Weekend updates

The last weekend was lil different with some outings and trying new cuisine after a long time.

Saturday - We went to the local mall where Adi attended a kids event based on dinosaurs theme. She had fun for around two hours making macaroni dino, painting dino eggs and listening to couple of dino stories. That’s the girl with her dino mask. Remember the sweatshirt she is wearing? Its the one that Santa gave to her this year

Then, we decided to try out this new restaurant very close to our home. We have always seen waiting line on this restaurant. It gave us that “Saravana bhavan” feeling while looking at the crowd waiting outside indefinitely. Still, it took us more than a year to step in. It was a Philippine restaurant. Heard as one of the very popular chain of hotel at Philippines. This is our very first time trying out an altogether different cuisine and we ordered

Appetizer
French fries – the only appetizer we could identify and order from the list.

Entree
Pancit Canton – egg noodles stir fried with shrimp and veggies.
Half fried chicken
Laing Tilapia – tilapia fish fillet deep fried in a rich batter, topped with Laing (taro leaves).
Sisig chicken - chicken chopped to bits and cooked with onions, celery and mayonnaise topped with chili fingers.
1 cup of garlic rice

Dessert
Buko pandan – tender coconut with green gelatin, cooked tapioca and a scoop of ice cream on top.

Drinks
Buko juice – coconut juice with tender coconut strips.

Food was edible and not bad. Though we didn’t really enjoy it managed to not waste anything. We were the only Indians at the restaurant surrounded by big gangs of Filipino people and only them. They were busy in butchering steak and pork whereas we indulged our tummy with fish and chicken.

After lunch, strolled to the library to renew Adi’s books and then reached home. Watched a movie online and guess what I did in the evening? I threw up all the food and got an earful from M. After all, it was my idea to try that restaurant on that day. Then, settled down with a glass of lemon juice and went to sleep.

Sunday – Adi had dental appointment to fill some of her tooth. The dentist was so cool, kept the little girl engaged all through the procedure and filled only few tooth. We may have to go for few more sittings to fill the rest. As I have mentioned earlier if there is one thing that tops my worry list about Adi, its her tooth. Hope, at least we take good care of the permanent ones.

I woke up early, made her favorite yellow bean kuzhambu, rice and papad so that she can eat before going for the appointment. This is one food that the girl eats till the last grain.

We came back, had lunch and lazed around till evening.

This was the main reason for my yesterday’s post to get reshaped into a rant. As evening was nearing I got all worked up as none of the weekend chores was done. Luckily, Monday was a holiday for Adi and myself. Still, we already had plans for Monday. Adi has review exam all days this week and her science project is due on Thursday. We were planning to review for test and do science project on Monday. So, I reluctantly collected myself up, washed/dried clothes at 8pm, swept/cleaned the house at 9pm, blogged/blog hopped at 11pm and went to bed at 1am.

Monday -  Woke up earlier than usual, packed M’s dabba as he had work, sorted out the dried clothes, made pancakes for Adi’s breakfast. Once the girl woke up we had breakfast together and then started with the science project. I will do a separate post on that project once she presents it at school. The whole day was pretty much spent on the project and reviewing for the test. Oh, and the girl read books for like two hours today. She got a note from school to read for 6 hours to win a free ticket to six flags. She has so far recorded around five hours in the reading slip.

I was also planning to bake chocolate chip cookies with her today but there was no time. Most of our her time was spent on the paper work for science project itself. She worked from like 11:30am till 7:00pm with only two half hour break. Tomorrow she has Maths and Science test. Hope she does well.

Just for laugh: 

A pearl of wisdom from the little girl to me

Adi: Amma, why do you always smile when you talk?
Amma: really?
Adi: Yes, you even smile when you talk about sad things.
Amma: No, I don’t. May be I smile when I say nice stuff to you that way you will also feel good.
Adi: Yeah, but remember don’t get too much excited about everything okie? It is okay to smile just once in a while. Otherwise you will go crazy about everything.
Amma: !@#$%^&*

Have a wonderful week everyone…

I should have known ahead

When there was a good day to cherish the brain should have warned me about the bad day that’s around the corner no?  Isn’t this is all about balancing life?

Okay before you panic it was not that bad at all but I felt it that way. On Saturday M was about to attend an all-day training so I asked if he can car pool with his colleagues you know so the mommy/daughter duo can have the car and plan an another exciting day.

