Kids & Percentages

Me: Howz your pain? Do you want to take the pain medicine?

Shaurya: Naah.. today, it has not been more than 18%

Me: 🙄

Last weekend, Shaurya fell while playing and has ligament damage on his left wrist. He is doing fine and recovering slowly. His response reminded me again of the funny ways in which he sometimes assigns totally random and seemingly accurate percentages to stuff. It's never 10% or 20% or 80%. It's 12.5% or 18%(like above) or 82%. 

Once I had tried to understand how he reaches these figures; he had a pretty logical reasoning. For example, he comes to 18 because it's more than 10 but less than 20. However it's tending more towards 20 - nearer to it and hence the number.

Kids I tell you; you learn something new everyday!! 😂

We will see

These are strange times that we are all in; with a focus on keeping ourselves and our loved ones safe from Corona. The lockdown has been a great opportunity; fun at the start, difficult in between but now we have all started accepting it as the new way of living. It's been even more challenging for parents of young kids - keeping them entertained while trying to keep them away from gadgets.

My 8 year old is having his regular school online since end of March. He is online from 9am to 2pm. Thankfully he has lot of breaks in between but it's still a lot of time in front of a laptop. After school hours are spent reading, playing with his board games, legos, etc. But with no more playtime with his friends, some more time is spent in front of screen - Netflix, Video calls with family back home in India and online game with his friends.

We try our best to reduce it and he tries his best to get more :-). So one day, he asked me if he could play one round of a game and then have video call with his mausis (my sisters) in the evening. I told him we will see later. He immediately started quoting a scene from 'Pursuit of Happiness'. He told that in the movie, when the kid asked his father if they will go and watch the football match, his father told 'We will see'. Then the kid told 'That means No'.  I told my son it's a movie, then he threw back my own statement that it's based on real life. He went ahead and gave another example from the book 'Chronciles of Narnia' - when parents say 'We will see', it means never. ;-p

I have to say he's not exactly wrong! But M told him when your parents say 'We will see', it means we will discuss it later and agree with conditions. M to the rescue as always :-D

Our own BBC

Let me begin by clarifying that this post has nothing to do with 'The BBC'. Since as long as I remember, we have used the term 'BBC' to describe a person who cannot keep in any information or news and just broadcasts everything to each and everyone.

At our home, we have our very own BBC aka my son, Shaurya. With Shaurya, both M and I have a rule of not keeping any secrets or information hidden from him. If we are planning something which impacts us as a family, we share it with him and involve him in our excitement. In view of this, we tend to discuss things freely in front of him. M and I are careful not to talk about private stuff in front of him. However there have been few fun and few not so fun instances where Shaurya has announced stuff to all and sundry about the happenings in our life! '. 

In my last post, I mentioned about how he could not contain his excitement over M's birthday surprise and just blurted it out at the last moment. :-) Last year, we bought a bigger apartment in Pune and had plans to move in there this year. The day we booked the apartment, we were super excited and so was the kiddo. And he went ahead and told this to few of his friends (and their parents) in our current apartment society on the same day itself. So much for sharing this with our neighbours gradually. 

A not so fun instance happened in our recent trip to our home-state for the December holidays. M was driving my papa's new car and it got a little scratch on it from a motorbike. As haurya was also travelling in it when this happened, we told him to let M break the news to nanaji and not him. He agreed to it. We reached home and got out of the car; papa was standing in front of the shop. As soon as we got out, Shaurya starts with 'Papa, now tell Nanaji what happened!. Tell now! Tell! Tell!'. Though I felt bad for M & papa (for scratch in the brand new car), I immediately went inside the house before I burst out laughing. :-D

You would think that by now we would have learnt our lesson but guess we are late learners. In our professional life, we are getting a very good opportunity for which we may need to move out of India. Since this is a major change for us, we have been discussing the pros and cons of this. We asked Shaurya as well how he would like to move to a new place and kind of getting him to look up to the possible change. We should not have been surprised when one of our neighbour (parents of Shaurya's friend) asked us if we are moving to so and so country.

I guess we need to start working on telling him about the concept of 'family surprises' and keeping it a surprise till the 'right time. Will begin to start working on it ASAP.

PS: I can't believe..actually, you know what.. come to think of it, I CAN believe the last post I wrote was in Aug-17 and nothing since then! I just have one reader and she kept on encouraging me to write something. But being me, it just kind of skipped from my radar. And honestly 2018 just flew by! This post is for you Amu... :-); I will plan for some late posts from 2018.

Surprise Planning & Shaurya

So it was M’s birthday on 9th and I was working along with Shaurya for a surprise midnight celebration – it’s not exactly a surprise anymore though as we do it every year... maybe I can skip it one year and then it will truly be a surprise when nothing happens at midnight!! ;-p

On the evening before, I & Shaurya went out and bought a cake and flowers. Shaurya had already made a greeting card.. he made the card, decorated it with my help and wrote the birthday message himself and his gift to M was “200 kisses”. When we reached home, I kept the cake inside the fridge and hid the flowers, cards & our gift in Shaurya’s room. I had been telling Shaurya that it’s to be a surprise and we will celebrate the birthday at night. Frankly he has been doing pretty good in keeping the secret and I was pleasantly surprised when he didn’t tell M about his card or the Gift that I had ordered.

