No time for a detailed post as there is tons of work to be finished in office before i am off on leave from next week, as well as packing/shopping for gifts, last minutes stuff for S and us to be done.
Very excited as I'm getting a new car today and this is my first new car for myself. I drove my parents car when i was younger, and then got my husband's hand me down car and then a used car from my office (no complaints though since i am a bad driver and driving used cars at least doesn't give me tension about driving extra carefully).
anyway today - 13 years after i got my drivers license and 9 years after i started working i am getting my very own new car-a silver Skoda Fabia which i chose myself! am most excited
Other updates- S is unwell with a cough. We kept the AC on all night a couple of days back and I think the room became too cold and S always kicks off her blanket during the night. Last night was bad as S kept coughing and couldn't sleep comfortbaly. Her appeitite has also gone down- probably not getting a good tase with the cough and possible sore throat, but touch wood she has not got a cold yet.
Oh and I've got hooked onto the Twilight book series by Stephenie Meyer. Yes i know its for teenagers and its about vampire love stories, but i find them really addictive (have finished two books within a week and that means reading till 1:30 in the morning). Anyways not buying any more books till the trip is done.
The search for S playschool continues- unfortunately no good news near my new place. Tempted not to think about it till my holiday is done.
Off now to complete a note at work..meeting my bro for lunch (he's in town)which is such a good change since we have no family here.
Tuesday, April 21, 2009
Friday, April 17, 2009
3 day weekends…what a relief..
Had a series of 3-day weekends recently which were eagerly awaited, much deserved (in my view) and used to the maximum level possible. The first weekend we just chilled out on Friday, on Saturday we met up with my friends at a grill restaurant for lunch for a belated birthday celebration – we ended up taking S along though the whole idea of having a lunch out was that she could stay back with the maids and wouldn’t be uncomfortable in the restaurant (being restricted to her seat for 1- hours). But my friend decided to bring her son along and I thought S would also enjoy meeting everyone and playing (not really, but I guess maybe interacting?) with my friend’s son. Lunch was good fun and we managed to make it home for a good nap in the afternoon (my favorite part of weekends!). On Sunday we went to Vie (a restaurant overlooking the beach) for brunch. The food was terrible (we are not going to eat there again) but the ambience was excellent. There were some sofas overlooking the sea on which we relaxed and enjoyed our wine/beer. We could see kids playing the water and while the sea was not azure blue or at all blue in the least I really enjoy watching waves break over the shore and also the sound of the waves. S also enjoyed the aero planes flying past- its very close to the airport and we could see planes every 5 mins. She gets all excited when she sees planes and here she could see them flying away into the horizon- so she was jumping up on the sofa and making excited noises- I think she wanted to tell us something..
There was also a meaow cat (what we call cat) which came right up to us- S found that also really exciting and kept wanting to go and stroke the cat. I am quite scared of all animals and was terrified that the cat would scratch S so didn’t let her go very close to the cat. During the weekend we also managed to take S to the park near our house which has a duck pond, parrot cage, and also has turkeys, roosters, geese in the duck pond alongwith a duck and duckling family. S was very excited to see all these birds, and especially the rooster which was running on top of its cage and on the verge of jumping out on us.
The next weekend which was again a Friday holiday I spent looking at some playschools for S, shopping for clothes for S and for me (at one shop where we took S along, there is a play area for children and S was watching other kids playing there and also doing her own thing- putting some blocks into a bin etc, then suddenly a bigger girl hit her and S started crying…before I could intervene the maid who was minding the big girl, or rather not minding her adequately pulled her away and scolded her..i felt bad for S, I guess this was her first interaction with bully kids and she was too young to understand that she needs to defend herself..i read an interesting blog article on this which said you need to be the biggest advocate for your child and I guess I should have been around the playpen with her to ensure nobody bullied her instead of leaving her and going shopping and allowing her to be bullied…will be more careful next time..the hubby of course felt that S should have hit the girl back but I guess S is too young). We managed lunch out on Sunday at our favourite restaurant where S sat next to her dad and read from his menu!
The last of the glorious 3 day weekends I spent with S at my parents place. I decided to pamper myself and go even if only for 3 days and had a great time. Firstly I slept late everyday shamelessly. Then I managed to take S for her first swim-she loved it. I had bought a tube and floaters for her but they were too big. But luckily the kids at the kiddie pool were friendly and allowed us to borrow an floating aeroplane where S can put sit and put her feet through it and I can push her so she is floating on the water. That was great fun and though she got splashed quite a bit by other kids she enjoyed watching them play in the water as well. I also managed to go to a bookshop and buy some books for myself after ages and conquently ended up spending most of this week finishing Twilight- yes I like teen vampire love stories (am now planning to watch the movie!) and now I have 3 more books to read in this series. My parents house also has a lot of kids stuff like cycles, ricking horse, pram , toys because my brothers kids keep coming there when my brothers are down from the States and S was happily occupied. We alos have two dogs and they are quite aggressive so they had to be tied when S was down there, but she was quite keen on going and touching them but I wouldn’t let her since they are huge boxers and while they are friendly if they jump on her she will definetly fall down and hurt herself badly. Maybe when she’s bigger.S is also quite attached to my mom and at one point refused to come to me when I was trying to put her to bed…but I just took the opportunity to catch up on mail, facebook, reading and sleeping.
