The Cub and The Bub! :)

When we found out that I was expecting again, I had send out a sms saying "some people just don't learn from their mistakes!" And yes, of course i WAS kidding! :)


We are so thrilled to have Bubs with us that I cant even begin to express it. Here is the link to what the proud father had to say. Much better than i can ever express! :) And the blog christening of 2B has also been done by him only. Babli... in short Bub. Cub and Bub! Total cuteness overload, isn't it?! :)


Things have been pretty peaceful the second time round. Least till the parents are here! :p We are dreading the 16th Dec night which is the first time we will bother taking care of her and start staying up the nights! We have Meerabai Aunty to help us through it and we are keeping our fingers crossed.


Breastfeeding came a lot more easily this time. For one Bub leant to suckle pretty fast unlike Cub thanks to his hypotonia (which we didnt know at that time). The supply is better. Even now she is on combination of ma ka doodh and Lactogen, but i am able to feed more often and lot more comfortably. Plus i was very clear that I won't guilt trip myself about it like last time. So am at peace with whatever feeding I manage knowing I am doing the best I can! :)


For everyone who wanted to know Cub's reaction to his Bub, well, he is an ADORABLE and ADORING big brother! He has grown up so much all of a sudden, that we just keep marvelling at the transformation and also keep wondering how to make him be the baby that he is. The amount of help he offers at home is nothing short of amazing. Plus he is always more than willing to help with baby duties.

The moment Bub cries, he is at her side telling her "don't cry! your bhaiyya is here!" He repeats whatever we say to her and takes her godi every single time he can and remembers to! :D


He runs to get her nappies and tell us what colour to make her wear first. When his Papa says something even in jest against his sister, he pipes up saying "She is only a baby, Papa!" Lot more mature than i was when I had Cub, i tell ya.


That said there are obvious moments of other extreme as well. The time when he says i don't want her or i don't like her. But these times are few and far in between. He is mostly a very doting brother.


We had told him forever that she will be extremely boring for first few month just indulging in susu potty and sleep and his expectation in that sense were set right. I think it also helped that his aaji ajoba is here and he gets a lot on attention that is positive and encouraging rather than the grouchy, sleepless parents that he will get once the grand parents leave! :p


He is also being loaded with gifts by friends and family who have been visiting us. Be it books, toys including remote control cars or chocolates, everyone has been sweet and considerate to not forget the original baby! :D


There are times, when I have fed Bub and put her down on the bed. Cub is sleeping at one end. M is stretched with his laptop in another corner and i lie down wherever there is place. I look at the picture and feel a contentment I cannot describe.


It DOES feel like a complete family now! :)

Cub playing with one of his gifts for becoming a Big Brother! :)

laying and picking up mats pre and post dinner is Cub duty these days!

The Bub! :)

The Cub and The Bub! :D

a day of much laughter and few tears! :)

I have been blogging for maybe l'il over 3 years and in that time have been lucky enough to find friends where the jump from virtual to real world has been so easy and comfortable. We might not meet that often, but I know that these women are just an email or phone call away when I want to share a happy news or need a shoulder cry on.


I was a part of couple of baby showers we did in Bangalore for bangaloremom and later for CoS. It was so much fun to be a part of it and I would be lying if i said I hadnt hoped to get one of my own! :p And thats exactly what I got this Saturday. A baby shower that made me realize that friends become your family and then some more, that we could have so much fun within a span of coupla hours, that someone can take so much effort to make a day special for you. To say I feel blessed would be an understatement! :)


Saturday began like any other day with waking up late, wondering what to do about breakfast and then eventually stepping out to pay Cub's school fees. That done we went for a really late lunch to a Thai place close to home. Yummy lunch done, M insisted that we go buy a new phone for me. We did that and by around 5 we reached back home. Rang the bell, waiting for Amma to open the door. As soon as it was opened, we heard "Surprise!" And I saw our ghar gorgeously decorated and all these awesome women filing outta the room with their kids!


I was totally overwhelmed and all teary eyed, doing mad hugging rounds with one and all! :)


The organising committee spearheaded by Monika (lauuu you for that babes!) and ably supported by rest of the gang... some who could make it to the actual party and few who could not. Mon managed to make it even with her aching knee! :) And ofcourse the awesomest book with messages from whole lotta folks in the blogosphere that made me bawl and grin in turns! :) Guess that was Dee's effort in part! This was apart from goodies 2B, Cub and their very lucky Mommy got.


