Missing in action

I have been traveling. That means a weekend presence with the kids, then gone again for the week type thing. 

In between I "put scene" as though I am some stay at home dad by picking up kids from school wearing my sweatpants and sandals. While making conversation with the moms at school, they envy my wife for having such a "house husband" without realizing that I haven't been around much of this month. 

It is fun to watch wife's face go all red and turn to "Bhadrakaali" mode when someone compliments her on having a husband who "shares" with the chores. Hey, one has to get his entertainment someplace, no?!

Then I get to have some fun taking pictures of the pretty girls as they dress up to go some event.

This time, made sure that there is a "family" picture.

 

The girls gave me a lecture on how my t-shirt and pants are not a match to them and why I should also "dress up" when going out. I dress formally every day during my travel. So there is no way I am dressing "up" during the weekend.  

Now that summer is almost here, we will start doing more outdoor activities.  Cannot wait for the long weekend in a few weeks!

Navarathri 2013

It has been a busy 10 days. Catching up on life after recovering from the tooth mainly involved ploughing through work, getting back to yoga at least once in three days and being on the chirpy side with the kids!

The weekend came and went and it was a blur. Partly because we visited golu after golu, and I managed to finish reading all three books by Amish Tripathi called the Shiva trilogy. The kids were just amazed by my ability to finish up 1400+ pages in two days. 

As usual the girls posed for photos before venturing out to visit the golus. 

Last year same time we did an experiment in merging their photos. To commemorate that, we did it again this year!

Last year it took me 6 hours to merge three photos. This year it took me 15 minutes. Practice makes perfect... or at the least practice makes you faster.

The golus continue till this weekend. Will post the actual doll display photos early next week.

Love the festivities. When the girls are happy, they leave you alone to read books and that, is a good thing!

Portrait Festival

Yes, every year during Golu season Daddy Narayanan organizes what is called the Portrait festival where the two girls have to pose for portraits after their dress up routine.

This years Portraits below..

Next year we have to custom stitch stuff for Jr. She has outgrown readymade Paavaadai sizes as of this year!

That means yours truly is growing old and needs new camera equipment to cheer him up! Certain fokls who are traveling in India right now need to make note of above statement...

The many Paavaadais of 2012

Paavaadai is the name for the south indian frock, usually made with silk and gold embroidery and this blog has a picture of my two little darlings in their new Paavaadais almost every October festival season as they dress up and go to the Golu's of friends and relatives.

This year having been very busy at work, did not get a chance to do the pictures before or after the golus on most days. So today we had a portrait session for 45 minutes. 

Begged them to co-operate for a merge photo and they did 3 dress changes in 45 minutes and we precisely engineered the seating positions.. the first set is below.

Just getting warmed up. Will post the rest over the week. There was one overlap that cannot be overcome on this set.. will have to figure a way around that tomorrow.

A big thanks to my darlings for co-operating!

More later.

Varalakshmi Nombu Function

The Varalakshmi pooja in our house is usually done on a smaller scale. This year my parents are here and my mother brought the deity from India knowing that for the first time since San married into this family my mom is here with her to celebrate.

We had invited many of our family and friends to this occasion. I was not well but managed to hang on and do my bit at the function.

The kids and my parents enjoyed the whole thing. 

With both grandmas dotting over them it was a special treat.

Some pictures..

and finally a picture that makes this year special in my eyes..

The decorations for the hand were done by Bombay paati and the Paavaadais (frocks) were from Madras paati.

Bombay and Madras may have become Mumbai and Chennai but notice how Bombay Paati and Madras Paati sound way cooler ?!

We get to rest a little bit before things catch up again with work. Now the focus will be on daddy getting better over the next few days.