The Grumpy Santa

This encounter at the City Mall started out with some doubts, a really bad beard and a Santa attitude to Match. It ended in tears but not before she received a curvatious doll which featured delightful snap-on body parts. Lesson of the day: Keep smiling. Even when someone totally takes your head off.

Sari time.

Special New Year greetings to all our family and friends. All the very best for 2012.

Boxing Day Smiles.

Wow. Holiday joy.

This is slide execution number 476 or thereabouts. An instant hit and almost too fast with those slippery pants. Sticking a cushion under the latter end has so far preempted all of the sprained ankles.

A swing, ball and hoop with net complete the installation. 'Horse' for some reason has all of a sudden become the number one competitive sport in the household; and so far only two picture frames have been the price of some great entertainment.

Christmas secrets

What in santa's name could that be?

Caught in the Act.

Self explanitory, this afternoon. This was an un-staged Christmas moment. Attacking Uncle Stormy's birthday cake the day after. Merry Christmas to all!

Ready for her exam.

After demonstrating the standing snooze in the waiting room (see below), she kept it up on the exam table only to wake with the stethoscope on her back.

As a horse

A new technique here being demonstrated while waiting to see the doc. She really is fast asleep and not jus 'tekin a five'. See next post for follow up.

Recovery Nap

A respiratory infection and barking cough has taken out the piercing little voice and won her a trip to the pediatrician. A long rehab nap yesterday afternoon had the old man occupied entirely.

Marnin face

First moments of a new day. Too bad the fisher price toy messed up the composition a little. Perhaps some sepia could work here.

Complete sentences

Even with Guyanese creole known for it's chopped and abbreviated phrasiology (of which we hear nuff), we do get treated to the occasional full length soliloquy.

"Mommy please pass the keys I want to drive the car" was a recent demand.

Very common of for some months now is referring to herself in the third person:

"She likes the purple one" or

"LEAVE HER!"

Sometimes her family has to stifle some loud laughter to avoid re-enforcing a phrase that is best not repeated.

Throat back to normal.

When your throat is so sore and inflamed that even eating soft ice cream is to painful to handle without crying out loud, u know life is officially miserable. We are thankfully back to swallowing normally and finishing off the dose of treatment with pleasure. Medicine and vitamins are actually a highlight. The damsel is pictured here gulping down her barney-colored favorite on the humpty wall while fending off one of the neighboring twin cats.

We do admittedly have a lot of catching up to do including her trip to see the Albany-based grand parents and a birthday event too.

The end of a musical era.

The highlight of our evenings once were a solo performance of the number one hit single: "Crinkle Crinkle Little Star". This tradition has sadly, as inevitably it must, come to an end. Getting it 'right' is apparently not always an improvement.

Singing has of course been a big part of every day for a long time now. The new trend, however, is taking a familiar tune and spontaneously changing up the lyrics. Recently we got "Mom,Mom"(repeating) to the tune of 'Baa Baa black sheep' for example. How about Barney's "clean up" tune with the name of a good friend and neighbor (Ayla) inserted for a change.

Mom free week.

Got to spend loads of time with Pops who was grounded for a week while Mom traveled back alone. New favorites: Old McDonald, Teletubbies, Nursery Rhymes with bad graphics on Youtube (Gtown only), raisins, cheese sticks (as in curls), Diwalli lights/sculptures. Learning milestone: recognizing single digit numbers. Thanks to the Grandparents and many uncles and aunts for baby sitting during the day.

New outfits

Special thanks to Dr Anu Kulkarni and Mrs Sureka Maddiwar for her original Indian outfits all the way from the sub-continent. We were told that Dr Gan picked out this pink scrub suit, also to grow into - marked 'Doctor in training' on the back. Hmmm, subtle indeed.

Ice cream on the Sea Wall.

She likes the stuff almost as much as the Great Grandmother she is named after.

Weekend Snooze

Hot words of the week: "Excuse me","spider" and "Lion".

Before the Haircut

Her grandmother Judy had her bangs re-adjusted so this is one of the last shots prior.

Happy Birthday Grampa (Opa) John

It's a big day today - Grampa John's Birthday! Often referred to as Opa to distinguish from our Georgetown-based Grampa.

Great to talk to you both this morning.

After a day at play school.

Subject

The problem with forsaking the old fashioned stand alone camera for the phone is that you sometimes make a picture that you like - but it's always low rez. The good part is that it otherwise would probably never have been uploaded for the cousins overseas. We need an SLR with a sim card and key pad to fill a big gap here. Watch, within two years may I predict....

Bobble finger

Bobble heads are not nearly as cool as you can see. Keeping bobbles on the head is even more difficult. Today she reportedly sang herself to sleep at play school with a stuck record of 'I love you...'. It was back to a big crowd today as "summer" is officially over. Rainy season still hanging around however.

It is nearly impossible now to find a letter that she cannot identify positively on the first attempt. Capital letters for now are the rage. The complete Alphabet song got delivered by phone to Grampa in Albany.