Since he was holding it all in really well, I was not at all prepared for what happened when M reached home. No sooner had M crossed the door, Shaurya jumped up, ran to the kitchen and covered the fridge with his arms yelling.. “Don’t look here.. there’s nothing inside”. We were so surprised that it took us a minute to realize what he said and then both I & M burst out laughing!! :-D He went on to uncover yet another surprise by running to his room, blocking the entrance and saying – “Don’t come inside this room either” :-)

In the end, I am just thankful that he held on to it for so long.. we had been planning for the gift (photobook and coupons) since 2 weeks and it was great that it did not reach M's ears till the last day. Shaurya was super excited on the last day and getting the cake just did it for him - he could not contain it within him anymore. A memorable uncovering of the surprise to be sure!

A 'Mad'enning word

Be careful of what you say in front of your kids.. they will come back to you at the most embarrassing of times. So we tell Shaurya not to use bad words when talking. “Paagal” (mad) is one such word. Kids use it to tell each other off when they either have a fight or think the other person is talking nonsense. We tell Shaurya not to use it at all.

This Saturday, he was playing cricket in the society park with 2 of his friends. One of his friend’s cousin (a teen of about 15) came there and joined them. So she was batting and one kid was bowling. During the course of the play, the teen girl used the word “Paagal”. Shaurya immediately told her not to use it as it’s a bad world. :-) The girl immediately said “Sorry”. Shaurya told “Its ok” and then to make her feel a little better he said “My mom and dad also say it sometimes….” And then went on to add “….to each other”.

The girl laughed out loud.. of course, after our initial shock, we joined in as well! :-D But then, it made us realize to be extra cautious when talking in front of him! Let's see how we fare ;-p

IPL cheers

So the IPL season is in full swing right now. Both I & M have not watched​ or followed IPLs in the past; this time around though we are watching it. Sanskar (our nephew) is a keen follower :-). If TV is on, Shaurya is more interested in watching cartoons than anything else. In order to get his buy in, we ask him to cheer for his team. And Shaurya has some very interesting reasons for supporting and cheering a team. Sample this...

In RCB vs RPS match, shaurya supports

- RCB as Virat Kohli plays in it (shaurya is a big Virat fan:-D)

- RPS as we live in Pune obviously. Another reason Dhoni plays here.

In MI vs RPS match, shaurya supports

- MI as the team has 'indian' in its name.

- RPS as mentioned above ;-)

In DD vs KXIP match, shaurya supports

- DD as Shaurya's mausi lives in Delhi

- KXIP as there's 'Rangla Punjab' restaurant in the commercial complex of our apartment ( don't ask)

In KKR vs GL match, shaurya supports

- KKR as it has 'knight riders' in its name and when his skating sir teaches him skates at 'night', he has lots of fun... :-D

Sorry GL & SRH,  for you Shaurya hasn't found any reason to support yet. For GL, maybe I can tell him that Modi is from Gujarat. Can't think of any reason for SRH that would sway him Not unless you manage to get Virat in the next season ;-p

Graduation Day!

Last week I attended the first “Graduation Day” function of my life.. that too for my 5 and half year old son  :-) (my first as I missed attending the graduation ceremony to get my engineering degree).  It’s funny how times have changed.. even finishing kindergarten is now termed as graduation. I and M were pleasantly surprised when we received the invite to attend the Graduation Day ceremony for our son who is finishing Sr.KG now.

The Graduation day event was very well planned. There were some cute solo performances from the kids – be it dance, songs, storytelling, music or speeches. At the end of it, the kids were made to wear Graduation gown, cap and were called out one by one to the dais. The class teacher gave each one a scroll and a sash. I especially loved the Sash – it had a picture of the kid and a name given to him/her rhyming with first letter of his/her name – Shaurya’s Sash read “Sincere Shaurya”. At the end of the event, the kids came together for a class photoshoot and gave a combined performance by singing a Graduation Song. Shaurya and his friends had lots of fun wearing the gowns and posing in it. The teachers ensured it was a memorable and special day for each.

It was a very touching ceremony and I am sure many parents got emotional. I was overwhelmed (and had to wipe my tears secretly least people think I have gone nuts watching the Kindergarten graduation ceremony of my son!! Dunno what I will do when he actually graduates ;-D).  But seriously.. more than the kids, this ceremony was for the parents.. to make them realize that their kids are growing.. and growing up fast.. with them entering a ‘little’ more serious phase of their life!

This is Shaurya’s last year with his pre-school Colours.  It’s a wonderful school and the teachers are absolutely brilliant. With love and care, the teachers have done a great job to nurture the natural curiosity that kids have – kids there know everything (and more) of what a kindergartner would know and still have varied interests and healthy curiosity. We just hope that the Primary school that we have chosen for Shaurya continues to help him grow and develop this way!

In the 'Graduation' attire :-)

Edited to Add: Shaurya thought this was Dracula costume and they were made to wear it for fun!  :-D

Diwali Preparations

As Diwali approaches, the usual preparations have begun! Starting with shopping of course :) Now both I and M don't like shopping and its the biggest biggest chore for us. With less than 4 days to go, its still not complete. This year we will not be able to go to our hometown in Odisha for Diwali celebrations. We are going to be in Pune and Shaurya will have his elder brother Sanskar to help in bursting crackers. (This will be the first Diwali that Sanskar will be away from bhaiya bhabhi, mummyji, papaji, dadi and Archi; I hope that he has fun and doesn't miss them too much! ). 

