Truth be told

The little one has been given a project for first grade. It is to make a Diorama of one of the "Frog and Toad" stories.

When I got back from Austin Thursday night , the first thing she told me was "Finally, I also have a project!"

What that translated to is "Daddy, you have a project for me!"

After hearing her go on and on about this I asked Jr. "Didn't we do the exact same project three years ago when you were in first grade?! Remember buying silly putty in different colors and making frog and toad and you made a table, bed etc. with it and painted the whole shoe box"

Jr. says "yes and it is probably still in the garage!"

In a fit of laziness blurted out "why can't we just reuse that diorama?" and left it at that.

Friday evening comes and the little one tells me "I asked my teacher today if I can bring the same diorama my sister did three years ago and guess what?"

He said "NO!"

That was embarrassing.. Now I have to go face her teacher who probably is appalled by my "reuse" concept!

Daddy Narayanan is growing too old for Dioramas and is kind of getting bored of going through same projects with a 3 year deja vu cycle.



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When your kid takes over your iPhone

At work, I use notes app in my iPhone to take short notes and that way I don't have to carry my laptop around.

Wanted to go back to my notes two days later and was surprised to find out that most of my notes were edited by the little one!

In fact she had inserted words into some of the notes.

Apparently she has decided to use that as her journal of sorts!

found this gem.

Apparently she wrote that when she was angry that I was still working when she bugged me to get off the laptop. Well the rest of the notes are kind of a cross talk like thing where serious work meets serious anger. So cannot share them..

She is also into writing letters now. She writes as she hears and it is interesting to watch her spelling patterns. We are going through this after a three year gap and it is giving us a deja vu feeling..

She does not like it when we correct her spelling, because she is so sure she is right. That is the only difference between the two kids, but a big one!

She makes up for her stubborn nature when she dresses up and poses..

We are now into matching sunglasses!

The little one is going to be a lot more difficult to handle than Jr. That is for sure!


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Rock climbing craze

The little one has been climbing..

Well she climbs all over the house!




So we are now checking out "rock climbing" classes for kids in local area.


In the meantime she has to be content with the little setup at Ortega park..

There are dangerous similarities she shows with Daddy.. Loves to do things for a few months and then drops it abruptly...

will have to keep an eye on this one!

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Wagle ki duniya

When we went shopping for clothes, as soon as we landed in India, my thoughts on getting the kids matching outfits got a very critical response from the Mrs..

You are like Wagle in Wagle ki Duniya! Do you remember how he dressed his kids in matching outfits?

The comment initially drew a big blank from me because the time this serial was being telecast, yours truly was working hard to earn the title of "star maggu" in school and college. Nevertheless, my reasoning was apparently the same as Mr. Wagle! Save money by reducing cloth wastage! Per crude back of the receipt book calculations of three different Chennai tailors, one can save anywhere from .2 to .4 meters of cloth to stitch two salwars if you buy the "same" cloth for both girls.

After these critical looks and comments, we mutually agreed to do Wagle with a twist. Same pattern cloth, different color or design for the two girls. We get some level of matching but lose the cost saving bit.

Here is the first in a series of photos of the semi-matching outfits...






















More photos over the next few weeks..


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Another Kindergarten Graduation..

Just when you remember writing a post about how time flies, you are writing it again, three years later, with another kid going through the same thing!

We remember talking about this in 2008 and saying "before we know it the baby will be finishing Kinder!" and there she is!





Have never seen her happier!

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Home office

Little One : Daddy can you make our garage into your office?

Me : What can we do in that office?

LO : We can turn our garage into a nail salon and you can do nails at home!

Me : But I don't know how to do nails and you cannot just change your garage into a nail salon. You need to go to nail school and get a certificate before you do nails or the government will stop you.

LO : What certificate?

Me : When you go for hair cut do you see the certificate in front of every mirror? That is the certificate from hair school. Same thing for nail school.

LO : What about make the garage a photo studio or a yoga place?

Me : What ?!

LO : We can change our living room carpet to hardwood and then take this carpet and put it in the garage and then make it a studio!

Me : Why do you want me to work in the garage so badly?

LO : So I don't want you to go to work in office.. if Amma and Paati (mom and grandma) can help you we can all work from the garage and no one has to go to office. Also if you are a car salesman, people will give you 100 dollars a day!

