Off to India

We are leaving to India coming monday. As usual the packing is yet to be done. Waiting for sunday - for the last minute packing... :). That's how we are. Doing the packing at the last minute. Even if we have packed a few days back, we will take out everything and pack in the last minute to accomodate the things bought at the last minute.

India trips are normally hectic. What with functions, temple visits and visits to relatives and friends houses, there is no time to stay for a few days together in one place. This time we are going on a long leave. So I'm hoping to have a few days peace :)

Comparison

I note that I have been unconsiously making comparison with my previous delivery and the recent one. I had been to two different GYN for my daughter and son. For my daughter it was a private practicioner and a well known one. But she was arrogant and very strict. Every visit to her would be a tension filled one. She used to complain during each visit. Either it was too much weight or too little. But we continued with her as we felt all her complaints were for our good only. The last straw was when she forgot an injection that had to be given for me.

So for the second one, we went to a different GYN. She was the exact opposite to the previous one. If the first one was over cautious, this one was too linient. Nothing was a cause of concern for her. There were no monthly visits. Only once in 6 weeks.

So from day 1, I have been comparing both the Doctors. Then, it was the hospital service and the nurses. I do hope I don't end up comparing both the kids :)

My Baby brother

Hi,

As my mom is very busy these days, I thought I will take over her space and keep you updated. My little brother was born on 20th Sept and from then on, everyone in my house seems to be busy. Don't know what they do all day as he sleeps all the time. He is a handsome chap with a loud voice.

But he does know where the authority lies. He listens to me :) The moment I saw him, I told him to be naughty and he immediately tried putting his hand in his mouth!

I learnt a valuable lesson on that day. Looks can be deceiptive. My bro looks so small, but when I tried carrying him, he was really heavy. I think I have to eat more.

By the way, I was really worried to see mummy in bed, but she did smile at me. So I dont think she is in pain.

I will keep updating this space when my mom is busy.

See you later.

Teacher's Day gift

Ever since my daughter turned two, we have been preparing our own greeting cards. Birthdays, Anniversaries and special occasions, are all remembered with the handmade cards. Earlier, my daughter used to paint the cards and I would write the contents. Now she is able to draw, paint and write by herself. So, in a sense it is completely prepared by her.

We had a couple of occasions in the family this month and she prepared the cards for it. She was particularly very happy with the painting she did for her cousin's birthday card. She didn't want to send it to him. Instead she wanted to take it to her school to give it to her teacher. As it was already close to the birthday and we had to send the card, I promised her, that we could do something really nice for her teacher.

Sept 1st being the Teacher's Day, we went through the available craft items to see what can be done. After a big discussion (the little one wanted to do everything for her teacher), we zeroed on the stationary holder made of used tissue rolls.

She painted a red one for her class teacher and a green one for the assistant teacher. The red one was decorated with glitter color glues and flowers with a smiley face and petals made of glitters. For the base, we used a black card board and she wrote her message using a golden ink pen.

The green one was decorated with sequins and silver glitter with hello kitty stickers stuck all around it. Again a black base with her message was used.

She was trilled to bits with the final product. This morning she woke up bright and early and wanted to go to school immediately. She was so excited that she couldn't eat or dress.

Hope her teacher enjoyed the gift.

Blog hopping

I have come across quite a few interesting blogs. Although I don't comment on many of them, I would like to list them here.

Daily News blogs:
Satrumun
IdlyVadai

Mommy blogs
The Mad Momma
Poppins
Winkie's ways
Itching to write
Boos Baby talk
Under the banyan tree

Other interesting Blogs
Malaysian in Canada - I miss her Ammachi stories
Thulasi Thalam - Building a house and now a bond
Anuratha - all about cancer

Almost all of them update their blogs on a daily basis. Something that I lack a lot. Need to take a leaf out of their books and start blogging regularly.

Appreciation

Sometime back we had invited a friend and her family over for lunch. I had prepared all the stuff at home and even added some child friendly food. We have a domestic help and she helped with the basic stuff, like cutting vegetables and grinding ginger and garlic etc.

The friends came and had the lunch and when leaving, the friend's husband called our domestic help and congratulated her on a well prepared meal. And he went on to appreciate her on her efforts to prepare special food for the children. He didn't even have the courtesy of informing the host - me!! I was literally fuming. Whose house was he visiting and who was his host? How can he assume that I would have not prepared anything? Even if I was such a lazy bum and got my helper to do everything, isn't it the basic etiquette to say all these to the host?

Some people just don't think before they speak.

Touching

We had been to the temple yesterday. I had rained earlier and was wet everywhere. When I was climbing the few steps to our apartment, my daughter took hold of my hand and told, " Careful mummy..it has rained and would be slippery. If you fall, you will hurt baby also ". So small and yet to so caring!!! She is already thinking about the baby's well being :) I'm sure she would be a super sister. (hope I've not jinxed it).

When she was tired of holding my hand and walking slowly, she called her daddy and gave my hand to him and told him to take care of me before running ahead.

The other side is greener

When we had our first child, we didn't want to know the Sex of the baby beforehand as we wanted it to be a surprise. But as the days were nearing the delivery, I very much wanted to know the baby's sex.

So for the second one, there was no doubt. We wanted to know the sex and got to know it too. But once we knew it, we were not that happy. Felt we should have waited for the baby to be born, to experience the thril. The guessing games before the baby is born. The excitement to know what baby, when it is born, all that is lost when we know the sex before hand.

