Addicted!

Sometime back, there was the great spring break where the boys got to do quite a few fun things. There were moments in between when the older boy would be engrossed with his book, and i would be at my computer. During one such moment, we had the 6 yrold morosely proclaiming : "Anna is addicted to his reading, you are addicted to your computer...i'm not addicted to anything!"

so today, when i saw that tiny face smiling in his sleep, i didn't havethe heart to wake him up for school. Being at home is still fun for him, why not make the most of it...?

Besides, its time to get addicted to him...

flashback!

Its been ages since Abha tagged me for this, and i'm sure that everyone who is someone has finished doing this....

I would not feel good doing it just for the first born so doing it for both kids...

1. WAS YOUR PREGNANCY PLANNED?

Sort of... proof that contraception really works...because we had the first one after 3 years of marriage...

2. WERE YOU MARRIED AT THE TIME?:

1) heh..heh...yes..

2) yes, and to the same person

3. WHAT WERE YOUR REACTIONS?

thinking back 11 years...excited, and very happy

thinking back 6 years...yipee...that meant very happy!

4. WAS ABORTION AN OPTION FOR YOU?

i didn't exercise that option ..for both

5. HOW OLD WERE YOU?

25

30

6. HOW DID YOU FIND OUT YOU WERE PREGNANT?

Knew it somehow,ofcourse the missed period was a big indicator too...then ofcourse the home pregnancy test and the final confirmation by the doc...

7. WHO DID YOU TELL FIRST?

Whom would you think? Of course the one without whom this wouldn't have happened! ;)

8. DUE DATE?

27th August

29th September,

9. DID YOU HAVE MORNING SICKNESS?

On and off...there were days when the pot was my most loved companion...and i hated mornings...

quite a bit initially

10. WHAT DID YOU CRAVE?

spicy food!

curd rice! Chaat

11.. WHO/WHAT IRRITATED YOU THE MOST?

the fact that my bladder seemed always full...

the weather the second time

12. WHAT WAS YOUR FIRST CHILD'S SEX?

male,

male

13. DID YOU WISH YOU HAD THE OPPOSITE SEX OF WHAT YOU WERE GETTING? intially, wanted a girl but as the pregnancy progressed, i just wanted a healthy baby, and by the end that was what all that mattered!

14. HOW MANY POUNDS DID YOU GAIN THROUGHOUT THE PREGNANCY?

Quite a bit. My mom had never seen me plump and by the end, she was heard saying that i looked better, when i was thin...of course most of it was water retention, but you know mothers!
Both times, and i looked quite awful too :(

15. DID YOU HAVE A BABY SHOWER?

no and was relieved about that

16. WAS IT A SURPRISE OR DID YOU KNOW?

see answer to Q15

17. DID YOU HAVE ANY COMPLICATIONS DURING YOUR PREGNANCY? a close relative had lost her baby in her ninth month (the baby's cord was around his neck) that must have pschyed me out, because i would rush to the hospital everytime my baby didn't kick.

second time: nothing much, except a fever around the 6th month which took a long time to go away.

18. WHERE DID YOU GIVE BIRTH? In a nursing home in bangalore

19. HOW MANY HOURS WERE YOU IN LABOR?

was admitted at midnight and gave birth at 6.28 the next morning
was admitted in the evening, induced labour and finally gave birth after a day, at 10.51 the next morning!!!!

20. WHO DROVE YOU TO THE HOSPITAL? My dad, accompanied by my mother and lil nephew. it was midnight when the pains started.

My dad, again

21. WHO WATCHED YOU GIVE BIRTH?

The nurses and the doctor.

The hubby, my mom, the nurse and the doc..it was one full party out there in the labour room...

22. WAS IT NATURAL OR C-SECTION?

natural both times

23. DID YOU TAKE MEDICINE TO EASE THE PAIN?

No

24. HOW MUCH DID YOUR CHILD WEIGH?

3+Kgs

3+ kg

25. WHEN WAS YOUR CHILD ACTUALLY BORN ?

15th Aug

26th September

26. WHAT DID YOU NAME HIM?

Sj,

Sn

27. HOW OLD IS YOUR FIRST BORN

11 yrs,

6 yrs

28. WHAT WAS YOUR REACTION WHEN THE DOCTOR ANNOUNCED THE SEX OF THE BABY?

Delighted,

relieved that my baby was doing fine

29. WHAT WAS YOUR FIRST REACTION ON SEEING THE BABY?

Overwhelmed and happy and thought 'i'm never doing this again!"

