Happy Holidays

The kids have been insisting that our house have a Christmas tree. Considering that we don't have a doll display at home for the Navarathri Golu, told the kids that the tree is very similar to a golu and our ancestors who have banned us from doll displays will be equally angry for the tree display.

For now the kids have bought into that logic much like the rules of Quidditch..

Our cousins have a tree in their house (they also do Golu) and that means we celebrate with them every year.







We spent a quiet Christmas with the cousins and had the kids open gifts, watched a bunch of movies and all was quiet on the home front.

Took a few portraits of everyone at home (here are some samples) and the weekend is almost coming to a close.






We wish you all a wonderful holiday season and are looking for a better and brighter 2011 !


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Another year flies by

The girls turned 7 and 4 respectively and yes, we had a great birthday party at a place called "Color Me Mine" where they got to paint little ceramic plates, cups etc. with their friends.

Next week we get to relax a little bit before Daddy and Mommy have their Joint birthday party!

Dad will turn 37 and Mom will watch Dad turn 37(Mom has remained 29 for a few years now and will maintain the status quo!)

Leaving you with a few pictures that capture the essence of our week..











On the funny side, the little one asked me if it was possible for her to be three again. I said "No. you can only grow older!" and she was very disappointed.

"I don't want to grow bigger and bigger and then die! I just want to say small!" she said. I do not know where this is coming from and will have to understand her reasoning. It did bother me that a three year old (er, four year old) is concerned about growing up and dying.

Told her that only her mom can tell her how to freeze age. "Daddy grows older and older, but mommies don't right?" and she agreed with that!!!!

Mom has no idea that she is going to be quizzed about her methods, on the way to school tomorrow..


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You are "it", with a piggy twist

Last night we got together with the cousins. We decided to avoid crowded public places and watched a movie at home instead.

Most of the conversation was centered around the flu.

While the adults are seriously worrying about the flu, the kids, safety etc, the kids are apparently playing a game called "swine flu"

One kid is supposed to be "it" and they go chasing all the other kids. When they manage to touch another kid they say "you have the swine flu now!" and now both the kids go tackle the rest..

Interesting perspective from a kid standpoint!

Hopefully it teaches them subconsciously that the more people who have the flu, it is easier for the rest to get it. Then again, these are kids playing "swine flu" without knowing what it really is.

Now don't get me started on the great job the media is doing on this topic. Have lost whatever little respect there was for the few in the media.. (most of it was already lost after they held people accountable and did great investigative reporting during the WMD issue)!

Sad. Very sad.


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Newceedeeophobia

You will not find that word in the dictionary. It is a rare problem found in three year olds (and is known to extend even to six year olds) who have a fixation with a particular CD that plays day in and day out when we are driving.

The symptoms are observed usually the day a new music album or movie album is purchased and inserted into the CD player.

Usual signs include a loud scream of protest, with some tears running down the face accompanied by whimpers of "I don't want this new CD. I only want _______ !"

To the untrained parent, this is a very tricky thing to deal with. Sometimes the elders might even consider this move by the kids as "abshagun" or inauspicious! A new CD is getting inserted into the disk drive for the first time and there is wailing as though someone has died in the disc player!

Scientific minded parents are equally baffled by Newceedeeophobia (or NewCDophobia as the American slang dictionary would eventually call it). "How could this kid who embraced this previous CD, not know that this one would be equally better? Did the kid not learn from the previous experiences?" The answer as explained by Dr. Narayanöhe of the BOGUS Institute is a resounding "No".

Based on intense research conducted using a three year old, who for the sake of annonymity will be referred to here as the little one, it appears as though the kid always needs a bribe to listen to anything new. Once you get the LO into the preview hearing, favorites are picked, song requests are made, and a new fixation is born. At that point, any refusal to comply to demands, on going to that song will be treated with Newceedeeophobia!

A side effect has also been observed. In the case of a CD with multiple songs which make the cut, only "one" song will be picked and it will have to be the starting song when her holiness gets into the vehicle.

Another dangerous side effect is that grown women have shown similar milder forms of this rare affliction where NPR will automatically be switched off and replaced with a music CD from the subcontinent. The new strain in the younger kids just seems to be a more radical form the old strain! One song in one CD only as opposed to any song in any CD replacing radio!

If these trends continue projects Dr. Narayanöhe, soon we will have to start with a particular word or paragraph or chime in a certain song in a certain CD when the ignition key is turned on in the automobile! Scary indeed for future generation daddys!

Currently there seems to be no cure for Newceedeeophobia and the BOGUS institute is working on one.




ps. We are now officially parked in what is called the "monkey song", if you catch my drift...

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The budding Doctor

Jr. accompanied me to the Doctor's office on Wednesday. Was feeling miserable with cold, sore throat, loose stomach and was facing near system shutdown. So took off work in the afternoon and went staight to the doctor, with Jr. in tow because she also had similar symptoms.

The doc. wrote down a page full of notes after asking me questions and then gave me mostly Over The Counter medicines and lots of advice.

Jr. came away much impressed with the doctor's note taking skills and she played doctor at home with her sister.

Today we happened to see her notes and were rolling on the floor laughing, so we decided to share the budding doctor's notes with all of you.




Jr.'s spelling is improving significantly, although she still spells some words as she hears them. Cannot blame her if she spells "Docter" because that is how most Desi's pronunce it!

For clarification (based on Jr.'s input)

Had flews = Had Flu
she / he feiles happy = he / she feels happy
We have no idea what Clifford the big red dog or Emily Elizabeth are doing in that notes!
Bathroom a lot! (you got that right!)
diriya = diarrhoea
elbo peain = elbow pain

we have no clue what the rest of the stuff is.. especially the "answer me please" part.. must be part of the doctor asking me to be a little more responsible!

