Story Time - Family

The Little Girl and Boy have been keeping me busy. They had a story telling competition last week. The topics given to them were family and graciousness. I couldn't find a suitable story on the net. So we made our own story and this is what they presented:

The Baby Elephant:
There was once a baby elephant named Jumbo who lived in a big forest. He lived with his father, mother, uncles, aunties, cousins and grandparents. They were everywhere as a big herd. Jumbo was tired of going everywhere with his family. He wanted to go on an adventure alone. So one day, he set out on his adventure.

By and by, he came across a little bird tweeting on its nest "Tweet, Tweet". Hey Jumbo, where are you going?"
"I'm going on an adventure. Do you want to come?" asked Jumbo.
"I would like to come. But then, I would miss my brothers and sisters. We will be learning to fly soon. Then we will go on a big adventure. It is called migration. So, maybe some other time. " said the bird.
"Ok then, bye." said Jumbo and walked on.

He then saw a busy bee buzzing from flower to flower. "Hi Bee, I am going on an adventure. Do you want to come?" asked Jumbo.
"Hi Jumbo. I am busy. I live with a big family in a big hive. My family members would be waiting for the nectar I take home. So I need to go now. Bye!" and the bee buzzed away.

Jumbo continued on his journey. He then saw Leo the lion cub running. He tried to run and catch him, but he couldn't run as his was too fat. So he called loudly, "Leo, Leo, wait for me. I am going on an adventure. Do you want to come? "
Leo turned around and saw Jumbo. He said, "Hi Jumbo. So, you are going on an adventure? That's nice. But I can't come. I will miss my mummy and daddy. Only when we are together, we are known as a Pride. We are the strongest when we are together. You go along and enjoy your adventure".

Jumbo walked on. It was getting dark. He felt lonely. Suddenly it started raining. Lightning struck. Jumbo was frightened. He sat next to a tree and started crying. Suddenly he heard a loud voice, "Jumbo, Jumbo, where are you?" It was his father. He went in the direction of the voice. He saw his father. All his family members were standing behind his father. His mother, uncles, aunties, grandparents and cousins hugged Jumbo. Jumbo was happy. His family was happy. He realised that his family was the best and he should never leave them and go.
                                                               ***** THE END *****

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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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!

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).

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!"

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.

Oh Daddy!!

That is how the little one calls his Daddy...with the sing-song tone. We first noted it when we had been to a restaurant after the diwali shopping. The kid started shouting at the top of his voice "Oh Daddy" when his Dad went to wash his hand. The whole restaurant was laughing at his antics. We were wondering from where he could have caught this, when my daughter told "Amma, it resembles the "Oh Doodle" in Mickey mouse club house. And that was it....it was the exact sing-song tone. So now we can say my son has started observing and using things he learns from the TV.

On another note, I like the way Diwali is celebrated in Singapore. The way the govt puts in the effort to light up the Little India area, the shows and concerts that are staged on a big stage near that area, the "Diwali fair", the colorful shops, sweets, crackers and everything that would remind you of the festival of lights. Its nice that there is a substantial Indian population in Singapore and the govt recognises them.

Small Talk

I was going through my old posts looking for something when I came across this. The Little Boy is almost about the same age and so I thought I'll pen down his words.

Thoong
Car
byechikul
moonnu
thannae (for Kannae Kalaimanae song)
dink
milch
geeve

Blog it!!

The little boy has been calling me "Amma/mumie", his sister "akka", aunt - "atta", uncle - "mama" and the regular "Thatha, ammamma, anna, aunty", everything almost perfect expect for Daddy. Right from the start he used to refer to his father as "Dada" and he refused to even try "Daddy". Then suddenly two days back he told "Daddy" without anyone prompting him. The elated father immediately turned to me and told "Make a note on your blog!" and there, as a dutiful wife I've penned it down.

Moving...

We move houses.

The whole house is littered with boxes and total chaos prevails. The little one is playing in the master bedroom and a sudden gust of wind closes the door. It gets locked. One adult is immediately sent to soothe the child and keep him engaged, while the others run around the house like headless chicken looking for the blessed key. A nice distraction to the otherwise mundane task of unpacking.

Video and the party

We were watching my son's first birthday party video. All was fine until we came to the part where the decorations were shown. The video had a long shot of the decorations and then zoomed in to the "Happy Birthday" wordings. After zooming in and out on those wordings and doing a slow motion run on each letter, it went down to show the birthday boy's name. This was a letter by letter zoom from the last letter of my son's name and it stopped mid way. The last part of my son's name is the name of my hubby's cousin who was handling the video. So he had stopped to highlight it and unfortunately forgot to continue. :(

So now, we have a video which shows "Happy Birthday Cousin".

Then the video moved on to show the guests and the next highlight was when the cake was displayed. Again, we have a slow motion run on the "Happy 1st Birthday" on the cake and a quick display of the full name followed by a slow motion, zoom in and zoom out of the "cousin's name".

What do I do now? Name the video as "Cousin's birthday party?"