Thanking every single blessing and more

Last week, Vaibhav and Shriya were down with  nasty virals. Their temperatures fluctuated all the way till 104 and the poor things braved their way through an awful time. They were complaining of limb aches and headaches and all kinds of never-before -mentioned aches and pains!

One night suddenly Shriya developed some blood clots on her leg and was writhing in pain. V was down with the fever and my husband was away on work. I had no clue where S might have developed the clot... not that I remember her banging into anything.  I googled and browsed and finally panicked. What if the clot had something to with the fever and pain??

It was midnight, Sunday. I first called for a cab. Then packed stuff for Shriya, bundled her up, left V with the housekeeper and took the waiting cab to the children's hospital. The hospital was busy and bustling even at that time. The nurses swiftly checked her temp (it had shot up again) and administered a dose of paractamol. After blood tests, we were taken to a doc who already had the results!! She assured us that everything was normal and that it could all just be a bad case of a viral relapse.
I heaved a huge sigh of relief!

What I went through those few hours are inexplicable. How much we take for granted. Kids playing, laughing, talking....everything is a wonder. And yet, we casually view them as normal. Anything not 'abnormal', we treat as 'normal' but never as 'wonderful'. That night, hearing Shriya question the doctors/nurses in her sweet, clear voice reminded me of everything I'm thankful for.

I am grateful to the taxi drivers who at anytime in Singapore will arrive at your doorstep and help you out like gentlemen. Where else would I get medical services in a jiffy on a Sunday night?  So thankful that I can return home even at 4am without a worry!

So thankful for every blessing, little and big and everything in-between!

Golu Galata!

Gosh!!The past 9 days have been a whirlwind of activity! Sarees, pavadais, sundals, visits....lots of excitement! For once, V & S had their mid-term break during a festival (or atleast during the beginning of one)! They were as always very enthusiastic about setting up the golu, adding their own special touches to it.

The decorations started early and they used up their holidays to make some of their own dolls for the golu. Next, it was the rangoli....I am absolutely pathetic when it comes to this and happily let the kids take over. As always, the kids had their own section of the golu which they conceptualised, managed and constantly modified :-) It was lovely watching the two imps plan which toys to add and how to make their airport look 'real'.

In the midst of visiting and greeting friends, I gave a dance performance for which I had been sweating it out during rehearsals for the last 1 month. The  kids were seeing me perform live for the first time and were completely enthralled! Vaibhav brought all his friends backstage to see his amma who looks 'scary from near' with all that makeup. A bunch of 5 year olds giggled away while some others dared to come closer just to make sure it was only 'Vaibhav's mom'!

We did maximum golu visits this year and had the most number of people visiting us too. Shriya dutifully gave away the vethalai pakku and the lovely bags we had lugged back from pudhu mandapam, Madurai! Another aspect of our golu visits that I loved was the immediate willingness to sing. Both of them sang at every golu without any inhibitions and cared a damn if anybody listened to it or not.

After all that Navratri  frenzy  I'm now busy tending to two sick children. The poor things are very hungover from Navratri and I'm just keeping my fingers crossed that they are up and about before the Diwali mania hits us!

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’!

Summer Hols- What fun!!

I was a little concerned that our insensitive building committee had planned to hack the playground and the swimming pool at the same time all in the name of renovation!! How awful for the kids... bang in the middle of their holidays?

It turned out to be anything but awful! The kids are having a blast!! And looking at the way their holidays were taking shape the first thing I did was put up a planner for the kids!There was way too much happening! I realized that it wasn't going to be seamless days of idling, eating and reading (my idea of a summer break)! The holidays began with a massive dinosaur themed break-up party at school which set the ball rolling! After that there were pizza parties, brunch playdates, movie-dates, cupcake decorating-date, picnics and the all -important birthday parties!!

On the days they were not too busy having fun with friends, they entertained themselves at home- decorating pumpkins ( forced to buy them these days!!), helping the helper with the housework, doing 'experiments'

( read BIGTIME vishamam), inventing new games with empty boxes and making birthday cards ( "so what if thatha's birthday is just over, we could make one for next year") !

Most times, I enjoy being a part of their action but sometimes I like to simply watch- their heads bent over the

paints, their tongues sticking out just a wee bit, their constant light-hearted banter ( a lot of it has started), their undisguised glee over small thrills!

I realize that their summer holidays will be very different from next year. For starters, Shriya who will still be in kindergarten will have a different month off as compared to her Primary school going brother. The brother would want to do 'big boy'stuff  and the sister might have her own wishlist. Different summer breaks, different friends, different fun!

It's definitely the end of a Phase! So, playground or not, we are all out to make this summer as memorable as we can!