Cub ka Superhero Budday Party!

I must put it down before his next birthday comes up! I mean, seriously! I also want to do a BuB update before HER next birthday comes up as well.


Since Cub is totally and completely into Superheroes, we decided to attempt a Superhero themed party for his 5th birthday. For one The Fifth is sort of a milestone birthday and for another, this was the first time he had a bunch of friends in a colony. It made sense to have a biggish party this once. So, we went about planning it with M getting palpitations at the number of kids I wanted to invite and I was getting tired of his eye-rolls for every idea I came up with. Finally all of us together managed to pull off a decent party!


Here are some photos;

The preparations! :) The father cutting cardboard and the son painting the newspapers! :)

She pretended to use the paintbrush and paint the newspaper and then we were not looking indulged in some face painting of her own! :p

The last minute idea of making superhero wristbands being executed perfectly by M the previous night! We are nothing, if not immaculate planners!

The birthday boy posing with the party decor and his gift! :D

Kids started trickling in from 430pm itself for a 5pm party and by 5 most junta was there!


They are all making superhero themed photoframes for which the cardboard was being cut and newspapers painted in the first snap. We got some superhero images and logos printed from Printo, cut them and kept them in separate containers. Kids had to pick the logos, paste them on their frames the way they like it and then paste the photo in the space where we stuck coloured newspaper! :)

The kids making their frames which they then took home! The decor was some balloons and sounds typically found in comic books which were printed, cut in funky shapes by the father and stuck on walls.

A finished frame would look something like this! :)


Oh and we got capes stitched for all the kids from https://www.facebook.com/pages/Vandanamu-Ethical-Cottons/117874911582117 which is a NGO basde out of Pondicherry run by Swapna's mum. Excellent choice if you want to get anything stitched - bags, aprons, capes etc at extremely reasonable rates and excellent finish! :)

The Bub, unused to NOT being the center of attention took on a supervisory role and kept grabbing crayons from everyone! sigh!

The party then moved to the club house for khaana peena. This was the welcome note! :) Again made by the father 20mins before the party! :)

The piece de resistance. Superhero Cupcakes! :D

Since we ran out of budget to make a themed cake as well, we bought a simple cake, used some sticks to put superhero logos we already had and Voila! :D


Point to note here is that we forgot candles! Yes, did i not tell you about our efficient planning. We also had to run and get the knife while the kids waited impatiently. Well, one lives and learns is all I can say in our defense! :p

For people who do not know much about Superheroes - some basic gyaan! :D

The pile of gifts! Brrrrrr! :)

And the best gift wrapping award goes to our very own Art and Anush! :D



So, this in nutshell was Cub's 5th. While we did lot of work for the party, the food part was completely outsourced and we had no complaints on that front.


We also realized that kids are so attuned to the concept of return gift that too in form of a cheap chinese toy that they just could not wrap their around the fact that the cape, the superhero wristband and couple of chocolates WAS the return gift! While some kids were so sweet that they asked us multiple times if they could indeed take the cape back home with them! :)


All in all, it was great fun organizing this party for the Cub and he seemed quite happy too! :)

FOUR years of Cubiness! :)

I am more than a week late doing this birthday post. But then we got a bot ambitious and did two birthday parties for the boy and he promptly decided to fall ill post those. So, here I am finally!


This year saw the good, the bad and the ugly of His Cubiness! We have had (and continue to) to have some really tough times with him. He is as my brother calls it a Baby Teenager and I call him Rebel without a Cause AND a Pause! We say no for pretty much everything for the heck of it and same goes for the whining as well. Of course his parents do not show the much needed maturity to deal with such behaviour and often that is the recipe for disaster. But then again, because we tend to focus so much on his crying and whining we often forget to appreciate what a great kid he is otherwise and I have been guilt tripping myself over it often. Time to make some changes. Send positive ideas, thoughts and vibes our way folks! :)


Now for the good parts!


Cub is becoming more and more independent by the day. Just this morning I went to drop him to school because he was still not too well. The way he walked into the school and just waved goodbye without even looking back, I suddenly got teary eyed. When did he grow up so much?! He now sleeps in his own room and all he expects is about 10mins of cuddling time before he dozes off. When in a good mood, he keeps his stuff back in its place. Be it school bag in the cupboard or shoes on the shoe rack.


