Some mid-autumn fun!

Last week, I took part in a lovely traditional Chinese celebration welcoming the moon-lady and eating delicious moon cakes made by my children! I was at school with my two kids enjoying the mid-autumn festivities. We saw lots of ultra cute ( little ones yawning away on stage, waving busily instead of singing, just grinning) performances and learned a lot of Chinese mythology and stories behind the festival.

Suddenly I felt a tug at my arm. Vaibhav was pulling, dragging, shoving me in front of some lady I did not know. So, after the customary ' hellos' and idle chitchat we were a little tongue tied. And then my son nudged me hard and whispered that he wanted me to take down the lady's number!!!WHAT? Why?? "Amma, she's the mother of xxxx,  a very good friend of mine. I like her a lot"!! Oh, ok, so you want some girl's number but realize you are too young to ask for it or for that matter jot down several numbers at one go and hence need my help! Noted the number and invited V little's friend for a playdate. Was rewarded with a wet kiss on both cheeks by my little son.

With Chang-Er, the moon-lady!

A little later..the same tug and shoving. I was more prepared this time and could see myself being pushed in the direction of some strange man. My senses told me to dig in my heels and was I glad that I did. The man was a traditional Pakistani dad accompanying his daughter surrounded by more Pakistani dads. I had no intention of causing sacrilege by shaking hands with a Muslim man and shock him by asking for his number!

 V, I absolutely love it that you are confident enough to introduce two strangers and go after what you want. I admire your enthusiasm and your fearless approach towards everything. Wait a few years....you can get all the numbers you want of all the girls you fancy. You wont need me then. But a bit of friendly advice...always stay away from big, grumpy looking dads!

My little hero!

Vaibhav lives, eats, sleeps and breathes SUPER HEROES! My son, like so many other little boys, has deeply fallen in love with all those guys wearing their underwear as outer wear (with the exception of Lord Krishna..Oh Yes, Krishna is a super duper hero)!

Me: Vaibhs, what is your ambition (random question just to use the word 'ambition' which they had learned recently)?
V: I want to be a superhero
Me: Why?
V: To help people

Me: But you can help people even as a doctor, firefighter or policeman
V: But we don't say WOW to our doctor or the policeman and anyways they wear 'ordinary' clothes. I want to wear a superhero costume and rescue people from big dangers

Vaibhav has a Spiderman costume and mask, Superman costume and cape, Incredibles suit complete with the goggles and a Transformers suit (very sweetly loaned to him by one of his favourite aunties)! Vaibhav made the goggles himself and not just that he made one for his Dad, me and Shriya too! Why? "The Incredibles are a 'family'and they are all superheroes"! And so just to humour him, we all wore those very uncomfortable goggle-like-masks and pretended to test our unique super powers!

Everyday he will sweetly ask me if he can wear a costume to school and everyday I'll have to ask him to wait for Halloween or a special celebration at school. And not happy with just the costume he now gets his sister to roll wads of newspaper  which he will then stuff under his costume- "Only until I get real muscles, ma!"

Two weeks ago, Vaibhs got his first taste of Bollywood through 'Krishh'. He was dazzled! And his verdict- "Fiiiinally there is a real super hero. I know that Batman and the Incredibles are all only cartoon characters. Krishh is just awesome !! Also, amma, I really think that aunty (I'm guessing Priyanka Chopra...but could very well be Rekha) is very pretty"!!!

India...again!

We just got back from....yes...another trip to India! This time it was for my MILs 60th. We all had a great time catching up with the extended family and enjoying the celebrations.The kids particularly had a blast as they got to bond with first cousins , second cousins and third cousins (!!!). And V&S being V&S,  extended their arms out to everyone and enveloped everybody with their undisguised love and affection. I was touched to see them laugh and play with absolute strangers ( my MIL's cousins kids!!) whom they proudly introduced to everyone as their 'cousins'!

We travelled to a few temples and I was naturally a wee bit  concerned about how the kids would take the travel and 'long waits' to see the deities.  The kids completely stunned me with their attitudes and reactions. We had to travel by train ( crazy timings!), stay in a relative's home, use public loos, wait looong queues and eat our meals whenever time permitted! Not a complaint, not a groan...no tantrums over wet bathrooms and the lack of tissues ( I've seen friends' kids pull a long face over these).Just child-like excitement and awe at getting a blessing from the temple elephant, feeding the temple cows, dancing through the temple corridors and stretching out little palms umpteen times for the  'theertham'!


The trip was such a joyous one thanks to the kids and their innocent joys! Loved every minute with my best travel buddies!

The Best Is Yet To Be!

Three years have whizzed past and its soon going to be time for Vaibhav to start ‘big school’!!Kindergarten seemed like a big deal to me just a while ago….how will the kindy teachers treat my baby, will my little one miss me too much???? And now, my little big boy is going to be in a school where he definitely wont be treated like a baby for sure and as for missing me too much….I‘ll be glad if he even manages to think of home once in-between the excitement of  new friends and flurry of activities

After a nerve wracking, intense registration process we can now heave a huge sigh of relief! Vaibhav or rather we managed to get him into Anglo Chinese Junior School. A school with over 123years of History, a school that has churned out numerous success stories, a school that takes great pride in its boys!

Nope….all of this did not just happen overnight nor did it happen by chance. It was a well-thought out and carefully researched decision. We’d spoken to several ACS boys and teachers, read umpteen blogs and quite liked what we heard and saw. We visited the campus and were stunned by the facilities being offered to Grade 1 boys, we loved the range of extra curricular activities that were available for the boys to choose from. Above all, we were very impressed with the way the school groomed the boys into well-rounded gentlemen.

Big school sure is going to bring some major changes in V’s life. For starters, my slow poke will have to buck up if he wants to get to school on time which commences at 7am! He’s going to have to deal with only BOYS (might be a tad difficult for my darling who is a ladies man) and he’s going to be away from home for more than the 3 hours that he’s presently used to.

Nevertheless, Vaibhav is very kicked about being an ACSian from Jan 2011. We are thrilled that he’s going to be exposed to great opportunities. Exciting times indeed!
But as a true ACSian would say ‘The Best is Yet to Be’!