Sunday morning: bike and flip flops

Yesterday morning Rajiv woke up and, as we have recently agreed to do, went to the next room to wear his daytime clothes before requesting me to get out of bed. This time however, he found an unexpected treasure. Mamma had carelessly left the new flip flops - intended for a later use - buried under a bunch of other stuff, still wrapped up in the package they came in. None of this could stop Appu, of course.

So I hear: "My flip flops! They were lost! But I found them!". Indeed. I slowly get out of bed and ask Rajiv to please be quiet so that Rohan can sleep a bit more. He is usually quite good at that, but not when there are such exciting news to share.

Rohan was initially on board with trying out the new footwear, until he realized there was no way to wear them without having something between his toes. He suffered it for a while out of respect for his older brother, but it's just not for him. Anyway, before a knew it - and before I could change into my daytime clothes myself - Rajiv was out of the front door.

So here is how it happened that we were out on the street before 8 AM on a warm but overcast Sunday morning.



Not much later, we met our Chinese neighbours who recently moved in. I wish I knew how to write the name of the little boy, so I wouldn't have to call him The Chinese Neighbour. He still only knows very few words in English, but my kids don't care one bit, as long as he shares his dinosaurs with them.

Our window is better than a movie theater

Depending on your preferences, of course.

If you like garbage trucks - we do, especially Rohan - then you can spend all Tuesday morning, and sometimes the afternoon too, waiting for the recycling truck to come, then the regular trash one and the one collecting the yard waste and the truck for the organic waste. In fact you might even consider inviting some friends over and have a party! (No, we haven't done that -yet)

If this had not been enough, one morning - not Tuesday! - we spotted a garbage truck parked for a full ten minutes in front of our neighbours' house. It turns out the driver needed a quiet place to stop and have breakfast. Did he suspect the eyes of all toddlers on the street where directed on him? I think he saw me pointing at him through the window, but I bet he is used to it.

Even better, one morning we woke up to the sound of various different kinds of "thump!" and "clang!" and it turned out that we had a small bulldozer and a few other marvelous machines just a few meters away from our house!

They were changing the pipes directed to the sewer. Well, this time we did have a party. Rajiv waited patiently for his brother to wake up too and found himself a cozy spot to observe the work from inside.

Meanwhile, I called our friends from down the street who might have missed it. By the time Meaghan arrived to stay with the children there were five children between one and five surrounding the hole in the ground. I went to work and left them all there to have fun. By the time I came back home, Rajiv knew all about black pipes.

******* 4! *******

Today is Appu's birthday. In case you missed the dragon reminder on the sidebar, I just thought I'd put it here too. He is four! He is a big big boy who can talk and argue, has his own ideas and can correct his mamma's English pronunciation. He likes numbers - yesterday I could lure him away from the tv by saying "Hey, I'm going to read a new math book, anybody interested?. He likes seeds and flowers and can recognize daffodils, tulips and dandelions.

He loves maps. He knows where to find North and South America on a map, where Canada and India are and he can find Australia too. He knows some places are very far away and you need to take two planes to go from India to Canada: the first is a "sleeping" plane and everybody is quiet - this was my stroke of genius, I admit - the next is a "waking" plane, where we have fun (you can imagine how much fun..). He also knows that when here it is night in India it is morning time. Now how many four year old kids can grasp that?!?

(Did I mention that bragging is not only allowed but required in birthday posts?)

He likes new clothes, as in clothes he hasn't seen before, they don't really have to be new. He likes to choose what pajamas he is going to wear and we now have a pretty large collection for him to mix and match. Some favorites are the very soft one, which is still too big but he can wear it if he doesn't run in it (or he'll trip), the Thomas one, the monster pajamas and his purple ones that say "Little Brothers Are Awesome" - not really for what it says, but because purple is his favorite color.
He used to love his super dog pajamas and the spiderman ones, but now they have become short and it's ok for Rohan to wear them because Appu is growing. He is four!

He is learning to read all by himself, by which I mean that I don't even try to teach him, but he is the one who asks how to read a word or stops while speaking to see if he can figure out what sounds are in a certain word. He likes to have books read to him too and is now ready for some longer stories, but sometimes what he thinks the book is about would leave you speechless.

He is not afraid of being in a dark room, but he doesn't like to enter the room if the light is not on. Smart, I say.

He can get dressed by himself, but he still has some trouble with zippers and buttons and sometimes socks can get tricky, but he always has the tag on the back. He also can help Rohan and he does a remarkably good job, if Rohan lets him.

