Happy New Year

A very happy New Year to all of you! Had been to India during December. Lots of memorable moments. But those that I would like to come back and read are the little nuggets from the kids mouth.. This was from the little girl after seeing the film 'Neethane en ponvasantham' - "It's just a remake of 'Kaathalil sothapuvathepadi' in 'Vinai thandi varuvaaya' style". After spending sometime in the Art gallery of Salal Jung museum in Hyderabad the little boy says: "Mummy, do you know, they have copied one of my paintings also." "Oh is it? Which one is it?" "The one titled Monalisa - that one. I had painted it in school last year." (He had been listening to his sister and me discussing about the originals and copies in that room.)

My Egg

The little boy was helping me in the kitchen. He was counting the number of eggs needed for everyone in the family and placing them in the pan to boil. Once he was done I asked him, " Do you have enough for everyone."

"Yep" pat came the reply.

"Are you sure?"

"Yes, ofcourse"

"Ok, if its not enough for everyone then you wont have an egg."

"But Mummy, I've already counted myself and placed my egg inside!"

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Googly eyed Angry bird

The little boy had to wear a crazy hat for his school's crazy hat friday day. His current craze is Angry Bird and so he decided he wanted an angry bird crazy hat.

Overnight we sat to work and got this..

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It's my Happy Journey day

The little girl and her brother were returning from India after the school holidays. The girl's birthday was the next day. So all who had come to send them off, wished the little girl a "Happy Birthday". The Little Boy felt left out. He put on his doggy face and looked forlorn. So the Periamma wished him a "Happy Journey" and the others followed. He was given a car as a gift and he considered it his "Happy Journey" gift. The next day when we were celebrating the girl's birthday, the little boy wanted to celebrate his "Happy Journey Day". He wanted a party and gifts. He wouldn't accept any explanation that we gave. He told his Periamma had wished him and so it was a special day!

Artsy Crafty Jan 2012

This month's Artsy Crafty is "Paint your own Van Gogh". I was pretty excited to see this as my daughter had painted a few Van Gogh's when she was a 5 year old in her kindergarten.

This post and this one are about her Van Gogh painting experience.

This is her first 'Van Gogh' that adorned our living room.


PS: Going through the old posts made me realise how much of the kids life I have missed by not updating this blog. Will have to be more regular from now on.

Happy New Year

Wish you all a Happy New Year. To new beginnings and more posts.

A village holiday

Do you remember the time you spent at your grandparents place? A time away from the bustling city? A time away from pollution? A time spent in a care free manner? We had all that and I used to worry that my kids would miss them. But with the in-laws living in a village, they get to enjoy the best of both the worlds.

Taking you through a holiday in a village...


Green paddy fields welcoming you with a gentle sway...

Thaer thiruvizha to which each household in the village takes pride in the number of house guests they get..."akkam pakkathu pathinetu pattium varanum".

Iyyanarukku pongal, puthu thuni...

Pallanguzhi, thaayam, 7 kal, to while away the time when it is too hot to go out and play...


A Singapore Flyer or a Rattinum...both are fun.

A diwali with the extended family and friends...

Tender coconut to round it up!

Artsy Crafty again

The little boy did the following two crafts in his school and it was just apt for Artsy Crafty July contest.

The first one is a splash of colors. And this is how the little boy explained his art work, "Mummy, you have to take the colors you like and drip-drip and splash-splash on the paper. Then we can stick glitter on foam and stick that on the frame."


This was the work he did today. It's his snail and he told that he stuck foam pieces round and round and got the snail's home on the back. There are leaves stamped at the bottom for the snail's food.


And this is the little girl's contribution. She did this for this year's pongal.


We didn't have kolam powder at home and rice flour was not giving a fine flow. So we mixed Sooji with Rice flour and got the fine flow. The little girl loves kolams and this was one that she did mostly on her own except for the final touches. Our neighbours came out and saw her putting the kolam in our backyard (we don't have enough space in the front) and asked her about it. There were so many questions on what it was and why she was doing it. She enjoyed explaining about it!!

Kids Talk

On the day of the Parents-Teachers meet, the little girl says, "Amma, dont go and tell the teacher all that I tell you. She might think I dont have any work other than to tell you about school".

The little boy to his mama,
LB: J Uncle gave me this car. Do you know J Uncle?
Mama: No
LB: He is Danny's father. Do you know Danny?
Mama: No
LB: Ok, Danny is a small boy. He is my friend. Now do you know Danny?

During lunch:
LB: Dont talk. Nobody should speak while eating...
LG: Except me.
LB: Especially you akka.
(This was a pleasant surprise for us. We didn't expect the boy to know the difference between except and especially).

