Friday Fragments ... Sunday Edition

With the girls out of school for three weeks, I'm left with little time to do anything besides break up fights, assign consecutive time outs, scold, break up more fights, yell at one particular child to eat her breakfast... and lunch... and dinner, schedule a few play dates, work on our reading, play a little more, rinse and repeat. Thankfully there are several 'winter camps' to send the kids for a few hours each day to get them out of the house, and out of harms way!


Here's the latest from Casa de Chaos this past week...


After four months, the internet service at our previous house has finally been canceled, all charges have finally been waived, and the provider is no longer seeking legal action against me. Legal action you say....? Confused? Join the club. See, we canceled internet service with Tata Indicom when we found out that the construction on the flyover near our new house severed the internet cables in our neighborhood and it was going to take months before it would be available. Instead of putting our account on hold, we were instructed to cancel. Which we did. Only Tata Indicom didn't push the paperwork through for six weeks after we moved. So they billed us for that time, and claimed that I used their service. Which I didn't because I now lived 2 km away, and began using a newer, crappier internet service ... a mere 256 kb connection which is barely a step above dial up. And Tata called me every few days for two months demanding I pay. If only I could get them to call me as often when my internet didn't work. Frankly, they owed ME money for the weeks without service. Oh the frustration!! Here's the e-mail we received telling me that everything was waived.


Mr. Kugan: The customer requested a service and the service provider has to say YES or NO based on the feasibility of his service in the customer requested area as per your rule “ The same day”. Please copy us any prompt reply, you sent to the customer reasoning your inability to provide the service, for further
Action.
Rgds


Did you decipher that the service charges I refused to pay were waived from this e-mail? I guess I'll just have to take their word for it.

Grady turned seven months old this week. Seven months, yikes! One of his top teeth has fully made its entrance, and the other has one corner through, with the rest just a few days away. He sits up on his own, pushes himself up on his hands and knees, and is even close to pushing himself up into the sitting position. Before I know it he'll be rocking back and forth, crawling, and then getting into all the girls things. Polly Pockets - you better watch out!

Hanukkah came and went this year ... without .. a .. single .. gift .. we .. ordered. Ugh. Luckily, my parents presents made it, and just like the oil that lasted for eight nights, so did their gifts... as I judiciously handed them out each night. Thankfully the girls are excited over the little things ... like one night when they got 3 funky pencils and 2 coin purses that I bought in Thailand, and a pad of notebook paper. You'd have thought I gave them iPod Nanos or something cool like that. We're still waiting for my in laws and our boxes to arrive... hopefully by the end of the week. Oh the girls are going to have one heck of a Christmas!

The rest of the week was jam packed with: a movie night at a friend's house, two afternoon play dates, Hanukkah dinner with friends heading back to the States for the holidays, Hanukkah dinner with our Havurrah group, a cookie decorating party, and another Holiday party at a friend's house. And to top it off ... today Sheridan is celebrating her 5th birthday (though her real party is in a few weeks when we can organize her huge shindig). Stay tuned to that monstrosity.

A Week of Celebrations

It was another action packed weekend for the family ... which included Riley coming down with a 24-hour stomach bug, two holiday parties, the last soccer practice before the winter vacation, a Hanukkah presentation in Riley's class, the first night of Hanukkah, taking family photos for a friend, and an engagement party for our former driver. Whew, stick a fork in us 'cuz we're done!

Here are a bevy of photos to showcase the latest ...


Sheridan's holiday party

Lighting the menorah at Riley's Hanukkah presentation

Consulate Holiday Party

Paddy's Engagement Party

Left: The processional into the ceremony. Right: Paddy

Left: Putting the engagement ring on her finger. Right: Photos with her family

I also participated in the ceremony... putting "stuff" on her cheeks, bindi, hair.

The gang with Paddy

The Latest In Indian Securty ... X-Ray Specs

Most of the hotels here in Chennai perform some sort of screening prior to entering. Some of the security techniques are Chennice, others are downright laughable... like screening vehicles with a hand-held metal detector. Duh?

I thought I had seen it all ... until I pulled into this hotel. Holy laugh out loud batman! A scuba mask? To give the guy some credit, it WAS raining...

All I Want For Christmas Is My Five Front Teeth...

We went to our first Christmas brunch last Sunday ... the first of many this upcoming holiday season. It was a wonderful morning with good food and special friends. Santa showed up as well bearing gifts for all the kids, though we were thankfully forewarned that he'd be doing so. On the way to the brunch, we feebly attempted to teach the girls a life lesson about Santa bringing gifts only to the kids who celebrated Christmas; how they should be happy for those kids, that they'll be getting their gifts for Hanukkah, and sure they could still sit on his lap for photos... yada, yada, yada. Of course it ALL painfully backfired when the four other Jewish kids there received gifts from Santa. Try explaining THAT one to a sassy six year old.