He can pee standing up! And he loves to pee outside on the grass, by the way, laughing like a silly appu while I tell him "Careful! Not on the shooooooes!".

He can climb like a monkey and go fast on his tricycle.

He likes all sort of music and makes up his own songs too. If I show him a video of some musicians he wants to know their names. He told me that the CD we played last week in the car has the same song (one of Bach's cello suites) that we heard from a video in the computer. He likes to play music but is not a very disciplined student.. :) He has a nice bow hold and likes his cello but we don't practice much - my fault. However, maybe that's why he still likes it, because there is no pressure whatsoever - see? How to turn any parenting shortcomings into great insights.

You probably already know that he likes trains and the only reason why I didn't make this the first item in my list is that there is going to be a special train post soon. But I like how he plays with his little Thomas trains making up stories as he goes. I also must be the only mom (or not?) who has to sleep with several trains in my bed: the little puppies are allowed to bring two trains or cars each to bed and sometimes we still have yesterday's trains too.

He can fit inside his new carry-on luggage.

He can eat without making too big a mess, unless he wants too :) And he can carry a bowl without spilling the content. Sometimes he likes to blow on his own pasta, sometimes he doesn't and he needs mamma's help. He prefers English words and really would like to know how you say "rotini" in  English, but apparently mamma is part of a big Italian conspiracy and just won't tell him.

He likes to do work, like mamma and papa', with paper and pencil. When he grows up - like, now? - he would like to work at mamma's "ufficio".

I'm sure I left out some really important stuff, but I am also sure that by now you couldn't care less and your eyes are already crossing, so let's just conclude with a picture. Not the best or my favorite, just the most recent mostly in focus photo in my hard drive.

Happy birthday Big Piccolo Rajiv!

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.

Photos you have missed - part 6 - the final chapter :)

Foto della mattina di Natale e foto della nostra gita a Toronto nei due giorni successivi. Le prime foto sono dello zoo, dove Rohan e Appu hanno trovato le loro due anime gemelle in due cuccioli di orangotango. Le altre foto sono del Science Center, dove Appu si e' divertito a giocare con le dighe e molto altro. Anche Rohan, dopo un bel sonnellino in braccio a suo papa', e' sembrato sodisfatto del nuovo parco giochi.. :)

-----

Here come the Christmas photos, with only one month of delay.


The first photos are from Christmas morning. I really had to push them to open the presents at first, but then they understood that it was supposed to be fun and played along. Appu of course immediately took complete control of the situation, but we managed to save something for Rohan to unwrap too.



Of course some of the presents were new trains and here they are trying them on the track. Unfortunately, the Thomas train carrying a snowman that Santa had hunted down on ebay for weeks doesn't seem to fit under all the tunnels, so it wasn't as much of a hit as Santa had dreamed. Sigh..




The next photos are from our trip to Toronto, a last minute idea to get out of town around the holidays. We left on Christmas day and spent two nights at a hotel (known in Appu's language as "the biggest tower").

One day we went to the zoo. It was cold, but some of the animals didn't mind and other were kept warm inside. We saw a rhino indoors and as you might imagine his presence really fills the room. Hard to feel fully at ease... :) We saw a beautiful tiger (below) and wolves and polar bears in the arctic section.


But our favorite were hands down the orangutans. There were two little ones climbing around and playing like toddlers. The moms (you see one in the photo) were sitting quietly on the side and every now and then the kids would go to them, drink some milk and then go back to play. Just like Rohan and Rajiv :)
I am sorry for the quality of the photos, the (not so clean) glass between us and the orangutans made it difficult to take good shots in a hurry.





The next day we went to the Science Center. It is a lot of fun for kids and they also have a specific wing for children under six where they can play with stuff that in principle could also lead to an understanding of some science principles. We didn't even try to put it that way to Rajiv of course, but he sure had a lot of fun! His favorite part was playing with canals and dams in the water.




Rohan took a long nap in the carrier with papa', but after that he enjoyed himself too.




