Random (cheesy) updates! :)

Finally my genes seeping through ...


A voracious reader in the making - lounging on the chair, covered in my favorite blanket lost in the world of words (so what, if he is just looking at pictures - its the pose that matters!)













I was in for a surprise on Thursday as I picked up my voice mail at my office phone. The receptionist informed me that I had some flowers that I could pick up, and believe me that was out of the blue, so I listened to the message again. As I went down to get the flowers my colleagues teased me about it and I blushed like a new bride. Yes indeed there were flowers waiting for me - a beautiful bouquet of red roses and daisies from my husband and he was thoughtful enough to add Kochunni's and baby's name as well to the card.

Thank you, my dear. This just made my day! X0X0!



Happy Valentine's Day!

X-Mas Time!

Christmas weekend resulted in a trip to Dallas and spending time with family and friends. Kochunni was anxious this year to get "shoes that light up" from Santa, though luckily he did not seem to care that we will not be at our home for Santa to come. We made sure to buy the shoes and took it with us to Dallas. Rest of the christmas shopping this year turned out to be easy with online shopping.

Christmas eve had bright snowflakes hitting the ground that by evening turned the whole area into a white Christmas. After some nice dinner we put the kids to sleep and packed up all the gifts and put them under the tree. The older kids woke up early and woke up Kochunni asking him to come check out the treasures that Santa had left behind. Everyone got what they had wished for and then some more. It turned out to be a great day to stay indoors, eat wonderful food and watch a movie. This weekend seemed like the back-to-back movie outing that started out with 3 Idiots at the theater, Wake up Sid, Whats your Rashee and all the home movies.

We also went on a photo session for the kids and as it turns out my son is a teenager already when it comes to photo sessions – he wouldn’t look when asked to, no smiles and make absurd faces that practically made half of the photos useless. But we managed and bought a whole slew of pictures that now I need to figure where to hang them.

In all, a great Christmas weekend.

Merry Christmas!

Halloween

Halloween turned out to be a full blown party at the house. First comes

• Kochunni and his classmates dance to the Thriller tune at the daycare (the kids even did a little robot dance),
• next comes making cute & scary hand puppets for each member of the family at the local library,
• then comes making our first ever Jack-o-lantern
• and finally trick-o-treating.

Kochunni again donned the “Bob the builder costume” (I figured I could get away with it one more year) and I put on a witches hat and off we went for our trick or treats or as my mom claimed “tendi nadaka” (beg around).

"Trick or treat, smell my feet. Give me something good to eat. If you don't, I won't be sad. I'll just make you wish you had!"

We got a good loot, Kochunni actually admitted that he was tired and wanted to go home towards the end, he even got spooked by a house where the motion activated door connected to a rather spooky ghost tunes. So all in all a good night!

How about yours?

Vishu 2009

With two young corporate go-getters and today being a weekday, this year’s Vishu celebrations at our house is a bit subdued than previous years. But trying to be a good mother, you do your best. And so after Kochunni went to bed yesterday, I set up a small Kani. Today after waking up early, I lit the diyas and woke up the husband and then took the sleeping Kochunni to the puja area to show him the wonderful sight. This is the tricky thing, since Kani needs to be seen before sunrise, it was quite early for him. He opened his eyes and quickly turned away, trying to get away from the bright lights, still in his sleep. I figured that is good enough and took him back to bed.

With a few hours at hand, after bath I made the traditional “quick and easy” semiya payasam and some breakfast. After getting Kochunni’s lunch box ready, I went out to get some flowers from the front yard to make a pookalam(flower-kolam). Luckily the roses were in full bloom and just like last year I set up a small pookalam in front of the house and inside, near the puja area. Soon Kochunni was awake and it felt like any other day with the morning activites to get him ready. He was a bit surprised with the Vishukaineetam and was happy to play with the silver coin he received from us. And that was it, as for the celebrations for today.

It will be a long day at work and the regular temple visit will probably have to be postponed. But thinking about the yummy payasam I made earlier today, almost makes up for not really having a big sadya (feast) at lunch. (you know where my priorities lies :D)

Here's wishing you all a very prosperous & happy Vishu!

The Christmas that was …

Full of gifts for the little fella, two parties and one enjoyable train ride. This year too, Kochunni did not grasp the full meaning of Christmas, Santa Claus or the gifts – he seemed to just take everything in stride with a curious sense of joy and wonder, which after all is the true spirit of any festival. He picked up the plane and his truck as the first gifts to be opened but in a little while he took to the drawing board easel scribbling away the sun, the moon and the stars, much to my joy. (We still have to open the little doctor set which I will probably hideaway for the next rainy day).

In the evening we went to our friends Christmas party and enjoyed ourselves to some nice food and innovative party games that the hosts came up with. Isn’t it great when the host of the party really plans a party well – fun for the kids and adults. The next day being holiday I was hoping to sleep in but as usual Kochunni woke up and like the last few weekends he tried to wake us up by singing rather loudly and completely out of tune. The new thing that has also started the past weekend is to jump out of the bed and walk out into the living area – and of course being the most ultra-sensitive cautious parents one of us goes up right behind him to see if he is up to any mischief. Anyway the only good that came of getting our asses out of the bed was that I was able to get to some after-Christmas sales and bought some ornaments for the front yard for the next year. Of course hubby was cross since it meant another box in the already filled up garage.

