A picture post

Sep 8: Bhaiyyu saath masti

Sep 8: "Mujhse panga mat lena!"

 

Sep 8: Bhaiyyu saath piggy back ride

Sep 9: Counting fingers

Sep 9: "Aise count karte hain!" 

 

Sep 9: Wrestling in progress

She has to have whatever you are drinking/eating.

Sep 16: "My happy babies!"

Sep 23: Pouting and crying because Bhaiyyu scolded her.

Sep 24: Sweetie pie

Sep 29: Enjoying sitting on the terrace at 6 AM.

Sep 30: Birthday girl

Sep 30: Nishku-Nanu

A picture post

This is how I make Bhaiyyu mad! Whenever he sits down to study, I HAVE to sit on his study table :)

Nishka kitnee badi? - Itnee badi!

Sleeping with a pout..cutie pie!

Peek-A-Boo!

All dressed to go for an outing.

I love my Peek-A-Boo Book!

I love watching Dadu play Freecell.

Hamari Chhammak Challo!

Story telling

Anirudh participated in story telling competition in his school and came back super happy after coming in the 2nd position.

He had told me a week before about the competition and the story he plans to narrate. He then asked me to help him out in making the props of the characters in the story. After deciding that we shall get to it sometime later in the day, we both totally forgot about it until the evening before the competition.

So after finishing the dinner and putting Nishka to bed we got down to it. Thankfully Nishka was so co-operative that she went to sleep without a fuss that day.

So out came the white sheets, after some searching though. Out came the crayons, the pencil, the scissors. I drew out the outlines of the chracaters using pencil - A king and his three princes.

I then emphasized the outlines using a black sketch pen. As I kept completing one character I would pass it on to Anirudh for coloring them up.

We also needed to draw a dragon but I wasn't confident to draw it freehand. So I asked hubby to trace it on an A4 sheet using his laptop which we then pasted on the thicker sheet and then carried on to repeat the steps of outlining and coloring.

After all the coloring was done, we got down to cutting them to their shapes and then pasted ice cream sticks for holding the props during the story narration. I was surprised that we finished the whole of the activities in just about 40-45 minutes. That's a feat in itself!

I forgot to take pictures after we had done making the props and when Betu returned he had lost the props for one prince and the dragon. So here is the pic of what he brought back -

Since these were all drawn freehand, the shapes of face/eyes etc. may please be ignored.
I also want to capture here the story which he narrated  -

एक राजा था| उसके तीन बेटे थे - तरुण, वरुण और अरुण | तीनो बेटे बहुत आलसी थे| वो कुछ काम नही करते थे| सारा दिन बस सोते रहते थे| राजा ने एक दिन तीनो बेटो को बुलाया और कहा "कल मेरा ज्न्म दिन है| मैं तुम तीनो को रू100 देता हूँ और तुम लोग जाकर मेरे लिए एक तोहफ़ा लायो| तुम्हारे पास 1 दिन का समय हॅ|

तीनो बेटे चल दिए राजा के लिए तोहफ़ा लाने | तरुण जगह जगह घूमा. यहाँ गया. वहाँ गया | बहुत घूमने के बाद उसको एक कलाकार मिला | उसने बहुत सुंदर चित्र बनाए हुए थे | तरुण ने सोचा की राजा को यह खूबसूरत चित्र बहुत पसंद आएँगे | उसने सारे चित्र खरीद लिए और वापस महल की ओर चल दिया |

वरुण भी खूब इधर उधर घूमा पर उसको कुच्छ समझ नही आया. घूमते घूमते वो जंगल पहुँच गया. उसने वहाँ एक गुफा देखी. उसने देखा गुफा में कुछ चमक रहा है. वो गुफा के अंदर गया तो उसने देखा एक बहुत बड़ा ड्रॅगन बैठा है जिसके सिर पर एक बहुत बड़ा चमकदार मोती है. वरुण ने ड्रॅगन से पूछा "क्या तुम मुझे अपना यह मोती दोगे? मैं यह अपने पापा तो तोहफ़े में देना चाहता हूँ." तो ड्रॅगन बोला "अगर तुम यह वादा करो की तुम मुझे रोज़ मछली ला कर दोगे तो मैं यह मोती तुम्हे दे दूँगा." वरुण ने वादा करा और उसे मछली ला कर दे दी और ड्रॅगन ने अपना मोती उसको दे दिया. वरुण खुशी खुशी महल की ओर चल दिया.

