We survived

without M for the past few weeks.  He had to travel to India on a sudden official trip.  Good for him as he got to visit Chennai for a weekend.  He returned back on Monday, a day after his daughter’s birthday but made up for that with loads and loads and loads of goodies.  Amma had sent a dozen set of dresses for Adi, skirts/kurtas for yours truly, rava laddu, om podi, murukku, sambar podi, vadam (rice fryums), tamarind pulp and much more 😀 😀 😀

The girl was missing her Appa big time. It all started right from waking her up to dropping at school. For the first two days she kept saying “This is not the way Appa does it. If you don’t know how to do then better ask me Amma”.   She was irritated and vented it out.  I was irritated and had to gulp it down :(.  I mean who would take the chance of rubbing with a six err sever year old when you have to live alone with her for the next two weeks? ***sob sob sob***

Looks like her Appa will handle the wake up part like this

Appa @7:10 : Baby, do you want to sleep for  5 more minutes?
Adi: Nodding her head heavily in up/down fashion with eyes closed.
Appa: Cuddles the little girl and both goes back to sleep.

After 5 10 minutes
Appa @7:20 : Baby, do you want to sleep for  5 more minutes?
Adi: Nodding her head heavily in up/down fashion with eyes closed.
Appa: Cuddles the little girl and both goes back to sleep.

After 5 10 minutes
Appa @7:30 : Baby, do you want to getup now?
Adi: Nodding her head heavily in left/right fashion with eyes closed.
Appa: Hmm okay we will just sleep for 2 more minutes okay?
Adi: Nodding her head heavily in up/down fashion with eyes closed.
Appa: Cuddles the little girl and both goes back to sleep.

After 2 4 minutes

@7:34 : Appa cuddles the little girl again,  pleads her to get up for next 5 minutes then carries her to the bathroom to make her sit in the potty. The carrying also happens in a particular style so she can cling to him like a monkey and sleep for that extra time of walking form bedroom to bathroom.

A spoiled girl I say. You might wonder how is Amma blindfolded from all this drama?  She is slogging in the isolated kitchen to pack all the dabbas.

And now you all know why the little girl is late to school everyday. I digress.

So, the first day I got up 30 minutes earlier, took bath, packed dabbas and went to wake her up at 7:15am. With the good intention I placed her recent favorite doll next to her, tucked her inside the blanket and closed the bedroom door before I was getting out of the bed to let the little girl continue with her peaceful sleep. I didn’t bother her till it was the minute to wake up.

@7:15am – I opened the bedroom door, switched on the light and begged her for next 5 minutes to get up. No response. Then, I was forced to raise my voice to make her walk to the bathroom as every minute was ticking away. You know the significance of one minute in the morning rush hour don’t you? She was grumpy but we got ready on time and left home at the targeted 8:00am. I dropped her at school at 8:10am and reached my work at 8:30am.  Luckily I found a parking area near my work when I parked the car for daily rate. Evenings, I left at usual time, drove to her school, picked her up and reached home at the usual hour. The same routine was followed for the next two weeks except for few changes in the morning.

The first evening, she told me in a politer manner to change the way I wake her up and that’s when she narrated the whole waking up story described above.  So, from next day I followed the way she suggested. That is, in between packing dabbas I made a visit to the bedroom @7:05, check with her if she wants to sleep for 5 more minutes, return to kitchen to continue my chores, visit bedroom again @ 7:10, check and return to kitchen, visit bedroom again @7:15, beg the girl to wake up and carry her on my back to the bathroom. Motherhood Phewww !!!!!

Otherwise, all was well.  We visited a farm with friend’s family on a Saturday, spent hours at library, attended a baby shower, played our own games, spent an evening at neighbor’s home chit chatting, cooked less, drove to craft shops and celebrated our special day (birthday and mother’s day) with baking a rainbow cake. I will do a separate post on the rainbow cake.

We also developed the habit of listening to radio and singing along in transit. We have got handful of favorite songs in hand now. I am going to miss driving along with her 😦 😦 😦

I asked her if I did a good job and her verdict was “Actuallyy you did a great job but not excellent Amma” after all that gulping down of my irritation at various points.  I know I know I should learn to keep my mouth shut…

Some pictures

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31 thoughts on “We survived

  1. LOL on the waking up routine…your M sure has a lot of patience….and honestly so do you…I just would whack R on the bum and ask her to get up 🙂

    Great you got to spend such lovely time with her AND will miss your radio songs together..awwww!

    big hugs to the 7 year old

    PS – I said your 7th year letter WAS BETTER than the 6th year..which means the 6th year was good

    • no patience and all.. he is also lazy to getup in the morning so they both cuddle and sleep together.. its more an excuse for him than for her..

