I hear this in my sleep.

Kean's faves

Balloons
Climbing on the stool like his sister
Climbing on the table and then crying because he can't climb down
Croco
Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star
Birds
Strawberries
Dancing
Humming Skip to My Lou (who is Lou, anyway? Or do they mean loo?)
Hanging upside down
Running through piles of leaves
Sunglasses
Pepper's ears
A good game of chase

A Tall Tale

When people ask June's age, the usual comment is "Boy, she's tall!" or some variation thereof. Which is what the mom at toddler time said to me this morning, followed by "Her father must be tall." Hmmm. No one had ever said this to me. So, I said the first thing that came to mind: I don't know. The woman looked at me totally dumbfounded. If she had a caption bubble over her head like in a cartoon, it would have read How can this woman not know if the father of her child is tall? Then she seemed embarrassed, as if she had treaded on a taboo subject with me: This woman has had so many partners that she doesn't know who her child's father is? It took me a couple seconds to notice her confusion and clear it up. You could almost see the wave of relief come over her face.

Keep in touch.

Sometimes I feel like a virtual Paul Revere when I blog a new post, blasting emails to everyone. "The blog is coming! The blog is coming!" No more. Now I'm letting someone else tell you. Just type your email address in the box to the right and presto! whenever there's something new on this blog, you'll know. Or, if you like to aggregate your blogs on one page like I do with Yahoo news reader or another service, you can do that, too, by clicking on Subscribe via Reader. Easy-peasy!

Can't talk. We're too busy eating chocwit.

Halloween, as you know, is all about candy.
Little Miss June thought that was just dandy.
First she was a princess and then a cake.
Don't try to eat her! The frosting is fake.

Little brother Kean said "Moo" instead of "Boo."
When he saw a bowl full of candy, his hands just flew!
Do you recognize his costume?
That's because it used to be June's.






Kean, October 2009


June, October 2007

Which one is your favorite?

Wondering what happens on a typical day at the Masala Family homestead? Take a gander and tell me your fave.

I am a dictionary, plus gratuitous cute shot of Masala Kids.

If June doesn't know a word you say, she'll stop you mid-sentence and ask what it means. I can't even remember why I used the word grindstone, but boy, was that a doozy to explain. Here are a few others I've had to decipher for her.
- tonsils
- detour
- absurd
- frustration
- presentation
- prowl
- donation
- volunteer

More to come, I'm sure.

And then it was September

But before we say good-bye to summer, a few parting shots...

Kean and Croco. Croco is officially his first word, said a few weeks back. He hasn't said it since!
Open bathing suit. Insert hose. Ahhhhh.




Shhh. Don't tell my sister I'm drinking her milk.

Bye-bye summer. But wait, we're going to the beach in a few weeks - summer lives on!

Hair Today, Gone Tomorrow!

I've seriously considered blogging about the crazy names I've seen for hair salons. The title of this post is one of my favorites and yes, it's the name of an actual salon. Who goes there, I don't know. I drive by Hair We Are! (exclamation point theirs, not mine) all the time and it always makes me grin. Now I have a reason to come out of the closet (or should I say, out from under the blow dryer?) about my obsession with hair salon names - Kean's first haircut. Well, his first with us. Apparently, he had three cuts before he came home. He handled his first cut with Uncle Andy, Paul's barber who thankfully has no cheeky name for his shop, with such grace. Actually, he looked kinda stunned. Uncle Andy spent two decades cutting hair in the Navy, which explains why Mop Head Kean became GI Kean in less than 10 minutes flat.

From Mop Head...
...To GI

Jaboodi de Boda, the dog formerly known as Pepper.

Our dog Pepper is a genius. He has the ability to learn new names within a matter of days. I manage to call him a different name every few months, and he responds to everyone of them, beginning with: Monkeyboy, Stinkbomber, Munkenberry, Baron von Munkenberry, Super, Super Dooper, Pooh Pooh head, Stinkenburgher, Fatty boy, Fattinberger, Stinkenberry, Jimbini Rigatone Linguine Marscoponi, Jackabodi and the very latest, Jaboodi de Boda. The etomology of Jaboodi is as follows: Last week I walked into our den and heard the word Jaboodi from the telly,(TV) , turns out it’s a place in Africa. I simply married it to one of Pepper’s favorite long gone stuffed toy dogs, called the Boda, henceforth Jaboodi de Boda. June loves saying the name as much as I, and even Masala Mama has used it on occaision-it’s rare for her to adopt my meaningless names. So there you have it…Stay tuned for the next Jaboodi update.

P.S. The Jaboodi has been watching a lot of Project Runway lately and has decided to come out with his own line of clothing. As you can see from the picture above, he’s modeling his latest fashion line called the ‘salty dowg’….ahhhhrrrgg…..wruff.

Catching up with Kean and June

Kean's favorite things, as of July 10, 2009
Balls of all sizes
Eating Pepper's dog food (don't call DYFS, he hasn't swallowed any-yet.)
Bath time (this kid could play in there for hours)
Porridge
Stealing June's cup and "drinking" from it
Walking, climbing the stairs and most recently, scaling the rocking chair. Oy.
Squatting and standing as we say "down" and "up"
Music. Goes bonkers (one of June's favorite new words) for Love Shack. Video forthcoming.
Broccoli
Tofu
Fruit
And, of course, his big sister, who he thinks ROCKS. Good thing, because June told me the other day that when she and Kean grow up, "we're going to get married, just like you and Daddy." Hmmm.

