Do Popsicles pop?  

Do we wash car in Washington?

Do we buy soda in Minnesota?

Do we get pencils in Pennsylvania?

Is there a cat in Connecticut? 

     You can roll your eyes too because we have a new PJ king in California. 

from Ojas@3 years

(Old half-baked post from my drafts..)

- Sight of a squirrel, napping peacefully on my backyard fence.

- Sound of a kiss from adjacent room, most likely by a dad on forehead on his beloved sleeping son. 

- Sight of his baby fingers lifting his pant little up and scratching the itch on the ankle all by themselves.

- Sound of a laughter.

  Sights and sounds, too mundane yet too precious.

Beautiful Palm Springs

Pics are up, text is following soon!

Day 1 ( Palm Springs zoo)

Day 2 ( Tramway)

Day 3 (Joshua National Park)

"What, the guy doesn't know his name?" My 7 years old was clearly worried. "He was calling himself Harris but his business card says, its Harish!". We laughed so hard and husband almost hit another car. 

   
In a coloring session with my 2 years old, he said, "Mama you colol da Aunty". When I couldn't find the said Aunty on our sheet, I asked him to show. "Oh, that is Sun beta..hahaha" and stopped promptly when he rolled his eyes and said something which was kiddie equivalent of "Woman, Sun doesn't have a face!"

      
 After weeks of hearing him sing this very annoying "What the fox says..ding..ding..ding" song,  I finally confronted him. When our 2nd grader looked startled, suddenly unsure of his gyan I proceeded with caution. "Err..beta.... I don't think this song means what you think it means.Fox sound like this inappropriate word..." Now clearly enjoying the conversation he laughed, " you think it is is FUCK. hahaha..No Ma, it really IS a kids song. Even A's teacher played it in their class once." Oh well, I surrender.

         

 He was looking intently at a cover page of his big brother's book. To make sure he is not frightened by it, I gently started the conversation, " You know, we all look like that from inside. Ojas is like that, dada is like that..." cutting-my-long-story-short, he looked at me and simply said, " It is Mamma!" . Well, What the fox says..

(while brooming home in the morning)

Ojas : Mama, are you jhadoo?

Me: No, I am not jhadoo.

Ojas: No.. You ARE jhadoo.

Me: arr..ok. I am jhadoo. Who are you?

Ojas: Dustpan!

Me: ???

-----

And another one from my 2 years old's "latest joke".

"Chair means YUCKY"...Hahahaha. Then after catching My eye, "No, chair means...means good job.ok?"  YeeHaHaHaHa!

-----

And as we are on lame jokes, here is one from my 7 years old:

Shreyas: Ma, Santa Claus must be marathi.

Me: why?

Shreyas: Because he says "Ho!Ho!Ho!"  HaHaHaHa

Me: ???

-----

And now I will let you go to recover from the damage I inflicted on your brain. Until next time,

Stay Sane!

D

"Sujalam sufalam malayaja sheetalam..." , his voice was coming from behind the closed toilet door. My eyes automatically scanned for other child. And there he was, banging pots and pans and singing "Bande vataram..."  at top of his voice. Looks like A.R Rehman has bewitched my babies to sing it ALL the time. "Vande Mataram and Jana gana Mana" Actually not just them, us too..I guess I never sang  our national song and national Anthem in all my life as much as I sang in last one month. But I also had never realized it before, how beautiful these two songs are!

     

       Shreyas's summer vacations are coming to an end, and kids had good fun. They went out of their way to make new friends, spent lots of time playing outdoors and when weather was too hot or no friends were around and they were tired of indoor games, kept each other (and their Mom) busy with, "Mama, Ojas is pinching", "Mama Shreyas hit me." And taking U-turn soon after and teaming against their mother. This is our second year of going T.V less and I think we can survive without it. Happily!

      

    My days are flying too...In reading (as if world will end if I keep my book down). Experimenting in kitchen and bullying the boys to gobble it down. Sitting with my eyes closed and pretend to meditate with husband. Answering 654567 "whys" and "Hows" of my 7 years old and convincing my 2 years old that it is NOT ok to sleep with keeping your finger in err..my nose! 

    And before I forget, here are some conversations happened in our household:

(After a regular sibling fight)

Shreyas *hotly*: Oju, you are a Cranky cat. Who are you?

Ojas *sheepishly*: Kaanky Kaat!