अरुण भी अपने भाईयों की तरह इधर उधर खूब भटका पर उसे कुछ भी पसंद नही आया जिसे वो अपने पापा को जन्मदिन पर दे सके. घूमते घूमते वो इतना थाक गया की एक पेड़ के नीचे जा कर सो गया. जब वो सो कर उठा तो उसने देखा पास में कुच्छ ग़रीब बच्चे बैठे थे. वोह बहुत भूखे थे. अरुण ने अपने पैसो से उनके लिए खाना और कपड़े खरीद दिए. बच्चे बहुत खुश हुए. और अरुण वापस महल की ओर जाने लगा.

यह सब राजा के सिपाहियों ने देखा लिया और महल पहुँच कर राजा को सब बता दिया |

अगले दिन जब तीनो बेटे राजा के सामने आए | तरुण ने अपने खरीदे हुए चित्र राजा को दिए और राजा ने बहुत खुश हो कर वोह महल में लगवा दिए | वरुण ने अपना बड़ा चमकदार मोती राजा को दिया और बताया की वो कैसे उसने एक बड़े ड्रॅगन से लिया है | राजा बोला की वो उस मोटी को अपने मुकुट में लगवाएगा | जब अरुण की बारी आई तो उसने उदास हो कर बोला की मैं आपके लिए कोई तोहफा नही ला सका | तो राजा ने उससे पूछा की उसने दिए हुए पैसों का क्या करा तो उसने बताया की उसने गारीडब बच्चों के लिए खाना और कपड़े खरीदने में वो पैसे खर्च कर दिए | राजा यह सुन कर बहुत खुश हुया और बोला "यह मेरे लिए सबसे अच्छा तोहफा है" और फिर राजन ने अरुण को इनाम दिया |"

ह्में इस कहानी से यह शिक्षा मिलती है की तोहफा हमेशा पैसों से नही खरीदा जाता. और हम किसी के लिए अच्छा करते हैं तो उसमे हमारा भी अच्छा होता है |

I've no idea if he had read this story somewhere or was it a mix of his imagination and a previously read story. But I really liked the way he showed enthusiasm and participated.

P.S. Don't know why but hindi text is not legible in Chrome but appears fine in IE.

Mundan

We got Nishka's mundan done on July 14, 2012 at Sheetla Mata Mandir, Gurgaon. This is the same place where we had gotten Anirudh's done as well.

Luckily there was no one but us when we reached. So we managed to get it done peacefully.

Nishka took it really well initially and played with her toys. She did cry in between but would get distracted with the toys and her favourite games on my phone. She would also calm down whenever I would sing her favourite songs or rhymes such as Lakdi ki kathi, Ichak dana bichak dana, Wheels on the bus, Chhun chhun karti aayee chidiya etc. But in the end she was least interested in the songs or the toys. So the last 5 min were a bit tough emotionally.

She would also stop crying when Anirudh would start talking to her. But Anirudh himself was getting uneasy and upset seeing her head being shaved and he also couldn't stand her crying. So when I called out to him towards the end to talk to Nishka to distract her, he did come but covered his eyes with his hands saying he cant see it. I could see he was trying to stop his tears as his voice was breaking when he was talking to her. But thankfully all was over quickly and we didn't get a single cut or abrasion.

She clung to me tightly for few seconds post the mundan but was calm and back to her playful self within a minute.

I hugged Anirudh also later and told him that you are the sweetest and the best brother Nishka could have ever asked for.

Here is a before and after pic of her:

You are one brave girl Nishka. Be like that...always!

Best place to play is...

...under the bed

I love basketball

We have a basketball basket on our terrace which we got affixed when Anirudh started playing it last year and really started to enjoy it. And when he plays regularly it shows in his game.

I usually sit with Nishka on the terrace when he is playing and she loves to see Anirudh dribble the ball and also when he throws it in the basket. She squeals with delight. So once Anirudh is done playing he will sit with Nishka and play "roll the ball" with her.

Here are a few pics of her playing with a ball of her size :)



Trying to roll the ball towards Anirudh

And yay! We succeed!