His colleagues agreed to car pool, I woke up earlier, took head bath, M left at 8am, I woke up Adi, made strawberry banana milkshake for her breakfast, had my breakfast, we both cleaned up the house (the task that usually takes two hours was completed in half hour), prepared Adi’s milk, cooked lunch, dressed up, discussed about our plans for the day, packed bags, wore shoes and we were just a task away from stepping out.  Got to get the car keys from M’s basket in which he throws keeps all his belongings and fly out..

What did I find or rather what did I not find in his basket? You got it.. the car keys. The next 15 minutes was spent in searching for the keys under the couch/bed/recliner/TV and all other places except under the floors. We couldn’t break the tiles you see.. No luck.  Keys were not found.  Called M, his phone was switched-off as expected, remembered the call he made from his colleague’s phone during last week training, searched for the number in my phone logs, called that number, asked for M, spoke to him and found the keys but at the wrong place at M’s pant pocket. Owe it to his daily habits, as he was leaving he grabbed his purse/keys and put them in his pocket with no thought. I was furious to see my plans go out of the window.

Took a deep breath, explained the situation to Adi and we sat down there staring at each other.  After a while I took her to library, pepped up her mood by getting her own card (a long due one was checked that day),  spent sometime at library, read few books, checked out books with her card and returned home.  Then, she watched her favorite special show “My little pony-Royal wedding” in TV, we had lunch together and again sat down there staring at each other again.  Our initial plan was to go some places in the morning and then visit “Earth day fair” at Liberty state park in the afternoon.  Then, I looked out for public commute options to Liberty state park and we instantly decided to go. It was a long commute though. A train then light rail and then 20 mins walk thankfully the weather was good so we boarded the train, then the light rail and then walked for 20 minutes.

sat on the way huffing and puffing on the roads

shooed away the goose

blew off dry flowers as much as we can

and reached the park at 3:50pm.  Didn’t I tell you this day was meant to be a disaster? Most of the stalls in the fair were already closing, the inflatables were brought down and face painting line was closed. The fair was supposed to be there till 5pm. I thought we will have a good one hour to go around but they started closing at 4pm itself.  Then, we treated ourselves with ice cream, sat over there for a while (how else can I make this girl walk another 20 minutes back right away?) and started the return walk.

Met a colleague and her family at train station, played with the 7 month old baby and guess what we all boarded the train in opposite direction.  They were heading to the Sai Baba temple near my home and my good luck of the day dragged them along with us to the opposite direction but we were better off than the man who was in the compartment when we boarded, slept through till the last station, traveled back with us in the other direction, woke up just before we were about to get down and found that he lost his bag

To make the day better or at least to cheer us up I decided to join my colleague’s family to the temple.  Had a good darshan at temple after a long long time and then all was well. On the way back to home I took Adi to an Indian restaurant, ordered Samosa, watched her eating the hot hot Samosa shifting between hands and holding with paper, bought her some candies from a street corner shop and returned home around 8pm.

I didn’t forgive M for the blunder but does tummy know all that? All it needs is food, food and food so I shamelessly hogged on the bread upma made by him and called it a day.  I claimed that M took the keys knowingly because he couldn’t stand the fun day we had before. I know I sound cheap and silly but had that long mean face till yesterday afternoon and then got kind of cooled off.

Sunday was spent washing clothes, folding, cooking, cleaning, grinding idli batter and making other preparations for the week ahead… Such is life..

Spring break and books

Long post alert..

I start the post wondering what to type, proceeding to type few lines and then the post grows like a Hanuman tail forcing me to warn my readers. Does this happen to you too?

Spring break is here. The school was closed on last Thursday afternoon and is reopening on 16th April.

On Thursday afternoon Adi came home with her friend N as her parents requested us to pick up the kid. Both of them spent the afternoon at home, exploring Adi’s long touched toys, playing board games, watching Alvin and the Chipmunks and I was working from home watching over them. Around 4pm I asked the girls if they want to visit the nearby library. They agreed provided I promise to treat them with pizza. So, after mutual agreement we spent a good one hour at library. Adi was happy to find the latest Magic tree house book # 47 “Abe Lincoln At Last” and settled with it, N settled with few reading books and myself with “Palace of Illusions” on my Kindle. I was determined to finish it on that day and did finish it at 1am . I know I know I must be the last one in the blog world to read this book but I deserve a pat on my back as at last I pulled myself to stay up late to finish the book rather I couldn’t really put it down.  It was mesmerizing to read about all those familiar characters again especially Karna though some details were contradicting to what I knew about the epic.  The very next night I watched the age old tamil film “Karna”  and listened to this song at least hundred times so far to quench my thirst. I have not got over it yet. The song sung by Krishna when Karna is at his death bed at Kurukshetra war. Krishna sings this song praising Karna’s qualities and the fate of his life.