Now we are planning our annual leave- that’s going to be quite a challenge since we are going to the US and visiting 3 cities there and the number of flights we are taking is quite crazy…but should be fun as S will get to meet her cousins!
There was also a meaow cat (what we call cat) which came right up to us- S found that also really exciting and kept wanting to go and stroke the cat. I am quite scared of all animals and was terrified that the cat would scratch S so didn’t let her go very close to the cat. During the weekend we also managed to take S to the park near our house which has a duck pond, parrot cage, and also has turkeys, roosters, geese in the duck pond alongwith a duck and duckling family. S was very excited to see all these birds, and especially the rooster which was running on top of its cage and on the verge of jumping out on us.
The next weekend which was again a Friday holiday I spent looking at some playschools for S, shopping for clothes for S and for me (at one shop where we took S along, there is a play area for children and S was watching other kids playing there and also doing her own thing- putting some blocks into a bin etc, then suddenly a bigger girl hit her and S started crying…before I could intervene the maid who was minding the big girl, or rather not minding her adequately pulled her away and scolded her..i felt bad for S, I guess this was her first interaction with bully kids and she was too young to understand that she needs to defend herself..i read an interesting blog article on this which said you need to be the biggest advocate for your child and I guess I should have been around the playpen with her to ensure nobody bullied her instead of leaving her and going shopping and allowing her to be bullied…will be more careful next time..the hubby of course felt that S should have hit the girl back but I guess S is too young). We managed lunch out on Sunday at our favourite restaurant where S sat next to her dad and read from his menu!
The last of the glorious 3 day weekends I spent with S at my parents place. I decided to pamper myself and go even if only for 3 days and had a great time. Firstly I slept late everyday shamelessly. Then I managed to take S for her first swim-she loved it. I had bought a tube and floaters for her but they were too big. But luckily the kids at the kiddie pool were friendly and allowed us to borrow an floating aeroplane where S can put sit and put her feet through it and I can push her so she is floating on the water. That was great fun and though she got splashed quite a bit by other kids she enjoyed watching them play in the water as well. I also managed to go to a bookshop and buy some books for myself after ages and conquently ended up spending most of this week finishing Twilight- yes I like teen vampire love stories (am now planning to watch the movie!) and now I have 3 more books to read in this series. My parents house also has a lot of kids stuff like cycles, ricking horse, pram , toys because my brothers kids keep coming there when my brothers are down from the States and S was happily occupied. We alos have two dogs and they are quite aggressive so they had to be tied when S was down there, but she was quite keen on going and touching them but I wouldn’t let her since they are huge boxers and while they are friendly if they jump on her she will definetly fall down and hurt herself badly. Maybe when she’s bigger.S is also quite attached to my mom and at one point refused to come to me when I was trying to put her to bed…but I just took the opportunity to catch up on mail, facebook, reading and sleeping.
Now we are planning our annual leave- that’s going to be quite a challenge since we are going to the US and visiting 3 cities there and the number of flights we are taking is quite crazy…but should be fun as S will get to meet her cousins!
Wednesday, April 8, 2009
Too tired to think
Lately I’ve been feeling too tired, and I feel bad since its been having an effect on the time I spend with S, my interactions with the hubby (now mostly is this done, is that done, why are you not doing this….) and my basic frame of mind.
I seriously need to figure out why I am so tired – this has been going for some time now but two incidents which played out over the last few days have really brought things into perspective...
Last two days S was crying while doing potty and I just didn’t make the connection that she could have a rash. The hubby (who is much more chilled out) and of course not bogged down by the everyday routine, was just with her for 10 mins and realized it. I feel like such a lazy, bad mother..
When hubby said he was unwell yesterday, and was to stay home in the old house the next day,; I shouted at him for not telling me earlier since I had moved half the stuff to the new house and how I would now need to call up all the maids asking them to come to the existing house, instead of asking him how he felt and what was the problem
I have generally become very irritatable and short tempered about most things and instead of appreciating my time with S, I keep whining to the hubby about how tough it is to manage house (2 houses!!) and work and baby and how he is not doing anything blah blah blah…
These are the things which I figured are making me more tired and I plan to have a good shot at tackling them..
After S sleeps I spend about ½ hour doing stuff around the house and then another 45 mins reading. Considering that S sleeps at 11 and gets up dot at 7 am this means I get only about 6 hours sleep average which is difficult to sustain (now been more than 14 months since I got a full nights sleep). Need to get these done sometime during the day.
I wake up at least 2-3 times every night whenever S cries or wakes up. This needs to stop.. as I cannot get back to sleep quickly each time. We need to gradually get S used to sleeping in her own cot and sleeping through the night- now usually halfway through the night she cries and then I take her onto our bed.