He is a super helpful kid at home and outside. If we go out and come back with lots of bags he always makes sure he is carrying one. He helps us with little stuff around the house including cleaning the ghar or sorting the vegetables. He gets his own glass of water and keeps our coffee cups back in the kitchen if he is feeling especially happy! :p


Cub is an adorable and adoring big brother to the Bub. There are times when the attention she gets bothers him and I would think it is only natural, especially since she is going through an ultra cute phase. But more often than not, he is ready to play with her, soothe her with sweet words and generally just be nice and protective!


He is an extremely sensitive child not to just his feelings, but others' as well. I am still amazed when i see pained expressions on his face anytime the stories he is listening to have a sad tone. He readily shares his things and is rarely demanding. Even the times he is demanding, a decent explanation is usually enough or he tends to forget after some time.


He is learning so many things at school and tends to retain all of it much to our surprise. So other day M just throws the word Kimono at him for something they were talking about and the child pipes up "That is the dress of Japanese women!" We just kept staring at him in complete shock! Hehe! His drawing is improving a LOT! He actually draws recognisable images now and it is fun to see him take effort at it. Thank god he has M's artistic genes. The colouring has shown marked improvement as well.

He recently learned the whole honesty, lying and joking bits. Very often he says he wants something and when given says "I was just joking!" Grrrrrrrrrrr!! Or because he has changed his mind he says "I was lying." Huh?! The other day we had a blog meet in Boo's honour at Art's place. Artsy Crafty Shruti had got some colouring work for all the kids. After some time Cub got a coloured picture with his name on it. I was super surprised at how neat it was. I kept asking him "did you really do this?!" and he said Yes! But then after some time he came up to me and said, "This is not mine. It is someone else's!" I was so proud that he came clean. We found the picture he was colouring, got it home, coloured it and it is now stuck on his cupboard! :)


He still LOVES being read to and I enjoy reading to him. He now gets the funny parts and some word play as well. It is easier to explain the slightly complicated words. Of course he goes through phases where one needs to keep telling the same story over and over again. It can range from Cinderella (gah!) to Little Bird Learns to Fly to Samira goes shopping. I do hope he soon starts reading on his own and keeps this habit forever.


He is also in at a stage where he HATES being photographed! :( So, we have such few photos of him in over 6 months! I do hope he grows out of this soon. Sigh!


He is eating better now. It does not mean it is painless, getting the food down the throat, but it is definitely easier. He also very clearly told us that he can eat spicy food from outside but will find even mildly spicy stuff made at home inedible! :p No, no! He does eat regular khaana at home. Just not as easily! He does have taste for good food and always surprises us by eating most random stuff like salmon and fancy cheese.


While Cub is not naturally brave, he is ready to push his limits. To try something he has not and see how far he can go. It may not always be very far, but it is more than he thinks he can and that is good enough.


All in all, he is a really great kid who needs to realize just how nice he is. Someday soon, we hope. Meanwhile I hope he keeps being the kind and generous boy he is. Just today we were watching his old videos and I was struck by just how much he has grown up! He just does not seem like a little baby anymore, though at heart he so much is. Thank god for that! :)


We love you our first born! It may seem like we are being jerks at times, but we are learning too and it is good to have you with us! Hugs and kisses!


Here are few photos we manage to click when His Majesty lets us without running away or starting to bawl! Boys!!!

The ultimate fake smile! gah!

Enjoying his favourite Mango ice-cream at Naturals!

Isn't he a handsome fella?! :)

But then we get to see his hands far too often! :(

eating batatyaachi bhaaji and poli in the train en route to Kolhapur!

That is a panther out for a hunt! :)

Since he refused to show me his face, i clicked the picture of an umbrella and a pair of shoes!

At Papa's office on a Sunday afternoon! :)

Learning to befriend water in the colony pool!

Always happy with Vedu bhaiyya who is reading to him in all seriousness! :)

Discussing colour scheme? With colony friends at his chhota Birthday party!

At the Frisbee Tournament called the Ultimates

Dust-buster! Helping me get rid of the grime! :)

If I have no place to run, I will hide! :p

Agreeing to pose with his posse! :)

At Miggu's birthday - Cub's favouritest person in whole wide world! :)

With Miggu and other buddies at his own birthday pahty!

The first spellings learnt! :)

Trying out the new kinda swing at Jungle Lodges!

Taking his sister along to see the zoo! :)

The latest photo. he let me click if i agreed to let him cover half his face! *rolls eyes*

:) THREE!!!!!!!!!!!!!