I would LOVE to write the whole thing in detail, but these other bloggers have done a fabulous job of it and I am just going to link their posts here. let us just blame it on last trimester lethargy, shall we?


Here Usha's post. I met her for the first time and i now know for sure that she could not have called her blog anything but Agelessbonding. Fabulous woman! :)


Here's the post by THE Artsy-crafty Shruti whose posts make me do something remotely creative at least once in a blue moon! :)


And the post by JLT, one of the oldest online dost became asli dost of mine. She painted me that super cute Snoopy tee saying Frens are best. I possibly cannot argue with that!


Thanks DD Mom for yummy pasta (recipe awaited as you well know), Preethi for the awesome games and those melt in mouth muffins we all are begging for! Ofcos, I never knew i could get grossed out by chocolate! :) Poppy, you took out time and came on your birthday. Need i say more?! Art and Starry for picking up really cool gifts for the kids! It was brilliant to see bangaloremom after HER babyshower. It did not seem like we had not met for that long, did it?! :) Anu who made it with both her adorable girls! I finally got to see the l'il one and K is already a very responsible big sistah!


And thank you to everyone who took time to send me those beautiful and personalized messages. That is going to be one of my most priceless treasures ever! :)


Here's some photos! There are a LOT of really nice pictures, but privacy issues meant I cant put most of em up. So pls to make do with these! :)



Hugging spree part 1 of 10 when i entered the ghar and was zapped beyond words! :)




Hugging spree part 2 of 10 when i entered the ghar and was zapped beyond words! :)




This is how pretty and festive the house looked! I still havent bothered pulling down the decorations! LOVE it! :)



The more controlled hug given to Usha when she gave me a gorgeous bunch of flowers!



A few calm moments before the madness began again! :)



That IS chocolate! As hard it is to believe!



And you thought we could never get grossed out by chocolate!



The pictionary. can you guess the rhymes?! :)



The super gorgeous cake! The bottle shaped candle was a brilliant touch! :)



THE Book! :) M and me very obviously zapped and shocked! and excited! :)


And i am wearing the snoopy tee JLT painted. Will put the pictures of that in next post!



Showing off my gifts! :)

of food for thought? Nopes! For Toys and Chips! :)

M has been traveling a little and that leaves Cub and me to fend for ourselves over weekends. Since I cannot drive and am still using my two wheeler, our radius for going out cannot be too far. WE did trips for story telling sessions at Crossword close by, vegetable shopping at grocery division in a mall, eating at a food court etc.


Now generally M and me don't go to malls unless there is some shopping that needs to be done. It really is not our idea of fun outing. How can it be when it takes forever to find parking and space to move without getting pushed around? Inspite of our not so often visits, Cub seems to enjoy the malls! He likes the lights, the noise and mainly the escalators!


The Central close to home has a McDonalds. Cub has been to a McD's maybe a total of 4 times, but if you hear him talk about it, one would think we take him there everyday! :p This weekend, i made the mistake of attempting to go on a Saturday evening. It took us close to 40mins to teach on a TWO wheeler! Phew! Then McD's hardly had any space. I actually made Cub sit by himself till i got us some food, telling him not to move and to scream if he needed me. Thankfully, he stayed put and i got our order quick enough.


When i came back with food, the first question Cub asked me was "Toy kidhar hai?!" HUH! I would have happily got him the errrr Happy meal if the toy had semblance of being even remotely nice or worthy of 5mins of play. So i was trying to explain to him how new toys come along as merchandise for movies etc. Duh!


Anyway, he did not insist, (guess the long winding explanation turned him off!;) had his burger and fries (minus the bun) and then we went up to the food court so that I could eat something that would fill my tummy. And our 2hours were spent just in eating at two places. Of course there was a potty session thrown in which meant i had to gulp down my food at super sonic speed. When does it stop? And we are gonna do it all over gain! Gah! ;)


By the end of it all i remember is a lot of crowd and sweat! and messy loo. Bah!


