Import/Export

For my next trick, I am going to try and export all the posts from the old blog and re-import them here, so everything is in the same place. What was the point then? Just changing the title and the address, I guess, and also spending a few hours at my laptop with the illusion of a purpose.

Anyway, let's see if it works.

UPDATE (10 minutes later): Hey, I believe it worked...

MVUE5UT6TNBE

Planes, big and small

Nonna was here with us for a month. On Saturday, before her flight, I thought it would be nice for the children to do something special with their grandma. I wasn't sure what though, because their Italian consists of around ten words and is only slightly worse than nonna's English.

Then I remembered that my mom had made a pretty advanced paper airplane for me to take to a school competition once. Apparently her father was a master paper airplane engineer and she inherited a few of his skills. I don't think she remembers how to make those planes now, but with the help of a (really cool) book of instructions that we had at home she set to work.

You can see the result below. It's a simple plane, the first and easiest one in the book, but it was built very carefully (and painfully slowly, but that is nonna's trademark :)) and flies well. It is robust too, because it is still around two days and many adventures later.

I documented the first flight from the bunk bed. Appu was eager to start, but he obviously needed a bit of practice.

Then he figured it out:





Success!

Bye bye nonna, torna presto!

Introducing...

Viola "Lila" Rosalind Ashok

Dinner and a movie

On Sunday night we went on a date with Appu. We took him to our currently favorite restaurant here in Calicut for a speedy dinner - while his little sister napped under achamma's careful watch. Rohan opted to stay home to watch his favorite Thomas movie instead and for once we thought, why not, if everyone is happy.

So it was just the three of us and it really is nice to spend a little time one on one with our big boy - he is already five years old!! When the waiter poured water in his glass he said "Thank you" and I told him "That was very polite, Appu, good job!". His comment was "I've never been polite in a restaurant before". So now he can tick that off his list :)

This is us in front of the steaming hot tagliatelle with cheesy pesto. Too bad I don't have a snap of the french soup in a bread bowl, I really must go back to document that, as soon as possible.

Almost official

Viola Rosalind Ashok

or

Lila Rosalind Ashok

But we would probably call her Lila at home either way. Any strong objections before we go to apply for the birth certificate?

So, names

It's a rapidly changing market, but these are today's favorites:

Lila (pronounced the straightforward way, not Laila)
Sofia
Viola
Olivia
Nicole (we like the nickname Nikki, and we know two great girls with this name)

Combinations of the above for first and middle name?
As was pointed out by my mother, Lila could be used as a nickname for Viola (and we think maybe for Olivia too), so get two for the price of one? Or not?

Welcome!

Picu was born on May 21, around 9 PM. Don't worry, we'll think of another name soon...
Oh, and it's a girl.

More details soon.