The Big Brother

Rajiv has decided that it is his duty - and a lot of fun - to take care of his little brother.

He helps him put on his socks and he warns me when his brother is "making a mess again!". Like taking noodles out of his plate and dropping them one by one on the chair and on the floor, while mamma unsuspecting keeps filling the plate thinking he has a great appetite... :)

Yesterday night Rohan had "cacca", like we say in our family instead of "poo", which makes us sound very elegant to most people, except of course Italians who would probably just find us gross. Anyway, back to the story. Rohan had cacca and I took off his diaper and went upstairs to dispose of it in the bathroom. Then I hear Rajiv screaming "Mamma, quick, there is a little bit of cacca!!". I go down - I don't rush because it takes more than that to scare me at this point.

When I arrive I find Rohan lying down on the floor on his back with his legs up in diaper changing pose and Appu holding a diaper, pointing and saying "we need wipes!". So I helped Rajiv help Rohan with the whole process and both brothers were delighted. I think the plan is that soon they will be fully self sufficient and then they will take control of the house.

Later they decided to play with blocks and that of course involved throwing them on each other's heads, which really hurts, but then today morning Rohan was trying to make a tower and he hurt his finger with a block. He cried a little, until Appu told him "do you need a kiss?" and he kissed his finger and made it all better.

Through Rajiv's eyes

Or lens.. :)

Una foto originale di Rajiv: mamma prepara la cena e Rohan guarda con ammirazione il suo fratellone.

Calligraphy practice

Nelle prime foto siamo a Madras. I muri della camera dei bimbi sono stati dipinti con vernice da lavagna, cosi' si puo' scrivere sui muri - Rohan pero' non ha ancora capito che i pastelli invece non vanno bene.

Nelle altre foto siamo a Waterloo, nell'ufficio di mamma. Rohan cerca di incastrarsi tra il pavimento e la finestra (e' un concetto difficile da apprezzare se non avete visto l'architettura del mio ufficio..) e Appu continua i suoi esercizi di calligrafia. :) Scusatemi per la qualita' scadente delle foto, le ho fatte col cellulare.

Appu writes on the walls of his room in Chennai. The chalkboard paint was a good idea - the only problem is convincing Rohan that it is only for chalk - and by the way, papa', how is it going erasing all the crayon marks?

Uh-oh.. Suddenly some trouble with the A?

No problem, the A is easy, I'll show you. Then you write the rest. Well done!

The next photos were taken yesterday in my office. Rajiv and Rohan were delivered to me at 4:00 for the weekly "wine and cheese" family event. By the time we left I could have murdered the first person I met on the road, but we started out quite nicely as you can see, playing quietly in mamma's room.

I like how in this photo it looks like Rohan is lowering himself in the construction site in front of my window. Please don't worry, he really is not.

And here Appu is learning a valuable lesson: writing your name on the board is ok, but make sure you go around the math.

By the way, I took these photos with my phone and it just occurred to me that this is the first time I do that. How uncool is that? I mean, do you know of anyone else alive in this century who can say that? However, the quality is quite pathetic and plus, I think I am usually much more likely to have a camera with me than a phone. Add this to the uncool factor :)

We have been back for more than a week

But it feels more like a month. Time flies when you are having fun - and when you are coping with two little people and monstrous jet-lag.

Anyway, I still owe you a lot of pictures and stories from our trip to India, but for now let me share some photos that were taken last week while we traveled back to Canada.

Un po' di foto del nostro ritorno in Canada. Le prime tre sono state scattate da Rajiv mentre ci imbarcavamo a Bruxelles. Le altre foto sono state scattate da me durante il percorso in macchina dall'aeroporto a casa. Come si puo' notare, un paio di giorni prima una poderosa tempesta di neve aveva colpito la zona. Adesso il paesaggio e' molto meno invernale, ma la neve cade ancora di tanto in tanto.

The first three photos were taken by Rajiv, with his own little red camera, at the time of boarding the second plane in Brussels.

All the remaining photos instead were taken by me, on our way home from the airport. Just in case you are wondering, no, this is not our car. We haven't fully embraced the suburban lifestyle cum SUV yet..

A couple of snaps of the outside as well, just so you can see the snow left from the recent massive snowstorm. This is the Waterloo exit on the highway. Can you read? As Appu pointed out, we were going "very very fast"... :)

Almost home. This is a view of the new part of the place were I work, to be inaugurated soon-ish. We are a couple of minutes away from our little house.

I take it back

It's not the Canadian Spring, it's just plain depressing.

It's the Canadian spring

We had a large snowfall yesterday night. Big flakes, really beautiful to watch. I got the big flakes all over my hair too, because we had gone for dinner at our friends' house just down the street wearing just sweaters and no hats - before the weather took a turn. No big deal, as the temperature was still "pleasant" enough that we could walk home leisurely under the snow without freezing to death. This morning the snow has turned into rain though, and the winter wonderland has turned into mush and mud.

Click!

One of the best gifts I received as a kid was a Kodak/Fisher-Price camera. It used film, of course (which reminds me that I'm not that young anymore..) and a flip-flash: you inserted a stick with ten bulbs on top of the camera and they would burn one by one with each snap. I took my first photos at the Holidays On Ice show with my aunt and my grandmother and then I proceed to immortalize family, friends and teachers. A lot of my early work shows people without a head. Some pictures where good though and I still have them collected in an album. 

Here it is, pure eighties nostalgia material:

 

I think I must have been around six or seven when I got my first camera, but obviously I couldn't wait that long to give my son his own, especially if you consider how much easier - and don't forget cheaper - it is to have fun with a digital camera. I am surprised I managed to hold on until now, but I waited for Appu to spontaneously show some interest, which of course he did soon enough. I wanted to get him the modern version of what I had, a digital kids camera, but after a little thought I realized that I didn't really like the options there. Plus, they tend to always include videogames in children cameras, as I recently discovered, and that seems quite beside the point. In conclusion, I started reading reviews of basic point-and-shoot cameras, looking for the cheapest one that would meet all my requirements.

I found it right away and I showed Rajiv a picture of his new camera from a website. I told him we would order it online and t would arrive in a box in a few days. The next day we came back from work to find that he had made this picture:

Meaghan helped him with the word, but he made the drawing himself. He didn't quite get the part about the camera arriving in a few days, because he immediately asked where was the box. 
Let me skip the part where we learned that I had of course selected a model that was being discontinued and therefore impossible to get - so the box would not come at all. After a frantic search and much frustration, we settled on a different model and went to pick it up ourselves together with our little Appu.

And here is the happy photographer.

By the way, you will not be surprised to know that Rohan wasn't happy to be denied access to the new toy. We allowed him to hold papa's camera for a little bit and here he is, in a photo taken by his brother. Unfortunately papa's camera didn't live to tell the tale, but that's another story.





As you might have already noticed, a new link has appeared on the sidebar. It points to a slideshow of Rajiv's best work. I will try to keep it updated. I think his photos are a great way to document our family life and for a change mamma is in there too.