"Clown Clothes"

I was given orders to post this, with that title. I do what I am told.

deserving of its own post

One of the highlights of the trip to Washington was that we got to visit with Jeremy's grandfather, Wendell. He was married in April of this year and we finally got to meet his bride, Jo!

I think they felt very much at home with their family around them, and we often caught them like this, resting peacefully and naturally in the middle of all the noise and festivities. We look forward to seeing you again soon!

a different rendition

A: "BR, do you want me to sing 'Bob the Builder' for you?"

BR.: "Yes."

A.(singing): "Bob the Builder, can he fix it?"

BR: "Wait, wait, I can sing it: Bob the Builder, NO HE CAN'T! Bob the Builder, HELP ME FIX IT!"

another strike for Rel.Ed.

There we were at Sunday Mass. I thought, what a great time to explain about some of our Christmas traditions.

(Me, whispering to L.): "See those candles? There is one for every week of Advent. See that image of Our Lady of Guadalupe? Her feast day is December 12..." And so on.

"Mommy, your breath smells like tacos."

catching up

O loyal blog readers, I have neglected thee terribly.
This is by far the longest we've ever gone quiet here at RandBs, but not to worry. It wasn't because of crises, just an overload of fun and travel.

First, we went to Seattle, which was like this:

table set for Tanksgiving dinner:

a peak at Pike's Place market:

bah-ket-ball HOOP!

Lunch with Johanna:

had some "rock band" fun (and discovered that L. rocks the guitar, A. knows all the lyrics to "Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds and BR is not too bad on the drums):

Then we came home and had a couple days to get ready for our next adventure. Gramom came to hold down the fort and take care of the kiddos while J. and I went south to New Mexico to check out some job opportunities for 2011 (since we won't be able to go there this time next year, because of the whole India thing). I forgot my camera but found the following photos that capture the essence of the trip.

We visited the Navajo Nation at Shiprock which was a little like this:

but the hospital compound was kind of more like this:


next, we went to Gallup, NM (which was actually like this since we happened to be there during their annual Balloon Festival):


on the way home, we made a stop at Aztec, NM (which never had any Aztecs, but did have Native American populations a long, long time ago as these 900 yr-old ruins prove. Yes, apparently the US does indeed boast some 900 yr old structures. take that, Europe!)


We're home now, and glad to be. The kids loved every minute of Gramom's visit from what I can gather and I will have to collect photos from her. It was hard to drag them away from Seattle, though, because "Grammie and Papa's house was WAY more fun" than they'd realized it would be, according to L.!

visit to Grammie & Papa's

We arrived at Grammie and Papa's house yesterday. The kids are ecstatic. They have a great big house, lots of toys, (plenty of yummy snacks) and some tricycles and little cars in the backyard for the kids... It's preschool heaven.

It is fun to find photos around the house of Jeremy and his sister Meredith as babies and toddlers because there are some family ressemblances I can find in my three, especially BR and A. There is a wall upstairs dedicated to family portraits of Jeremy, his sister and his parents. The photos span the years from the time Meredith was a baby and Jeremy a toddler (he is older) up through the highschool years.

A. was particularly excited to show me all the photos. She recognized Jeremy's mother so she dragged me over to "come and see pictures of Grammie!" Well, what about the other three people in each picture? I asked her. Who else did she recognize?

Demonstrating her complete lack of understanding of linear time and the chronological nature of the aging process: "It's Big BR and Little A.!"

dominos

they're all the rage right now. youtube's got some great clips of domino creations, and the kids were inspired.

take a picture, mom!

There is a little tension about the blog around here these days. If the mama happens to laugh about something someone has said, they usually squeal, "Mommy!! Don't put that on the ba-log!!"
On the other hand, if they do something they find really funny or clever, it's "Put that on the ba-log!"

So I can only publish with permission.

