curly toes and a little nose

Maybe you don't mind people telling their kids not to grow up.

I always did.  

Now I have two kids.  They seem to grow overnight causing 

great delight.

But....

Sometime I sneak in just to try to catch them growing because

I like them now.

I love them now.

I cherish them now.

This moment is precious, now.

And tomorrow feels a little daunting.

Here was a now moment I remember fondly.

And honestly I'm glad he's grown.

Consider the Lily

Sing flowers sing. 

Sing of your Creator loud and clear,

Sing flowers sing.
In all your glorious splendor, sing

to my heart so oft to doubt that I’ll be clothed tomorrow.

Sing flowers sing.
 Of your coming King Victorious. 

Sing.

No matter how dirty the corner of the world you live,

Or how dark the darkness.

No matter how deep the sorrow that you face each night.
Or the broken loneliness.

Still there are flowers that sing.

And still your voice too, must be heard, for, if not

The rocks would cry out.

Chick

We got a chick for Easter.
We got ten for some friends in the village and one for us.

Notice Zana's Easter Finery.  She has only one pigtail as it is after nap time!

She kept the bracelets on all day no thanks to her thieving brother.

The dress has a poodle and barely fits my not even 18 month old daughter.

It is a size 2T.

Chick in foreground ignored as they check on the other ten!

Abe wanted to name it "mommy."  I asked for another option.

"Friend?" 

While I washed lunch, dead chickens, in the kitchen the Three Muskeeteers 

dettol-ed (read here:  Daddy and kids cleaned thoroughly with anti-septic soap ) our new chick.

Chew on This

Zana eats books.  Literally.

She loves to sit and read alone chattering away.  I often find her "reading" with her book upside down either sitting, squatting, or lying flat on her back holding the book up over her head.  She finds corners, beds, comfy pillows, the middle of a pile of books, or just about anywhere and just reads.  But the reading always ends in eating.  Eating her book.

"Books are for Eating Reading" basically sums up Zana in a cute little hardback.  She chews on everything but books remain her favorite snack.  Corners, full pages, and entire sides of hardback books have little teeth marks.  Today she ate the Word in Urdu after stealing the tiny pamphlet from a visitor!  She curled up and "read" it for about five minutes and then the next thing you know little paper bits were flying and Zana was swallowing verses left and right.

It is getting a little ridiculous.  I have to rescue books from her.  Abe flies into action and tries to grab the book (he is good at that) gently (not so good at that) after commandeering the book from his sister he deliberately puts the book up above her head.  She still seems to get a good diet of book.  All that fibre has made little Zana quite the go-er and up she climbs to get the book carefully placed out of reach.

See below Zana reading and climbing.
Lets just say my days are busy.

On a side note....
special thanks to Auntie Kari for giving us a family favorite.... Books are for Reading
AND
special thanks to Auntie Susan and family for one of our favorite books featured besides Zana 
"Tumble Bumble."

Cobwebs and a Dish Washer

 Jannat is the heavenly girl who comes and cleans my floors and washes my dishes every day except Saturday.  She works for two other Indian families where she does not get a day off and receives substantially less in pay.  One of the hardest questions for me in the States concerns Jannat.  It is simply and sadly my pride but people seem to assume that she makes life easier.  Life Can't Be Hard With a Super Lady who Comes Every Day to Clean.

Hmmmmm.  Honestly I would rather have a dish washer, carpeted floors, tiled bathrooms and a dustless home where the temperature is monitored by a dial rather than God and the dirt flying in does not include black sticky stuff.  Does Jannat clean as well as a vacuum.  Honestly Jannat lives in a home with a mud floor.  Her home is neat but cleanliness means something different to Jannat.  At least she does not bring too much dirt in with her when she comes to clean.  She does have lice.  All the time.  But she gets her family members to pick them out once a week so according to her she is clean.  However I need her.  Every single floor has to be mopped each day, every surface wiped or Zana's feet are black after walking around inside.  Together Jannat and I battle a losing battle daily but at least my house is not completely taken over by filth.  We battle hard against dirt.

You would think my house would be clean but the constant battle with dirt, and bugs and smog mean that every day I can write my name on the Already Been Wiped surfaces of my home.  This lovely cobweb (see upper right corner) took one day to create in my home!  I was rather offended by this squatting spider.  You would think Mz. Spidee could find a less obvious corner.  Guess she is distantly related to another exhibitionist spider named Charlotte.