Saturday we left early for a train trip to Sacramento along with our friends. Maybe it was the low expectations from the trip that it became all the more fun and memorable. We boarded the early morning Amtrax train and as we caught the seats in the upper level we were amazed at the clean and overall spacious little corner. We got the middle seats with tables so the kids enjoyed banging on them and driving their toy cars. The three hours were over pretty soon as we watched some beautiful coastline scenes along the way.

At Sacramento, we walked a few minutes to the little old town - Railroad museum. All of us expected (though no one admitted) it be a dud with possibly pictures of old trains, but to our real surprise they had the real trains parked inside for our viewing pleasure. From the guided tour we learned about the history and as we walked around these majestic trains we were amazed at how our forefathers would have welcomed this mode of transport – connecting people along some pretty impressive mountains and terrains that before then seemed impregnable. Of course you also hear about the wrongs of our forefathers ( the Chinese laborers were pretty much ill-treated, even though they put in equal if not more effort into building a fully functional train system), did which saddens our hearts. There is also a couple of compartments that you can board to see up close - the sleeper chair and the dinning cart along with the impressive chinaware. The upstairs part of the museum is dedicated to some wonderfully built toy cars, which was an instant hit among the boys. Kochunni loved the play area with Thomas and his friends toys and was not ready to leave until quite a bit of warning to leave him there alone. We had lunch a family style Pizza place and by the time we boarded the train for our trip back we were all exhausted. Luckily Kochunni slept for most of the ride back and we only had to entertain one kid who finally slept when it was almost time to get off the train.

We came home exhausted, but still no one could stop talking about the benefits of traveling in the train, our memories of travels back in India and how wonderful it would be if more of America was connected via trains and if it was a little bit more cheap. As we promised ourselves to look into some other nearby places to go for our next weekend get-away, we hauled ourselves home. Sunday was spent relaxing, watching some movies and attending a birthday party. And so ended our Christmas break.

How about yours? Do anything fun?

And to all a good nite!

Snow has fallen, winter has set,
The houses have been lit as the year draws to a close
Santa has started his wonderous journey
As we will soon scramble to bed.
We will be back up in a while to wrap up Kochunni's gifts
Playing our parts as Santa's little elves.
Here's wishing you all a very Merry Christmas!


Image from Christmas MySpace Animations

Snow humor

So if you are busy with shopping and stressed out every time you see "Only 6, 5, 4 days to Christmas" - almost an end of the world sort of message, here is some holiday humor. Enjoy!

Santa is coming ...

The stores were decked out two months before and the discussions around ‘what to buy’ started even before. Now with the ‘big’ sales – Early Door busters to Midnight sales – everyone is scrambling to get something for someone.This time though I really would love a real Santa- just seems that it will save me some hard cash. :D

But then again, wasn’t the festive time more for celebration, for family gatherings and just good times. When did gifts, shopping, sales comes into it? Of course, everyone says the same exact sentiment every year and still goes ahead on a shopping spree buying items for every Tom, Dick and Harry. Will it change this year? Maybe!

The thing I love best about this time is the decked out houses, reminds me of Diwali in Mumbai – every flat would be lit up with diyas, the sweet smell of sweets, noisy kids running around, gatherings of families and of course the movies to watch over late nights. This year, since Kochunni is going to his new daycare he is more exposed to ‘Santa’ and his ways. The daycare is planning do a gift exchange next week, and we have been invited to a holiday party for this weekend. Of course, he doesn't know yet that he can start to "demand" for certain gifts (in pretense of writing letters to Santa) this year to I can try to get him meaningful gifts rather than the million plus cars and trucks he is eying for! Already got him a little doctor set, debating on a drawing board-easel combo and of course a little scoop truck just to see his eyes lit up!

That reminds me, what is everyone planning to buy this year? Any wish-lists for yourself, for your kids?

The evening that was ...

Boo-tackular and b-elicious! Halloween of course. Kochunni dressed up like his favorite character “Bob the builder” with a tool belt, orange vest and light brown suspenders’. And even if I say so myself, he was just too cute!

First stop, his amma’s Spooktacular party last Wednesday … I picked up the little fella from daycare right after naptime and drove him to the party and he even got to see my little cube, he kept saying “Amma office” – finally (I guess) he was happy to see that his dear mother disappeared each day to this 4 by 4 place rather than some exotic location! There was candy, little games and a walk of fame that he enjoyed at the party. A sort of dry run to the actual event.

On Friday, after much debate of either taking him to the mall or just to the couple of houses down the street, we decided to call on our friend. Luckily, with the mom resting with her newborn she was happy to leave her older girl at our house to go trick-o-treating. Kochunni was happy and followed his chechi (elder sister) to every house in the neighborhood that had a light on, banged his hammer on the door and repeated “trick or teeet” and a little Thank you. He did not understand what one was supposed to do after the people deposited the candy in his pumpkin and at one house he even left it right there and came running back to me!

