Dook & the FRRO

Today we had to go to the FRRO, the Foreigners Regional Registration Office, to have our visa's extended. We can't really say it is the most pleasant of 'time pass' activities (good Indian verb), but it certainly is an 'incredible India' experience. 

It takes at least 3-4 weeks of gathering paperwork, with support from an agent, through a lot of 'lost in translation' and duplicate communication. After gathering such documents as 'Bonafide' certificates from school (confirming the kids date of birth and passport details we provide the school with), tax returns, birth certificates, more tax papers, marriage certificates, registration of address etc etc we where finally good to go this morning. The process is to gather there at 8, get in at 8:30 to have your paperwork checked 2x, at the desk with a sign above it confirming it is the 'scrutiny desk' before you get a token. Then you wait till 9:30 before you are allowed to go upstairs and wait your turn (as per the token). 

Staff sits in pairs behind dated pc's some of which placed on plastic garden furniture and your paperwork is reviewed in detail again and your picture is taken. Then you get a receipt (by then it is 10:30 at the earliest if you are lucky) and you have to go outside the office to go pay. No Indians allowed inside so the agent spends his day on the sidewalk waiting for us to help with this stuff. You come back having made the payment at a bank with the confirmation, and if you are one of the lucky few that indeed has all paperwork correct (5x in our case!) you are given a time later in the afternoon to return. The kids do not need to be there to pick up the paperwork - so we send them home with the driver and only kept Duuk with us whilst we went for lunch in town - not really wanting to sit in traffic 4 hours today after sitting and waiting for 4 already in the FRRO office.

Sarala (who was at home when the kids arrived) and Anbu obviously debated our plans for the day and so we received a message from Anbu (who is the only one out of the 3 who can send & read text messages in English):

"Hi mam for DOOK u need milk." 

Mam stands for madam and is really me, and I guess they all are a little concerned when we decide to look after our own kids for the day. We had at least 5 bottles worth of milk for the little guy with us in which he was not interested as he wanted to eat pita bread, bread sticks and prunes pannacotta from the 5 start hotel lunch buffet at the lila palace. On the bright side - they clearly really care an awful lot about our little man and take great care of him and the other two. The even better news is that despite the fact that we where 300 rupees (5 USD) short on our payment which we found out about very late pm, all our paperwork got done and we can leave the country Friday early and come back also such that the ladies & Anbu do not have to miss DOOK too long -;)

Wedding invites

We received a few wedding invites in the past few weeks. Unfortunately for days we could not make it. The announcements are somewhat last minute by European standards as one has to wait for a conspicuous date and time and these things are not clear months in advance in many cases. This invite is for a colleague's daughter. The whole team was invited. And if the invite is anything to go by it would have been a very elaborate affair. The card is A4 size.

Homework is a family project

Rick has homework 1x a week. Sometimes it is more our work then Rick's it appears as not all assignments are feasible for Rick without significant help. Like the commercial here on TV in India we bought the fancy printer to do the best homework projects and we inevitably get to it past 8:30 pm on a Sunday.

When we make homework, often on 'skype night' - Rick brings family in the mix frequently.

Words with a N are Nut, Kaat's NO, friend Nihal, Nose (with Bugger), Nemo and Tante Neeltje with the longer golden (?) hair (like Rick's hair.....).

Pirates

Rick has a pirate obsession at the moment. The definition of a pirate is rather broad - cowboys, knights, musketeers, anyone is accepted. You must however has a sword - preferably a long one. From a treasure perspective he is also broad minded and anything is acceptable as a treasure. Rick makes us draw pirates fighting for him all day. He dresses up loads and talks at school about little else. If his teachers really need to get through to him they explain anything pirate style.

Pirates in action

The pirates have one enemy that Rick does not know how to deal with. He kills all the pirates and then tries to eat the pirate ship. No - it is not some big sea monster - it is baby brother Duuk - who is willing to crawl hard and fast for an attractive display as above. So far we have not found any swords back in the monsters diaper -;)

Sister Kaat is a more acceptable partner in this willing to be a Pirate too or a princess pirate or a pink pirate - and she never claims Rick's swords as she has a princess stick!