M and I are no longer into bursting crackers and had totally stopped it. However post Shaurya's birth, we usually get  a few so that he gets to enjoy this part of the festivity as well. Till last year, even Shaurya was happy with bursting few crackers on the main Diwali day. Everything changed last year, he has learnt the joy of bursting crackers. In our hometown, kids start bursting crackers a week before Diwali which continues till a week after Diwali. Shaurya had loads of fun last year bursting crackers at his maternal and paternal grandparents home. Even this year, he was looking forward to bursting crackers however last Friday he came home from school and told me that he has promised his ma'am that he will not be bursting crackers. Seems his class teachers have told the kids about Noise and Air pollution and how crackers are not good for our environment (Bless them!). Not sure if Shaurya will be strong enough to keep his promise... some moments he tells "I will not burst any".. and some moment he tells "I will burst only 3 - 1 chakri, 1 anar and 1 phuljhadi".. I guess his heart and mind are still fighting over it. Lets see what the kiddo finally does! :-) 

I generally start preparing sweets and savories 2 days before and do it each day post dinner. Now that I work 3 days a week, I am hoping to start it tomorrow when my weekend officially starts.. yayyyyyyyyy!! :-) All the men in my in-laws side are big time into sweets; Shaurya specially loves Gulab Jamun and this is something that I make even if I am not able to make anything else. So with my weekend beginning tomorrow and Diwali falling on Sunday, I have a super hectic long weekend planned. Along with all the cooking, I will also be taking out all the decoration items (candles, LED lights, torans,etc) from previous years. We will also be making trips to the local market to buy fresh ingredients and flowers, clay diyas, puja essentials & gold jewelry for Dhanteras. Even though the festival turns out to be super hectic, it has a beautiful madness to it. You remain in a 'happy' zone during this time. Looking forward to making Rangoli outside my home, lighting beautiful diyas and eating to my heart's content! Not to forget, bursting crackers with Shaurya, Sanskar & M :-)

Happy Diwali!

Kids and Gender equality

This post is a result of an incident involving my son that happened today evening.. We live in a small residential society where we are blessed in having majority of neighbours who are in similar boat as us - In their early to late thirties with one or two young kids/toddlers. This ensures that my 5 year old has lot of playmates. (Touchwood!) (Note - there are some cons as well but then what doesn't :-) ). Today evening he was playing with the daughter of my front door neighbour in their house; all well till it was just the 2 of them. Then one of her other girl friend joined in. After some time, my son came back home. Since its rare that he comes back on his own, I asked him what happened. It seems they told him you are a girl since he was playing with them (2 girls). This is not the first time it has happened and luckily this time he didn't come back crying (it has happened in the past when he was told to go play with boys!)

I get annoyed when I see kids not involving others of the opposite gender in their games. I am sure boys do the same and I am seeing my son learning to differentiate based on such experiences. As kids, boys and girls play in their own different ways and I have seen that by nature they make play groups based on their commonality. But they should be able to play as they want - In our society, I see 1 girl playing with 3 boys and she is not told to go play with the girls. But if it's 1 boy playing with 3 girls, he is told to go and play with the other boys - and I am not just talking about the kids telling each other here (kids are kids and their behavior is sometimes mean.. they fight, they cry and they forget & makeup), even we as parents support and unknowingly perpetuate this bias. Girls playing with cars doesn't raise eyebrows but boys playing with dolls does. A boy in a pink trouser is pointed at but not a girl in a blue dress. Equality should not be just about giving equal opportunity to girls, it should include boys too. I believe we need to move from gender equality to gender neutrality. Since the seed of bias is planted since childhood, it just grows slowly and steadily along with them. The repercussions of such bias by our earlier generation is already there for all of us to see.

In this era when we talk of equal pay and equal opportunity, we can't really wish away this inequality if we start to differentiate between boys and girls since childhood and tell them that they should things appropriate for their gender. Kids are like wet clay who get molded into adults based on what they learn from their surroundings; the little natural gender based difference that they have increases based on the gender based stereotype that they see around them. There are lots of boys more sensitive and caring than girls and lots of girls more successful and hard working than boys.. no one is better than the other,  Just different. We should just give them an open hand so that they can remain equal with their differences.  And we should avoid making boys the victim as we fight for equality of our girls! 

The Real 'Chipko' Movement

Few months back, M had told Shaurya a little bit about the 'Chipko Movement' - trying to instill a little social awareness and make him aware of the importance of Greenery in our life. ;-p So M told him about Suderlal Bahuguna being one of the pioneers of it and how he went about saving trees from being cut!

Today while I was playing with Shaurya, we were chatting and revising random stuff. He has been absent from school since 3 weeks now (We are in my hometown in Odisha on extended vacation and it will be few more weeks before he rejoins school) so I thought of doing a little revision of his A's & B's.

While talking, I asked about the Chipko Movement and this is how our conversation went;

Me: Who started the 'Chipko Movement'?

Shaurya : Sunder lal Bahuguna

Me: Right! And what did he do?

Shaurya : Bad uncles came and cut the trees. Good uncle then got glue and stickers and used it to stick the trees back. 

Me: Speechless!! 

Ofcourse, they had to stick them together if it was to be a real 'Chipko' movement! :-D

Happiness is..

.. turning in your bed in the middle of the night and as you turn, your kid opens his eyes, says 'I love you, Mumma' and then dozes off.

PS: Good to remember on a day when he is on your nerves ( like today ;-))

Homework Begins!

I didn't really expect it to start so soon but here they are, the first homework assignment for Shaurya has come. His Pre-School teachers mostly do reading, storytelling, games, puzzles, poems and other such activities. But now that he is in Nursery, they are starting on standing and sleeping lines as well. Proper writing activities are supposed to start post winter vacations so maybe it’s just the warm up.