Here is a translation I found from google search for the mind blowing lyrics by kavignar Kannadasan. Planning to watch the digitized version of this film that is soon to be re-released.

With this not being enough I have now started with the next book “Parthiban Kanavu” by the great legend “Kalki“. This is a re-read after almost a decade for me.  I am loving it . Hoping to finish it in a day or two.  Special thanks to SnS who shared the books, Smitha and Scribby whose constant book reviews kept me reminding of the pile I had, all of you who have been posting book reviews as part of Blogadda book review program, to my daughter who is developing her reading habits and my friend who gifted me the Kindle . I kept reminding myself if all those really busy people can find time to read I can definitely find the time to read and here I am.  Hope I continue with this

Enough of hijacking, coming back to Aditi’s spring break (sounds like a break to me from the post so far huh?) I took the girls to the library, we hanged out there until I reached my reading target for that evening and then took them to Dominos. Treated them and self with cheese pizza, chicken pizza and came back home. When N’s dad came home to pickup and asked how was the play date the girls said in unison that “I spoiled it by taking them to library” though they enjoyed the pizza on the way back home.

Friday was mommy/daughter day as M had to go to work. We set out in the morning, watched Lorax 3D in big screen,  went to a friend’s home as his wife called to check what we were doing on a holiday and invited us, played Carrom and surprisingly I pocketed the queen and follow , had yummy food, a nice chat session post lunch, Adi watched back to back 4 Dinosaur Train episodes and left their home around 4ish in the evening. The girl was asking me about this big escalator at Exchange place train station. So, we walked to that station via a beautiful boardwalk and climbed the escalator at least 4 times and then boarded the train to home. We reached home around 5pm and Adi right away started to play in backyard with the kid from next door when I was about to crash on the bed with my laptop. Man I wonder how does kids have so much energy?  Only the film was a planned, rest all was unplanned and the day turned out to be a pleasant day.

Saturday, the plan was to take her to an Easter egg hunt at a distant NY place but we dropped the plan at last moment, woke up late, then decided to go but again dropped the plan as it was already late and the place is around one hour away by drive. The girl was very much upset so I searched for some egg hunt at local, luckily found one and in the next 15 recording minutes we were there from the just-up-from-bed state to the park I can assure that we brushed, don’t ask me about bathing and other sorts ok?. The girl hunted hand picked the plastic eggs lying around and had fun for next two hours. When I asked if she enjoyed the Easter egg hunt she corrected me that it was not a hunt but it was an “Easter egg pickup” event. lol.. She is using the language better than us . Then, we had buffet lunch at an Indian restaurant near home and literally rolled home with an about to explode tummy.

Rest of the weekend was spent at home reading books, playing board games and having our own “ME” times without stepping on other’s shoe. We are good or rather bad in that ways. Adi at living room glued to her TV or craft or book, your truly at Kitchen or bedroom glued to her laptop or book and your’s truly’s other half at the other bedroom glued to his office laptop.

Oh did I mention it has become a weekend ritual at home. Adi making breakfast. She is so adamant about this and after enjoying the breakfast for past three weeks I can now proudly record it in this blog. No No No child labour and all. She wanted to do it guys and gets mad if we don’t let her to. So, as a so-called-democratic parent I sat back and said “Go ahead indulge me darling”.  She wins her share too as she can get all the things done from us for rest of the day. She goes like this “Guys since I made breakfast for you today I want you to ….”. We will hear this line at least a hundred times on the day she chooses to make the breakfast. This is what I am getting for my breakfast. Toasted wheat bread with Kissan jam spread. The fact that more jam finds its way to her tummy during preparation can be ignored. Can one of you please show her the other breakfast ideas too? You see I am already bored with just this one option

On Monday I was working from home and today its M’s turn. We will alternate this for rest of this week and I might take a day off but no plans  to step out

Next post will feature her recent drawings and clay models. I am impressed with her work so far.

