A new king - Hoera! Hoera! Hoera!

It is often said that Dutchies abroad are more Royalist then those at home. It is true for us anyway! Our preparations for this very special queens day started with the arrival of Opa Kees who brought us, or mainly Kaatje, some very useful supplies for the big day!

On Sunday some Dutchies had organized a family / kids orange party in their backyard and so we got to introduce baby Duuk to the phenomenon of Queens'-day-madness.

Rick and Kaat both bought a book at the flea market and then proceeded to find a quiet corner to read them.

Rick clearly had a lot of fun and consumed a fair share of the pancakes.

Kaat and I definitely had 1st and 2nd place when it came to the dresses.

The kids group picture was also lovely

and we even managed to arrange a new family portrait.

 Then this morning Kaat and Rick went to school in Royal attire after which I hosted an orange themed coffee morning at home on my last real day of maternity leave.

Then in the afternoon I had invited some kids over from the compound + my Dutch friend for a Kings & Queens' themed playdate.

 Rick & his Canadian and American friends debated the silliness of having Orange streamers on a moose head....very silly Ricky's mom! (see picture above)

Kaatje in Indian Royal outfit airborne on the trampoline.

 And baby Duuk trying the crown when everyone else was long done with it. (its the itchy elastic under the chin!)

Despite bot our internet connections seldom offering the capacity to stream anything live, today of all days we managed to catch a full 8 hours of all the ceremonies before the systems crashed so all our house help saw the new king and all our friends who visited today.

I would think that we have celebrated enough in honor of our new king and his lovely mom! Thank you Beatrix and welcome Alex. If you are ever in Bangalore you can come and stay with us at Orange headquarters in Windmills. No problem.

More determination

No these are not trick pictures. This is really young man Duuk supporting himself on his own legs and the back of the couch. It lasted as long as one of Rick's shorter stories, which for those of you who don't know Rick that well, is still a reasonable amount of time!

and even when his legs gave up and he did fall over he just smiled and was happy enough to try again.

Lalbagh

Last week with my dad visiting we took Duuk to the Bangalore Botanical Garden. The Mughal empire, the bigest and mightiest in Indian history, was stealing the show with its botanical gardens further norths so in the 18th century the local ruler from Mysore decided he wanted one too.

Lalbagh means 'red garden' and offers almost 1 km2 of green, tranquility and relative peace in downtown Bangalore. Entry with a car and 4 adults and a baby is around 1 USD and the place was actually very very busy considering we where there on Monday morning. No other western tourists but heaps of Indian families. Duuk was, as maybe to be expected, actually the main attraction and was photographed many many times, and not just by us.

There is a golf cart in the garden, which in Japanes style, can cruise you around the main sights in the garden in record time. We opted to stroll instead.

The garden has more trash cans then I have seen in the whole of Bangalore so far and so it is almost unnatural free of garbage compared to the rest of this city. The street dogs though are still there and roam amongst the beautiful trees.

To me the attempts at some family attractions looked less successful, Snow White's cottage looked more like a bunker to me.

 The statue of the Tipu was pretty though.

 And it was nice to see so many happy Indian people also enjoying their own treasures.

to us the famous glass palace was somewhat of a disappointment, but the flower show held here 2x a year is supposed to make it worthwhile to come back.

Duuk liked the gardens too - he had a great nap and plenty of shade and fresh air. Next time we will bring the other kids as there was plenty of space to run around and find 'treasures'.

2 months +

Duuk is 2 months already....he is huge, stubborn, strong, smiling and healthy. He still eats very frequent and a lot. The next check up is not for another 2 weeks but I am afraid he is going to break Rick's growth records which were already impressive. Duuk can hold up his head for extended periods, tries to push himself up on his legs until they are purple. His smiles are sooooo precious. But we have not managed to really capture it on camera.

Shiv Mandir Temple

The Shiv Mandir Temple is a modern Hindu temple in Bangalore, opened in 1995, with a major new feature added every year since. The main statue of Shiva in the temple is 65-feet tall (~20m) and has the 'ganges flowing from his head'.

The temple has numerous spiritual activities (Yatras) you can undertake or religious rituals (Poojas) to do. You can go and do all (as we did) or just select the ones that are relevant to you at this moment in time. Entering the temple and the spiritual activities all cost money both to take part in and sometimes also in terms of offering at the end of the activity. You can buy a plastic bag with all the relevant physical offerings at the entrance to the temple (Bananas, flowers, coconuts, fireworks etc). The yatras are all to be undertaken while chanting the mantra: 'Om namah Shivaya!' The temple also has a healing stone as well and several more periodical activities that are not described below. The temple is manned by guides, pandits (hindu priests) and helpers, many of whom are physically handicapped.

The first yatra is to drop 108 coins in 108 bowls. This activity is somewhat to clear your mind for the later activities and more specifically for good health. No you do not need to bring 108 coins - they are provided by the temple.

Next follows the Vighanaharan thread. By tying 2 orange threads around a staircase leading up to a 32ft statue of Ganesha you leave all your problems behind.

Then followed the Milk Abhishek - a cleansing ritual to clean yourself of sins by pouring (in one continuous movement) milk over the shrine.

