Fourth quarter

Its the first week of October already! Back in March I was talking about buying tickets for India. Now our trip is six weeks away! The kids and I are also officially "Overseas Citizens of India." Doesn't mean much, except that the kids will have the lifetime ability to go in and out of India as they like - no more visas needed. You never know which one might want to explore their roots later in life. The process itself was typical Indian bureaucracy. It took all of the 14 weeks that was advised, along with one trip to the consulate.

Priya likes to get her hair straightened when its cut

Like with his cars, Armaan's pretty good with spatial arrangements

Class trip to the fire house

Ninja girls

Armaan's day to be "helper"

Describing what the weather is like outside

Show and tell - his car, of course!

Serving snacks

The 1,000 watt smile!

Now Summer Can be Over

With school starting for both kids, we can finally say that summer was here, and now its gone. Now that the kids are a little older, they have a lot more fun playing together. So far there hasn't been any obvious signs of sibling rivalry. Though Armaan has a far greater tendency to needle Priya. We have to watch out for this guy!

Armaan's favorite pastime at the pool - holding his breath and dunking his head under water

My office summer picnic

Priya got her face painted and her hair colored

The kids got their fishing poles. Armaan was more interested in playing with the worms.

Priya cast her line, and caught this little guy all by herself. Armaan's job was to let it go.

We had to go to the mall over the weekend to get some luggage for our trip to India. As we were just about to leave, Priya announces that she would like to get her ears pierced. That's pretty typical of her. She will think about something for a long time, but when she makes up her mind, its pretty much a done deal. She had earlier said that she would wait till she was 7 to get it done, but from our side, it was whenever she wanted it. I think she thought she would be braver at 7. As we were waiting, Priya was messing about on the chair, and ended up banging her shin. That's the part you see in the video. She's crying not from fear, but because there's a bruise on her leg from hitting it pretty hard. Earlier, as I was explaining what was going to happen, I said the pinch is only going to hurt for 10 seconds. So Priya said, "I can count to ten and the pain will stop?" Yep.

Start of School 2

Priya also started school at Highland Christian a few weeks ago. It has been a fairly easy transition for her. She abruptly went from napping for a couple of hours in the afternoon, to no naps. That has worked out fine so far. The nice thing about her current schedule is that she is in kindergarten only three full days. So its not jumping straight into full-time school. The class size is about 15 or so, with more boys than girls. During recess, Priya has found a friend that she plays with every day. This girl isn't from her class though.

Start of school

Can it really be? It was two years ago when I was posting this for Priya. And now its Armaan's turn. We love Angel Academy, and the work they do with kids. Priya couldn't be better prepared socially and academically.

Annual Fair

We have been going to the Lake County Fair for the last four years. Before Armaan's 4th of July birthday, we used to also hit a couple of other fairs around that time. This year I didn't think we would make it to the Lake County Fair, but it all worked out. It was Armaan's first exposure to rides, and it was fun to see him try out different things.

Once the ride started, Armaan wasn't so sure he liked it

2010 Pictures