Too much birthday fun!

November has been a spate of birthdays! My calendar for this month is full of the kids' social engagements!! This week was the worst with 5 birthdays!

It was all heralded by Shriya's own which was thankfully a straight forward picnic party for her 4th! A few of her close buddies, homemade snacks+store bought pizza, books for return favors and endless fun at the botanical gardens. They had a blast- feeding the birds and fish, playing tag, blowing bubbles.


Now, don't get me wrong...we love birthday parties....the whole joy of choosing the right present to enjoying the fun games and food! The kids have a whale of a time!

There are parties thrown by school friends, kids of our friends, friends of our friends, building friends ( and we've moved thrice but still have a warm spot for our old buddies)!!When they were younger it was an average of 2 birthdays a month which was just nice. And then of course, there were the dry months when there were none and we had more time for picnics and parks. Now, there are just too many that we have to carefully plan the logistics.My husband and I actually take turns to ferry the kids and back just so we have time for OUR stuff.

And then there are the trips to the toy stores and choices to make. Toys R Us Vs ELC (Early Learning Centre) , Fun toy Vs Learning Toy, Toy Vs Book, Book Vs Clothes!!

And the parties are no longer  as simple as they were too. The kids have been to parties held at soccer fields, indoor play gyms and outdoor science labs! They come back super exhausted, irritable, sweaty and too tired for anything else.

Too much of anything is never good and birthday fun it has been...a little too much! Soooo wish that we could space them all out throughout the year and savour each at leisure!

Happy Birthday sweetheart!

Shriya's turning 4 on the 29th of October!

As the second born, we wanted her to be the baby, wanted her to lisp, wanted her to grow up slowly. But our little girl was never really a baby ever.And maybe because she's always had her older brother to look up to and ape, she's been in quite a tearing hurry to grow up. Its only when we look back at pictures and compare her with little ones who are 2 and 3 now, do we realize that she has always been way too put-together, very mature and super talkative.

Shriya coolly skipped the baby books and enjoyed listening to the Arthur series and Berenstain bears series which I would read to her brother. Sometimes guiltily, I would pick a baby book (Spot series etc) and read to her and all she would say was "easy, peasy,  lemon squeezy book nana"! If her brother watched Barney at 3, Shriya at 3, watched  Little Einsteins and Garfield since her brother had already moved on. The other day I had a Barney craving( never thought that day would come)  and wanted to hear some of the familiar songs. Both my imps chorused "baaaaaby stuff"! They choose similar books, watch similar shows, play with a common set of friends and entertain each other oh so beautifully when I'm not with them.

At two, she sang her way to our hearts- in Tamil, English, Mandarin and even one in Malay! At three she was telling everybody what to do and what not to do (especially her older brother)- who once told her "Shriya, please remember that YOU are NOT my mother". At four what will she do?

Oh, she has it all planned out. "When I'm 4, I want to go to ballet class and karate class and have my first sleepover (god save me!), learn multi- lip-lication like anna, buy a pink watch and my own bottle of purple nail polish with my own money"!

My little girl, you've added tons and tons of joy to our lives. Hope you have a blast at your birthday picnic. Enjoy every minute of this year.....make the most of 4!

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!