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!


:)

till i write a post of my own...

We lost my pa in law, fondly known as just Papa on 1st Sep 2010. He had been a heart patient and in and out of hospitals or past few months.


A lot of you who are regular on the blog must have read fairly consistent comments on all my blog posts. I am still to be able to write a post in as much detail as I would like to. One that lies in my draft folder since 15th Apr. A post about Cub and his Daadu which i wanted to put up as a gift for papa's birthday on 19th April. Now i am kicking myself for not having finished it then and there. But such is life... and death.


So I am just linking M's post right now. Simple, short and poignant.


I have not mourned his death. He lived his life too fully and happily for that. If it were for me, I would throw a party to celebrate his life with lots of meat, alcohol and laughter. Three things he absolutely loved! :)


Rest in peace Papa. You were a good soul and I am glad our paths crossed. Thank you for all the good times and unconditional love. You are missed.

of bookies and booker prizes

with a storm being raised thanks to the match-fixing by Pakistani cricket team, the word bookie has again graced the front pages of our newspapers with allegations and denial and counter allegations of course.


But since my blog is all about fluff and the happy Cubby stuff, I am just using these terms to talk about the Books Cub now loves. I still cannot say whether Cub is an avid book lover or no. You can rarely see him poring over his books by himself. But he does love being read to and his appetite for stories is unending and our repertoire far too less to satisfy those hunger pangs. Yet, we read new books and stories and the loved one are oft repeated and reread. So, i thought I should least make some not of the books he likes at this point of time. We are of course hoping that he will eventually become a bookworm!


Cub's love story with books and errr.. stories started with Karadi tales gifted by very cool Vee Taiji (who incidentally believes that the term Taiji itself makes her uncool but we disagree!). Now they are pretty much a staple diet in our life.


I think the CDs eventually become redundant but it is indeed cute to see Cub repeat after Karadi the bear and mouthing lines like "he had a fiery red mane and a deep thunderous roar!" We use these CDs to baby sit him while we go have a bath or something and he quite enjoys them.


Among all the Karadi tales, he loves The Foolish Lion which has Buddhu raj falling into well trying to fight his own reflection and Little Vinayak. I personally LOVE the latter. Its an adorable tale of l'il Vinayak who as his name suggests a small elephant but with a looooong trunk that he keeps tripping and falling over. It tell us how he finally learns to walk without falling with a song that Cub and me sing often. I totally recco this book to one and all with kids young enough to enjoy the elephant's trials at trying to make his trunk short!


Oh and I cannot forget how much he loves the story of Bakasur or rather Bheem as Cub calls it. Art gifted Bakasur and Bhasmasur books to Cub for his birthday and he fell in love with Bakasur story right away. He finds it funny how Bheem is always hungry! He also enjoys The Foolish Crow and we have to sing Saa sing the sunflowers ever so often!


We recently discovered joys of Dr.Seuss as well. The ABC book is often read and laughed over. I still am not sure if Cub laughs because I do or he genuinely gets it. But he enjoys repeating lazy lion licks a lollipop in an endless loop. I love to hear him say Yellow yawning yak. Young Yolanad Yorgensen is yelling on it's back! It's just too cool, i tell ya! :D


We also enjoy One Fish, two Fish, Blue Fish, Red Fish again by Dr.Seuss. The hilarious rhymes are always a great pick me up!


Same and different by Tulika which was gifted by Starry is also something Cub totally enjoys doing. I never thought he could spot the differences. What also amazes me is that how he looks it at it in the most simplistic fashion and finds the correct pair while I look at the more complicated parameters. Of course he still refuses to even try the ones which are not that obvious but I guess he is quite young!


Recently picked up Tulika's "Where is Gola's home?" in which Gola the yak wants a home for himself and how his friend Muri the eagle takes him to different habitats. Starting from sea to rivers, from desert to forest and how he finally find home in the snowy Himlayas. Enjoyable! :)


I also picked Eric Carle's bilingual of The Mixed-up Chameleon at a recent trip to Crossword. I am officially in love with it in couple of readings. So is Cub. We loved the vibrant artwork and the pictorial progression of how the Chameleon wants a l'il bit of something from every animal and after getting it ends up being so mixed up that he can't even hunt for his food. It's then that he realizes he would rather be the Chameleon he is instead of a mish-mash of random animals. I also read the book to Cub in Hindi as well and realised that so many words are never used in our day to day spoken Hindi. So Cub amused me by pointing to horse and monkey on some toy of his and telling me "Yeh jaanvar hai!" - something he learned from the Hindi version of the story. And this is after 2 reads.


