On Sunday night, Diego cooked steaks on the grill for dinner. I made garlic mashed potatoes and sauteed peppers to go with it. The meat was not really so great tasting (despite being T-bone steaks), but it was comforting. A meal to feed homesickness.
The next day, as a treat for Ashley, I gave her one of the left over T-bones. She was very, very, very happy and chewed it down to the bone in about 10 minutes.
Saturday was Luis's nine-month "birthday". It's hard to believe. Sunday, was a big day for him. He ate his first hard-boiled egg (yolk), received his first haircut, gave Mommy his first 'voluntary' snuggle (crawled over to me and snuggled up onto my shoulder for about 5 minutes), and figured out how to stick his tongue out.
Overall, he's still doing great. His middle two bottom teeth are fully through the gum and are starting to grow, grow. His eating menu is expanding daily. Recent additions include chicken, lentils, cauliflower, eggs (yolks) and toast. He is more and more interested in feeding himself. (I am both excited for him and nervous for the mess he's bound to make.) Luis is more agile at moving around. He isn't showing a whole lot of interest in walking - though he is doing more solo-standing. Luis has learned how to lay on his tummy and scoot off of furniture (the couch, the bed, the chair, my lap). He's still quite pleased with himself each time he does it. He now enjoys holding a toy in each hand and banging them together. Only occasionally does he miss and bang himself. One of my favorite new things is his willingness to sit in my lap and listen to stories. We read together before he sleeps (naps and at night).
I don't have current height/weight measurements for him. But later this week we go to the pediatrician so Luis can get his Measles vaccine (before Measles Season starts in October). If they measure him, I'll post that info later.
When Hernan & Mercedes came to visit (in VA), they brought this little chair. It is from Colombia and had been Diego's when Diego was a baby. And now, it's Luis's.
Luis is now stable enough to sit in it - at least long enough to pose for a picture. The chair is the perfect height for the small wooden table that is in Luis's room. Mostly, Luis uses the table as a launching pad for flinging books onto the floor. Luis so rarely sits still, it's hard to imagine him sitting in the chair for long.
On Sunday, Diego and I decided that Luis's wild-n-crazy hair needed to be tamed. Diego got out the clippers and went to work. I give both Diego and Luis a lot of credit. Luis didn't cry once and only got a slight bit fidgety at the end. Diego really knows how to use the clippers and did a great job with length and style. 
I continue to settle in a little more each day. The cacophony that is the car horns is not as intrusive as it once was, the heat and humidity aren't as bothersome and the taste of toned milk is starting to seem normal. But the hawks are always interesting to watch - that doesn't seem to lessen with time. One hawk is building a nest in the top of a palm tree, just over the ledge of our balcony (not what is happening in this picture). Another new adventure to watch unfold...
This woman is standing on the window ledge of the 7th (maybe 8th??) floor of the apartment building across the street, cleaning the outside of the windows. She's lucky. At least she has the metal grating to help protect her from falling!
On Thursday, he would have nothing to do with the booster. He cried and cried and cried and cried. I changed the menu of dinner to all things he liked. Still, he cried. Finally I gave up and took him out. After settling him down, I sat him on my lap and tried to offer him a bite of food. He ate it slowly. Then another, then another. For 50 minutes, we sat at the table slowly, slowly eating dinner.
In a way, it was nice to sit cuddled up with Luis feeding him. He's such an active child that there not a lot of times when he'll sit still and snuggle. Sigh. At the same time, I was determined to get him back in the booster seat for the next meal.
Was that Monday night that I said I thought the rains had ended? And then Tuesday when it was raining but I though, maybe just another day or two?
Or maybe four. It's still raining. All day today. Almost all day yesterday. The sky was so grey today over the water that you couldn't see where the sky ended and the water began.
When will it end??????
I think I finally have Luis's room all set up. Starting with the top picture, you can see the door out to the living room and then the crib & mirror (which is mounted over a small, built-in bedside table). The glider chair is actually under the window - shown more clearly in the third picture.
In this second photo, you can also see the door to the living room (on the right) and the door to the bathroom on the left. Each bedroom has it's own full bath attached. But best of all, you can see the big open playing space that Luis has. The roomy-ness is fantastic.
For this third picture, I have my back to the bathroom wall. The closets you see along the left are all built-in wardrobes with shelves, drawers and hanging rods. It's fantastic storage. Being as Luis doesn't really have that big a wardrobe, we have all of our baby stuff stored in the first closet, then it's all of the clothes that Luis hasn't grown into, then it's our golf, ski/snow board and fly fishing equipment. The last one has 450 diapers, Luis's medicines and his current clothes. (I'm not kidding about the diapers!)
This last picture shows the desk-turned-changing table area. It's the perfect height.
Babu is our "Guy Friday". When I need milk from the grocery store, he's the man to get it. When I'm out of fruit for Luis, I call Babu. When the A/C guys come to service the units, Babu is the guy who follows them around, watching them like a hawk, to make sure they don't steal anything or eat our food (equally offensive crimes around here). When Pavarti (the cleaning lady) was out sick for a week, Babu covered for her. I've never seen the landscaper, but Babu has been caring for the plants on the terrace.
