Thanksgiving and new families

For a moment there I forgot it's Thanksgiving! It's very low-key here as you may have guesssed. We're celebrating with some new friends who we were put in touch with because we have similarly aged children and are from New York.

While in Vietnam at breakfast in Hanoi one morning we were privileged to witness the final signing of papers certifying the new parents of a happy little Vietnamese girl who would be moving to Atlanta that same day. I was so excited for them that I cried a little (not so unusual for me.)

Meanwhile, news from home, my cousin Rachel Slack originally from China is turning 13 and celebrating her Bat Mitzvah very soon! You may read more about her here and here. It's very exciting because I get to say I knew her when she was a little little girl and now she's very mature and well-spoken.

Lula & Maya are talking a lot and remember everything about everyone back home even beyond one year ago. Maya is repeating the last one or two words of every sentence I say which. I love to hear her toddlerese versions of "polyester" and other words I throw in to keep it interesting.

They are very loving with one another and play together well punctuated by much screaming, pinching, pushing and fighting. This photo shows how a fight for the front seat of the stroller ended well and in a nice compromise.

Lula is tiring of only having friends who speak "Mandawin" and would like more "Engwish" speaking friends. She's switching into an English dominant curriculum next month and hopefully she'll be more comfortable. She has a French friend Lea who lives in the same apartment as us on another floor of our building. They play together very well despite not sharing much language.

I have also included a photo of Chandrika. She invited us to celebrate Deepavali with her family. She's the flight attendant for Jet Airways who I kept running into at Ananda Bhavan vegetarian restaurant.