Priya's Art Gallery

Almost a year ago, I noticed a commonality in Priya's drawings of people, namely that they all seemed to be leaning to the left and wearing bell-bottoms. Hippies possibly?

This year there's something new that I see in her artwork. The rays emitting from any sun she draws seem to have a nice girlie curl to them. Check out this watercolor she brought home recently...



And in this depiction of people working, I noticed that her people still only have 3 fingers, just like last year.

Handyman Hubby

In his own words, straight from his Facebook status, "Bartee is now painfully aware of his handyman limitations." This realization came when he tried to install a new sprinkler head in the front yard back in September. It only took 2 days, but he did manage to get the thing to spray water in the coverage area that he selected.



Weeks having passed, and the frustration of that day having dwindled, he attempted yet another homeowner repair. Time to quiet the vibrations in the garage door. He lubricated the chain, tightened some bolts on the hinges and cleaned the sensors. He gloated when it was done, closing the garage door and then asking me if I could hear it. I have to admit, it was barely audible. Success!

Well, not really. The next day when I tried to close the door, it got stuck at the first hinge. By holding the door opener button down, we managed to get the door shut. "Probably I tightened the bolts a little too much", he says. So, some adjustments were made and again the door seems to work. A day or two later, same thing, the door won't close. Since then, I think he loosened the suspicious bolts about 4 different times and still we are having problems shutting the thing.

The new conclusion is that it must have something to do with the sensors. So, today it was time to break out the manual to find out how to adjust the sensitivity. Some more time spent in the garage. Now we've got a garage door that closes 100% of the time on one push of the button, even if something's in it's path. Not exactly the fix we were looking for. He'll be working on that later this week. :)

I gotta give it to him though. He has the utmost patience with this kind of thing. Although there may be glitches and it will likely take him longer than the average person, he always manages to solve the problem.

Biking on Two Wheels

Recalling a video from my childhood, I thought it would be fun to sort of reenact it this summer when we went home... only this time starring Priya. I asked forced my Dad to go outside and push her around on the two-wheeler while I videotaped the whole ordeal.

I may have actually been expecting a bit more success since she wouldn't dare throw around the sassy attitude with Pappy that she usually reserves for Mom and Dad. No sassy attitude, but no matter how much encouragement we offered... she really wasn't into it. Lots of the footage included her on the bike with her feet on motionless pedals while my Dad pushed her around the yard. Sorry Dad, you were a real trooper.

Disclaimer: This video shows partial nudity*, so please use discretion when viewing.



* Apparently partial nudity was perfectly acceptable for girls of a young age in the Fredneck of the 70's.

Diwali Performance

Last night was the culmination of hours and hours of weekends spent practicing with other 6-8 year olds the art of Indian dance through Bollywood songs spanning the 1960's to the present.



Here is Priya in her 6 minutes of fame... she's the one in the red top and blue skirt. The music montage has 5 songs, she's dancing in songs 1, 3 and 5.

The Song I Can't Get Out Of My Head

Priya is performing in the Diwali show tomorrow night and she'll be dancing to a portion of this incredible song.



I tell you what... the Punjabi folks really know music and dance. It's my favorite Indian style of music. The beats, the rhythms, the uninhibited people that express it; I don't know what it is, but I just love it. I have no clue what they are saying or what the lyrics mean, but I can't stop singing along. We had a family dance session to this song tonight in the basement... fun, fun.

For those of you who like to be turned on to new music I thought I'd share this little ditty with you. Enjoy!

Dinner Conversation

Priya started the joke-telling at dinner tonight with her favorite knock-knock. It's the only one she remembers and she thinks it's really funny. She laughs everytime she tells it, and I pretend to think it's funny.

Priya: Knock, knock
Mommy: Who's there?
Priya: Interrupting cow
Mommy: Interrupting... (before I can finish)
Priya: I'm interrupting you.

Not to be outdone, Sanjay started with his jokes which are, as you can see, very much his own creation.

Sanjay: Why did the lights cross the road?
Daddy: I don't know.
Sanjay: It's hard isn't it? (small giggle) I'll give you a clue. There was a red one, an orange one, a yellow one, a white one, a green one and a blue one.
Daddy: I still don't know... why?
Sanjay: Take a guess.
Mommy: To get to the other side?
Sanjay: Yep, that's right.
Daddy: That Mommy's smart, isn't she?

Sanjay: How did the lights cross the road?
Priya: They climbed?
Sanjay: Yeah... they climbed what? It starts with a "wuh", a "w".
Mommy: Wall?
Sanjay: No... "wuh".
Priya: Water? Window?
Daddy: Willow Tree?
Sanjay: No.. a "w", like "wuh".
Mommy: We give up, what is it?
Sanjay: A wadder

Knowing that we could also choose words that start with "L" would have opened up a lot more options. Forgot that for Sanjay, L's and W's still sound the same.

Blog Anniversary

So, it's been a whole year since I started this nonsense. Looking back, I see that much has changed. A year ago Sanjay was working on potty-training and calling my iPod an iPie; Priya was just starting to correctly pronounce "breakfast". I'm glad that I've discovered yet another way to record our lives. As adults, my kids will be able to splice their childhood together from the picture boxes, scrapbooks and now this... my journal with occasional pictures.