We trip on Pratham Books as well. For one the stories are so sweet, simple and short and the art work so gorgeous that Cub gets them right away. I think they are the most value for money books ever possible. Just LOVE them. Tommy and the fly, The Onion's shawl, Annual haircut day, Too many Bananas are just a few that are read often.


He likes looking at his picture books as well. The simple ones that have Birds and Animals, alphabets, numbers etc. Since he now recognizes the alphabet pretty much completely (we have never taught him at home) he now tries to recognize them everywhere he sees a bunch of capital letters put together. He still doesn't understand the concept of how words get built, but likes the whole recognition business a lot.


So that's that from our Library as of now. Am sure there is stuff I have missed out on, but something is better than nothing. And i really need to keep the blog alive! I have been terribly busy at work leaving me with no time to even breathe on a working day.


As per 2B goes, the pregnancy is as smooth as ever - Touchwood! I am I think around 28 weeks through and HUGE! I hardly have any pictures and all that jazz this time round and with Cub to keep our hands full, I wouldn't bother being fussy even if I wanted to frankly! I can feel the movements pretty consistently now and I must say that 2B seems much more active than Cub was in-utero.


Poor 2B has not had any updates on this blog as yet. But don't you worry my love. You are being eagerly waited for. Especially by your big brother. Every time he sees a small baby he says "2B bhi aisa hi hoga naah? Chhotaasa?!".


The other day I got only your Bhaiyaa's breakfast plate outside and guess what he asked me? He questioned me saying "Where is 2B's naashta?!" The concept of his mother eating for herself doesn't exist any more.


He is looking forward to teaching you so many things. Anything he does he will follow it up "Does 2B know how to do this?" and when i say No, he says he will teach you. You are one lucky kid sweets! :)


And since 2B has been till date royally ignored in this space and we have been tripping over Ogden Nash, here is his hilarious take on First Child, Second Child.


Be it a girl, or one of the boys,
It is scarlet all over its avoirdupois,
It is red, it is boiled; could the obstetrician
Have possibly been a lobstertrician?
His degrees and credentials were hunky-dory,
But how's for an infantile inventory?
Here's the prodigy, here's the miracle!
Whether its head is oval or spherical,
You rejoice to find it has only one,
Having dreaded a two-headed daughter or son;
Here's the phenomenon all complete,
It's got two hands, it's got two feet,
Only natural, but pleasing, because
For months you have dreamed of flippers or claws.
Furthermore, it is fully equipped:
Fingers and toes with nails are tipped;
It's even got eyes, and a mouth clear cut;
When the mouth comes open the eyes go shut,
When the eyes go shut, the breath is loosed
And the presence of lungs can be deduced.
Let the rockets flash and the cannon thunder,
This child is a marvel, a matchless wonder.
A staggering child, a child astounding,
Dazzling, diaperless, dumbfounding,
Stupendous, miraculous, unsurpassed,
A child to stagger and flabbergast,
Bright as a button, sharp as a thorn,
And the only perfect one ever born.


SECOND

Arrived this evening at half-past nine.
Everybody is doing fine.
Is it a boy, or quite the reverse?
You can call in the morning and ask the nurse.

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?! :)

of Food and sacrifice!

These two words usually don't go together in my dictionary. I mean I won't sacrifice my food for anything in this world. I might sacrifice something for good food though... So my first statement does not hold true in that case! ;)


Anyway, my parents and uncles had come over for just 2 days for Cub's birthday (these are the moments you feel totally blessed) and they came loaded with gifts for Cub and food for us. They know us so well! ;) So Cub's favourite Ujoba (also known as Mango-waala aadmi because he sends us hapoos peti every year) got us some salted pistachios. I LOVE salted pista and cashew. Only trouble is no one can eat one and in this case it was impossible to keep track unless you saw the pile of shells in front of you. Then one also remembers making Pista shell flowers for some school year's Diwali homework. (do kids still get that? we would always end up doing it on the last two days of the vacations).


