So we celebrated Sankrathi ... quite elaborately if I may add so myself. I surprised myself with well made "Yellu" (a mixture of peanuts, jaggary / sugar pieces, dry coconut, sesame seeds and roasted chana dal) BP and I made "Sakkare Achchu" (moulded sugar candies) as well. This process of making sakkare achchu takes quite some effort and I was glad to have BP's help.
We had invited few guests home for Sankrathi lunch. (including this person :) ) I made the following items:
Cabbage curry
Carrot Kosambari
Tomato Saaru
Rice
Pongal
Ambode
Badam Halwa
Lemonade
The guests arrived around 12:45 and by then I had all the items ready ... and wanted to serve Ambode (chanadal vadas) piping hot. So I suggested that they play a board of carrom while I prepared ambode. Everyone had just warmed up playing 2 boards when lunch was ready and we all ate together. We chatted for a while and promptly got back to business ... aka playing carrom. I trust we started playing around 3:30 ... and continued playing till almost 7:00pm. My initial plan was to go and give Yellu to few friends and family with the girls around 5:00...but the guests were fully immersed in the game and I had no heart to ask them to leave. So while some left around 7:00 .. others continued till about 8:30. So I postponed the "Yellu distribution" to monday. In all it was quite a fun Sankrathi . Oh yes... in between carrom sessions, I managed to dress up the girls in their new clothes :)
Showing posts with label Family. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Family. Show all posts
Monday, January 16, 2012
Wednesday, December 22, 2010
Every time ..
my parents leave to India, it breaks my heart. Parents left yesterday ... after the flight delay drama, they left after lunch.
Had been so used to them staying with us for the past few months ... had no worries if I got held up at work... things seem to be magically taken care at home. (be it food, kids)
Thank you Daddy and amma for everything you have been doing for us.
Had been so used to them staying with us for the past few months ... had no worries if I got held up at work... things seem to be magically taken care at home. (be it food, kids)
Thank you Daddy and amma for everything you have been doing for us.
Monday, August 23, 2010
A very close encounter with nature ... and more
Past few weekends have been packed .... what with us exploring new territories, it has been exciting and tiring at the same time.
Two weeks back, after lot of discussions, disagreements / agreements we decided to go hiking. Now, this IS a brave decision considering we have 2 toddlers in the family to be entertained and not to forget the just turned 6 year old baby. (oh .. by the way, she has given me strict orders to not address her a "baby". Baby should be replaced by "Sweetie", "Putta" whatever ... but no more baby) Anyways, the place chosen was Uvas Canyon.... about an hour's drive from our house. We decided to pack lunch and had lovely visions of eating out in the open, beside a creek, enjoying the quietness of the place and soaking the lovely views.
We decided to start early .. around 10:00am (what ??? that is not early ??? well ... summer break, saturday morning ... waking up at a decent hour after a late night movie is hard ... and not to forget the hubby's P1 bug that needs attention first thing in the morning) Surprisingly, we got ready of time and drove to the place. The roads leading to the hiking trails were narrow and we finally reached the place and collected the map ... set the toddlers on their strollers and put on sun screen lotion, hats and set out to hike as true professionals. The place was indeed beautiful and quiet .... not many cars were parked. (only 1 more apart from 2 of ours). BP and my dad pushed the strollers ... the path was steep and rough. It was indeed hard to push the strollers (which contained water bottles, food, snacks, juice, swim wear, towels and extra set of clothes) We had hiked a little when, Junior decided to try hiking instead of being tied to the stroller. So I walked along with her short distance while BP and my dad followed us closely behind. My mom and Cantaloupe were walking along with me ... while my sister and BIL were slightly behind us. All of a sudden, Junior decided enough hiking and started back towards her dad (about 20 steps behind) and stopped in between, expecting me come get her. It was indeed steep for a 2 year old to balance and I was right behind her. Just then Cantaloupe came up to me and said as a matter of fact "Amma ... Junior pakka Haavu ide" (Amma, there is a snake beside Junior. Cantaloupe continued hiking after having stated the obvious ... but hearing out those words scared the hell out of me. I looked closely and saw a snake about 2 in of distance from Junior's feet ... just one more step and she would land on the snake. I screamed "Snake" and BP who had caught up with us immediately picked Junior up in a flash second. Had I not mentioned, he might have stepped on the snake too. It was very much alive ... it had perhaps eaten few mins before and had a bulged tummy.