Shifting the house every week is also very tiring- I need to take about a full car trunk load of stuff back and fro every time and this is tiring to pack, carry, unload, repack etc etc. Will just have to become more efficient with what we have at each place
Stop worrying about what S is eating , doing etc etc and spend more time playing and talking to her. When I worry about her eating I get more irritiable as well. I have decided to take S along with me to my mom’s place for the 3 day weekend coming up and since this will involve a flight there and back and maybe two dinners alone at the airport it should help me become less fussed
I also want to take a break and have someone else pamper me for a change, and more importantly not have to worry about the house being cleaned, food being prepared, rushing home every afternoon to see if S is ok. Am going home for the long weekend …yippee
Also my schedule is very hectic nowadays- morning is S’s milk, potty, then bath, then prepare her breakfast, then get ready for office while the maids feed her, rush to office, rush home for lunch, back to office, then back home, take S to park, give her dinner, play with her, then our dinner, then her milk, then play, then S sleep, then finally at 11 p.m. I get some time to myself. I think it has become tiring because a) I get very stressed if I am not able to leave from work in time to take S to the park- maybe I should set a target for doing this every alternate day otherwise it can get very difficult, and b) since I gave our smaller car to my brother I have been traveling a lot by auto- up and down twice a day, in the heat and near our office autos are not available easily. Now we are getting another car (yippee) so that should make things more relaxed
Also it’s a state of mind. I guess I just need to take things a bit lightly from now….
I seriously need to figure out why I am so tired – this has been going for some time now but two incidents which played out over the last few days have really brought things into perspective...
Last two days S was crying while doing potty and I just didn’t make the connection that she could have a rash. The hubby (who is much more chilled out) and of course not bogged down by the everyday routine, was just with her for 10 mins and realized it. I feel like such a lazy, bad mother..
When hubby said he was unwell yesterday, and was to stay home in the old house the next day,; I shouted at him for not telling me earlier since I had moved half the stuff to the new house and how I would now need to call up all the maids asking them to come to the existing house, instead of asking him how he felt and what was the problem
I have generally become very irritatable and short tempered about most things and instead of appreciating my time with S, I keep whining to the hubby about how tough it is to manage house (2 houses!!) and work and baby and how he is not doing anything blah blah blah…
These are the things which I figured are making me more tired and I plan to have a good shot at tackling them..
After S sleeps I spend about ½ hour doing stuff around the house and then another 45 mins reading. Considering that S sleeps at 11 and gets up dot at 7 am this means I get only about 6 hours sleep average which is difficult to sustain (now been more than 14 months since I got a full nights sleep). Need to get these done sometime during the day.
I wake up at least 2-3 times every night whenever S cries or wakes up. This needs to stop.. as I cannot get back to sleep quickly each time. We need to gradually get S used to sleeping in her own cot and sleeping through the night- now usually halfway through the night she cries and then I take her onto our bed.
Shifting the house every week is also very tiring- I need to take about a full car trunk load of stuff back and fro every time and this is tiring to pack, carry, unload, repack etc etc. Will just have to become more efficient with what we have at each place
Stop worrying about what S is eating , doing etc etc and spend more time playing and talking to her. When I worry about her eating I get more irritiable as well. I have decided to take S along with me to my mom’s place for the 3 day weekend coming up and since this will involve a flight there and back and maybe two dinners alone at the airport it should help me become less fussed
I also want to take a break and have someone else pamper me for a change, and more importantly not have to worry about the house being cleaned, food being prepared, rushing home every afternoon to see if S is ok. Am going home for the long weekend …yippee
Also my schedule is very hectic nowadays- morning is S’s milk, potty, then bath, then prepare her breakfast, then get ready for office while the maids feed her, rush to office, rush home for lunch, back to office, then back home, take S to park, give her dinner, play with her, then our dinner, then her milk, then play, then S sleep, then finally at 11 p.m. I get some time to myself. I think it has become tiring because a) I get very stressed if I am not able to leave from work in time to take S to the park- maybe I should set a target for doing this every alternate day otherwise it can get very difficult, and b) since I gave our smaller car to my brother I have been traveling a lot by auto- up and down twice a day, in the heat and near our office autos are not available easily. Now we are getting another car (yippee) so that should make things more relaxed
Also it’s a state of mind. I guess I just need to take things a bit lightly from now….
Monday, March 30, 2009
Playground politics
I recently read an article by Metrodad on how some 5 year old girls can be absolute meanies (such as ignoring other girls and making them feel left out) and I just could not believe it – not at 5 at least! Doesn’t it take some time for catty behaviour to develop and emerge?
But I was in the playground the other day and overhead a group of Class II (between 7-8 years old) girls talking. One of them in particular kept making fun of other people- she referred to one girl as pothead because “ it seems that girl talked rubbish and spent the whole day in the pot” – where do these girls pick up these things from? Then she went on to describe another girl “who acted like maid because she wanted to carry, feed and play with her younger brother instead of letting the maid do it” - I found this especially strange since I assume caring for your younger brother should be a natural thing to do? Or not something that only maids (as against moms) do?