Never Alone

Eelco is travelling a fair bit lately, and it will not get better soon with me being away in the weeks he is home. The kids at first sight are coping well - they are happy and cheerful and fine with the nannies. However, when Eelco is not home the kids follow me like puppy dogs and refuse to leave my side the minute I enter the door. They sit on me, in me, follow me, sleep with me, or at least are all sitting on top of me in my bed awake by 6am whilst I am not (awake) etc. 

Even in de shower they follow me - if not always into the cabin and the water then to watch me take a shower and get sorted in the morning. It is really cute, and I feel very loved, but I also am very happy that when Eelco is back I can wake up without the spanish inquisition and sit on the toilet in private -:)

 Duuk is happy these days - all the time - provided he has someone in his eyesight - if any of us are too far away or not visible he switches on the drama big style. As soon as you lift him up or talk to him, the big grin is back.

So  - our kids - never want to be alone.

Short Sweet Singapore Trip

Last weekend we took the whole family to Singapore to see Marlouke, Joost, Maartje & Okke and to introduce them to Duuk. Rick was ready to see Maartje again and behaved as if it is the most normal thing to get on the plane for the weekend to go see your friends again. Despite it being a very early morning flight (1am) of just 4 hours, so more or less skipping half the night, we arrived all happy and in 1 piece. We came to relax and just hang out together so that is exactly what we did. We hung out, caught up, napped some and got to pick up Maartje from her very fancy and nice Dutch school.

And then we did what we always did best together. Play, laugh & eat & drink & talk - Texas Style!

We (I) also shopped a lot - not long, but focussed. We shoped at the Dutch store (mjummie), do some other needfull (goo Indian English term) shopping such as a Nespresso machine, swim gear, salad dressing, magazines, dress for Kaatje etc. When we left the shop with full grocery bags we realized we where one arm short - sleeping beauty also needed to be carried home.

We also ventured to the zoo. The Singapore zoo is gorgeous, clean and has an amazing splash pad - so attraction choice #1.

Kaat & Okke did not quite get the connection of course as Maartje & Rick have but they looked pretty good together and  if Okke grows up looking like Joost I bet Kaat will keep an eye out for him. She obviously still had the hots for Joost and made that clear to Marlouke also -;)

 Especially the monkeys in the zoo can come up very close.

Fortunately the really big one was still behind glass.

After all the animals it was time to cool off at the splashpad.

Duuk clearly loves the concept as well.

And the dads got to cool off too.

We had gotten a new stroller for Duuk in Singapore with the most intriguing thing - a stroller fan!

Kaat got a new sunhat and wanted to try Duuk's carrier considering he was in the nice new wheels anyway.

On the way back to the exit the orang-utans mothers came down with their kids - who had defiant facial expressions all us parents immediately recognized -;)

 Apart from seeing Maartje again Rick was also pleased with Joost - as he made him a pirate sword on day one.

And Kaat was relieved that there were also princess clothes in this house. And Maartje has a whole collection of butterfly / tinker bell wings.

 and so we did one last shopping trip to a Chinese party store. For butterfly wings!

It was very very very very nice to see our dear friends again, hang out, enjoy the easier life, Joost's good BBQ and a little mommies & adults only time. Rick says we are going again next week!

3.5 days passed by in a wink and it was time to go home again. Unfortunately Eelco had to go to the Philippines for work and did not travel back with us. So alone I went with 3 kids on the short night flight. All was well until landing. None of the 3 kids where awake enough to walk so there I went with 3 in tears through immigration. Until we made a game out of finding the bags they kept it up. I was very happy to see Anbu to help, but not yet relieved. I realized Eelco had still all the house keys.....so I had to break-in at 2:15am. What was scarily easy - fortunately - sort off. But even if the return trip would be like this every time - I would still love to go - often. It was totally worth it. A few short hours later after a nice cup of coffee from the new machine and a speculaasje I was ready for work again and the kids of to school.

Dandiya

The lovely result of living with many Indian families from all over India on our compound is that every festival is celebrated here also. Open for anyone to join. So 2 weeks ago we celebrated Dandiya - or celebrated a 9 day festival that started with an evening of dancing Dandiya (it all never really became quite clear). It involves a ritual with fire and then dancing in circles with colored sticks - slapping them together - your own sticks or each other's sticks in the rhythm of the songs / music whilst going round and round. 

The dancing was very fast and high energy. Too fast for the camera anyway.

And of course there was food too - with our kids knowing by now exactly what they like on an Indian buffet.