Relieved after 2 days of labour! and thought "I'm so not doing this again!"

30. DID YOU CRY?

a bit...i was mored dazed by it all...

No, but just held him tight

What's on fire?

So i'm listening to random hindi songs on the one and only hindi radio channel and this song comes on air....

and i'm humming the words when i hear a lil voice joining me...

Tere bin my ball's on fire...(actual words : Tere bin my world's on fire)

I could just hug him to pieces....for all the smiles he gives me...

Sizing them up...

In most Indian families, we take care not to paint the relatives with the aunty/uncle brush.

So I finished talking about his doddamma, and chikkamma (my part of the family) and his badi maa, chotti mummy,etc

And the little tyke interrupts me with a twinkle in his eye…
“okay, now tell me about the medium maa…”

And of course the resident humorist had to add…'and tell him about ‘raj’ ma too”

Fine, be like that!

AAAAAND HE's BACK!!!

with his trademark grin and his 'won't show it but i did miss you" style!

hoarse, tired and happy!

with memories stored in his little camera and scandalous tidbits shared !

with glowing reviews of his helpful nature by the teachers!

with tales of campfires, jungle treks, and kayaking!

to much relieved parents!

and so life continues, with him still hungover by the experience and with us basking in the familiarity of the chaos which make our routine...

and my vocal cords are finally getting the much needed exercise to keep them in perfect working order!

thank you, for all the virtual hugs and pats sent my way...it didn't lessen the hours but it did elevate my mood :D

Letting go!

That's senior, literally, on a high!!!

Have you ever had looked down a deep cliff and felt a sinking feeling inside because you don't know what's down there and you are afraid...no? no problems!!! Either try bungee jumping or just wait till your child turns 11 and then send him on a 5 day adventure camp to an island...

The school has decided to take the children from grade 6 onwards on a camping trip, where the aim is to teach the children about bonding, teamwork and leadership through group activities including kayaking, trekking and personality development exercises...Away from the familiarity of home and school, this trip will, i hope , prove extremely beneficial to him, because he is by nature extremely sports driven. Besides, its never too late to learn to be responsible for yourself.

its his first overnighter too...i brush off those worries that niggle..will he try to show off? what if he gets a bad headache? What if he goes exploring ? its in a beach area, what if? There are have been so many hypothetical scenarios playing around in my head that i could make a whole movie out of it...

I've been uncharacteristically quiet, lest he know how much my heart's trembling...I've stifled my urge to remind him again and again about things...

I've done the next best thing i could. I've involved him in the packing and got him his favorite eats. I've told him to have a wonderful time and that its up to him to make it into a great experience...G feels the anxiety too...i caught him slipping a tiny idol into S's bag for divine protection...we all have our own ways of dealing with our demons...

Today seems to be a day for change...my six yr old is used to people looking out for him always. He's never gone to school alone...when it was playschool i used to take him and now in regular school, his brother is there with him always...

So, today when i saw my six yr-old confidently march off to school, after repeatedly reminding me that he's going to come back home too from the bus stop by himself (they generally walk up by themselves but this time he will be alone) i realised that he too had grown up....they don't need me as much as i need them...

i think this is more my milestone than theirs...its time to let go...again! These strong strides that they take are a long way from those unsteady baby steps...It is a time when you realise that it is possible to feel pride and a twinge of sadness at the same time...

Of course he's going to have a good time...wish i could say the same about me...

It's going to be five long days...

Keep OuT!!

A very productive senior at work!!!



Enter at your own risk!!!








Entry to authorized personnel only...and my authorization depends on his mood


This one says...
Trespassers will be shot!!!
Just in case you got that message wrong, it reiterates...
Survivors will be shot again!!!







That's my space!!!



with big bro cordoning off his space, this is the safest place lil junior could find

My troubled mind!!!

an update on the last post
Yes, i did have a chat with the teacher. She seemed taken aback that he had zeroed onto the cross and the nailing part...becase it was not pointed out to them. It was stressed to me that the whole thing was more an exercise to tell them about values, morals?!!!! I'm sure they could have learnt about values from another source?

