Summer Golfing

Golf takes a lot of practice.  I'm reminded of that every time I try to play.  But yesterday's round was noteworthy not so much because of the game as because of the conditions.  We started at 10:30am under a sunny sky and with a pleasant breeze.  After a few holes, a threesome passed us, and I realized that we hadn't seen any other players.  Pam later said that she didn't see anyone from her perch at the pool (where William played for four hours), and we didn't see anyone for the rest of our round, either.  By the end I understood why.  The breeze died down, the sun got hotter (102 degrees the time I checked), my muscles remembered that they hadn't golfed in two years, and my hands were covered in blisters from the clubs.  On one of the rare occasions when I found a ball that I had hit into the scrub, a lizard was sunning itself on top of the ball.  I hardly sweat at all, but drank four bottles of water and a soda, and still felt dehydrated by the end.  Still, it was nice to be outside, and the company was good.  Most importantly, William had a great time at the pool.  

Things I would rather not see before 7AM on Sunday

1. A girl about 8 years old out sweeping a driveway. I know she's likely the daughter of a servant of the house she was sweeping by her clothing (very well worn) and hair (not combed). It's hard walking Bagwelle at quarter of 7 and being reminded of the conditions some live in - especially children.

2. Lots of little bugs in my flour canister - both mature and larvae. I had hoped to make some fresh banana bread this morning since the bananas I asked Sarwary to purchase 3 days ago are perfect over-ripeness right now. Unfortunately, we'll have to go buy some fresh flour first. I even tried sifting it, but some tiny larvae still got through ... so the whole canister had to be tossed.

Luckily, the import grocery store had a Betty Crocker blueberry muffin mix for sale last week, which I had purchased. So, I could still make blueberry muffins from a mix, even if the banana bread project has been postponed.

A new record

William was a total rock head this morning, sleeping until 8:15! Of course, Friday night was an early night for me and Greg - we were asleep by 11. Why can William not have his rock head mornings after we've actually been out late the night before? The toddler-sleeping gods do not always bless us with such logic. We will, however, take the lazy morning checking email, reading the paper and updating the blog without complaint.

Needless to say, the $20 invested last week in block-out curtains was well spent!

Sonogram results

Sorry to leave some of you hanging - I've received quite a few emails! The sonogram two weeks ago went well. I'm happy to report the experience was nothing like getting my blood tests done - and from now on any blood work I need I'll just drive to the maternity hospital for, even if it does add 20 minutes each way to the trip. The ultrasound machine was the exact same one used at Georgetown, from what I could tell, and the tech who took my blood to complement the ultrasound results used the purel-equivalent before touching me without being prompted. Both aspects much to my relief!

As for the results themselves, for all intents and purposes they came back negative for any birth defects. Since I'm under 35 and in a low-risk category based on my past pregnancy, we opted to only do a nuchal scan (sonogram + blood test) which tells the percentage chance of various defects - it does not give a definitive yes or no. However, as with William (when he used to be Ralph), the results said that the chance of this baby having any defects that they can test for is something like 1 in 1,000,000,000. Well, maybe not that low, but you get the point. There definitely wasn't any need for further tests, given the risks associated with amniocentesis and the like. Good news!

Many have also been asking if we'll find out the sex of the baby. We had been thinking maybe this time around we might, but since it now looks like we'll be staying in India for delivery, we won't be. Why? Because it's against the law here. We had to sign a consent form saying we wouldn't ask the doctor and that we understood that if we did, it was an offense punishable by law. And that the doctor can also be prosecuted for telling us. Female feticide / infanticide is such a big problem here, the government takes this very seriously. So, Floyd's gender will remain a surprise!

We took William to see the sonogram. He thought it was so funny to see the "baby jumping" on the screen. Then he started jumping on the examining table, too. And for the next few days, he would point at my tummy and say "baby jumping!". I think he may have forgotten now, but we'll have to make sure to take him to any appointments that will involve a sonogram so he gets used to the idea of a new baby coming. We also took Sarwary since she had never seen an ultrasound - she was amazed that you could already see all the fingers and toes and eyes and everything even though the baby was only about 1" long. Quite the fun for everyone.

No sleep till Monday

Every day when we come home from work, Sarwari tells us how nicely William slept.  Everyday, he sleeps from 1pm to 4pm, except the days he goes to sleep at noon or wakes up at 5.  But 1-4pm M-F might as well not exist for him, given how little he's awake at that time.  