Sunday morning didnt start off too well. We fought over something silly. Then made up. When asked where he wants to go, the child said "I want to go to Ranga Shankara (the gorgeous theater modeled over Prithvi in Bombay) to eat that egg sandwich!". I was quite impressed. It's only a little later that it struck me that the child's attraction for the humble egg-mayo sandwich stems from the fact it is served with even humbler potato chips or wafers as we call them! :) Now, we rarely buy chips etc as a part of our regular grocery. Cub gets them only when we have guests or we are traveling. Poor kid! :p


But we did go there finally and what fun it was. They have a beautiful l'il cafe with wooden benches, granite top tables on terracotta bricks, paper lanterns, fresh flowers in metals tins that milkman carries and an over all nice and open feeling. The lobby for the theater is right there with its art work, posters for plays and masks. There is a small space outside completely covered by trees that has small stone stools and log benches, strewn with sand and pebbles.


So we ate peacefully... Cub his egg sandwich (running around and coming back for bites and trying to cheat by having two chips instead of one after every sandwich bite!;) and me a yummy kheema pav! :) I was wearing my "baby Under Construction" tee (last month folks!) and coupla women there told me how cute it was. One of the women then offered us a yummy walnut and banana cake as dessert and my day was made. Cute tee and cute Cub did it for us! hehe!


As we were leaving it started to drizzle and we decided to spend some time in tree covered area. Cub had fun jumping off the stone stools / slabs, throwing pebbles and practicing writing his alphabets on sand with twigs that were strewn all over the ground. He carried one pebble back as souvenir and was quite reluctant to go back home.


Cub thankfully said thank you to folks, but refused to tell his name to make up for it! Bah!


What a peaceful meal this was compared to the madness at the mall! :)


In the evening we went to the park close to home. past few weekends we have been going there regularly because it has more of jungle gym, bars to hang on kinda stuff than the colony play area. The doc reccos them for Cub's hypotonia as well and its anyway a really nice park.


Now Cub by nature is someone who would not try anything new if you don't push him a little. So we did to make him climb the jungle gym shaped like B. He refused and cried, wailed and stomped about. Then we started a game. he now loves saying what words start with every alphabet! So we picked a letter and said a new word for every step he took. He was now distracted enough to go without crying and now does it super easily. It was welcome change to see another father pointing to Cub and showing his daughter"See thats how it is done!", since usually we are the parents pointing to some other kid! :)


And the girl was behaving exactly the way Cub was just a few weeks back! :)


He played around on everything. It was super nice to see him get more confident and comfortable with physical activities. We took a short walk and went home. Dinner was had with a staple of stories and sleep after 10mins of pre bedtime TV.


Give me more Sundays like these i say! :)


Here's some old memories at Ranga Shankara with Cub's beloved Daadu on his last trip here to see our new ghar...



The uncle who man's the counter with a smile! :)



The Three Generations in single frame for pretty much the last time :(



One with his DiL! :)


and the light of his life... the Cub! :)

because we dont like sour grapes...

Cubby laughing at "Tolly! The Grapes!" as i try to feed him some warm milks after getting wet in the rains at Horsley hills! :)



or not so happy endings!


I wrote about Cub's favourite books coupla posts ago. The reason we also end up buying lots of books apart from an obvious love for them is his parents' complete inability to use imagination and create new stories. M is marginally better, but couldn't bother too much. Cub also is a slave of routine and has his own favs and would not be talked into listening to something new till you beg him to.


Now my Dad can make up stories about everything under the sun! So for a few days after he left Cub made random demands about stories about an omelet or a shoe or whatever else that came to his mind! He soon realized that his parents are not as gifted as his Ajoba and settled for ghisa-pita stories that we churned out for him.


That said he is a story freak and blackmails us into telling him one or more to get anything and everything done from him. So if he is to eat his food, we need to tell him story. Ditto if we are to get his inhalation done. Needless to say the activity undertaken lasts for as long as the story does and we need extend / modify the standard stories to suit the expected duration of the said activity.


One of his favourite modified stories is the Fox and the Grapes. He was quite disappointed with the fox walking away saying "the grapes are sour" when he could not reach them after a lot of effort. He said Nahhii much in filmi fashion and I had to change it quickly so that we indeed reached a happy ending, moral be damned! :p


So in our version the Fox firstly does a happy dance when he finds an entire garden of grapes. It has green, red and black varieties. He tries jumping and reaching the said grapes with no luck. But fox being a clever animal, goes home and gets a stool. He still cannot reach the grapes. So he realizes he needs something taller and rushes home to get a ladder and still falls a wee bit short. Now he is very disappointed and worried. Suddenly he has an idea!


