April 29, 2012

Sunday Breakfast

Was feeling extremely lazy today and wanted to make something simply and easy for breakfast. Asked Adi if he wanted to help and he was eager to as long as it was something from his own cook book. I had french toasts in mind (easy to make and delish to taste) and kept my fingers crossed that his cook book would have a recipe on frech toast too. Opened the book with a silent prayer and voila! my prayer was answered!! Adi seemed to like the picture and the no of ingredients involved and so we set off to make some french toasts. 

I let Adi break the eggs this time and he did it quite well (which means without making a mess!!) and he did his usual bits of adding, whisking, cutting etc and I did my usual bit of frying. The toasts came out tasty and Adi loved it too!

Once we were done with the cooking, we had a pretend "MasterChef" session. Adi was the judge and I was the participant. I had to take the toasts and give it to him to taste - and he tasted it just like how the judges do it in MC and asked me to describe the cooking process!! Then we had to pretend it was night time, sleep and wake up next morning ready for the next session where the winner would be declared. After all this, he said Hayden was the winner (and not me!!) and that he would go and cook in Hayden's house! 

I've been hearing that there's a MasterChef Junior program going to be aired soon. I am sure Adi is going to love it and I cant wait for it to start.










April 24, 2012

Emotional Athyachar

A couple of days back while Adi and I were having a chat, I asked him 'Adi, what will you do if Mama is not there anymore?'. And he says 'I will take a knife and stab my heart'!!!! I ask why and he says 'Coz, I can't live without Mama'. GAWD!! Where's the kid learning this from?? Although it sounds nice when he says he can't live without me, I wish he was not thinking whatever he was. Need to do something about this and get him to start thinking that he CAN live without me.

There was a time when Adi kept asking us if we would die (this was about 2-3 years back when he realized that his Ajja had 'died' and not become a star). If we said yes, he would get very upset and if we said No, he wouldn't believe it and thought we were lying. He would keep telling us to eat healthy and keep exercising so that we don't die (cute to hear but for him it was a very serious matter) and live forever, along with him. Last year it got pretty bad and Adi would ask me every single night if I would die and then tell me not to die and that he couldn't live without me (same for his Dad as well). I would really worry and wonder how I could pacify him, comfort him and more importantly convince him that death is a part of life and unavoidable and that life goes on after that. I tried giving him various answers, including we will never die, but nothing stopped the worried questioning. And then one day, I told him 'Adi, after I die, I am not going to go away. I will continue to live within your heart. I will always be with you and love you'. I repeated this a few times and somehow Adi seemed consoled. After this answer, the 'death' question has hardly been asked so I guess its not worrying him anymore.

But now this knife in the heart business has kind of thrown me off balance. I am going to let some time go by and check for his response again - hopefully he wont be thinking the same anymore. Fingers crossed!!

Banana Walnut Bread

This post has nothing to do with my Brat!! I baked Banana Walnut bread yesterday (which Adi was supposed to help me with, but he was busy playing outside), the result of which I was quite pleased with and hence could not resist posting the pictures! :D


April 22, 2012

Ricky - The Pet Plant

Adi and I went to the Second to None market today. Before we left, I told Adi that I wanted to buy some plants and asked him if he wanted one to take care of himself. He was really excited by the idea and said he wanted to choose his plant himself and that he will take care of it and water it everyday. When we reached the place, it was too small and crowded and I didn't want to take Adi through the stalls (I was sure it would make him impatient). So I found a nice little place for him, in the Hamsah farm stall (the owner knew Adi quite well) and left him there with his DS and asked him to help John with the sales. He was more than willing to do it - as he had also done it earlier in the 100 hands exhibition.

After going through the stalls and meeting some friends, I found the My Sunny Balcony stall - from whom I wanted to buy some planters and plants. Unfortunately, most of them were already sold out but I found one indoor plant in a blue recycled planter and thought it would be perfect for Adi's room and for him to take care. I went and got Adi to the store, he liked the blue planter as well and so we got the plant home.

Adi was almost like a "papa" to the plant right from the time we bought it. He spoke to it and said we were taking it home and that he was going to take care of it. He then wanted to name it and asked me if it was a boy or a girl. Just to see his reaction, I told him it was a girl - and he quickly named it "Petal". But then, as expected, he asked me how I knew it was a girl and I told him I knew it because it had a pink label on it. That was it - he said you could put a label of any color and so the plant could be a boy as well - and the name was changed to "Ricky" :)

Adi held on to Ricky all the way home and kept speaking to him. Once we reached home, he took him around all the rooms and showed all the other plants to him. He then wanted to keep him in a safe place - which happens to be our balcony seat. I suggested many other places ( as I didn't want it to be kept on the seat) - but apparently Ricky does not feel safe anywhere else!! So there he is now, nicely watered and taken care of. I hope the love lasts and more importantly the plant survives the love! :) It was sure nice to see Adi all loving and caring and that too for a plant. Everyday there's something new to rock his boat :)








Arty Sunday

Adi has no flair for art but loves dabbling in paints and colors anyways. He's been wanting to paint a peacock the last few days but with all the playing, he had not found the time for it. Today, we were having a quiet time at home and I suggested that he could paint his peacock instead of watching TV. So out came the colors, the paint brushes, the plastic mat, sheets of paper and some water and Adi started off with his 'finger painting'. After dripping his hands in colors, painting his palm and splashing lots of water all around, he ended up drawing a peacock and a tornado.