So I decided very enthusiastically that I will eat as many pistachios it would take to make these phools with Cub.


So it was all sacrifice folks! For my child's sake! ;)


And we actually did end up making some and had fun while at it. Cubby painted the shells with me holding them between my fingers. So obviously i had more paint on my fingers than shells had! :D He also helped stick em on the base (which is shoebox flaps) and scribbled the background design. We used bacha hua crepe paper (streamers) from Cub's birthday party to make the handle.


The Plan is to send the final creations to folks as thank you from Cub for making his birthday special!


Here's some photos! :)

Sticking on the petals. Pity we don't have photos when he was painting the shells!

Even when hard at work, there is always time to pose!

Fake smile - part 1. With final creation!

Fake smile - 2. Different pose, same smile. He is MY son! ;)

Trying if it looks nice hung up on our bathroom wall!

The photu without models. Scribbling all over the base done by Cub! :)

Shruti, some day we might be good and enthu enough to participate in Artsy-Crafty! :)

:) 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! ;)

a BIDWF and a tag!

just a quick BIDWF moment with the junior jain! :)


Cub turns 3 next month and this time we plan to have a big pahty with everyone we know and care about being there. Past two years we have had quieter affairs and haven't done anything in Bangalore, ever!


So, yesterday on our car ride to a restaurant I asked him "Cub, what cake do you want? An aeroplane? or nemo? Mowgli? Baloo? Sully?" and all the other animated characters he likes. He listens to me for sometime and then says "Nahi! Mujhe sirf chocolate cake chahiye!"


Both M and me burst out laughing and told him that cake will be chocolate only with whatever picture he wants on it! :)


and tonight he asked his father when he was changing him into night suit"I am looking cute, naah?!" HUH?!


Best bud Momo's ma tagged me to talk about My Sins against the gender stereotype.


For the longest time I wanted to be a guy to get all the freedom guys do. I used to be a pucca tomboy and couldn't imagine a different life! But soon I knew i could be the girl i was and yet do what i wanted! Total win-win situation, eh?! :)


I am not into dressing up / make up. Yes, i like my lipstick, but thats it. I dont even know how to apply nail polish on my own! gah!


I have been riding a two wheeler since I was 16 and still LOVE it! Thanks to my Dad who refused to mollycoddle me, I even have a fair bit experience in pushing my two wheeler to the closest service station and getting it repaired! Ofcourse, I am yet to learn to drive and hope to some day!


Maybe because books available at home were my Dad's taste, i have not read a single mills and boons or danielle steele, but devoured the Robin Cooks, John Grishams, Dick Francis Arthur hailey and gang!


I started traveling on my own to Pune by train by the time I was 10 and was traveling by overnight buses to Kolhapur by 12 years.


I wore shorts in my teens much to chagrin of most of our neighbours! I still wear em and dont really care about the neighbours anymore! ;)


I worked super late hours and traveled by myself in trains and cabs.


In both my pregnancies, i managed / am managing my doc visits etc on my own without needing M to accompany me.


I got a tattoo done and did not scream in pain or shed a single tear! :p


I could not cook to save my life till I got married and now both us can churn out a decent meal! :)


I could not be the shy bride even if I wanted to and grinned throughout the ceremonies and later!


i LOVE Tarantino and Guy Ritchie movies including Kill Bill. Ofcos the change in taste happened post shaadi, but am glad for it. So now I can watch mush and dhishum dhishum with equal ease.


I have gotten off my bike to move huge stone in the middle of the road that was causing traffic jam while all men waited for god knows what and giggled when I did it. gah!


I have gone out with all guy gang of friends at 3am for cutting chai and bhurji pav and really miss those days.


and though we never had offcial proposal between us, it was me who initiated "lets be more than friends" with M and hounded him till he married me! I still cry buckets everytime i watch Friends episode where Monica proposes to Chandler. :)


When it comes to living up to the gender norms, I still havent tried learning the whole finance bit and i cry a lot! For good and bad stuff! :D Yet, right now I am comfortable in my skin and enjoying being me!


I think whole world has been tagged with this, so if there is someone who hasn't done it as yet, feel free! :)