Camel, Tonga, and..... Carseats

We take a day off a week.  It is wonderful.  Restful.  We usually listen to a Mike Bullmore sermon, we always eat coffee cake, and we rest as a family.  Last week I featured our not so restful Saturday trip to the Taj.  It is a week later and we are over 500 miles away from that mausoleum  yet there is more to tell about that not so restful day of rest.

Firstly it was one of our most costly days of rest as the Taj tickets cost us a whopping 14 bucks each.  As I stood in line I talked with a lady who paid less than 50 cents for her ticket.  She was obviously Indian though wearing Western clothing and speaking American.  She weighed no more than 80 pounds and looked about 21 though she had two teenagers.  I stood there obviously American looking wearing Indian clothes and speaking Hindi.  She lives in America, I live in India but for one day we both got to put our feet in the other person's shoes.  It was a little strange to say the least and I was comfortable going ahead of her in the SPEED line for TOURIST TICKET HOLDERS.

Also from our day away.....

Did I tell you that the Taj is being destroyed by pollution?  Did I tell you that in order to help the situation not vehicles are allowed within a mile radius around the structure unless they are animal or electrically powered.  For this reason we found ourself traveling slowly by camel drawn carriage to the Taj and we returned quickly by horse drawn carriage.

Our Tonga (horse walla) driver let Abraham hold the reins.  Oh what delight.  All week he has laid his cars aside to play with his two miss matched horses (one a realistic figurine the other a little people pudgy animal with few horsey characteristics) and a little wagon that doesn't fit on either horse.  

Here are photos with one of Zana and her daddy thrown for good measure.  She got to ride in her new carseat and was not overwhelmed with gratefulness to ride behind a camel or a horse.  She did wave to all the tourists taking her picture just like a little queen.

  

Happy but tired and we have yet to see the Taj.

I cannot get over how cute she looks and how beautiful Moghul structures look.

In heaven but ready for a nap!

Convinced he is TRULY driving the Tonga!

In case you are wondering what we did to day for our day of rest today well.......

The park was locked so we played in the middle of a street for an hour.  We listened to a great sermon. We played cars.  We walked through the neighborhood and watched men tear down the scaffolding for a huge water tower that is being built.  We talked with friends in the gully.  We played cards.  We read. We ate good food.  No Taj this week!

Carseat, Carpet or Taj Mahal?

For Abraham's first birthday we bought him a red carpet to cushion his falls in his bedroom.
He had the measles.
For Zana's first birthday we bought her a carseat.
She had a cold.
For Zana we also all went to the Taj Mahal.

What a beautiful, beautiful place.  It rises out of dust and dirt and smog ever so magnificent.  I fell in love on sight.  What workmanship.

Here is a little of what I saw.  No facts as two toddlers and a guide do NOT mix well.  We took it at our pace which was running past century old built magnificence and crawling by ants, chipmunks and flowers.  Creation by our Creator is marked as awesome by two toddlers as the world gazes in wonder at stones!  Hmmm..

The initial view of this amazing structure.

Walking through the entrance.

"No! No! No!  Please just look!  Don't pick her up!"

Family mug

If the pathway is full of people touching your face then 

ask your parents if you can walk in the drainage system.

Running around a tomb.

Chasing a chipmunk.

Beauty of the Mughal gardens.

What birthday present sounds best to you?

Cutie Pie

"I am fearfully and wonderfully made."  

God is amazing.  The fact that my body was able to carry Zana for ten months and then in a beautiful hospital in Delhi with a competent doctor, caring Mom and Helping Hubster (and a blood streak on the ceiling), I gave birth.  Man did I think she was going to be born with a HUMUNGO NOSE!  I felt that thing all the way down and out.  Surprisingly it was a cute little nose and Zana was beautiful.  What a gift.

A year ago today I was sleeping in the hospital after giving birth to baby Zana.   I was more worried about Abe alone with his auntie and uncle than I was about the new little sweet potato beside me in the bassinet.  She already ate like a trooper and slept like an angel.

Her apgar score was perfect.    

She came out perfectly happy and ready to eat!

  

Ironically I am typing this blog in the same mau mau!

Thanks, Mercy.  Still love the zipper.