From incoherent words to loooong sentences

From parents saying No to parents getting used to hearing just NOs

From careful walking to running with the wind

From toothy smiles to full blown laughter

From occasional swaying to music to what can almost pass off as dance

From listening to stories to making up your own

From being a fussy eater to being a fussy eater

From liking chocolates to LOVING them

From refusing ice cream to wanting to go to Naturals for your fix

From sleeping in the movie theatre to demanding your share of popcorn and cola

From being offered choices to making those choices

From waiting patiently for us to change you to bringing your night suit including diaper on your own

From getting hugs to giving them

From accepting kisses to avoiding them

From being fed all the meals to trying to eat most of them on your own

From drinking milk with glass to spoon to glass again depending on your mood

From being able to sing your alphabet to being able to recognize half of them

From needing the two of us to drop you to school on bike to standing confidently on your own and even pulling the choke to help my bike start

From being absolutely nuts about Hemmets to have your own Helmet that you wear when we drop you to school

From the Terrible Twos to the Terrifying Threes!!

This year has been full of new discoveries… for all of us! It has been amazing to see you soak everything up like a sponge… good and bad and we keep struggling to find the balance. You mostly delight us with your observations and ability to know the right answers!

You are officially a junkie loving your chips and chocolates, but you get them only when we have guests over or when we are traveling or something.

You have become extremely stubborn often driving me complete and total frustration. I know a lot has to do with the fact that my scolding makes you defy me even more, but I am hoping in this coming year we will be able to find a middle ground.

We had one birthday party for you this Saturday and it was a lot of fun! For us. I hope you enjoyed too. Considering we saw / heard from you ONLY during cake cutting I am guessing you managed to keep yourself busy and had fun! The cake was absolutely gorgeous and the presence of all our friends made it very special. Next year perhaps you will have friends of your own or something and we will have a small do at home.

Happy Birthday Love! You are one of the most amazing kids around! Have a great year ahead and may those shining eyes and the brilliant smile keep enthralling us! :)

Love ya lots and pots! :)

Here are some snapshots of the evening! :)

Accepting his gifts minus the Thank Yous!

Kids getting enthralled by bubbles thoughtfully brought by Richa aunty! :)

Draw the bindi! Much like pin the donkey's tail. Thanks Ramya for the idea! :)

The Birthday Cake! Kingfisher aeopane with all his favourite movie characters grabbing the window seat! :)

The cake cutting and all that jazz! :) Cub had dipped his fingers into it before we could get to cutting it! :p

One for the camera! :)

Kids had a gala time drawing / scribbling on chart papers put up on the walls!

The sole streamer flying along with the fan! :)

Cub - happy to have the whole place for himself!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY ONCE AGAIN!!!!!

Much love, hugs, kisses and prayers!

God bless you sweetheart! :)


ps: Most of this stuff was a part of Cub's birthday invite. I just added some more Froms! ;)

jab main chhoti bacchi thi!

ITW did this tag about 'what are the 7 favourite things you enjoyed doing as a child?' I am picking it up because nostalgia is almost always nice! :)

I loved the walk to / from the school! (I liked school too, but the walk more!).

We were a gang of like 8 -10 kids (gender didn't matter at all then!) who went to the same school at the same time. So we would meet up every morning and walk to the school. There were times if we were 8 of us, we would take a cab simply because minimum fare was 8bucks and bus fare of Re.1. So if we pooled in we could go by cab!! Imagine cramming 8 people in ONE cab!! :D Then, there was a huge tree on the footpath outside our school.

We used to wait there in the evening for everyone to come and the leisurely walk back home would start. There would be again occasional pooling of money to buy 'golis' from the sweet shop. There was one type - really small red coloured pellet looking ones, which cost just 5ps per goli! And the yummy kala khatta flavoured one that cost a whole 25ps! My mouth waters thinking about it even now! Thankfully questionable hygiene and ingredients were, well, not questioned so much then! :p There was another bhaiyya outside school how sold imli (tamarind), kairi (raw mango), bora (I have no idea about the translation) which was sold with mix of salt and chilli powder! Drooooool!

Summer Vacations at Kolhapur

Those were the days when vacation meant at least a month going to Kolhapur and surrounding cities where all my maternal cousins stayed! My mausi's daughter S is just 15 days elder to me, so meeting her was what I looked forward to the most! That is when I did yearly learning and forgetting of cycling. Going to circuit house opposite their apartment and trying to get 'english' imli off the trees with stones and crazy jumping! Talking late into the night, playing cards and name,place, animal, thing throughout the day to calling a cousin over just to tell us ghost stories really late! :)

Birthday Parties

How I Loved getting invited for friends' birthday parties. Of course they used to be simple affairs. Cake (Monginis was height of expensive cakes), wafers and Rasna! It would just be another floor and yet you wore your best clothes, matching clips and went with a little gift wrapped in shiny paper and had lotsa fun doing nothing super special!

