A very chadstone Xmas

I took the day off for Xmas shopping. Sweet. Over work as a concept anyway. Here's the photographic evidence.

Posing with shopping catalogue. She really wanted a pair of new shoes.
Naina got confused between cultural traditions. Here's her doing namaste in front of a Xmas tree.
And Sarva was disinterested in the whole glowing ball thing.

Gecko Olympics

For keen followers of the Hampton East quarterly 4 year and under Olympics, N improved her ranking this quarter from 8th to 5th.

A sample!
Clearly beating up on some of the smaller kids


Medal winner


Indoctrination

Movements

We're coming to Perth and India.

Deepti and the kids are coming to Perth on Xmas day and I'm joining them on new year's eve. I think zoo trips, swimming lessons, shopping and overeating are generally in the plans. Due to impending India trip, we're coming back on 6th of Jan.

Then on Jan 21, the Naina, Sarva and Deepti are off to India. A long stopover in Bangkok will be a challenge, though the next flight is to Gaya and Deepti's family will be waiting for her. Times have changed and it is great to be able to sit on a plane in Melbourne (and say bye bye to sad ole me) and the next afternoon, be in Gaya (40-50 km from Patna), saying hello to Deepti's family.

The plan is a bit open ended; the tickets are booked for around Naina's birthday (April 20) but not quite sure of the exact date. I may join them at the end of the trip coming back. I think three months alone and looking at walls of the house and I will deserve a trip to see them. I might be a wreck otherwise.

The idea of being "bachelorlike" fills me with dread. I can't think of much worse now. This is going to be tough. How many pizzas and KFC can I eat?

Sarva on the grow

Sarva rolled onto his side today, for the first time. He's been attempting for the last few days. Quite graceful the second time. However, he got stuck on his side and let us know he wasn't happy. We try to get him interested in things, but he's not quite as flexible as N; for example, although he can put his big toe in his mouth, two fingers are much more tasty, or occasionally his whole fist to the point of gagging.

Sarva also appears to be moulting. I suppose that's an unfair term considering he's not a fish or canine type character, but he has amazingly bad cradle cap. This may be an Indian kid thing; Naina had it as well and it only settled when her hair was shaved off. Hmm, might be a plan. Whole pieces of his scalp seem to be ripe for falling off. Sorry, grotesque analogy.

He also has a massive baldspot.

Naina pillow hair

Sarva photos

5 weeks old

Classic panic photo

6 weeks

Two months old

Deepavali 2010

Friday was Deepavali. Wiki has enough information, but I will add that it is the biggest celebration in India for Hindus and is celebrated around the world, for all of us.

Growing up it's probably my earliest memories, 1978 or 1979 thereabouts at the Kale's house in Newman, lighting candles in the dark at our only Indian friends in town. I can think of years alone in Melbourne where it didn't mean much, but since N's arrival, its become more important. We intended to attend the Deepavali celebrations at Fed Sq this year, but it was a wash out, so will wait for next. Deepti talks of being at home for Holi (in March) and Deepavali and Chhat Pooja in October November. We hope one day to be able to achieve Deepavali in Patna but not this year.

This year, I took the afternoon off from work and came home to help set-up. Deepti prepared some food (puris which are a type of shallow fried bread, potato/cauliflower subzi which carried a kick and some sweets) and also did a rangoli using N's feet as the model.

Rangoli at front of house

Getting dressed up is part of the day so I wore a suit from my wedding and Deepti wore a sari. Naina got out her new lahenga from Anveeta bua and Sarva got baby clothes.

Naina modelling her new lahenga (skirt, blouse, scarf).
This took about seven attempts before N would stand still for more than one second.

We then did the pooja (badly, I'd forgotten most of the essential words) and then aarati and photos.

Naina doing Aarati, me trying to remember the words.

The family in portrait mode

Moody, note youngest child almost losing nappy

A photo based on a lie. Naina didn't want to share the
besan ladoo with me. I think she's thinking "Don't eat it all daddy"

First go with auto-timer - Naina requiring both of us
to keep her head pointing at the camera. And we still
were clearly not ready for the photo.

Second go with auto-timer. Sarva knew we'd
be concentrating on the camera, so he snuck in some solids.

Kung Fu baby