On other updates, the little girl has been participating in a few competitions and winning prizes. She has now gained in confidence that she volunteers for any competition in her school. As a side effect, the little boy is also learning to speak in literary tamil (thooya tamil. He can speak the whole kannagi dialog).

BCM Exercise

We all have our annual BCM exercise where the primary location would be shut down and we have to make sure all our applications work from the BCM site. But have you heard BCM exercise conducted by the school? The little girl had one a couple of months back.

The girls were given a notice with all the details on how to work in case of an emergency and the school had to shutdown. All of them were given a login id and site and asked to make sure it was accessible. On the BCM day, they had to study from home. The lessons were on the site, with powerpoint slides and worksheets. They had to go through them and do the worksheets and submit them. The teachers would then mark them. Looking at this, we were thinking of our school days when we would eagerly wait for some emergency to occur so that schools are closed. Especially when there are exams or tests. I remember how we cribbed when MGR passed away during the school holidays. We felt he had robbed us of a holiday!!

Some updates

First and foremost, we won the second place in Shruti's Artsy Crafty for September! Vini @ Pooh's den sponsored the prize and the gifts were wonderful. The little girl was thrilled. Thanks Shruthi and Vini.

This year we are going to India for Diwali. It's been sometime since we visited India during Diwali. I'm sure the kids would be amazed by the firecrackers there. Hope the little boy is not afraid and enjoys it.

The other day we were going through an activity book and there was a page where you guess the next in the sequence. There were a sequence of shapes with the last box having a question mark. The boy was pointing to each box and telling the shape and when he came to the last box, without a pause he told "Mystery Mousekatool!"

Party entertainments

The Little Boy's birthday falls on this month and Shruthi announced an apt competition. Handmade party favours and decorations were this month's competition.

This was prepared by the little girl to entertain the little guests who come. Last year she was the magician and this year she wanted to be a story teller.



The TV was made using a dress box and plastic sheet. We fixed two balloon sticks as the stand. The story pictures were stuck together to form a long length of story spool. The story spools were stuck to the two ballon sticks in such a way that when they were rotated the story moved from right to left.



The little girl told the story as she kept rotating the poles and each new picture appeared.

Treasure from Trash

Here are a couple of entries for Shruti's Arty Crafty July contest.

1. Plastic bag and straw curtain/wall hanger.

 

2. Penguin pen stand from used milk carton and egg shells.

Cup and saucers

Here's another use for them.



and if you have spoons also, you can try this:

Tamil rhymes for Tulika's blogathon

Ever since I saw the ditti for Tulika's blogathon in MIM's blog I've been wanting to add a few dittis/rhymes from my childhood. So here are a few from my childhood. All the songs are in Tamil.

This one was sung by my grandmother during our road trips.
Atho paaru roaddu
Roaddu mela carru
Carukkula yaaru
Namma mama Nehru
Nehru yenna sonnaru
Nalla padikka sonnaru!!

Transalation:
Look at the road
There's a car on the road
Who is inside the car
It's our mama Nehru
What did Nehru tell?
He told us to study well!!


This song she used to sing to us during Independence day and would give us sweets if we repeated it back to her.
Delhikku ponaenae,
Indira Gandhiya paarthaenae,
Salute adichane,
Mittai koduthare,
Sappi sappi sapitane!!

Transalation:
I went to Delhi,
And saw Indira Gandhi,
I saluted her
She gave me sweets
I relished and ate it.

This one was sung by my mom when rocking us on her back or on her knees. She used to add all the nicks we had and sing according to the child that was on her lap.
Saanjadamma saanjadamma
Thanga chilaiyae saanjadu
Saanjadamma saanjadu
Vairamaniyae saanjadu
Sanjadamma saanjadu!!

Transalation:
Rock baby rock
Golden statue rock
Rock baby rock
Diamond pearl rock
Rock baby rock!!

This rhyme, my MIL used to sing for my daughter to make her eat a extra dosai. The last line means you would get a beating if you ask for extra dosai. So my MIL would sing this song when my daughter finishes the dosai on her plate and immediately my daughter would ask for extra dosai and tell her to give her beatings!!

Dosai amma dosai
Amma sutta dosai
arusi maavum
ulunthu maavum
kalanthu sutta dosai
Appavukku naalu
ammavukku moonu
annanukku rendu
pappavukku onnu
Thinna thina aasai
thirupi kaeta poosai!!

Transalation:
Dosai Amma Dosai
Mother made dosai
Rice flour
and Urid flour
Mixed and made dosai
Four for Father
Three for Mother
Two for Sister
One for the baby
Would like to keep eating
If you ask more you would get a beating!!

The next two are sung when all the children sit in a circle with their hands spread out in front. One child goes around touching each hand and when the last line is sung, the person whose hand is touched should remove that hand.

