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*

an ode to an ode...

My life till date has been pretty normal and mostly happy! Anti-jinx to that. No extreme lows, some highs and a lot of simple days with neither. But everyone has some angst at some point in time and mine was my looks. Or lack of it if I may say so. It is never easy being an average looking teenager. Dark, thick glasses, no sharp features and a big boned structure maketh not a traditional beauty.


Yes, one always knew about Inner Beauty and Personality, but these words made no sense when you did not get no boyfriend in college or even have boys noticing you. It was difficult not to feel bad sometimes about lack of roses on the dratted rose day or knowing there was precious little you could do about the image in the mirror.


The parents were ever supportive. Always talking about the innate intelligence and the street smartness that not many girls had. The fact that one was a social being and knew how to have a conversation with everyone. That one had good manners and kind heart. But that did not make the one I had crush on look at me. He still did prefer the obviously pretty.


The angst of an average looking girl is only what she can understand, deal with and get out of. There are no popular books and movies that talk about the Plain Jane. If they do, it is in the tone of how ugly duckling turned into a swan. The girls always become prettier and sexier, get rid of the glasses and the plumpness and get themselves the man. Which is why i LOVE this movie called Thodasa Roomani Ho Jaaye with all my heart.


It captures the life of a young woman who is not beautiful by any conventional standards. She can cook up a storm and repair cars. She is not scared of getting dirty, but cannot get herself to preen and look pretty. She obviously is not getting married because she just does not have what it takes. Then comes along the Rainmaker - Baarishkar who tells her to look within. Tells her that there are no bad looking woman. Then follows the gorgeous song "Main sundar hoon" - the realization that she is special too.


It is not just about her, but how he brings out hope and longings of each of the family members. The way he reads them, the way he helps them bring out their best, face their fears, accept what is good in them and believe that they can succeed. The movie is sheer poetry. Every dialogue will make you ponder, smile, tear up or do all of the above. With top class performances by Nana Patekar and Anita Kanwar, this movie is a treat that one just should not miss. The father in the movie is one who adores his daughter, sees the best in her and cannot understand why other people cannot see how special she is. I am yet to see a subtler and a more awesome portrayal of a father.


As I watched the movie again today, I still got transported to the time when I wanted to beautiful, when I identified with Binni's character and thought that with her I had discovered my beauty as well. For the longest time, i dressed in checked shirts and pants behaving like a tomboy! :p While it takes a lot of influence me, I think this movie really made me challenge the way I looked at myself and the world and it is still the best "pick me up" for me.


There is no DVD of the movie, but you can find VCD online. And the whole movie is available on YouTube as well. If you have not watched it, make sure you do.


If I could talk to my teenage self, I would tell me to just relax and while it would be great to be a stunner, you really wont do badly for yourself and your happiness will always shine through! :)


Here is the video of Nana Patekar reciting the dialogue in some interview. Amazing is an understatement!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lVLH5HnNmbs

Here's another lovely article someone shared with me on facebook. It is good to know you are not the only idiot! ;)

http://www.divinecaroline.com/24133/96491-never-ugly

And here are some lines from one of my favouritest songs from the movie!

rasta akela ho
har tarf andhera ho
raat bhi ho ghaath ki
din bhi lut raah hoAao tum aur hum dard ko basuri banaye

Yehi to hai mausam
Aao tum aur hum
Thodasa roomani ho aye
Mushkil hai jeena umeed ke bina
Thode se sapna sajayae
Thodasa roomani ho jaye

PS: This is no fishing post asking you folks to tell me that I am indeed beautiful or how gorgeous my smile is! :) I now know my beauty and the lack of some of it mostly does not matter! Cheers!

when you are on a summer vacation...

at your Ujoba's house in Ichalkaranji, it cannot be but a lot of fun!

because you can stop by for a Goti soda on the way!

And sit naked and eat mangoes all day along once you get home!

Or just fool around in the balcony while aaji catches up on the day's newspapers! 

wear bindi and play with katoris in the sun!

Practice your photography skills in the verandah (taken by Cub)

Learn how to put clothes in a front load machine

and push them in with all your might

till the bucket is empty!

sit on the table at a small l'il restaurant!

and get your pictures clicked with Ujoba!

and eat mangoes once again when back home! ;)

go to a green house that grows roses and bell peppers!