The hike was never the same for me.... I was imagining all sorts of reptiles and could not enjoy much of the hike. We got down in one of the water falls and the kids did have some fun ... but I couldn't think beyond the snake. We spotted the same snake on our hike back too (it had moved further away) and warned fellow hikers about it.
There were picnic tables set up and we had lunch .. hiked some more and decided to drive back. On our way back, we also visited Mount Madonna ... a quiet place with a small temple and lovely views. Got back home in the evening and awesome chai (courtesy BP) and went out for dinner. I hugged and kissed my girls for No particular reason for the next 3 days ....
**************************************************************************
Last weekend, we went to the Circus show in town. We didn't buy the tickets online (thanks UTBT for the tip) and bought them in person. This was my first experience of a circus show ... as was it for the girls and BP. Cantaloupe enjoyed the show for the most part ... but was put off when I refused to buy her Lemonade. (that was about 15 -20 mins before the end of show). So after the show, when my dad asked if she enjoyed the show, she said "Sort of OK" ... to which my dad asked her "Why so?", who had obviously heard her claps and cheers the entire time of the show. She answered "Because mommy did not buy me Lemonade" :)
Junior and my little nephew watched the initial minutes of the show startled by the color and music ... but later, almost the entire time was spent munching on raisins, bread, pop corn, cotton candy, cookies, chips and the likes.
I wouldn't say the show is must see ... but for first timers it was certainly worth the money we spent and an enjoyable experience overall.
Two weeks back, after lot of discussions, disagreements / agreements we decided to go hiking. Now, this IS a brave decision considering we have 2 toddlers in the family to be entertained and not to forget the just turned 6 year old baby. (oh .. by the way, she has given me strict orders to not address her a "baby". Baby should be replaced by "Sweetie", "Putta" whatever ... but no more baby) Anyways, the place chosen was Uvas Canyon.... about an hour's drive from our house. We decided to pack lunch and had lovely visions of eating out in the open, beside a creek, enjoying the quietness of the place and soaking the lovely views.
We decided to start early .. around 10:00am (what ??? that is not early ??? well ... summer break, saturday morning ... waking up at a decent hour after a late night movie is hard ... and not to forget the hubby's P1 bug that needs attention first thing in the morning) Surprisingly, we got ready of time and drove to the place. The roads leading to the hiking trails were narrow and we finally reached the place and collected the map ... set the toddlers on their strollers and put on sun screen lotion, hats and set out to hike as true professionals. The place was indeed beautiful and quiet .... not many cars were parked. (only 1 more apart from 2 of ours). BP and my dad pushed the strollers ... the path was steep and rough. It was indeed hard to push the strollers (which contained water bottles, food, snacks, juice, swim wear, towels and extra set of clothes) We had hiked a little when, Junior decided to try hiking instead of being tied to the stroller. So I walked along with her short distance while BP and my dad followed us closely behind. My mom and Cantaloupe were walking along with me ... while my sister and BIL were slightly behind us. All of a sudden, Junior decided enough hiking and started back towards her dad (about 20 steps behind) and stopped in between, expecting me come get her. It was indeed steep for a 2 year old to balance and I was right behind her. Just then Cantaloupe came up to me and said as a matter of fact "Amma ... Junior pakka Haavu ide" (Amma, there is a snake beside Junior. Cantaloupe continued hiking after having stated the obvious ... but hearing out those words scared the hell out of me. I looked closely and saw a snake about 2 in of distance from Junior's feet ... just one more step and she would land on the snake. I screamed "Snake" and BP who had caught up with us immediately picked Junior up in a flash second. Had I not mentioned, he might have stepped on the snake too. It was very much alive ... it had perhaps eaten few mins before and had a bulged tummy.
The hike was never the same for me.... I was imagining all sorts of reptiles and could not enjoy much of the hike. We got down in one of the water falls and the kids did have some fun ... but I couldn't think beyond the snake. We spotted the same snake on our hike back too (it had moved further away) and warned fellow hikers about it.
There were picnic tables set up and we had lunch .. hiked some more and decided to drive back. On our way back, we also visited Mount Madonna ... a quiet place with a small temple and lovely views. Got back home in the evening and awesome chai (courtesy BP) and went out for dinner. I hugged and kissed my girls for No particular reason for the next 3 days ....
