Let's try this again, mmmkay?

Well, I have proven to be a horrible blogger.

I blame Facebook. :)

Nevertheless, I have been inspired by some new blogtastic friends to start blogging again. Heck, I might even give out the blog's address!

There are so many posts on here that promise what the next (never to materialize) post would show- our house in Chennai, lots of photos of Kathmandu, etc., etc. I am going to try to avoid doing that this time around. Just a few notes to help us get our bearings:

• Halfway through our two-year tour in Chennai, I went to California to give birth to the darling Lillian Emily (7 lbs., 7 oz, 21" long) who is now almost 2.
• We have been very lucky with bidding on assignments and are on our way to Mexico City at the end of August, for at least two years.
• Sam is now four years old, and thinks that the old videos of him are hilarious. He and Lillian will be attending a trilingual (Spanish/English/Hebrew) day school in D.F.*
• Since January 2011, we have been back in Virginia, studying Spanish and getting ready in general for Mexico.
• I'm sure there's more, but I'm not promising anything specific! Stay tuned anyway...

*Mexico City, the nation's capital, is technically called Mexico D.F., for "Distrito Federal," (like Washington D.C.) or just "D.F." for short. The cool Spanish way to say it sounds a little like "they effay."

The Mango

Back when I was pregnant with Sam, before we knew his gender, Mark had a dream that we had a boy and that I insisted on naming him "Peachy." We both thought that was pretty funny, especially since we were living in Georgia at the time (the state, not the republic). So for the rest of my pregnancy, the developing baby was known as Peachy. Lori's daughter Anna, four at the time, weighed in that she didn't think Peachy was a very good name for a boy, and was relieved to hear that he wouldn't be called that after he was born.




Once we knew we were going to India and that our time in Chennai would coincide with wanting to have a second child, Mark and I decided that its in-utero name would be The Mango in honor of one of India's native fruits (the kind that will hopefully grow on the tree in our courtyard come May!).



Ladies and gentlemen, I give you The Mango:

Here s/he is in a close-up:

In other words, I'm pregnant and the baby is due at the beginning of September (the actual due date is September 7, my parents' 40th wedding anniversary). :)

If all goes as planned, Sam and I will fly to California in July and stay there for at least three months. Mark will join us for several weeks of that time, and when The Mango is six weeks old we'll all fly back home to Chennai. Incidentally, if anyone reading this has an OB you like with admitting privileges at Cedars-Sinai or UCLA, let me know!


Stay tuned for more Mango developments, and we look forward to seeing many of you this Summer!

RE: Mumbai - We're Fine

Hello - many of you are probably watching the Mumbai attacks on CNN and wondering about us (I know that our folks have fielded some very sweet calls of concern). Don't worry, we're over 600 miles away from Mumbai and are fine. We hadn't even heard about the attacks until talking to our families this morning, since they happened in the middle of the night here and we don't usually watch TV in the morning, except for Sesame Street. Plus, there's currently a cyclone above us, flooding all of the streets (half a meter of rain fell in two days), so most of the news we had heard was about the monsoons. Here's a map (thanks, Jill) where you can see the distance between Mumbai on the West Coast, and Chennai on the Southeast coast.


I'll update if there is any new information, but just know that we're OK. People from several consulates and the embassy will be helping American citizens in Mumbai, and our hearts go out to all of the wounded and the families of the people who were killed. The siege of the Mumbai Chabad House resonated for personal reasons. Hopefully this will all be over soon.

Namaste

We're moving to India!

Chennai (formerly Madras) on the Southeastern coast, to be precise. And we're going this October, because language training is preferred but not required. So Sam and I will join Mark in D.C. for a couple of months of language training and cultural orientation, then off to Chennai just in time for the monsoon season. Mark likes snowy winters, I prefer warmth. I win. :)