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Friday, May 28, 2010

Videos from Ooty

I have uploaded a few more videos. If you missed the birthday video though, I recommend you watch that first.

Here we go. The first video was taken during the car ride to Ooty. We started out on the wrong foot, with Appu being sick and throwing up, but then he had lots of fun with Jayadev and papa' on the front seat. Every time they saw a sign with a trumpet they would scream "trumpet!!" and Viju chicha had to honk. Otherwise they would scream "Look ooooout!". And we saw lots of monkeys and humongous bamboo trees, none of which unfortunately made it into the video. (Lots of fun, but overall I still wish that all children had been in a car seat. Especially on that kind of road.)



Next, Rohan in the park. By the way, he could already walk quite decently at the time, but not for the camera. He could also clap, but again not for the camera - he keeps missing, as you will see, because "Batti batti le manine" is the most exciting nursery rhyme ever and he just can't contain his enthusiasm. :)





By the way, don't you love how he shakes his head? I know you do and more to the point he knows it too!

Next video: Rajiv and Jayadev loving each other to pieces.



Last but certainly not least, the toy train! There is this little train in Ooty that gives ten minute rides to children and willing adults. The approach to the train is not very inviting, but the ride itself is q lot of fun. Look out for the tunnel... UAAAAAAAAH!

Friday, May 21, 2010

A little update from the construction site

The work is stressfully going on. Will it be finished before we leave? It seems highly unlikely, but no panic yet.

This is what the site looks like at the moment.


Our flat is on the 11th floor so we had to go up with a scary construction lift. (I would have happily walked up, by the way, but nobody else shared my feelings.)

I took a few photos from the windows of the flat, so you can get an idea of what the view is going to be like.




I like dry landscapes, so this is fine, provided they don't build anuthing horrendous right in front of us in the coming years. The flat across from ours has a much better view, but I kind of remember it not being available when we picked ours, so no recriminations.

The buildings are being painted and it makes a big difference. Look.

Last week:

Yesterday:


This was our flat last week, before the workers started laying the tiles. Now it is much more messy, with piles of sand taking over the space.



(Yes, there is somebody taking a nap on the floor in the first picture.)

These are the first tiles on the wall in the bathrooms. We went with brick stile in two of them and larger tiles in the third one, but the color is always the same. We are very boring. But classy :)





We are still trying to decide what to do with the wash area. Large corner mirror? Small mirror and lots of blue tiles? Not sure...


In the meantime the most urgent concern is about the kitchen. I don't even want to tsart telling you about the amount of anxiety that it has caused us, but we seem to see the end of the ordeal at this point. We had to accept some compromises, but the kitchen tiles will be laid next week and hopefully the kitchen will be in place just before we go back to Canada.

Lots of hard work... :)

Monday, May 17, 2010

B-day!

Little Rajiv is now a little three year old boy. At the moment we are in Ooty with very little access to the net, so details and pictures will have to wait. Many thanks to all those who have send happy birthday emails and see you all later!

Il piccolo Appu ha tre anni! Purtroppo non posso scrivere molto oggi perche' siamo in un posto in montagna con accesso alla rete molto limitato, ma ci saranno molte foto e video da mercoledi' in poi, promesso. Grazie mille a tutti quelli che hanno mandato gli auguri a Rajiv, mi ha fatto molto piacere (Rajiv non coglie tutti i dettagli ma e' contentone in generale :) ).

Monday, May 10, 2010

Sunday morning tradition

Appu loves idlys, so we only eat idlys for breakfast, every day. On Sunday, when the lady who comes to cook in the morning takes her deserved day off, we go to have idlys at Murugan Idly Shop in Besant Nagar, near the daycare. We sometimes go during the week as well, for an early dinnerish snack after picking up the kids. It is one of our favorite places in Chennai and surely the cheapest of our favorite places, which helps, but most importantly it is Appu's most favorite restaurant on the planet.

Here is what happens every Sunday morning. We leave the house with a tired and cranky little boy who doesn't know he is very hungry.


Murugan is often full and we wait for a while to get a table. Sometimes Appu just runs around, sometimes he waits in papa's arms, like this time.




Then we sit, Appu gets his own banana leaf of which he is very proud, and we order our idlys. Appu just can't understand while the waiters keep giving idlys to other people and don't come straight to us, by the way; it is a difficult concept I sometimes struggle with myself.






Hooray! Now we need sambaar. And we need mamma to break the first idly into small pieces, because they are very very hot (YUM!).




That's it. Then Appu will eat, all by himself, two or three idlys. Last Sunday a record of almost four! He sits the whole time, carefully dips his idly in the sambaar, asks for more whenever the waiter is around because you never know if you are going to see him again, and every now and then goes to wash his hands, which is a lot of fun.


Maybe you haven't noticed...

...but Piccolo Rajiv is almost three years old! "The days are long, but the years are short." Golden words.

To celebrate and count down to the big day we are going to have a fully Appu week on the blog. (If mamma is able to keep up with posting stuff; usual caveat)

Let's start with a cute little video I took a few days ago. Rajiv discovers some remnants of spilled food on the furniture (guess, by the way, how it got there :) ) and tries to clean it up without success using a tissue. Mamma gives him a sponge instead and he very happily proceeds to clean everything - complaining about the condition of the house as he goes, like a real housewife.

Tuesday, May 4, 2010

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... :) ).