**************************************************************************
Last weekend, we went to the Circus show in town. We didn't buy the tickets online (thanks UTBT for the tip) and bought them in person. This was my first experience of a circus show ... as was it for the girls and BP. Cantaloupe enjoyed the show for the most part ... but was put off when I refused to buy her Lemonade. (that was about 15 -20 mins before the end of show). So after the show, when my dad asked if she enjoyed the show, she said "Sort of OK" ... to which my dad asked her "Why so?", who had obviously heard her claps and cheers the entire time of the show. She answered "Because mommy did not buy me Lemonade" :)
Junior and my little nephew watched the initial minutes of the show startled by the color and music ... but later, almost the entire time was spent munching on raisins, bread, pop corn, cotton candy, cookies, chips and the likes.
I wouldn't say the show is must see ... but for first timers it was certainly worth the money we spent and an enjoyable experience overall.
Thursday, July 29, 2010
Kannada Songs bringing out memories...
The latest post by MM brought out memories of some awesome songs ... some Hindi .. some Kannada.
Capturing the Kannada ones here:
1. Mellusire savi gaana : Link : Here
The romantic mood of the song brings out some cheerful memories of my newly married days. BP and I were generally having fun where one would hum / whistle a certain song and the other would guess the song and sing along. Out of no where BP started singing Sa Sa sa sa sa ... sa sa sa ... and I burst of laughing. It was supposed to be the above song. (BP is not classically trained ... while I am and it was funny to hear him sing sa sa sa for the entire mukhda of the song)
Everytime I hear this song, it brings out a smile on my face.
2. DoNi saagali munde Hogali : Link : here
Its a classic song. The movie was considered bold when released .... infact I was not allowed to watch it when it was telecast on TV except for this song. This song was immortalized by my aunt and uncle. (chikkamma / chikkappa). They were newly weds. And we were visiting them during summer holidays ... and chikkappa who was and still is a ardent Vividh bharthi listener, brought out the tape recorder at 6:30am in the morning and played out a casette. It was the recorded version of the above song sung by aunt and uncle. We laughed our hearts out at the totally tuneless rendition of chikkappa and my aunt trying her best to catch the tune. Its been close to 25 years and its still the same ... we still tease them about this casette. (of course both remain the same... aunt still sings in perfect tune ... and chikkappa ... well :D)
3. EE dehadinda Doora Naade: Link : here
This is actually my dad's favourite song... technically not my favourite. Yet has so many memories attached. Daddy has this habit of singing certain songs from the Black and white era and everytime he starts to sing one of his favourite songs, he always sings the rest and in a certain pattern. So the above songs almost always is succeeded by Deena Naa bandiruve ... and then Namo Venkatesha etc. And everytime I hear any of the the songs featured in my dad's list, it brings out a tear in my eye. I am reminded of the distance separating us now .... it tears me apart. BP initially did not understand the reasons of my immediate mood shifts earlier ... now he clearly does and never fails to switch songs if any of dad's list song are being played. In that sense, he is tuned to those songs as well now.
I have also sung this song in several competition during my middle school years and won several prizes.
4. Maduve ya ee banda: Link : here
This one is one of mom's favourites ... and mine too. There has not been a single antakshari when this song has not been featured. There used to be a time when the groom side relatives assembled in the groom's house and started for the wedding together from there in a BTS bus. (specially arranged by the bride's side for the groom and his relatives). Along the drive ... we would invariably stop over, mostly by the riverside and have lunch. (puliyogare and mosaranna). Much masti was had in the bus ... and then some teasing of the groom. Antakshari was the top pick for entertainment and this song was very apt.
Certainly brings out very happy memories for me from not so distant past :)
5. Kannada NaadiNa Veera RamaNiya : Link:
WHAT a song !! Rendered supremely by P.B.Srinivas.... always ... always brings a tear when the song ends with Obavva perishing. I have sung this song in many competitions as well ... in fact one of my teachers in my high school was so fond of me singing this song that she got a personal recorded and recorded my version of it. In one of the competitions, when I sang this song, one of the judges came up to me and said she had tears in her eyes (so did I when I sang). Inspite of that compliment, I did not win a prize in that particular event and my teacher from school who had accompanied me, was shocked and irritated. She went straight upto the judges (there were 3 of them) and questioned why I was not given the prize to which they said it was a male version in the original ... so they would have preferred me picking a song by a female singer.
Only recently Cantaloupe participated in a talent show and she was dressed as "Obavva" and she made me PROUD !!! Another reason to love this song :)
I wanted to end it here .. though it has been very difficult to cut down at 5 ... but I cannot help but list another one.
