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 :)
Monday, July 26, 2010
Friday, July 16, 2010
6th year Birthday
Cantaloupe turned 6 today ... yes she is already 6 !!
The previous night BP and I blew exactly 6 princess balloons and tied them all around the house ... so she woke up to some bright colored balloons and background of her parents and grand parents singing the birthday song. She quite enjoyed the attention.
After breakfast, I gave her warm oil massage, (after a long time .... I must do this often... it hardly takes effort and yet I don't do it as much I hope to). After breakfast, I put a new pink silk Salwar my parents got stitched from India. She started complaining about the material being itchy and took it off in less than 10 mins. She was later dressed in another dress again gifted to her by my parents. She looked absolutely lovely.
Based on the suggestion I got on my previous post, I headed to the toy store in the neighborhood with both kids. The girls loved it there. We spent quite some time exploring all the different sections and finally picked a toy. We then headed to buy return gift for my nephew. It took was more than 2 hrs to be back home since our departure and I hardly realised it :) By the time we returned mom had prepared yummy Bisi Bele Bhath and Basundi (sweet) per Cantaloupe's request. All of us enjoyed our lunch ... I must add all of us ate more than our capacity :)
Then Cantaloupe wanted to play with her new Toy set and spent the next 2 hours exploring the toy with me and my dad. Later in the evening we got dressed and headed towards our Party venue. We had debated quite a bit about hosting a party this time for Cantaloupe. Finally BP decided, we should give a try to organised parties much against my policy of "DIY" parties. The chosen venue was The Jungle. The guest list was very minimal and only 4 family apart from ours was present. All the kids had so much fun jumping, sliding, turning, tossing , collecting tickets ... though the overall money charged was expensive, it felt like complete Paisa Vasool place :) The pizzas were not great ... but the kids hardly had their mind on pizzas ... they just wanted to have as much fun in the limited time. After the party Cantaloupe thanked us such a wonderful party :)
And now the gifts we bought her (some of them may not appear as gift, they were essentials required, but we convinced Cantaloupe to believe they were gifts)
1. Magnetic White board with marker pen. (gift from ajja / ajji)
2. Bath robe (she had been requesting this for almost 3 months now)
3. The building Toy set
4. New clothes
5. New swimming glasses
6. New coloring set.
6 gifts for her 6th birthday !!
Apart from these, my sister gifted her a Princess Comforter and pair of clothes. She also got a backpack, dress and Chess board as gifts from friends among other things.
Later in the night, she crawled up to on our bed and confessed she loved all her gifts and felt very very special, thanks to us organising a wonderful party.
I am so glad you had fun my child .... May God bless you.
The previous night BP and I blew exactly 6 princess balloons and tied them all around the house ... so she woke up to some bright colored balloons and background of her parents and grand parents singing the birthday song. She quite enjoyed the attention.
After breakfast, I gave her warm oil massage, (after a long time .... I must do this often... it hardly takes effort and yet I don't do it as much I hope to). After breakfast, I put a new pink silk Salwar my parents got stitched from India. She started complaining about the material being itchy and took it off in less than 10 mins. She was later dressed in another dress again gifted to her by my parents. She looked absolutely lovely.
Based on the suggestion I got on my previous post, I headed to the toy store in the neighborhood with both kids. The girls loved it there. We spent quite some time exploring all the different sections and finally picked a toy. We then headed to buy return gift for my nephew. It took was more than 2 hrs to be back home since our departure and I hardly realised it :) By the time we returned mom had prepared yummy Bisi Bele Bhath and Basundi (sweet) per Cantaloupe's request. All of us enjoyed our lunch ... I must add all of us ate more than our capacity :)
Then Cantaloupe wanted to play with her new Toy set and spent the next 2 hours exploring the toy with me and my dad. Later in the evening we got dressed and headed towards our Party venue. We had debated quite a bit about hosting a party this time for Cantaloupe. Finally BP decided, we should give a try to organised parties much against my policy of "DIY" parties. The chosen venue was The Jungle. The guest list was very minimal and only 4 family apart from ours was present. All the kids had so much fun jumping, sliding, turning, tossing , collecting tickets ... though the overall money charged was expensive, it felt like complete Paisa Vasool place :) The pizzas were not great ... but the kids hardly had their mind on pizzas ... they just wanted to have as much fun in the limited time. After the party Cantaloupe thanked us such a wonderful party :)
And now the gifts we bought her (some of them may not appear as gift, they were essentials required, but we convinced Cantaloupe to believe they were gifts)
1. Magnetic White board with marker pen. (gift from ajja / ajji)
2. Bath robe (she had been requesting this for almost 3 months now)
3. The building Toy set
4. New clothes
5. New swimming glasses
6. New coloring set.
6 gifts for her 6th birthday !!
