These Days

I have LOADS of pictures on my camera, but am temporarily without the cable to connect my camera to my computer. So for today, you are stuck with just words.

We are well here. Diego is almost over the cold/sinus infection he picked up in Goa. I'm completely better. Luis still has a bit of a runny nose, but I think it's now caused by teething; that he's not actually sick. Luis who normally sleeps about 15 hours a day, was up to close to 18 hours/day when he was sick. I'm glad that he's feeling better, but was really enjoying Luis sleeping in until 8:30 in the mornings...

In a letter to my grandfather today, I said that the temperatures have cooled off quite a bit, making it more pleasant to be outside. But I'd guess they are still in the 80's by day. With it this warm, it's hard to believe that Thanksgiving is in less than a week. Since I'm used to the McDow-style Thanksgiving where the entire McDow family, many McDow in-laws, McDow college roommates, McDow college roommates' families, McDow in-laws' in-laws, and a few good friends come, I decide that instead of going to a catered T-giving at a local five-star hotel, I'd rather host my own. We have a friend who takes classes at a local culinary school. He got a good hook up for ordering a turkey, and ordered us two. (There is a local import store who was ordering actual BUTTERBALL turkeys from the US, but they cost ~ $300. That price is definitely not right.) I used the same guidelines that I used last year when I hosted my immediate family in Falls Church: I'll provide turkey, gravy, and stuffing. Everything else is potluck. And, I encouraged people to bring their favorite dish from their family's T-giving. It should be very interesting. We're looking at about 20 +/- people. Since Thanksgiving is not one of the recognized 1085 festivals in Incredible India, not only do the ex-pats not get the day off, Diego has a senior management meeting from 10-6 that day!

Luis continues to sprout teeth. In the last 36 hours, his second middle upper tooth poked through. He seems to make less and less of a fuss with each tooth. I'm pretty happy about this. I am surprised, however, at how slow the teeth are to really come in. It's been a couple of weeks since the other upper poked through, and you can still barely see it.

Last week was Diwali - the big Hindu festival of lights. It was, however, bad experience for me. We were told when we moved into the apartment that Diwali is when staff get their annual bonus (like a Christmas bonus), regardless of the religious affiliation. It's customary to give a bonus equal to one month's salary. I was happy to do this. So on November 1, I gave each of our staff their October salary and the Diwali bonus, and told each of them which things I most appreciate about them and wished them a Happy Diwali Season. Our landlord, Abbas, told us that it was customary to give a small tip to the guards, and told us how much. On Diwali (Nov. 9), we did that too. Happily. Well for the next 5 days, it was a constant stream of people knocking on my door and asking me for a Diwali tip with their hand out. The mailman came, with another mailman I'd never seen before. The gardener who's worked for us for 2 weeks asked. The lady who sweeps the floors and the guy who collects the trash and the second mailman (again) asked for Diwali tips. Two guys who claimed to be mailmen but were wearing different clothes and no mailman identification knocked on Monday to ask for Diwali tips. Yesterday, I hope, was the last of the Diwali tip asking. And to make it worse, many of the people that we tipped then complained that it wasn't enough. One guy went so far as to bring it back. All-in-all, it was not a good experience.

In other Luis news, he is closer and closer to walking. He has been "cruising" along the furniture for quite some time. Now, he will cruise the length of one couch, make the 90-degree turn to the next couch and keep going. He will walk along the sliding glass doors in the office (~12 feet). He can stand for long periods without holding on, and can also stand alone and shake a toy with a lot of energy. Well yesterday, he took a teeny, tiny, itsy-bitsy step. He hasn't done anything like it since, but I'm sure it won't be long. He learned to crawl about 2 weeks before we got on the plane to fly to Mumbai. It would make sense that he'll learn to walk ~ 2 weeks before we get on the plane to fly back to the States.

Which leads into our next news: Luis and I are coming back to the East Coast for a short visit. We land on 26 December and leave on 13 January. Our departure coincides with Mom's flight out - she's coming for a 3 week visit! Luis and I will be visiting Rock Hill and Atlanta. Otherwise, we'll be in the greater DC area while we're home. It doesn't look like Diego will be able to join us. Ashley will be very glad that he'll be here to keep her company.

My friend Jeanette sent a care package that arrived on Monday. It had some really marvelous things in it, including granola bars for me, various seasonings/sauce packets (for making things like chili), and a new set of PJ's for Luis. Getting mail is a real treat for me! Once I can download my pictures, I'll post some of Luis in his new PJ's.

Luis is just waking up from his afternoon nap, so I'm going to wrap this up. Check back soon for loads and loads of pictures - Luis in new PJ's. Luis rolling & unrolling the rug (one of his favorite new activities), Luis & Pavarti, and a few more of Luis!