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!

might as well do some tag to break the block!

Kiran tagged me some time ago to tell the world some honest stuff about me! last time i had to do a tag about 10 things you don't know about me, I had struggled to reach 10 points! Lets see how I fare this time! ;)


I am a quick reader, but not the most attentive one. You ask me tomorrow what I read yesterday, chances are I won't remember. I just want to move on to the next page!


I cannot wear heels. After the first few times when they killed my back, I never went near them. I keep looking for nice flats. And yes, i trip over wearing them too! :p


I tend to start things with a bang but then end up losing interest pretty quickly!


I LOVE going to these home expos and exhibitions and shopping there. I realised this when my I answered "Exhibition" to almost all questions relating to "where did you buy this from?" about things in my house!


I have never been proposed! Not even M! Sigh! Ofcourse I have told at least 3 guys that I have a crush on them and the only way I can get over it is by telling them!


I save and reuse wrapping wrappers that I like. And yes, they go under the gaddas on the bed for safe keeping! ;)


I hate washing clothes! Give me a sink load of bartans, I can manage them, but even two clothes and I totally whine!


I am a very average cook which I think stems from that the fact that I am not an enthusiastic one.


I eat wonly dark chocolates. I might have a small piece of milk chocolate on rare occasions but that would mostly be only out of sheer desperation for one. Otherwise anything below 60% dark is not even called Chocolate! Ha!


I am not very good at accepting even constructive criticism. Ask M.


Phew that was tough! I tag Suma, Swati, JLT and WIAN to do this tag! Bring it on ladies!


And now here's some photos of the Jodhpur chapter of our Rajasthan trip! The Mehrangarh fort is absolutely awesome and MUST visit. The autos there are very kitschy and touristy and very very comfortable. The hotel we stayed at was beyoootiful! :)




Happy to be in a big bed after sharing a berth with me on the train! :)



Just to show you guys who tall the bed was! :)




I so totally fell in love with the autos! each one was unique!

The Mehrangarh Fort is stunning! Must see, folks!

The room where the king enjoyed his entertainemnt! it's s rich and the work so intricate! They really knew how to live it up! :)

The Blue city. They claim it NOT in comeptition to the Pink City! I was not convinced!



The "palkhis" for the Royal kids. our kids just get the royal "godi" :p



The men and the arms they use! ;)




The gorgeous silk stoles. I indulged in just one!



Candlelight dinner at ratan Vilas. It is a gorgeous property!



Stairway to the beautiful terrace!



View from the top!

The ma-beta in rare moment of lauuu! :p

I told ya i loved the autos. Guess what? they love me back! :) written in the auto!

The Vintage cars at palace now converted in to VERY expensive heritage hotel!

There were a lot more pictures. But i just got tired. And this post has been drafts since 9th Feb! gah!! Hope to be l'il more regular now.

Thank you for all your good wishes for the new home. We have settled down and have just few more boxes to go! ;) Next post I hope to give you a small tour! If i can get a carpenter to come and do some fixing that is! :p

happy gudi padva to all of you. may this new year bring everything good, beautiful and kind in your life and may you add the same in other people's lives!

Cheers!

new beginnings!

and No, I am not pregnant considering that would be an "expected" announcement by now! hehe!


THIS is what we have been busy with.


We have lived in the current house for over 4 years and it has been good to us. It took us forever to finally get off our behinds and do something about making the move. And now that we are ready to take the plunge and move to the next rented accomodation, it is but obvious that it feels odd. All the memories made in the current house we of course take with us. The first time we tried to turn the house into Home with things we liked. From bare walls and floor to its current state where we have collected enough stuff to last us a lifetime. The paintings on the wall compete with Cub's scribbling and the furniture takes much lesser space on the floor than Cub's toys which seem to like getting their share of fresh air!


There are kiddie stickers on the bathroom tiles and our photos pasted on used paper on random walls (we so need to spend money on frames!;). There are notes and messages written on gift cards found here and there.