  2. Thanks for the insight – we are into day 3 of surviving without R. What is it with dad’s leaving the girls alone and heading to India? Sounds fun – I am dreadfully looking forward to the weekend of “mommy and me” time but being carless in Singapore is really not settling well.
    I have been wanting to ask you to post the recipe of the rainbow cake – you are super patient to do that. I am rarely patient to attempt anything that looks labor intensive.
    Love the wakeup routine 🙂 Btw if I were you I would forget the dhabas and spend time enjoying the cuddles – me and cuddles and the bed have a great relationship

  3. Ha ha ha! What a wake-up routine 🙂
    So many snacks back from here had my mouth watering! Glad u got to visit all those places and hv a gala time.

    I luvvv the butterfly card 🙂

    • romba romba paavam 😦 😦
      At farm we were making fun of Adi as she was getting too much excited for the goats, cows and chicken.. 🙂 had a good time with friend’s family..

  4. I can understand… My hubby travels a lot and during those days only I know how I manage work, home, Cheebu and most importantly remaining sane 🙂
    Lovely pics! loved that plat dough icecream 🙂
    Waiting to see the rainbow cake 🙂

  5. Wow adi is blessed with such a nice dad.she is lucky or no make it double lucky coz she also has a wonderful mother 🙂 drooling over the cake:-)

    • thanks for such nice words garima :).. just trying to be a sensible parent.. thats all.. why to make the kid whine while waking up if we can adjust a little 🙂

  6. Ha ha 🙂

    Lovely wakeup routine 🙂 You have loads of patience and your daughter is a lucky one!!

    I like the verdict at the end, “You did a great job but not excellent Amma” 🙂

    • you too brutus? you liked the verdict? aren’t you feeling sad for me ***insert a puppy face here***
      I basically didn’t want to test her patience at her dad’s absence so ended up this way 🙂

  7. Trust me, I don’t have even 5% of your patience, I am already shuddering at the thought of what will happen once my daughter begins school 😥 😥
    Loved the sweet way you managed everything while M was away and came up with so many interesting ideas to spend time 😀 😀
    Hugs to the little princess and I absolutely loved her shiny black hair 😀 😀

    • all you can see in the photo is her hair right :).. you will get the patience when you reach my stage ME.. we evolve as better parents as the kids grow.. 🙂 especially when we are vigilant about not setting bad examples to them with our behavior..
      Adi saw this in TV and keeps telling me often as “mommy remember you are recorded.. I am recording you”.. so true na.. once we have kids our actions are recorded all 24 hours..

      • Not really (about seeing only her hair in the pictures) I did see the adorable butterfly card and the cute cone too along with beautiful animals and flowers but her shiny, silky hair got my attention fixed 😀 😀
        You are right we are constantly being watched by our kids, so I better get ready to be recorded 😉 😀
        Hugs Ani

    • ggrrrrrrr talk about that special connection.. I hate it I say.. not really but at times when I feel possessive about the lil one 🙂 you understand right?
      I loved the card and cone too 🙂

      • oh I understand it completely…and I totally agree with you! for such stupid reasons I some times crave for a son 😉 lol who would come and join my team 😉

    • thanks ss.. As I mentioned in the earlier comments its not the patience I call it the laziness to sleep along with the kid for some more minutes.. 🙂

  8. Wow! For the card. And the story of waking up is kinda similar here – with me only talking and parallelly getting ready while the dad sleeps next to him and s.l.o.w.l.y wakes him up! Whew! I dont have so much time – like you said – rushing in the kitchen in the morning takes all that patience away!

  9. What a lovely wake up routine 🙂 I can see why Adi prefers that 🙂

    What a fun time, though the two of you had! I loved the pics! Her craft work is amazing! She is really good at this!
    I love the activities you take her to. We seem to have no time these days for things like this. Sigh!

  10. Hilarious! this is totally something my kids do, not like that, like this! Drive me crazy but insist that I do it with grace too, hmm!! And then the feedback too. I’ve bookmarked your blog for craft ideas. Will keep coming back.

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