Apart from these, my sister gifted her a Princess Comforter and pair of clothes. She also got a backpack, dress and Chess board as gifts from friends among other things.
Later in the night, she crawled up to on our bed and confessed she loved all her gifts and felt very very special, thanks to us organising a wonderful party.
I am so glad you had fun my child .... May God bless you.
Monday, July 12, 2010
Suggestions pls ....
Looking for some gift ideas for my to be 6 year old daughter ... suggestions pls ....
Thursday, July 8, 2010
4 head is second head
Scene: G'pa asking Junior various parts of her body. Junior happily obliging.
G'pa: What is this? ( pointing at his forehead)
Junior: Hmmm ... Tale ... head (is clueless about forehead)
G'pa: This is forehead
Junior: NOOOOOO
G'pa: Chinna, idu HaNe .. forehead
Junior: NO ... this is two head... not four head. (in her mind it is G'pa's second head)
G'pa: ROFL
G'pa: What is this? ( pointing at his forehead)
Junior: Hmmm ... Tale ... head (is clueless about forehead)
G'pa: This is forehead
Junior: NOOOOOO
G'pa: Chinna, idu HaNe .. forehead
Junior: NO ... this is two head... not four head. (in her mind it is G'pa's second head)
G'pa: ROFL
Tuesday, April 27, 2010
Work work and more work
Have been in all day meetings ... head hurts by the end of the day.
But BP has been solid support ... accommodating his work timings around my absurd working hours.
I have been trying my best to not affect my work affect the kids ...
Cantaloupe performed in her school's "International Night". She sang "Vande Maataram" much to the delight of her mother (moi)
Junior is talking a lot .. I mean a lot ... surprisingly she is talking a lot in English as well as Kannada. I was initially surprised she had picked up so much of English given she goes to a home day care where there is one another kid. The other kid speaks Kannada as well. Anyways, she speaks in short sentences... but is able to communicate what she intends to.
Her 2nd birthday is fast approaching ... only item completed from my check list is Venue (a park close to our home), date of the party and the guest list.
To do list: Birthday Cake order, Food, Games, Decos, Return Gifts, Birthday Dress for the kids ...
Also planning on inviting my parents to come and spend some time with us this summer ....
I think thats enough reasons to not being regular in the blog world :)
But BP has been solid support ... accommodating his work timings around my absurd working hours.
I have been trying my best to not affect my work affect the kids ...
Cantaloupe performed in her school's "International Night". She sang "Vande Maataram" much to the delight of her mother (moi)
Junior is talking a lot .. I mean a lot ... surprisingly she is talking a lot in English as well as Kannada. I was initially surprised she had picked up so much of English given she goes to a home day care where there is one another kid. The other kid speaks Kannada as well. Anyways, she speaks in short sentences... but is able to communicate what she intends to.
Her 2nd birthday is fast approaching ... only item completed from my check list is Venue (a park close to our home), date of the party and the guest list.
To do list: Birthday Cake order, Food, Games, Decos, Return Gifts, Birthday Dress for the kids ...
Also planning on inviting my parents to come and spend some time with us this summer ....
I think thats enough reasons to not being regular in the blog world :)
Friday, April 2, 2010
Fun With Colors
That was the title of the Cantaloupe's project in the Science Fair held recently in her school. What can I say ... she had so much fun ... 15 mins into the fair, she was marketing her booth and attracting visitors.