He rushes from the garden and huffing and puffing reaches his friend's house. Tolly - the giraffe! (Name flicked from Toot). He is breathless and says "Tolly! Tolly! The Grapes!" Tolly a l'il confused says "I am NOT Tolly the grapes. I am Tolly the Giraffe!". (This part brings a whole lot of chuckles from the child). The same is repeated when the Fox says "Tolly! The garden!"


Soon enough the fox is able to catch his breath and manages to tell Tolly how he has found a garden full of grapes, how he cannot reach the grapes and if he will help him pluck them. Tolly readily agrees. Fox is now thrilled and happily point to grapes he wants which Tolly obligingly plucks and gives him.


When he has had enough he tells Tolly also try some. Tolly makes a face and says "main grapes vapes nahi khaaata. I eat only leaves and grass!" The fox tells him there is no harm in trying it once and he can always refuse next time if he does not like them. Tolly agrees and takes a few and quite likes them.


They both then take some for their families also and happily run home.


story khatam! :D


Then there is the Hungry Crow and the Thirsty Crow, in both of which the crow goes to least 10 homes including our own, friends' and relatives' asking for either chapati or water (depending on whether he is the bhooka or pyaasa Kauaa). If he is asking for Chapati, all the folks give him something to drink. The kauaa then slaps his forehead with his wing and says "Arre! I am the hungry crow, not the thirsty crow! I want something to eat!" Of course it goes vice versa when it comes to the Thirsty Crow and he gets offered something to eat in all the homes! :p


I heard M extend the Monkey and the Crocodile story yesterday and I am sure there are more modifications in store for us!


:)

when do toys rest and BIDWF!

You know your home sees equal division of labour especially in a kitchen when following conversation ensues with your 3yo;

M who walks in after me from work sees Cub and me chilling (its cold war actually after another scene of terrible behaviour by Cub) in the living room. There is cooker on the gas.


M - cooker mein kya hai? (Whats cooking in the errr.. cooker?!)

Me - Dal

M - sirf dal? Subzi nahi hai? (only Dal? no subzi)

Cub - Nahi Papa, mummy ko subzi banana nahi aata. Woh sirf dal banati hai. Subzi toh aap banaoge.
(No papa, mummy doesn't KNOW how to make subzi. She makes only dal. YOU will make the subzi)

M and me were first very very stunned and then rolling on the floor laughing. It is so true. Everyday (barring exceptions of course) M makes the subzi and me the dal! :)


And if you think kids are salve drivers who don't care enough for their toys just because they treat parents badly? Have a look.

When the Cub goes to sleep...

He sometimes ensures that all his trains and planes and robots go to sleep too!

On a completely unrelated note, I am absolutely NOT a poetry person. I just don't understand most of it. But i recently purchased a collection of Ogden Nash called Candy is Dandy and am loving it! I remembered him being a funny guy with some poem of his studied at school eons ago. He isn't just brilliantly witty and sarcastic, but has such lucid observations which hold true even today! I keep passing on the book to M when i want him to read something especially nice, but then he wants to read next three pages and book comes back to me only after 10mins of constant nagging. :D

Here's some of his lines. I couldn't agree more. This is pretty much my relationship with God considering i rarely go to places of worship and mostly have one on one's at my convenience and obviously expect HIM/ HER to understand! :)


I didn't go to church today,
I trust the Lord to understand.
The surf was swirling blue and white,
The children swirling on the sand.
He knows, He knows how brief my stay,
How brief this spell of summer weather,
He knows when I am said and done
We'll have plenty of time together


What is your relationship with the one Up above? You enjoy the rituals that go hand in hand in with religion? Or stay away from them? Or are pretty much neutral and will participate if you have to and stay away when you can?! Or maybe not believe at all?! :)

The Cousin Capers!