I've told her a few things myself but i think its my fault for letting him go on this trip...i should have foreseen this...but he would have been at a loss if he had been the only one not to go...:(

i still think 5 years is too early to talk to children about diffent faiths, gods etc..each child must be coming from a particular background and is slowly being exposed to different friends, different faiths...every child reacts differently...and yes, maybe mine is too sensitive

In this particular case, junior felt bad that even some one who did good, got a raw deal out of it all...so it was a lesson badly learnt.

and i've learnt mine...

A troubled mind...

So the kids were asked to come in sandals since they would be visiting places of worship.

So the boy was sure he wanted to go, and he went, happy that it was going to be a kind of a picnic...The earlier time they had been to pizza hut where they saw the pizzas being made, and before that they had gone to a theatre to see a play...

It so turns out they visited a church, a buddhist temple, a hindu temple and a mosque. It was an out of school routine and that accounted for most of the excitement...

The evening and many evenings later, we all heard a few observations...

Amma do you know that the holy book of india is called the quran!!!!

Amma, you know the lady in the church told us that jesus, they pinned him on a cross with nails...he died and two days later he became a god?!!!

Amma, the holy book of the church is Buddha...

Amma, why do we pray to so many gods..?

undoubtedly a young mind not very prepared ...it has been gnawing in his mind especially the church and what they said. I've not really enlightened him about various religions. I've tried more to lay emphasis on morals, values and good simple sharing...perhaps some children are ready for this..perhaps junior is a lone case, perhaps...


The final statement, a whole week later...

You know, they said Jesus loved everybody.......and yet he died...

A sad statement...

No, I've not heard the end of this...


And I think the school is going to hear from me on this one...

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Update: this post has nothing to do with any religion. I just wonder when is the right age for something. The elder boy did not react this way, perhaps because he was exposed to it much later. I studied in a convent school and i loved the chapel for its peace and serenity. Even temples have disturbing displays, (narasimha tearing the asura's stomach, goddesses holding a cut off head). Now my mind is troubled more...

In and out!!

It been two weeks now since the cub junior's been learning about the human body. It's fun to see how much the little ones enjoy learning new things. They had a doctor come to school to show them the different intsruments used and the kids were taken to the lab to see the skeleton. And now he knows why his heart goes thump, thump...and what his lungs do.

Two days back, after gorging on a treat of homemade pizza for dinner, the boys were in their room doing their routine of driving the neighbors crazy, while i cleaned up.

Soon, junior dances into the kitchen.

"You know, Amma, the pizza has entered my food pipe".

"That's nice, now where does it go" I had to ask

"now it's gone into my intestine, the good food stays there, the bad food goes into my biiig intestine' (that was probably to emphasize how big it is)

"okay.." now i'm understandably piqued ...

"and" he continues, "i think pizza is bad food 'cos its gone into my big intestine and it now wants to come out ...(he's literally dancing now)

"eeks!!! into the bath room right now!!!' I scream, my momma alerts ringing loud and clear

and that's how we averted a smelly accident that day.

sigh, pizza is bad food?

a 'mushy' tale

I have to record this just for its "laugh" factor.

The kids are excited about the upcoming trip to India. They have cousins in Bangalore (my sis' kids) who are 15 and 11). My nephews in a way, are curtain raisers for whatever would happen to my kids. The last time we saw the 15 yr-old, he had started shaving, too.

My cub junior absolutely hero-worships the 15 yr-old.

Yesterday while we were waiting at the gate for the school bus, (a group of 8 brighteyed children chattering away while this bleary-eyed mom looked on) discussion veered to moustaches. Cub senior, (the self appointed mr.know-it-all courtesy his cousins) declared that when you reach class 8/9, u get a moustache...

of couse junior's ears perked up. He runs to me, thrilled with this nugget of information and asks, "is it true, i too will get a moustache when i reach class 9?" (his questions are still framed as sentences asked in a questioning tone)

i nodded,and couldn't resist adding "maybe earlier.. "

he looked excited...

next he peers closely at me and asks..."u don't have one?"

"urrmmm......no"

Now comes the howler...

"why? u didn't go to school, u never reached class 9?"

i really have to work on my image , don't i?

i've learnt a new poem...

cub junior came home yesterday, all bubbling with news...he loves talking about his day... every single thing is important, be it the taekwondo step he learnt or the chocolate he got...

"Amma, my hindi teacher taught us a new poem. You want to hear it?"

