Anybody Work for Crocks?

The Making of the N7

One, boy... one vision... space, by rocket. With the advanced joining of ordinary baking soda, aka sodium bicarbonate, and white vinegar, Chief Rocket Scientist, Nayan, was able to build a rocket that reaches new heights by leveraging the gaseous output of an ordinary chemical reaction. This film, this cinematographic work, captures the marvelous triumph of boy over bottle -- this is the story behind the making of the N7.

At Nani's

I had some time on my hands yesterday, was without an Internet connection, and started playing around with my Mac. I stumbled across iMovie and thought I'd try to make my first video using the built in camera. So here you have it, starring ChaloBolo's very own Nayan and Ananya.

Nayan's Birthday Party

We had a blast the other day celebrating Nayan's 6th birthday. We went down to Sunset Bowl in Ballard. The kids had a hoot. The older kids were seeking order and civility in the bowling process. The younger kids just wanted to grab a ball and throw it down the lane. The younger kids eventually won out, so we settled for pure chaos with the names of random party goers appearing on the who's-to-bowl-next bowling monitors. After some initial discomfort with the anarchy, everyone had a great time, including the birthday boy.

Slurpies at the Science Center

We were at the science center the other day and I had a dying urge for a slurpy. Here's a quick clip of the kids savoring theirs. My appologies for the gunfire audio, but Blogger's video upload is a bit buggy.

Saturday Morning Soccer in Ballard

We don't yet have a mini van, but we do spend Saturday mornings at Nayan's soccer matches. I can see why this is THE world sport; the game seems to come very naturally to kids, and unlike T-ball, they really get into it. A quick video of the kids playing afterward is shown below (the gunfire audio is courtesy of Google's new video uploading software, the original is HERE):

First Day of School

The other day was Nayan's first day of kindergarten. This was a bitter sweet moment for me. While I'm overjoyed Nayan is growing up to be a mature, articulate, and thoughtful young boy, its sad, in a way, to know he's growing up. I recall distinctly when I was 17, waving goodbye to all of my family and friends, as I boarded an airplane to head off to Chicago and my new college life; my family and friends were so emotional -- sad, and crying. In me, there was no sadness; I had to pinch myself to stop from smiling; I was thrilled at arriving in my new life and leaving my small town world behind. Without a doubt, when that day comes with Nayan waving goodbye to me, I'll be a real emotional mess.

Despite the teachers rounding us parents up and taking us to the "cry" room - no one was outwardly sad, most of the moms were just grinning looking forward to their precious hours of freedom. There were, however, many practical concerns. Nayan has never been away from home for such a long duration. Simply getting him to eat his lunch is a whirlwind of a challenge. Well he learned quickly. After 3 days of stubbornly refusing to eat anything but the cookies in his lunch, he ultimately caught on.

I was also concerned about Nayan getting picked on for his patka. Nayan has recently decided he will be a proper Sikh and never cut his hair. As others, Ameen and I were quite surprised by his decision, and powerful will. Nayan has virtually no role models here in the states who have kept their hair, but his dearest cousins in India all have their hair kept. Ameen, after many failed trips to the barber, ultimately relented. So it turns out no one teased him, as Ameen was certain would be the case. Our neighborhood is really full of such open minded and caring people. Thank God we don't live in France, where Nayan would have been ejected from the school system for simply following his faith.

Photos from Ananya's Second Birthday Party

I know its a bit late, but I finally am getting around to posting some photos from Ananya's second birthday party. Its simply amazing how fast they grow. She's now very chatty and putting together great "Punjenglish" sentence like: "Sco Dhoro Papa" - translation: "Let's go run Papa."

A 5 year old Seattleite's take on Zipolite, Oaxaca

Here's a letter my 5 year old son Nayan wrote (actually my wife took dictation) to his friend from Oaxaca:

Hi Issey,

We are in Mexico and its really hot where we are and Issey there are cactuses growing they are really cool because they have prickles on them and they are really big cactuses bigger than people and and white stuff comes on them that makes them smaller I think its some kind of bug that eats the cactus the white stuff I`ve seen on big cactuses each day I look and the cactus gets smaller and smaller. Issey there is a museum of sea turtles and they are really big. One turtle can lay 100 eggs. Its like India here because you don`t have to wear seat belts.

Issey its really hot. The ocean water is really warm and there are waves at the beach. Really big ones and really strong. Big and strong enough for people to go surfing. People can do snorkling here and my dad is snorkling right now. They speak Spanish here and a lot of Italian! The roofs of the houses are made of palm leaves, the houses are open -- they have no doors or walls, there's no glass for the windows just wood that opens all the way up. And there is no hot water but you don´t need it because its really hot.

Adios,
Nayan