US Trip: Middletown

Middletown? What? Where? Why is it so random? The kind of questions I get when I told people it was in my itinerary :D  It doesn't matter where it's at.  It's the people who are there ;)

X... I mean, A marks the spot

The 3rd airline I've tried out in this trip.

I was reading Sila's old post the other day, in which she hoped "it won't be 10 years before [I] come back".  I believe I did a really good job by cutting it to 4 :)  Apparently Brown will celebrate its 250th anniversary in 2014.  Now that's a thought :)

To be honest, I didn't know what to expect from this time around. 4 years ago, there was only Vin and Sila. We went to see the Reds played, sat on the bleachers hoo-ha'ing (while rooting for Vin's minor league baseball team, among others. Yaya was there... but in the belly :)

Fast forward 4 years, they have 2 beautiful kids.  Yaya was almost 4 (then).  Adik is still nursing.  I know Sila and I have to cut down on the hoo-ha'ing but I was also venturing into some unknown territory.  Yaya's territory :D  I've been keeping up with Sila's monthly postings on Yaya and Adik but those are just snippets of their daily routines.  Sila even wrote me a few days ahead of my visit and warned that "Yaya is very bossy now :) be prepared!"  Yikes!


I've been told that my recent pop-up card was a hit with Yaya.  So I worked on another one for her before the trip.  (Too bad I didn't have pictures of it). Consider it as a peace offering gesture :)  I was glad that it worked its magic, so much so I was given a hug almost instantly.   Apparently Sila & Vin had been buttering me up before I showed up.  lol!

Sure I have 4 nephews and 2 nieces but with a household of higher boys to girls ratio, I didn't have much experience with make pretends.  Hide-and-seeks, playing tags, piggy-back rides, book reading and shooting hoops in Yaya's room are right up in my alley but with make pretends you have to be on your toes with your own character (I am always Uncle so-and-so) and the names that Yaya gave to every single toy in the house.  Even her pillow pets have names.  They are Unicorny and Bugsy.  See, I still remember :)

One moment we were in bed watching movies on tv (which was actually the aircond vent), and then we were hiding under the bedsheets whispering because there were boogie monsters under the bed.  And after 5 minutes had passed, we became the boogie monsters family.  The good ones, mind you. Hahaha.

Yaya: "Uncle Zarin, I'm making a horse" (Photo courtesy of Sila)

It's out of focus, but I love this picture.

I just love it when Adik opens up his eyes like that

I know this is self-incriminating myself, but I just have put them up.  (The "in-the-box" photos are courtesy of Sila)

I hope I've made some good impression albeit a short stay.  I'm sure when she grows a little bit older, she'll be too cool for uncle Zarin :)  I'd like to end this post with a picture that Sila shared on Facebook.  This is a portrait of yours truly drawn by Yaya during their 4th of July trip to Indiana.  Sebijik tak?  Thanks Yaya!

It's going to be my Facebook profile picture next ;)