For this song, the hands are placed in a lifted position with only the tips of the fingers touching the ground. When the last line is sung, the hand that is touched has to go flat to indicate that the horse is sleeping.
Kudira kudira, yenga pora?
Kolathukku
Yethukku?
thani kudika
adipaen
rajakitta soluvaen
paduthuko paduthuko

Transalation:
Horsy Horsy, where are you going?
To the lake
For what?
To drink water
I'll hit you
I'll tell the king
ok, sleep sleep.

This one is played with hands when there are many kids and with fingers when there are only two or three kids.
Athakam puthakam
tavalngchooru
yettu yeruma yeruma paalu
un appan peru enna
solamaataen!!
un appan per sollathae
mulan thani kudikathae
un paambu kaiyae padakendru yedu.

Transalation:
Athakam puthakam (no meaning, just rhyming words)
A bit pot of rice (Tavalai is a big brass pot, chooru is rice)
eight baffalo milk
what is your father's name?
I wont tell!!
Dont tell your father's name
Dont drink Mulan (dont know what this means) water
take away your snake hand.

This one is sung when we play hide and seek. The person closing the eyes of the seeker would sing this.
Kannamuchi, kaatu thulasi
unnang kuruvi
yethana mutta vitta?
(a number is told)
(the number)la, (one number less) yeduthukittu
micha onna yenakku yeduthukittu va.

Transalation:
Hide and seek, wild thulasi
Unnang kuruvi (a kind of wild bird),
how many eggs did you lay?
(the seeker tells a number, say four, then the ditti goes like this)
Of the four, you take three
And bring me the remaining one.

This ditti is sung when playing a game similar to "Queen Sheeba wants". All the kids would stand at one side and the catcher on the opposite side and sing this song. When the color is mentioned, the kids have to go find it before the catcher catches them.
Knock knock
yarrathu?
paeiyithu
yennavaenum?
colour vaenum
yenna color?
(any random colour is specified by the catcher)

Transalation:
Knock knock
Who is it?
It's the ghost.
What do you want?
I want color.
What color?

I'll stop here. I think this is one of my longest posts and took me back to my childhood days. Thanks Tulika for this wonderful opportunity.

Singapore Snippets

Visitors to Singapore normally exclaim about the greenary in Singapore. And this is one example why Singapore remains green.



Look at the fencing around the trees to protect them when there's construction work going around it.

A birthday card

We normally send hand made cards to the cousins and grandparents. The little girl's favourite cousin's birthday was coming closer and we hadn't done any cards. I was blog hopping and came across this wonderful collection of hand made cards by TPL's mother. As we are not as artistic as her mother, we took an easy idea from there and prepared this.



This was done entirely by the little girl last September (when she was five and a half) with almost no help from me.

Work Life Balance

I work in a company that gives a lot of importance to work life balance. This is one of the main reasons I have stayed with this job in spite of a number of odds. I got 6 months maternity leave for each of my kids when the norm was 3 months. Family emergencies are given the first priority. The bosses somehow try to adjust during those times.

There are 3 incidents that stood out. All these three were within our team globally.

This guy is a global head and he went through a nasty divorce. He was left with his little daughter. He was alone in a foreign country with no help. The company gave him the most flexible arrangement where by he could go to a nearby office and work from there on the days he was not working from home. The office nearby didn't have anything to do with our line of job, but they made the arrangements for him. This way he could take care of his daughter as well as do his work without a problem.

The next guy had quite a few problems with his extended family. He had felt he couldn't do justice to his work as he had to take a lot of leave to sort his family issues. He gave his resignation papers. He was the sole bread winner for the family. The bosses had a discussion with him and it was decided that he would come to office on alternate days and thus have time to sort his personal issues as well as have a job. He stepped down from his regional lead post. Within a year was able to sort his personal issues and come back to office on a full time basis.

The third guy has a kid with special needs. His working hours are so arranged that he is always able to take his kid to the special classes and doctor visits.

All the three incidents above have made sure the talented guys stay within the company. This has also made us all aware that whatever happens, if you give the best to the job, the company would be behind you in your crises.

Happy Labour Day to all of you!!

Artsy-Crafty April

As usual didn't manage to complete the projects on time for the Artsy Crafty project at Shruti's blog. Anyways here are the entries.

Fruit Basket.



Eli the Elephant hat.


Growing up, we used to make papermache stuff by grinding together fenugreek and paper. But it was a tedious process as you had to grind it by hand. So when Shruti announced the April Artsy Crafty contest, I turned to Google baba for help. That's when I came to know about creating paper mache craft using paper strips and balloons. Below are some of the snaps taken during the process.

Update:
Added a few photos on how this was done.

Do you like....

Last Sunday the little girl took part in a dance competition organised by the Malayali Association. After the dance, the MCs asked her a few questions and one of them was...

"Do you like Malayalees"

To which she vigorously shook her head in the negative!!