I love it when he draws something out of his imagination - something that I have never been able to do myself. I guess it's in the way kids are being taught these days - where they are allowed to self-express and not just copy what the teacher has drawn on the board. No matter how much we crib about how education has changed in recent times - some of the changes are definitely for the good.

















April 20, 2012

Imagination Gone Wild

It's been 3 weeks since the summer holidays began and for some reason I feel as though I have been super busy - cannot fathom doing what though! The days and weeks have just flown by and although each day I think of updating the blog, I have not been able to.

For the last 3 weeks, my best part of the day is when Adi gets back from his summer camp. He is full of laughter, still excited about the day and so full of stories - some real and some where his imagination has gone wild! Everyday there is something new and makes me wonder if he does anything at the summer camp at all or is just spending his time day dreaming away. He has been super imaginative about what happens in his tennis class and I have been meaning to capture it as his stories are really quite funny and I have to try really hard to keep a straight face and act as though I believe each word that he says!

Anyway, here are some snippets of Brat's imagination gone wild. All are incidents that 'supposedly' happened during his tennis class and things that he learnt in class - really makes me wonder if he does anything in his class at all or just day dreams his time away!

1. We bought new sports shoes for Adi and he was really excited to wear it to summer camp. The first day of wearing his new shoes, he came and told me that there was a mini tornado in the school grounds (a mini tornado is one that doesn't carry away people along with it but destroys everything along its way) and everyone was scared and ran away. But he was not afraid and waited for the tornado to come near him and when it did, he stepped on it with his new shoes and the tornado just fizzled away. And thus, he rescued everybody at school.

2. The highest point in tennis is scored when the ball goes as high as the Eiffel tower

3. When tennis Sir hit the ball, it almost went up to the Sun

4. Most of the days, Adi comes back and tell me he hit a Sixer and a Hundred - What?? In tennis???

5. His racquet is made by Head and is so strong that even if a fire ball hits it, it wont break since its made of metal

6. A King Cobra (which eventually turned into a Anaconda as the story progressed!) appeared in the tennis ground. I missed the bit where the Anaconda came in - so the story continues with the Anaconda. Adi took out all the poison from the Anaconda and froze the poison. And then he kicked the Anaconda into space and told him never to return back to earth again!! This was followed by lots of giggles about how the Anaconda are now too afraid to come back to earth :)

Apart from the tennis class incidents, Adi has been telling me stories about how the dinosaurs became extinct. Apparently there were these tiny little toads (which were so small that they were almost invisible) which attacked the dinosaurs and killed all of the them. After a couple of days, the story was modified - and instead of toads it was mosquitoes which killed all the dinosaurs (before they could lay more eggs) and made the dinosaurs extinct. In fact, when he saw a few mosquitoes inside the house last night, he panicked and said 'mama, let me get the mosquito repellent, otherwise they will kill us like how they killed the dinosaurs'!! I had to then quickly explain that mosquitoes cannot kill humans - which of course was followed by lots of questiosn!!

Don't know where he gets these stories from, but its real fun listening to him :)



April 03, 2012

Day 1 and 2 of Summer Camp

Adi has been attending summer camp in his school since yesterday. This is the first time he is travelling by school bus (which thankfully comes almost close to our doorstep!) and considering that either his Dad or me have always dropped him and picked him up from school or his classes, I was wondering if he would be ok to travel by school bus. But he had absolutely no problems and was actually quite excited to be travelling by bus (thanks to the couple of trips he had made by school bus from the Koramangala pre-school to the main school). I guess this will also prep him for the travel time when he starts the next school year.

He seems to have enjoyed himself the last two days and talks non-stop when he gets back telling me about his day. Sharing some interesting tidbits -

Day 1:
Me - How did it go today?
Adi - No tennis class, only chess
Me - How was it?
Adi - I beat 99 students in chess and Sir gave me two stickers
Me - Did you get to eat anything?
Adi - Yes, yummy sandwich and 2 full glasses of chocolate milk. I liked it so much I was the first to finish.