Jo Jo Laali ... this song has been Junior's favourite for the past 6-7 months. She started singing this song when she was 18 months ... I am told, my parents sang this as lullaby to me when I was a baby and I loved it :)
OK ... Now I stop ... pls share your special songs ... would love hear the songs and the memories behind them
Capturing the Kannada ones here:
1. Mellusire savi gaana : Link : Here
The romantic mood of the song brings out some cheerful memories of my newly married days. BP and I were generally having fun where one would hum / whistle a certain song and the other would guess the song and sing along. Out of no where BP started singing Sa Sa sa sa sa ... sa sa sa ... and I burst of laughing. It was supposed to be the above song. (BP is not classically trained ... while I am and it was funny to hear him sing sa sa sa for the entire mukhda of the song)
Everytime I hear this song, it brings out a smile on my face.
2. DoNi saagali munde Hogali : Link : here
Its a classic song. The movie was considered bold when released .... infact I was not allowed to watch it when it was telecast on TV except for this song. This song was immortalized by my aunt and uncle. (chikkamma / chikkappa). They were newly weds. And we were visiting them during summer holidays ... and chikkappa who was and still is a ardent Vividh bharthi listener, brought out the tape recorder at 6:30am in the morning and played out a casette. It was the recorded version of the above song sung by aunt and uncle. We laughed our hearts out at the totally tuneless rendition of chikkappa and my aunt trying her best to catch the tune. Its been close to 25 years and its still the same ... we still tease them about this casette. (of course both remain the same... aunt still sings in perfect tune ... and chikkappa ... well :D)
3. EE dehadinda Doora Naade: Link : here
This is actually my dad's favourite song... technically not my favourite. Yet has so many memories attached. Daddy has this habit of singing certain songs from the Black and white era and everytime he starts to sing one of his favourite songs, he always sings the rest and in a certain pattern. So the above songs almost always is succeeded by Deena Naa bandiruve ... and then Namo Venkatesha etc. And everytime I hear any of the the songs featured in my dad's list, it brings out a tear in my eye. I am reminded of the distance separating us now .... it tears me apart. BP initially did not understand the reasons of my immediate mood shifts earlier ... now he clearly does and never fails to switch songs if any of dad's list song are being played. In that sense, he is tuned to those songs as well now.
I have also sung this song in several competition during my middle school years and won several prizes.
4. Maduve ya ee banda: Link : here
This one is one of mom's favourites ... and mine too. There has not been a single antakshari when this song has not been featured. There used to be a time when the groom side relatives assembled in the groom's house and started for the wedding together from there in a BTS bus. (specially arranged by the bride's side for the groom and his relatives). Along the drive ... we would invariably stop over, mostly by the riverside and have lunch. (puliyogare and mosaranna). Much masti was had in the bus ... and then some teasing of the groom. Antakshari was the top pick for entertainment and this song was very apt.
Certainly brings out very happy memories for me from not so distant past :)
5. Kannada NaadiNa Veera RamaNiya : Link:
WHAT a song !! Rendered supremely by P.B.Srinivas.... always ... always brings a tear when the song ends with Obavva perishing. I have sung this song in many competitions as well ... in fact one of my teachers in my high school was so fond of me singing this song that she got a personal recorded and recorded my version of it. In one of the competitions, when I sang this song, one of the judges came up to me and said she had tears in her eyes (so did I when I sang). Inspite of that compliment, I did not win a prize in that particular event and my teacher from school who had accompanied me, was shocked and irritated. She went straight upto the judges (there were 3 of them) and questioned why I was not given the prize to which they said it was a male version in the original ... so they would have preferred me picking a song by a female singer.
Only recently Cantaloupe participated in a talent show and she was dressed as "Obavva" and she made me PROUD !!! Another reason to love this song :)
I wanted to end it here .. though it has been very difficult to cut down at 5 ... but I cannot help but list another one.
Jo Jo Laali ... this song has been Junior's favourite for the past 6-7 months. She started singing this song when she was 18 months ... I am told, my parents sang this as lullaby to me when I was a baby and I loved it :)
OK ... Now I stop ... pls share your special songs ... would love hear the songs and the memories behind them
Monday, July 26, 2010
Junior is fast growing ...
