Beyond boring beauties!

Shriya is perched on my lap and we are reading a story from the brand new Usborne’s Stories for Girls (that I’d absolutely enjoyed purchasing). It has 20 lovely tales, all very appealing to the girlie heart. I was excited just holding that juicy fat pink hard covered book and couldn’t wait to read all 20 at one go.

After a while, I heard a groan. In all my excitement, I kinda missed that groan. And then she did it again. I stopped and asked what the matter was. We were at the very first story: The twelve dancing princesses. Shriya asked me “ Why are all these princesses always dancing or marrying? Won’t they get bored of doing the same thing?"

I challenged her and asked what they should be doing instead. And she goes “ See amma, when I’m a princess, I won’t just dance and marry any prince. I will do all that only in the weekends and during playtime. The rest of the time I want to be a doctor. I’m going to be a Doctor Princess!!!”

Three cheers to my little heroine!!

Of Tooth Fairies and Fitting In!

Finally it happened! Vaibhav lost two of his lower teeth last week and boy is he thrilled!!Being the absolute youngest in his class, well actually the entire school, his teeth were all strong and intact while his classmates’ fell like skittles. And then one of his friends from outside of school lost his teeth and he is a good six months younger than our man. I think that’s what did it. 

Vaibhav stopped brushing his teeth at night “Its ok, let the germs come and live on my teeth, then they’ll have to fall, right”? I’ve caught him many a time in front of the mirror carefully checking if any of his teeth were shaking…..even a wee bit. And I guess with all that checking two of them did startto wobble. 

Now, just to give you a bit of background. V’s school has an in-school dentist, lovely lady, I hear, whom the boys are very fond of, especially the first graders. Of course they’ll warm up to anyone who’s kind and reminds them vaguely of mommy during recess. Vaibhav is no exception and has been making regular visits to the dentist to check for cavities, get a new toothbrush and off late to beg the doc to pull of his loose teeth.

The other day he came home with his teeth in a Ziploc. “ The dentist said they were now loose enough to pull them off, oh you should have seen the blood, ma”!! He was super excited to say the least and gave me his biggest toothless grin!

I am personally petrified of the Dentist and I don’t think I’m a minority. How in the world did this boy just go by himself and get 2 teeth pulled off? Wasn’t he scared? Didn’t the blood freak him out even a little? Didn’t he need to hold mamma’s hand? 

I guess not! And I guess I better come to terms with this new ultra independent generation that just casually takes in everything in their stride. I was thinking to myself, Wow, my little boy is growing up. His teeth have started to fall, in a few years he’s going to get all hairy and then one day he’ll tower over me.

But I had nothing to worry about…as yet. That night, Vaibhav carefully placed his teeth under the pillow and double-checked if the tooth fairy will know the address and remember to come (remember, he’s Buffett Jr?) and give him his 2 dollars. My big boy was still little :-)

Oh, the toothfairy gave us a visit, alright. And the smile she put on his face that early morning, is one that I’ll never forget!

A new kind of religious....

I still find it adorable to find them both in front of the prayer altar reciting their shlokas. There's something so wholesome and heartening watching two squeaky-clean, hair combed kids in pajamas praying.
But these days, they might not be there at the altar every evening. Vaibhav will demand why he has to go there when GOD is everywhere. And then will add "Amma, I always count my blessings before bed, which is like a prayer, ok?" Fine by me.
Shriya on the other hand is 'friends' with GOD. She has this little Ganesha idol that will go everywhere with her. To school, to bed, inside her dollhouse and most times in her pocket. Everyday, she will give the idol an elaborate bubble bath with soap and shampoo which will be followed with some vigorous drying and chiding 'You could catch a cold, you know'! And then she'll feed Him. Ganesha has been introduced to cheese, chai and crackers. But the ultimate in friendship was when I caught her feeding him a piece of her omelette!! When I told her that He may not like eggs, she quickly replied "But you've told me that we can't say No to anything without trying, right? He might grow to like it".
Oh well, He just might. ...and I wont be surprised :-)

Krabi, Thailand

We took off to Krabi in the first week of June! It was sudden, spontaneous and without an aota of any expectancy. 5 days of island hopping, bumming on beaches, long massages and pigging out!Just what we all needed :-)

The quaint little resort had a lovely pool but no cable connection. Despite our initial dismay over not being able to watch all those dvds that we'd lugged along,we discovered that we could happily entertain ourselves for hours with rock- paper- scissors, scrabble and fruit ninja!! There was absolutely no structure to our day- we ate when we were hungry and idled away like never before. The kids were game for anything and everything. Vaibhav tried a fish spa (where hundreds of teeny tiny little fish come and nibble away dead skin at your submerged feet...felt vey icky just watching him). Shriya had her hair done up in several braids decorated with colorful beads. Both of them thoroughly relished their daily body massages which allowed us to enjoy our massages without having to worry about what to do with them.

I didn't need to fuss over meals, keep them entertained or worry about bedtime. They plunged into the holiday mood and played along beautifully!

