Our entries for this month artsy craftsy chllenge. We have been doing them every weekend whenever we could get some quality time from the first week of March. I was saving them to make it as one post 🙂
Windmill , Chair, Penguin, Rose – made all by herself 🙂 and a 8-pointed star.
The star was the difficult one of all. It took us more than one hour to make this star .
Inspired from:
http://en.origami-club.com/
http://www.origami-instructions.com/origami-modular-8-pointed-star-p1.html
fell off yesterday while she was at school. This is the first time its happening at school. She visited nurse right after the incident, cleansed her mouth and saved the treasure in a tiny green-colored box.
As you would have guessed by this time yesterday evening she came home with a “I lost my tooth” sticker. Its very thoughtful of her school/class teacher to have a “Tooth chart”, mark it every time a kid looses a tooth, let the class know about it and give the kid a sticker. Initially I was worried about this whole business as how she would handle this. . Especially when we had to extract her tooth and the permanent one didn’t grow for a long long time. I thought she would not smile with teeth shown in public. I thought she might not appreciate the empty tiny holes temporarily replacing tooth here and there. But, thanks to her school as they handled it pretty well. They made this whole process so easy and fun. Now she is excited about losing tooth so is her classmates though they may not like it personally. Imagine the eating/biting stuff without front tooth. Every time it irks me when I see Adi biting the apple sideways. This is one big example of how to handle difficult situations with kids and put them at ease. I am impressed 🙂
I can’t believe that my “all-grown-up-or-at-least-pretending-to-be” girl still believes in tooth fairy. She said the fairy is spying her and slept tight with the precious treasure (read as a tiny tooth) under her pillow. She had many many questions in the evening as
How one fairy spies all the kids in the world? (I told her there are many fairies and each one has a county allocated to them :))
Will the fairy take her treasure box too?
If the doors are locked how does she enter the room?
How does she know that everyone slept at the house?
What will she do with all the teeth?
Won’t she come if we pull the tooth out before it falls off naturally?
If more than one tooth falls of at the same time then will she give more money like one money for every tooth?
From where does she come?
blah blah blah blah
Tooth fairy didn’t let her down (luckily I remembered at 1am ;)). She traded the tooth for $20. This is the costliest tooth so far 🙂
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..
The one that I wanted to do for a long long long time. One time they said the iron level was not up to the expected mark, another time my blood pressure was lower than expected, another time I was expecting, another time I was feeling low myself and so on the task was postponed all along just to do it on the right day yes on the International Woman’s day that is today 🙂 🙂
I saw the notice at office pantry few days back that there is a drive at my workplace on March 8th and made a mental note to self that I should give it a try this time. I had no reason to be rejected this time. I was well prepared. I informed M and asked him to keep his phone ON just in case if I pass out during/after the procedure or something. I shared the details with Adi and she was excited for me. I was physically and mentally fit at least according to my own standards. So, there with all preparations I stepped out of my desk at 12pm and took elevator to the floor where the drive was happening.
As I slowly approached the place a woman greeted me with a warm smile and directed me to a guy. He spoke to me for few minutes in general, he was thrilled to know that this is my first time and gave me a beeeg form to fill up. I filled all the columns carefully, read the consent form and signed it. After that I was directed to a nurse. For one question in the form I misunderstood rather I read it the way I expected it to be and ticked the wrong check box. The question was “Are you under 110 pounds?” and I marked “YES” 😀 😀 .. At least that statement was true in papers for few minutes until the nurse corrected it :(. Then, she checked my iron level, temperature, blood pressure and spoke to me in general. The iron level checking machine faulted the first time and she had to prick my finger one more time :(. I had band-aids on two fingers. I could have removed it after 10 minutes but I kept them on for the next three hours for a reason. Every time I saw those band-aids on my fingers while typing on the keyboard I got this proud feel that I did it that transported me to cloud nine :). While she was busy pricking my finger she also checked with me about how to make the Indian chicken curry the spicy one at that. By the way she is an non-Indian. I thought she was just redirecting my thoughts to avoid the pricking pain but she was serious about the recipe. I tried to explain about garam masala, coriander powder and then we decided its better to write it down. So, after all the checks and I was declared fit to proceed to next step she handed me a piece of paper and I wrote down the ingredients/procedure to make a yummy Indian chicken gravy. Who knows she might try the recipe tonight at home and her family might thank me enough 🙂 “Nenappu dhaan sila perukku pozhaipai kedukumaam” (Translation is very difficult guys. English master-i SnS – help please).
Alright, then I proceeded to the next table with my form. I was greeted by a mid-aged man. He had a look at the form, surprised to know this is my first time and inquired if I am feeling good. I nodded my head with a big yes though I was nervous inside. I was just acting brave outside. He made me sit on a bed and checked the veins on my right hand for few minutes. No luck. At every stage I had this fear that I might get disqualified. My heart was beating faster when he couldn’t find the vein and I thought he would reject my case. But, he asked me to sit on the other side of the bed and checked veins on my left hand. There I got it at the first try and then the routine procedure followed :). He tapped on the veins few times and injected a big needle into the vein. The next moment, I saw that, the one I was so desperate to donate flowing through the IV line. It has been collected in five tubes and then in a pint sized bag. It took around 15 to 20 minutes for the bag to be filled and then I was directed to a rest area. I ate a small pack of shortbread cookies, drank a bottle of cranberry juice and rested for a while. Then, I marched back to my desk with head high and two stickers on either side of my shirt. The stickers read “I have donated Blood” and “Be nice to me. It’s my First Blood Donation” :).
