The Seed

Well, spring is slowly catching up on us. And wherever we go, a popular kid's activity seems to be planting a seed in a paper or plastic cup, writing your name on it and bringing it home to watch it grow :)

Adhya is always very excited to fill the cup with dirt, make a hole and thrust the seed in. She also likes to use small fillers and water it and she makes sure that her name is written on the cup. We bring it home happily, she clutching on to it in her car seat and her dad worrying all the way home if she is going to spill it! In his defense, yes, we have spilled it a few times and it is definitely tough to clean up :)

And after we bring it home, she trusts me with the job. We found a place for these cup plants near the kitchen window. For the first few days, I just kept adding a few drops of water to it. I didn't know if a plant could really sprout out of that small cup. Adhya just kept checking it everyday and slowly I could see something pale green out of it. And that was an amazing and rewarding experience!

I don't know what kind of seed it is. I don't know if I'm watering enough, if the sunlight is enough or if the cup is the right container. But I'm afraid to re - pot it. When I see the tiny stems trying to push its way through the shell of the seed, it is way to tempting to help it. But somehow it seemed to be the wrong thing to do. And to see it grow slowly each day, turning it self to reach for the sun makes you feel happy. Watering the plant, loving it, cheering it and giving it a safe and sunny place is the most that we could do. It is tempting but it has grow on its own. It takes time and maybe that's the beauty of it. Give your best, love your most but give them ample space and time to explore and grow on their own. I believe the nurturing, caring and knowing went to hold yourselves back is true not just for plants? What do you think?

And now we are going to get hold of some bigger and flowery kind of plants. Will try to make the little one take care of it this time. Maybe some plants that grow purple flowers :)

The Parrot

Some kind of parrots are known to repeat whatever we say. Personally, I have never witnessed one before but the little one at home is quite a copycat of whatever we say or do. So we are on our watch on what we preach or practice:)

A few examples of how our teachings came to back us:

She sprinted away from having her milk at night and climbed on to the bed. I followed her with the glass of milk and there she was with a smirk,  'Amma, we should not bring any eatables to the bed!' Hmm, right, I did say that! Just checked my laughter and brought her back to the hall where last I knew eatables are allowed :)

And once when in the kitchen, she kept calling me to do the puzzles for the nth time, where 'n' is in the neighborhood of 150 or 170 since September. I told her, 'Not now'. And she retorted with a serious face, 'Who is your friend amma?' I knew where this was leading but played along, 'Of course, you are sweets'. And with a winning smile, 'Then won't you play with me'. And I ended up fixing the puzzles for the nth time because we have to play with friends!

When she says, 'I am not hungry!'. I tell her, 'Your tummy told me that it is very hungry'. That seemed to work at times. She thought she was doing a huge favor to her tummy. But now everything is around the tummy, 'Amma, tummy feels sleepy', 'Amma, tummy wants to play'....

The list goes on with 'no screaming', 'take turns', 'don't bring anything into the bathroom' and so on. It feels good to know that some of the things that we have been trying(you can imagine how hard) to say have reached her. And I am kind of hopeful that 'drink your milk', 'clean your toys' etc will also have an impact someday, well maybe :) 

For the love of balloons.....

23rd September, 2012

Birthdays remind you that time slips through your fingers so fast, even before you make plans of how to spend it!

The little one is already 3! She decided her cake, her purple dress, the pinata and had a long list of her friends to be invited to her party. The last year has been a very challenging one for her - new place, friends and experiences. She now knows when she is in trouble and when she can have her say. And not to forget preschool, which requires an altogether different post...maybe posts? And I'm proud that she has braved it all, far better than what I had hoped for. 

I also know that somehow I will still be treated to plenty of 'mom' moments for years to come. I don't think she can stop surprising us :) When the decorations began on Saturday evening, she came jumping and laughing to tell me that they are sticking alphabets in the wall, which is in fact was the 'Happy Birthday' banner. She was beyond words when she saw all the balloons in the morning. The moment she saw the cake, she didn't want anything else to eat and couldn't understand why we had to wait! She had a proud and stifled smile when she finally cut her long awaited Dora cake! And everything that followed was so quick. She was happy, cranky, running, crying and everything that you could hope for in an excited 3 year old in a midst of 2, 3 and 4 year olds. Our backyard was very colorful this afternoon. And the food was great with so many people helping out physically and virtually :) We did miss our families back home but never felt alone. We had an awesome group of friends come over and they definitely made it a memorable birthday for Adhya.

A big thank you to everyone who made the day even more colorful!

I cannot believe that she is 3. But I'm that way. I never believed that she was already born, already 1 or already 2. It will take time :) But to us, she will always remain the girl who can identify the color brown only as 'brown bear' color and not 'brown'! And the one who wants to hold 5 balloons at the same time!