I am sure for most of us vacations meant long summer days spent with our cousins. Either they coming over to our place or we going over to theirs and getting into all sorts of mischief and fun stuff. I know how much I used to look forward to going to my sisters' home in Kolhapur. Vacations there meant awesome food cooked by mavshi, endless games of cards and board games like Monopoly, learning to cycle, watching movies, listening to ghost stories at night and generally having a blast doing anything or absolutely nothing! :)

Now Cub stays really far from his cousins. His parents don't get the kind of long leaves that allow for real summer vacations and that means his chance to spend time with them comes once in a while and not for more than day or two. But we are greedy with whatever we can get and look forward to these times. We got a small window when we went to Delhi in December last year and an even smaller one just this weekend which went by when the same cousins along with the local first cuz came to stay over with us for a night! We actually abducted them straight from the wedding we were all attending. Watching these kids bond was so much fun! :)

For Mrigs, Cub's first cousin, this was the absolute first time he was spending the night without his parents. Till we were awake and playing (well past midnight mind you), he was alright. But then he wanted to go home and wanted his Mamma. Good thing about this kid is that he listens to reason. M managed to calm him down, showed him Jungle book on TV and played with him till he slept! I think for a first timer he was an absolute rock star!! I hope we can do it more often and he will soon be absolutely comfy! :)

A whole lot of credit for the whole time going smooth goes to M who is SO AWESOME with kids. Me, i just stepped back and played the photographer! So let me just share some of these special memories! :)

All dressed up for Chikki Bua's wedding!

After looking at very dapper Vedu, I so wished I could have dressed Cub also in nice ethnic wear! :)

Outta the nice wedding clothes and into comfy nightsuits! :) Waving on request!

Antz the big sistah DOES mother ALL of em like you see in this photo! Absolute sweetheart! :)

The sharif bacchas doing Jigsaw puzzles at like 1am or something! Mrigs who is not yet 4 does 100 piece puzzles! Whow!

M feeding mrigs milk. Or trying to.

This was the first time Mrigs had plain milk with sugar since his ma gives him flavouyred milk. Only thing he had to say when initially offered sugarless milk was "Milk tastes weird in your house!" And next morning when M was pushing Cub to finish his milk, Mrigs came to his rescue saying "Why are you forcing him if he doesn't want to?! Let him be!" Needless to say M has been verry zapped! hehe!

I have no idea why i bothered putting 5 more gaddas! Really!!

The Morning After! :D I was getting calls from worried parents.

Morning camel rides, anyone?! :)

Once they began, there was no stopping em, was there?!

Till cycle came to M's rescue. (thats our terrace btw)

They sweetly took turns ofcos! :)

and then moved to my trusty Dio! :) No we didnt travel like this! ;)

They ate at McDonalds and then danced on the stage at Central! The song was favourite All Izz Well! :)

Thank you Antz, Vedu and Mrigs for such lovely memories! And to their brave parents too! Let's do this more often, shall we?! :)

the Translator is here!!

and no, its the Google baba's translator I am talking about here!


We have been in Bangalore for sometime now, but the local language Kannada has eluded us. I do understand a smattering of it now. Between my Kannada and Amma's Hindi, we usually manage OK. But it is still far cry from being enough to have decent conversation or even fight with auto guy or give cabbie directions. M is even worse and his knowledge is far from even basic. Not that mine is any better, but still! * Note to self: Attend those conversational Kannada classes!


Cubby has been getting more and more proficient in the state language though and it is almost as strong as his Hindi, which is pretty good if you ask me. Amma is usually singing praises about how he speaks perfect Kannada etc. But how are we to know?! :p


So yesterday M was telling Amma to put Cub's latest fav Winnie bedsheet and pillow cover (recently gifted to him) on his gadda and put him to sleep. Amma was trying to explain something to M which he could not figure out for life of him. Amma's DiL whose Hindi is marginally better tried to pitch in and explain it too. She did her best and told M "Woh abhi thanda (cold) hai!"


Cubby exasperated by this lack of proper communication decided it is time to step in and do the needful. He told M" Woh bol rahi hai - It is WET!"


M couldn't stop laughing and neither could I when he told me about the incident!


So our l'il translator is here and we fear auto guys a little less now! ;)

just to tell you who is the better cook!

So yesterday was another BIDWF moment! Ironically, I forgot to tag previous post with a BIDWF! Hehe!


Digression + Rant

Our Amma decided to ditch us for 3 days starting Saturday without bothering to call us or inform us in any way and not picking up our frantic phone calls either. My logic is you don't come we really cannot do much about it, but least you can do is INFORM us. Even when she turned up yesterday she refused to acknowledge and kept saying there was too much tension etc. I doubt she was that tense 'coz she resolutely refused to pick up OUR phones and picked up when we called from different numbers and still didnt tell us anything clearly! gah!

Over!!