To add insult to injury, the girls complained the entire ride home about the gifts, with Riley even adding in that maybe Santa would bring her gifts when she was older if she married someone who wasn't Jewish. Um... yes, she did say that.

We had an enjoyable time, despite leaving five minutes too late. For in those last five minutes, all the kids were running around having a grand time, when Riley came up to me bawling. She finally caught her breath and opened her mouth to ask if it was bleeding. Why, yes it was. Apparently, during their game of wild tag, one of the boys ran around flailing his arms, and without knowing it, he clocked Riley in the mouth, all but knocking out her tooth. Once I cleaned up her mouth, we saw the tooth was hanging by less than a thread, and with a light tug, I pulled it out. Now it was really time to go.

In the end Riley really did get a gift that day ... the tooth fairy made her fifth visit in less than a month. And Sheridan? She opened a pack of new underwear ... in hopes that she'll decide to stop wearing pull-ups to bed at night. I told her that if she could go 3 nights without peeing in her pull-up that she could wear her new panties to bed. She was very excited, though she sheepishly asked me before going to bed if she could push it back one more day. In the less than ten minutes she had it on, she already peed in her pull up.

Photos of all the kids and their first time on Santa's lap.
L to R... Riley in 2004, Sheridan in 2005, and Grady last Sunday

Yup... It's Official ...

... the gardener now has more teeth than Riley.

Story of how she lost tooth #7 in tomorrow's update.
A small hint ... it included a game of tag, a boy's hand, and a lot of blood.

Latkes and Concerts and Goose Eggs Oh My!

Last Friday I did a two hour Hanukkah presentation in Sheridan's class. Did you know that two hours is a LONG time to fill with 4 and 5 year olds? I read stories, taught them a dreidel song, taught them how to play dreidel, lit the menorah while singing the prayers, and made latkes. The afternoon was a lot of fun, and the kids had a blast. But I was pooped... and exhausted after preparing for the day. But I didn't get a chance to relax...

... because the Elementary School's Winter Concert was right after school ended on Friday. I'm sparing you the 4 min 53 second video of Sheridan signing Save the Earth. Seriously, you should be thanking me right now. Okay, who am I kidding? I'm sparing myself the frustration of loading a 100 MB video onto my blog... which would take hours and hours, causing me angst, agita, and the need to wash my mouth out with soap after I scream obscenities at the internet, which is as slow as molasses in January!

There's not much to say about the concert ... except .... well... there's just not much to say. Both Riley and Sheridan's classes were adorable. The Kindergartners sang two songs; Save the Earth and Santa Clause is Coming to Town. Riley's class sang just one; The Twelve Days of Christmas. Other than that, let's just say that I have nothing to say ... except that I voiced my opinions in an e-mail to the principal and the Head of School. Okay I said it. Enough said.

We had a lazy day on Saturday, and had planned on taking the girls swimming in the late afternoon. That is ... until Sheridan did a header off the last step at the bottom of the stairs, and fell forehead first into the door leading into the living room. Poor girl! She was helping me pick up a shirt that I dropped, and when she grabbed it, she didn't realize that she had two steps to go. Within minutes her head swelled up and we were on concussion watch. We sat on the couch the rest of the afternoon icing her forehead. The swelling did go down by the end of the evening... but her forehead is now a nice shade of pink and purple. Thankfully, they're her two favorite colors!

at the concert ... sheridan on stage

riley with her friends justine and carter

sheridan and her swollen noggin... minutes after head met door

Name That Rash... PLEASE!

So here's what we know about Grady's never-ending rash. It's absolutely environmentally related. That's the only thing I'm 100% sure about.

It started about three months ago as a light rash around his left eye. A couple flesh colored raised "dots" that looked like milieu. Then it spread to his right eye.

A few weeks later it migrated down to underneath both his eyes and a little on his nose. This is when I took him to the dermatologist, who insisted it was sebhorreic dermatitis. He gave him some Nizral cream for his cradle cap, and said that once that was gone, the sebhorreic dermatitis on his face would go away as well.

Ten days later I brought him back to the dermatologist with a cradle cap-free head, and a face that looked like a twelve year old boy's. While the head got better, the face got worse. And then he changed his mind, said it was a "fungus" on his face, and prescribed a fungal cream to use for a week. He still insisted it was sebhorreic dermatitis, and said that by the time he's 6 months old, it'll go away.