Anyways Shaurya had fun doing this. Crayons and Paper – what more does a kid need. :-D After doing this, he wanted to do more; so I had to take out a rough notebook and make more patterns of standing and sleeping lines. He has filled up numerous pages already..  Just the beginning I guess.. lets hope this excitement continues as he grows up more and he gets some 'less interesting' homework.. ;-p

P - Pictures in a Post

They say ‘A picture says more than a thousand words’. Then lets utilize some pictures to say some thousands of words. Guess this would make it my longest post ever.. ;-)

This is the pic of Shaurya the day (night) he was born. All pink, cuddly and adorable, he seemed good enough to be eaten. :-)

Look at his expression here.. just 3 days old and he seems all ready to take a panga!

Tightly holding on to his father’s hand in this one..

Cute little feet..

Having some really serious thoughts in his dreams I think..

After his maalish.. 

Recent ones....Acquiring some driving skills from his dad..

As a cute little tiger for his Play Group Annual day celebrations..

N – Naughty or Nice

Naughty is an apt word that I would use to tell about Shaurya - I would have ideally used hyper-active or enthusiastic but blogs with ‘H’ & ‘E’ are already done.. :-D. Whenever my parents or in-laws call and they ask what Shaurya is doing, I invariably end of saying, ‘badmaashi’ (yea.. I am a bad mother; busy badmouthing him..  ;-p..). My son is full of mischief most of the time, though to be fair, they are quite innocent ones. With his abundant energy and an always busy mind, he is thinking of something or the other and trying to explore. And all this thinking leads to some really ‘naughty’ actions. If he is silent for a long time, we are quite sure something is happening. Once, as mentioned here, he was silently ruining the rangoli when I was thinking that he is admiring my handiwork. His naughtiness gives him a good sense of humour as well; many a times he would do something silly knowing that it would make us laugh. Recently he was pronouncing ‘birthday’ as ‘bourday’ just to heckle us. He would tell it and start laughing. My friend R tells me it’s the result of all those Calvin and Hobbes comic strips that I was reading during my pregnancy.

But I use ‘naughty’ here in the nicest way possible. After all, Kids are supposed to be naughty.. my sister says if Shaurya was a more good kid, I myself would worry what’s wrong with him, why isn’t he doing something. :-)He is a nice kid who listens when he knows that he should and sometimes doesn’t when he thinks he can get away with it. (Kids have a huge 6th sense and they can understand a situation just by the undercurrents, where as we as adults might just be seeing what is visible and missing out on subtle things) Though I would love to have him listen to me more.. sometimes he just tries me a lot. (It’s one of my major shortcoming that I lose my patience with him – the one person with whom I should be most patient!). So its not naughty or nice, Shaurya is both naughty and nice.

K - Kindergarten Years Ahead

Shaurya is about to start his kindergarten years this June. After he turned 2, we enrolled him into a playgroup in the December batch last year. The batches were for 2 hours. He is continuing in the same pre-school for Nursery as well. Shaurya loved going to the playgroup, in fact it was extremely difficult to get him home after his batch was over. He would continue playing there and we had to literally carry him out. Now that summer vacations are on, he is eagerly waiting for his school to start again. 

I still remember the doubts and concerns we had when we first decided to put him into Playgroup. He is a very active child and had gradually started looking forward to playing with kids his own age. We needed a way for him to play some more and spend some time with his peers, it would help channelize all of his energy as well. This was one of the main reasons for us to put him into playgroup and not directly enroll into Nursery. There was another factor - both I & M are working and Shaurya stays at home with his aunty, hence we wanted him to learn playing and sharing with other kids as well as give a little breather to aunty so that she can relax a little while. Taking care of an active child or any child for that matter is exhausting! :-D

Since Shaurya has always been with me, M, aunty and my sister (who was studying in Pune till last year and was with us), we were the ones he considered family. He would play and interact with others, provided one of us was with him. When he started Playgroup, I or M would be with him inside the classroom for the entire 2 hours. Later on, aunty started going with Shaurya. Since the December batch was new, there were many parents/caretakers who used to be with their kids as well. We wanted Shaurya to get used to the new place, people, routine and get comfortable, so that he gradually starts staying alone as well. After the first 2 days, when we tried leaving him inside and going out, he started crying and the teachers told us to stay in. I am really thankful to his Pre-School teachers for being so flexible and understanding with him and all the other kids. It's difficult for a parent to leave their child with someone else even though they know that all kids initially cry but get used to it soon, however I appreciate it if the school shows flexibility instead of having rigid rules. In the beginning, Shaurya wouldn't leave our side or play when we participated as well. After few days, he started playing with other kids but would look at us time to time to confirm that we hadn't fled. :-D. We also started telling him that he needs to go to the school alone, tell aunty bye at the school gate, say Good morning to his teachers, etc. Given time and patience, in about a month, he got comfortable and stayed in the school all by himself. It was a big milestone for him as well as us. 

We have seen some positive changes in him since he started Pre-school - he has become more social (he was social but had a little shyness, we see that decreasing day by day), he has started sharing his toys with others (though I still a long way ahead), he has learned many new things and words, he has become very very talkative (don't know if I should call it positive change). With his summer vacations getting over in about a month, I hope he enjoys his Nursery classes as well. Till now, it was all play but starting June, he will have to learn things as well. As of now, he looks interested in his ABCs, 123s and rhymes. Let's see what happens when the kindergarten year begins!