I had registered to participate alone ... but later realised it would improve her team spirit enrolled another classmate of hers in her booth.( I was just a little apprehensive on if she will be able to hold her booth alone for almost 2 hrs ) The concept was simple ... understand / explain Primary Colors and Secondary colors. But the fun part was mixing Primary color paint for every guest who stopped by their booth and show them their desired Secondary color. It was more fun than expected I tell ... nothing to beat dirtying themselves ... in this case with a purpose and parent approval :)
We had to set up the booth in the morning ... so Cantaloupe and I went in early around 8:00am and set up our booth. We felt lucky for being allocated a booth close to entrance. We set up our booth and came back home. The fair was to begin at 6:30pm ... and it began sharp on time. Our cardboard display looked so colorful .... we were extremely pleased. The girls were all excited and didn't know what to expect since it was their first year in school. In fact I was clueless on what to expect as well .... but there were almost 160 odd booths that I was more excited than the kids. I have to add here, the last time I participated in science fair was during my school days.... and this event brought back all those lovely memories.
There were mentors assigned to all booths who would evaluate the project. There were no prizes to be rewarded .... the idea behind inviting mentors was to evaluate the understanding of the projects ... age appropriateness of the chosen project and also to see if the kids were indeed having fun.
Cantaloupes' mentor was the first to arrive to their booth. The girls were giggling and having fun posing for the pictures when the mentor arrived and they were somewhat unprepared for his arrival. But they did just fine explaining the concept. I was glad the mentor realised how much fun they were having while mixing colors. ( they did not even hear his say, good job ... they were too busy mixing colors). They were given a science project idea book and a certificate. Cantaloupe's first ever certificate !!! And boy was she happy to receive one ! The evaluation went great.
Once the mentor left ... I advised the girls to just add few drops of paint and mix instead of mixing a plateful as they had just shown to the mentor. Slowly the crowd started gathering ... and people started visiting our booth. 15 mins into the fair, Cantaloupe had loosened up and started inviting random people passing by if they'd be interested in learning about colors. Most people were surprised the enthusiasm and appreciated the kids for their efforts. It was funny how Cantaloupe soon learnt tricks to attract people ... she offered a colored plate of their choice as a token :) After about an hour into the fair, Cantaloupe's partner started loosing interest ... and wanted to go to her sister's booth. (she had an elder sister from 5th grade who had a booth set up as well) Cantaloupe managed the entire show the whole time. Poor girl ... she wanted to look around the auditorium and learn about other projects ... but could never leave her booth. Later I learnt, it was ok to leave the booth to visit other booths. The outside rain did not dampen the spirits of the participants or visitors ... I think there was a turn out of over 400 people !!!
I learnt some new concepts myself at the fair .... I'd love to have visited all the booths ... but that just didn't happen.
I came home very satisfied ... Cantaloupe sure made me proud that day and I simply loved this concept of science fairs !
I had registered to participate alone ... but later realised it would improve her team spirit enrolled another classmate of hers in her booth.( I was just a little apprehensive on if she will be able to hold her booth alone for almost 2 hrs ) The concept was simple ... understand / explain Primary Colors and Secondary colors. But the fun part was mixing Primary color paint for every guest who stopped by their booth and show them their desired Secondary color. It was more fun than expected I tell ... nothing to beat dirtying themselves ... in this case with a purpose and parent approval :)
We had to set up the booth in the morning ... so Cantaloupe and I went in early around 8:00am and set up our booth. We felt lucky for being allocated a booth close to entrance. We set up our booth and came back home. The fair was to begin at 6:30pm ... and it began sharp on time. Our cardboard display looked so colorful .... we were extremely pleased. The girls were all excited and didn't know what to expect since it was their first year in school. In fact I was clueless on what to expect as well .... but there were almost 160 odd booths that I was more excited than the kids. I have to add here, the last time I participated in science fair was during my school days.... and this event brought back all those lovely memories.
There were mentors assigned to all booths who would evaluate the project. There were no prizes to be rewarded .... the idea behind inviting mentors was to evaluate the understanding of the projects ... age appropriateness of the chosen project and also to see if the kids were indeed having fun.
Cantaloupes' mentor was the first to arrive to their booth. The girls were giggling and having fun posing for the pictures when the mentor arrived and they were somewhat unprepared for his arrival. But they did just fine explaining the concept. I was glad the mentor realised how much fun they were having while mixing colors. ( they did not even hear his say, good job ... they were too busy mixing colors). They were given a science project idea book and a certificate. Cantaloupe's first ever certificate !!! And boy was she happy to receive one ! The evaluation went great.
