Jet Lag

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!

Moving and Christmas Together

Wonderful Aunt Katie and Uncle Dave and Grandpa Cutler came from Dallas to rescue us! They brought food, laughter, fun, and lots of elbow grease. Katie packed my piles into suitcases, cleaned bathrooms, and played with the baby, while Grandpa and Dave cleaned up the house and ran errands for us. We might still be there if they hadn't come to scoot us out of there!


This is Grandma and Grandpa Cutler reading the Cajun Night Before Christmas to the boys--a Cutler family tradition. What a relief to get to Mom and Dad's house where the fridge works, there's lots of toys, and lots of love. Katie and Dave and Kimmy were already there, and Amy, James and Max arrived later.


This is Russell watching the packers pack up our air shipment on our last day in our house. Both Isaac and Russell have been so brave about this whole thing, and did amazingly well without toys for a week in our nearly-empty house. They mostly just ran around outside and inside and improvised toys out of boxes and junk!


Sadly enough, our beloved harvest gold fridge broke two days before we moved. I've been praying for the ugly thing to die for a long time, but I wasn't quite prepared for it. Isaac filmed a 3-minute inch-by-inch tribute to the thing, and I called all my friends to come over for free food while I made chicken, rolls, and frozen vegetables for breakfast!


We had to say goodbye to our beautiful Martha Washington Duck. Robin and David came to visit and we took her down to the creek for her first and final swim there (I think the water level was finally low enough that she wasn't afraid!). She is living now with the Mellors in our ward who will take good care of her. We will miss our loyal friend.


Graham tried out the bouncer this week for the first time and loved it! He also rolled over, put his pacifier in his mouth, and laughed all within a matter of days! He is endlessly happy and smiley.


The moving truck drove off with most all of our stuff. Russell was especially impressed with the sheer size of the thing. We only filled half of it, but we've certainly got lots more stuff than when we drove up to the house five and half years ago with a little U-Haul! Russell has said several times with gravity since the truck drove off, "The moving truck took our trains to India." And then Isaac chimes in, "Yea, we won't see them for a long time!"


The great thing about moving is that you find long-lost stuff--like the mouthpiece to our bugle. We barely had time to enjoy it and practice our bugling talents before it too was carted off to India. Luckily we've got some of those Legos in our air shipment so we can build towers in our empty house!


It was such a relief to finally arrive at Grandma and Grandpa's house in Dallas and settle in to the Christmas fun. We are so glad to have this stopover trip with our loved ones before we face our adventures in India!


We will miss so many of our friends in Austin. We wish we'd been together enough to take pictures of all of them, but here's our next-door-neighbor Chloe.


And here's Joseph Wells. The boys didn't get a chance to say a formal "goodbye" to Joseph, Jacob, and Serena Wells, but we will surely remember them and keep in touch.

The Fabulous Flight

The boys were angels on the airplane. Of course, it helped that we were sitting in business class, but I don't think they would have cared. We played musical seats several times for variety, but we all slept for probably 8-10 hours of the 15-hour flight. Nana sent a bag full of planes that delighted Russell to no end (and annoyed the man two seats behind who was not amused by the airplane sounds he made while playing!). And Isaac loved listening to books on tape with the headset and cassette player from G&G Cutler and Aunt Katie.

Graham slept nearly the entire flight to Delhi in the bassinet. The rest of the time he played with his dinosaur from Aunt Katie and drooled a lot.

Graham also spent some time hanging out with the flight attendant Sheri. At one point, she took him and disappeared! I was a little worried, but figured she couldn't go far with us all on the same airplane over an ocean. She re-appeared after a few minutes, and it was a welcome break for Russell to get some one-on-one attention.

Isaac's 5th Birthday Party

Catching a rocket balloon at Isaac's 5th birthday party. Rich and Katie took charge of the games and the party in general and did a tremendous job. They launched rockets with Alka-Seltzer and film canisters, threw rocket balloons filled partly with lentils, and launched rocket balloons attached to drinking straws along long pink strings.

Thanks to Grandma Cutler who made the fabulous ROCKET cake with Isaac's help (and only one tantrum).

Russell was pretty glum at Isaac's party until he got to hold the empty pinata. He carried it around for days, blasting it off everywhere. I'm still cleaning up the orange and yellow streamers . . .