Hare and the Tortoise - Retold by Kabir

I asked Kabu to tell me a story and he decided to tell the "Hare and the Tortoise" story (he refers to the hare as "Gogol khargosh"). Ofcourse he takes his own creative liberty with the story. I discovered that he is a good storyteller with great expressions and actions, but can easily get distracted. Enjoy! :-)

Kabu the dentist

Kabir teaches nanaji how to brush his teeth. (Now if only he would start following his own instructions, my life would be so much easier!)

Across seven seas

Our container arrived at our doorstep on September 18th after roughly two and half months (it had left our home in Portland on June 28th). It came to us in a typical desi truck complete with the "Mera bharat mahan" sign!
We decided to store all our boxes in a storage space for now since we haven't been given on-campus housing yet (we are currently staying on the campus with my parents).

We used Air7Seas to ship our belongings and it was a completely hassle-free affair. When we opened it here, the container didn't look anything like we had packed in Portland since it had undergone a thorough customs inspection at Mumbai port. But we received everything in perfect condition and were happy with the service.

It was a strange feeling to be reunited with our belongings after 2.5 months in a completely new setting. The first box to be unpacked (even before the container was completely unloaded) was the one containing Kabir's big Tonka dump truck. He had been pining for it over the last 2.5 months and used to frequently ask how much longer it would take for it to arrive. He was very excited to see his dump truck and didn't ask for anything else from the shipment. Over the next few days as I got some more of his old toys out, his excitement reached new levels. However, the day I took him to the storage and unpacked his red scooter (which he used to ride practically everyday in Portland during his outings with Iren), it brought a wistful look on his face. He spontaneously asked me - mama, where is Iren? If there was ever a moment when I noticed any sadness in Kabir regarding our move to India, it was this. On seeing everything come back to him from Portland, perhaps he expected to be reunited with Iren too. I told him Iren was still in Portland. And before I could say anything more to make him feel better, he had already moved on and was off riding his beloved scooter!
Most of our boxes are still in storage and in a way it feels better to open them bit by bit and experience the excitement over and over again. Even though it has been a few months now, it still feels unreal to be back home. Perhaps it will be the day when we have all our boxes unpacked that we will feel truly at home.

Nappy time

I couldn't resist taking a picture of our clothes-drying-stand this evening which has Anurag's cloth diapers on display. They include cotton prefolds, cotton diaper covers (Nikky and Niji brands), Indian langots and some soft cotton wipes. I've got some wonderful use out of them - first for Kabir and now for Anurag! They are especially useful in this bad Mumbai heat. Anurag seems to be cool and comfortable in them. We are now down to one disposable diaper per day for nighttime use and plan to introduce him to Kabu's old Baby Bjorn potty soon.

7 month update

Anurag completed seven months yesterday. There has been an explosion in his activities in the last month. He's become increasingly alert and doesn't want to miss any action. He's now rolling both ways and getting very good at grabbing objects. He's also getting good at annoying Kabir by constantly trying to touch and grab his toys. He can sit unassisted for a about half a minute before tumbling head over heels!

He's now started teething and I suspect we'll see a few pearly whites appear pretty soon. We have started feeding him 2 to 3 solid meals everyday. His favorite food includes papaya with milk, papaya with banana and papaya just by itself. He also likes cheeku milk shake and simply loves Natural's icecream (Pediatrician recommended!). We've already introduced yogurt and are glad that he isn't showing any signs of dairy allergy.

With all these changes, Kabir is suddenly finding Anurag to be a lot more fun. It is lovely to watch them interact and even play with each other!

chandi ki cycle, sone ki seat

aao chalo papa, chalen double seat!

We got our new bicycle yesterday. Saurabh can now drop Kabu to playschool and get to work in just 15 minutes!

(Thats right, Kabu has been going to Shishu Vihar for 2 hours everyday since the last 2 months. Will post pictures of his school soon.)

Some Pictures

Thanks to Vikram for taking these pictures. Taken on Siddhant's first birthday at Appi's house.