A happy day!

While the torture of going through another round of antibiotics and all the side effects that come with it are going on, there was a happy day in the middle of all this.

My parents made it to the US in one piece after 10 years!

They did not get the hang of life in the US on their first trip. After much convincing they were this close to making it here three years ago before health concerns forced both of them to stay back.

Now they are finally here and will be staying for till Jr.'s 10th birthday!

The last time they were here, it was to celebrate her first birthday..

They were both weak and tired and were harassed by the Immigration / TSA dudes and that was shocking to them. They were the last ones out of their flight to make it out! I was sweating outside because it had been almost 3 hours since their plane landed and they did not show up. Didn't know how to reach them inside either.

Fortunately, one of the wheel chair dudes told me that they were sent to the "New Immigration counter" instead of the "line". The first thing my dad told me after getting in the van was "The guy who checked my passport was rude for no reason and the guy who checked my suitcase crumpled up ironed clothes for no reason. They have no respect for older people!"

How do you answer that one? Told him that TSA folks are usually guys who cannot be employed anywhere else. This is all about "Jobs" and the economy. I may have been rude to all TSA people with that comment but if one thing is going to unite Americans all over, it will probably be a healthy hatred for the TSA's harassment of non threatening folks. It has been 24 hours and they have gotten over it (I hope).

The kids are very happy with the grandparents being in the house. They are listening to young daddy stories. Stories which really need to be fact checked because daddy has a reasonably strong memory and grandma's versions seem to be way off base from the truth.. Nevertheless, as long as daddy's IQ in days of yore is getting a facelift, not complaining.

"Your father used to do an entire math book in one hour!". Eat your food. Your dad was the fastest at eating his lunch in the whole neighborhood!

The kids look at daddy with new found admiration.. Well this doesn't happen often! So soaking it up!

Have a resolution to
- get back in the hot room
- get to a gum specialist and figure out why there are recurring gum infections which lead to antibiotics which lead to killing all good bacteria in the stomach which lead to taking tablets with "bacteria" in them and losing 15 days of Yoga!

One thing is obvious. This is a spiral of good or bad and these days it goes uphill or downhill pretty fast!

If there is good health, there is regular exercise, good food, weight control, more exercise and so on
If there is bad health, there is no exercise, irregular food or sick food, no weight control and even less exercise

Time to change the trend tomorrow!

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Training day

The girls did not stop at being "just like thatha". They wanted to copy Madras paati (grandma) as well. They figured out that the grandparents went ecstatic when they were being followed around and used that to good advantage to win the good graces of grandma.

Here is Jr. insisting on learning how to peel and cut onions from Grandma.

Initially she was happy and within a few minutes she regret the decision. Cutting tomatoes would have been a better choice.

In spite of being all teary eyed, she finished the job and made Grandma and me proud!

The copying did not stop with the onion cutting. It went on and on, from buying little wire baskets, filling them with random things and carrying them everywhere to keeping a giant size bindi with kumgumam(vermillion).

Both Jr. and the little one adapted really well this time. They ate at roadside dabas, used eastern style restrooms behind these highway dabas where even the grandparents who are resident desis were having second thoughts. They made it relatively easier for daddy this time compared to the last trip (especially since my right hand is still not a 100% and it is very difficult to carry the little one everywhere).

In another year, things will be even better if both of them eat by themselves and their mom trains them to eat pani pooris without making a mess. Then daddy can relax in the house and encourage all three of them to go eat out!

The plan is there.. just have to keep working on it.

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