Thankfully my office is close to Cub's summer camp and I anyway tend to go there everyday for my "pseudo pick-up" and so knew that Amma had not turned up even on Monday and got Cub back to my office. Took permission from the boss to WFH for rest of the day. Had lunch with Cub at restaurant close to my office and it was a nice experience! Cub and me sharing table with two of my colleagues who kept indulging and most importantly he ate without too much fuss! Now THAT is a big deal! :p


That done we reached home. bathing and sleeping also happened without an incident. Yayy! :p He woke up after coupla hours and after l'il timepass i asked him if he wanted to eat egg - omelet, half fry, boiled egg. He said he wont mind a haaff fy.


I made it, sprinkled l'il salt and mirchi powder on top and gave it along with a slice of brown bread loaded with Marmite! (both father and son are huge fans of that yucky tasting goop! don't ask me why!)


Now when M makes a haaff fy, its not as plain is this. He adds l'il pyaaz - tamaatar and generally makes it really yummy!


So after having some of the haaff fy, he demanded "Mummy chatpata banao!" which is the expression his father uses for his own cooking. Always tells Cub "main nice aur chatpata bana deta hoon."


I said a distracted haan knowing there wasn't much I could do at this point to chatpataofy that doomed haff fy!


But kids Cub's age don't give up easily do they? Next question was "aapne fyying pan mein banaya tha naah?!"


WTF! I mean i know i don't spend too much time in the kitchen and my cooking doesn't go beyond the mundane, but i DO know that sunny side up egg is made in the frying pan.


Anyhoo! That asked and me meekly answering "Yes. I did" was obviously not the end!


Considering all his demands of making it tastier were ignored he came up with his own solution. "Mummy thoda backk pepper daalo. Phir nice ban jaayega!"


That is what I did. The child finished eating the haff fy in next hour or whatever is the usual time he takes to eat!


So now you know who is Cub's hero chez nous?!


Let me give you a hint. It is NOT the mother! :p


That apart his talk is pretty much a constant source of amusement. The "Why" phase has started too! Anything and everything and I mean EVERY phase uttered is followed with a Why?! said in a sing song fashion.


He also wants to do everything on his own and sometimes it drives us crazy. But more often than it is nice to see him getting independent! Why, today he even kept his lunch box in the bag and was all ready wearing his shoes and all to go to his summer school. Sorry camp. I kept calling it school and one day he said "Main summer camp jaata hoon!"


Yeah! Ok! Whatever! :p


I have also found a way getting some kisses from him. I call him noseychand, rotuchand, naughtychand etc depending on what he is doing. Coupla days ago I kissed him about a thousand times and said "I am kissichand!" Now Cub cannot imagine someone else being any "chand" and indignantly said "No! I am kissichand!!" I told him people who don't give kisses cannot be called Kissichands. So now I just have to say he is not one because he hasn't given any kisses and i get some kisses AT LEAST! :p


He of course managed to make it into another game and tells me to sneeze and call me "Noseychand" in return! hehe!


While he is getting cuter and more helpful his whining and crying for every silly thing is really pushing me over the edge now. I just cannot take it anymore and get angry even faster than before. I mean is it really that difficult to use a normal tone when asking for something?! Everyday I tell myself that I will be more patient, i will learn to ignore the whining but the moment it happens it just drives me insane! I holler at him and then cry. Suggestions to deal with this kinda behaviour (his and mine) are welcome! And he does seem to save this special kinda behaviour for my benefit or maybe i just get irritated faster. M keeps telling me to "distract and deflect" but I can do it only twice maybe. I get tired of it real soon! And i do want get over this as soon as I can for Cub's sanity and mine.


That said his maturity in understanding things is brilliant. And when I pretend to be sad, he comes and gives me a hug and tries to soothe me. I wish i had that generosity when he cries, as M pointed out to me...


That day he was trying to fold his book and I told him not to do it because it will spoil the book. He refused to stop and I took it from him and said if he doesn't want to keep them properly I will give it away to someone else. So now anything and everything he is using he says "It is MY. I don't want to give to someone!"


Poor baby!


This has again turned into a Cub update! I am not surprised since past few months haven't seen too much of him!



showing how he has become big and strong by eating subzi, dal and chapati! Which he MIGHT actually eat once in a week but talks about it on a daily basis!

we are same same but different!

was a terrible song from what I hear was a terrible film made by Nagesh Kukunoor of all people! But nopes, this post isn't about bad songs or bad movies or even the NK mentioned above whose previous movies I have loved!

