Two Months to Go...

Five fellows on the Porch- Paolo, Gio, our driver Johnson, his son Abraham and, of course, Mr. Topher. We have just taken the two boys to the pediatrician. Gio had a shot and giggled when he was stuck. As Dr. Kumar says, "He is certainly well padded!"

And the moms.... Rosemarie with 17 month old Abraham and me with 8 month old Gio.

Playtime with Topher as an ever faithful babysitter. I wonder if he can be trained to keep Gio's fingers out of the electric sockets?

Snuggle time with "Mama Victoria." We are all going to miss her, but Gio most of all. He squeals with delight whenever he spots her.

Gio is, to no one's surprise, a pastry guy. Here he is finishing off a croissant. Someone at our baby group had accidentally left her full plate on the floor. Here is what she found upon returning!

Though we still do not have an exact move date, it looks like we will be flying back to DC in the beginning of November. In the meantime we are trying to squeeze as much as we can out of our last two months in India. The heat of the last month has "forced" Giovanni and me to the pool every afternoon. Such suffering. Only the monsoon rains keep us away from our swims. There have been some amazing storms here lately, including such a monster one two weeks ago that our house flooded nearly 3 inches in nearly every room. It was the most spectacular display of nature I have ever witnessed. Pitch black skies at 3pm, rain driven sideways, trees swirling and whipping about. Of course, this was the one day I chose to indulge in a few hours at the salon. There I was getting my toenails painted and watching the storm clouds approach from the top floor of a hotel while Sebastian and Victoria were at home babysitting and dealing with the incoming flood. It took hours to get home so when I got there the house was cleaned up, Giovanni was dressed and ready for bed. Sebastian and Victoria, as always, handled it all beautifully. I am still in denial that I will soon be without them.

This weekend 3 house guests will arrive from Italy. After some days touring around Delhi we will all fly down to Kerala for a week. We will spend a night on a houseboat and days on the beach, where Gio will get his first taste of sand (and undoubtedly ingest quite a bit of it). Look for photos and stories about our adventure later this month. After this trip our time will be spent getting ready to move- packing, selling (car, appliances), finding new positions for our staff... yikes! And then we need to restart our lives in Washington- baby proofing the house, finding a car for one year, relearning how to cook/do laundry/drive.... YIKES!!

Look for one or two more updates from Delhi. And then I will have to think of a new name for this blog.... perhaps "WashingtonWeeOne" and then "KievKid". Something else to add to the rapidly expanding TO DO list. Happy Autumn to all of you lucky enough to be feeling a bit of chill in the air. We will look forward to a dose of that in a few months. Hugs from the Bellis to all of you. Clara, Paolo, Giovanni and Mr. Topher