This girl was quite mean to S as well. She was holding a ball which S wanted to play with, but she refused to give it to her and instead kept bouncing it around near her and teasing her. I wondered whether I should give her a piece of my mind but decided to just take S to another part of the park.
Thankfully all the girls are not like this though. There was another girl who was part of the same group who came upto me and asked what S name was. She then gave S her ball to play with. Another girl was looking after her younger sister and hit a boy who came and hit her younger sister- again very strange behaviour- why did that big boy go and hit the small girl (who would have been 2 years old max) and continue teasing her when she was crying? And there was no one around to correct him or stop him doing such stuff other than the elder sister who would have been younger than this boy. ..
Seems there is a lot of playground politics- groupism ,catty behaviour and general bullying …my main challenge thus far has been to ensure S is well fed and in good humour-but I guess the challenges only get bigger when they grow up. The hubby (and me of course) are quite keen that S should defend herself against bullies from a young age – the hubby of course thinks that we should bully her now so that she becomes tough, which is too radical in my view. The other day a girl who was 2 months younger poked her and S didn’t do anything about it- so I guess it would be sometime before she takes on the bullies.
Talking about playgrounds, spending time with S at the playground also gives me a chance to see how kids are at different stages- I was the youngest in my family and also among my close cousins; so have not seen anyone grow up a close quarters. In the playground there was this 3 year old girl who was quite sullen and sat on S’s cycle and refused to get up. After 10 mins I had to request her grandmom to help get her off the cycle since S was getting restless and we had exhausted the other play items in the park. The girl continued to be sulky with her grandmom. Sometime later I was playing with S in the grass area of the playground and this girl also came there- she was looking quite lonely so I included her – by carrying her on my shoulder after putting S down, by doing ring a ring a roses in a circle with her and S, playing ‘out’ etc and this girl was absolutely delighted and kept laughing- the same girl who was sulky ten minutes back completely transformed when she had someone to play with,. That got me thinking- its so important to have someone who cares for your child and can engage them actively…touchwood one of my maids is very good at playing with S and seems to care for her as well, but as far as possible, I should try to leave office in time to play with S at least 2-3 times a week and definitely every weekend.
But I was in the playground the other day and overhead a group of Class II (between 7-8 years old) girls talking. One of them in particular kept making fun of other people- she referred to one girl as pothead because “ it seems that girl talked rubbish and spent the whole day in the pot” – where do these girls pick up these things from? Then she went on to describe another girl “who acted like maid because she wanted to carry, feed and play with her younger brother instead of letting the maid do it” - I found this especially strange since I assume caring for your younger brother should be a natural thing to do? Or not something that only maids (as against moms) do?
This girl was quite mean to S as well. She was holding a ball which S wanted to play with, but she refused to give it to her and instead kept bouncing it around near her and teasing her. I wondered whether I should give her a piece of my mind but decided to just take S to another part of the park.
Thankfully all the girls are not like this though. There was another girl who was part of the same group who came upto me and asked what S name was. She then gave S her ball to play with. Another girl was looking after her younger sister and hit a boy who came and hit her younger sister- again very strange behaviour- why did that big boy go and hit the small girl (who would have been 2 years old max) and continue teasing her when she was crying? And there was no one around to correct him or stop him doing such stuff other than the elder sister who would have been younger than this boy. ..
Seems there is a lot of playground politics- groupism ,catty behaviour and general bullying …my main challenge thus far has been to ensure S is well fed and in good humour-but I guess the challenges only get bigger when they grow up. The hubby (and me of course) are quite keen that S should defend herself against bullies from a young age – the hubby of course thinks that we should bully her now so that she becomes tough, which is too radical in my view. The other day a girl who was 2 months younger poked her and S didn’t do anything about it- so I guess it would be sometime before she takes on the bullies.
Talking about playgrounds, spending time with S at the playground also gives me a chance to see how kids are at different stages- I was the youngest in my family and also among my close cousins; so have not seen anyone grow up a close quarters. In the playground there was this 3 year old girl who was quite sullen and sat on S’s cycle and refused to get up. After 10 mins I had to request her grandmom to help get her off the cycle since S was getting restless and we had exhausted the other play items in the park. The girl continued to be sulky with her grandmom. Sometime later I was playing with S in the grass area of the playground and this girl also came there- she was looking quite lonely so I included her – by carrying her on my shoulder after putting S down, by doing ring a ring a roses in a circle with her and S, playing ‘out’ etc and this girl was absolutely delighted and kept laughing- the same girl who was sulky ten minutes back completely transformed when she had someone to play with,. That got me thinking- its so important to have someone who cares for your child and can engage them actively…touchwood one of my maids is very good at playing with S and seems to care for her as well, but as far as possible, I should try to leave office in time to play with S at least 2-3 times a week and definitely every weekend.