Me : Car salesman are not rich and no one gives you 100 dollars a day. You need to stop watching silly programs on Youtube from now on.

Later did tell San that we have a budding entrepreneur in our house! Such conviction that we can make a living out of our garage and multiple ideas within a few minutes including how to get the garage carpeted.

Very proud of this little girl and her enthusiasm. Wish I could turn the garage into a nail salon and do nails for her!


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Sales

Little One came home from school to find me in bed today. After giving her usual sorry for getting me sick and some small chit chat she goes

"Daddy, can you become a car salesman?"

Me : !!!! Why?

LO : So I can have a room to myself, we can have a second floor in our house and have grand birthday parties in our house and a pony in our backyard and pretty much anything we want!

Me : 1. Why do you need all that? and 2. Who told you that car salesman have all that?

LO : Muffy's dad is a car salesman and Muffy has all that. No other kids in hehttp://www.blogger.com/img/blank.gifr class have all that! Only Muffy. Her dad's http://www.blogger.com/img/blank.gifname is Ed Crosswire and he is a car salesman!

Me : Do I know him? Have I seen him in your school?

LO : No.. No.. he is not real. He comes in "Arthur"!

Me : !!!!!!!!!!! Starting tomorrow you two are not going to watch anymore Arthur. We are done with this living in Arthur world and watching the same episodes of Arthur on the ipad day after day.

LO: Fine. But can you be a car salesman?

Me : What ?! That is a TV program. Real life car salesman are not that rich and living in mansions and you don't need any of that stuff. You should be happy with what you got!

LO : I am happy. Just wanted to check that is all..


Sometimes it is very difficult to answer these kids and set them straight. Even a supposedly educational program like Arthur on PBS kids can have devastating effects.. Who knew?!


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Time Traaavellll....

Blogging has become a luxury with the busy work schedule and the new early to bed, early to rise routine for the last 8 weeks..

Was going through old blog posts to see what we were doing last year same time and http://www.blogger.com/img/blank.gifsaw this post..

Last weekend saw us rearrange the kids closet and suddenly realized that both these pieces were still there! One was to be a hand me down to the little one and the other one was a fight to the end for the donate pile. Our kids will put top notch lawyers to shame when it comes to making a case for keeping their old clothes.

As usual, could not resist the temptation to do another juxtapose photo..




They really enjoyed dressing up and posing for this one!


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Before and after

A conversation with the little one just before bedtime a couple of days ago

LO: appa (daddy), look up at the barbie jewel box

Me: Yeah I see it above the bed on the shelf

LO: look again now

Me: Yeah! I see it.

LO: did you see how it became brighter?

Me: Yeah, what is it? (I actually thought it was because the hallway lights reflecting better as mom was moving around)..

LO : I smiled !

Me : (she smiled and it got brighter.. I must have said something)

LO : You remember how you said that everytime I smile, the whole room lights up? I was just checking..

Me : you always light up the room with your smile kuttyma!


She always always knows how to make my day!

and yes, she did light up that room with that innocent smile of hers!


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Odi Vilayadu Paapa - go run and play baby..

A tamil nursery rhymme, which happens to be the little one's favorite and she keeps playing it on the iPhone.




She was mad because I yelled at her for adding all those videos into my favorites and signing out of Youtube every time it pops a "do you want to merge this into your existing favorites?" diagloue box. She does not know that one you favorite it, you are done..

Girl needs her own account! She is taking over my iPhone and Youtube!


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We are Indians?!

The little one tells Jr. during our Disney trip "We are Indians.. we helped the Pilgrims.. that is why everyone should thank us during thanksgiving!"

Me : !!!???!!!! Who taught you that?

Little one : My school.. I know all about thanksgiving!

Jr. : The Indians in the thanksgiving story are native Americans who wear feathers on their head.. not people from India.

LO : So nobody is thanking us? (looks sad)

Me : guess not.

LO : I was wondering because we don't eat turkey and live in teepees!


Now that we have the Indian side cleared up we might have to dispel doubts on who the pilgrims were...


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Mickey... we see you!

The little one had her first glimpse of Mickey mouse two days ago. This is her first trip to Disneyland where she can remember things. The last time was when she was 1 1/2. Not exactly the perfect age to get hyped on the mouse.