Scene 1:
Place: My sister's house
We knock on the door ... My sister opens the door soon followed by my 21 month old nephew. He gets excited and starting running around the house smiling all the time.
Junior: (*Still standing ourside*): Thats funny ????
(meaning: whats so funny to run around the house ??)
*************************************************************
Scene 2:
Newly potty trained Junior getting ready for her sisters' birthday party. Adults whispering about the rest rooms in the party hall.
Junior: How about pull ups ???
Note: we last used pull ups some 20 days ago ...
*************************************************************
Scene 3:
This morning, I put on a bath robe on her ... it was atleast 2 sizes bigger... but she was too excited and I didn't want to ruin her excitement and I let it be. She goes to show off her robe, to my mom and granda can't handle her giggles and laughs at Junior's dress
Junior: (*Very Firmly*): Thats NOT funny !!!
*************************************************************
ps: Junior has never been trained knowingly in English ... she has picked up English from her sister and all the above lines from her were in English. We encourage Kannada (our mother tongue) in our house :)
Place: My sister's house
We knock on the door ... My sister opens the door soon followed by my 21 month old nephew. He gets excited and starting running around the house smiling all the time.
Junior: (*Still standing ourside*): Thats funny ????
(meaning: whats so funny to run around the house ??)
*************************************************************
Scene 2:
Newly potty trained Junior getting ready for her sisters' birthday party. Adults whispering about the rest rooms in the party hall.
Junior: How about pull ups ???
Note: we last used pull ups some 20 days ago ...
*************************************************************
Scene 3:
This morning, I put on a bath robe on her ... it was atleast 2 sizes bigger... but she was too excited and I didn't want to ruin her excitement and I let it be. She goes to show off her robe, to my mom and granda can't handle her giggles and laughs at Junior's dress
Junior: (*Very Firmly*): Thats NOT funny !!!
*************************************************************
ps: Junior has never been trained knowingly in English ... she has picked up English from her sister and all the above lines from her were in English. We encourage Kannada (our mother tongue) in our house :)
Thursday, February 18, 2010
Cantaloupes' performance and Valentine's day
We had our quarterly community meet last saturday and there was plenty of involvement from the Cantaloupe household. While BP participated in 20-questions game ... Cantaloupe danced to on stage and Junior was all over the place and hopping and jumping and dancing and generally having a blast. And moi .. well I gave my first live Keyboard rendition on stage and was part of a drama.
I had earlier written about the drama here. I tried hard to back out but BP advised me that a commitment had to be met ... if I was wise I'd have read the script before agreeing to be part of it ... now that I had agreed to be part of the drama I shouldn't back out. And so I stuck with it.
Attending the practice sessions was hard. Usually the dance practice happened on weekday around 7:30pm. BP wouldn't even be home for me to drop Junior and go for the practices .... so I had to finish dinner preps / cleaning before leaving ... take both kids along.... drive the distance ... help Cantaloupe with her steps and rush back home, feed dinner to kids and then take a bite. My drama practice sessions were over the weekends. So it was much better since BP took care of the kids.
I was watching "Everybody loves Raymond" series around the same time and our drama script turned out to be an adaption of one of the episodes .... but there was a huge difference. While the serial itself had established the characters in its previous episodes, our drama had NO characterization and hence my earlier post.
Anyways, as Aamir put it in 3 Idiots "All izzz well" ... and drama turned out quite ok I thought. But I am still not clear about what in the script was so fascinating that the audience was really in splits ... :))
The best show of the evening was definitely the kids dance show ... and Cantaloupe danced with such grace ... proud mama was glowing all evening. And oh ... Junior put up a show too ... she had mastered all the steps herself .. if only someone allowed her to perform on stage. Nonetheless that didn't deter her enthusiasm and screamed akka akka and danced herself right below the stage almost giving a mini performance.
But personally for me the satisfying moment was the keyboard rendition sis and me played.(Read here. One step closer to my wishlist bucket) It was a tribute of sorts to Dr.Vishnuvardhan (Kannada actor who recently passed away). We had picked songs from his famous movies and remixed it and played only snippets. I later learnt that the audio system was not very good ... and audience couldn't hear very clearly ... but to me it was first of sorts and I was satisfied with the way it turned out.
And oh ... the sambar I prepared for the event was a hit as well ...
