Tuesday, April 6, 2010

so that my blog doesn't die!

I have been in this weird sort of funk. I think it has to do with my work and how I don't care anymore. I am still as happy with everything around me and in my life, but this whole feeling has been coming once too often and I cannot pinpoint why! Hopefully I will get out of it soon! I have to!


I haven't even been updating my blog as regularly and 5 readers I had are also disappearing. And it isn't that I have been just ignoring my blog, I have been too lazy to bother with fabulous blogs out there which saw me on their page with alarming regularity. Have i reached my saturation point? I sure hope not. There are still so many memories to jot down and so many more being made every other day.


Cubby has been obviously talking nineteen to a dozen. He makes up his own stories and songs and comes up with cutest stuff which I can't seem to remember always. Like the other day I was making some ready to cook pasta for him. He was sitting on the platform watching me make it. Suddenly he goes"Mummy app pasta bana rahe ho? Mere liye? Thank You!" How can your heart not melt and of course I tried giving him a bear hug which he resisted! :) He makes long conversations with people he likes, telling them what he did during the day, new things he saw etc though as a general rule its impossible to get him to tell you how the day went by. Prompt him a little and then he MIGHT tell you a little more.


We got his class photo a few days ago. I kept asking him the names of other kids and he refused to tell me. I know he is a bit reticent in the class and doesn't interact as easily with other kids. (Digression: This is a part that I hope he will learn eventually because right now I have no idea how to help him make friends so that his social interaction with kids his age improves. If anyone has any tips, please let me know! :) Digression over! So today I instead read out the names mentioned on the top of the photo and asked him to point out the kids and he got all of em right. So obviously he has been noticing and knows! :)


Cubby's school had their "ahem!" convocation ceremony last month. It was darn cute to see not yet 3feet tall l'il ones wearing a black convocation cap thing and smiling for photos (if they weren't tired of the heat and crying already!). Cubby got a sash that called him Mr. Gracious! That means that he shares his things readily and easily and is eager to help others. That is true, but a lot of it also has to do with the fact that he is not aggressive and tends to get bullied easily. And it's not funny how few gentle kids there are. I have been trying to teach him that it IS OK to hit back when someone hits him especially if saying No doesn't help. But it definitely is not easy. He will learn hopefully.


I recently had a mother who asked me "Why has Cubby changed?" earlier he would give the cars to if you told him to. Now even he cries for it." I was so tempted to tell her that he realized that neither other kids nor their parents insist that they share and that he is learning from them. But it is indeed amazing how they would all scramble to get their kid outta the classroom first so that their kids can get the car and then NEVER told them to share it even if some other child wanted it or just out of fairness. The kids once perched would be there the entire time not leaving other kids with any chance to play with em. Annoyed the hell outta me. Such is life, I guess! :( Rant over! Gah!


Cubby also keeps turning tables on us. Once at night we were getting ready to sleep. Light were turned off and M as is his habit was fiddling with his Blackberry for sheer timepass errr... to see if he had any important mails! ;) Cubby suddenly turns around and tells him "Lights band ho gayi hai! Ab so jao!"


He loves listening to stories and his parents are woefully short stocked. Now that grandparents are here there is some more stuff we are learning too and I hope to increase by database to keep him happy. Right now he is happy with daily repeats of Hungry Crow and Thirsty crow and complete the story everytime. When a pebble is seen it is picked up to give it to the crow! He was terribly unhappy when the fox walked away saying "Grapes and sour" and I had to enlist a Giraffe's help to pluck the grapes for the fox and how they both shared and ate em happily! ;) So improvisation is order of the day.


Of course its scary just how much they retain as it is awesome. Like yesterday my dad told him two stories of monkeys and the cap seller and Lion and Mouse for the first time. He remembered enough to tell me the gist of the story with some actions and sounds thrown in!


Sometimes, I wonder if I am wasting all this time where he could learn so much more. I know kids who know more stories and rhymes, can recognize their alphabets or solve big puzzles and I worry if I am not doing enough to feed his brain power. But then there is only as much we can do and are trying to do more fun stuff with him and hope he keeps getting good exposure. Right now in the time we have we usually end up running around in circles (literally), jumping from and on beanbags and parents and all such non-educational stuff! Bah!


He is growing up to be a wonderful l'il guy (except the whining) and is very helpful around the house. We also got him a side wheels waala bicycle and his daadu managed to teach him to ride it using half pedal, so he keeps riding around the terrace even tho its still a l'il tall for him! :) He is also mighty proud about that fact and so are we! :) He usually does the riding around night when we are at home. So he takes the emergency lamp and keeps it in the right place, turns it on, gets his cycle out, sits on it with little help and then takes his rounds. He keeps repeating our instructions saying "Sharp turn hai toh mein dheere chala raha hoon" and all that jazz.


