Turning a corner?

Yesterday was the first day that really felt like spring. The temps have been creeping closer to 80 and the air seems a bit fresher (don't get me wrong - AQI is still off the charts compared to the accepted norms in the States...). We spent a long time outside and it felt wonderful. In the morning we played soccer on the big field, followed by swimming in the pool!!! After naps we hit the playground. Scout is a week shy of 1 year and has really been growing a ton recently. She has begun some baby sign language and her personality is really starting to bloom. While the girls were napping yesterday we looked at some pictures taken around Lucy's first birthday, and we were as astonished by the differences between them as we were by the similarities. Lucy looks unmistakably like...Lucy (surprise, surprise) at age one. And so we can only assume that Scout's little features are now here to stay, and it is so fun to see her come into her own. 

As she has become more mobile recently with the acquisition of bipedal travel, her ability to keep up with Lucy has greatly improved. This has been great for Scout, but often frustrating for Lucy, who is constantly seeing her "constructions" knocked over or babies awoken. 

I find myself watching them interact and often daydreaming about how these interactions will play out in two years. Scout will be three, Lucy six, and they will be sharing the v-berth on Momo. I am sure such close quarters will only serve to magnify the times of bonding and times of battle, but I can't wait to see it all unfold. One of my bedtime rituals with Lucy has been to make up future adventure stories of Lucy and Scout during their travels on Momo. Each story is different, but they always end the same way - with either Amie or me tucking the girls into the v-berth at bedtime. Lucy absolutely loves hearing these tales, and I must admit I thoroughly enjoy telling them. I like to think they may help, in some way, to plant the seed of successful v-berth cohabitation. 

We are officially three weeks away from Apple Duke and Maria's arrival, which we are so excited about. We will spend a few days taking them around Delhi and then we all head to Sri Lanka for a week of surfing. All of a sudden it all doesn't seem too far away...

Happy Valentine's Day

We tend to downplay holidays - especially the Hallmark, commercialized ones. This is usually an easier task here in India, where the lack of television and other advertising mediums keeps our girls insulated from mainstream commercial assaults.  Tonight, however, I latched onto a holiday I generally regard as just plain useless, and I tried to take a different perspective.  We have been working really hard with Lucy lately on sharing and thinking of others. I wanted Lucy to feel what it is like to show appreciation for others.  So, we made Valentine's Day cards for her classmates.

I am not sure if she just liked having my attention while doing an art project or if she actually grasped what I set out to teach her.  Regardless, it felt like time well spent together.

She insisted that she had to write individual messages (in her own language) to each of her classmates.  

Dreams

One thing I really appreciate about our situation here is that it affords me a lot of quality time with the kids.  I walk Lucy to and from school every day and our walks always spark an interesting conversation.  This morning she started talking about dreams.
"(Dreams) it's like a movie in my head!  I can really see them."
I asked, did you have a dream last night?
"No, maybe they forgot to turn them on."
I tried to ask who forgot to turn them on but we got distracted by what her last dream was about...
"Well, there was a baby alone in the road."
And then we stopped to say good morning to somebody.

What a funny thought...somebody turning a movie on in your head while you sleep.

January

While friends and family spent a good deal of January huddled inside to escape the hazards of winter back home, we have done much of the same here in Delhi. Except we are dealing with a different type of hazard. No windchill factors, black ice or white-out conditions here, but we would have happily taken a Nor'easter over what we have been dealing with. While Bejing has been making the news for its smog, many experts, particularly in light of recently gathered data, are rating Delhi's air quality quite a bit worse. As the health coordinator here, Amie has been privy to a lot of this data and it has been quite alarming. As much as it has been killing us, we have kept the girls inside A LOT these past few weeks. There is reason to think that as the weather warms conditions will improve, however, we are sort of day to day right now on whether we will send the girls outside.
I think it is safe to say that our lack of blogposts this month goes hand in hand with our lack of inspiration. Too many hours indoors and too many depressing conversations about the air quality outside.
Here is the month in a few snapshots:

Here is our 3 year-old (going on 17), after her first real haircut upon our return from New Zealand (turns out 3 weeks of no real showering and lots of salt and sand can create quite a rats nest - I think we will opt for shorter hair on the boat!)

A week after we got back to Delhi, I (Ted) went down to Mumbai for a conference. Here is a picture of the Gateway of India.

It turns out there were some sailboats in Mumbai harbor, which I was pretty excited about.

The Taj hotel, which was part of the 2008 terrorist attacks.

We had lunch here, which is probably the most famous restaurant in Mumbai. Two of the 2008 terrorists ate lunch here before opening fire on other patrons. There are still bullet holes in the walls and ceiling. Although it was definitely a bit weird eating here, it was also somewhat inspiring - the city seems to have really rebounded from the attack and the resiliency of the people is certainly notable as you spend time here.

Sunday evening at the beach...with about a zillion other people. We have been told there are some really uncrowded and clean beaches in India, however this was clearly not one of them!

In other news:
Two weeks ago Ted tore his meniscus playing ultimate, which was a bit of a scare as we were worried he had ruptured a tendon and was potentially looking at surgery. In the end, he seems to have come out quite lucky - no surgery required and has been getting better each day since.

Scout has begun walking, however when given the choice, she still prefers all fours for now.

Lucy was officially accepted to AES for next school year (phew!). She is really looking forward to being a big girl who can go to school with Mom and Dad. She also finally tipped the scale past 30 lbs!

Today's pollution level was tolerable (though still off the charts compared to American standards) and to cure our cabin fever we spent some time messing around on the soccer field. It was actually pretty darn hot out, which hopefully is a sign of things to come. However, it won't be long before we are inundated with 100 degree weather and are longing for cooler days.

And finally, a little nostalgia for New Zealand. When we imported the photos from today we found a couple still on the camera from our last morning in Raglan.

Hopefully February will provide more blog inspiration than January...