It's 11:48 pm and Isaac just emerged from bed ready to go! He came downstairs and explained to me how our new power strip is configured for the computer and told me about the new friend he and Daddy made at the electrical shop. Rich is asleep on the couch in his shirt and tie after coming back from District Conference. Graham is in his high chair throwing bits of banana and pizza onto the floor (he woke up from his too-long jet-lagged nap a few hours ago). Russell is still asleep upstairs on the hard tile floor and I don't dare move him because he has underwear on!
The second night we were here the kids went to bed at 6 pm and woke up at 1 am. The third night we took a long nap during the day and stayed up until 1 am to avoid that early waking. The fourth night they went to bed early and woke up at 2 am! Now we're on the fifth night and it's not looking so good because everyone took long naps and is waking up just now.
Okay, so here's what Isaac has to say . . .
Now he has nothing to say . . .
Isaac: "Why did you make those dots? What are those dots for?"
Me: "To show that I"m thinking . . ."
Isaac has been enthusiastically helping around the house to fill his wallet with rupees. He is a man with a mission. Some kids are scared to start kindergarten. Not Isaac. Any fear he could feel is swallowed up by his total excitement to eat lunch in the cafeteria and pay for it out of his wallet with his own money. So he has picked up numerous toys, ran errands, helped his brothers, and even memorized articles of faith . . . anything to earn an extra paise for the cause of school lunch. I hope he's not disappointed. I've told him he has to eat five bites of vegetables every day in order to eat the ice cream and I'm just going to trust him to do it. The beauty of Isaac's little exacting personality (and I sincerely hope this doesn't disappear as he grows older) is that I'm pretty sure he'll do it.
The stupendous news of the day is that Russell is on the fast track to being fully potty trained, thanks to wonderful Aunt Katie. Katie got us started on the timer method. At first Russell wanted to set it for "free" [three], but Katie convinced him to go for 60, which is like two threes. We set the timer for 1 hour and if we can convince him to go sit on that potty when the timer goes off, the Spider Man underwear stays dry!! He always makes a big to-do about WHICH Spider Man underwear he will wear and then throws all his clothes around looking for a "cool shirt with cool things on the back and the front" and equally cool pants. Usually he ends up putting on winter pajamas or rummages in the back of his shelf for some cozy warm long-sleeved shirts perfect for the sweltering heat! And then another favorite potty training antic is to choose one bathroom to go potty in, then another to wash his hands in, and then inform me that he doesn't like the soap in that bathroom while he moons everyone in the house. Loads of fun. But I am crossing my fingers that all those pull-ups I bought before I left the USA will have to be donated to someone else's potty training efforts!
Graham is doing much better after his whirlwind of sicknesses in the USA. He is crawling around everywhere, cruising up and down steps, and eating spicy Indian food voraciously. I haven't weighed him, but he feels a bit heavier when I lift him. He and I have started taking walks in the mornings at around 5:30, thanks to jet lag, and he seems to love wandering around our neighborhood watching this strange world we live in wake up.
In other news . . . we finally got a painter to come give us an estimate, and thank goodness because it was 1/4 less than the last guy. He got to work right away and the wall in our living room that was all patched up from the a/c work for months is now a lovely mint green. I picked the color on a whim and it doesn't really match anything else, but it's kind of fun.
Other big news is that despite all the well-meaning advice of everyone but Rich I chopped all my hair off. Actually a French hair stylist chopped it all off. I told him I was tempted to chop it all off but had decided not to. So he cut it chin length and then decided it didn't look good that length and I should cut it much shorter. Rich promises it looks great, but the jury is still out on my end. As I look around at people here I think it looks a lot like the haircuts the young Indian men are sporting. When I have the patience I will upload some photos.
Anyways, that's the news from New Delhi. We miss ya'll!