Weekend/random updates

A busy weekend that was after a long time.. On Friday evening we went to circus at IZOD center and witnessed awesome elephants walking in tow, beautiful big cats (tigers) executing master’s commands religiously, gorgeous horses dancing to master’s tune, Alpacas , Llamas, Goats, Zebras, Donkeys (Yes you read it right), cats, dogs and what not. Adi did not enjoy the circus much as she was expecting the clown to perform some magic show.  Needless to mention there were death-defying acts like a man riding motorcycle in a high-wire and rotating 360 degree, Flying trapeze with triple somersault, eight motorcycles riding criss-cross inside a steel of globe, Martial arts experts bending steel as if like bending rubber.. Phew I was scared more than Adi. Outside the event center there were a group of people protesting circus, explaining about the cruelty done to animals and how the animals are living far away from their natural inhabit et all. I had mixed feelings.  Circus is a living for a set of people. If they can make an animal dance to their tunes won’t they take good care of the animal? Will they harm the animals with whom they share their lives? I don’t know. Adi got a coloring/activity book from these protesting people. The next day after completing the activities in the book she wrote “Animals don’t belong to Circus” and declared that we should never ever go for a Circus again.  What do you people think?

this was the view from our seat..

Upon return from circus we decided to eat at a small food joint near our home that’s run by a family. In spite of the lady confirming twice about spiciness I said “yeah yeah make all the dishes spicy” with M nodding heavily.  I was a dumb not understanding the lady’s hint and  ended up ordering another dish for Adi after she refused to take the second bite. It was super duper spicy but we enjoyed it  and packed the leftovers

On Saturday we went to Liberty science center to see the performance by the bubble master Casey Carle. It was a jaw dropping show what with making space shuttle with bubbles, making a bubble inside a bubble, a cube bubble, talking about the science behind bubbles and making a bubble around a child.. It was absolute fun and delight to watch Casey in action.   Here is a sample

We then strolled around the science center for rest of the day and reached home to continue with weekend chores of cleaning, washing, cooking etc.. How nice would it be to have some magical powers to get all the household chores done? Sighhh

On Sunday we attended a birthday party and had Indian buffet for lunch. The dessert Mango mousse took the cake of all dishes though there was a birthday cake too  We relished the mousse garnished with Strawberry slice and mint leaf to our heart’s content. Then, stopped by M’s colleague’s home to say Hi to their newborn, treated ourselves with a round of Indian snacks at their house and reached home in the evening.  We were then instantly affected by the “its-already-sunday-evening” fever and half heatedly started the preparations for the week ahead.

On other accounts

The week before last week was declared as “Spirit week” at Adi’s school. The concept is the same every year.

Monday – Jersey day. Kids has to wear their favorite team’s jersey to show their support. Adi wanted NY giants jersey as the giants won super bowl this year but we didn’t have the time to visit store so she just went to school in uniform.

Tuesday – Mismatch day. Adi wore khakhi pants, princess tops, long earring on one side, stud on the other, had her nails painted on one hand, wore boots on one leg and sneakers on the other

Wednesday – Activity day. It was just like any other Wednesday.

Thursday – Career day. Dress as a profressional. Adi was kind enough to wear the same doctor set we bought last year . Literally I didn’t give her an option as we were running out of time. I should check with her in advance next year.

Friday – Prep rally day.  Kids has to wear school colors that’s white/blue and each class performed a cheer leading song in the assembly.  The school principal sponsored a pizza party for the kids last week owing to their beautiful performances.
Adi feel sick last week. It was a stomach flu and she was throwing up all that was finding its way to her tummy.  We kept her at home for a day and treated her tummy with Congee. When her tummy got better it was the turn for the nose and throat. They were  attacked by cold.  She is good now.

Work is getting hectic…

Weather is getting better day by day.. We have moved to our spring jackets and resuming afternoon/evening walks.  Life is good..

Pittsburg puraanam – Part 2

Part 1 is here

So, we left the place and as I was fiddling with the GPS  I found that there is a gas station in 5.7 miles from our point.  We thought it would be better to fill the fuel before taking another chance and followed the GPS route. Car headlight was the only light we could see around. M was driving with much care so that we all and our car doesn’t have to do an angapradhakshinam (rolling on the ground)  on the steeper side of the road. After around 2 miles the savior we owned aka GPS instructed us to take a right turn.  The right was taken but just driving 0.2 miles was enough to realize that it was an unpaved road. The car started to show its discomfort. Even the second gear didn’t help.  We had to make a decision whether to proceed further to reach the nearest gas station or return back to the planned route and take the risk of running out of gas again before reaching the next gas station.