J – JCB

Yes you read it right, the theme for today’s post is JCB. JCB actually stands for J.C. Bamford Excavators Limited, a company which manufactures heavy construction and other related equipment. However the topic of my post are the bright black and yellow excavators that they manufacture, commonly referred to as the JCB. It is mainly used for digging and general landscaping/leveling. I guess most of us have seen those in places where construction is in progress. But till last year, I wasn’t even aware of what they were called, I wasn’t really interested. Learnt it only when Shaurya got interested in them. :-)

There is this vacant lot beside our residential society. Sometime around Jan/Feb last year, a JCB came there and started tilling the land. It was removing all the big boulders, metallic wires and other stuff present in the lot and was leveling it. Since it was a huge machine and was making a lot of noise, Shaurya was fascinated from Day 1. He used to sit near the window of his room and look at what the JCB was doing. And he was doing this for hours i.e, sitting near the window and watching :-D. I initially thought, he will get bored in few days.. but the tilling happened in the nearby lot for a long time.. (About 3 months or so & only during afternoons) and Shaurya was there watching it all the time. During that time, it was very easy for us to feed him. He would happily eat whatever was given as his attention was more on the JCB. He became a big JCB fan since that time. (And also a fan of tractor since tractors came to take away many of the things that the JCB was digging out). M even bought him his own toy JCB to play with.

We told Shaurya that next time when we go home, we will take him on board his Tauji’s (M’s brother) JCB. Bhaiya is into construction business and uses JCBs for his work. Anyways home trip, as always, were very hectic and we really couldn’t take Shaurya inside a JCB. Instead Bhaiya gifted  him a cool remote controlled JCB and a bright red tractor (and a train, bike & car as bonus! :-)).  Shaurya loves playing with them, he uses the JCB to pull up some of his mini airplanes and then puts them inside a truck mimicking how the real JCB digs dirt and loads into the trucks. Once M showed him some JCB videos on you tube, the result is whenever Shaurya sees us using the laptop now, he wants us to play videos of JCB.

Now a commercial space is getting constructed in one of the vacant lots nearby. Construction is in full swing and there are lots of JCBs and Trucks around. And of course Shaurya is busy watching them. As soon as he wakes up in the morning he goes to the terrace and sees if JCBs have started, if not, he shouts ‘Uncle, kaam chaalo karo’ (Uncle, start working!). If he is inside and he hears the sound of the JCB, he comes out running into the terrace. He gets his toys into the terrace and mimics the digging, loading and unloading acts! One weekend, M even took him to the JCB and the driver happily invited both M and Shaurya in. Shaurya was super excited and happy inside and kept on telling me and aunty about how much fun he had there and what he saw the driver doing. Now he wants to sit on a truck as well! :-D Don’t know how long this love affair will last, but it’s awesome seeing the fascination and excitement that kids have for some things!

D – Dinosaur Train

This is a cartoon show which my son has started watching recently and he totally loves it. Comes on the ZQ channel here. It’s about a family of dinosaurs - the Pteranodons (I had to google to get it right.. ;-D ) where the mother dinosaur, Mrs Pteranodon finds a different dinosaur species egg in her nest where 3 of her own eggs are also there. All 4 hatch at the same time. There are 3 Pteranodon kids – Don, Shiny and Tiny and of course the 4^th one who is a T-Rex, Buddy. Mrs P raises buddy as her kid. All 6 of them (including Mr P :-) ) are a family who travel the world (the prehistoric Jurassic and other time period) in the dinosaur train and learn about different species of dinosaurs.

All of us (including M) love the show. I especially like the opening theme song which tells us about the show (all that I have written above) in a really nice way. Shaurya loves this song and sings it a lot.. he can’t really pronounce everything though he tries hard but he does shout with the chorus of Dinosaur Train towards the end.  Here's the Lyrics:

NARRATOR: Once upon a time, there was a mom

Her name was Mrs. Pteranodon

Sitting on her nest, she heard a scratching and said

 MRS. P: Oh, boy, my eggs are hatching!

 NARRATOR: One by one, the kids popped free

Baby pteranodons, one, two, three

MRS. P: I'll name you Tiny, Shiny and Don.

NARRATOR: But Tiny said

TINY: Wait! There's one more, mom!

NARRATOR: The last little baby had a different size

With teeth and a tail and big green eyes

He didn't look anything like the rest

BUDDY: What am I doing in a pteranodon nest?

NARRATOR: But dear old Mrs. Pteranodon said

MRS. P: Oh, this is your family and I'm your mom.

You may be different, but we're all creatures.

All dinosaurs have different features.

Come on, Buddy, we'll take a vacation.

I'll get us a ticket in Pteranodon Station.

We'll travel the world in sunshine and rain

And meet all different species on the... Dinosaur Train

The show is really interesting. When we initially started watching it, we thought maybe all the different species that they show is imaginary but we were surprised to learn that it wasn't so. A paleontologist, Dr. Scott D. Sampson, is associated with the show and provides information on the different Dinosaurs. Along with helping you know about all the different kind of dinosaurs and time periods, it gives positive messages to the kids in real good way. The 4 dinosaur siblings – Don, Tiny, Shiny and Buddy have a lot of fun together, they are eager to explore new places and meet other dinosaurs. They enjoy making new friends. The show also emphasizes on how they (we) may be from different species (religion, culture, physical appearance or lifestyle) but each of them (us) have unique skills that makes them (us) special. So in a way, it teaches kids how being different is fine and you can still be friends and respect & learn from each other. I also like the way Mr & Mrs P support their kids and encourage them to try on new things and help them learn. They always have the ‘you-can-do-it’ attitude for everyone, egging them to try hard and supporting them if they can’t. I think Journeys are one of the best ways that help you expand your horizon. Among other things, you learn to mingle with strangers, discover new places, adjust to new food and culture. Hence it makes sense that all this is done while they are on a fun journey on the Dinosaur Train.