Next day being Valentine's day dawned bright and early .... of course its a routine in our household ... the only day we get a chance to sleep longer is sunday and that is THE day the kids have picked to wake up earlier than usual. We all wished one another ... Cantaloupe gave her dad the card we had prepared together. BP bought them new clothes ... and went off for his weekend badminton leaving me and kids and sister. Cantaloupe and her chikki (my sister) baked awesome cup cakes to surprise the men (BP and my BIL) and they surprised us by bringing 8 varieties of sweets and samosas. We savored the sweets and played Kannada Ankatakshari of sorts (clause being songs which had words love and/or its equivalent words)
Overall an eventful weekend it was ...
I had earlier written about the drama here. I tried hard to back out but BP advised me that a commitment had to be met ... if I was wise I'd have read the script before agreeing to be part of it ... now that I had agreed to be part of the drama I shouldn't back out. And so I stuck with it.
Attending the practice sessions was hard. Usually the dance practice happened on weekday around 7:30pm. BP wouldn't even be home for me to drop Junior and go for the practices .... so I had to finish dinner preps / cleaning before leaving ... take both kids along.... drive the distance ... help Cantaloupe with her steps and rush back home, feed dinner to kids and then take a bite. My drama practice sessions were over the weekends. So it was much better since BP took care of the kids.
I was watching "Everybody loves Raymond" series around the same time and our drama script turned out to be an adaption of one of the episodes .... but there was a huge difference. While the serial itself had established the characters in its previous episodes, our drama had NO characterization and hence my earlier post.
Anyways, as Aamir put it in 3 Idiots "All izzz well" ... and drama turned out quite ok I thought. But I am still not clear about what in the script was so fascinating that the audience was really in splits ... :))
The best show of the evening was definitely the kids dance show ... and Cantaloupe danced with such grace ... proud mama was glowing all evening. And oh ... Junior put up a show too ... she had mastered all the steps herself .. if only someone allowed her to perform on stage. Nonetheless that didn't deter her enthusiasm and screamed akka akka and danced herself right below the stage almost giving a mini performance.
But personally for me the satisfying moment was the keyboard rendition sis and me played.(Read here. One step closer to my wishlist bucket) It was a tribute of sorts to Dr.Vishnuvardhan (Kannada actor who recently passed away). We had picked songs from his famous movies and remixed it and played only snippets. I later learnt that the audio system was not very good ... and audience couldn't hear very clearly ... but to me it was first of sorts and I was satisfied with the way it turned out.
And oh ... the sambar I prepared for the event was a hit as well ...
Next day being Valentine's day dawned bright and early .... of course its a routine in our household ... the only day we get a chance to sleep longer is sunday and that is THE day the kids have picked to wake up earlier than usual. We all wished one another ... Cantaloupe gave her dad the card we had prepared together. BP bought them new clothes ... and went off for his weekend badminton leaving me and kids and sister. Cantaloupe and her chikki (my sister) baked awesome cup cakes to surprise the men (BP and my BIL) and they surprised us by bringing 8 varieties of sweets and samosas. We savored the sweets and played Kannada Ankatakshari of sorts (clause being songs which had words love and/or its equivalent words)
Overall an eventful weekend it was ...
Sunday, September 6, 2009
Two kids - One game
How do you balance out the interest of 2 kids of different ages at home ? Thats becoming such a different challenge for me to handle these days.
Anything I start out with Junior is baby game or boring for Cantaloupe and Junior just has her own rules when I attempt playing anything with her sister. Like the other day, I wanted Cantaloupe to not be left out of family fun and introduced her to Carrom, (this was a popular game with us kids while I grew up ... none of us came close to becoming champions, but nonetheless we had so much fun) So I arranged the carrom pawns on the board and stepped out for about 5 secs to fetch the powder and what do I see when I come back ?? Junior in the middle of the board throwing the pawns in all possible direction and thus ended my grand plans of carrom with Cantaloupe.
Also another day, Cantaloupe wanted to play -pretend doctor / patient with me. So I was the patient and she was my doctor. She had her stethoscope and pretended to check me and prescribed me some pills. She was bought to give me a shot / injection when she found the same in Junior's mouth. Apparently it tasted better than a lollipop to Junior who made such a hue and cry before giving up the syringe.
Board games are out of question ... there is no way the pawns will remain on the board ... triominos, snake and ladder - all gone for a toss.
We manage to play pretend games sometimes ... Cantaloupe is irritated when Junior disrupts her game plans, but I try to convince her that Junior is her assistant in the task and is only helping out. But then why would anyone call the idea of pulling out ones' hair helping when she is pretending to be a hair dresser.