The only thought I had was what if that nearest gas station is closed? We would end up wasting the precious gas offered by the kind man. He promised us that the fuel will be sufficient to reach the gas station en route.  We cannot take a wrong decision again. So decided to trust his words, take a U-turn and continue in the planned route.  But, we couldn’t take a U-turn there. As I said before it was unpaved narrow road with steep on the other side. So, I got down the car and gave directions to drive in reverse gear until we reached a place where there was little chance to take a U-turn.  I was literally shouting my lungs out as “turn the wheels left, no no no right, now turn right slightly, yeah yeah keep the wheels steady, slow, slow, slow down, left left” as I was walking down the road facing backwards.  In between I also attended nature’s emergency call shamelessly on the road side.  Now please don’t stare at me or make fun of me as the father and daughter duo did. You understand the emergency of nature’s call don’t you?.. RM – I feel R would understand me better after all her susu stories.. Then, M took the much awaited U-turn and we reached the main road from where we took the initial right. It would have definitely taken M at least 20 to 30 microscopic turns to take that U-turn.  Continued our journey towards Pitts and as indicated by the kind man we hit a gas station in 20 miles with no further obstacle.  I was happy to see other cars on the road. I was happy to witness another human other than the three of us. I was happy to see snacks and freshly baked goodies in the gas station store.  I was happy to see the gas station open. Yes I was looking for reasons to be happy.  My heart resumed back to normal beat. You know that moment when your heart feels light and the mental peace after a turmoil. I felt it. We relished the snacks and baked items and continued with the journey. Adi was a cutie pie all this time just watching and not bothering us even with one single question. I am sure she would have had a million questions in her head. After all she is a question rani no?..  Rest of the trip was all pleasant .. Reached Pitts at around 7:45pm.  Had a quick visit to Shirdi Sai baba temple near our Hotel, had a la carte dinner at Chinese restaurant and called it a day.

31st Jan – Woke up around 7am, had the complimentary breakfast offered at hotel and reached Sri Venkateswara temple at 9:15 am.  It was a serene place and Perumal was happily residing at top of a mountain. Did I mention we have crossed 4 different tunnels on the way to cross 4 mountains. This is the first time I am travelling through a tunnel to cross a mountain like as if you penetrate through the mountain.  Can a mountain’s base be this long? I mean we were driving through each tunnel for at least 4 or 5 minutes.  Attended Satyanarayana pooja at the temple, packed the prasadams and left the premises around 11:30 am.  Next, we went to Pittsburgh zoo and aquarium.  We witnessed lion, lioness, tigers, giraffe, African elephant, polar bear and all those usual zoo creatures.  Adi had a whale of time running around and not budging to pose for the pictures.  Then, we had lunch and headed towards Carnegie science center but they were closing early on that day so skipped it for the day and drove to the next local attraction Duquesne Incline. This attraction featured an inclined cable car round trip to a mountain top.  It was nice to see the aerial view of the town from mountain top. Then, we relaxed at hotel room for a while and went to Shirdi Sai baba temple around 8pm to attend new year eve bhajan. This was not a planned one.  The bhajan went on till 12am. Then, then distributed sweets, cut cakes and bursted crackers. The first time in my life I am celebrating New year outside home.  It was a great was the least to say. Adi loved bursting crackers They made arrangements for kids to watch Home Alone when parents attended the bhajan’s in peace. So thoughtful of them. Then, we reached the hotel around 1:30am and hit the sack.

