Playdate with mom and dad

Till now it has been my mom whose has blogged about me. Well  now, I have decided to do this post.

The past few months, I have been unwell often, so mom and dad would not take me out much for the fear of me catching some infection. Well now that I am doing fine and have become a really good girl while going to school (read here), mom and dad decided to reward me by taking me out on Saturday, 9th.

I was taken to ‘Infinity’ mall in Andheri west. I had taken a small nap during the ride to the mall and was feeling sleepy, so mom and dad decided to go shopping in Food Bazaar. The time spent in Food Bazaar that day was the shortest ever as mom and dad’s focus was the ‘Toddler’s Den’ for me.

Well after shopping, we went to the entertainment center in the mall. Seeing the play area for kids of my age jolted me out of my sleepiness. After buying the card, i entered the play area with mom and dad in tow. With two slides, i was the most happiest. I climbed, crawled, slide down. Mom and dad were happily playing with me. Time passed so quickly. I would have not left the toddler’s play area, had I not spotted the horsin’ merry go round.

I then demanded to sit on the horse, the car and revolving cup in the merry go round all by myself. But mom and dad would not hear of it, so i had them for company. Then i sighted a small train, which I had to drive. So off we went to the train. But another boy beat me to it and I was so angry. I get my genes for being short tempered from my mom :(.

After a round in train, we made our way to the food court, where I saw one uncle handing out chocolate cookies for free. And naturally I had to get my hands on it. I demanded for more than two free cookies, so dad had to buy a pack of chocolate cookies for me… Cookie uncle was happy about it.

Since i was happy with my cookies, mom and dad decided to skip eating at the food court and headed to Tewaris at Juhu where they both eat some high cal food. Mom, i thought you wanted to lose weight before masi’s wedding. After eating to their heart’s content, we left for home.

At home, i was still in the mood for more fun and was wide awake till 12 in the night much to chagrin of mom and dad who were sleepy.

Mom and dad thank you for this lovely playdate. I really enjoyed myself. How soon can we go again over there?

Update from playschool

A quick update

The last week has been an important week in Genie’s school life. She has stopped crying completely while going to school. Every morning, she says that she wants to go to school and i should iron her uniform and socks in front of her.

Though she does not play in the garden before entering, she stands and looks around. When she has her fill of looking around, she pulls me in the direction of her class. She eagarly awaits to say good morning and hello to the school principal. And the best part is that she holds hands with her friend and walks to the classroom.

I am looking forward to the openhouse at the end of the month, so I can get an update from the teacher.

First month at playschool

Genie started playschool this June, a week short of her second birthday. To give her an idea of school, myself and others in the family mentioned all the positive things about the school. I was more nervous than her. She was calm and quiet unaware of where she is going and what is going to happen. The walk to school was interspersed again with all the goody tidbits about school.

The first week was a breeze as mothers were to accompany them all the time. With hordes of appealing toys, Genie was smiling, active, playing and mingling with the teachers and kids alike. The real test began in second week when no parent was allowed to sit in the class with kids. All the mothers experienced nervousness and anxiety while the kids wailed for their mothers.

Genie got in the habit of crying when I would start to get her ready for school. The teacher had told us that playschool kids take anywhere between 15 days - a month to adjust to the school routine, so mothers shouldn’t worry. The ritual of getting ready for school was peppered with poems, stories, though the crying did not stop. Genie got in the habit of making excuses for not going to school. She would say that she wants to go the doctor as she is hurt or her nani’s house. She will go there first and then to school. This excuses continued exactly for a month. A month later, she was crying, but less than before.

Few changes i noticed over last 15 days is that she has started saying some words, a line or two from the poems taught in the school. She without fail, takes 2 chilles to feed the parrot in the school. She likes getting ready for school, wears her shoes on her own and throws goodbye kisses to her grandparents. She mingles well with other kids and also eats snacks provided by the school. At bedtime, she wants me recite her nursery rhymes instead of stories. Though she mentions about not going to school daily, she enjoys her time with the teachers and other kids. When I pick her up daily, her eagerness to tell me what she did in school tells me my Genie has adjusted well to her school routine.

We celebrated Genie’s birthday a week later than her actual birthday. She was excited at distributing gifts to other kids in her class. We distributed 8 piece crayons box from faber castel and 2 mini kitkats. When Genie performs correct actions to the poems I recite, says few alphabets, numbers, recites a poem, it is a proud moment for me and my hubby.

Have been busy

It’s been good ol 3 months that I have been away from my blog. I was upskilling myself i.e. busy studying Instructional Designing. The course, kiddo and house work consumed all my waking hours. Got a breather from July for two reasons - no more studying and kiddo going playschool for 2 hours daily… Despite a breather, a fortnight into July, i still have not managed to write a single post. And i now plan to make amendments. I would like to say sorry to my blog as it was ignored by me for a long time … Sorry…

And now the big Q - What should my next post be about? I have started thinking and adios till my next post

Choosing the Right School for your child

Recently i have been added as contributing member to DMC, Desimomzclub. The club has a theme for every month. Theme for March 08 is ‘Choosing the right school’.

I made my first big post for DMC on this topic. I read a post or two about the theme on DMC n various mommy blogger’s sites. While choosing a playschool for Genie i looked at just two factors. From what i have read, parents abroad and in India have searched high and low before finalizing a pre-school for their kiddos, read their travails here, here and here.

Searching for the right school for kids is a cumbersome task for today’s parent. Few months back, while discussing with my folks on deciding for pre-school for Genie, they found it funny that we (DH & I) spent an hour or two at the school where we plan to enroll her. They say for me, they went a day or two before the first day of school, paid fees and took admission. They never visited the school before, WHY… simply because the relatives/friends/neighbors who sent their kids to the same school had only good things to tell when asked and also the school was NEAR to our home. Our parents had it so easy.