Calmly Enjoying Our Day of Rest

What do you do on your day off?  Here are some photos from last week's adventure.  Obviously we took a long walk and the goat pictures do not feature the same goat, rather three different mutton friends.

A Goat Getting a Bath

A Goat Getting Sold

The Early Light of Morning As We Walked the Gulleys.

A Goat Getting Chopped.

Abraham Making Friends and Influencing People.

Conked in the Head While Dunking For Apples

I try to do one activity a week with other English speaking kids.  Half the time I return home in the three wheeled auto so tired that I want nothing to do with "play dates" for the next six years.  All the kids remotely close in age to my children seem to live a small lifetime away.  Imagine a 20 minute drive in which you pass more than a thousand people on hundreds and hundreds of different forms of vehicles.  The sheer density of humanity in our city at times takes my breath away.  Sparrows aside how can God know the number of hairs on so many different heads and care for each soul.  Immensity beyond fathom.

Off the rabbit trail back to today's blog on Apple Dunking.  It was a Harvest Party thrown by a Super Mommy of Two.  Granted she had her parent's support along with a cousin traveling through with spouse.  That aside it was FABULOUS.  Everyone was to come as a Bible character.  Personally I felt the little boy who came as Balaam's Donkey took the cake but many felt that Zana was the show stealer.  She came as Samson.  I put a muscle shirt on her and the wig, pictured below, and PRESTO..... hair was the costume to beat all costumes.

She pranced around in the grass (did I mention grass, Abe basically rolled in it he was so delighted). One little girl yelled at her mom to "Look at the GRASS, GRASS Mommy, there is Grass." I was thankful I'm not the only mom without a wedding lawn across from my front door where my kids can play.

I basically let my two darling children run and run and run.  When Abe absconded an apple from the bobbing bin and started munching I didn't even make him put it back and try to bob.  They both had a blast and I felt blessed by someone else's hard work to entertain and love so many children.

The party was worth the traffic jam on the way home.

Obviously she is not in full costume here as the muscle shirt has been replaced by pink.  

Very manly.

Samson had BLUE eyes right?  

Maybe she should have been Delilah.

Check out those thighs.

Contractions

I don't feel well today.... I feel a little off, a little be-low-ted.  Everything has thrown me into a tizzy today.  I took the kids for a walk and the feces on the side of the road, the garbage, the motorcycles going by at top speeds less than two feet away from my little boy's face (I'm not exaggerating), the grabbing hands for my children, the yelling, the banging, the music, the power looms, generators, coolers and NOISE all made me want to throw up my hands and then stick my fingers in my ears and yell.   Hmmmm can anyone say "KINDERGARTENER ALERT!"   

Yep I am throwing a not so nice tantrum and then I sat down to write and realized where I was a year ago..... Here are some pictures......  

 I was with family having a ball.  

Enjoying my niece, nephew and mom.

I was staying in the most beautiful home in Indian in the lovely suburb of Noida far from the Madding Crowd!

I was cuddling with my son!

And my daughter was still in my tummy and had a week or two left before arriving.

See the silhouette below to grasp the full reality of my life a year ago.

Be-low-ted does not even come close to describing how I felt!

ps.   Zana is making it.  Definitely allergic though.  

I'm glad she is around outside the womb this year. 

Cuckoos, Lions, and Giraffes

Well I cannot get a photo of my baby in her new dress made by her auntie Mel but here they are looking very American in Gap.

"Cambrige School"

Abe and I sat doing school today.  I am trying to be a better mommy.  I feel like all I say is no all day long.  I cannot imagine what is going on in Abe's little head.  Everything changed in ONE day.  We got to the letter J and he kept saying "Jay Jay" who happens to be his uncle whom Abe loves dearly.

Sometimes I want to cry over the sadness I see in his eyes as he truly seems to grieve not seeing "Poppa Bill," "Jay Jay," and others.  Other times I see a glimmer of the man to come.  He has a sense of humor of sorts.  Our first Indian School Bus after a delightful fall in America watching for the BIG school bus each day came as a bit of a shocker.  When I said it was a school bus I saw my little boy's eyes take and measure the difference and then to my delight he grinned ear to ear.

Here is the first sighting of a school bus by me and Abester after arriving back in India.

For those of you new to the Indian version of a school bus the girl in the foreground will hop in the back to ride and the tiny man in the background will cycle her and a dozen others to Sector 27 which is home to the auspicious CAMBRIGE SCHOOL.