Wow what a busy few weeks we've had! Many apologies for being so slow on updating the blog. First it was the Center's Annual Conference - the biggest conference on South Asia in the world. I knew about that Conference long before I ever had any other connection with Madison and so it was exciting (and daunting) to now be part of the organising team. Everything went really well and I loved the buzz of being around so many South Asia scholars (around 650 people registered). Nicolas visited from London to be the star musician at the musical performance Friday night. I was wearing many hats - organiser, panel leader - I had organised a panel on music and was the "Chair and Discussant" which meant that after listening to 3 presentations I was supposed to come up with something snappy and clever. I was anxious about that but fortunately during the last paper my brain clicked into gear and I was able to pull the whole thing together quite nicely (Nicolas later said I was free-associating so admirably I was in danger of sounding like a lunatic but I managed to stay on track :-)) and of course I also had my mom-hat. We were all staying in the fancy hotel where the conference is held, and so I had to negotiate baby-sitters and make sure everyone was watered and fed. Jane had cut Lucas' hair just before and so he looked all smart and boyish.
Nicolas stayed on for another week to catch my birthday and so I had a lot of free childcare! The best part was that in the morning he would take Lucas to school and so I would get up early and just let them sleep and get myself to work early. This didn't go unnoticed of course, and one morning a colleague commented I rather had a spring in my step. To which I replied that I had been up for 2 hours and hadn't heard the word "NO" yet! It was bliss. My birthday wasn't quite the party I had imagined, Nicolas wanted to go to the mall to buy some trousers (when I told a friend this she looked at her husband and explained "She means pants") and as being at the mall on a Saturday sis my idea of hell I wanted to drop him off and go to the library. Unfortunately Lucas spotted the Golden Arches next to the mall and insisted I take him there. It's not the food he is interested in, it's the play area. And so there I was, on my birthday, in McDonalds next to the mall. The glamour of it all. I did get to go to the early show at the cinema - a whole two hours by myself watching Richard Gere (in Amelia, an otherwise uninspired movie but who cares) - but after that it was straight back into action for Trick or Treat. Lucas was dressed as a fireman and now thinks that whenever he wants chocolate he can just knock on someone's door and say "Ti o Tee" and be handed mounds of baby snickers. Funnily enough once had been given all the sweets he didn't really want them, and I took lots of it into work to share with the staff there. On Sunday we went to the pumpkin farm once more, the action was rather subdued now that Halloween was over but we had fun all the same.
The past week was kind of back to normal. Nicolas left on Monday and I took Lucas to the library, where he loves to "read" stories on the computer - I heard one exasperated mother tell her son that they had a computer a home and they were in the library to read books, to which he replied that they had books at home too. V funny. On Tuesday it was time for "Jump jump" (trampoline class which Lucas really loves even if it kills my bank balance), and yesterday Jane had a little birthday dinner party for me which was really lovely. In the morning I had taken Lucas to the dentist for a clean, and miraculously enough he let it al happen without saying NO even once. I was so proud! He does have wonky teeth of course so for the next 10 years all birthday gifts may be in the form of donations to the orthodontic fund!!
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