G(a)R(l)AND welcome! The view and space just outside the balcony!

So we celebrated our 5th anniversary over last weekend and went to this gorgeous resort called Our Native Village which is pretty close to Nrityagram in an area called Hessarghatta. WE fell in love with the place the moment we saw smiling faces, were offered yummiest jal jeera I have had and stepped into our pretty sunlit room.

The Room! You can see how happy Cubby is! So were we! :D

The low bed on high stone block had Cubby happily jumping all over the place. The wall behind had a beautiful painting and the orange "curtains" made outta mats just added to the feel. The Balcony opened to vast amounts of green and the stone structure that was our room was naturally cool and didn't need AC which they anyway don't have. TV and AC are two modern amenities that this "eco resort" doesn't offer and you don't miss it at all.

The bookshelf in the dining hall! Cubby was fascinated with a lion and the Ferris wheel!

The airy dining hall has a book shelf full of well thumbed books and some broken wooden toys that kept Cubby occupied every time we were having a meal. And yes, the food was delicious enough for us to spend long time at our table! :) What followed such a hearty meal was what you see below;

a much needed siesta! :)

So that we wake up fresh to see, do and enjoy all that there is!



Gawking at the turkey! It was huge and strutted around making weird sounds!

There were turkeys, roosters and hens to run after or just gawk at because I for one had never seen an asli turkey! There were the owners' dogs and their absolutely adorable puppies! So totally cute that even Cubby who is usually guarded when around anything new was OK having them sniff at him and jump on him! :)

The gorgeous pond / pool! :)

They have a beautiful natural pool in form of a pond with lotus flowers and occasional toads to keep you company! Cubby had fun in the pool with his papa. Ofcos his ego kept coming up every now and then when he realized he isn't supposed to enjoy all this after having said "nahi jaana hai" pretty vehemently. So rona dhona in between laughter kept happening! :)

Getting our hands dirty! The guy Umesh did most of the work but we did get two pots back! :)

You can indulge in all that rustic life entails. Starting from milking a cow (we were quite content just watching, thank you!) to getting your hands dirty as you try your hand at pottery! They also offer kite flying and gilli danda if thats what fancies you! We did the bullock cart ride and though it was nice to know what it feels like by end of it it just didn't seem fair to use it as a joyride.

Mom and son by the small pond while Father got his massage!

There is a spa as well and though not as fancy or spic n span as some of the newer ones (this one has oil on its floor etc), the person offering the massage was awesome. M got a full body massage and came out maha refreshed! Since they didn't have a female masseuse that day, I had to make do with a foot massage the next day which was quite nice too!

The view that greeted us next day morning! A flock of cranes! :)



I dunno why but i LOVE this picture! :)

The room rents are a tad steep but it is totally worth it. Only slight discomfort is the number of flies flitting around because they dont use any chemicals etc, but somehow you dont notice it much! Almost not at all! :)

Anyhoo, we casually mentioned it to the owner that we have come to celebrate our anniversary. Imagine our surprise when we were told that they have arranged a candle light dinner for us by the pool side! When we went back to the room post dinner is when the post with this title started happening in my head! Have a look and tell me what you think! ;)

Our bed decorated with flowers at ONV! we giggled like l'il kids!

This is why! The bed on our honeymoon in Himachal Pradesh! :D

sitting on the khatiya around the bonfire with tired Cub!

The Bonfire!

Us in front of the fireplace in our room during honeymoon! :p

Us at the bonfire at a lovely hotel in Thanedar!

Us holding hands at restaurant in Parwanoo in Himachal!

Holding hands over a romantic candle light dinner at ONV! :p

Me, the new bride at the hotel table during honeymoon!

Me, 5 years later, with Cubby next to us as we are about to start the dinner! :)

Yup that's him on the khatiya in the passage! :D We were meant to have a peaceful dinner! We just made a request to the hotel guys and within minutes a comfy bed for the sleeping Cub was ready! :)

Me making funny faces at mall road in Shimla because M kept insisting on some pose!

Me making funny faces at Nrityagram because M kept insisting on some pose!

Us taking random picture in Shimla!

Us, getting a random picture taken at Taj Kuteeram!

Isn't it all too similar? That's why the title!

So does this qualify as second honeymoon?! hehe!