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   Few days ago, my atheist Husband was singing "Mangal Bhawan amangal haari...."  Out of blue And Shreyas asked about it. I casually mentioned, its a 'devotional' song without explaining further. After sometime, very hurt looking Shreyas asked his dad accusingly, "Baba, why were you singing divorce song?" 

    Don't worry kiddo, no divorce for your parents. But yeah, we are definitely going to tease you about the whole thing for quite some time!

---------

Ojas *pulling my arm to go downstairs in living room with him*: Mamma, Oju ganda kaam.

Me:  what ganda kaam, baby?

Downstairs, I saw, Shreyas's piggy bank open with pennies scattered everywhere. Oju took one penny, put it in heater, smiled and repeated.."ganda kaam"!

    Actions speak louder (and probably better)..?? Anyways, so this is our secret safe now. Living room heater!

---------

 Few days ago, I was driving with both the kids when (probably after reading some safe-driving board near construction site we passed by) Shreyas asked,  "Mama, what if a person suddenly dies while driving? What will kids in that car do?"..Before I came out of shock and answered, he continued "Oh I know, I can always take you phone out from your purse and call Baba." 

                      Ah good, my kids are getting independent!

And this is it for now. Until next time....

Stay fun!

D

Ojas turns 2!

Me (while showing pic of a white kitten): Oju, who is it?

Ojas: Happy!

Me (showing pic of a goat): achha, who is this one?

Ojas: Happppy! *confidently*

Me (showing pic of Happy) how about this?

Ojas: Kaat! (translation: cat)

Me: :o

If you are wondering, who is this "Happy" guy, Happy is my sister's dog, Ojas met 5 months back and still remembers fondly (or fearfully!) . 

Also sheep roars, cat barks, tiger meows and dog quacks in his kingdom. And we, we never correct him, its more fun this way. Every time I ask, "Oju sheep kashi karte?" I wonder, if sheep is going to bark today or roar! Not just our entertainment channel, he is our source of information as well. For a good part of the day, he can be found near window and giving running commentary.  "Mama, Aunty gaya", "Mama, Champa (Samyak) aa gaya." , "Mama, Aadi bah pay (playing outside)". So now thanks to my little guy, I am always up-to-date (rather up-to-minute)  regarding what our neighbours are up to. 

        

        He pretty much taught himself colors. Few months back, he came to me with a blue block babbling something which sounded like red. I corrected him that it's blue. And showed more blue things. For next few days, he came to me with various objects and demanded to know the colors. And now with him we also see and call things as lallow(yellow), back(black), baun(brown), geen(green), aujon(orange), lel(red) and pink. And you know, what his favorite colors are? Pink and yellow! 

When he was a baby, we used to think that he has a bit of temper. But he took a  U-turn after he turned 18 months and is a perfect gentleman. He will use all peas(please) and thaanku (thank you) and charm everybody with his dazzling smile.  And I am far more liberal with him compared to how I was with Shreyas. When we go to grocery store, our conversation goes like:
 Oju: Mama lallopop (lollipop).
  I: *Ignore*
 Oju: Peas (please) Mamma.
  And usually Mama gives in..And yes, he never forgets to say "thaanku Mama" later. Also, thanks to his very social big brother, we get too many birthday party invites and now he is also turning into one party animal. Around a month back, while going out I was telling him that we are going to a birthday party. His eyes lit up and he started jumping up and down saying kak (cake), chip (chips), pizza. Now, time to time he keeps inquiring that when is next party..

He also has a good sense of rhythm and seems very interested in music and dance. And you know, what his favorite toys are? Kitchen utensils (specially my pressure cooker). Sometimes I literally have to snatch it from him in order to cook food! 

He loves talking( talking is anyways our family pass-time!) and has a pretty good vocabulary for his age. His current favorite word is "what? (In various tones)" Which he uses atleast 50 times a day.  He is pretty comfortable in crowd of jumping, screaming older kids (a.k.a Shreyas and friends) and is developing sense of humor. And now here are some pictures from last year:

And some from his birthday party. We had a car theme because I could not find anything to have 'bartan' ( kitchen utensils) theme!

Thank you sweetheart for coming in my life and  filling it with so much joy, music and laughter. We all love you very very much. Stay the same!

Much love,

Mamma

             


     

      

        

Shreyas turns 7!

My dearest Shreyas, 

You turned 7 today!  Many changed happened last year. To count a few, We moved to new home and you moved to new school. You made atleast dozen new friends and we became TV-less household. You started sleeping in your room and started with Taekwonddo. You lost 3 teeth and gained quite a few inches in height.