Friday, March 20, 2009
Moving house, a very busy weekend
Last weekend we moved to a rented flat near my office. We decided to shift to a place close to my office so that I could cut down on all the travel time- it was taking ½ hour in the mornings and between 45 mins to an hour in the evenings to get back from home, and office has become so hectic that I cannot leave before 6:30-6:45 on average (others stay back till about 8 but I can’t and I’ve decided not to) and need to be in by 10 latest which meant that if I left home at 9:30 in the morning I could not get back before 7:30-7:45 on average and I was not comfortable leaving S alone with the maids for such a long period of time
So far I was lucky in either being allowed to work from home – till S was about 9 ½ months old and then when I got back to office full time my mom and mom-in-law took turns to come and look after S. Now S is 13 and a ½ months and I need to put in place a system where I am not dependent on grandparents- I know we can force them to come but they have already done so much, and it is not fair to ask them to give up their lifestyle and come- my father in law cannot manage alone for long since there is no help at my in-laws place, and as for my mom she is used to a lot of freedom, travel, relatives, functions etc at our family home. Anyway I am digressing; this post is about my shift and busy weekend. So sum it up we took a decision to move to a place near my office to cut down my travel time so I can spend more time at home with S, to enable me to make it home for lunch everyday, to have the flexibility to drop in home at anytime (which would keep the maids on their toes) and also for peace of mind that home is only 5 mins away and anytime I am needed I can get there quickly.
One of the other advantages of the new place is that it is a gated community- there are about 10-12 building blocks within the gated compound and there is a play area in the middle. So security is higher (the guards do not allow people to generally enter the compound) and S can also play in the play area everyday and make friends with the other children in the apartment complex. Sometime if I get late from work the maids can also take S down to the play area since it is within the compound and they don’t need to travel to get to it- in the earlier flat we had to drive or take an auto to reach the park and I was not comfortable letting the maids take S alone. Another advantage of staying in a large community is that there are many get togethers/celebrations for festivals- since we don’t have any family in the city we stay in, it would be nice for S to celebrate Diwali, Holi, Dusshera, Ganesha Visarjan along with others. I remember when I was growing up- initially we had stayed in a colony where there were many kids my age and we used to play every evening for 1-2 hours and during all functions we all used to celebrate together. We later shifted to a bigger flat and different colony where the kids were much older and I really missed the earlier times.
We are still retaining our current house (since we own it and have spent a lot of time and effort doing it up the way we like it) and the current plan is to stay in our new place during the week and move to the earlier house over the weekend- the best of both you may say. Most people say this would be unfeasible in the long term since it is a lot of effort to maintain two households- I do agree but my sense is that this is only a temporary solution. Either when S gets older and starts going to school then we will shift back to the earlier house (since the time she has alone with the maids at home would come down), or else we would become so comfortable with the gated community and accompanying benefits (play area, gym etc) that we may move here permanently and rent out our place. Lets see..
So last weekend was spent in shifting..the hubby was on a foreign trip the whole week and only landed up on Saturday so the bulk of the packing fell on my head. My mom helped in setting up the entire kitchen- from buying the containers to getting the provisions and putting them into the container. My job was to pack mine and S clothes and decide which of S things to move to the new place- cycle, sterilizer, mixie (for her food) etc etc. The packing did not take long- however we had not hired any tempo/ packer so it took three trips by car to get part of the stuff across on Saturday and another trip on Sunday. We also had to get the new house cleaned before we moved in with S which meant getting all the cleaning materials across there, unpacking those etc etc. Anyway most of the moving was done by Saturday and by Sunday morning the unpacking was done. I had a very bad cold over the weekend and we were quite uncomfortable the first few nights in the new house – it was very hot (no air conditioner), if we opened the windows there were mosquitoes and there was a lot of noise from the road at night. But it was my birthday on Sunday and I was determined to be cheerful. We went back to the old house on Sunday since there was some more stuff we had to pick up from there and the hubby was keen to spend weekends (including moving weekend) in the old house. One of my friends dropped in in the evening to wish me and we cut a cake (the hubby had ordered one after much pestering by me-I love cake and cards on my b’day!) to celebrate. At night we went back to the new place and went out for dinner (to Dakshin, one of my favourite restaurants) – though I was really tired what with the shifting and the traveling up and down and the heavy cold. But was glad we took the effort to go out for dinner- what’s a birthday without a celebration?
So far I was lucky in either being allowed to work from home – till S was about 9 ½ months old and then when I got back to office full time my mom and mom-in-law took turns to come and look after S. Now S is 13 and a ½ months and I need to put in place a system where I am not dependent on grandparents- I know we can force them to come but they have already done so much, and it is not fair to ask them to give up their lifestyle and come- my father in law cannot manage alone for long since there is no help at my in-laws place, and as for my mom she is used to a lot of freedom, travel, relatives, functions etc at our family home. Anyway I am digressing; this post is about my shift and busy weekend. So sum it up we took a decision to move to a place near my office to cut down my travel time so I can spend more time at home with S, to enable me to make it home for lunch everyday, to have the flexibility to drop in home at anytime (which would keep the maids on their toes) and also for peace of mind that home is only 5 mins away and anytime I am needed I can get there quickly.