1st Jan – Woke up around 7am. Had breakfast at hotel and visited Sri Venkateswara temple again to attend Ganesha abhishekam followed by Swarna pushpa archana. Then, drove to Carnegie science center, spent around 3 to 4 hours there experimenting with Science and also explored the interiors of a Submarine.  Adi had loads of questions as always as how this works and how that works.. Wrapped up around 5pm and headed back towards home. I drove on the way back to give a break to M.  Since I am an occasional driver at US of A,  M was sitting next and correcting me every other minute to stick to the lane , leave enough space between cars, apply brakes while turning et all.. He didn’t even let me switch on the audio player  I had no choice but to listen to him gritting my teeth all the way We just took one fuel break in between and reached home around 11pm.  Thankfully there was not much traffic on the road and Adi spent most of the return travel in Snoozeland (RM – this is the word I often read in your weekend posts )

Leaving you all with some pictures

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Pittsburg puraanam* – Part 1

This trip takes the credit of  most unplanned trip we have done so far. We belong to the class who usually book their tickets and plan the hourly daily schedule of the trip at least a month ahead. But this trip was planned just two days before we left.  For the Friday morning travel we prepared a cheat sheet of attractions on Wednesday, booked hotel on Thursday and packed bags on Friday morning. Can you beat that?

Our plan was to leave home at 9am so we can reach the destination before dusk but we being the punctual family started our sojourn to Pitts around 11am Our first halt was at Pennsylvania welcome center where I gathered few brochure’s of interesting places that led to the horrible experience of the trip .. Next halt was at a Service area mall where we gobbled up home packed food and strolled around the mall for a while (stretching and all that after long drive..).  After few more hours of drive I noticed through the brochure’s that there is a Gravity Hill (GH) on our way and M suggested that we visit that place as the day was still bright and we didn’t have any plans after reaching Pitts. We also thought this would be the best way to show Adi about how gravity works.

The exit was taken to go to GH and only after driving around 20 miles and couple of calls to visitor center we realized that we were driving in opposite direction Took a U-turn and reached GH after half-hour drive. By this time it was dark blame it on the winter season as the darkness spreads around even before 5pm.  It was pitch dark and no car/people in the vicinity. After all this what did we witness at GH? N.O.T.H.I.N.G. We tried placing car in neutral, pouring out some water but nothing happened With much disappointment we left the place  quicker just to find that we were running out of gas.  It was dropping down so quick may be because of all the uphill drive.. M soon declared that car will not move an inch beyond 4 or 5 miles.. All at a place where there is hardly a house for every 2 miles and that too didn’t have signs of people inside.

We were paranoid is the least to say. We continued to drive few miles and noticed 2 to 3 houses at a place with beautiful Christmas lighting decorations. We decided to stop and M knocked on two of the houses but there was no response. Then, we heard dog barking in next house and saw a man approaching us  Or should I say God approaching us.  He said “Oh man you guys ran out of gas at a wrong place. There is no gas station for next 20 miles and I don’t have any fuel to spare either” As M was talking to him another man returned to his nearby home and he also said the same.  As they were talking more and discussing about the options the man who spoke to us first said he has an old truck and will check if that has any fuel in the tank. He said “Its just your luck guys. If I have fuel in that old unused truck I can probably help you”.. Luckily he had and helped us to transfer the fuel to our car.  And he said this fuel should be good enough to reach the next fuel station.. We thanked him enough and when M took out his purse to pay for the fuel all the man God said was “Help someone else.. Merry Christmas and a happy new year”.  My eyes were welled up with his kindness. I couldn’t thank him enough.. Its only because of people like him the world is still surviving. I wish I can invite him to my home for a meal. I wish I can gift him with the precious thing in this world. I wish I can be friends with him and his family forever and ever. I wish I wish I wish… But all he asked me to do is “help the needy”.. I will definitely do it sooner or later.

This incident reminded me of this video doing its rounds in FB recently.. Soul touching isn’t it? How nice will it be if the world operates this way.. Now its my turn to pass on the helping hand…

 

 

The adventure didn’t end yet… To be continued…

* – puraanam refers to tale or story. Thanks to SnS as she quoted this word in last post’s comment.

Winter show and treat

I know I am late but need to record this in this space as a tradition.

2009 & before 

2010

Adi’s Winter recital happened on Dec 6th and the girl was rocking on the stage as usual. She was part of two performances and at the end her classmate’s dad came to us and said “you guys have a dancer in your family” Well I wanted to shout as my gene, my gene.. For those who are not aware I have learned Bharathanatyam for few years, did my Salangai poojai at Music academy, Mylapore when I was at my first job with few more kids (yes that’s the crazy part of me.. Imagine a working girl dancing with fellow 2nd,3rd,4th grader on stage).  Given a chance I will go back to my dance lessons anytime.. I lovvvee them.. So do you agree its my gene?