We threw our first lunch do here by cooking for 20 people when cooking for 2 used to take us more than 2hrs everyday! We had lot of friends and family coming over and making us feel good by choosing to spend time with us rather than anywhere else. And all of then always told us how much they loved the place and the vibes it has reaffirming what we always believed. There was no lift even forget any other fancy amenities and yet the sunshine and fresh breeze aplenty always made it a great place to live in.

Ofcourse how can I forget Cubby got made in this house! ;) He grew up here too and has been the happiest thing to happen to us.

We now need a lift for our parents who arent getting any younger and space for the Cub to play and a chance hopefully to make friends. We move this weekend to the new house and cannot wait to make it a home. I really hope this house will prove equally lucky and we will get a chance to make many more happy memories.


There is a lot of miscellaneous work we need to get done. The woodwork isnt all that great and we need to get some chips and dislocations mended. Gte the kitchen in a bit of better shape than it is. But all that should not be difficult as long as the positive vibes continue! :)


There is the actual moving too. The amount of crap we have collected over the years is just too much. We are trying to be as ruthless as we can. Lots of clothes given away to Amma and also kept aside for charity if anyone thinks they can be used. Sundry wedding gifts which weren't opened in 5 years, old paperwork which means nothing today etc. I am sure when the packers come and pull the other stuff down from lofts there will be a bigger pile of give away stuff. The thumb rule of if you haven't used something for 2 years you never will so totally applies. Except for greeting cards, letters and books.


Wish us luck folks! :)


Here's some photos from our Rajasthan trip! This is the Jailsalmer bit. I don't think I will be doing full fledged posts on this trip. I just had too many expectations (i don't even know what). Plus Cub due to lack of sleep sometimes and mostly thanks to refusing to eat was a quite a pain throughout the trip almost. Add to that I almost always over reacted to his misbehaviour making it worse for all of us. He was happiest the day we finally went for the camel Safari. He started crying the moment he saw camels but within no time was a happy camper sitting with his papa and waving to me off and on. That night post safari Cubby slept for like 15hours straight I think. It was as if he finally got what he wanted out of his Rajasthan trip on the very last day and then could sleep in peace! :)


Yet the place is so worth a visit. The hitsory, sights and colours just blow you away and I look forward to making another trip and see the places I havent this time.

at some random early hour in a make shift room till we got ours! :)

The gorgeous terrace restaurant at Shahi Palace with a biew of a fort. Thanks Preethi for the recco! :)

This is how the restaurant looks! :)

The room! :)

The cenotaphs at Bada Bagh.

Local kid acting as a guide to subsidise his studies. And he did an awesome job of it! :)

Its actually kinda sad how there are no guides at this place to tell you the story behind it which is quite interesting! Thank god for this kid who wove fascinating tales. I really hope he gtes a better future!

There is one figure on horse on 3 smaller figures next to it. The rider is the king and the fgiures next to him are the number of queens he had and who went sati with him.

Indians can go in free! Ofcos only after we put off our shoes! :)

I obviously went during my monthly course period and ruined the sanotity of the temples! :p

And that's why he can afford to sell his crap a double the mrp! Gee!

Cub on his camel "Morya" with his Papa.

Shadow Play - Thats Morya and Pappu taking us for a ride! :)

The caravan!

Freshly made Chai paani in the desert! Awesome! :)

The Phamily Photu! :)

The view of the lit up fort!

When the seating is so comfy, you can even lie down! ;)

The covered area of roof top resto when the sun gets too harsh!

The shopping ofcourse! Tho i still regret not being able to buy any silver jewelry! :(

a dry month! almost!

Good friend WIAN commented on the last post and reminded me that I haven't written a single post! I might have gone slow on posts in the past months, but a complete dry run does not seem like a good idea. Especially at the end of the year when everyone seems to be taking a stock of the year gone and how life changed for them.


I don't really have any earth shattering discoveries - self or the other kind. If i were to look back on the last year, I can say it was a year filled with friends, family and travel. From April when best bud G dropped in from Goa we have had a total of maybe coupla weekends when we were not meeting people, either in our home or theirs! And I am thankful for that! :) I always wanted Cubby to know a house full of people is a good thing... that there is life beyond his parents and amma.