            I asked you yesterday, "How was your last year?" And you said, "It was the Best. Ever. "

I hope sweetheart, that you will be able to say the same, year after year. And with that, Mamma wishes you 7 things in life: 

- To have heart full of compassion and love. For the world and for yourself.

- To have mind silent enough to listen to itself.

- To exercise, meditate, eat right and take good care of your body.

- To be fearless enough to confront all your fears.

- Always be a good learner. 

- To cultivate habit of reading.

- Above all, always Be yourself.

Have a beautiful life, son!

Much love,

Mamma

ps: @7you wish to be a scientist, when you grow up.

- I woke up by gentle sound of ocean waves splashing on the shore. After awakening a little more I realized, I was still on my bed in my home which happens to be in middle of a city. May be a dream, I thought. And then, I heard it again..same musical sound of waves.

          I ran in the direction of the sound to find my little guy happily splashing in the....toilet bowl (again!)

- I saw chubby cheeks  and wondered, when did my baby get baby fat. I risked my life...errr..my fingers to force into that beautiful mouth and find it filled with marbles. *phew*

- Every night he finds his way on his own from his room to our room, crossing pitch dark corridor and not getting scared. And do you know, what this brave baby is scared of? Bubble baths!

- Now toys are found with utensils, spoons into book shelves and books EVERYWHERE.

- Home walls are full with million dollar scribbings. Yeah, my baby likes to do padhai-likhai

And if you think, he is doing good job in keeping me on my toes, my older one is into roller skating these days! 

Oh boy, my boys are growing :)

Much love,

 Mamma

@14 months of Ojas

Ojas turns One!!

"Sheru",as I call you lovingly. You remind me of a lion cub, you roar like one, walk(on all fours) like one, playfully scratch and bite me like one and radiate strength like one. And given your love for climbing and your tiny tiny size, we joke..you must be reincarnation of leopard or a mountain lion! 

You know, when I was pregnant with you, at times I used to wonder, will I ever be able to love you the way I love your brother..and now after one year I just smile at my (then) naiveness. After your birth, I realized love is unlimited and inexhaustible and we all are capable of loving many people with all our heart. I not just love you extremely, after you were born, my love for life and everyone around has increased too. And for that, I am grateful to you, son!

       

And now do you want to know some fun facts about you? 

-you were planned to come through C-section but you came naturally and and that too in less than an hour!

-you rolled from tummy to back when you were just a month old but you took eight and half months to do other way round!

-you did not have eyelashes when you were born but now, like your father and brother, you also have lashe approximately 4 km long.

-your hair grow so fast, you got 5 haircuts in less than 8 months..finally we shaved your head in 11 months!

-you absolutely love idly-dosa and are my South Indian baby. You also like to eat oranges a lot!

-Now at one,  you say "mama", "baba", "dadda" and like to babble all the time!

- I guess you prefer "yellow" over other colors!

Still if we compare, I wrote lot less about you and took less pictures of you than your brother but this is only because of the fact that when 'daddu' was infant, mamma wanted to hold on to every precious moment, so she used to take lots of pictures and videos and stored them as memories..And now when you are infant, mamma wants to live moments fully and let them go. Now don't you sulk, I quit my job to be with you..No?

 Anyways having said that, we still have hundreds of your pictures so enjoy!

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 I had written few lines for you when you were born, but never got chance to polish it or complete it but here it is, just for you sweetheart.

                             

To Little piece of my heart,

You know, many months I wondered in vain,
Will I be able to love you the way I love your brother?
But today, when I finally held you in my arms,
and looked at your sleeping face for hours,
gently tickled those little toes and fingers,
burried my nose in your baby soft skin,
All my fears were  gone!
 I learned something new..something important,
A mother's love doesn't need to be divided among her children,
It is unlimited and will always be much more than enough for each one,
And with that feeling of infinity my child,
I welcome you to this beautiful world!!!

It is wonderful place and You will find many amazing things here,
Butterflies, rainbows, ladybugs and rains..
Hold my hand, and let's discover the treasures once again!!
Squirrels, clouds, flowers, birds and sun,
looking world through your eyes is going to be fun.

And yeah,  we named you 'Ojas'. I hope you like it :)

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Wish you a wonderful life, son. Happy first birthday!

Much Love,
Mamma