Week in the Life 2015 | Monday, Are you in?

About this Project

   Week in the Life is a really fun memory keeping project that I have done annually for at least four years now.  I generally follow along with Ali Edwards.  This year she has opened up a group on her site and a facebook group as well.  I like how this gives the whole project a real sense of community.  

   I wrote a post about getting started (and set up for success!) and my week in the life approach here.  Going back to look at it turned out to be really helpful for me again this year.

   Last year's project was set in October and had a very Halloween and fall vibe to it.  This year's project is already starting out very summery for me.  We were on vacation for the first day (today) and spent a lot of time outdoors.  I love how this year will be a very different slice of life for us.  B Both, at home and on vacation.

I have been sharing moments all day on instagram (nirupama01).  I kind of get obsessed with seeing how my day was progressing visually in the grid.  It sort of made a nice bell curve from dark to light and back to dark again.  I really want to figure out a way of representing this in my album somehow.

So far I haven't done any printing or scrapbooking yet.  For now I am recording my favorite photos and a little journaling so I can remember the moments better!

The Photos

 

8:26| Waking up at the hotel after a pretty questionable night of sleep.  Sharing one bed is not ideal for a family of five.

10:03| Waiting for our breakfast table and we randomly found a family fun tent in the park.  They loved dancing along to the wheels on the bus.  It is one of Lakshman's favorite books at home and I think he was amazed to see it in a different setting.  Nandini couldn't tear herself away and we hung out here together for a couple extra minutes before breakfast.

10:40| His and hers breakfast drink shot.  Sorry for the overdone instagram cliche!

Sometimes you just need extra cuddles from mama.

Avinash commented on these flowers when we first got to Chicago.  It was neat to see them up close at last.

11:27| Maggie Daley park was so awe inspiring.  Just huge and whimsical and right in the middle of downtown.  We made two trips here in four days and it was no where near enough.  It almost makes me want to move!

 12:23| We cooled down in the Crown fountain afterwards.  It was the only way to get the kids off the slides anyway.  It's kind of simple, but super fun in it's vastness.  Living in Austin we tend to forget how big and grand stuff can be in a major city.

1:12| Yes, I was there too. Fifty-fifty from Shake Shack to cool down after all that splashing.  None of us could even eat anything, we were all too hot!

1:22| Back to the park to touch the bean.  I wanted to come back in the daytime.  Lakshman saw the kids run up and touch and chased after them to copy their actions.  It took him a little while to figure out where he could reach the bean.

 2:43| David's Tea, random stop on Michigan Ave with my friend Neha.  She saw that we were in Chicago on IG and down the street from her apartment so we planned a last minute meet up.  It was so fun to introduce her to the kids and listen to all their questions about Chicago. 

4:41| We were a little over-excited at the land of nod store. It was so fun after always looking through the catalogue to see all the cool toys in person. I kind of want one of everything.  Is it weird that it excites more than any adult store?

6:44| Fancy dinner at the airport. Egg rolls, fried rice and noodles. I almost cried because Lakshman actually ate almost a full cup of rice. He started out feeding himself with a fork and then let both of us feed him with it. Not sure if this has ever happened before.

As far as I'm concerned, this is the big story of the day.  Fingers crossed now that this is the start of trend!  He has come so far since he needed the feeding tube but he still has a lot of growing to do to catch up.  

8:20| On board the plane again. We started out with workbooks. Even though they did a ton of pages on the way there neither one had much energy on the way home. They mostly just ate snacks and fitfully tried to sleep. Thankfully it's a very short flight. I'll take it.

10:45| Just about to land back in Austin.  So grateful for a good flight and a great trip.  It is such a treat to spend time with friends.  

Pretty sure this day will have a lot more photos in it than average and I'm okay with that.  I like the idea of starting out strong anyway and it will set our travel day apart from our home day.  The only picture I'm planning on taking tomorrow is off my feet on our couch, lol.

See my completed Week in the Life album from 2014 and 2013 here.

I'm so amazed at all the people who are playing along this year.  Are you in?

Lakshman | 18 months

Lakshman, you are awesome.  You are supremely confident. I watch you running around, with that wild abandon and complete lack of stability that only toddlers have.  You have no core strength, yet you charge forward at top speed to get to wherever you are going.  You smile and charm people as often as you give them the side eye.

You are so well loved by so many people, and you are completely aware of it.  If you are like your brother when you grow up, you will hold on to this feeling always.  I'm sure this has more than a little to do with your over flowing self-assurance.

You got diagnosed with eosinophilic esophagitis after your scope and biopsy, which you handled so bravely.  The doctor said you didn't even cry in the operating room.  So, now we are treating you for a possible dairy allergy.  Ever so briefly I saw the number on the scale go up to 18 pounds, but I haven't been able to replicate it.  You are eating a little better and doing so well at your new therapy.

You are drinking the new formula so well now.  I still don't think you will really start to gain weight until solid foods are easier for you and you learn to, you know, actually chew.