Indulge in shadow play with your mother!

convince Papa to hand over the handy cam to you and then pose with it!

get carried around first by Ajoba...

and then by Ujoba!

while one cannot even walk the other wants to jump all around!

you even get to fool around in Ujoba's office!

and get a good-bye kiss from Ujoba's dog - Hero!

how can he be called anything but that with those good looks, eh?!

There are smiles but we are not very happy to leave

With Ajoba, Aaji and Ujoba. happy for the good times had!


Thank you SO MUCH Ujoba for such a great time! We were there only for two days, but fun and relaxation we managed in those two was just incomparable. We hope to spend longer time next time! :)

Ps: My kids call my Dad, Ajoba. He has two brothers Ulhas and Vikas. So as to not confuse Cub, we call Ulhas Ajoba - Ujoba and Vikas Ajoba - Vijoba! This was lest you were wondering what the heck is Ujoba! :D

will the real mother please stand up?! :)

Read this gorgeous gorgeous piece on MadMomma's blog. We all tend to judge people on the basis of our beliefs. There are a few things which are as right or wrong in a black and white manner with no shades of grey. Leaving those apart, all of us at some point fall into the trap of thinking we know better or someone else always seems to be doing better. Mothers are the most judged and judgmental of the lot and we learn to live with it. So like that blog post, I am making an attempt to figure out who Real Mother is! :)

Real mothers breastfeed. Or they don't. They don't because they cannot or perhaps because they don't want to.

Real mothers experience love at first sight with their babies. Real mothers take months to feel that love and show it.

Real mother use diapers. Real mothers use cloth nappies.

Real mothers are patient and forgiving. Real mothers are impatient and get frustrated.

Real mothers make fresh food for their kids for every meal. Real mothers also serve leftovers and feed processed food every now and then.

Real mothers stay at home for their children. Real mothers work out of homes for their children.

Real mothers don't trust others with their children. Real mothers trust someone else to look after them in their absence or in their presence.

Real mothers make outfits from scratch for fancy dress or Halloween. Real mothers just pay some money and rent them.

Real mothers teach their children at home. Real mothers send their children for tutions.

Real mothers have a fixed bedtime for their children. Real mothers don't insist on it.

Real mothers can bake birthday cakes. Real mothers just get them baked.

Real mothers dance with their children. Real mothers read to their children. Real mothers don't do either.

Real mothers never show their tears. Real mothers cry in front of their children.

Real mothers eat before their children. Real mothers feed their children first.

Real mothers cannot stay away from their children. Real mothers cannot wait to get away for a while from their children.

Real mothers don't take the nannies along on their shopping trips. Real mothers do.

Real mothers are proud of their kids. Real mothers are also embarrassed by theirs.

Real mothers take their children to shopping malls and gaming zones. Real mothers take their children to parks and zoos. Real bothers do all of it too.

Real mothers get Wii for their children. Real mothers play ball with their children.

Real mothers let their children watch TV. Real mothers don't bother with that contraption ever.

Real mothers get bored of constant chatter of their kids. Real mothers cannot have enough of it.

Real mothers take their children to movies. Real mothers don't. Real mothers also take them to concerts and plays.

Real mothers don't buy guns and dolls for their children. Real mothers do.

Real mothers judge and get judged. Real mothers don't.

We may think that one kind of mother is better than other, but then we rarely have the big picture to know why the mother is making the decisions she is. And most of us are not on either extreme. We are somewhere in between and trying our best to balance it all. Mostly.

Fact is, all mothers are Real. As Real as everything WE so firmly believe in and know to be right! :)

So, will the real mother please stand up?!

Cub - The school stories!

In these days of instant gratification and short term memories, I end up posting small tidbits on facebook and then feel too lazy to jot it down out here for posterity. And that is a pity. So, I might as well use those mini updates and put up a proper post for us to remember.