Day 2:
Me - How was today? Did you have tennis?
Adi - Yes. I was the captain for the boys team and a 10 year girl was the captain for the girls team. They got much more points than us. But then I hit the last shot so hard that the ball went through the racquets of the all the girls (making a hole in the racquets), hit an electric wire and turned into ash. It was awesome and we got 100 points and won the match. All the girls are going to get new racquets tomorrow. Sir gave me a  chocolate for the awesome shot.
Me - Really? You did that?
Adi - Yes. It was totally awesome! (followed by some sound effects of how the ball flew)
Me - Hmm. Did you have chess as well?
Adi - Yes, today I beat 100 students.
Me - Well done! What did you have for snacks?
Adi - Boring! Same sandwich as old school. I had the home snacks!
Me - Did you have a good time?
Adi - Totally :)

What an imagination and what fun to be a kid. When KG heard the tennis story and the ball turning into ash, he said 'it happens only in cartoons'. Adi was bugged and said that he was telling the truth and then I had to tell him that I totally believed him to calm him down :) Now, am looking forward to tomorrow's story :)


Weekend at Chikmagalur

We went on a short 3 day trip to Chikmagalur on the last day of Adi's school with the only objective being to spend time with each other before KG travelled to Korea on a month long (may end up being longer) work assignment. Having heard so much about Serai from our friends we decided to stay there and see what the fuss was all about. After a five and half drive from Bangalore (one hour of which was spent trying to get through the crazy Bangalore traffic), we reached Serai and Adi's first reaction when he saw our cottage and the private pool was - 'totally awesome!!! let's spend my entire holiday here!' :D We had to very patiently explain to him that each day there costed money and we couldn't possible afford to spend more than 2 days there! Over the next two days, he did try his best to change our mind though!! :) Within 5 minutes of being in the cottage, Adi had his clothes off and wanted to go for a swim!

Adi had a great time at the Serai swimming (although I am beginning to think that he loves sunbathing more than swimming as he spends more time out than in), playing chess, carrom, billiards, tennis, table tennis and air hockey. Adi and I went on a nature walk one morning and he enjoyed picking up figs, mangoes, pepper, coffee beans and various other things that he found in the path. AND his favourite -  the shower and the bath tub in the cottage - he absolutely loved them and had hour long baths alternating between the two :) We had a great time together and this was the perfect start to the holidays. And to think that we almost cancelled the trip as Adi was down with viral fever and rashes the day before. However we took a chance and even let him swim with the fever and rash (terrible parents we are, I say!). As expected the fever just disappeared making the trip worth it :)























Summer Holiday Plans

Yayyy, the most awaited time of the year is finally here - summer holidays! Not sure why I am feeling so excited as each day is like a summer holiday for me!! Guess I am just feeling happy for Adi coz as a child I used to always wait for the holidays and our trip to our grandparents home where we were endlessly pampered. Adi has been waiting for the holidays too, ever since I told him that he doesn't have to go to school for SIXTY days! Nothing could possibly bring him more happiness than not having to go to school and have the entire day to play, watch TV and do anything else other than study :)

After much thought about what we would do during the 2 months, this is our plan as of today - knowing our household its bound to change anytime.
1. Adi attends tennis class for a month. He has been pestering me to send him tennis class for almost 6 months now. However, I had not given in as I didn't want him to do too many things/attend too many classes in a week (he already goes for drums and contemporary dance) and also I wanted him to settle down in 1st standard before putting him into additional classes. I feel that along with his extra curricular class, he should also spend time playing with his friends and was another reason why I didn't want him in classes all week long. While I was pondering about which tennis class to send him, his school announces a month long summer camp in their main campus and they had tennis coaching as a part of it. Even better was that they had arrangement for transport and would pick him and drop him back home. So I quickly enrolled him into his school summer camp and he has chosen tennis and chess as his two activities for the month.
2. Make a trip to Delhi and Punjab so that Adi can spend time with his Grandparents, Cousins, Uncles and Aunts.
3. Make a trip to Malpe so that Adi can spend time with his Naani and another set of Uncles, Aunts and Cousins. We have a short trip planned for Goa when my sister comes down to Malpe - again this is tentative and nothing finalized.

So, that's 2 months taken care of - hopefully Adi is going to enjoy himself and have a great time. Unfortunately, KG is not going to be around for most of the holidays as he will be travelling to Korea. So it's just going to be Adi and me - keeping each other company like always. Just so that we have a small holiday together with KG, we planned a quick, short trip to Chikmagular in the very first weekend of the holidays. More on this in the next post :)

Happy Holidays!!

April 02, 2012

Study Time with Papa

This post is a little late as Adi is already done with his UKG final assessment (new name for examination?) but wanted to share the pictures of him preparing for his assessment along with his Papa. For both his mid-term and his final assessments, we just went through his portions for 10-30 minutes a day before the test - just to check if he knows what needs to be done and if he needs help anywhere. Most of the times, he knew everything (surprise, surprise!) and only a little help was needed. Guess he was learning something in school after all and not just fooling around :) Although his portions are very simple and easy, I do feel proud when he does something right and even though I feel that the grades in the report card may not be the absolute truth, I was extremely proud and happy when Adi scored A+ in all subjects/categories except 'cutting', in which he got an A. As my brother rightly said, its surprising that he even managed to get an A in cutting and that he even had the patience to do it!! So, an eventful year at the Koramangala Pre-School centre comes to an end and I must say that I have been very happy with the school. Hope the good run continues in the main school as well. Insha Allah!