As it is not possible for everyone to do a full Hindu pilgrimage the temple offers a version locally in the temple with a long tunnel leading you past the sacred sites offering many shrines in the process for many different purposes. (the Pahadi Shiv Dham Yatra and the Barah Jyotir Ling Yatra) 

Next comes miracle point - making a wish and dropping a coin in the water (on a special plate) followed by forgiveness - light a lamp and let it flow on the Ganges (the water pool in front of Shiva's statue in this case) - the Paap Naash Diya

In the Havan (a fire) you throw sticks of wood after walking around the fire 3 times, this yatra is to remind you of life being finite and to live a purposeful life. Again you can also submit wishes (written on paper) to the fire. 

The tour ends with the Navragraha Pooja, also involving fire and the nine planets. Circling the shrine with a lit fire will bring Harmony into your life.

Rick and Kaat circled the thing at least 20 times - at full speed so my worried face below has more to do with me being afarid of them getting hurt or burnt then the search for harmony.

 At the end we all received the Tika - even baby Duuk.

Busy

For the loyal followers amongst you....don't worry, we are just fine! Just a little busy enjoying the visit from Opa Kees so no time to blog. More stories towards the end of the week as plenty to share (no - no more lice & nits).

Wanting & Determination

Little baby Duuk appears to be a determined little guy. He is not even 2 months old yet but wants a lot. What Duuk real tries to do is stand up. He loves to be fully stretched and honestly shows quite some force in those tiny chubby legs. He can be happy in this pose for quite some time.

Looking around with a very very determined face.

 Duuk also really wants to sit. But he cannot do so unassisted yet and sitting on us all evening can get sticky for both of us in the heat here. So we tried the little chair (in which the others - with effort could sit at 4 months). At first he was quite happy, sitting proudly whilst I supported his neck.

After 5 minutes or so the little boys body was very very tired though...so we put the seat back in storage. Sorry Opa Kees, not ready yet.

Duuk also loves to pretend he watches TV with papa. He cannot focus that well or see that far yet but perfectly copies papa's pose complete with the open mouth.

But mommy knows that he is really just still a tiny boy. Who is best at being cute and sleeping and processing milk.

And when Eelco was away last week and I had both boys in my bed for a few days I could breathe a sigh of relief. Baby Duuk is still very small (although he seems to claim enough space in bed!)

Creepy Crawlies

There is a first time for everything as a parent and about a month ago or so we got a dreaded call from the school - your kid has head lice! We knew it was going around as other parents had received the calls in the days prior and we also knew that the school had send some (random) e-mails on the subject which we had not seen yet.

Unfortunately there are many many tales out there about the origins of head lice plagues and the ways of treating them. In a multicultural expat society in India that does not help. Once we did see the e-mails we saw it was all followed by a bunch of responses involving people blaming 'other cultures hygiene' or 'cultures with long hair'.  It is likely that many parents, if they did notice the lice in their kids hair, would not call the school out of embarrassment and so by the time things are detected they are also out of control. 

Then the myths about how the lice spread factor in and so the fact that teachers tell you, or all the other parents, which kids have been found with lice 'today' means that your kid is treated immediately almost as if it has the plague. Honest - the whole school seemed to know about the call and we got cancellation of a play date that day and the suggestion that our kids should maybe not come to the playground that afternoon. We also got suggestions that all bedding & clothing needed to be sealed in plastic bags for 3 weeks or frozen for 48 hrs.....

But alas,  we got the chemicals, treated the kids (and ourselves just to be sure), laughed at the ad-hoc management of the issue at school (Kaat sleeps literally 'head to head' at school and only the kid who has lice that day in the class gets his/her bedding send home for 'thorough cleaning') and the awkward messaging from both parents and school.

Of course the issue was not quite gone and raised its ugly head again. No more call but a message relayed in the kids school note book. A pretty decent and polite request to treat the kids again (although the bedding was not send home this time). What was more worrisome was the whole lecture our nanny got at school. The teacher probably assumed that she also cleans our house (which is the other nanny/maid's job) and gave her a huge lecture about how our couches where probably not hovered properly (see evidence a few posts ago -;) and the house probably needed better thorough cleaning (don't agree to that one!).  Both the driver and nanny, parents themselves and fully aware of the issue and the nonsense of these things having any effect, both came home very angry at the school and its messaging. 

After calming down I decided that this is probably one of these battles I should not pick and so Eelco brought home some additional bottles of chemicals and the whole family got treated again.....well except for Duuk that is who with his new hairdo could not accommodate any head lice.

We may have found on average 3 nits per head - far from a pandemic. We all smell nice and chemical though....and we have enough left the repeat the whole process in another month or so -;) Our realistic maids/nanny's and drivers fortunately are not scared of us at all and will duly report back to school on all our efforts to eradicate the creatures. 

Vanity; the end of the Tonsure

When Rick was a baby we all laughed and made fun of Rick's Monk hairdo (Tonsure) - the half semi circle just around the back of his head. We even thought it was somewhat of an homage to my uncle Richard. However if we look at the pictures of those days now we do shiver a little - why did we let it last so long! It really looks quite bad in the pictures on an otherwise very very handsome baby. Fortunately we also know it is not an indication of things to come as Rick now has by far the best hair in the family.

So when it became rather obvious that Duuk was bestowed with the same somewhat bizarre baby hairdo, even darker and hence more noticeable then Rick, Eelco and I where resolute and unanimous - with this one we will intervene!

And so baby Duuk had his first encounter with the clippers yesterday......much better with these 3 necks on full display -;)

Duuk did not mind at all and was peacefully undergoing the whole thing.