Counting my Blessing 2008

No, it can't be. This year definitely went by faster than the others before. Even though this year had an extra day.
And I say...as Ojas & Tejas say so often...
Thank You God...
-for the days we spend together as one family, even though they are very few in number...
-for the lovely school the kids go and enjoy...
-for the few blissfull, carefree, jobless holidays we take, even though it is just Pondicherry we go...
-for the wheels we drive, even though the petrol costs are going skyhigh...
-for the prawns that came swimming in, even though the ones that were ours fled the farm...
-for having help at home, even though daggers are drawn most often...
-for having my people at home once in a while, even though I crib for more Hindi speaking people around me in Chennai...
-for the business, even though I crib that the Hubby spends more time there than here...
-for the clothes that I have bought inspite of cost cutting drive...yes yes I am very shallow...
-for the fact that my TV addict hubby is painting our house even as I draft this post...and therefore we can experiment with bold and new colours...as now I have a painter on hand who can repaint it if the results are not appealing...(watch out for our modern art, free style foyer coming soon)
-for the kids excelling academically, even though they did a laugh-worthy show on sports day...
-for my reawakening of gardening self...which means my knees go weak at the mere sight of flowers or plants
-for the blogger meets and the lunches with friends
-for Barbeceu nation, Kabab factory, Promenade, GRT, Residency...and for the friend who introduced me to the first one!
-for a certain Continuous Talking Team that made up for lack of conversation opportunities
-for the long phone calls with friends and relatives and mom...and a few business trips to Delhi, even though I have managed to miss many parties over the year
-for blogging off course that gives a free reign to my thoughts

Here's a virtual toast to 2009 as it arrives!! Welcome!

Eager to Be in Their Dad's Shoes..errr Seats

Looks Like Dad is not doing his work properly.... So much work is piled up...

What Are We Playing Nowadays

1. Miming- I act out any action the kids are used to seeing me do- cracking an egg, making dosa/ roti, mixing milk in 2 glasses, handling remote/ phone, laptop etc and the kids have to guess what I am doing. I must say they are pretty good at that.
2. Lip reading- Speak voicelessly and the kids guess what I am saying. Most used words like- dadda, mamma, ...Gets lesser scores than (1) above though.
3. Colouring- we are getting good at that slowly
4. Making mini rotis on the mini chakla belna
5. Guess what's in the tiffin box for that day- keeps their mind occupied while I shove the breakfast into their mouth
6. Illustrating stories for each other as per Mamma's practice.
7. Helping Mamma in the garden- most annoying though as they water the cacti liberally and regularly uproot the solo tiny tulsi plant

As you Reap...

So we learnt how to sow seeds in pots.
First take a pot....
Rather, first make a pot...And then we prepare the pot and sow the seeds

Thereafter, the next day, we destroy all but one pots and Mamma carefully places that one away from prying eyes.

Gone are the pipe dreams that the kids would learn to nurture their own plants.

But they did remember the process...which is more important than the results in Management jargon anyway!

Merry Christmas

For the first time ever, we did a (faux) Christmas tree..with blings and baubles and stars and serial lights.
While the tree stands in constant danger of being destroyed by the kids-in-awe, it sure is a lovely sight.
Hubby wanted to get a potted tree which we could leave in the garden but somehow the fake one looked more ornamental.

The kids had an X-mas fete in school.

Which included a juice stall

A hoopla throw

A Santa who was watched at a safe distance.

A tattoo artist

A potters wheel and clay art

Ready 1..2..3..Start..

Many years ago and for many years after that, a little girl stood in her playground on sports day looking intently at the audience, especially among the chief guest and other dignitaries, searching for any sight of her parents. In vain.
For they had come a little late and where seated 2 floors above.
She searched hard when the parents' game were getting conducted...again in vain as her Dad was too shy to join or else by the time they reached the ground, the game would have already started.
And many years ago, her sister participated in a toffee picking race. All the kids gathered their toffees and ran whereas she remained at her place and gathered more toffees.
And a few years ago, her brother would cry himself hoarse for getting medals and being the youngest in class would often be at a disadvantage in terms of sheer strength.

Cut to present. The same little girl who is now a Mom drops her kids off at school and returns home to come back back right when her kids' slot is ready to go.
They arrive late thus and cannot manage to get a seat in the front, but could stand right behind where her kids were seated in a group.
Mamma recalls how annoyed she would get at not being able to spot her parents and also remembers the entire point of carrying the camera- to be able to blog about it eloquently.
So she edges past the crowd, round the "arena" and braves being shoved away by the organisers and waits right at the finish line so that she would get a clear shot of the kids in action.
Ojas had to go as an airline pilot with a cap and a picture of an airline hanging round his neck.
So Internet savvy mamma googled for an airpane outline and created her own version of the same using the back page of a brochure and coloured the various parts painstakingly using bright marker pens.

For the cap she asked the Security for a (new) cap from the stores.