By travel, i don't really mean exotic travel to strange lands. But small trips that kept happening every now then. Starting with Masinagudi trip in Jan, to lucknow in April for Ooi Bua's shaadi, then to Pune for Cubby's 2nd in July. A whole lot of family came to Bangalore and we made weekend trips to Yercaud and Chikmagalur. There were day trips to Nandi Hills and Innovative Film City thrown in every now and then! And how can I forget the last trip of the year to Rajasthan and Delhi which I am yet to write an update on! Next year defi! ;)


Cubby started his play school and is having a good time. Ofcos thanks to missing his school for over three weeks in December he was crying again to go there, but I am hoping when the school reopens in Jan he will get used to it again in a few days! :)

Thre's Cub 2nd from left. A part of the Dragon! :D

Lost, but still standing tall! :)

He also had his first stage appearance for his annual day in Dec. Considering he had only 3 days practice, I was happy to see him not start crying on the stage. He was lost ofcos, but then he stayed there. And then he saw his crazy parents waving to him and a brilliant smile lit up his face! He clapped for himself and waved to us and then the curtains came down. We were maha proud of him! So what if he didn't dance a single step! ;)

That said I have to say that he has an innate rhythm in his dance and we love watching him shake it every now and then. Last time he did that for "Move it, Move it" while watching Madagascar and we were so thrilled that we forgot to take a video! bah!

While everything else is good I have been thinking about renaming Cub as "His Whiness". The child really can whine. There are tears for anything and everything and each request comes with its corresponding whine. Knowing my non-existent patience level it is really annoying me to no end and we spend most of our time fighting with each other! Experienced mothers, pls help! There is rebellion for just about anything. If we say Yes, he HAS to say NO and vice versa. I mean tell him to change wet pajama he will say No just because he has to do it. He is pushing my buttons ALL the time and I am at my wit's end about what I should be doing / not doing! :( I hate myself for hollering so much, but the amount of misbehaviour we are subjected to every single day for every little thing, I am just not able to make any sense of it! gah!


Thank God for his maha cute smile and funny talk othawise I would have died and gone to Mommy Hell!


He also has gone into the K phase! Thankfully not Ekta kapoor variety, but equally annoying! Kaunsa, Kiska, Kahan, Kisne are the questions asked constantly and for everything. Tell him "Mumy ko chahiye" the answer is "Kiski Mummy?" Huh??!!


Tell him "Cubby Moonh yahan karo" the answer is "Kiska Moonh?!" I will say Tumhaara. He will say "kaunsa moonh". I will say "Kitne moonh hai tumhaare?" he will follow it with "Kiske kitne hai... Moonh?!" Gah!!!!


You can imagine the madness, innit? It's so bad that yesterday M said "Remote de do." and I asked him "kaunsa" in Cubby's tone!! :P


He also makes a whole lotta nonsensical rhymes through out the day. Sometimes is superman is fighting sang in ABCD tune (actually everything is sung in the alphabet song tune!) at others its something completely random almost none of which we understand!

Have to make a note of Cubby's new creation in Hindi "Tumka" said instead of Tumhaara! Yeh tumkaa purse hai ka types! We keep telling him it is Aapka or Tumhaara, but he is happy with Tumka! :p


Other than this hotch potch of stuff I have mentioned, life has been good and I really cannot complain!

WE have no plans for the new years eve, and hopefully the new year itself will be full of fun things, lots of love, unending supply of hope, some stability, some new things, a little giving back to the society in some form and overall sense of well being and peace!


And yes, I wish the same for all of you too! :)


happy 2010 Folks!


cheers!

ps: here's some Cute Cub moments!! :D

At S Buas shaadi! before!

At S Bua's shaadi after! Thanks Starry for the Kurta! :D

At Umaid Bhavan Palace, Jodhpur.

The sukhi Jain parivaar! :)