This time she watched Mickey and we watched her and it was truly amazing to see the kid believe. She knows her parents are the real Santa, but thinks Mickey mouse is real!

We drove all Thursday to Anaheim with a quick stop at the Malibu temple.




Friday was spent at Disney from morning to night and it ended with the fireworks and an exhausted bunch of kids and adults. We spent Saturday visiting friends and drove back. Our drive back was interesting as we made 2.5 miles in one hour on I-5. It was raining and at one point folks started switching off their engines. The next exit was 6 miles away and we thought we were going to spend the night on I-5! Thankfully it started moving again and we got home a good 2 hours later than planned, but got home.

There are tons of pictures and many won't make it to the blog..























This last photo sums up the excitement.




It was great to go with friends and family to a place where "your dreams come true" and "you believe in magic" and you watch that sparkle in your five year old girls eye as she gets up and blows kisses at Mickey mouse when she can barely stand up after "walking the most in her whole world life" close to 10 in the night..


For our family thanksgiving is about being thankful..

to Eisenhower for coming up with a highway system that can get us from SFO to LA in 6 hours (okay 9 hours but we are still thankful)

to Toyota for making a van that makes it worthwhile and bearable to have two little kids and a mother in law who need a comfortable ride get there without them taking out all their anger at the driver

to friends and family who make the trip memorable and finally

to Walt Disney for having the vision to make our birthday long weekends fill up with fireworks in November!


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A brownie.. a muffin.. what really matters is the candle!

The kids quiet birthday celebrations..




If only she was this happy more often. .




Maybe a monthly birthday celebration will help?







She still wants to blow the candle with her big sister.. (note, big sister was not allowed to blow candle on her brownie)




Another year has rolled by and kids are taller, smarter, have less teeth, have lower opinions of their parents.. etc. etc.. the routine goes on.

We are glad that they love each other and care for each other the way they do. What more can you ask for?



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Not sure about tonsure?

The little one bravely did the tonsuring ceremony. She was a real champ....

A day after losing her hair she was going through doubts. Kept trying to put flowers, rubberbands on her hair. It would break our heart to see her do this..




Then my mom put the little one on her lap and explained how giving your hair to god will only get you a lot more hair a lot faster as he will bless you etc. etc. and she was back to her beaming self.




Life is an illusion, but having hair is a big part of that illusion!

We now know exactly the way daddy Narayanan is going to bald over the next two years. Asked my mom why Ummachhi (god) did not bless me with a lot more hair a lot faster...

Apparently the illusion works only for kids under the age of five!



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Saturday morning, mini idlis, TV, sunlight dancing - photoblog

A looong weekend has started... one breakfast done.. two more to go!



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Size matters

Came home and tried to engage both kids at the same time.

The little one having spent the last two days pretty much in bed with me all afternoon was missing me terribly. Well, when one gets better, one has to go to office, no?

Told her to draw something for me while Jr. and me were going over math.

LO : I am going to draw our whole family!

Me : good.

LO : So far I have drawn daddy and mommy.. next I will draw Akka (jr.), then me then Paati (grandma)

Me : (was looking at it from a distance) why do I have long hair?

LO : No.. that is mommy. This is you!

Me : bring it here.. show it to me..




Me : so why am I smaller than Amma?

LO : (gives me a sheepish grin) Oh that? This is a picture of you when you were a small boy and this is a picture of Amma when she is already grown up.


To save face at that point, the conversation was stopped.. next thing you know my growing up will be highlighted with a bar graph or pareto chart...

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Pencilukkum Eraserukkum Kalyanam (Pencil weds Eraser)

In a move that could make TamilNadu Chief ministers proud, the little one decided to have a mass marriage ceremony for all of Jr.'s pencils and erasers..




The ones on the laptop get free thali, saree and dhoti.. the ones on the couch get only a thali..



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Time travel

Could not resist this juxtaposition...


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Drama Queen - A photoblog

Loving it..

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Background

Just realized that you can put your kids on the TV stand or a stool and use the Samsung LCD TV as the perfect background for portrait photos!!

Why didn't I think of this before?




ps. if you angle it, somehow the TV surface doesn't bounce the flash.


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