Little Routines

A kid opens up a new world that you never explored and never anticipated. To see them go wide eyed over little things in life makes you appreciate those 'little things' even more. Milestones of the kid, like crawling, sitting, walking, talking etc bring in a warm and happy feeling. But equally awesome and tear-starters are these day to day little things. A few that we and Adhya share...

Tunnel Time - Just going through the tunnel will light her up. In those dim yellow lights I can see her stiffling a laughter while holding on tight to her car seat. Maybe this is her carnival ride :) And she keeps enquiring if we are going to pass through an other tunnel. And yeah, she calls every tunnel as 'time tunnel'.

Cakes and Candles - Not sure when this tradition started. Even a soggy, half baked cake needs to be  decorated, celebrated wih a candle and a happy birthday song. I have a new found interest in baking(the resultys may vary) and I guess this ritual of blowing candles has something to do with it. Does she eat the cake? Thats a different story :)

Found the cake recipe from Fab...It turned out very well!

Barney - I never miss the end song of this purple dinosaur show. And wherever I am, she pulls me back into the living room to sing it along with her. Everyday around 11.30 am, I get a hug and a kiss without even prompting :) I owe it to Barney!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dsKO_r76kfQ

The story teller - Adhya cooks up awesome stories. And she makes sure that her audience interacts. Mostly it is in a mix of tamil and english and this is how it goes...

Me: Can you tell me a story about cats?

Adhya: Ok. There was a kitten in a town.

Me: Then..

Adhya: The kitten's mother gave her milk.

Me: Then...

Adhya: You know what the kitten said?

Me: No

Adhya: Meow....

Adhya: Done!

You can replace cats and meow with dogs and bow respectively and you have a story about dogs :P

Things may change as she grows up but for now I'm happy with these rituals. I know the list will keep growing and changing as she grows and we will have more such routines to enjoy. Maybe, shopping together every Friday afternoon ?  ;)

Would love to hear your day to day treasured moments too :)

The drama unfolds this September!

Me : When appa goes to office and you start school, what will amma do?

Adhya: (with a I-have-no-doubts-about-this smile) : You are going to cry!

Well am I? We will have to wait till September to see….

She received her first admission/confirmation letter last week. There were so many questions in there. Does she know this? Does she know that? Frankly, I didn’t have an immediate reply to most of them.  I’ll have to think through and phrase it. Yes, she knows this but it will be a new environment and new people so I’m not sure if she will do it! We just have to wait and see. Hope this counts as an answer :P

She talks about going to school everyday. I hope school doesn’t disappoint her :D I hope she learns to make friends and tries her hand at new and different things. I hope she teaches me new things, becomes more confident and learns to eat her food even if little (I can still hope, no?) I hope she learns to correct her mistakes; patch up little fights and shares her things. I hope she grows a little each day. And I hope she is happy to see me at the end of her day! Maybe she is right... I might end up crying!

I never realized that 3 years can whiz by so fast. If I had to, I would live those 3 years happily again. But I very eager to see what is in store next… so here we go, we are getting ready for school :)

What comes after Sunday?

What comes after Sunday?

A boring, unexciting Monday? Adhya says it is 'Moonday' after Sunday!

A day for the sun and a day for the moon...seems fair to me...what do you think? Maybe it will take the edge out of Monday mornings :)

If you are in Chennai and want to visit a different kind of place before Monday or Moonday starts, you should try Dakshin Chitra. It is one of our favorite places in Chennai. It has model houses of ancient South Indian habitats, covering all the 4 southern states. The simple lifestyle, the appliances, the clothing etc. transport you to the lives of your great-great-great grandparents. And you will really appreciate the effort put in by the artists and the management to keep this place running. You can read more about it in their official website.

They regularly teach arts and crafts too. And there are stalls put up with decorative handmade products too. Needless to say, that is where I need Shankar to bring me back to the real world :D

amazing craftsmanship in a door

a simple kitchen

handloom sarees

a model house from Kerela

toys of Karnataka

It is an amazing place to take pictures, enjoy the state of 'how things were' and spend time with your family and friends. Give it a try someday!

Being a kid!

A little bit of routine,
A familiar corner, person or toy.
A small push into the unfamiliar,
A new game, place or song.

To go high up in the swings,
To be brave in the slides,
To try the monkey bars, maybe!

Crayons and markers to color the pages walls.
Papers to tear and squirrels to watch.

Tantrums and dramas have their place
Righ beside hugs, cuddles and sweet babbles
Friends to fight, share and learn new tricks
Mobiles and laptop to punch away!

A little solitary and a little company,
Colroful books filled with butterflies and dora.
A dose of compliments and 'great jobs'
Undesired but a sure shot of reprimands too.

Half eaten apples, half finished cookies
Self made lyrics and complementing music

An over conscious mom, a doting dad!
A little nap
And even more little food.

It does seem to be tough to be a kid these days, no? :)