Counting in the teens is our new challenge. We don't like to boast but she amazes at least me without fail. A blue streak is now no longer an adequate reference.

Juan's Birthday

RTM was called on to do the honors at our friend Juan's second 'cake sticking' ceremony. An approaching rain storm stole all the blowing fun and chased the guest home - but not before a great party time was had by all.

Dressed up for Church.

Thanks to Aunti Diedre and cousin Cameron for this one. Thanks to Uncle Ritchie for the chance to try it out.

Off to 'school'.

During the summer months, her day care class is reduced to about five children and she wore her new outfit today. Thnx auntie Irena.

Aunty Sophie's visit.

Thanks Sophie for hanging out for a little over a week and even doing some baby sitting and cooking.

A few of my favorite things (all at once)

1) Sitting on the wall like our friend Humpty (a story with HORSES! In it)
2) Wearing a new pair of glasses
3) Talking on the phone.
4)Visiting dad at work.

Princess in the garden

Reality can be boring.

Clean up time baby.

Tapioca Skin Lotion

Miss Taylor continues to promote her new edible line of skin products by demonstrating a new lavish application technique in her grandmother's salon. It furthermore is being field tested as a leather or 'leatherette' rejuvenator as a third application or dimension if you will.

The skeptics still call it Tapioca pudding, but you should know by now that like everything is going 3D these days. Totally. It's a new generation Grampa.

Preflight inspection

Hopefully soon we can get a photo editing app for this phone to rotate (and crop) these prior to posting. That's what tablets are good for. People always look at me funny when I turn my laptop sideways and read it like an open book - saves the neck sinews that.

This is RTM getting ready to escape Gtown for some days alone with dad. Should be fun - soccer in the house for example is only allowed under these exclusive circumstances.

Collaborative work. Imitation before innovation.

She's currently fluent in all basic shapes and working on her colors. If in doubt it's probably 'Bluuue' and if not sure how many? It's most likely "Twooooo".

The other day she mistook a triangle for the letter 'A' in a pop quiz. 'A is for ??' is now too easy for the little book worm. This is her recent letter practice on the flip chart.

This little piggy

Her first recorded encounter with the glorious stuff after walking right into it. She actually is a clean and neat little girl and is caught here crying: "mess, mess, daddy, messs!"

Still protests loudly at bath time (even warm ones - which are rare); but not terrible at cleaning up her toys with a little demonstrative game/song involved.

No Mountain (or Furniture) too High.

This little missy is not afraid of heights. She has always been a little adventurer yet at the same time a cautious one.

Favorite nursery rhyme: Humpty Dumpty or "tampty" for short.

She loves sitting on walls and counter tops like a little supervisor and will climb up if a chair is left nearby.

Big sister.

Jasanya has been volunteering to look after Rhea from time to time and does a fantastic job. So much to teach and even more worth learning.

Smiles follow quickly.

-----Original Message-----
From: terrencetrap@hotmail.com
Date: Wed, 1 Jun 2011 15:20:38
Reply-To: terrencetrap@hotmail.com
Cc: RAM Guyana Blog<ram.guyana.test123@blogger.com>
Subject: Smiles follow quickly.

Minutes after the previous post, she is all smiles and curiosity again. Unfortunatly she has noticed how to put the key in the ignition of the vehicle and is busy learning not to do just that. Tears again. But wait seat belts are almost as much fun - and pretty easy to say, one word at a time at least.

Vaccines at 18 months.

Today Rhea visited Medex Reid at LPH for her scheduled vaccinations.

By Cousin Amolika

We got a chance to camp out at Uncle Oliver's house over the weekend and had a blast. This horsey was the top attraction by far and we had to find a mat to protect the wooden floor from all the rockin.

Rhea see, Rhea do.

Everything with buttons is just begging to be pressed. She know to go straight to the left mouse button for best results.

Favorite new outfit.

Rhea always enjoys the chance to stay by her grandparents and extended family in Georgetown. Memorizing all their names is old hat - pronouncing Sophie seams to be the tough one.

Another First.

First pair of real Havaiannas. She picked them out at Mrs Kahn's and will have to grow into the four dollar pair. Word of the day: 'Georgetown'.

Happy Easter, Rodeo snooze.

We finally got Rhea to fall asleep amid the excitement of the Rupununi Rodeo. Her love for animals kept her wide awake long past her normal nap time. Here she is catching some winks during the saddle bronco event.

Happy Birythday uncle Gary AND Great-Grandmother Pep.

We got lucky enough to reach Grandma Pep on the phone this morning - and she sounded great! And ..... it's a real easy name to say.

Here is the her namesake celebrating the occasion at play school - thanks Ms Joanne.

Sunshine Nursery

Shot of the morning with Rhea and her friends at school.

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Cool cruising.

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At the controls.

From the archives - taken a week or two ago.

Oh look

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