Let the good times roll

The house is literally bursting at the seams out here at kennys. I don't understand how this can happen. We have a fairly large area of house. Sure, its constructed in totally weird angles, and there is a large-ish room like part meant for washing cars or communal bathing (or something), which is sort of a waste (since I am not into that sort of thing anymore). But still...

Its the kids, of course. They occupy a lot of space. Yesterday, for example, they decided to move in hordes. First one would get up and walk down the stairs. The rest would immediately (and rather loudly), follow. Then another one would climb back up and go into the bunk bed. The rest, would, of course, attempt to follow suit. Resulting in much yelling (by me), some crying (by the monster), and the occupying, rather, annexing, of other parts of the house. My parents-in-law have given up on their routine since the kids are all over their room, watching their TV, sitting on their remote so they cannot change channels. They are forced to watch, in sequence, CBeeBees & IPL, every night. Through the day I don't allow any TV so at least they are spared that.

We have trampled all over our road. I swear that before all the kids came home here, we have not walked so much on our road. We have two cycles. One is mine and the other is the monsters. Somehow these cycles are shared, double rides are arranged, and when its someone else's turn to ride the cycle, there is running and jumping. I think the cars are trying to work out a new route to take, avoiding our road entirely every evening!

The days are flying past in a whirl of chocolate milk, mangoes, oatmeal, lunch (its amazing how each of them have their own unique specific way of eating lunch, and it gets worse at dinner with the rotis thrown in the mix), mangoes, videos, IPL, cycling, swimming, and libraries. The little one (my niece, aged 3), doesn't notice that she is about 1/4th the size of the older ones (my other niece and nephew, aged 12 & 10, respectively). The monster, being in between the two sets of cousins, at 7, and being rather harshly judged by her parents, is desperately trying to extract enough fun to last a lifetime. The older niece has learnt swimming (more or less), with our guidance. The monster has learnt cycling (including doing tricks on the bike) thanks to some rigorous practice trying to catch up with her older cousins. The nephew has been suffering from allergies, and changed IPL allegiances (my husband insists he support CSK, no matter what!). Strangely enough, the little one has started speaking in Tamil in addition to the extreme fluency in English, despite being surrounded by a motley crew of kannada/hindi speaking kids.

And us adults? Well, we have not had such a great time as a family together in a while. And hope that we can make a habit of this every May when the kids all have time off from school. (next year, I should attempt to wind up my duties for the semester earlier, cause its just not any fun to have to go to Delhi and to the office leaving behind all the fun!).

"Who had the bright idea of spending summer in Chennai?" my husband asked accusingly. Well, that was mine, all mine. I argued that although it would be hot, we would have all the food and sleeping arrangements set-up clearly at home so it would work out okay. And boy, was I right!