Yeah, there is an App for that! Is there?!

The girls are glued to the i-devices every chance they get.

When daddy travels, they get the devices back.. think of it as a grown up girls pacifier of sorts. Something to keep them from creating new issues for mom who has way too much to juggle!

Issue is, when daddy comes back, they don't even bother to look up from their screens.

Sometimes we have to call their names a dozen times from the kitchen to just get a response or acknowledgement!

What if there was an app that you could run from your iPhone and have that as the master device and every other idevice designated as a slave device? 

When the kids are "engrossed" and have literally gone inside the screen, we send an interrupt which will stop everything they are doing and broadcast the parents via video to their screen so we can scream at them live?!

When the little one was pitched with this idea, her response?

"if you do that, I will press the home button, cancel out that app and do something else which does not involve the ipad!"

My response ?

"Great! then the app worked! now that you are out of the iPad you WILL hear me call your name and most likely show up to the kitchen!"

Daddy 1: LO  0 

These moments where my logic wins over are few and far between these days.. today I am savoring this till it lasts.

Someone should make an app like that, if there isn't already one. If you know of such an app, do let me know!

Yet another family tradition

Just like carving pumpkins at their cousins place or doing portrait photos after every new dress up session during the Navrathri festival, the Traveling Narayanans seem to have come up with yet another family tradition.

The IBM Children's party that celebrates the holiday season in style.

This blog has photos of the kids attending this party over the last 8 years now. This year the tradition was almost broken because the little one is sick. However she did brave her misery and came with us to take a short break and enjoy the usual activities. 

First, the caricatures by Big Al ! He was almost ready to close and was wondering how come we missed it this year.. 

This year we also made two separate collages, one for Jr. and one for the little one so we can frame it 

The little one is not a baby anymore. You can see her face change all too clearly in caricature!

Here are the rest of the photos.. 

the little one posing like Mona Lisa..

Decorating reindeer cookies with frosting ..

Getting animaloons from the clown..

Then there was the last thing on the list.. Face painting!

Finally, the picture with Santa! This Santa worked for 30+ years at IBM and retired. He reminds me of my own grandfather for some strange reason. Same matter of fact tone when he speaks, same smile.. can't pin point it.. but he does! The team there took this great picture and gave us a printout (this is a photo of that printout)..

Yet another year has gone by! The kids are looking beautiful every year and daddy has gone down.. what happened to all that hair!

Look at the photos from our very first party 8 years ago and you will see what I am talking about. 

It is great to have a blog where you can see how things transform over time. Even when my memory fails me and that seems to be happening more often these days.. the blog is like a search into my own head!

I digress as usual. 

Christmas is almost here. Here is to a wonderful holiday season!

Merry Chirstmas and happy new year to all of you from the Narayanan Family!

Repeat it!

No, not a post on Rajni.. 

Just an attempt to recreate an old photo with the kids..

Our home is the one place where I have lived the longest in one address. Eight plus years with same mailing address is a record for me. We would be in and out of rental places as kids and by the time my parents built their own home, I started traveling!

Good thing is that nothing has changed in the house over time. Status quo is welcomed here.. 

but the kids are a lot bigger now and they remind us that there is no "quo" here!

The other three kids were telling the little one "can you look innocent like in that old picture, please ?!"

Instead of innocence, she pulled some attitude.

We thoroughly enjoyed watching them getting into the "repeat it" act.