Your favorite thing to do right now is read.  Either you are bringing us a book to read to you, or you sit down with a very unsteady plop and start reading to yourself.  It's basically the cutest thing ever. You love to climb and you are old hat at getting your picture taken.  You basically climbed into the butterfly and started posing for pictures right away.  You love animals and I can't wait to take you to a real zoo!  So far you love the nature center's prairie dogs and petting zoos. You respond to the name Bear as well as Lakshman.  You also still love playing ball and racing cars.  You can stack blocks at least five or six high, but you prefer to smash.  Haha.

You say a lot of words.  Here is a very incomplete list: Dada, baba, Gudya, Nan'ini, Mama, Bappi, dog, woof, rea' book, ow, dow', serry, ya, no, mime (mine), dere, Nana, Nini, Nuj mama, Addie, ball, bubble.

Lakshman, we are so lucky to have you.  It is a joy to watch you grow up and we know that you have big things to come! Love you Baby Bear.

Around Here | July 2015

Summer is half over and we are sort of just starting to find our groove.  The kids main camp that is part of their school is over.  Now all they have is every other week Nature and Science Camp.  I like getting to spend all that time with them.  But sometimes it does get completely overwhelming.  The baby is fascinated with water play.  Which is great when we head to a splash pad almost every day.  Not so great when he realized we have a bunch of water installations, at perfect toddler height all over the house.  So yeah, I have to watch that the bathroom doors are shut like a hawk.  Not that easy with all the potty breaks being taken by the older two.  Fun times.
I have started a new exercise regimen with some friends, so it gets out of the house early every morning.  This often segues to swimming or some other outing.  I even did a craft with the kids this week - just painting those cheap wooden blocks from Ikea, but it was fun.  The kids are finally getting to the age where they don't always make a huge mess with paint.  That helps.
We also went out west (haha) to check out the Johnson City Science Mill and Exotic Animal Zoo.  They were both really great, but in totally opposite ways.  I love visiting a museum when everything is shiny and new and not smudged by a thousand grubby kid hands already.  I wish I could have taken a little more time at each exhibit to explain more of the science to the kids, but it never seemed to work out.  The zoo was a really interesting experience too.  I was happy to sit back and take pictures, so I'm glad the other moms were game to feed the animals with the older kids.  It was pretty amazing to get so close to zebras.  The ostriches just had this crazy look in their eyes that scared the heck out of me.  I was basically cowering in the wagon.
I'm not sure that life gets any less crazy once school starts but I'm glad we've had a lot of adventures already.  I am super excited about it not being 100 degrees out every single day though.  After all the flooding I'd never thought I'd say this, but we need rain!!

I've also been hard to work at my Cocoa Daisy pages this month.  Check them out if you get a chance.  Are you happy or sad that summer is half over?

How I talk to my bi-racial daughter about her skin (spoiler alert, I haven't figured it out yet)

I finished reading Eleanor & Park and I can't stop obsessing over why it bothers me so much.

Except my daughter told me this weekend that she didn't want to be part brown or brown anymore.  She wants to be all white.  Cue my deflating heart and utter internal devastation.  I hardly knew how to respond and decided to let it be for now until I could figure that out.
I always try to put a positive spin on color for them, given how our culture persistently and vehemently villifies and uglifies anything dark.
Don't even get me started on crafters complaining about kid's artwork being a "brown mess" all the time.  Yes, the colors turn to brown sometimes when they get mixed together, is that so awful!
Would any white person appreciate me pointing out all the bodily fluids and internal organs their skin color resembles?  I don't think so, though this Buzzfeed article about it is good for a laugh.  Darkness being evil is indeed a matter of opinion, not artistic fact.

I kind of felt like I had no idea where this backlash from Nandini was coming from.  Yes, I think she was slightly annoyed with me during our coloring session the other day when we made a poster of Ariel and Cinderella.  I decided to forgo the proscribed yellow hair and gave her black hair (with pretty cool blue highlights) and brown skin.  She didn't exactly love me changing Cinderella around.

Or when I put on Annie for them and she kept telling me she wanted to watch "the Annie with red hair".  When I tried to point out that she has black curly hair just like the girl in the movie she started sulking and ended up taking an angry nap on the couch for two hours. (Avinash and I, however, thoroughly enjoyed it, though Cameron Diaz doesn't hold a candle to Carol Burnett).

A lot has already been written about how racist it Eleanor and Park is.  How it is insane that the author feels that racism is just a historical concept not an ongoing issue.  I can't even imagine how she would get that idea.  I guess that fact that her story structure is completely lacking should have clued me in to how little research she would bother to do on growing up Korean in Omaha. 

Park is unhappy until he finds a white girl willing to like him, even though she's weird, because apparently weird white girl is all he should dare to aspire to?  Maybe kids should be taught they deserve more than a white person getting over their derision of you, your color, your culture, etc.  I worry that I settle for that and may be teaching my kids to do the same thing.