One of the other advantages of the new place is that it is a gated community- there are about 10-12 building blocks within the gated compound and there is a play area in the middle. So security is higher (the guards do not allow people to generally enter the compound) and S can also play in the play area everyday and make friends with the other children in the apartment complex. Sometime if I get late from work the maids can also take S down to the play area since it is within the compound and they don’t need to travel to get to it- in the earlier flat we had to drive or take an auto to reach the park and I was not comfortable letting the maids take S alone. Another advantage of staying in a large community is that there are many get togethers/celebrations for festivals- since we don’t have any family in the city we stay in, it would be nice for S to celebrate Diwali, Holi, Dusshera, Ganesha Visarjan along with others. I remember when I was growing up- initially we had stayed in a colony where there were many kids my age and we used to play every evening for 1-2 hours and during all functions we all used to celebrate together. We later shifted to a bigger flat and different colony where the kids were much older and I really missed the earlier times.
We are still retaining our current house (since we own it and have spent a lot of time and effort doing it up the way we like it) and the current plan is to stay in our new place during the week and move to the earlier house over the weekend- the best of both you may say. Most people say this would be unfeasible in the long term since it is a lot of effort to maintain two households- I do agree but my sense is that this is only a temporary solution. Either when S gets older and starts going to school then we will shift back to the earlier house (since the time she has alone with the maids at home would come down), or else we would become so comfortable with the gated community and accompanying benefits (play area, gym etc) that we may move here permanently and rent out our place. Lets see..
So last weekend was spent in shifting..the hubby was on a foreign trip the whole week and only landed up on Saturday so the bulk of the packing fell on my head. My mom helped in setting up the entire kitchen- from buying the containers to getting the provisions and putting them into the container. My job was to pack mine and S clothes and decide which of S things to move to the new place- cycle, sterilizer, mixie (for her food) etc etc. The packing did not take long- however we had not hired any tempo/ packer so it took three trips by car to get part of the stuff across on Saturday and another trip on Sunday. We also had to get the new house cleaned before we moved in with S which meant getting all the cleaning materials across there, unpacking those etc etc. Anyway most of the moving was done by Saturday and by Sunday morning the unpacking was done. I had a very bad cold over the weekend and we were quite uncomfortable the first few nights in the new house – it was very hot (no air conditioner), if we opened the windows there were mosquitoes and there was a lot of noise from the road at night. But it was my birthday on Sunday and I was determined to be cheerful. We went back to the old house on Sunday since there was some more stuff we had to pick up from there and the hubby was keen to spend weekends (including moving weekend) in the old house. One of my friends dropped in in the evening to wish me and we cut a cake (the hubby had ordered one after much pestering by me-I love cake and cards on my b’day!) to celebrate. At night we went back to the new place and went out for dinner (to Dakshin, one of my favourite restaurants) – though I was really tired what with the shifting and the traveling up and down and the heavy cold. But was glad we took the effort to go out for dinner- what’s a birthday without a celebration?
Wednesday, March 4, 2009
S turns 1
A long delayed post- S is nearly 13 months now and I haven’t written about her reaching the big 1 yet. Happy birthday my little sweetie, Gubbi, Kabbu, this year has been such fun- watching you grow from a small bundle (very active even then) to a walking, babbling, naughty girl. Next year I shall try to be less fussed about how much you are eating , drinking, whether you are spending enough time reading books and just enjoy being with you. Will try to take you to the park at least 4-5 times a week (nowadays office timings are really bad) and also take you on at least one long holiday when you can have Dada and Mamma all to yourself and not going office!
We celebrated S’s first birthday with a small dinner at home just for the immediate family. My parents had come down for S birthday and the hubby’s mom was anyway with us (she was helping look after S while I went back to full time work). I had ordered a sunflower shaped cake for her and her Ajji had made carrot kheer and vadas. S wore a black and white frock which her Maami (my brother’s wife) had sent for her and was happy since both her Dada and Mamma were back early from work. Her Bua (hubby’s sister) had sent a bouquet of beautiful pick carnations which S tried to keep on pulling.
After blowing the candles and cutting the cake we all tried to feed S the cake (it was butterscotch and very creamy)- but she didn’t like it much. She preferred the KitKat stuck on top of the cake and chomped merrily on it until I had to finally pull away the half eaten piece from her mouth. I had put up streamers and a hanging decoration (difficult to explain but looks like a hanging lamp) the previous night while S was asleep, and S was quite thrilled with it. The only tricky part happened when S tried to swallow the ring which her Ajji (hubby’s mom) had put for her (it was my hubby’s as a baby)- luckily she saw it in time.