Once the mentor left ... I advised the girls to just add few drops of paint and mix instead of mixing a plateful as they had just shown to the mentor. Slowly the crowd started gathering ... and people started visiting our booth. 15 mins into the fair, Cantaloupe had loosened up and started inviting random people passing by if they'd be interested in learning about colors. Most people were surprised the enthusiasm and appreciated the kids for their efforts. It was funny how Cantaloupe soon learnt tricks to attract people ... she offered a colored plate of their choice as a token :) After about an hour into the fair, Cantaloupe's partner started loosing interest ... and wanted to go to her sister's booth. (she had an elder sister from 5th grade who had a booth set up as well) Cantaloupe managed the entire show the whole time. Poor girl ... she wanted to look around the auditorium and learn about other projects ... but could never leave her booth. Later I learnt, it was ok to leave the booth to visit other booths. The outside rain did not dampen the spirits of the participants or visitors ... I think there was a turn out of over 400 people !!!
I learnt some new concepts myself at the fair .... I'd love to have visited all the booths ... but that just didn't happen.
I came home very satisfied ... Cantaloupe sure made me proud that day and I simply loved this concept of science fairs !
Thursday, March 4, 2010
Avalakki Vada
My first recipe on this blog.
I plan to send this recipe for the contest held here.
We have enjoyed this snack on many cold evenings ....
Avalakki Vada
(Beaten rice / Poha Vada)
Ingredients:
Thick Poha: 2 cups
Ginger: Finely chopped
Red Onion (small): Finely chopped
Green Chillies: 2 - Finely cut
Cilantro: Chopped
Curry leaves: Finely cut
Salt: To taste
Oil : For frying
Method:
Step1: Soak the poha in water so it gets soft.
Step 2: Drain the water from poha and mash it
Step 3: Add the rest ingredients
Step 4: Make small balls and flatten it
Step 5: Put oil in a Deep bottom vessel (Kadai) and heat it
Step 6: Once oil is hot, deep fry the flattened vadas on low flame.
Step 7: Remove from oil when golden brown and strain excess oil on tissue paper
Step 8: Serve hot with Ketchup
Tips:
1. Soaked poha is moist and should be easy to mash and easily mixes with other ingredients and takes any shape given. If its not taking desired shape, add a table spoon of Besan to the mixture.
2. Always fry on low flame ... if not it doesn't get cooked evenly.
3. Firmly press the vadas, if not they might split in oil.
4. If Thick poha is not available, you may use thin poha, but it gets soggy when soaked in water, so just sprinkle water on it to make it soft. You will need 3 cups though.
Enjoy !
I plan to send this recipe for the contest held here.
We have enjoyed this snack on many cold evenings ....
Avalakki Vada
(Beaten rice / Poha Vada)
Ingredients:
Thick Poha: 2 cups
Ginger: Finely chopped
Red Onion (small): Finely chopped
Green Chillies: 2 - Finely cut
Cilantro: Chopped
Curry leaves: Finely cut
Salt: To taste
Oil : For frying
Method:
Step1: Soak the poha in water so it gets soft.
Step 2: Drain the water from poha and mash it
Step 3: Add the rest ingredients
Step 4: Make small balls and flatten it
Step 5: Put oil in a Deep bottom vessel (Kadai) and heat it
Step 6: Once oil is hot, deep fry the flattened vadas on low flame.
Step 7: Remove from oil when golden brown and strain excess oil on tissue paper
Step 8: Serve hot with Ketchup
Tips:
1. Soaked poha is moist and should be easy to mash and easily mixes with other ingredients and takes any shape given. If its not taking desired shape, add a table spoon of Besan to the mixture.
2. Always fry on low flame ... if not it doesn't get cooked evenly.
3. Firmly press the vadas, if not they might split in oil.
4. If Thick poha is not available, you may use thin poha, but it gets soggy when soaked in water, so just sprinkle water on it to make it soft. You will need 3 cups though.
Enjoy !
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