Then we concluded our trip with a stop at the Mississagua Ikea store on the way back, as a Christmas present for mamma :)

Appu fa le capriole sul letto

E molto altro! E' passato piu' di un mese da quando il blog e' andato in vacanza e naturalmente ne sono successe di cose... I bimbi crescono e fanno passi da gigante. Il nostro piccolo Rajiv parla molto meglio adesso e ha un letto tutto suo in cui dorme con il suo papa' per buona parte della notte - solo verso mattina si trasferisce da mamma e Rohan nel lettone. E' un fan di Michael Jackson e della musica di Bollywood.
Rohan invece e' come un grosso orsacchiotto di pelouche, tutti lo trovano irresistibile. Sa indicare la luna sul suo libro della buonanotte quando mamma glielo chiede e riconosce molte altre parole. La parola "biscotto", in particolare, porta sempre un sorriso sul suo volto. Uno dei suoi passatempi preferiti e' abbracciare bambini a caso in biblioteca e al parco. Sorride quasi sempre e preferisce stare con il suo papa', pero' assomiglia di piu' alla mamma :)

Rohan and The Spoon

Last week we cleaned up and reorganized the guest bedroom / playroom and of course I immediately took a lot of pictures, before it gets messy and dirty again.

I also took a video with the little one and his spoon, his inseparable friend (take that, teddy bear!).

Enjoy (and you would, if you understood Italian - too bad... :) ).

Dad, Kipper and some more stuff

First of all, Happy New Year!

I haven't written for a while and as you might expect there is a lot of backlog, but I will try and catch up by unloading on you massive amounts of videos and photos with minimal captioning - not a bad thing at all, probably.

The reason for the long silence is in part that I have been vary busy trying to attend some lectures and thinking about my plans for the future. However, as most of you surely already know, the main reason why I haven't made an effort to write is that my father died in the middle of December and, while it was impossible for me to write about it for several unpleasant reasons, it also didn't seem to make much sense to just keep going as if nothing had happened.

There are things I would have probably written here that now don't seem appropriate anymore. I will think about it and maybe I will come back to this topic later on, or I might not. I wanted to at least post a picture, but unfortunately the most recent I have is from a year and a half ago. Here it is, at the Torino airport.


My favorite picture of my father is another one, from my childhood, but I can't show it to you now. I took it when I was about seven years old I think, with my first camera - Fisher-Price childproof camera, one of the best gifts ever. It was Easter and we were having a family gathering. My dad posed for a photo in the act of lowering an asparagus into his mouth and although I say so myself, it is really a great picture. The only print I have is in a photo album in Torino, so I won't be able to post it until (if) I succeed in making a decent digital copy of it.

Anyway, let us move on to the promised goodies. For this first post I want to show you three videos. The first two were filmed in Calicut during the Christmas holidays. Those were early crawling days for Rohan, he is faster and less prone to accidents now. In case you are wondering, there is really no point to either of the videos, it is just an attempt to capture a little bit of comforting chaos.






The last video is not a home movie, but I thought I would share with you one of Appu's favorite episodes of Kipper The Dog. We love Kipper around here and I think nonna Laura will be especially pleased by this particular choice. I recommend you all watch it, Kipper is good for you.

Rohan's favorite things

Cose che piacciono a Rohan:

Le facce e soprattutto i sorrisi; il rumore della doccia e le goccie d'acqua - anche in testa! - il piccolino sorride appena vede la fascia blu portabimbo che usiamo per fare la doccia insieme; leggere un libro con la mamma, soprattutto "La gatta Emma" di Nicoletta Costa - mordere e scalciare il libro poi e' ancora piu' bello; saltare nel "disco volante" (vedi video); guardarsi allo specchio, soprattutto lo specchio del bagno mentre viene risciacquato nel lavandino; vestirsi e svestirsi e rivestirsi, mille volte al giorno; il suono dei cartoni animati in televisione; stare senza pannolino; essere sollevato su e giu'; stare in piedi; le collane e i capelli da afferrare; e se mi viene in mente qualcos'altro lo aggiungo dopo..

Faces and smiles; the sound of the shower and the water, even on his head! he starts smiling when he sees the blue sling that we use to shower together; reading a book with mom, especially "Emma the cat" - and chewing and kicking the book is even better; jumping in his jumper (where else?); looking at himself in the mirror, especially while being washed in the sink; being dressed and undressed; the sound of Appu's cartoons on tv - when he was one week old he was already turning his head towards the sound - power of the tv! ; being diaperless; being lifted up and down; standing; necklaces and long hair to grab and pull; and if more comes to mind I will add it later..

"Zaino!"

Appu with his new inseparable best friend: the "zaino", also known as backpack.

Appu con lo zainetto arancione (regalato tempo fa con qualche prodotto nella farmacia di Piazza Adriano, se non ricordo male), il suo nuovo amico del cuore.