2 Years Old!!

I can't believe that my baby is 2!!! She acts like she is just one of the other kids. During the days when they are at school, I try and entertain, but I know I can't compare to her brother and sisters. She gets so excited the minute they walk in the door! She loves Ethan and always calls him "Buddy". She also loves it when it's bedtime and she runs for his bed. He likes to cuddle her until I come and take her to the crib.
At 2 years old her favorite things are:
Apple Juice, Bambi, Baby and Vijay, Toys, Outside and Swimming

At the Adarsh Vista Pool the older girls have to wear a swim cap for their hair. As soon as I got her suit on she insisted that she needed a "hat" and something for her "eyes"

I was shocked that she actually wore this for an hour of swimming.

I am also surprised at how un-scared of the water she is. She just jumps right in and doesn't care if she is completely under the water.

Again Baby wanted Annie to have a big party for her birthday, but we opted to just have our family. She did insist on decorations though, and wanted to have "lots of balloons"

That night we went to the Forum Value Mall and played on the train and cricket cages. (Kinda like batting cages only for cricket). They also jumped in the bounce house, and had dinner at the food court. By the time we got home it was 10:00 at night. Just enough time to cut a cake and go to bed.

More Ganesha Festival

As I was going through the pictures on the camera I found some more pictures of the Ganesha Festival.

ENJOY!

Cut Power

So, Saturday as I was getting ready for the day, there was a knock at the door. I answered it and it was the Adarsh Vista Electrician, along with some other guy. They were talking really fast in some language I don't understand, but for all I could tell, it could have been English, just a really fast Indian version.  Anyway, I went and got Baby (thank heavens I have her!). She came to the door to be my translator. Apparently we hadn't paid our power bill, and the man was there to cut the power. I asked him what I could do so that he wouldn't cut the power. He told me that I needed to give him a check for the 4000 some odd rupees that we owed. This is where India gets difficult. We have been here a year, and I am still not added to our checking account. Only Alan could write a check, but at the time he was on hole #6 at Clovergreens. I tried to explain that I would bring a check as soon as he came home. He told me to give him cash and Baby quickly advised me not to give him cash. I told him I didn't have the cash (a lie) and that...all of the sudden mid sentence he walked to the side of my house and started cutting wires with some scissors!!! AUGHHH!! My power was cut!!! The man quickly left and was on to the next house that hadn't paid their bill.

I hadn't seen a bill for the month so I called Vijay on the phone. He is always the one to get the mail and pay the power bill. I asked him if he had it and he told me no.  Baby and I searched for about 20 minutes for an old power bill so that we could get the account number off of it and go pay it. Baby ran out the door and to the power office to pay the bill. In the mean time, I took Annie for a walk and ran into a friend in the neighborhood. I asked her if she had ever had her power cut and she told me no, but that someone she knew had and it took 2-3 days to rehook it up!! I told her what had happened, and she immediately got on her cell phone. She was yelling at someone, (in another language) and when she hung up the phone she told me that the electrician would be back to hook up the power.
I am so glad for people in the neighborhood that look out for each other, and for people who can speak Hindi, Kannada, Telugu, and Tamil!!
And come to find out Vijay did have the bill. He forgot that he had it, and didn't pay it. When I looked at the bill, we were only 5 days late paying. Whoa!! I haven't had my power shut off in the US, but I'm pretty sure you have to default for a few months before it is cut off.

Ramjanmabhoomi-Babri Masjid Dispute

There has been a dispute going on between the Muslims and the Hindus for hundreds of years over some property. There is a Mosque built there now, but archaeological digs have shown that there was previously a Hindu temple on the property. The Hindus believe that it is the birthplace of Lord Ram, one of their main Gods.
Anyway...the Indian government was supposed to rule on the property giving it either to the Muslims or the Hindus. The people here are very nervous as if it is given to the Hindus the Muslims will react, and if it is given to the Muslims, the Hindus will react. The decision was to be made on Friday the 24th. The Karnataka State declared that all schools were to be cancelled on that day as they were worried about violence. Indus announced that school had been canceled. On Thursday evening at around 5:00 we started receiving emails saying that school is again scheduled on Friday and that it is mandatory that all students attend. The kids argued with me for probably an hour over whether they had to go to school or not. Ethan said that his teacher specifically told the class that if they come on Friday, no one will be there. Finally I pulled out the email and showed them that it was indeed a school day. They were still not convinced as they walked out to the bus stop.
The Indian government postponed the decision until Tuesday the 28th. I'm not holding my breath though. Apparently they haven't been able to make a decision in over a hundred years.

Happy Birthday!!

So...If there is one thing I've learned from being in India it's "don't sweat the small stuff." Nothing ever turns out just the way you want it to.  That being said, the last 2 days we have been celebrating Alan's birthday.

Because birthday's really are all about the party, and Alan's birthday fell on a Sunday this year, we went go carting with the kids yesterday. It was so much fun, and I think Alan loved being behind a wheel again. Even if it was only a go-cart.

 Baby had asked if she could make Alan a cake. I thought I could surprise him at church and have him cut a cake in EQ. Saturday I asked Baby to make a chocolate cake, with chocolate frosting while Alan and I were golfing. When I came home the kids were saying that "Baby made Dad a Pink cake" In the end Alan found out about the surprise and told me not to bring the cake to church. We ended up having cake and homemade "Moose tracks" ice cream at home.

