Downtownish

Dh worked on Sunday so Atta and I went on a jaunt. I went looking for the Hot sauce festival at Waterloo park but the hellish maze of one ways, a circus of animals, clowns and day before school students with trolleys full of stuff sent me ducking into the Blanton Museum parking lot for cover. Parking was free and the museum was air conditioned..it was around noon, what's a mama to do? It all worked out perfectly because Anika really enjoyed the 'moozeem'.

Here she is in a breathtaking installation by Brazilian artist, Cildo Meireles called, 'Mission: How to Build a Cathedral'.



The piece is a permanent feature in the museum and is well worth a visit to the museum in itself. It is hauntingly beautiful with the soft warm light bouncing off the shiny copper pennies, covered with a canopy of stark white bones. Visitors are welcome to enter the piece through black net curtains and play with the 600,000 pennies. Anika needed no instruction, she gravitated like a moth to the flame, we stayed within the exhibit for half an hour.

Car conversations

We are a one car household and we make a 20 minute drive to pick Papa up from work nearly everyday. Here is a sample conversation from the other day.

Anika: " Don't feel bad pity doll..."
Me: " Why is pretty doll sad?"
A: " Because stroller"
Me: " Does she miss her stroller"
A : " She wants to go to park in stroller"
Me: "Oh..but her stroller is in the back yard all wet in the rain, she can't sit in it now."

Long pause. A:" Pretty doll's bums get all wet."

Later.

A:" Mama, atta did fart, did you her it?"
me:" No I didn't."
A: " mama, pease do fart."
me:" ok!" Make fart sound with my mouth
A:" Ok now do loooooong fart." laughs loudly, very pleased with her self.

Later.

A:" Atta miss papa."
M:" I know baby we'll see papa soon, we're almost there."
A: "Papa papa aaja(come) now."
M;" Aww, baby do you love papa?"
A:"Hahn."
M:" How much do you love papa?"
A thinks for a little while;" Taller than mama!"

This post is mainly because of the countless conversations I have forgotten, I had to write some down.

New header

The gorgeous pic of Anika in the header was taken by Tanya. It captures the stage she's at so beautifully- always ready to go, obsessed with her school bag, with her boo hat and noo shoes on, about to give me a long talk about something. She is asking about school over and over again , we've been touring a few and she seems VERY ready. I must be boring her at home.

Sari

We're having a very Indian weekend. Here she is sporting a sari=)

Bond of Protection

D and I grew up celebrating many festivals in India and we want our little American to have some of those cultural experiences too. Whenever I doll her up in her Indian attire, which is usually quite special filled with jari(golden threads) or little bells, she knows something fun is going to happen. Yesterday was 'raksha bandhan' literally, bond of protection. It is a festival to celebrate the bond between brother and sister. Historically the sister ties the brother a 'rakhi' a simple thread promising her love in return for the brother's love and protection. Over the years, the threads have turned into fancy, sometimes garish bling things and the protection has become money or gifts. You tie a rakhi, put some red teeka on the forehead and then feed the brother some sweets. I have a very nice cousin, who lives in Austin, whom I tied a rakhi. Anika tied his two son's, her brothers rakhis. She was VERY excited and kept saying 'bhaiya come gen' (brother) when they left. This is how much she's gown since raksha bandhan last year.







We sent her favorite brother, Raunaq a rakhi by post and spoke to him on the phone. They love each other a lot, he is the only one she still misses from her India trip. there have been at least three occasions when Raunaq has cried on the phone when Anika has said, " Atta miss bhaiya." Raunaq is 10 years old.

long suffering bff

Sweet Palu has always loved Anika a lot, he is very dog like in his devotion to her and in his tolerance of her games. When she was a new born, he would sit right by me when I nursed her. From the start whenever she cries, he meows to me and nudges me to 'fix it'. When she is hurt he hovers around her rubbing along her. After her famous obsession with Stuart little and his 'best friend' Margalow, Anika says 'Palu Atta's best friend, mama.'

Pineapple Express

Laughed very hard, go watch it! Seth Rogen is highlarious he co wrote it, the dialogue is unbelievably funny. LOVE James Franco, I want him to be my BFFF. I was laughing so hard my friends might have been embarrassed, sorry Mel and Jenni, I'm a hyena, its in my genes.

A mouse, a cat and a bear

All summer long some theaters in the city show free kids movies. Anika and I went to a couple. The first time was a failure, she wanted out in ten minutes, because some Bunnies were being portrayed in an unfavorable light. The second time around I took her for a movie just to kill time in the comfort of the ac until 'Story time' at Barnes & Noble. This time the movie was Stuart Little 2. She fell in love with the dapper Stuart from the first frame. By the time he was driving home from school in his fancy car, she was hooked. She didn't say much except for asking a few questions about his brother George. I tried to leave the movie when the bad guy 'the falcon' made an appearance but she was already in love with 'Tuart' and refused to leave. I watched with trepidation but soon got sucked into the narrative myself.

She loved Stuart's friend Margalow the little yellow, free spirited bird. She was entranced. After a lot of drama the movie finally ended, the titles began to roll and Anika had a total break down, "more movie' were the only words I could decipher between yells and sobs. I tried in vain to explain to her that all movies must end and that Stuart was fine and so was Margalow but she was inconsolable. She cried for 20 minutes. I was at a loss, I finally convinced her in SONG that Stuart and Margalow were living in the book store and we could go meet them in the DVD section. She was whimpering when we walked into B&N some what convinced of the story. To my horror they didn't have the DVD, I walked into the kids section looking for a distraction when Anika screamed, Tuart! and fell to her knees. There was a hard bound book about the mouse. Thank you God. She has not put the book down since.



This unfortunate looking cat fell into the in sink garbage disposal. I hid it from her for a few days. When she found him she was very upset. 'What happened to Mau? What happened to his er(ear), he got a big happi(hurt). Poor mau mama, what happened? I scrambled. He went out last night and got into a fight, give him love baby, he will get better. She carried him around everywhere for a few days and made these very unnerving crying meow sounds and then tended to him with kisses, clucking and saying poor mau, don't go out at night gen(again).



And this guy, now girl is wearing the product of my first attempt at sewing. Mel organized a crafty MNO at a lovely little local sewing shop called the Stitching Studio. While the others worked on unfinished projects, I tried my hand at stitching for the first time. Initially I just practised sewing in a straight line on paper with no thread. After doing 10 lines I was feeling bold and wanted some thread in my machine. Thanks to Melissa my first project was a little bag made from a basket of scraps at the studio, then I made a wine bottle carrier..but my piece de resistance is this..



Anika LOVES it, she takes the teddy everywhere

Seven years

We chose to marry on the 11th because the number looks like two people standing next to each other in equality. Thank you my love for walking by my side.