Playing with friends

Be it playing house-house with the whole kitchen set and fake food (never would my Mom have thought i would NEVER want to cook) or pretending to be major career women walking on high heel making tic-toc noise (i have never understood why heels always considering i never wore them in real life when i had a job) to playing chain, catch and even dreaded langdi! Every evening as soon as you got home, you threw everything, had a glass of milk and ran to the gacchi (terrace) and played till your parents didn't holler!

Festivals

Be it holi or diwali, I loved being a part of the festivities! To get an oil bath early in the morning on diwali day to playing colours till you became unrecognisable during holi! There used to be Kojagiri (a particular full moon night) celebrated in the building. Thats the day they had the building committee meeting that was followed by snacks and coffee! Kids used to play in one corner of the terrace and rest of it was meeting. Soon we were too many to let sane adult conversation happen! So kids started having a separate Kojagiri party by contributing money. Yummy food and crazy games till late into the night. Those were indeed the days! I still love it all!

Shopping

Unlike now, shopping wasn't a can be done anytime kinda affair. One got new clothes only for birthday and Diwali. To go and shop for it was a HUGE thing! My parents let me choose my clothes from pretty early on. Now when I look back I cringe at my choice and wonder what must be going through my parents' mind when they threw their hard earned money to buy crappy clothes! Sorry mom and dad!

Sundays and television

Sunday meant watching cartoons and Rangoli! Mickey Mouse and Donald duck were preceded by best of bollywood gaanas. To accompany the gaanas we would get tea! Sunday was the only day bro and me got tea, which on other days was a glassful of bournvita! :) Sundays also meant buying khaari from the bhaiyya who went door to door and dunking it in chai and taking the soggy bit to your mouth without dropping it in the chai or somewhere midway! haven't you heard there is a many a slip between the cup and the lip?! :p

This was super fun to do!! Man! How life has changed?! I remember my mom telling us how much MORE fun their childhood was without TV and computer and no other forms of distraction really. Will i also be going "Hamare zamanein mein" with Kabir while he rolls his eyes in exasperation?!

Well, we can just wait and watch, can't we?!

I don't know if we can tag people when we have picked up the tag just like that. But then what the heck! It will be fun to read some other people's take on this!

I tag my namesake Mamma-Mia, Just Like That (she hasn't posted in AGES!), WIAN, Munchkin's mommy and Dee.

If you have done it already forget it! If you haven't and get time, do it!

It's a refreshing walk down the memory lane!

spot the difference!

can you spot the difference?!

Ok! Ok! This is just my way of showing what I think are Cubby's cutest pictures till date! :D

These were clicked by my school friend G's brother in law who is quite a shutterbug! It was G's son's 3rd birthday party and Cubby had such a blast chasing the older kids, just screaming his lungs out to make sure nobody missed his tiny presence! :D

I just read this post by my almost namesake Mamma-Mia about sensitive kids and how will they survive this cruel world.

I have no answers, but when i met G's son A, I prayed Cubby turns out to be like him. He was so giving and kind. Though Cubby was the youngest of the lot and this was the first time he was meeting him, A took to him like a big brother. He shared his toys readily and made sure he kept playing with him every now and then. He also made sure that the other kids (his regular friends of his age) didn't trample Cubby as he tried to join them with his baby antics! He even fed him his birthday cake after cutting it!

In the end when we were leaving he asked his mom "Aren't they staying for dinner?" and my heart melted then and there! Hats off to you G! A is such a precious kid. Touchwood!

While all this happened, the other kids were being loud and destructive in general and didn't even bother coming and saying hello to Cubby who was trying so hard to be part of the fun.

So what makes these kids so different from each other? How do the concepts of sharing and inclusion are understood by some at such a young age and not by others for years together?!

How do I make sure that Cubby grows up to be a kind and sensitive boy who can take care of himself when situation demands?!

Maybe as I see him grow each day, the answers will unravel and then it might not be as difficult as I think it is...

On a lighter not also MUST read is this post yet again by the lot more creative namesake. M was in complete awe of her writing and especially this post! It's quite difficult to write so perfectly on this errr.. touchy issue!!

And on an even happier not a looong weekend awaits!!! YYiipppppeee!!