Cub seems to be enjoying his new school. Of course that does not mean that waking up and getting ready in the morning is too pleasant an experience. His bus pick up happens by around 745am, which means that he has to be up an hour earlier if he has to have his breakfast, bath and then leave. I am up by 6am which is fairly early for me! Yawn! Both of us are not morning people and hence spend a fair amount of time in shouting and crying. Me the former, Cub the later! ;)


But we do manage to down an egg and a glass of milk every morning, have that bath and be there at the bus-stop 10mins before time. Pat on our backs! ;)


He is back by little past 1pm and comes home with a spring in his step. He actually tells us what he did and learned in school which used to never happen previously. One really needed to keep asking hundred questions to elicit one response. So its a very pleasant and welcome change.


Some gyan Cub has been spouting past two weeks;

"You know our teacher told us something about the brain. She said that even when our eyes are closed and we are sleeping, our brain is still working!"


"Do you know why our head is so hard?! Because there is a skull inside!" (Thank god he did not know what the skull was made of and said wood! Hehe!)


"You know there is one more ear inside our ear. Ears help us hear and balance."


"Mouth has teeth. There are front teeth and back teeth. Teeth in the front are for biting and the teeth in the back are for chewing."


"Eyes are for seeing. Nose is for smelling and breathing!"


They have different games to make the concepts clear for the kids and Cub for one seems to be enjoying all of it. They also get to practice writing on slate I think, which also he loves.


Every Friday he gets a cute little Library bag whose contents are quite scary. It holds his homework! Quite annoying if you ask me, but I guess some practice at home is required. And thankfully it comes only once a week. There is also a library book which he needs to return on Monday.


All in all, till now, it seems like a good school to be. Baaki, we will just have to wait and watch! :)

Here's a peek into the children's room. There is nothing exceptionally kiddy or theme based out here. Just a mishmash of things they own, made and we had lying around. The only new thing is the Nilkamal cupboard for Cub's books and games. But that cupboard is largely responsible for making him move to his own room. And it does brighten up the room. They still don't have a bed and sleep on gaddas. We are contemplating between a bunk  bed and a normal one. I have this childhood fantasy of bunk bed while M thinks its far more practical to just buy a normal bed. We will see.

Mix and match! :)


These are the extensions on the side of the almirah. It has a photo frame Cub and me made stuck on top, Bobblehead of the cat in Alice in Wonderland (which I intend to keep once we have a book case), a post office shaped bank given by Richa and remote controlled Ferrari as well! There are camels from Rajasthan and small coconut that is carved from inside where they can store small stuff like erasers etc if they want. Then there is an auto, a cycle and a dragon - all modes of transport! What? Haven't you seen How to train your dragon?! :)

A close up of the photo frame. It has Cub n M with Daadu who is no more...   :(


We still have not put up a nice framed picture of Papa, but we wanted something by which Cub would have memories of him. So we picked this photo. The frame is Flipkart packaging of a book, the red shapes have been cut from a wedding card and the top portion is block printing with bhindi. Our colouring is quite shoddy, but it looks quite ok for coupla amateurs like Cub and me! :)

Cub's side of the almirah has cars on it and Ally's the pista flowers Cub and me had made eons ago! :)

These are really pretty ceramic chimes which M's brother had gifted him before shaadi even. This is the first place we used them. I am glad we have saved them. Sorry, I just could not get a clearer picture.

The errr...messy area! :) The Blue and red cupboard that Cub picked.

Ally's clothes shelf, previously used by Cub, gifted to us by very hep Chitra chachi! :) The birds next to it are left over Wallies stickers that we discovered thanks to Artsy Crafty fame Shruti. Don't they look perfect out there?


That is all from the Jain household right now. Hope things have been fun and cool at your end too! :)

Colour me Red!

Just a quick photo post because i think "Lal hai rang pyaar ka!"

One of my absolute favs... This photo! 

With very good pal HM! At Rogue Elephant. Gorgeous place, btw!

lal hai rang Cub ke uniform ka bhi! :) First day of BIG School! :)



Yup. Cub has started a formal school since yesterday. And from today he will go and come back in a big yellow school bus! Please send good thoughts and vibes to this l'il big guy, will you?! :) I am hoping the school turns out to be fun and helps him come out of his shell and become a more confident child. Sometimes I wonder about how can we make him realize how cool he is?! Any ideas?


That said Cub has started enjoying trying to make word plays and being funny. Chip off the old block, I am hoping, if he is anything like his father. It started with telling him "traffic jam mein phanse hai" and him saying Jam toh khaane ki cheez hote hai and then carrying on from there.