Ponytail on the head :-)

Craft activities

Till date whenever Anirudh goes to any birthday party, when the khoi bag is broken, he would still collect more of the confetti than the goodies. And so it happened too when we went for a birthday party this Sunday. He had collected plenty of colored thermocol balls this time and was asking me to do some craft with them. When I asked him for examples, he told me lets make a tree. But then we didn't have many green colored ones so then he suggested to make some flowers. And this is what we made using those thermocol balls and some paper cut-outs.

Betu and me both liked the output from this craft activity and now we are planning to buy a packet of these balls and made more things. Betu wants to make a rainbow, a butterfly, a house and so many more things using these thermocol balls.

My skating star

Its been about a year since Anirudh has been learning skating thrice a week at his daycare. And now I can see the confidence in him and the also the ease with which he does whatever he knows so far. Since the timings are from 4-5PM, I had been unable to see him skate until few days ago. It really felt so good to see him skate so smoothly. I took some pictures of him recently which I will share with you. Although I had shot one video also, but its a little heavy to upload here.

 

My skating star

 

What a smooth sailing...err rolling!

  

Thoda style to banta hai!

Well done my boy! You are just so awesome!

Braveheart - thats my little boy!

Yes..that's what I called him when I saw him being so brave after he got hurt on the forehead which required suturing up. This happened on Mar 23 late afternoon around 3:30 PM. He was playing with another boy who was pulling his t-shirt from behind while Anirudh was trying to run forward. Suddenly the boy let Anirudh's t-shirt go from his grip and Betu lurched forward with the impact of sudden release and bumped his forehead on the wooden chair close by.

I reached his daycare by 4:00 PM and by that time he had been bandaged up by the supervisors there. They told me how brave and strong he has been throughout and how he didn't cry at all minus the initial tears at the time he got hurt. And that was not all.When I took him to the nursing home nearby, even at the time of stitching and cleaning up of the wound he did not shed a single tear. That is why I called him a brave heart while I was going weak in the knees, heart, hands, head...weak in every single part of my body.

While I was still shaken up throughout the rest of the day, he was up and about like any other day playing and talking and laughing. I was also trying to smile and laugh and be normal but I knew it wasn't coming naturally to me. Every time I would look at the potato sized bump on his forehead I would get so uneasy.

After we came back home me and him played with his newly bought wooden building blocks, our gift for his 5th birthday a week in advance of his birthday. The mother of the boy who he was playing with at the time of injury and the little boy dropped by our house as she was feeling a bit apologetic. Somehow I never even developed any ill-feelings towards them as it was a just-by-chance accident. They are kids and they will play. Sometimes wild and sometimes not. However I did pull up the daycare people to be careful so that the wild play doesn't go out of hand to this extent again. They were feeling quite sorry too and I knew I didn't need to drive it in their head any further.

Mar 23: Few hours after the injury. Notice the bump on his forehead just above the right eye?

Mar 23: Playing with the wooden blocks.

Mar 26: The stitches (in blue colored thread) all dried up.

Today on the 3rd day post the injury we went for a checkup and his pediatrician said its healing up well. He removed the bandage and asked us to leave it open. When I showed this pic to Betu he was actually excited to see that the stitches have been done in blue color :D

These kids I tell you...

"Disney Cars" pasta

Thanks to Ruchi Mausi, Betu got a box of car shaped pasta few days ago. It was only today that I finally was able to cook it for him and but obviously he was ecstatic.

But after 10 min I was ready to tear my hair out because he would look at each piece for 2 minutes by turning it left and right and only when the full inspection was done that he would eat it. He did this for the first 10 minutes and then I asked him to finish eating it or I shall take it away. Call me a meanie mommy or whatever..I don't care! :D

Our contribution to recycling

Betu and me are helping towards the cause of Global Warming by doing our bits in recycling/reusing stuff. This is one example of it -
Using Surf Excel Matic boxes in which we get the washing machine powder as toy storage boxes. I had thought of covering them up with some paints etc but now I'm just leaving them like this.
What says you guys about this?

Annual Day at Betu's School

Anirudh's school holds a separate Annual Day for Nursery and KG kids. I really liked the idea of a separate one for such small children.

He was part of a play where he was supposed to play the role of a granpa. He told me about this play about 15 days ago and said "Pata hai. Main dadu hoon!". I looked at him a bit bewildered wondering what he meant. Later he explained me that he is in a play where there is a boy Ken who doesn't take care of his toys and his dadu helps him fix his toys. He then proudly told me that he is playing the role of Dadu.