Shaurya likes it so much, he has given us new names as well. He is Shiny (he doesn’t understand gender differences yet :D), M is Don and I am Buddy. (But then maybe he knows we are different gender coz he and his dad are of one species and I am from a different one :D)

B – It’s a Boy thing!

I was going to say that I am done with letters A, B & C at the same time yesterday with my first post. But then I thought I did try and got out easy with the article ‘A’ ;-) So here’s my 2^nd post – B is for Boys. When we were expecting our kid, we were pretty sure it’s going to be a Girl. M & I used to refer to our yet to be born kid accordingly. She was going to be our little angel. So I was a little surprised when in the delivery room, I was told ‘It’s a boy!’. I thought it’s going to be a different experience. You see I have been raised in an all Girls’s house. We are 4 sisters ( and though I have a younger brother however by the time he came into our lives, I was already out of home) and we had a lot of fun and masti in our full house! :-)
I have always believed that a Girl actually makes a home “home”. With her emotion, creativity and thoughtfulness, she adds life to ordinary days and enhances all the celebrations. She will never forget a birthday or an anniversary, make elaborate plans for it and generally fuss around you. Boys though are a different ball game. I am not saying they are unemotional or forgetful, they are just different :-) And now that I am a mother to a young boy, I see many minute differences between the way he behaves and what I had come to expect from my childhood experiences. Many things that M relates to instantly.

-          Boys love their cars (and truck and jeeps and JCBs and bikes and cycles…. ) – Shaurya has loads and loads of different kind of automobile toys and he can play with them for quite some time every day. The kind of time I spent with my dolls. :-D  ( I had a cute Barbie doll and I used to celebrate her birthday, throw parties for her, I even married her off with another friend’s doll.) Shaurya also has a cycle and a car that he rides and spends hours driving them inside the house. Whenever we go to a toy store (for buying a gift for someone), his eyes are set on some or other new cars that he sees in the Toy store. I have come to believe that the love for automobiles might be in the Genes.
-          Boys love action – Whether Shaurya has to watch it or do it, he is hyper active and will always be on the move. It’s difficult to find him sitting and playing and if you do find him in that state, it won’t be that long. :-) Shaurya is kind of best friends with our neighbor’s daughter, H. They are nearly same age.  However it’s fun to watch them play together. Shaurya will want to run around the house and H wants to sit and play house. Both of them do play along with the other, however you can see them getting uninterested soon.
-          Boys don’t listen – One of things that I am trying to do now is make Shaurya share his toys with other kids. When other kids come home to play, it is a really difficult for me to make him understand that he needs to share his toys. And not just with this thing, but most of the things. I see that he has a lesser attention span to what I am saying. I will be saying something and he will be thinking something else, thus he would not understand since he is not even listening to me. This (and M to an extent) has led me to conclude that Boy’s don’t listen! :-D
-          Boys are more emotional than we think – As I had mentioned earlier, girls are the emotional lot. However I have observed that boys are emotional too, they just don’t show it that much. One of the first times that Shaurya fell sick was when M had to go out of town for a team outing. He developed fever all of a sudden and equally suddenly, he was all good when M was back in 2 days. Once M had taken Shaurya for an errand. M’s bike was taken by the traffic police for incorrect parking. Since M didn't carry his DL along, they had to walk back home. Shaurya was concerned and asking about it. I have seen him observe things and worry if it involves us.
-          They drive you mad – Shaurya will do things knowing I will be angry just for the heck of it. Some of his antics are really too much for me however as per M, I haven’t seen anything yet. May God give me the patience to go through it all with my wits intact.

Shaurya turns one!

With all the stuff happening around, I realize that I forgot to document a very important milestone that we achieved. On Oct 11, Shaurya turned 1 and we also celebrated 1 year of parenthood :-) My baby is growing up so fast… his age no longer being counted in months alone. I had been planning a lot for this milestone and was super excited.. About a month earlier, I along with my sister had already started preparing the guest list, thinking about return gifts, menu for the dinner, theme for the decoration, cake, et all. In general I was making a lot of fuss and driving M mad. :-D With both of us working and not getting too much time during normal weekdays, we used to tell M that we do not have a month; just 8 days in hand. But ignoring all my planning and preaching, M joined the bandwagon only 10 calendar days before the D day!! 

The first thing we finalized is the guest list. We live in a close-knit residential society where most of the families know each other. With many society functions taking place, everyone interacts with everyone else. Also with M being the society treasurer and member of the society council, we interact often with other society members. After Shaurya was born, we had a big function back home in Orissa. This was our chance for a celebration with our friends who are in Pune. We didn’t want to miss out on any of our close office friends too, so the list turned out to be a pretty long one! :-) While making the guest list, we also listed down who all has kids along with their approx. age to help us plan for the return gift. And then we grouped the kids based on their age. For example, for kids below 1 year, we got rattles and toys. For older kids, we wanted to give something that would (hopefully) instill a good habit in them.. so we got them piggy banks. There were also whistles, chocolates, balloons and pencil box set which was put inside the piggy bank. We bought everything about a week earlier and gift wrapped it over the weekend. I had made an invitation card with a format I got online. After making changes to it, we got it printed. The weekend before his birthday, we went to the houses of our guests and personally invited them along with the card. It was also e-mailed to our friends and colleagues. 