"Sure", i said

"Aaya, aaya , paagal aaya"

"huh, paagal?..you sure she said paagal? ' i question

"she said paagal' he insisted...

so i opened his hindi book and sure enough, the poem was printed there...

and it read

"aaya, aaya, baadal aaya"

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obviously, he had heard it as paagal...and paagal it will remain... till hopefully the teacher notices and corrects him...(crossing ,my fingers here)...because a teacher is always right...!!!

He used to speak Hindi so well, he dreamt in it...i used to despair about him learning to communicate in English. Now 8 mths in Singapore, english has become his chosen language...and he's learnt it too well...more than he's supposed to know... :)

Oops! Junior's done it again!

Its been some time since I've written anything here, which does not mean nothing interesting has happened. It just means I'm taking my time assimilating everything and wondering what is going on!

Recent weeks have seen complaints by senior about swear words and abusive language being used against him. The final straw came when the boy in question started putting things in cub senior's bag and accusing him of stealing it. It turned out that the behavior stemmed from resentment and jealousy. An email to the right people hopefully has calmed things down. Aside from the fact that the cub senior's vocabulary is now enriched by more swear words, I'm stunned by the nonchalant usage of the words here. ...I've managed to ensure that cub senior minds his language,but for how long? I wonder...

As for cub junior, what can I say...A cosy evening found him playing with a new aiplane. His brother had been to the airshow and brought back a souvenir for the lil one. So while i caught up on some reading, junior was busy shooting bombs from the cockpit. Or so i thought. Till hubby pointed out, that what i mistook as cockpit was actually a reference to his err...vital part of his anatomy.

Further subtle probing revealed that he picked it up from the bus.(i use subtle, because to give the word undue importance only serves to etch it further in his mind and i don't want that, do i?) And he was thrilled with the new word he learnt(what he has to learn, he will never get it, but this...no probs mamma, !!!). Leave alone the fact that at his age, in my time, the cock used to be the better half of the hen... :(

a mom on the warpath....a 5 yr-old who is the most willing sponge, for all things undesirable...fireworks unlimited!!!

And the tension of various situations he may use it in!!! Ahh well!!
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When six became....!

these days, the lil uns are taught alphabets the phonetics way...which is quite confusing for an adult...the alphabet I makes the sound "eee" and the alphabet E makes the ehh ...and so on...

So finally cub junior has learnt the spellings of the numbers. Of course we had a lot of weird spellings which cropped up but my favorite was...

Wanting to convince me that he knew the spellings, he says, " see, i know...i know how to spell six! 's'...'e'...'x'...six...(he's confused the sound part and the alphabet)

i take a deep breath, and say no, it is s...i...x...(six)

and five minutes later he's back to s..e..x...!!!
:
:
:
After 2 minutes, a question pops up... what does s..e..x mean??

so i sit down and explain....

the male /female gender thing...(*sheeesh, whatever were you'll thinking!)

and he went away happy...

but now knowing his penchant for testing newly learnt words, i foresee a situation in the MRT (train), where in the crowd, he may holler...i know his/her sex.....he's called a boy...or worse...could it get any worse?

Uhoh!!!I HATE SEX...AAargh! ...i mean six!!!

The sun wants to play!

the weather's been funny the past few days here in Singapore. You never know when the sunny day decides to be all teary...Today was one such day and my lil boy was feeling upset that it rained...so i made up this poem for him and we had some fun! Sharing our lil moment together...This suited the prompt at writer's too...
*********************************************************************
The sun wants to play!!



Over the horizon and far away
The sun woke up to a new day
Should I hide behind a cloud today?
Should I be bright and stay?

So he hopped behind a cloud, peeking in and out
Making the weather man shake his head and shout
It’s going to be bright...umm wet....may be sunny,
This sure wasn't good. This sure wasn’t funny!

Waiting for the sun to make up his mind,
Was not easy, they were beginning to find
Our umbrellas or our shades, what do you think?
What a mess, it tickled our sun really pink

Everybody grumbled, what a day
The children didn’t know where to play
The beach or the park, in or out
The sun was acting strange, no doubt…

No body ever thought the sun
Could be having some fun
Over the horizon and far away
The sun sure had a great day

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This was more of a spontaneous oubtburst from me to keep S in good humor.
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Don't ask me!!!

Cub junior is quite a dreamer. He can only sing the alphabet but cannot say it. He is the reason i sometimes wish our education system was different. I wish it was more sensitive to the child's individual needs. But then this is wishful thinking! The saving grace is that i don't force him to 'study' but try to keep his mind active. He is intelligent enough and its not his fault that he is expected to know spellings of four letter words and number names from 1 to twenty! The poor boy is lost in a muddle of spellings and the horrors of hindi alphabets!