As per Swati, he was just perfect for the role looking at his bossy nature. She has also written in detail about his cute bossy nature in a guest post on this blog :D

Coming back to his performance, after the experience from the open day and also from one of the rehearsal sessions I attended, I was not sure he would say his lines. But the moment he entered the stage, it didn't matter to me if he would say it well or not. Just seeing him on stage made me feel so very proud of my lil guy. But then today he said them just perfectly making me even more proud. Its another story that after saying his lines, he was standing with his back towards the audience (as you can see in one of the pictures below) and playing with the other kids on the stage.

Now I leave you with some pics from his Annual Day -

The cutest panditji ever

Ain't I right? :D

His summary of the Manali Trip

On the train from Chandigarh to Delhi (Shatabdi Express), our seats were right in the center where we get a table. So the crayons and paper that I had carried came to the rescue and I managed to keep the kids busy for good 1 hour.

There was another kid besides Anirudh and Prithvi and I'm sure his parents must be thanking me in their hearts too :D

The first thing Anirudh asked me when get got paper and crayons was "Main kya banayoon?" I told him if he wants he can draw whatever he saw in Manali. The idea really appealed to him and he got down to it. And this is what he made -

There is the sun, the clouds, the mountains covered with snow(blue bit on top of mountains) and with fir trees growing on them.

He drew a horse (pink one) and a monkey (blue one). he also drew the big boulders he saw near the mountains and in the river Beas (black and brown ones).

I think he did a splendid job of drawing a summary of his Manali trip. What says you all?

Reading sentences

Now that Anirudh's school is coming to the end of the nursery session and he knows the phonetics pretty well, he is able to read some basic words that they have been taught. The school calls it "sight" words. And now he can read sentences using these sight words. I didn't know this till I got this sheet to practice with him on a long weekend and he read them all correctly minus a few mix-ups. I was feeling so proud of him and rewarded him with a KitKat chocolate for reading so well.

Here is the picture displaying some of the sentences that he got as holiday homework. There were 20 sentences like these that he was to practice reading.


I can't describe how elated I was thinking "My son can read!!" :D

Amused

While driving on the way back to Delhi from Jaipur on Jan 19, Betu saw these buffaloes being transported in a truck. Our conversation:

Betu: "Yeh buffaloes truck mein kyun ja rahi hain?"
Me: "Kyunki jiski buffaloes hain, woh unhe kahin le ja raha hoga."

Betu: "Par truck mein to samaan le jaate hain. Inko kyun le ja raha hai?"
Me: "Truck mein saman ke alawa bhi le ja sakte hain."

Betu: "Hum logon ko bhi?"
Me: "Haan bilkul. Log bhi ja sakte hain"

Betu: "Par woh truck mein kyun ja rahi hain? Chal kar kyun nahi ja rahi?"
Me: "Unko door jana hoga isliye."

Betu: *no response and with the same amused expression on his face looking at the truck*

Making Pop-out cards

Me and Betu made these pop-out cards recently using rough paper. Betu was mighty thrilled while making these and even more thrilled to see how they finally turned out.

I would draw the outlines and he would color them up. And then it was my job to cut at the right places. I did get a good scolding when I didn't cut the aeroplane properly and actually snipped the plane.

We first made the Christmas tree and then all sorts of ideas kept popping in his head which I was totally incapable of making. His ideas included a frog, a a crocodile, a ship and this aeroplane also. ALthough I was not sure if I could make an aeroplane one but still tried. Although it didn't work out as expected but it was good enough to make him happy. Here is the pic of the ones that we made -

Next in our to-do list is to make a rocket and a dolphin. I will have to wrack this rusty brain of mine to figure out how to make these.

Shaitani dimmag!

Yesterday morning I went for my bath after Hubby had given Betu his bath.

The moment I reached the bath mugs I let out a big gasp. WHy? Because this is what the sight was...
Can you guess what it is in the those bath mugs? No? Look closely and see whats similar in both the things. Yeah..may be you are getting an idea now :)

Those are his pair of socks. The ones that he was wearing when he went for his bath. Both socks have been duly thrown into each mug.

Sigh...main kya karoon is ladke ka??

Capturing Mumma-Papa's room

He captured our room by putting his toon stickers on the bedroom door. So now he says, its his room now and he is being nice to us by 'sharing' the room with us.

What can we say about losing the battle when we were not even given a chance to fight the battle. *sigh*