06 | January | 2018 | Between my littles and me

Empathy is the word of the day. I am reading “Hit refresh” by Satya Nadella and in the first few pages he talks about how this word had an impact on him when their first child was born. Food for thought. It made me think how beautiful this world would be if people have empathy. A simple act of kindness can speak volume! One can always wish!

Not in the greatest mood today. What do I do when I feel down? A recent trick I follow is to keep me engaged with physical work so much that I can’t even breathe, forget about space for thinking. That is what I did today. Kept myself engaged with back to back work from 7:30am to 5pm.

Morning dropped/picked up Adi from an exam we have been looking forward to but don’t have high hopes on. Though seats are very limited, it was an assuring moment in the cold morning to see so many parents having faith in their child.

A mom straightening her son’s hat while he was shying away, a dad giving good luck hug to his daughter before entering the exam hall, another mom reminding her son to rub his hands once they get in to feel warmer, another dad asking her daughter to call him once exam is over, another dad signing to his son from distance to pull up his hoodie. All those pair of eyes had some story to tell, the story of their child’s future. Parenting is truly magical. At the risk of sounding silly, I felt so proud driving my little girl to that exam. We braved the biting cold together and had our own silly talks during the drive. She said “Good job Amma” as we reached the venue ahead of time.

And one more thing made my day, Adi coming upstairs to see if I am doing okay once she returned from her weekly club meet. She said it is not normal for me to stay upstairs while they are down and that means something is not right with me. So, we watched a food video together and felt better 🙂 🙂 I am heading downstairs to be around them in few minutes 🙂

This little magical space I share with Adi and LHB is worth anything in this world and the very thought of their well being and the word empathy made me feel better today.

Maya always tells me “All is well sollunga” when I am down. I obey and say “All is well”

P.S: Please head back to my previous post to look at our pencil act (I uploaded a pic). LHB can now write tamil letter “Aa”, “Aaaa” and “Eeee”. “Ee” is work in progress!! Proud momma moment!

I am glad LHB now understands that he can’t skip “studying” at home as part of his evening routine. It is now up to me to follow this routine on weekdays so when he starts to get formal homework from school its easier for me to follow the routine.

Mind you, our current definition of “studying” is sitting on the ninja turtle chair/table along with Amma and having some quiet time with no TV. What we study doesn’t count but the concept of having that one on one time with Amma is all we call as studying.

During this time, we try many acts like

balancing the pencil in one finger
placing the pencil behind ears
dropping the pencil like one million times and trying to take it with two toes
checking if Akka is doing fine in the other room
asking for fresh water
initiate conversation about school with Amma even if she doesn’t show interest
show a sorry puppy pouting face when Amma pretends to get upset
write just one letter one time and then pretend to look sleepy (yawn/rub eyes etc..) making Amma feel so evil to torture the poor little boy
go hunt for cars and trucks that are totally forgotten at other times
get into Amma’s nerves by keeping the tip of pencil on the paper and then get distracted when you are just 0.1 seconds away from start with writing. (Only Amma knows the effort it takes to make you bring the pencil in contact with paper again)
ask Amma why she is short? whether you can call her grandma **rolls eyes**
look for the TV remote and keep it right next to you so you can switch it on the second Amma sets you free