The final part about the present, we understand. Irrespective of who is sick, the kids get a lollipop and sticker. They don't like the lollipop and throw it after one lick. Still they get it! This is as bad as people who don't like Panjamrudham wasting it outside the Pazhani temple..

We are all feeling better now after taking the skunk medicine!


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Who are these "guys"?

Just as I was breathing a sigh of relief on account of saving the "guys" topic with Jr. on the previous post, the little one decides to overuse the word "guys". We must have heard it a few thousand times in the last 48 hours!

Still do not know where she heard this. Obviously she picked it up from someplace. Keeps talking to these imaginary "guys" on the phone, sometimes more than 10 minutes at a time.

Here is a secret video of the little one talking to her imaginary...




Do you notice her say things like "He was so rude. I dont like that!"

The little one was roaming around the house in her "jatti" because we were potty training her and were pretty much under house arrest during the weekend. Thanks to her phone call and the secret videos, we were not bored one bit!

Who are these guys? Why am I being given a sneak peak into the future? Why this early? What is the rush to have these coy conversations with imaginary dudes? Maybe she is breaking me early?

I stand no chance!


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The mind of a child

The human brain is an amazing thing. A childs brain is probably even more amazing than an adult brain, from a thought perspective.

The whole separation anxiety post should be seen in a different light.

Today the Little one came and kissed my boo boo. Bumped my hand somewhere and she came running to kiss it. In her mind, daddy cannot get better without her kiss. It definitely makes me feel better when she comes running to kiss. She associates my smile to be healing and extrapolates it.

The whole time I was away, she was probably worried about me, not about her. What would this big baby do if he were to get hurt in Texas? How would be survive without my healing kiss? How could he possibly go to sleep without me on his hand?

Today she said "Dont worry daddy. You are here now. I will kiss you and everything will be all right!". She was so serious when she said it.

As an adult I fail my wife and kids so many times because of being in my own self centered world. Most adults are self centered! That is the way of the world. You have your work, your family, your home, your this, your that.. It is at the end of the day all about "you", "your perspective", and "your world"!

There is not a lot of options here. Even when you think about your kids, they are "your" kids and the thought is usually about "your" worries on how what "you" are doing affects them as they grow up!

Once in a while "you" get the view from the childs point of view and it boggles "your" mind!


ps. Was accused of being very selfish earlier today, which I probably am. Tried to see how often the word "I" is used in my posts. Not a lot. But when you always tend to write in second person or as Daddy, you are doing the wrong search to determine "% self centeredness"!!

There is a lot more "you" and "daddy" in this blog to prove that point!



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Values and Limits

From a young age, when we were school going kids, we are taught values. Some of us can afford to forget those values. Others take those values seriously and retain them for a long time. These constant values have stood the test of time for the most part and chances are you remember them the same way your parents did when they were growing up.

Take for example the value of C, the speed of light which is 3x10^8 or N the Avogadro number which is 6.23x 10^23 or c the electron charge which is 1.6x10^-19 and many more! (What with the elections and all, you thought we were talking moral values, right? he he he )

Another important value that has newly ingratiated itself into our life now is B, the maximum limit in dollars that can be paid for a Bribe item for the kids without approval from the spouse!

The value of B is easy to remember. It is 9.99

This constant almost seems to have universal significance. (Err... in the US of A, Universal takes on a very different, localized meaning!) Almost every parent we know of that follows the two pronged approach to child rearing, seems to have converged on the same limiting value for B.

Now what is this "two pronged approach"? There is a very simple explanation.

A scientific study by Dr. Narayanöhe of the BOGUS Institute finds that at a fundamental level, there are only two control knobs available to deal with kids.

a. Bribes
b. Threats

This essentially summarizes the "two pronged approach".

There are only two variations within this approach, the study concludes:

1. Bribe first and if the bribe does not work, threaten later
2. Threaten first and use bribes as last resort

Depending on the economic situation in the household and the rebel coefficient of the kid involved, parents optimize to one of these two approaches.

Here is a Case Study. As a parent, you thought Toysrus would be a good time pass option, knowing very well that you cannot come out of the store without some spending. You have a screaming kid on the floor outside the Toysrus. Even if the kid knows that everytime you buy her something, she still goes into the default "scissor kicking and high pitched screaming" routine. Let's say she is asking for something which she will lose interest in, as soon as she gets out of the garage and goes into the house, but the value of said toy is under $9.99, you cut your losses and just buy it.

What if she wants the battery operated mini Hummer with a price tag of a few hundred dollars? Then there is the threat of her never ever getting anything from you. This is usually followed by a bribe worth, well, not more than $9.99. Case closed!

Note, there are always the borderline instance where the object at hand is worth 12.99 . The house rules clearly state that anything over the 9.99 limit needs spousal approval and a phone call is required to confirm the purchase.

Also the parents can sometimes make a sport (even a spectator sport) out of the TPA. The parent who can steer a kid from an object worth 299.99 to 19.99 then on to 9.99 and even beat that and get to 2.99 or 0.99 !!! gets bragging rights.

Tip1: (I might sound like a shampoo salesman here, but here goes) Volume, volume, volume. Kids think volume is better, at least mine do. So, if you can buy a huge ball of bubble wrap for a dollar, it is worth more than a box of Dora products with the same volume.

Tip2: Please do not share this tip with Toyrus Marketing Department or they will make Tip1 useless.

Now, what is your limit?


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