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?! :)

till regular programming begins!

Staying at home obviously leaves very little time to blog! Bah! Plus we shifted homes (yes Again!) and there was no internet for a few days and a multitude of boxes to unpack. We are still living in boxes...errrr rather out of boxes. The basic clothes and kitchen is set, but we have no space mainly for four boxes full of books and our decorative stuff etc. Ho jaayega dheere dheere.


Right now we have left M alone and Bangalore and the kids are soaking up a whole lot of grandparent love in Bombay. I am feeling nostalgic and very very sweaty! :p From here, we go to Kolhapur for my cousin's wedding. Bub's first train trip! Cub's was also to Kolhapur when he was 9months old and Bub is doing it even earlier at 6months. That said, yup, Bub has completed six months of giggles and gurgles! Have to do a propah post for her. Will do it next. Right now, just sharing photos of my Devils in disguise of Angels. How I love Bombay for selling such cool stuff on the streets! :)

I plan to buy a dozen of these and take em to Kolhapur for all my nieces and cousins. Hopefully take a group photo of all of us wearing some Horns! :p

Summer vacations treating you guys good? What have you been up to?

perhaps you can suggest the title?!

Like I said in one of the previous posts, Cub keeps coming up with hilarious stuff that i forget much before i get down to blogging. So today I decided to post his latest two anecdotes right away!

So, the child is sitting on the pot and making random conversations (he does not give his tongue a rest very often). Suddenly he tells me "I have kept the bathroom door open now. But sometimes I close it because when Bub is crying I cannot 'hear' my potty!"

I was totally rolling on the floor laughing when he comes up with his next whammy!

He got down to discussing Bub's toilet training when she grows up etc. Then he said "When Bub grows up her "susu" will also come down like me. Right now she is doing susu from her bum no?!"

Here I was wondering how come he never questioned the obvious "difference" between Bub n him. It is because he thinks it is still work in progress since she is a baby! :p

I could not stop laughing and knew I had to post it here for posterity! :p What better way to embarrass them when they grow up, eh?!

And here's a coupla photos I love! You cannot see the kids too well in either. That is for next post. A total mush fest in all probability! :) As if my blog is ever anything else, but still!

Chilling or something like that at Home! :)

With Bub at UB city. Had the loveliest lunch at Toscano. Thin crust pizza and Kahlua mousse. Must try! :D