June's Favorite New Words besides "bonkers"
Bashful
Greedy
Bossy (we learned it in Chinese too, so now she walks around the house telling me not to be ai-guang-shi.
Topsy-turvy

Other funny things coming out of her mouth:
Seeing me scratch my head, she says, "Don't pick your brain, Mama."
Getting ready to go out in the sun, she says. "Put some tan-tan lotion on me."
It's not mashed potatotes, it's masha potatoes.
And my favorite one recently: "Baby girls come from China, and baby boys come from Korea."

The best $1.49 spent this week, drumroll please: the humble spray bottle. It's June's favorite new thing and keeps her occupied for minutes. No, I didn't mean hours. I'm happy with minutes at this point.

What was in his lunch?

Field of Dreams

Longtime Masala Mama readers may recall our strawberry-picking excursion with Junebug last year and the major sugar crash that followed in the car on the way home. No one suffered any strawberry-inflicted sugar highs this year, we're happy to report, and little Kean was content to eat the bounty his big sister picked for him and, of course, herself. Seriously, it's going to take months for us to eat store-bought berries again. Fresh-picked are sooo good. Later that night, we had strawberry shortcake. June made a deconstructed version with a dollop of fresh cream, a heap of berries and a little biscuit sitting, but god forbid not touching, on the same plate. Whatever works for you, sister. There wasn't a smidgen of cream left on that plate.

News Outage Ends

Four plane rides. Two hotels. Multiple subway trips. Countless taxis. One van ride with a potty emergency in the backseat that will be forever remembered. And at the end of it all: one beautiful baby boy named Kean Yoobin Gill joins our little family. Here are a few pictures from our trip. More to come in the following days, uh, make that weeks.  

Bits of Randomness

Little Miss Spider is one of my favorite books to read with June. It's about a baby spider who can't find her mother and who's adopted (although the word isn't used) by a beetle named Betty. It's been a while since we've read it, and this time, June brought a new awareness to it. When we got to the part where Betty offers to be the spider's mama, June started laughing and said, "She can't be her mama!" I took the bait and asked why not. "Because she's green, and the spider's yerow!" she said in her "duh, don't you know anything, mama" voice. I couldn't let it go so I asked her if we looked alike. "Noooooo," pause, then, "Let's read another book now." Ok, let's.

Tonight we compared faces. Two eyes, check. Two cheeks, check. Two eyebrows, check. Nose? Yep, smack in the middle. Then, the following:
"June, does my nose look like your nose?"
"No. Yours goes straight up."
"How's your nose?"
"It's squished down."

For the "People Say the Stupidest Things" file:
- A nurse walks into an X-ray room, sees me holding June, then asks: "Oh, she's so cute. Are you watching her?" I tell her she's my daughter. The reply I wish I gave, but only figured out on the way home: "Yup, for the next 18 years!"
- A dad at toddlertime comments that June is so smart. I smile. He replies, "I don't care what they say, Chinese people are smarter than others." I keep smiling.
- A neighbor sees us playing in the yard with June, then says, "You know, Asian kids, they show respect. Kids over here, they don't care." Apparently, it's in June's genes to behave and listen to us at all times. I'll tell her that the next time she refuses to stop jumping on her bed as I try, pointlessly, to get her socks on.

Ingredients for a Money Pie, from Chef June: Water, Salt, Pepper, Wind, and Sprinkles. Oh yeah, and money. Maybe she can cook one up and replenish our 401k with it.

June decided to wear Masala Papa's glasses one night. We asked her to draw his face. This is what we got. I like his ears and wavy hair. The connected eyes are pretty good too.

The Hills Are Alive...

We borrowed the soundtrack to The Sound of Music from the library last week. We're wearing out Track #8. It's the most recommended song in the car, in the house, in the tub, yeah, just about everywhere. Hit it, June!

Thomas and Me

Seven of June’s Favorite Things: 

1. her Thomas bed. No drama, no fussing as Masala Papa dismantled her crib last weekend. She’s already demonstrated how she can climb it and sit on top, thanks to our super helpful 9-year-old neighbor who showed her how. Oy.
2. Croco. Can’t sleep without it, ever since Day One. That's him behind her in the picture. We have visions of her sucking him in her dorm room. No need to test her olfactory senses - she tells me whenever Croco’s stinky. Which means I have to wash it. Which brings me to…
3. Telling Masala Mama what to do. Little Miss Commando orders me around like a drill seargent in boot camp: Mama, turn off the light, it’s too bright in here. Mama, I don’t want to pull my underwear up. You do it. Mama, put Pepper downstairs, he’s bothering me. She’s got imperative sentences down pat.
4. Telling Masala Mama that she made a great meal several times during the course of dinner. This makes up for #3.
5. Typing. She loves, loves, loves the computer. She knows all her letters and can spell her name. All those nights watching Wheel of Fortune are paying off!
6. Picking a chocolate from the Godiva box. When will this box be finished?
7. Things around the house currently on the most popular list: flashlights, nail polish, sparkly tiara with equally sparkly jewels for her finger and ears, easel, Telulah the turtle, keys, the kitchen stool, her sparkly red party shoes (worn below) and pictures of Pepper when he was a puppy, which she pulls out whenever someone visits.