Eyes Eyes baby

Jr., in her infinite wisdom at a camp she attends last week, figures out that she can learn to "spray" sunscreen on her own! (we have only used the cream with our hands at home, no spray!).

She sprays the sunscreen directly into her eyes. Worse, she does not tell anyone at the camp and no one (well the camp has high school and college kids as supervisors) notices that Jr.'s eyes are blood red by end of the day! If only they had seen it and washed her eyes off !!!

Off we go to a doctor who gives her an antibiotic of sorts, called VIGAMOX, which does not do anything to improve the situation and two days later, a trip to an eye doctor ends up with a presciption for "lubrication drops", which is finally showing some results, albeit slowly!

That has been the story of the week, with us worrying about the possibilty of a blind Jr.. She being a natural drama queen, pisses us off by practising for her future blindness in front of us. The nerve this girl has!

What is the point in giving up "potato" when a five year old can give your heart the stress test, at the drop of a hat?

Jr. is doing better now. (the photograph was taken after 24 hours of the new treatment and the redness has gone back a little).

The kids decided to play funny and take photos in the backyard, when I went to take a picture of Jr.'s eyes! Here are some samples.

These photos are the antidote to the first photo! The girls like my hand drawn pottu's (bindi's) and don't mind staying still to let me draw them on their forehead with mommy's eyeliner.

Now the little one goes "Daddy, can you draw a doggie and make it my pottu?"

Will have to try, no?

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Calming your nerves

There are a lot of things that we get introduced to when we come to a different country. In terms of music, movies, art, culture. Even after being in the United states for more than a dozen years, I had never heard of a legend when it came to songs for children.

When Jr. went to a Montessori school three years ago, she came home one day and was singing a song which went something like:

Down by the bay
where the watermelons grow
I dont know
my mother will say
etc. etc

in broken sentences. She would sing it with absolute happiness on her face and would manage the broken words in a melodious tone.

The lyrics did not make any sense to me and after asking her to sing slowly, could still not identify the song. So the next day, we go ask her teacher:

"What is this song she is singing about watermelons growing and whales?" and the teacher looks at me with absoulute disbelief and says "That's Raffi!! How come you don't know Raffi?!"

It was as though I had claimed not to know Jesus! Told the teacher that we really had never heard of Raffi, and asked her to show me the CD cover.

We then got that Raffi CD, which played in the van non stop for almost a year. It had its "velli vizha" (silver jubilee function), not because Jr. insisted on playing that CD, but the entire family liked that CD! We were all hooked by that unbelievable voice, which was backed only by a single guitar. The songs were all nursery rhyme style, but goofy in terms of the lyrics and the singing. (Incidentally this music had been released around the time when I was Jr.'s age!!).

Have been searching for youtube videos of Raffi for some time.

We now chanced on videos of Raffi in Concert.

Compensating now for the fact that, we missed Raffi, when we were little kids. This afternoon, Jr. was playing this on youtube and it put me to sleep.

If you have your nerves all frayed because you have had a long week, "Raffi" might be the answer to your prayers!

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Much ado about wobbly tooth

Jr. last night, throwing a big scene about her "wobbly tooth". She is such a drama queen. Wanted to exploit the tooth situation, grandma in India situation and even tried to break routine by saying "I have to thachcham(sleep) next to daddy!", a move that was vehemently veto'd by the little one..

Earlier this evening, she came and spat out the tooth on my laptop. Here she is, all proud, after loosing her first teeth. I do not think any of us made such a big deal about teeth falling when we were kids.

Apparently there is a tooth fairy, some money involved which I owe Jr., now that the teeth has been burried in the backyard, etc. etc. All this is new to me. Just found out that my parents owe me approximately 20,000$ in back toothfairy money including the interest!

ps. Thanks to all for your messages in response to the previous post. Regular life has resumed in the household!

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Skill

We happened to go to a Toys"R"us this morning, thanks to my brother who insisted on buying the kids some toys.

They are renovating our local store and making it into a (Toy,Baby)s"R"us! Last time we went, it was okay. This time around the entire store had sheetrock and cement dust floating around. There was a visible layer of dust on every toy!! I am surprised that they are still open.

Needless to say, within minutes after entering the store, I started sneezing and my respiratory system went into a slow shutdown. We got a little "Camera for dummies" kit for Jr. which was pretty amazing. A little 1.3MP digital camera with a pouch, software, a manual which she can read on her own for under 30 bucks!

San had to drive us back from the store. The rest of my afternoon was spent in a state of stupor with some tylenol allergy sinus tablets safely inside the system.

Then suddenly Jr. wakes me up. I try to shrug her off and sleep, but she keeps coming back.

Then after two or three tries, she puts on a real puppy face, puts her concerned hand over my forehead as though feeling my temperature and says

"Daddy, I am really sorry about your allergies. I really am! But you are soooo good with all this camera stuff. That is why I am asking you to come help me. Please come and show me how to download the photos on to the computer!"

That dialogue clinched the deal and I walked with her to the computer.

Reminds me of a girl who almost a decade ago, said "I know you are not feeling well, but you make a really nice tea. It is way better than the tea I make. Can you make us some?"

Like they say in Tamizh, pulikku pirandhadhu poonai aaguma?
(literal translation, Will a tiger cub be a kitten? along the lines of "the apple doesnt fall far from the tree"..)

Must be a genetic thing!

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Going Places

The little one has been following in her sisters footsteps, not that she has much of a choice in who she is following!

That said, Jr. is following in her mommys footsteps.

It is a common scene in our house where Jr. has the little one's diaper bag and the little one has Jr.'s backpack.

While we were all thinking that the little one is packing up to go to school, she let us in on her secret. Apparently she is going to the "movie theater" with you know who! The "guys" of course!

If this is a sneak peek of things to come, we have been warned!

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