food tear, I have to go back to work. Please send suggestions for jobs that are quiet (because I might lose my mind if I go from chatty kids @ breakfast to work and back home to chatty kids) to me. Thanks in advance.

Meanwhile, back to the real cause of our robust food budget as of late:

That's right. It's all about Kev. Last night we went to a salad bar restaurant for dinner - Kev ate a plate full of veggies, two large servings of mac 'n cheese, one muffin ("Mo bwed peeze Mommy!") and about a cup of apple crisp with vanilla ice cream on it. Before anyone gets upset about the carb overload - that's not a typical meal for us! But, he did put away a huge amount of food - to the point that his little tummy was too snug in the car seat and the straps had to be loosened up a bit. And yet, this morning he woke up and I can still clearly see his ribs showing through his skin. I want his metabolism!!!

And here's proof of why he's eating so much. These are the pants from this winter - they were covering his heels in January!

Birthday Wrap-Up

Well, yesterday marked one week since the Rochester Guptas came to town and I feel like we are finally getting back to even after the fun of their visit, the blog and the pool party. Even though Vinay protested over and over that he didn't want anything special, I think he had a really fun time and appreciated that people were thinking of him. A few more pictures:

Amiya and Nisha decorating cookies together.

Kev and Ravi doing puzzles. (That's Vinnie sleeping behind them.)

Ravi, Nisha, Kev and Amiya on the last day.

A tablescape (ha!) from Vinay's party. Each table had marigolds potted in a pot with Indian-inspired decorations and lots of pictures of Vinay through the years. In the background you can see Vinay's cupcakes - there were three kinds of icing - chai, mango and coconut on yellow butter cakes and then chocolate ganache on chocolate (for Vinay, although he didn't get any!). Each cupcake was topped with a little paisley to match the cookies:

The cookies were chai flavored with fondant covering and royal icing mehndi-inspired designs.

It's a good thing Vinay knew what was going on because when he had to stand at the door for a few minutes while our friend Matt tried to get it unlocked! I bet he would have bolted had it actually been a surprise!

Vinay (with Kev) blowing out his candles. It was a very fun night - all our friends, all the kids, relaxing with a kid-friendly meal (thus minimal complaining!) around the pool. Just what Vinay would have wanted had he gotten the chance to express his opinions!

Happy Birthday from Mike and Melody Hounsell!

Happy Birthday Vinay!

Another mile marker reached in your life, and now you have a wonderful wife and children to share it with. We hope you have a great celebration and really enjoy your birthday.

Congratulations.
Michael and Melody

Happy Birthday from the Krishnas!

Hi Vinay:

Happy 40th birthday from both of us.

Love,

Ram and Rajshree

Happy Birthday from The Bowens

Calendar page turns,
A new friend is now forty.
Doesn't look that old.


With our best wishes and many happy returns,-Phil, Deborah, Benjamin, and Frederic Bowen

Happy Birthday from Brijen Gupta!

Vinay,

Best wishes for happiness on your birthday!

You have brought laurels to your extended family and made us so very proud of you - especially for choosing Christy as your lifelong partner.

Brijen

*Christy's note: Brijen, you are a man of infinite wisdom. I could not agree with you more.