Dance class performance

First grade class performance

For the records Adi still believes Santa. We convinced her that Santa used the same gift wrapper as we have at home just to confuse her. She was convinced more by the note left by Santa. He wrote that all in cursive and she strongly believes that we both don’t know to write in cursive. Reading the note she said “Now I know that its really Santa who gave these gifts because you guys cannot write like this”.. Whatever my trick worked .. Couple of times I told her “You see that’s why I bought you this gift and when I bit my tongue for saying it loud she innocently corrected me saying amma its not you its Santa who gave me the gifts” and I hurriedly replied with a big “yes, yes” nod. I must confess that I have a bigmouth.

She also asked Amma why didn’t you get any gift from Santa? Are you on his naughty list? What to say

We visited Pittsburgh perumal temple during the long New Year weekend.  It was 7 hours drive from home and we stayed at Pittsburgh for 2 days and did local sight seeing. The trip was great and adventurous with some unexpected pleasant and unpleasant twists and turns. Details coming up in next post..

And for the virtual treat here is a double layered strawberry flavored cake which I baked for Christmas.. Please to enjoy this until we meet in person for the bigger treat.

I assume this was the bite taken by you all

Special Sunday

That was yesterday. I didn’t want to miss recording this in this space.  M was out all day (he left before we woke up and came back when it is time to sleep) so it was just the day with two of us (who else I and Adi). We spent the day in a special way. Not that M was a trouble while at home but I planned to keep Sunday as a special day for Adi to cheer up the girl and finished most of my weekend chores on Saturday itself.. We don’t have a choice to skip the chores do we?

On Sunday she woke up around 8 am and after finishing the morning duties she had pancake for breakfast. I had dosa with leftover chutney. I massaged her hair with oil as she was gobbling up (taking in the tiniest bit possible at a time) the pan cake.  Then, we spent the time at living room making castle with blocks and chit chatting until it was noon. I was pulling her legs now and then..

Details: Its all her ideas. She was Miss.Daisy and I was her assistant Jennifer. My job was to get her the blocks she needed.

In front view the yellow and green blocks on right side represent a flag in front of castle. The purple blocks are the steps to a chair.
On the side view the gap between the blue blocks is for the window. Oh there is a backyard too but I missed to click the back view.

She also played with her alphabet blocks for a while.

Then, I bathed her, prepared her favorite lunch grated carrot rice and potato fry and let her watch TV while eating lunch. Bliss she said..  We had a break post lunch till 4pm minding our own businesses.  Then, I asked her to come up with a plan for rest of the day. She wanted to bake cakes and cupcakes, watch a movie, eat dinner, read a book and go to bed. Perfect isn’t it? We did all that

Baked cake and cupcakes

Strawberry cake with vanilla frosting and sprinkles topping.

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Then she we watched the barbie movie Barbie Mariposa (I liked it and we have planned to watch Fairytopia series),  ate her favorite dinner chapathi with brown beans (rajma),  read the last part of God book “How Parvati won the heart of Shiva” and went to bed

Call it a perfect day except for the medicines to intake and the lotion to apply twice a day. We went to the doctor on Saturday and he prescribed to apply Calamine lotion to reduce the itchiness. This lotion forms a white mask over the skin and she had to stay like that all day

She is feeling a lot better now. Thanks for all your wishes..

On a side note those Savings box she made them from a ready-to-make craft supplies on Saturday.. I must say she is getting obsessed with crafts.. How does she know this is first week of the month? She has been asking for past two days as “Mommy did the craft Shruti aunty say the theme for this month?”… Shruti are you listening? there’s a big fan for you here…

 

Sumptuous Sunday

Sweet pongal
Lemon rice
Tamarind rice
Curd rice
Vazhakkai varuval (raw banana fry)

For people who know me well I prepared all this. Did you hear that?

Gingerbread House

Our last entry for Shruti’s this month artsy craftsy challenge

Gingerbread House – Made with the kit shown on left top of the collage. The kit had

1. Crackers in different shapes to make the house and Christmas tree
2. Icings in different colors (white was mostly used to stick the crackers)
3. Candies (to decorate)
4.  Snowman and Santa Claus shaped candies

We also used mini M&M’s for decoration.

It is heavily snowing here since morning.  This is the first heavy snow this year. Dunno what’z in store for the next three months Guess both of us would work from home tomorrow. Anyways the plan for next week is to alternately work from home as Adi’s school is closed.

Happy holidays friends…