They don't have "moose tracks" Alan's favorite ice cream, so I thought I'd make it for him. They don't have Reese's peanut butter cups here either, so I made those to crumble onto the chocolate ice cream. I also couldn't find any hot fudge to put in it, so I found a recipe that calls for melted chocolate chips. This was definitely "Moose tracks from scratch"

Vijay brought Alan some flowers for his birthday... When we got home from Ooty last week, someone at Alan's work had told him about some flowers from Ooty that last for a year. Alan asked him about these flowers, and so...Yellow Ooty flowers.

Also here, no one ever smiles for pictures hence the ornery looking faces with the birthday boy. We had only 10 candles that I had to somehow make into 35.

After dinner on Sunday we walked down to the club house and Ellie, Maddie, and Alan had a mean game of P-I-G! All in all I think the birthday was a success, but just not how I pictured.

Grandparents Day

This blog is mainly for Grandmas and Grandpas.

Today Ethan had a program at school for Grandparents day. He asked me this morning if his Grandma and Grandpa were going to be there. I had to tell him no, then he asked if I could bring the laptop to the school and skype them so they could see his program. I again had to let him know that they would be asleep because it would be at 3:00 a.m. their time. Finally he suggested that I video it and make a blog post.

After watching the video while putting in on here I decided that I better put the words on too.

A little note about some of the kids in the program...

The little girl in the yellow group is Auora, the little sister to the french boy on the bus...(O....K....)

Right before the program I met a lady in the hall. She was new to Indus this year. She asked me who my child was and I told her Ethan. Her reply was "Oh, your Ethan's mom. I hear ALOT about Ethan." I said "really, I hope it's good things" to which she replies "I think my daughter has a thing for him, and apparently the feeling is mutual." Hum...I've never heard her daughters name mentioned, but she is the blonde in the red group. And to be honest, I don't remember her name right now either.

The boy that is next to Ethan is named Wilf. Ethan gets mad every time he comes home from school because Wilf "bugs" him. He came home the other day and said, "Mom do you have Wilf's phone number?" I told him I had it programmed into my cell phone. His reply we "DELETE IT!!" after watching him at the program I totally understand.

Family Movie Night

Every Friday night our family has Family Movie Night. Tonight we watched "Annie" by the end of the show our Annie was singing and dancing. I was amazed at how well she sat through the whole show.

If you can't tell, this is her version of "Tomorrow"

Ganesha Festival

This week is the Ganesha Festival. We had a fun Family Night going to Ulsoor Lake to watch the people put their troubles and all misfortunes into the lake.

It's That Time of Year Again!!

Yep, it's FESTIVAL SEASON!!

This past weekend there were 3 different festivals. As a result our kids had a long weekend. No school on Friday! On the original school calendars it didn't show a holiday so we assumed there would be no vacations, but on Wednesday, the school emailed us and told us there would be no school on Friday. At the last minute we were able to arrange for rooms in Ooty.

We had never been to Ooty yet and didn't really know what there was to do. Some quick research and an 8 hour drive later, we were marveling at the beauty of Ooty.

To get to Ooty you have to drive though a jungle. We saw elephants, lots of monkeys, some wild boar, and some deer.

We enjoyed taking pictures of the signs as we drove though the jungle. You also have to drive up a mountain that has 36 hairpin turns. These turns made the S curve up the canyon in Salt Lake look like nothing.

We stayed at the Taj Savoy Hotel. The first morning that we were there the kids spotted some ponies as we were headed to breakfast. After a quick breakfast and playing on the playground, the kids all got a ride. They all loved it and Annie wouldn't get off when the ride was over.

We then went on a train ride through the country side and ended in Coonoor. It was really pretty. The mountain side farms were so green.

Vijay met us in Coonoor and drove us around showing us the viewpoints We went on a tour of the Swamy & Swamy Tea Factory and saw how they make tea.

Ooty is known for it's Tea fields and for chocolate.

We then drove back to Ooty and walked around the Botanical Gardens. When we walked though the gates we started to get bombarded by people wanting our pictures. After an hour of picture taking we were able to make it past the entrance. :) We walked through the gardens until it closed.

We finished off the day by doing the end of our homework in the hotel.

The second day of Ooty was spent at the hotel. After being swarmed by the people at the botanical gardens, the kids just wanted to run in the open fields. They played tag all morning and then played on the playground until around noon. We jumped in the car and headed back to Bangalore.

It was a quick trip, but it was fun to be together and see another side of India.

One note about Ooty: The people here think it is really COLD there. I think the temperature in the night dropped to the high 50s, and the highs in the day were low 80s. It is more humid there than in Bangalore, which made if feel cool, but I wouldn't say any colder than a nice Fall evening in Salt Lake. Our driver was freezing. He bought himself a winter snow cap, and borrowed one of our blankets to keep himself warm. I don't think I ever saw him take off his sweater. He told us before we left it was cold there, so we packed long pants and jackets just in case. We were shedding layers, as fast as he was putting them on. In a lot of the pictures our kids have their jackets on, just because I got sick of carrying them all.

CLASS PREFECT

Ethan came home from school on Thursday and was proudly sporting the "Class Prefect" pin. This past week Ethan was picked to basically be the class president. He gets to pass out the homework and make sure the kids are lined up straight. He has a big job, and he gets to be the Prefect for a whole week.