For the party venue, we had zeroed in on our society club. It has a garden and children’s play area in front and has a big hall plus separate spaces available where caterers can cook as well as a place to lay the buffet. We also started looking for caterers who can take care of the food. While searching for one, we got a party planner who stays nearby. She had started her business just 9-10 months back. She is a young mother who about a year back was looking for a caterer for her son’s birthday. On not finding a good choice, she organized the event herself. Did some for her friends too and thus started her own business “Make my Party”. Both M and I liked the plan that she had in mind and we finalized her. We took a themed decoration package also from her. The decoration was really nice.. with lot of big cardboard cut outs of cars, trains, ships, etc. We knew Shaurya isn’t big enough to enjoy it to the fullest. But he was also excited when he saw it all. And the other kids loved it too. For entertainment, M also got info of a magician and booked him for a magic show for the kids. 

But the million dollar question was what would Shaurya wear!! We wanted Shaurya to wear something comfortable. He would find himself among so many new people and that too past his normal sleeping time, we did not want to compound it by making him wear any traditional jari-tissue waala uncomfortable wear. Though many people including my sister said we should get something special.. like a kurta pyjama, dhoti types, M was in favour of comfortable and more practical Jeans and T-shirt. And kids look smart in it too! So we finalized on it. 

For Shaurya to be fresh for the party, we needed him to be well fed and having a rested sleep. I was just hoping that he sleeps in the evening and luckily, he slept at 5.30 pm. Had a good 1 hour nap and woke up all fresh. After having his dinner, he was all set for the party. If he is not sleepy or hungry, he is in full-on masti mood which is good for him as well as us and the guests!! :-)

Since it was a weekday and we had lot of small kids in our guest list, we had planned to start the party at 7pm. However by the time everyone started trickling in, it was already 8. First we had the magic show. The magician was really good.. very entertaining fella who interacted a lot with the guests and kept them engaged. The 45 min show was over in a jiffy. We had the cake cutting soon after. Shaurya was enjoying all the attention that he was getting. When the cake got cut, the party popper was popped!(?) As soon as it burst there was confetti everywhere. Shuarya was more interested in watching it fall rather than cutting the cake. :-D. Once the cake was cut, there was this huge sea of people who came with all sort of gifts. (This is something that I regret to this day.. we should have asked our guests to come without gift or at least given some other option to them… maybe requested them to contribute to a charity.. or get pencil, pen, notebooks, etc that can be donated. We have a whole lot of toys and other stuff in our home now.. Shaurya is not going to use most of it..! ) Anyways, coming back to the post, once the cake cutting was done, our guests proceeded to the buffet area. The starters were served during the magic show itself. And the main course was arranged as a buffet. The food was awesome. And I am not saying it just cause we were the hosts. Many of our guests came over to us to specially compliment on the food. Even to this day, many ppl in our society call and ask for the caterers number. I and M were mainly busy with the guest, greeting them, making sure no one feels alone or unattended, making sure everyone is enjoying, seeing off guests, etc. By the time the last guests left, it was midnight. 

Overall it was a successful party. Majority of the guests that we had invited turned up and most seemed to enjoy themselves! But for me, the highlight of the day was Shaurya. I was so proud of him. He was a good kid who did not cry or get cranky a lot. He cried once during the magic show when everyone was inside the hall and it got a little crowded. He was also running away if someone was trying to hold him. (as such also Shaurya doesn’t like being held by strangers.. even we carry him very less.. he likes roaming on his own 2 feet!! :-) ) But all and all, he was a very good kid, who was happily awake till 12 without crying. Ate everything that we were feeding him without any complaints. Played with my sister and her friends. I was indeed a very proud, happy and relieved mother!

 

 The b'de Invite

 Shaurya looking at the confetti as we cut the cake!! 

Ganesh Puja Celebration with the kiddo!!

First things First.. wish you a very happy Ganesh Chaturthi!! J. Since I was a kid, I have always remembered bringing the Ganesha idol home for the 10 day celebration that goes on during this time. It used to be really fun filled days when we used to go to our ancestral home in the nearby village. There used to be daily morning and evening Aarti, evening kirtans, playing in our farmhouse, playing in the quaint little railway station in front of our home, catching dragonflys and the likes.. J After my marriage, I and M decided to continue this tradition too. With God’s grace, things have always fallen in place and we have been able to welcome Ganapati in our home each year. This year, it has been an even more special Ganapati Puja. This is the first one after Shaurya’s birth.. Puja celebrations with my own littlebal ganapati.. :-D

I was really looking forward to this since last month. I wanted to see how Shaurya will react when he sees the idol, will he allow us to do the decorations, will the decorations and lightings remain intact till end of the puja, how will he take to the morning and evening Aartis, etc. It has turned out pretty well till now. On Tuesday night, when we were doing the decorations, he was running here and there, happily getting himself wrapped in the decoration items and just enjoying all the fuss. J We had to keep the decorations very simple this year.. everything was pushed on to the wall and we have tried to keep as many things off limit for him as we could. And seeing all our excitement, Shaurya was also happy and excited when he saw the Idol. For the first 2 days he used to try to get the lights out or remove some of the things, but now he has got used to the idea. He enjoys the daily Aartis too.. M while doing the aarti holds the aarti thali with Shaurya and both of them together do a nice 360 degree turn.. praying the Lord in all directions.. :-D. Shaurya loves this.. as soon as I light the diya on the thali, he just stands in front and eagerly waits for M to do that little 360 degree turn with him.