And Mamma thought she could pitch in for her sons to win. She stood at the finish line and waved a hi to Ojas so that he would run fast towards her. But he never looked to her side. His was a sprint and well, he didn't even bother to cross the finish line. Lingered on the other side of the ribbon until he was pulled out.

Tejas was the little Santa who had to put his toy into a satchel and run. Trust him to aim for the toy he liked and he changed tracks, Luckily that child was faster and Tejas escaped being out for foul and put his toy into the satchel and managed to be last.

Two horses to bet and both come last!

Proves that they are just like me- shine academically but poor performers in sports-exactly unlike their Dad.

And no, we did not participate in the parent's game- the Dad was not game for it.

Sea Side Party

Was the theme at school and Ojas had to go as an Octopus and Tejas as a Penguin (Peggoo).
So what should a clueless Mamma do?
Google for it.
This was the starting point and this gave me ideas for the head gear.
I had decided to tie ribbons or paper streamers to a belt and put a red polka dotted bandana (already available at home) for the head gear - which was incidentally called as ladybird by Ojas. One day while driving to work I was debating with myself how I could improvise on the octopus costume as I essentially wanted something that will stand out rather than stay limp on the sides.
So what is long and thin and stiff ...balloons off course. I was amazed at my inspired thinking and so were the teachers.
So 4 balloons, the legs and the arms make the 8 tentacles of the octopus .

For the penguin, I decided to get a plain black shirt which would be worn over a sleeveless plain white t shirt. As luck would have it, I couldn't get a plain black full shirt anywhere. I tried making a waist coat with the black garbage bag and failed miserably with my limited seamstress skills.
So I had to settle for a full sleeve skivy style high necked black T shirt and I wanted to cut it from the front to make it look like wings. But then the stingy side of me overtook my creative side and I settled for stitching a sleeveless T shirt onto the front of the black t shirt This coupled with a white pajama and a cap covered (very shabbily) with a white and yellow paper to make the headgear- eyes, beak and all completed the penguin.

In My Day Dreams...

I have always wanted to dance enchantingly with my husband. I would picture candle lights of the home or soft lights of a party or the bright lights of the discotheque and a tall macho husband whirling me easily on the dance floor. Slim waist, happy face, strong arms and lithe body to complete the picture.
Alas, there are strong arms and happy faces but the rest is all missing.
For my dear husband is absolutely embarassed about dancing in public. Even if I manage to drag him to the floor he will look somewhere else and dance while I would be making eyes at him, hinting him to dance with me.
For someone who cannot sit still when music is being played, it is quite a dampner when the partner doesn't share the same sentiment. And more than that the other couples dance romantically with each other and you see what you are missing.
I was very keen that the hubby and I dance on our engagement night. So I suggested that both of us enrol for a formal class and get the basics right so that the onlookers (yes, it's always about onlookers, always about log kya kahenge) could sigh- what a lovely couple, what perfect coordination, what chemistry... I pictured a salsa, or the good old ball dance. Doesn't hurt to be prepared for your engagemnet party like the celebrities do.
But the husband vehementaly refused to make an ass of himself in a dance class and proceeded to make an ass of me everytime we happen to step on the dance floor.
Therefore to my rescue are these safer forms of dancing guaranteed to be non judgemental-
1. with kids- mine or anyone else's will do.
2. with the gang of (girl) friends- matching steps with steps, ho-halla, hangama and generally have a good time expending those calories.

Delhi Dhaaba

Finally some pics after my first visit a long time ago

What to see when you are with kids-

1. a (wishing?) well at the entrance

2. A bullock cart - a luxurious one with cushions and all

3. The lovely fish pond 4. With a bridge right in the middle that leads to an artefact store5. A potrait artist
6. Swing with the ethnic background

7. Balloon shooting range & hoopla
8. A garden restaurant with lovely terracota lamp I have set my eyes on- hopefully next month in my garden
9. Cottages with shopping opportunity
10. Push carts
11. And the food in the restaurant next to the fish pond- if you are lucky you get a seat overlooking the fish pond.

Left Handed Compliment

To prove that he is my son Ojas favours both hands.
Well, I use the left hand wherever there are control issues- I am more comfortable controlling the bike or cycle with my left hand so I can easily leave my right hand free while riding, or minute activities like threading a needle and probably a host of other things which I have not really noted.
And I note Ojas has been picking up his left hand for writing. While he is often forced to switch to right hand I am of the opinion that it should not be forced on him. His teacher mentioned that she has not focussed specifically on directing him to use the right hand because the hand orientation develops only after 3 years of age and the experts say it is best not to force the child to switch to right hand as it leads to emotional and physical problems and overall making the child feel inferior - a bad handwriting is just one of the resulting problems of forced switch to right hand. They even have problems in learning to tie their laces, telling the time, using the computer mouse or simply opening the autolock on the door - I have noticed Ojas finds it a challenge to open the autolock or that he was slower to learn to open the tap.
And here are a few ambidexterity exercises - the Greeks encouraged it as it was invaluable in war.

And off course- all is not just about left handedness- there is also left sidedness which means it is possible to have a dominant left side in any part of the body- eye, foot etc