This morning, Luis was using our bed like a play gym - and having a wonderful time. After the unfortunate Mama Drop Baba? incident, Luis has been very respectful of the boundaries of the bed (and I have been more vigilant watching him).
You can hear Luis making some funny grunting sounds. Those are some of his tired noises. Not 15 minutes after this video was shot, Luis was back in his crib for his morning nap.
I've blogged quite a bit about how active Luis is - how he loves to crawl and pull up and crawl someplace new to pull up over there, how he loves to climb over things (bull dozer style) and now he's trying to crawl under things. But I thought nothing would show it better than a bit of action footage.
Yesterday, as an aside, I said that I thought the rains had ended. What do I know? Early this morning, about 2:30a, it started to pour down rain. Now, at 7a, it's still raining. Guess they're not quite over.
Today I was perusing the various settings for my blog, and found where to adjust the time stamp. I changed it to India time. So now, the time stamp for the post is my time - not CST as it was before.
I don't talk too much about the weather around here (except for the parts about the rains, which, I think, have ended). Most people rightfully assume that it's HOT. I was Skype-ing the other day with Sarah and Will. Will (who is 4) said, "I don't ever want to go to India!!" When I asked him why, he said, "Because it's hot hot hot all of the time." When I used to live in Arizona, I would say that there were 3 seasons - hot, really hot and not too hot. I think that India will be a little like that.
Today, I took Luis and Ashley out for a walk at the time of the day that is most convenient to us - 3p. Unfortunately, it is probably the least conducive time to go. It was hot. Miserable hot. Sun beating down on you hot. Everyone was sweaty and panting when we returned 35 minutes later. I had to change my clothes and take a shower. Luis drank 1/2 a sippy cup of water. Ashley panted for a good 30 minutes. It was terrible.
But now, 3 1/2 hours later, it's lovely. I've opened up all of the windows in the living room - and the corresponding windows/doors along the back of the apartment and there is a great, cool sea breeze blowing through. Ashley and I are sitting out on the patio enjoying the air. She has her nose up in the air, sniffing at the 1,000s of smells in the air. I'm trying to drown out the 1,000's of horns that are honking (nearly impossible). (Luis went to bed early tonight - he was too tired to make it to his normal bedtime. Diego is not yet home from work.)
I think I'm going to go inside to get my stationery, and catch up on some letters - and enjoy this nice cool air for as long as it lasts!
Another thing that came in our sea freight was this little tricycle (a hand-me-down from Alison - thank you so much!!). Luis sits on it pretty steadily, but has no idea about how to make it move. Here, Pauline takes Luis for a little ride around the living room. That was yesterday. I took Luis downstairs for another ride today. He is willing to sit contentedly on it and will even hold the handle bars. I wonder how long it will be before he will propel himself.
One of the things that came in our sea freight was Luis's booster chair. I'm excited for several reasons. Luis could totally squirm his way out of the bumbo seat, thus requiring vigilant supervision when he was in it. Also, Luis was showing some interest in self feeding. Without a tray on the bumbo, it was difficult to encourage him. Here, Luis has just managed to get a cheerio into his mouth. I haven't tried anything else besides cheerios, as his pincer grip needs a lot of work.
You may note that it is his left hand that he's using. Hmmm....
Here are the major components to Luis's room: the crib, the glider and the dog. I plan to rearrange the furniture - moving the glider to under the window (which is at my back in this picture) and bringing out the bookshelf from behind the door. Once I get everything in order, I will take more pics.
The delivery guys came yesterday with all of the things I love (possessions, not people) packed into 92 boxes. There was some confusion, at first, over whether or not they would be able to use the lift to bring everything up (3 weeks, and I'm already using words like "lift"!). I could see the panic in the mover-guys's faces: 92 boxes up seven flights of stairs. Luckily, that was sorted out fairly quickly. It only took them 5 hours to bring it all up, un-pack it all, and take away all of the boxes, paper and trash. Granted, Pauline and I did quite a bit of unpacking as well.
The living room is the room that looks the most different. Previously, there was only the blue & gold divan in it. Now, we've got couches, and armchair, two ottomans, a coffee table and a bunch of side tables. It's fabulous. It's comfortable. Best of all, it feels like home to me.
This picture is taken with my back to the windows, looking towards Luis's room. The dining room area would be to my right. You can see two doors: the one to the left leads to Luis's room and the one kind of straight on leads to a small nameless and currently function-less room that then leads to the patio. Just beyond the picture frame to the right is the front door.
Here, I am basically 180-degrees around the room; I have my back to the doors you see in the first photo. You can see the windows that look out over the water. The curtains to the left are the new ones. I plan to do the same curtains in the "living room" - as soon as more of the white ones come in. You can also see here the proximity of the dining area to the living area. (And, you can see where the pieces of Luis's crib were stacked up prior to assembly.)