Happy Father's Day!

Dear Vaibhav and Shriya,

Today is father's day! And you have been super excited about giving your dad his gift and the 3-page card that you had so lovingly made (I especially love the page where you've stuck pics of all the things that your dad loves- nokia, desserts,Indian thali, coffee, cricket, india, tennis etc).Your dad is a great guy! And I'm sure you'll agree. A glance around the playground and you'll find not one other dad playing and fooling around with their kids. And remember, your dad is no less busy than the others. Its just that you guys are top priority and your dad wants to savour every minute with you.

When I was growing up, I did not know about Father's Day. I've never made my father a card or officially thanked him for all that he's done for me. Like you guys always say, "Never Mind", I can do it today, now.

You guys know your 'Chanudu' as an indulgent and very affectionate thatha. He is all that and more as a father. When all the other dads were a mere presence in their children's lives, my dad actually took time out everyday to teach us, talk to us and listen to us.And it was not a favour he was doing us, he absolutely enjoyed every minute just being with us. It was his abundant patience that has made me a patient mother, it was his trust in me that has seen me married to your dad, it was his pride in me that  has goaded me to move forward and try new things.

They say, that a girl chooses her husband who is just like the man that her father is. Your dad and my dad are very different people but I guess what makes them both very special men in my life is the fact that they are GREAT dads!!

Cherish them !

love,
Amma

My Budding Buffett

Scene on a flight back home:
Vaibhav- Don’t open the wrapper (puzzles+stickers+game), Shriya!!!
Shriya- But, the lady (stewardess) gave it to me so that I can play with it..I'm bored!
Vaibhav- Pleeeeaaase don't open....I can sell it and if you listen to me then I will give you 50 cents

This has been going on for a while. A long while, actually.

Vaibhav LOVES money. His sister and he get two dollars ( it’s the absolute minimum… we started this sytem as an incentive and also as a way to learn to handle money) at the end of the month if they have x number of gold stars (good behavior)  more than black marks ( bad behavior). 

It is Vaibhav’s happiest moment when I hand him his two dollars. He will tirelessly count his money endless number of times, he will compare, add, trade coins with his extremely naïve sister , who will give all her money to her brother. And if I butt in and suggest that she saves, she will turn her cute nose up and defiantly say “I want to give it to him“!!.

I know, I hear, I read that it’s a good thing to like money. But sometimes it can get a tad embarrassing. Like the time, he bought a hair band for 30cents and tried to sell it to a building resident’s daughter for a dollar. The little girl screamed and threw a fit because she wanted it and the mother who knew that it was daylight robbery refused to give in. My little man just stood there, adding fuel to fire with his slick sales talk!

Last month, Vaibhav’s class had a show and tell session where they had to talk about their favorite toy. Our man took a transformers toy that came free with a McDonalds Happy Meal. But when he came back from school, he didn't have the toy. I thought maybe he’d lost it. But he very happily told me that he had  SOLD it for a dollar to a boy who wanted it badly(Grade school allows boys to carry canteen money). I thought of it as a one off case and anyways, there was no more show and tell and so no more toys. The next day he came back with two more dollars. Vaibhav had digged up more of the free toys that came with the Happy Meal and had sold them all for a dollar each!

OMG! I explained to the kid that wanting to make money was a good thing but selling stuff at school was wrong and he must NEVER try it again. He coolly said that this was much easier than waiting till the end of the month for his measly 2$. He had made more money in 2 days than what I give him at the end of a month and that too after considering his behavior!

Ever since he has realized that he can make more money than the 2$ at the end of the month, he’s been AT IT. He has offered his cleaning services to neighbours, relatives and of course ME. He carried all the recyclables to the bin in the basement and earned 50 cents. He cleaned my uncle’s car and earned $5. His  eyes gleamed when I returned from the market with some very juicy lemons. Very innocently he asked me if he could make some lemonade with them. Caught off gaurd, and very touched by his offer, I said, off course you can. Make some for everyone". It hit me only when he said 'Don't worry, I'll make lots ma, but you'll have to pay me 10 cents for a glass"!! 

Little minds at work

V- Amma, does Kali know English?
I- Why? Maybe she does
V- I have a question to ask about her that she might not like and I don’t want her to know that I’m saying something she might not like!!

V- My teacher asked us all to pray for something that she’s lost
I- So, what is this thing that she’s lost?
V- We asked her that and she said that it was a private and personal thing
I- Oh ok, so then just pray for her and hope that she finds it
V- But amma, I think that maybe she’s lost her underwear because that’s only private and personal. I don’t know why the whole class has to pray that she finds her underwear!!

S- Dada, don’t feel bad that I love amma, more, ok?
Dad- And why do you love her more?
S- Come on Dada, she's the one who laid us, not you!

Shriya asked me a question and I was not very sure about how to answer (it was one of those complicated thingies).
I- I'm not sure, will check and get back to you
S- Its ok ma, just google it and we'll then know for sure
I- Excuse me, and how does google know everything?
V- Hey ma, computers know everything!!