When we have guests over, and we are having drinks and snacks, he takes the snack bowls around offering it to everyone! :) He takes breakfast plate for Papa, gets water bottle for us with glass when requested and so much more!


He acts so grown up most of the times that sometimes we forget he is a baby and happily keep ordering him around! :p He can take off his shoes and now wear them too. He might not always get the foot right, but he keeps doing it on his own and almost always succeeds!


His appetite has also improved slightly! Touchwood and anti-jinx. Of course feeding him is still a long drawn process requiring distractions, but logic of having to eat subzi-dal to get muscles sometimes works! :) He can eat seriously spicy stuff when he wants to. He loves chicken and fish and its time we should learn to cook that stuff me thinks. He loves junk food like farsaan and can give his father a stiff competition when allowed to eat unsupervised! He absolutely loves juice and the bad for health soft drinks which he gets rarely.


He is not in hugely into TV and can use it just as occasional distraction. He still loves his animated movies and Jungle Books rules even today! Apart from that Toy Story, Horton Hears a Who, Tailspin and gang will do. He has also recently discovered Superman and Spiderman and the father-son duo can be heard singing the Spiderman title track (tele series ) often enough! :)


What started as a dull post has turned into a full fledged after eons Cubby update and I am glad! :) Now the title isn't relevant, but i started with it, so I shall stick to it! :)


i LOVE you my darling son and cannot believe you are going to turn THREE in July! Phew! :)


and since it is an Cubby update i shall add some recent photos! :)




The occassional ticklish maalish in the sunny balcony!

The kid who clowns around all the time!

and KNOWS he looks cute while at it! :)

A chicken sausage breakfast on a cold school morning! :)

Running his heart out at the sports day! :)

The resaon for this mad excitment is the man in the background! The daadu! :)

Trying his hand at finer painting! :D

Holding homemade "Palm Print" flowers to give to teachers on last day of school!

Helping decorate his room! :)

and standing to show all the hardwork!

Thanks Shruti for the Wallies link! :)

The Man! The Machine!

Toh aapki hobbies kya hai?! ;) (with Dia)

Wearing his own sandals and proud of it!

25 comments:

Swaram said...

Glad to c Cubby updates a long time. Awesome pics as usual. I loved the pasta thingy the most :)
God bless u Cubby!

Swaram said...

Aww Diya looks so grown up too .. luv her dress :)

Momo's Ma said...

always nice to read abt darlin cub. he sure is a gracious little fella. god bless n hugs.

Mampi said...

Big boy.
i am seeing him after ages.

Avanti Sané said...

So good to read about Cubby after so long.
Like you, I worry about feeding my son's "brain power" too. Especially when I have a friend whose son can recite the entire alphabet and recognize all of the letters and he isn't even two. But truth be told, I don't want to 'take his class 'right away, once that stuff starts its gonna go on for some time :)
Hope you get out of your funk soon.Take care.

Mamma mia! Me a mamma? said...

Yaaaayyy! After ages and what a delightful and comprehensive read! Loved it from start to finish!

And don't stress over the funk...it happens to all of us.

Unknown said...

:) lovely updates abt cubby :)
n love the room..

Medha said...

Hi Abha, could you please let me know how you ordered the wallies stickers?

Unknown said...

"Toh aapki hobbies kya hai?! ;) "

ROFL! So cute.
~TPL

Diwakar Sinha said...

the pics are very nice...cheers!

Swati said...

Lovely pics all of them (as always ) ..he is sure growing up too fast :)

Neelum said...

Wow...so good to read your blog...amazing updates of Cubby!! Loved his room all decorated and the 'apki hobbies kya hai?' picture !!

Dee said...

I knew all of this but I am feeling all goey n mushy!!

Hugs Cubby darling!

Muah!

Amgele Loku said...

Finally!!!! Cubby pics and all updates!! I was beginning to wonder that you'll stop bloggin :P

"Ab so jao" - how cute is that??? :-)))

MR Gracious is such a sweet title :) I'm sure he deserves it and more :) I love the pic of him having breakfast in that sweat shirt :) Totally adorable!

- SnS

Vidooshak said...

Your captions add such life to photos. Even better than Rowling's imagination of photos that can "move".

I wish you'd broken up this post into 3 shorter posts. There's just so much happening in his life, it deserve to not look like the discount bin at Walmart ;-)

Please keep writing. No more droughts. OK?

Violet said...

Wow.. that was some update! And Cubby has so much in common with my daughter, despite being much younger to her. Thanks to you, I don't feel the need to write down about her now :D She also says - thank you mumma.. aapne mere liye itna achcha khichdi banaya. And then, refuses to eat it at all :(

Indian in NZ said...

loved the caption ' apko hobbies kya hain' !