The third picture doesn't really give any new vantage point of the room. It just shows how Luis has already started to do some serious furniture cruising - now that there is furniture to cruise.
We have not hung anything on the wall. The walls are all brick (I think, CMU, actually) under the drywall, so it won't be so easy to hang. We want to make sure that we are set with the furniture arrangement before we start putting holes in the walls.
Today, Diego and I re-assembled the crib with only a swiss-army knife. You bet that we are both very proud of that fact.
I am thrilled to have the crib back. After two months without it, Luis, I am sure, doesn't remember it. We put him in it for a bit this afternoon (with some stuffed animals) to see what he thought. He loved it. When I took him out of it to play with other toys he cried.
I've just put him down for the night. I'm a little nervous that the novelty of the crib is going to make sleeping difficult. I also foresee the pacify slipping out between the slats. I'm keeping my fingers crossed.
It's no surprise that children tend to love the cereal box or the takeout plastic container more than the fancy, educational, or store-bought toys. But still, when Luis has a houseful of toys to play with and most prefers these two things... well, it makes me wonder why I bought all the other stuff.
Just a quick post to say that our sea freight was delivered today. It only took 5 hours to get it all upstairs (everything but our patio table and couch fit in the elevator) and unloaded and the trash out. With Pauline here today, I have done a whole lot of putting away. Already I feel better. I saw Abbas, the land lord downstairs mid-day. He said, "I see your things are arriving. You must be happy - I can see it in your face." He's right, you can see it in my face. It's fantastic.
I'll take and post some pictures over the weekend.
Diego called this morning, just a few minutes after he left for work. "Look out the window," he said. "Over towards the Otters Club." I looked, but didn't see anything out of the ordinary - lots of cars and bikes and rickshaws and pedestrians and stray dogs.
I am excited to report that this evening, I jogged ~ 2 miles at Joggers Park. This was my first athletic outing. And it is going to take some getting used to the heat. It felt good to get out and sweat - not just from the temperature - but from physical exertion! I hope I can keep this up...
(I will spare you all the picture of my red, sweaty face.)
On Monday, when I took Ashley down to the garden for a potty break, I saw two guys cutting the grass. With hedge clippers. No joke. They had made one pass across the grass with a hand-mower (the kind you push, with no motor). I'm not sure if that was done to establish a quality control base line, or if the grass was too thick to cut it all that way or what.
On Tuesday, they were still clipping away. Mind you, the garden is not so big - maybe 40x40'.
Yesterday, one of the guys finished up in the afternoon. Once he finished all of the cutting, he used a whisk broom to sweep up ALL of the clippings. A broom! Three days to cut the grass. Wow!
In ten to twelve more years, when Luis is complaining about having to cut the grass (hopefully, on Roswell Drive!!), I can dig out this post to remind him of how good he's got it.
Last Monday, the postman brought a letter up to my apartment (as opposed to putting it in the mailbox as he normally does). I thanked him and took the letter. He just stood there. I smiled. He smiled.
And he stood there smiling. He said, "I bring letter from far away. I bring all the way to your door." I said, "Thank you." And I smiled again.
And he stood there smiling. I asked if he need anything and he smiled. " From far, I bring letter."
I asked if the postage had been properly paid (even though I knew it had - Thomas always gets the postage right). He said yes. I smiled again.
And he stood there smiling. I told him I wasn't sure what he needed (even though I had a good idea). He said, again, "From far, I bring letter. All the way to your apartment." I stopped smiling.
This went round and round a few times. Irritated, after he again told me how he brought me my letter, I said, "But isn't that your job???"
He stopped smiling. He closed the elevator door and left.
I told Pauline (the nanny) that the postman asked for a tip. She angry replied, "Don't give him any money!" Later, I asked Babu about the postman and the tip. He, too, was angry, but expanded his advice and said, "Don't give anyone any money!!" Then, Babu assured me that the postman would not be coming up to my apartment anymore - the guards would see to that. "He is supposed to leave letter in box!"
The next day, I was walking to the little grocery store around the corner. I have grown accustomed to the fact that almost everyone looks at me when I walk down the street. I just stick out a bit. But that day, I saw the postman, and he did not look at me.
Tuesday, no letters came. Wednesday, no letters came. Thursday, Friday, Saturday, no letters came. Diego teased me that I'd angered the one person in India who held the key to my happiness. Diego teased me that I'd have to change our address to his office and hope that all of the Mumbai post office hadn't heard about me.
Monday, no letters came. Tuesday, still no letters. I was getting a bit worried. Ten days is a long time. Maybe I would have to find a way to make nice with the postman.
But this morning, I had a letter from my niece, Maggie Lou (and Alison slipped a letter in as well). Then, this afternoon when I was frisbee-ing Ashley in the garden, I saw The Mailman standing outside the gate. He called me over. And gave me a Letter (from Jeanette). Two in one day. Two letters. I smiled and he smiled.
Here are several pictures I took of Luis today - crawling under the dining room table, 
chewing on a block, 
eating plums, 
eating plums, 
eating plums 
and playing with Shabina (the cook who loves the baby)
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