On the Sunday after her birthday we had a birthday party for S at a restaurant close to our house. The party was in the afternoon and we had called about 10 children- between 1-4 years and about 35 adults- mainly friends since we don’t have many relatives in this city. Both Ajjis and by dad were also there. The restaurant had put up balloons in the hall and we had arranged a games organizer who came with a stereo system and lots of popular dance numbers which he played loudly!! The older kids enjoyed the games which included-
crawling under a stick which kept going lower and lower,
dancing to music and arranging into groups of number called by the organizer – we were there till the second last round,
a really cute game where mom/dad and child had to dance to music together and then get into positions called by the organizer as soon as possible (such as putting noses together, putting elbows together etc),
a version of musical chairs where one half (that sounds strange doesn’t it) of a couple was standing in a line and the other half was circling them and when the music stopped they had to get back to their partner fastest- the hubby was disqualified for trying to break the line and squeeze through to reach me,
a kind of treasure hunt where children had to find random objects called out by the organizer (such as a sock, a rupee coin) as fast as possible
a jumping game where kids have to jump as soon as the music stops and the first to jump wins a prize
We had told the organizer to ensure that all kids win at least one prize so there was blatant rigging by the organizer – if for eg one kid was leading all the rounds of a particular game but had won prizes before then in the last round the organizer would say whoever wins this round would win the game, But the kids didn’t mind and had lots of fun. I accidentally bumped into one boy while enthusiastically participating in a game he fell down and cried for the next 10 mins. I felt damn guilty and kept apologizing to the mother, but I think the boy was not hurt.
And what was S doing during the party- most of the time she was hugging a big blue balloon which we gave to her since she was staring wondrously at all the balloons hung up. She participated in all the games holding the balloon tightly in her arms. I tried to take it away a couple of time so that she could move around more freely, but she protested loudly each time I tried to take it away! The only time she let go of the balloon was while cutting the cake (I had ordered an aeroplane cake, aeroplanes are her favourite, she makes the take off motion with her hand, and points to them excitedly when she sees them from our balcony or in the park). I tried to make her interact with the other kids- there was one girl who was born on exactly the same day as her and her mom and I were quite curious to see how they would interact with each other. Well they both pretty much ignored each other and continued to do their own thing.
The party finished at three and S took a long nap after getting back home. I thought the party was nice as the kids seemed to have had fun and S also enjoyed playing with the balloon (the main highlight of the party for her). Looking forward to the years ahead..
We celebrated S’s first birthday with a small dinner at home just for the immediate family. My parents had come down for S birthday and the hubby’s mom was anyway with us (she was helping look after S while I went back to full time work). I had ordered a sunflower shaped cake for her and her Ajji had made carrot kheer and vadas. S wore a black and white frock which her Maami (my brother’s wife) had sent for her and was happy since both her Dada and Mamma were back early from work. Her Bua (hubby’s sister) had sent a bouquet of beautiful pick carnations which S tried to keep on pulling.
After blowing the candles and cutting the cake we all tried to feed S the cake (it was butterscotch and very creamy)- but she didn’t like it much. She preferred the KitKat stuck on top of the cake and chomped merrily on it until I had to finally pull away the half eaten piece from her mouth. I had put up streamers and a hanging decoration (difficult to explain but looks like a hanging lamp) the previous night while S was asleep, and S was quite thrilled with it. The only tricky part happened when S tried to swallow the ring which her Ajji (hubby’s mom) had put for her (it was my hubby’s as a baby)- luckily she saw it in time.
On the Sunday after her birthday we had a birthday party for S at a restaurant close to our house. The party was in the afternoon and we had called about 10 children- between 1-4 years and about 35 adults- mainly friends since we don’t have many relatives in this city. Both Ajjis and by dad were also there. The restaurant had put up balloons in the hall and we had arranged a games organizer who came with a stereo system and lots of popular dance numbers which he played loudly!! The older kids enjoyed the games which included-
crawling under a stick which kept going lower and lower,
dancing to music and arranging into groups of number called by the organizer – we were there till the second last round,
a really cute game where mom/dad and child had to dance to music together and then get into positions called by the organizer as soon as possible (such as putting noses together, putting elbows together etc),
a version of musical chairs where one half (that sounds strange doesn’t it) of a couple was standing in a line and the other half was circling them and when the music stopped they had to get back to their partner fastest- the hubby was disqualified for trying to break the line and squeeze through to reach me,
a kind of treasure hunt where children had to find random objects called out by the organizer (such as a sock, a rupee coin) as fast as possible
a jumping game where kids have to jump as soon as the music stops and the first to jump wins a prize
We had told the organizer to ensure that all kids win at least one prize so there was blatant rigging by the organizer – if for eg one kid was leading all the rounds of a particular game but had won prizes before then in the last round the organizer would say whoever wins this round would win the game, But the kids didn’t mind and had lots of fun. I accidentally bumped into one boy while enthusiastically participating in a game he fell down and cried for the next 10 mins. I felt damn guilty and kept apologizing to the mother, but I think the boy was not hurt.
And what was S doing during the party- most of the time she was hugging a big blue balloon which we gave to her since she was staring wondrously at all the balloons hung up. She participated in all the games holding the balloon tightly in her arms. I tried to take it away a couple of time so that she could move around more freely, but she protested loudly each time I tried to take it away! The only time she let go of the balloon was while cutting the cake (I had ordered an aeroplane cake, aeroplanes are her favourite, she makes the take off motion with her hand, and points to them excitedly when she sees them from our balcony or in the park). I tried to make her interact with the other kids- there was one girl who was born on exactly the same day as her and her mom and I were quite curious to see how they would interact with each other. Well they both pretty much ignored each other and continued to do their own thing.