Finally as it started to drizzle we headed back home, to give some kids who came by our house, some candy. At last count, Kochunni’s chechi had 37 candies while he had around 25. Though neither were allowed to eat any, one because she had just lost her two teeth and was told sternly by the doctor – no candy today or your teeth will bleed, and the other because for one more year, he doesn’t exactly know what candies are! :D

But now though the bigger question, what do I do with the 25 candies + the two bags of candy that I bought? Maybe the witches of Halloween would come by and make it disappear. Poof!

Happy Halloween!

Happy Diwali

Wish you all a very happy diwali, may the lights shine on you and your family and bring you all the happiness.

We celebrated Diwali in grand style this weekend at the temple where I got some henna done on my hands and Kochunni wore the kurta that we had bought for his first birthday. At first he was freaked out by the outfit and kept trying to pull it off his head, when finally I showed him his dad’s kurta he was satisfied that this was not some atrocious “girly” outfit! :D

The Diwali mela was nice, with lots of music, food, dance by kids to popular songs like 'Pappu cant dance' and 'Krazzy 4'. It was amazing how many picked on these same songs, but still managed to come up with totally different styles to each. Kochunni enjoyed these numbers extremely and was dancing in the chair, reminding me that next year he could on stage.

At home, these past few days we lit up a few diyas and enjoyed family time. It was a cute sight as I lit the diyas, Kochunni standing right next to me folding his hands in prayer. I hope that one day I could be in India during this time for him to also enjoy some firecrackers and the sparkles all over. But with the festive season beginning there is lots to look forward ...

Angels

Saturday, honey came back from a two week long trip to India and it was perfect. Kochunni got tons of books that my mom sent, a little wrist watch and even a wooden car that he played around for hours on end. Of course poor honey was tired from jet lag, but the little fella wanted to do everything with his “Acha” (daddy) – from sleeping on his shoulder to playing.

By Sunday he was in full swing with all his parental duties. When evening came, we decided to go out and get his car cleaned up for office today. Of course we ran late and the place that we usually go to closed up at 6 PM. Since the car was dirty we decided to stop at this new place. Five minutes into the thing made us realize that they were less efficient than the ones we normally go to – and this would take more than half hour to get the job done. It was cold and already getting dark, I was sure Kochunni would get bored within a few minutes and looked around on what could be done.

Right opposite to us was a pumpkin patch and I decided that might be the best thing for me to do with the little fella. We walked across the street, the little guy holding my hand and exclaiming at all the cars that were going past right beside us. When we reached the counter he was exited and when I finally let him loose in the little jumper his joy knew no bounds. He jumped, he tumbled and he flipped to his heart’s content. After a little while, I asked him to come out thinking that it might be best to start our walk back to the car.

As he came out, he saw the little stairs going up for the big kids to come down the slide. He asked me, could I go amma? I was skeptical and answered back, sweetheart I can’t come there with you, you will have to go on your own, can you do that? He immediately looked straight into my eyes and nodded his head in a yes. I was surprised and little worried. I knew he would not get hurt being an air jumper set but still he could tumble down and get frightened. I again tried to explain that you need to go alone, can you do it? He started to pull my hand towards it. I finally decided to let him go and helped him climb the first two steps. As I looked, he walked up the first few stairs and then as the little stairs started to curve at the top, he was on all fours. My heart beat a little faster but I noticed that the girl right behind him, instead of pushing past him, was beginning to help him. I smiled and realized that there was now a queue of kids behind, and as the girl did not go past him, everyone had slowed down to meet Kochunni’s pace. I walked over to the side of the slide and waited for the little guy to emerge. Right at the top, he looked down and smiled and when I asked him to come down (almost afraid that he might just sit there) he perfectly did what I had asked of him at every other slide he has been too – sit down and move up close to the slide and then come down smoothly. Due to the big slope he just whipped down in an instant and with a triumphant smile walked over. I was beaming with joy!

Of course, one time is never enough and he asked “Eeniyum” (again), I gently reminded him we need to leave and started to dial hubby’s number, they were already done with the cleanup and were on their way. Kochunni was still pulling me to the steps and trying to climb the first step, as I quickly hung up the phone and helped him on. This time right after the first few steps he fell and almost slid backwards. As I shouted to Kochunni to be careful and hold the edges, a little boy probably around 4-5 turned around and asked me “Should I help him?” Of course, please do. So this time the boy helped him all the way and even waited for Kochunni to finish his slide before plunging himself. I yelled a big thank you and asked Kochunni to do the same.

As I walked Kochunni back, I realized what great kids the two kids were, I probably forget their faces in a few days and only remember some varied details like the girls pink and white sweater and boy’s dark blue shirt and trousers and curly mop of hair. But what they showed me yesterday was that even without any adult supervision kids are intrinsically good, not bullies nor little terrors that we often imagine them to be!

Thank you, my two angels for helping my son to do the things he ought to be doing, to let him grow just a little today! I hope one day Kochunni repays our debt and helps some other hapless little 2 year old.

Happy Onam 2009

With a small attempt at the traditional pookalam in front of the house, Onam celebrations are at full swing at our house.
Here's wishing everyone a great Onam.