Now we're almost three months into this rash. Grady is close to 7 months old, and it's as bad now as it's ever been. It's predominantly under his chin, but it's also on both sides of his face, under his nose (though it's exacerbated today because he's had a runny nose for the past week), and occasionally migrates back up towards the eyes. The fungal cream worked for a few days, but the rash never completely went away. It's gone down, it's flared up, it's faded, it's come back with a vengeance. There's no rhyme or reason why he gets it, and Grady's poor little face never looks 100% clear.

Until we went to Bangkok.

In the four days we were there, his face entirely cleared up. I thought maybe we turned a corner and we passed the imaginary six month hump when his face would magically clear up.

And then we came back to Chennai, and by Tuesday his face was horrible again.

I know now it's something here. But what is different here than in Bangkok?? Nothing has changed.. he's still teething, he still drools. It's not the detergent or his whole body would be broken out (not to mention it's environmentally friendly and has no chemicals in it). I've been on a cleaning frenzy since Tuesday washing his sheets, crib bumpers, all blankets, fabric toys, bouncy seats, anything he could possibly put into his mouth.

We have an appointment with a different dermatologist on Monday. Any suggestions on things to try, things to wash, what it could be before then are greatly appreciated!

Summer Teeth ...

... some are here ... some are there.

Apparently, Riley and the gardener are in a race to see who could have fewer teeth. Right now the gardener is in the lead. Just barely.

He's missing these same ones too...

An Awesome Thai'm

What a fantastic four days we had in Bangkok. Four way-too-short days. We managed a nice balance of relaxing and touring, eating and shopping, kids activities and adult entertainment (um... no, not THAT kind of entertainment).

We got back late Sunday night and have slowly been getting back into the swing of things. Of course, I already have a bevy of school and holiday activities on my plate, so I'm lagging a bit on photos, updates, return e-mails...

I couldn't possibly recap the entire trip, so I won't even begin to try. Instead, I'll give you the highlights as agreed upon by the girlies.

Friday we went to the Siam Center Mall where we took the girls to the Siam Ocean World Aquarium (conveniently located inside and underneath the mall). The girls had a blast ... seeing the myriad of sea life, taking a glass bottom boat ride, watching a shark feeding, and sticking their feet in the water and letting the fish nibble off the dead skin. Three hours well spent in the aquarium. Then onto the shopping!

The mall, in and of itself, was nothing short of fabulous. Granted, when you're used to malls anywhere else in the world, it's nothing special, but for us, we were pretty much in awe. The food court? Spec.tac.u.lar! Not only did they have an unbelievable Asian cuisine which left me paralyzed with choices, but the American restaurants had Matt and the girls giddy; Au Bon Pain, Dunkin Donuts, Subway, Starbucks, Haagen Dazs, McDonald's, Swensens to name a few. To top it off there was a gourmet market in the back that the girls had to drag me out of... I could have stayed there all day. We walked around the six floors of the mall afterwards, looking at everything from the car dealerships selling Porsche's to Maserati's, to the Luxury Brand floors selling Cartier and Burberry. I was right at home! Our day wouldn't have been complete without a trip to Hard Rock Cafe where we all ate our body weight in more tasty, greasy, American foods. Awesome!

The highlight of the girls trip was taking the water taxis on Saturday to the Grand Palace and Reclining Buddha, about 45 minutes north of the hotel. They really didn't care about the Palace ... to them, it's just one more flashy temple outside in the hot sun. Nor did they enjoy the thirty minute walk from the Palace to the Buddha, where they whined, complained, and begged to take a tuk tuk the ENTIRE way. But once we got back to the dock where we waited for the water taxi, and subsequently had to smush our way onto one as it was entirely too crowded, they were just fine.

Our last day was spent by the pool, lounging around the lobby, and sending the kids to play in the Kids Club. We had a late check out, we leisurely made our way to the airport, checked-in, and walked around. The two hours flew right by, and soon enough we were on a flight back home. Back to the dog. Back to the grind. Back to the normal chaos.

The transition back to reality hit me about two hours into the flight when the guy next to me started letting out SBD's (silent but deadly farts). Welcome home Perlmans. Welcome home.

Ri and Sher in front of the spider crabs.
Matt and the girls having their toes nibbled by the fish.
The family at Hard Rock Cafe

Our hotel ... On the water taxi



The Grand Palace









A guy touching up the wall paintings at the Grand Palace.
The Reclining Buddha.



This is how Grady spent a majority of his trip to Bangkok.