Viola's birth

I haven't written about Lila's birth yet and given that this blog is supposed to be first of all a way to keep memories for us, that doesn't feel right. There are many things I am not happy about and I might even talk about that at some point, but that shouldn't come in the way of the things that I am *very* happy about.

These first photos were taken about a week earlier, at achamma's house and on our way out to dinner. I thought that this was going to be our last chance to get a snap of Picu still inside, but she was not a eager to leave her bubble as we imagined.

In the end Picu was not given much choice and made her appearance at night on May 21 2012, after a day filled with small disappointments, via a cesarean section. It is a quite weird experience and I didn't really get to see my baby until a bit later. They did however tell me right away that it was a girl and I remember feeling quite shocked, because that is the last thing I expected at this point. It took more than a week for us to stop saying "he" - which annoyed the grandma to no end.

S saw his baby girl before me. I don't remember much at all until dad and baby came to to me in the post op area some time later. Weird experience, really.

And here we are:

And a few more flattering shots taken later by dad in the room alone with her.

I have a complaint, though. We have a little family tradition of dressing our babies in the same little red pajama after birth, but there isn't a single photo of Lila in her red birth day dress. I suppose we must take pride in being disorganized down to the smallest details..

The children came the next morning to meet their sister and they have been in love with er ever since. Here, however, they can be seen opening their Picu Day presents, at last. They were really beginning to fear the day would never come :)

We stayed at the hospital longer than I would have liked but the room was very comfortable - choosing a posh hospital was good, at least for morale - and the kids could visit often.

In the end we had only one good birth experience out of three, but obviously we had three out of three good baby experiences.

From the first day back at the grandparents' house:

I think they were all saying "foof".

Es geht

So how is it going? Does she sleep? Indeed she does, a lot. She sleeps quite well at night - not as well as I could, just to clarify, but well enough for being only two months. She sleeps a lot during the day too, if I hold her, not so much if I don't.

Mostly I sit in front of my laptop with Lila on my shoulder or in my arms, sometimes feeding her and sometimes just holding her, and I entertain myself by playing Sudoku and Minesweeper, or I type stuff with one hand, like I'm doing now, or I edit my photos - with one hand, or shop online.. you get the idea.

If I am feeling especially alert I also think about beginning to prepare for the quantum mechanics course I have to start teaching in August, but I haven't progressed to actually doing it, yet.

I am looking forward to resuming the German class with S at Rajiv's school though, and hence the title.

"Yay, I'm a dad! For the third time!!"

Roar!

Our sweet and wild little Rohan, in a nutshell :)

Big ears

We watched "Dumbo" today. The pink elephants are creepier than I remembered, but the kids didn't mind.

Appu of course, as the proud carrier of the most spectacular ears in this family (although not without competition), identifies with Dumbo. I was a bit worried that the movie might plant in his mind ideas about appearance that - I think - he hasn't really considered yet, but I think no damage was done.

It might help that I tell my kids that they are beautiful about ten times a day. In fact, when we play "I Spy", if I say "I spy something cute.." they both start screaming "Me! Meeee!". Too much self-esteem? I think not!

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Un po' di foto di Viola tutta ingioellata, un mese fa in occasione del suo ventottesimo giorno di vita.

***

When Lila turned four weeks, achamma asked us to take some pictures of her wearing the jewellery she has been gifted (already!). She normally prefers a simpler look, but for the occasion she agreed to pose in a little white dress, necklace and bangles - who knew they make them in this size?

This was almost a month ago, but anyway here it is:

Classy, I'd say.

Here is Lila with her papa', showing the beginning of a desire to relax in her usual lounging attire.

But first a quick call to the grandparents - with mamma always hovering with the camera to add to the stress.

It's just too much...

Ooty construction update

The photos below were taken on June 22 - the day before Rohan's birthday, which is why I remember. They show the ongoing work to build a small house near Ooty, a cool (in this case meaning "not hot", which in India is cool in every sense) little town on the mountains surrounded by beautiful tea plantations and eucalyptus forests.

Let me not go into the details of what we have to do with the construction of this house - so to respect people's privacy for once :) ..but I thought I'd show what the construction site looks like.

Here is the access.

We go down that path and enter from here:

I think this one below was a bedroom and the next two are the living room and the kitchen. By the way, everything looks a little more spacious than it really is, because I still had the wide angle lens on from earlier.

The view from the living room (and outside, with the blue jacket, you can see my mom trying to literally jump off a cliff).

And if you still need proof that we are really bad parents, just look at where we let the kids run around.

Oh, and that is Lila there, in the little bundle on my chest. And it was also raining a little bit.