Yes people, I donated blood for the first ever time in my life today. I treated myself enough rest of the day. I had vada pav and donuts. 🙂 What I donated blood for the first time guys. There is no credit for counting how many times I wrote in this post as “I am donating for the first time”. Its just that excitement. 😀 😀 😀 I am glad I did it finally and wish to continue with this tradition whenever possible. It was not that painful at all. I called M and shared the brave news. I also told him that “They have advised that I can do anything at office but as soon as I enter home I should take complete bed rest for next two days and allowed (strictly) only to use laptop”. To keep my sanity I leave the reaction part open to your guesses 😀 😀 . I am so so so so so happy today as if I have done some great achievement. This is a big deal to me. One of my long pending wish 🙂
On a different note yesterday evening we walked back from school as the weather was pleasant. That gave us enough time (read as 25 minutes) to have a good chat. I told Adi about Woman’s day and blood donation. She was very adamant that she wanted to make something for me. She was asking what’s my favorite snack. We started with chocolate dipped strawberries, moved on to cup cakes, then to cashew biscuits and settled on a cup of milk. As I had to buy all the ingredients for her to fix the snack for me and I was in no mood to make a visit to the store, I said all I wanted is a cup of milk. A win-win situation to promote a glass of milk and not to take extra effort of visiting the store. She decided to enhance it to a cup of bournvita milk and her dad from whom she took help decided to enhance it further to a cup of bournvita-horlicks milk. Whatever, so for Woman’s day I got to drink a cup of hot flavored milk. It might sound cliche who cares about the flavor when the drink has been made especially for you with loads and loads of love 😉 Mind you people I prepared the dinner and did all my other regular household chores.
When Adi was asking me about my favorite I said “Why do you ask? Anyways you were never good to me. You always say either “Go away” or “I don’t like you” to me. Pat came the reply “That’s only for that minute amma. Only when you make me mad by saying something. Otherwise I love you sooooo much. You know you are the best mommy in this world”. You are like that “President of the world”. She added “Seriously I am not joking you are the BEST mommy in this world”. Now I doubt that ;). When I clarified there is noone called “President of the world” she said “I know , I know, but just imagine like that, like you are the best in this whole world”. And guess where was I? I was there in the floor all melted away. This girl has mastered the art of coaxing I say.
Edited to add below:
The daddy’s girl also questioned when is Man’s day? I said “I don’t know. May be there is but its not as popular as Woman’s day”.
She continued with a series of questions “Why is it not there? If its there why is it not so popular? why are woman so special? why is there no daddy’s day? why do men say ladies first? why should ladies be first everywhere?” why? why? why? I didn’t know really I didn’t know what to say.
I just replied “You will understand after you grow up” and my mind voice said “Even if you don’t understand at least you will not ask these questions aloud” !!!!!
Murphy’s law had decided to dance over my head today morning..
1. Woke up at 6:15am to do something useful. Brushed, refreshed and went to bed again to getup late than usual time.
2. Spent the usual one hour in kitchen but FORGOT to pack Adi’s lunch. Don’t ask me what I was doing in the kitchen all that time. I have NO CLUE. No need to mention I am filled with the mommy guilt now. It may not fade away any time soon as the girl will be kind enough to remind me every time she expects me to dance to her tunes. Thankfully M bought her some wrap from the nearby shop.
3. Forgot to lock the front door and for the worse I left the keys outside the door. We M realized this after driving away for 5 minutes and we took a U-turn almost near my office (thanks to all those no turns and one way signs), returned home to save the keys and lock the door.
4. Upon return to work I got hit on my forehead while trying to get into the car. The car door that has seen me getting on/off for the past two years choose today as that auspicious day to hit me bang.
5. Left the house keys at car before getting off that means I and Adi have to stand out in the evening in this cold weather until M returns from work to let us in with his keys. Thankfully again M reminded me and handed over the keys before I walked away from the car.
6. Misplaced the parking ticket slip that has to be paid by today. I got worried for few minutes and hesitantly called M to get all the blasting. Luckily, he found the ticket in car and gave me the details.
I went blank today morning totally. Why and what was running on my mind at that time is a million dollar question. I tried hard but couldn’t think of any unusual happening in the past few days that could have disturbed me. I mean there were up and down moments but not to the extent of affecting the work I have been doing as a well-oiled machine for past few years. This has never happened to me before and hope it never happens again. Its scary to think about it now. Hope these are not the signs of ageing. After all I have not even reached my mid-thirties yet. God bless the poor souls who have to deal with me at my older age if I survive till then 🙂
For all those lovely souls I am back to my usual self now (at least I hope so ;))
Have you been there anytime?
Between my littles and me 