But the lil fella will never say "I don't know'..he comes up with a new connotation..

Yesterday, we were doing numbers. ...after a long time.

I asked him ' How do you spell three"?

He looks at me, evidently flummoxed...creases his forehead and says "why, you don't know?"

My son says...

Its been ages since i've written here. And this seems as good a time as any to start!! besides i HAD to write this...

We recently had little cub throw a not so little mega tantrum. The reason - the color pink. he had spotted pink on his shirt buttons!!!!!!
So now I know that Pink is not a boy color, pink is a girl color, never mind if the metrosexual male is flaunting it...Of course cub junior's views are never his own, its always a big bro influence!!


GIRLS!!!

The insult of the month (equivalent to the swear word) is unfortunately the word 'GIRL'. When either wants to verbally insult teh other, he says "You are such a girl". what does that make me?
---------------------------------------------------------------------------

Yesterday, little cub junior grandly annouced "I hate girls!"

Why?

"Because Anna(big brother) says so."

Over to cub senior...

"I hate girls. because they are so silly!!!"


Silly!!!!!!!! I splutter...Sigh!!!

I give up. I might as well record it here so i can show it to his first girlfriend. or atleast show it to him when he starts raving about girls...


***Perking Up** :) :)

Logic? what's that?

the running Nose

Cub junior has been sniffling all day.

Me: "Is your nose running"?

"You don't know anything, noses can't RUN": comes the exasperated reply.

Hopefully the cold will clear and so will his mind :)
And, yes, I don't know anything!

But...think of the fun i'll have when i use phrases like 'it's raining cats and dogs" and "cat got your tongue"...

cubby logic...

Upset with his fairly new school shoes, he declares grandly...: "I don't like these. Let's return them and get new ones".

Me : "We can't do that, teh shop will not take it back"

Cub J: Of course you can. Did you not return the books and take new ones at the libaly..(two r's in one word is still a lil difficult). So we just return the shoes and get new ones.

I GIVE up!!

Shot!!!

They trespassed, they survived and so they were SHOT!!!





...By our camera, that is :) We came across this impromptu performance by cub senior and had to capture it.

Pet, Please?...

Petty Issues!!!

Cub senior's latest craze is Neopets, a site dedicated to virtual pets, where you can create your pet or buy one. Once that is done , you keep it alive by giving it all kinds of food, making it duel with other pets, giving it extra powers and so on...I'm sure its more interesting than the way I've made it sound and cub senior is hooked on to it...

These two boys are quite fond of anything that moves. Holidays are spent gazing at monitor lizards, birds, turtles. Cub senior is quite good at identifying birds... polishing his skills for a bird-watching of a different kind, later in life, perhaps?

The cubs have been pestering me for a pet...It all started with the arrival of Blackie, the fish...He/she was a present to cub junior from his playschool!!For a long time I used to observe Junior sitting there for hours looking out for something...(he was not even three then!!) A few days later he comes to me and says,'When will Blackie drink up all the water and become a big fish?'Turns out my 'drink up your milk and you'll become strong' dialogue was the culprit...

Now he says he wants a bird...I point out to the ones flying above and ask him whether he really wants to keep a bird in the cage. So he's gravely weighed the issue and has decided on a dog, after me rejecting a tiger cub(but amma, it won't bite) a rabbit and a duck...Though G may not be too excited about the puppy 'cos he is not exactly a dog lover...his 14 stitches bear testimony to that...

I remember my golden pom, Richie, of years ago. We used to live in Poona, then. I remember his wagging tail, his moods, his soft fur. Dogs wag their way into your heart and then one day, its time to leave and your heart gets broken...After him, I've really not felt like adopting another pet.

A pet does teach you how to love someone unconditionally and that is what I think the kids of today need. Looking after a pet gives you some kind of responsibility and kids generally love it. Sometimes, I really think i should get a pet for them but then i remember that both cubs are unanimous in their view that they will do the loving part and i should do the cleaning bit...because amma, it's going to smell...!!!

And now i'm 'pet'rified that junior's practically adopted an egg (waiting mournfully for it to hatch )... sigh...

Perhaps when i get back to Delhi, i should get a pet...hey...but they have me, don't i do everything they tell me to do?