The other day M was telling him his childhood story from Rajkot. As soon as he heard the name he pipes up "What is rajkot? Is it like "raincoat" or is it "Rajshekhar" where Bub was born?! :p


And today morning as I was hurrying him up for school and telling him how many minutes we had before going down to catch the bus, I asked him "You want to go potty?". He started laughing. And then goes on tell me, "I thought you said we have Potty minutes to go!" 


Among other big milestones, Cub and Bub have been moved to their own room! So, Yaaayyyy to that! Bub is too small to know the difference, but Cub is old enough to get scared and apprehensions. I am so so proud of him to have made the transition so smoothly. It may not have happened at a young age, but he has done it! :) It also helped that we got him his own cupboard and he is also feeling all grown up and responsible for Bub too since they share the room.


All in all life is good! Hope you guys are having fun too! :)

Bub - The Bubbly Babli!

I guess this blog is still to come to terms with the second child and lack of time that comes with it. Of course I cannot even blame Bub for lack of time because she is quite the sweetheart! One does get more time to blog with 8 hours plus of internet at office which I can only dream of at home as of now. I am enjoying this phase, but that for another post someday. This post is meant for the Daughter of ours. I just love even the sound of it. The father is of course hopelessly in love and smitten beyond repair.


So the Bub turned 6 months last month and what a joy ride it has been. The first three months were obviously dull, what with just sleeping and pooping most of the time and almost complete lack of expression. Are we the only parents who found both their kids in newborn stage terribly boring and not to mention dried raisin looking?! :p


But since month 4 Bub has been bestowing her gorgeous smile on everybody. And when I say it's stunning, I am not being the fond mother! I Hope! ;) She wakes up the morning and there is a biiiig smile as soon as you smile at her. Say something funny and she will grin again. The laughs though are reserved for her darling Brother, the Cub. None of us can make her laugh as easily as he does. He can say or do just about anything and we hear the happy gurgles which in turn make all of us laugh.


She rolled over around 5 months and now is trying VERY hard to start crawling. She still is not able to and gets very frustrated every time the attempt fails. This does mean she cannot move and one can never find her where she had been kept originally. She creeps a little and rest of the movement is through series of rollovers.


Like all babies, she loves grabbing glasses and pulling hair. She also enjoys just touching and holding your face if you bring it close and we never seem to get enough of that! :)


She hates being left alone and bawls her lungs out every single time this injustice is meted out to her. She HATES being kept on her back for too long. So we have keep propping her up so that she can keep standing and sitting as it pleases her while holding on to our hands.


She has quite a grip and its not easy to get things out of her hand. Also, anything that goes in her hand HAS to go into her mouth. Absolutely everything. Clothes, paper, toys, cell phones... she is not partial to anything. Often after she gets bored of eating her fingers, she chomps on her toes. My mom says if she can keep up with that exercise she will always have a flat tummy! Hehe!


That said, she LOVES to eat all the normal edible stuff as well. Give her something to chomp on and you won't even realize that she has no teeth! She especially enjoyed mangoes to the hilt this season. Her first obviously. She enjoys being given really small pieces of chapati, licks of ice cream and chocolate, fruits, biscuits... well you name it and she wants to eat it. I hope this happens when she really moves to proper solid meals! :p


All in all, she is a complete sunshine girl right now and we are totally blessed to have her in our lives.


Love ya our little angel. Keeping being as gorgeous as you are!

Of course, here's the photos!

This one is coupla months ago, but its such a keeper! :)

Super thrilled with Aaji ajoba in a cute jhabla gifted by gauri mavshi.

Excited during her first outing to the beach. At Juhu Beach in Bombay

Chomping on a carrot at a resto while we ate our khaana.

Magan-Lal - First taste of  Chikki on her first train trip ever! An overnighter to Kolhapur!

Didn't i say she LOVES mangoes?! :)

and this is what happens when you give a 6month old chocolate biscuit in her hands just to keep her outta your hair! :p

Yup! She likes being made to sit and stand every now and then!

In the gorgeous outfit gifted by Mugdha Mavshi. The wedding eve at Kolhapur.

And the actual wedding day. A halter neck lehenga - choli from Bhavya. can you see the tiny green and gold bangles?! :)