The Little Devil 

On the day of Ganesh Chaturthi, I had made a rangoli just outside our front door. Since it was auspicious to start the Puja in between 6-9 am in the morning, we did the Puja as soon as we had bathed and were ready. By the time Puja was over and we were done with our breakfast, it was late. So the Rangoli was made only around noon. After making it, I sat in the drawing room and was chatting with M and my sister Chinki. We have this huge Sofa in our drawing room and we were lounging on it. Shaurya as usual was running all over the house looking for new things to play with. After some time, he went near the front door and stood there. I just peeped to check on what he was doing. I could see him bowing his head & looking at the Rangoli. He was standing just inside the door and was looking down at the Rangoli. We thought that he is finding all those rangoli colors attractive and new and thus was happily looking at it.. a little in awe maybe. How wrong could we have been? When he was standing there for about 3-4 minutes and continuously looking at theRangoli, I got a little worried. He doesn’t sit still in place for more than 30 seconds.. 3-4 minutes is too much. He can’t be that much in Awe of the colors.. something wasn’t right. When I went to him, what do I see? He had this belan (rolling pin) in one hand (don’t know when he went to the kitchen and pulled it from the countertop), was holding on to the door frame with his other hand and was happily scribbling at the rangoli with the belan. All my efforts of the last 20 minutes went kaput.. the rangoli didn’t even survive 30 minutes. L And he wasn’t done just yet. I got this rangoli frame from my neighbor and had made ganesha with it on a plate. I had kept it in front of the Ganesha Idol. In the evening, Shaurya just went near the Idol. Gave this plate a slight shake.. just a light tap and then left, never to touch it again. However this small tap was just enough to mix all the colors together. L At least this rangoli survived till evening. J

My Desi Boy

As part of our society Ganesh Puja celebrations, there were many different events planned to keep the society members involved and make it fun for all. One such event was the fancy dress competition for children below 2 years of age. Shaurya being 11 months was eligible for the same. It was a working day for me.. since I am normally back by 4pm, I planned to buy an outfit for Shaurya and get him ready for this event which was scheduled for 7pm. It turned out to be a busy day @ office, my sister called me at 6 and reminded about the event. By the time I reached home it was already 6.30pm, I went to a few shops near our home but did not get any fancy dress outfit. I started discussing with M and my sister on what to do now. I realized that Shaurya has a white Dhoti Kurta that he wore for a Puja ceremony. We got him to wear this white dhoti kurta. My sister took out one of my red dupattas and tied it around Sharuya’s waist. M suggested we make a moustache on Shaurya’s face. Out came my never-before-used Kajal :-D and I made a moustache.  A big red tikka using my lipstick and Shaurya was ready for the event. To complete his desi boy look, we gave him a white stick - improvised out of a curtain holder. Shaurya was looking very very cute. When we took him downstairs for the event, everyone was super excited on seeing Shaurya. Everyone was Oohing and Aaahing..  :D. All the other kids were dressed beautifully too. There were 2 little krishnas; both looking great. And our front door neighbor had made her daughter Radha.. she was looking so pretty!! It was nice seeing such small kids dressed up for the event. All of the kids were given a gift by M (our society treasurer and working committee member :D). You can call me a biased mother but I have to admit I found Shaurya the cutest of them all and ready as a perfect fancy dress participant J.

Trip to the Movie Theatre

Since Shaurya’s birth we have not gone to watch movie in a theatre. We have had ample opportunities to go to theatre. I have a full time maid at home and my sister also stays with us, so we could leave Shaurya with them and go for a movie together. However both M and I never felt it worth so much that we need to leave Shaurya behind. We did not want to take him to the theatre since there would be loud sounds in the movie and Shaurya is too small for all the noise. With Shaurya turning 1 next month, we decided to give it a try and see how he takes to it. Luckily for us, Barfi had just released. It’s a soft light movie so we were sure there would be no loud action sequences or sound in it. We booked the 11.30 am show so that Shaurya will be ready by his normal time and play a little. He usually sleeps by 12 pm so maybe 30-45 min into the movie, he can doze off on my lap. We reached the theatre by 11.10, Shaurya as usual was excited on seeing a new place. Everything was okay till we entered the hall. Shaurya was looking at the big screen and at everyone around. Then the lights were turned off J This may be triggered sleep hormones inside him, he started getting a little cranky. I gave him a biscuit to eat, let him sip little water and rocked him a little. The movie had soft melodious background score. When the first song started, I gently eased Shaurya into a sleeping position with his head in the nook of my arm. In 30 seconds flat, he was asleep listening to the soft tones. He never ever sleeps so easily. Maybe I should buy a songs DVD of Barfi :-D He woke up only towards the end of the movie. It was a great experience and not as dreadful as were thinking. We had gone mentally prepared to leave the movie in between and come back home if our son is not comfortable. Thankfully everything turned out to be good. My friend Amu calls it beginner’s luck.. :D hope it turns out to be more than that. Any which way, we were thankful for this dose of luck. J

Ganapati Idol @ our home

Doing the Aarti along with his Papa. 

Seen here happily and quietly ruining the Rangoli that I made.

In his Desi Boy avataar. :-)