Weekends are different.  Unless we muster early and get to a park or something in the morning, we usually don't leave the house.  Since William's bored, he often gets to sleep closer to noon than 1.  But he doesn't sleep until 4.  Sometimes he sleeps for an hour, sometimes two, but almost never the full 3 hours on a weekend.  This makes Sarwari very upset, and she sometimes tries to get him back to sleep.  That happened yesterday, but then the power went off and the a/c with it.  Thus ended that effort, and thus began one of his usual grumpy, tired weekend afternoons.  

Today, in an attempt to exhaust the boy so that he got his full afternoon nap, we went to the Marriott with a friend for breakfast.  Deepna was very nice to humor us by rousing herself for an 8:30 departure on a Sunday, and then to keep one of us company at breakfast while the other played in the pool with William.  He probably had a total of an hour or an hour and a half in the pool, playing hard most of the time.  He was clearly tired in the car, and looked like he was about to fall asleep as soon as we got home.  He kept himself up until 1pm, then went to sleep.  We figured surely with him that tired he'd take his full three hour nap.  But 2:15 rolled around, and there he was, ready to face the rest of the day.  At least today he's in a good mood.   And with Sean bringing two dogs to the house (William's favorite, Abi, and Sean's new puppy), the boy should be occupied enough to keep him reasonably happy.  Knock wood.  

Early morning bike ride

I went on a bike ride this morning since a friend happened to have some extra bikes and wanted some company. It was definitely worth having to leave my house at 5:30 to meet her and the other companions at 6. The weather was wonderful - warm, but not hot, with a slight breeze. It's been over 100 almost every day for the last two weeks, and I'm not usually up by 6, so I had no idea early mornings were so beautiful.

We rode about 20 minutes, mostly through small side roads, some gravel, some paved, to Golconda Fort. Seeing the morning sun over the fort and the Qutub Shah tombs next door was a different experience, needless to say. Throngs of people decend on the place when open - mostly locals to picnic on the well maintained grounds - so the quiet and calm of the early morning was much appreciated. Then about 25 minutes back (slightly uphill) to a pancake breakfat with fresh mango and a rare find - strawberries!

Fruit here is very seasonal, and no one had seen strawberries for about two weeks. The hostess saw some last week and bought 8 portions - four for eating and four for freezing. I may have to do the same with mangos, which will only be available until the rain comes (late may).

Speaking of, there are too many varieties of mangos to count. The problem is none are labeled, so I have to remember the shape and color of the ones I like ... which is really hard when looking at piles of eight different kinds. One kind is like in the US (red/green skin), but the rest seem to be some version of yellow and I think there's no hope. The good news is, though I have preferences, they all taste great, so it's hard to go wrong.

If you come to Hyderabad, I'll see if we can borrow some bikes - it gives a different perspective when going more slowly along the roads!

Happy Birthday Greg!

Greg promises that at some point, he'll post again. Really, he will. But for now you have me.

We had a fun time Thursday evening for Greg's birthday. About 20 people came over for dinner, American-style time. As in, the party was from 6:30-10 (way early for Indian dinner), and most everyone was here by 7. Of course, most everyone was American, and to those who weren't I noted that we had work the next morning, so we really were serious about the time :)

It's very easy to host a party when Sarwary is there to cook! She cooked up some chicken and veg biyrani (roughtly Indian fried rice), some muttar paneer (ie, my homemade cheese and peas), and some mirchi-ka-sala (a peanut and pepper sauce to eat with the biyrani or on its own) and chapatti (bread). And she chopped up watermellon and fresh mangos (yum!). I made a bean and veggie salad, adapted from my sister in law's recipe for locally available food. We ordered some samosas and also gulab jamon (donut holes in rose water syrup) for desert - Greg followed his personal tradition of requesting a non-cake for dessert.

In any case, I talked about it all with Sarwary, she cooked some on Wednesday (chopped the fruit and the mirchi-ka-sala) and the rest on Thursday. We came home from work, I put out all the food she prepared and, voila!, party in motion. Everyone had a great time and thought Greg's "birthday gulab jamon" was kind of funny, but, hey, it's his birthday.

William had a great time, too, with two little girls over to play and some many adults paying attention to him. He stayed up until 9 (an hour later than usual) when he looked at me and Sarwary and said, "Sarwary, bed!" And to sleep he went. He also mastered saying, "Happy Birthday Dada!" which he repeated for two days any time he saw the candles.