It has meant for a bit more quiet on this site than we've been used to. But if I know kids (and I like to think I know a little about them by now) this will soon pass, as all phases do.
In the meantime, here is some of the usual silliness.

pyjama shenanigans:

a breakfast moustache:

(dedicated to Julia, who loves to laugh at my kids almost as much as I do.)

all 3

Me: "L, you are always the last one buckled in. Look, A. beat you to it, that makes you the loser!"
L.: "No, that makes me the winner of the losers."

__________

We were trying to be sneaky, but A. wasn't fooled...

L.: "Mommy, can we have C-A-N-D-Y for dessert?"

Me: "Oooh, how about some I-C-E C-R-E-A-M instead?"

A: "We can't eat letters for dessert!"

___________

BR: "Let's do ring around the Rosary!"

just TRY not to smile

mad craft girl

During the snowstorm we had over L.'s school fall break, she didn't waste any time. I keep finding, around the house, more and more of the pictures and crafts she worked on during that time.

(Roaring Dragon)

(dragon tail and arms and feet)

(a tight-lipped pumpkin, of course)

_________

And last, but not least, here are the pages of L's manuscript about poobas. You might remember that "pooba" are this family's silly word. Sometimes the kids are poobas, sometimes we go to a "pooba playground," and sometimes we think we might have spotted a pooba, although we can't be sure.

L. thinks she knows what they look like, though. Here are the pages she stapled together to create her "Pooba Picture Book":

note that Pooba children are born with wings that eventually fall off with age...

And what do Poobas do, you ask? Well, I got her to interpret some of the images for me: they like to think about how they don't like mushrooms, they get angry, they wonder what they would look like with legs and feet, they are surprised that they are upside down. They have busy lives.

special guest appearance

(again. because i just can't resist)

things I don't like to hear first thing in the morning (or ever, actually)

"Mommy, look! There's poo!"

if you are 2 or 3...

..you might love this video. (it includes a tutorial)

dedicated to: Olivia L.

The Adventures (slash Madness) in store for 2010-2011

Daddy will graduate this coming June (woohoo!) and we have been job hunting for the last few months. Earlier this week he accepted an offer for an "Fellowship in International Medicine" which would split his first year out of residency between New York and Chennai, India. He will work regular shifts in the ED in NY and do a bit of the same in India, but mostly train Indian Resident physicians. Emergency is a brand new field in India, so he would be helping to train some of the very first Emergency physicians in the country, which is extremely fun.

We hope to spend the summer in NY next year, then go over to India for a solid 6 months. We will return to the US in April to work the rest of the shifts he will need to complete his year. It involves a little bouncing around, but we have housing set up in NY already, so we will only need to live out of suitcases for a few months of the year.

Now, I know the first question on everyone's mind is: will one of us become a Bollywood star? We can only hope.

You are probably also concerned that the family blog will disintegrate into snapshots of exotic animals and spice markets during the months abroad and the blog author will fail to keep the purity of the blog as we know it, focusing only on the three little protagonists of this site.

Will we get to see a photo of all three of the kids in native dress? you wonder.
Will they tell me about all the strange foods and animal parts that are considered edible in India?
Will 7 yr-old L. write a book about her experiences with a full treatment of the socio-political climate of Tamil Nadu in historical context in the introduction?

Perhaps more importantly, Will the author of the blog keep her sense of humor intact and carry on the public mockery of her offspring in the way in which we have all become accustomed?

I can only hope that we here at RandB will be able to live up to our readers' high expectations.

(admit it, we've all been dying to see Aishwarya on this blog)

extra dorky

I especially like the way the sweater hoods were tucked into the hats...

Ha-ha-halloweeeeen

(that's the happy-creepy way of saying that)

A. dressed up as Tigger this year and L. was a pink unicorn pegasus (of course).

BR insisted on being a truck for Halloween. I think the highlight of the whole evening was watching him waddle around and try to make his way up and down stairs in his costume.

Oh wait, no: the highlight was watching him try to figure out how to get the candy from one hand into the treat pail held by the other hand.