schuyler's cup match

In a fit of excessive (and very welcome) generosity, Kim and Ward invited Schuyler to live with them for the cupmatch holiday while her Mum and Dad went to Boston to get one final, final getaway before the next (and final, final) kid arrives. While they kicked back eating Cheesecake Factory and watching every movie released in movie theatres, Schuyler chilled out at Pink Beach.

Watching the Apple TV photo display with Kim...

Sleeping in a "Big Girl Bed" for the first time (and LOVING it!)

Researching Quantuum Physics on the Kindle...

And hitching a ride with Jackson... she digs a guy who drives.

watering

Schuyler is finally of an age where she is beginning to earn her keep. One of her jobs is watering/drowning the plants which she loves to do even when it is pouring with rain outside (in which case it is accompanied by keen observations such as "It's raining, Daddy" and followed by the inevitable "Old Man Is Snoring" song). But i love watering with my girl because it accomplishes two things I strive for in life (a) getting other people to do my chores and (b) making Schuyler's mama happy.

alphabetizing

Every day brings a little snapshot of human development. For no apparent reason, Schuyler came in and started arranging the letters on the fridge by colour. Except for the A which was left to accidentally spell arch. The word in green is actually a small Polish town.

CFA exam results are in...

and Daddy passed his level 1 exam!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Daddy is unreasonably excited by this since he ignored mama and pretty much everything else in his life for five months to study for this first level and he is just pretty darn pleased he doesn't have to take it over again in December. With a 42 percent pass rate, I am one of the lucky ones. It was a very, very good feeling... I think I may have done a cartwheel at work.

mazagines

Children learn most things (including doing number two) by imitating. Moreover, Schuyler has developed a new habit of asking "what/who is that?" ALL the time but especially while reading one of papa's mazagines ("for the last time, that's Angela Merkel!")

watermelon!

At just over 30 weeks our new baby isn't yet the size of a watermelon (more like a head of cabbage) but the baby certainly likes his/her mummy to eat it.

traffic

There is currently a trench being dug right outside our window which means that there is also a traffic light either side of the ditch. Since we live right on a reasonably busy road anyway, this development leads to clots of traffic honking and gesturing in rather impolite ways. Two of our household we firmly entraced by this. The other two were less pleased.

hair photo shoot

Schuyler, you are really developing very strong sartorial opinions. You are currently very keen on this green dress - if it is clean and hanging up in the closet, you will invariably choose it over the others. You seem really drawn to both green and purple (although getting you to tell the difference between blue and green is a little tricky). Your colours are coming along and you are pretty vocal about which colour bib and cup you want - especially in the morning when you (and your parents) are a bit on the cranky side because we've not yet eaten. You are definitely expressing your 'two-ness" but it's not been so terrible and we're all learning how this new stage works and how to hem it in. You're a great daughter - we must have really done something good to get you.

family time

man, it was sad to see those cousins go but I think Senna (as shown by her expression in the bottom photo) was ready to end the constant squealing joy of the lil ones. Thank you for being so brave to make the trip, guys. Schuyler still asks about you. Whenever we talk about going to "Kim and Wards" she says "Senna, Lara, Sachin go on airplane"

@ the Wests

On the face of it, you might think taking Schuyler swimming off a deepwater dock with a four foot drop to the water would be a terrible idea but thanks to the aid of a noodle and some helpful dockhands, it was kind of fun. Although she (and secretly papa) got a little scared by the big fish circling. Thanks to the West's for putting on a spread and inviting all the Young/Vasans. Wish we could have stayed for the food but nap time calls.

cinderella

Sometimes we like to take advantage of Schuyler's current fascination with cleaning. Far from being her Cindarella moment, this is more like Tom Sawyer and Aunt Polly's fence. Thank you, little bear. We'll put your wages toward your college fund.

Sissy Beach

The Aussie cousins plus a brave Auntie Ardleigh convened on Sissy Beach (aka Baby Beach but I really prefer Andrea Casling's name). It was one of those hot, hot days when you feel like you are standing directly under the hole in the ozone layer and you would think that a nice dip in the water would be just the ticket. Unfortunately, we arrived at low, low tide and at Sissy Beach that means walking about 500ft to actual water and then it just drops off to deep anyway. So Ard and Anand dug respective holes to water and our kid assumed they were personal bathing pools. Sorry about that. At least she didn't see them as toilets.

sydney cousins

So right after Dave and zoya arrived we had an onslaught of Aussie cousins in the form of Senna, Lara, and Sachin... Oh and their parents came too. Schuyler was absolutely entranced by her older cousins. I am always glad when schuyler gets to spend time with her antipodean cousins because mama and I are not yet brave enough to cope with the 24 hours on a plane with a kid who does understand that (1) kicking the seat in front of her really annoys the large sleeping stranger in front of her (2) the person in the row behind her do not find her anywhere near as interesting as her parents and (3) the captain means it when he says you have to keep your seatbelt fastened and failure to comply could mean daddy going on a long trip to a new job making license plates.

dave and zoya

People with kids can be pretty annoying and/or dull because they are so monomaniacal about their offspring. It is perfectly natural for people with kids to talk a lot about them since that is pretty much all they are doing all day long (if i wrote footnotes for tax returns all day long I bet I would talk about them all day long too). It is also pretty natural for anyone who doesn't share half the DNA with those kids to be pretty bored by the parents. Fortunately, there are people in this world who are much less selfish than I am and actually share almost as much fascination with our cub as we do, so having Uncle Dave and Auntie Zoya visit was great. They are awesome human beings and Schuyler loved seeing them to the point of asking for them first thing in the morning and being royally pissed off when they were unavailable.