 Duuk at first was curious, but then got tired of trying to keep up. So he decided to sleep amidst the auntie's chatting loudly, the blaring music (painfully loud) and right next to the buffet. Born in Incredible India?

225 Days of Duuk

No Particular milestone at 7.5 months but we have a nice new batch of pictures showing what he looks like now. He sits up, plays, eats, tries to stand and crawls. In the past 2 - 3 weeks somewhere Duuk turned overnight from a baby baby into something more baby boyish.

He holds his own bottle, is eating more solids and being more cooperative in the process as he seems to understand better how it works and tries to feed himself.

He also has a whole raft of new facial expressions - or maybe just a wider range - with the wide grin and this frown being his most favorite.

 He also makes more noises, repeats behavior and blows raspberries.

Everything goes in the mouth (still) and his hair is growing fast (Rick style)

Everything also goes on the floor - ALL THE TIME - and then of course we get a big wail as soon as he has nothing left to play with and we all get to pick it up and do the whole thing again. Kaat & Rick after 2 days gave up and are unwilling to play this game with Duuk. Smart kids!

Duuk also now has become a use of the playroom which causes some issues with Rick's playmobil pirate swords, cowboy guns and horse accessories. Playing with Duuk & toys though is something Rick & Kaat do happily and a lot.

Happy easygoing chappy! Still no teeth...

Peace

This is what ultimate peace & relaxation looks like I would think.

If I can achieve this stage of relaxation again now at 36 I will be a very happy & lucky woman -:)

Marvelous Maldives

For our anniversary, and because it is close (~ 2 hr flight), and because there was another national holiday (Ghandi's Birthday) we had decided to take a 5-6 day trip to the Maldives. Not too many choices suitable for kids on the Maldives, and certainly not too many that are ok with little kids so it was easy to book one of the two places that would work. And the place was LOVELY and ideal. Not too big a fan of Air India but Duuk was happy enough:

When we arrived we found the room very ready for us. Apart from the bed we also found a little chocolate anniversary cake waiting for us.

We had a luxurious Villa with a private pool in the back - which we used 2-3 times a day. We would roll out of bed and into the pool and have a good few hours of soaking done before we would make it to breakfast.

Mama & Kaatje happy at Breakfast. Me because of the champagne, the view and the gourmet food, Kaat because of the Nutella sandwiches.

Duuk & Papa loved breakfast too. Nice high chair & bread crusts.

Rick would not be found at the breakfast table. He only wanted to consume copious amounts of 'pain au chocolat' in his pirate ship.

And then after a long and heavy breakfast like that....nap time! Duuk literally falling asleep.

Playing hide and seek in the Villa - Duuk & Papa were ordered by Rick to hide behind the curtain where he would come and fine them.

On day two we swam so mutch and played so hard that by dinner time we were all too tired and rosy and so ordered room service and ate pizza in bed.

Inspecting the hotel shop mannequins: Kaat was convinced it was us and kept on pointing at the belly - look at your belly mom! (was that a hint?). The pair had on a different outfit every day and Rick wondered how that happened. Finally he concluded...it is the people....the people leave them outside such that the fairies can change them....?!?! 

Another day and another breakfast - with more freckles.

Our handsome big boy.

 Lounging in the Laguna.

 Looking for fishes underwater

 On the sun loungers in the shade of the coconut palms.

Making sand pirate ships

And another layer of sunscreen and another story.

Ricky doing 'a baywatch' -;)

Eating Oreo's & crackers after swim time.

The kids all being sweet and attentive to one another.

 In the big central pool

 Finally one also warm enough for Duuk (he does not like the one at home,...too cold!)

And in the sea in his 'yacht' he would get so relaxed he would almost fall asleep.

Eating chocolate ice-cream and watching pirate movies with extra light whilst the Sharks where swimming under our feet (blacktip reef sharks)

Whilst Kaat had given up after too much swimming and fun.

Duuk was there though to listen to Rick's endless stories and to smile in admiration.

The last evening we finally made it to the other side of the (small) island for sundowners.

It was pretty but windy and we also saw some huge bats - so we got also more stories from Rick.

 Back at the pirate ship Kaat proved to really be my daughter, steering with her feet -:)

 At the end of the holiday we had 3 lovely happy pinkish freckled kids.

Time for our pirate ship back to the airport.

"Motor boat, motorboat, go so fast!"

And it was literally from the boat onto the luggage trolley of the airport.