The other side is always greener :))

A message for TN Chief Minister

Since you are a master in Tamil, I don't think I have to remind you about the kural,

"
எணித் துணிக கருமம் துணிந்தபின்
எண்ணுவம் எண்பது இழுக்கு
"

enni thuniga karumam, thuninthapin
yennuvam yenbathu ezhukku.

It would be great if you remember this before initiating schemes and plans. The latest one being the Society Elections. After two rounds had been completed and the third one to be done in the next few days, you have cancelled the whole elections. What happens to the time and money spent by numerous people around TN? Is this any scheme of yours to bring out the black money like "Shivaji - the BOSS" ?

Anyhow, the actions of yours in the past few days don't look like that of a matured politicians.

I'm a boy!!

Daddy and daughter had gone to a class the other day and when the little one wanted to pee, he took her to the men's. The next time, when I took her to the class and then to the ladies, she said "Mummy, last time daddy forgot that I was a girl and took me to the mens!!!"

Dear Pappu

You were such a cute little darling yesterday. When I returned from office tired, you took the bag from me and kept it in its place. Then, you made me sit and massaged my legs. Where did you learn this from. You bought tears to my eyes.

Thanks a lot darling.

- The teary mom.

The little one wakes up at 3:30am and comes to the parents bed with the sole purpose of waking mummy and daddy up. She manages to get a mumble from her dad and a irritated "sleep now, its still dark outside" and a vigorous patting from her mom. Not satisfied she starts asking questions. When there is no reply, she starts crying. Immediately both parents are up and check what's wrong. Seeing that it was just a bit of "attention catching technique", they reprimand her and the mother continues the patting. It's almost an hour now and the little one has no plans of sleeping. The mother tries cajoling, bribing, scolding, all to no use. Finally at 5:30am the mother gets up and goes to the washroom. The little one asks her mother if she is going to office and gets a curt "yes" as a reply. Knowing the tone, the little one sleeps without another sound.

At 9:30 she wakes from her beauty sleep and calls mummy at office and says,
"Mummy, as I knew you and daddy had to go to office, I patted myself to sleep like a good girl!!"

How to hold one's attention in a meeting

Had a meeting today and a lady with a sexy outfit was there. Needless to say, all eyes were on her, even when she was not speaking ;)

Trumpet Blowing

May 18th, 2007. It was the parents-teachers meet at my daughters school. Althou I didn't go to the school expecting a lot of complaints, I was sure there would be a few issues here and there. Specially about her loud voice and screams. She is so loud, that I can hear her screams from our 6th floor apartment when she goes to the playground or swimming pool.

But, what did I get on that day? A glowing picture of a sweet and soft girl who likes to impress the teacher and is ready to share with her friends!! (this is something I am yet to see, because she is generally very reluctant to share even with us).

There was this Chinese teacher who was all praise about her and sharing bits of information on how she responds in Chinese...this was another bit of surprise for me. I only knew that she could sing a few chinese songs and count from one to ten. Looks like my little one can identify the colors and a few characters in Chinese. She can also coin a few words together to form meaningful sentences. The teacher wanted my daughter to continue her chinese classes. She was even ready to help her when she goes for higher classes. I was dumbfounded.

I then met one of the assistant teachers and her comment on my daughter was the highlight. She told that my daughter is very diplomatic and a good arbitrator. Now, who would have thought that about a 3 year old? I do have a lot to learn about my daughter...

ஈண்ற பொழுதினும் பெரிதுவக்கும் தன் பிள்ளை சாண்றொன் எனக் கேட்டத்தாய்
(INRa pozhuthinum perithuvakkum than piLLai saaNRon enak kEttaththaay)

She made my day.

It's the mango season.... again

Normally we have visitors from India in May and get the juicy Thathacariyar Gardens Imam pasand mangoes. But this year, we didn't have anyone coming in May. June had come and no one was planning to visit us in the first two weeks. So I was sure that we had missed the mangoes this year. But, as luck would have it, the mango season was delayed this year and so when my parents came in mid June, they got those juicy mangoes... Now, this is life :)

Super singer Junior

We had been on a cruise and on the last day, all those embarking in Singapore were asked to assemble at the auditorium. The cruise members were keeping everyone engaged with a few games and fun activities. Then they invited kids to sing. No one was willing. My little one suddenly got up and went boldly to the DJ and told her that she wanted to sing. When she was given the mike she sang "Twinkle Twinkle little star" clearly and loudly and got the prize and came back to her seat smiling broadly. The moment she was seated comfortably, she asked me "Mummy, when will they show me in the Super Singer Junior programme in TV?"

Moving houses

We are planning to move to a house near my daughter's school next week. So we were busy packing our stuff during the weekend. All the furniture is provided by the house owner in our current house as well as the new one we are moving to. So we don't have much to pack...or that is what we thought, until we started. There were hordes of letters and bills to sort out, toys and clothes to be sorted and discarded and stuff that we didn't know existed. We managed to fill three large boxes with books and files!!

Now I dread packing the kitchen items and clothes :(

Punishment

Saw Thiru Ranga, Arputha Theevu, part of maayakanadi and Naan avan illai during the weekend.

Across the miles....

Got a call from a long lost family friend last night. The last we heard from them was 20 years back. She took the pains of finding a mutual friend and getting our contact number from them.

Getting a call from someone who you think about quite often, but have lost touch is wonderful.

Where are you from?

During a recent trip, a lady asked my daughter,

"Where are you from?"

Pat came the reply: "My home!!!"

Within a year

Last year, I was boasting to a friend in Switzerland that the rents in Singapore were comparitively lower. This year it has almost doubled :(

Fashion Statement

Mummy I can't wear this dress and go out today.
Why?
B'cos I don't have a matching watch!!!

- from my 3 year old.