My son at around that age, used to take one bite of whatever I would have could, would declare it 'sooooo yummmyyy' and then...would politely ask me if he could eat it later as he wasn't hungry !

Arundhati said...

EVERYTHING uve said in this post is true for me and my almost-3 !!!

Only difference is P doesn't like juice. And while I'm off blogging of late, its not the same as u coz I'm just a recent blogger while ur blog shows ure a seasoned one.

P isn't an extrovert either (I'm trying lots of things - getting the neighbours kids to come over everyday, taking him out very often so he gets to socialise as much as possible, but letting him take it all in at his own pace. I think some kids are just more sensitive and perceptive than others. Like P knows that the lady downstairs doesn't think much of him coz he is 'shy', so he is even more withdrawn than usual when she is around.I keep telling myself 'Aren't some adults less social than others too?'), he is very gracious too - except starting yesterday he has started to get possessive abt his toys. I'm both relieved and not-so-happy abt that. He appreciates my cooking too - immediately after he's had a taste says Thank you Amma, it tastes good :) And the genuineness and feeling with which he says it makes me melt.

sorry v long comment!!

ps - I'd love to know how I can get those stickers for his room

starry eyed said...

He's lookin good! Hope you get out of your funk soon...I know that feeling...but then mine is freelancing and a short break gets me out of it!!!

Lovely to hear abt Cubby's graciousness...yep, that occasional thank you goes a long way!

Rohini said...

Oi Drama Queen. What five readers? This is the 20th comment... :p

Lovely pictures of your lovely brat, as always

Mama - Mia said...

thanks Swaram! and yes, Diya was looking fabulous and so ladylike in her salwar kameez! darn cute! :)

Momo's ma - danke! :)

Mampi - yes you are! :)

avanti - yup yup! thats why i am relaxing. but sometimes you get worked up with all the soak up as much as you can till 5thing. but i dont have the patience or enthu to over educate him! :)

namesake - thanks babes! hugs!

shruti - all thanks to ye. have put up a lot more of his school work also now. need to put that up as well!


ramya - hey! oh i actuallyu told my brother to send it to me from the US. but they ship to India and you can order directly from wallies.com. when i bought it they had a fab sales on so got everything for 50% off. ofcourse you need to pay some custom duty when you get the package here. we paid around 700bucks for stuff worth 3k.

TPL - the credit for that tag goes to M! he had put it up on the picasa album and i flicked it! :)

thanks diwakar

swati - arent they all?! :)

neelum - thanks! :)

Dee - yes, you have seen it in action often enough! :)

SnS - even i was wondering if i would stop blogging! but here i am! and thanks for being there too! :) and yes sweatshirt photo is my fav!

Vidooshak - i didnt know that this will turn into a full length Cubby post! and you know i dont edit my posts! :D

violet - i LOVED your blog! and dont even get me started on eating troubles! you in bangalore innit? lets catch up sometime?! :)

2b's mommy - so when do they grow outta this phase?! :)

arundhati - hey!! thanks for that beyootiful comment! :) yes, some kids just take time i guess. and you are so right about the sensitive part. Cub doesn't go to folks who seem hesitant to open up to him. or those who expect him to make friends right away. and there is nothing wrong in being possessive about their toys as long as they eventually learn to share! :) P sounds like an absolute sweetheart! and seasoned blogger i am not! hope to be more regular now. see my answer to ramya to know about the stickers! :)

starr - are you back awready?! :) yes, the tahnk yous mean a lot! and i sure hope to get outta the funk soon!

ro - hehe! well before this i would get 20 in as many mins you see! ahem!! now its stops at that! but thats not an a prob really! ;)but then what would hep super momma's like you know, eh?! :p

cheers!

abha

aMus said...

sweeet post! loved the captions as much as i did the photos :)

5 readers? come on...come on now!

don't worry about cub's social skills...he will change and you may not like it too...he will learn one day how to get stuff for himself,but till then you could help out subtly so as to not let him know that mummy's lawys there to do the dirty work :) did i make sense in that too long a sentence?

and nice to see a post...and hope you get your sunshine mood back

Cantaloupes.Amma (CA) said...

How cute is cubby ??? Simply adorable ....

Violet said...

Yay! Lets make a Bangalore mommy club and meet with our cubs :D. Btw, Cubby is July born.. that explains why he is so smart :D

Mama - Mia said...

suma - yes! you made perfect sense! like always! :)

CA - thankoo! :)

violet - yes! some of us mommy bloggers met very recently! leme know when you wanna catch up and we shall! :)

cheers!

abha