Funny dinner conversation

We were discussing what the baby will call me, Nishu, and Kiran at dinner tonight. It was quickly established that Nishu and I will be Papa and Mama, but Kiran is a little uncertain about being called "Bhaiya," which means older brother in Hindi. Kiran whined that he just wants to be called Kiran. Even after suggesting that he could be "Kiran Bhaiya" just like Ajay Chacha calls papa "Nishu Bhaiya," he still wasn't going for it...I'm sure he'll get used to it, though.

Anyway, we were on the topic of family titles in Hindi and I asked Nishu what another relative would be called, to which he replied, "I don't know. Dada?" like I should know. So, I looked over and said, "I don't know, either. You should know, you're Indian!"

Kiran immediately corrected me. "He's from Wisconsin, mama!" he said. What a riot this kid is! We explained that papa is from Wisconsin but he's still Indian. Kiran then tried to convince us that I am Indian, too. Sorry, kid! He then proclaimed, "Well, I'm half Indian...because I've been to India!" He's almost got it.

Fun with Paint

Kiran and I took full advantage of the beautiful fall day and spent some time in the yard painting. I'm sure we won't have too many more (if any) days in the upper 70's...it was so nice!

You might notice the big green and gold "G" that I painted...the Packers were playing while we were painting. And for some reason, Kiran was mixing yellow & purple and then blue & orange. I just couldn't have him painting Vikings and Bears colors without counteracting it somehow!!

And, of course, Fin was out there enjoying the weather with us.

It was really windy and at some point the wind just took our piece of cardboard and it blow away. Kiran ran after it and brought it back, but you see very little paint...that's because the really painty side was pressed up against his clothes!! Thank goodness for washable paint...this is when we went in to get cleaned up!

At long last

Since we've moved back to Yorkville we've had only a loveseat in the family room. We finally found furniture about a month ago...and it took 4 weeks for delivery! They finally delivered it yesterday. Yay! It's so nice to have a "real" family room back!

Here's a "before" picture...Kiran anxiously awaiting the arrival of Dadi and Dada.

And here it is "after"...this was just after it was delivered. We weren't crazy about the accent pillows, so upon Nishu's insistence (sometimes he has a little designer in him) we went out and got pillow covers for them.
And finally, the finished room!

An Afternoon in Naperville

We wondered over to Naperville last weekend and enjoyed an art fair and the river walk...here are some pics.

Just like Jimi??

I cleaned out Kiran's closet last weekend and got his fall clothes out. In the process, I came across quite a few Kurta Pajama (Indian clothes) that I wasn't sure fit him. Nishu is always good at convincing Kiran...so, he told Kiran that those shirts were just like rockstars, like Jimi Hendrix, used to wear. Well, that did it. He wore one all night and came in our room the next morning having already dressed himself in some khakis and a kurta top. We let Nishu sleep in and did some crafting that morning...you can see the fruits of our labor.

Searching through his craft cabinet for a fun project.

Found some good stuff...getting busy. He was probably writing his name...he's been a bit obsessed lately.
The beautiful flowers we made for Nishu.

Equal Opportunity with the Insults!

You might remember a while ago, Kiran laughing at the idea of mama being a doctor (despite my hard work through 7 years of a doctoral program and a Ph.D. conferred by a top 25 school in my field!). Well, he demonstrated over the weekend that he distributes the insults equally...

On Saturday he was building some sort of tower with his K'nex and Tinkertoys (a favorite activity lately). His tower kept tipping because there was more weight to one side, so I suggested that he ask his papa for help, saying, "Papa's an engineer he can help you out with that." Kiran's response was a sort of chortle and, "No he's not...he's not a real engineer." Maybe he's been hanging out with too many civil engineers because he seems to be of the mindset that industrial engineering isn't "real". Ha!

To make matters worse for poor Nishu, we discovered a leak under the sink in Kiran's bathroom yesterday. Rather than try to fix it himself, Nishu said he'll just call a plumber. We have guests over several weekends coming up and it'll just be easier to have someone take care of it. Kiran's solution was this:

K: Well, when I grow up I can fix it...because I'm really smart. Me and mama can fix it. She's really smart, too.
Me: What about papa?
K: He's not really smart.

So, now Nishu HAS to fix the sink himself to prove himself to his 3-year-old!!

A Crafty Sunday

Well, it wasn't a good football Sunday...the Packers lost while the Vikings and Bears came away with victories. But we still managed to enjoy the day. Kiran was very independent, working on his computer, playing his guitar, watching Finding Nemo, which allowed us to catch most of the game. He also decided to do lots of crafts with popsicle sticks. He made frames with them and then drew pictures to put in the frames. He drew one of himself and a spider for his teacher and a "poster" of Billy Joe (from Green Day) for himself. It looks just like him!

Madison Trip

We went to Madison for the day yesterday...it went by way to quickly, but we managed to catch up with a lot of great friends in one day! And the weather was fantastic!!! We visited with a bunch of friends from college who were tailgaiting before the game in the morning. As luck would have it, they played Michael Jackson's Beat It while we were there. Kiran was soooo excited and immediately started dancing up a storm. You should have seen the crowd around him watching his every move. It was hysterical! Then we headed to the terrace and visited with more friends and had an awesome lunch at Husnu's (YUM) on State Street. Kiran got restless during lunch, so Nishu took him across the street where there were street musicians hanging out. The next thing I knew, I looked over and Kiran was sitting next to them playing their guitar! Hilarious! Apparently the woman who let Kiran play her guitar asked him what he was going to play and when he said, "Jesus of Suburbia" (Green Day) her jaw just dropped. I guess that's not what she was expecting from a three year old. In any case, they ended up singing it together before he came back over to have lunch.

Kiran's new room...almost complete!!

One major projects is nearing completion. After one coat of primer and SEVEN coats of Candy Apple Red (in addition to the gray on the other three walls) Kiran's room is finally painted. I also had to paint each and every piece of wood that his bed is made of and the panes on the sides, so it matched the rest of his room. We framed some picture of his favorite rockers/musicians, got a new shelving unit for storage, a rug, organized the closet, and we just have one more shelf to get on the wall, his guitar switchplate cover up, and curtains up and it'll be DONE!! Kiran requested Michael Jackson (surprise, surprise!), Green Day, and the Beatles on his wall. For the fourth picture we put our favorite little Rocker....Kiran Singh! As you can see both Kiran and his papa are thoroughly enjoying his new room!! And I think it's a room he'll enjoy for years and years!!