I am running out of ideas on how to handle both kids together ... they manage just fine when they play with each other (well . most of the times ... ok sometimes they manage). So far dancing with music in the background or hide and seek have been working fairly well with both kids ... but then there are only so many spots in the house where one can hide :)
Ideas please ....
Anything I start out with Junior is baby game or boring for Cantaloupe and Junior just has her own rules when I attempt playing anything with her sister. Like the other day, I wanted Cantaloupe to not be left out of family fun and introduced her to Carrom, (this was a popular game with us kids while I grew up ... none of us came close to becoming champions, but nonetheless we had so much fun) So I arranged the carrom pawns on the board and stepped out for about 5 secs to fetch the powder and what do I see when I come back ?? Junior in the middle of the board throwing the pawns in all possible direction and thus ended my grand plans of carrom with Cantaloupe.
Also another day, Cantaloupe wanted to play -pretend doctor / patient with me. So I was the patient and she was my doctor. She had her stethoscope and pretended to check me and prescribed me some pills. She was bought to give me a shot / injection when she found the same in Junior's mouth. Apparently it tasted better than a lollipop to Junior who made such a hue and cry before giving up the syringe.
Board games are out of question ... there is no way the pawns will remain on the board ... triominos, snake and ladder - all gone for a toss.
We manage to play pretend games sometimes ... Cantaloupe is irritated when Junior disrupts her game plans, but I try to convince her that Junior is her assistant in the task and is only helping out. But then why would anyone call the idea of pulling out ones' hair helping when she is pretending to be a hair dresser.
I am running out of ideas on how to handle both kids together ... they manage just fine when they play with each other (well . most of the times ... ok sometimes they manage). So far dancing with music in the background or hide and seek have been working fairly well with both kids ... but then there are only so many spots in the house where one can hide :)
Ideas please ....
Thursday, August 13, 2009
Dreadful
What is the most dreaded thing for anyone ?
A phone call in the middle of the night ...
And thats what I have received several times ..... and I got one yet again.
The news was the same ... death of a loved one ... this time the person was my cousin.... my doddappa's son.
This is so much unexpected .... I had met him just about 10 days back during my India trip. We had had a good time ... as always he had recollected my toddler days and couldn't believe I was already a mother of two. Oh ... he had so loved the salted cashews I had taken from US.
And now ... he is gone ... just like that ... no sufferings ... no words ... just as he was getting ready to cheer his 9 yr old daughter in her TT match ... gone ! Shocking to say the least.
May his soul rest in peace.
A phone call in the middle of the night ...
And thats what I have received several times ..... and I got one yet again.
The news was the same ... death of a loved one ... this time the person was my cousin.... my doddappa's son.
This is so much unexpected .... I had met him just about 10 days back during my India trip. We had had a good time ... as always he had recollected my toddler days and couldn't believe I was already a mother of two. Oh ... he had so loved the salted cashews I had taken from US.
And now ... he is gone ... just like that ... no sufferings ... no words ... just as he was getting ready to cheer his 9 yr old daughter in her TT match ... gone ! Shocking to say the least.
May his soul rest in peace.
Wednesday, April 1, 2009
Every Individual is Different
When my mother stayed with us, she bonded instantly with the kids. Cantaloupe welcomed her grandma with open arms and Junior was just a baby to know anything. My mother enjoyed spending time with her grandkids. The thought of leaving behind her grandkids saddened her days before she went back to India. She continues to miss them now that she is in India. But she has established a bond with atleast Cantaloupe strong enough to stand against the distance separating them. They just connect with their heart.
My MIL is here with us now. The friendlier child that she is Cantaloupe has opened up to her instantly. Junior is gradually bonding with her. But MIL is showing some restraint. Her reasoning is that it is easy to get attached to kids when staying with them, but she is going to mighty miss them when she returns back to India. So she doesn't want to bond as much with her grandkids.
Hmm .... two different grandmas.... two completely different views ... Which one suits you better?
My MIL is here with us now. The friendlier child that she is Cantaloupe has opened up to her instantly. Junior is gradually bonding with her. But MIL is showing some restraint. Her reasoning is that it is easy to get attached to kids when staying with them, but she is going to mighty miss them when she returns back to India. So she doesn't want to bond as much with her grandkids.
Hmm .... two different grandmas.... two completely different views ... Which one suits you better?
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)