The party finished at three and S took a long nap after getting back home. I thought the party was nice as the kids seemed to have had fun and S also enjoyed playing with the balloon (the main highlight of the party for her). Looking forward to the years ahead..
Monday, February 16, 2009
Pausing to smell the roses
I came across this email which captures so nicely how busy we have become (at least i have become) in our routine lives that we cannot appreciate the good things in life.
" A man sat at a metro station in Washington DC and started to play the violin; it was a cold January morning.
He played six Bach pieces for about 45 minutes.
During that time, since it was rush hour, it was calculated that thousands of people went through the station, most of them on their way to work.
Three minutes went by and a middle aged man noticed there was a musician playing. He slowed his pace and stopped for a few seconds and then hurried up to meet his schedule.
A minute later, the violinist received his first dollar tip: a woman threw the money in the till and without stopping continued to walk.
A few minutes later, someone leaned against the wall to listen to him, but the man looked at his watch and started to walk again. Clearly he was late for work.
The one who paid the most attention was a 3 year old boy. His mother tagged him along, hurried but the kid stopped to look at the violinist. Finally the mother pushed hard and the child continued to walk turning his head all the time.
This action was repeated by several other children. All the parents, without exception, forced them to move on.
In the 45 minutes the musician played, only 6 people stopped and stayed for a while. About 20 gave him money but continued to walk their normal pace. He collected $32. When he finished playing and silence took over, no one noticed it. No one applauded, nor was there any recognition.
No one knew this but the violinist was Joshua Bell, one of the best musicians in the world. He played one of the most intricate pieces ever written with a violin worth 3.5 million dollars.
Two days before his playing in the subway, Joshua Bell sold out at a theater in Boston and the seats average $100.
This is a real story.
Joshua Bell playing incognito in the metro station was organized by the Washington Post as part of an social experiment about perception, taste and priorities of people. The outlines were: in a commonplace environment at an inappropriate hour: Do we perceive beauty? Do we stop to appreciate it? Do we recognize the talent in an unexpected context?
One of the possible conclusions from this experience could be: If we do not have a moment to stop and listen to one of the best musicians in the world playing some of the best music ever written, how many other things are we missing?
When you worry and hurry through your day,
It is like an unopened gift....Thrown away. ...
Life is not a race. Take it slower.
Hear the music before the song is over. "
I like the part about the children noticing the beauty and how the parents are so fussed about keeping their routine that they drag the children away from that- so true. And childern are so curious about everything- S can look at a new box for 10 mins to figure out how it opens, what it does etc, whereas i have stopped applying my mind on anything. the funniest part is my friend sent me this mail a month back and i didn;t read it, when i read it now i forwarded it to her as well and got a earful. Guess i was too busy then to pause and smell the roses
" A man sat at a metro station in Washington DC and started to play the violin; it was a cold January morning.
He played six Bach pieces for about 45 minutes.
During that time, since it was rush hour, it was calculated that thousands of people went through the station, most of them on their way to work.
Three minutes went by and a middle aged man noticed there was a musician playing. He slowed his pace and stopped for a few seconds and then hurried up to meet his schedule.
A minute later, the violinist received his first dollar tip: a woman threw the money in the till and without stopping continued to walk.
A few minutes later, someone leaned against the wall to listen to him, but the man looked at his watch and started to walk again. Clearly he was late for work.
The one who paid the most attention was a 3 year old boy. His mother tagged him along, hurried but the kid stopped to look at the violinist. Finally the mother pushed hard and the child continued to walk turning his head all the time.
This action was repeated by several other children. All the parents, without exception, forced them to move on.
In the 45 minutes the musician played, only 6 people stopped and stayed for a while. About 20 gave him money but continued to walk their normal pace. He collected $32. When he finished playing and silence took over, no one noticed it. No one applauded, nor was there any recognition.
No one knew this but the violinist was Joshua Bell, one of the best musicians in the world. He played one of the most intricate pieces ever written with a violin worth 3.5 million dollars.
Two days before his playing in the subway, Joshua Bell sold out at a theater in Boston and the seats average $100.
This is a real story.
Joshua Bell playing incognito in the metro station was organized by the Washington Post as part of an social experiment about perception, taste and priorities of people. The outlines were: in a commonplace environment at an inappropriate hour: Do we perceive beauty? Do we stop to appreciate it? Do we recognize the talent in an unexpected context?
One of the possible conclusions from this experience could be: If we do not have a moment to stop and listen to one of the best musicians in the world playing some of the best music ever written, how many other things are we missing?
When you worry and hurry through your day,
It is like an unopened gift....Thrown away. ...
Life is not a race. Take it slower.
Hear the music before the song is over. "
I like the part about the children noticing the beauty and how the parents are so fussed about keeping their routine that they drag the children away from that- so true. And childern are so curious about everything- S can look at a new box for 10 mins to figure out how it opens, what it does etc, whereas i have stopped applying my mind on anything. the funniest part is my friend sent me this mail a month back and i didn;t read it, when i read it now i forwarded it to her as well and got a earful. Guess i was too busy then to pause and smell the roses
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