Now there are many factors to contemplate before enrollment of your child in a school. In Mumbai itself, many new pre-schools mushroom on regular basis. Its like if you have a degree in ECCE (early child care education) and the resources especially Vitamin M (money), rest all follows.

Genie starts her playschool this June in one of the pre-schools in our neighborhood. We took admission for it just last month. The admission process has been quite simple. No interviews either with the parents or kids. Just fill the form, pay fees and admission process is over.

What made us choose this school from the trio of pre-primary nurseries in our area - for One - the school is just less than 10 minutes away from my home (read NEAR) and Second - practically whomsoever we know and asked have sent their kids to this pre-school as it is Simply the Best.

Hey aren’t the above two the same reasons which made my parents decided my pre-school… Yes they were the two main reasons for us to start checking this pre-school.

When we visited the school few months, the Catholic couple who has been running the school since 20+ years gave us detailed information especially education background of themselves, teachers and assistants of the school. We were impressed by their credentials and beside a mother’s instinct was feeling good about the whole thing already as they spoke and treated us well.

They showed us around the school. All the batches (playschool, nursery, jr & sr kg) have no more than 30 kids with a teacher, 2 assistants and a lady ayah. They have large classrooms with themes like fruits, flowers, animals, etc that change every month, activity tables, a large playground with slides, swings, rocking boats, rainbow climber, a huge sand pit, rope ladder, jungle gym, shape tunnels and various skills enhancing toys, games and teaching materials. They teach the kids how to eat, clean up after playing, eating and also potty training.

They left us on our own and we stayed back for an hour or so. We mingled with the teachers and assistants, saw how they handle young kids, spoke, read and played with them. We made a mistake of not taking Genie along with us, do not ask why… If she had come along, we would have to drag her home…

What was important to both of us - the behaviour of the owners, teachers, assistants and helpers - how they treat the kids - are they polite or do they run out of patience when a toddler throws a tantrum. Since the number of kids did not exceed 30, teachers could manage to give personal attention. The school has many activities and they make it a point to involve each kid be whatever the age.

I think that if your child progresses well i.e. understands and grasps things well, looks forward to going to school even on holidays, if the teachers and other staff teaches well, encourage your child to take part in various activities, etc, then the school is right for your child. I would not compare the chosen school with other schools as it could leave me feeling disheartened as why I did not take admission in so - so school.

At the end of it, we both are happy with our decision of enrolling Genie in this pre-school. We will be taking her to see the school soon. We are more excited about the whole thing, its like we have taken admission for ourselves. :). When Genie is ready for SKG, we will have to search for some other school, where there will be interviews and much more. Now, we just want Genie to mingle with kids of her age, play and not be shy of everyone.

I will end the post with this quote “Education is an ornament in prosperity and a refuge in adversity”- Aristotle.

Happy Woman’s Day

“A tactful wife is one who ensures she spends so much that her husband can’t afford another women”

‘Happy Woman’s Day’

Taare Zameen Par

‘Taare Zameen Par’ is the story of a dyslexic child whose parents are unable to comprehend his problem and send him to a boarding school.

The movie comes when students committing suicides and campus killings are making the news of the day, hence kids are finding themselves at a point where they have to join the race to finish first or simply be left out.

It’s a film about parents and children, about the pressures we put on our kids, about how we push them into becoming robots who will make our (parent’s) dreams come true instead of encouraging our children to find their own unique strengths.

Parents who push their children to do things against their wishes, please note: Pressurizing your child to do something that he/she does not want to, will just give a reason for your child to rebel everytime. There is more to life than being a topper every time. Understand your child and his/her needs when it comes to studying and everything else. Studies do matter but not to an extent that the child finds it a chore and withdraws from all the pleasures of childhood life.

I am not going to do a synopsis of the film as it best to see the movie than to read about it.

I would like to mention some moments which tugged at my heart -
- when Ishaan’s mother discovers a flip book with family painting and at the end of the book, he is no more at part of the family picture.
- Aamir’s visit to Ishaan’s home to explain his condition to his parents
- relevation scene when Aamir recognizes Ishaan is a dyslexic child
- when Ishaan’s parents go home after admitting him to the boarding school.
- After winning the first prize at the Art Mela, Ishaan hugs his Aamir, his art teacher and cries his heart out.

I shed many tears because the movie was emotionally engaging and a heart warming experience for me. DH was too very emotional at the end of the movie.

My parents & DH’s parents never pressurized us to excel in our studies or any other activities. They just let us be ourselves and we did our best. And we did turned out good . I too will let Genie just be herself and praise her and stand by her for whatever she does in life.

Anecdote at the start of TZP

After weeks of dilly dallying, DH and I went to see Taare Zameen Par @Sunday 24th Feb. We are celebrating DH’s birthday on Sunday according to our Muslim calendar. So after a delicious lunch at Curry Twist (only veg), Saki Naka we headed to Hub@Goregoan.

We reached the cinema hall just few minutes before the show time… We headed to our seats and were surprised that another couple was already occupying it…

We had done online bookings of the ticket for the first time and the first thought that crossed both our minds was that the ticket booking system had goofed up . I started ranting about how they could issue two tickets of same row and seat num, et al… DH kept calm (thank god. he is the most patient guy to my rants and tempers…) and we spoke to the usher who checked their and our tickets for screen no., seat and row… Tickets seemed cloned . And the movie was about to begin in few minutes… We went to the head usher, who then came and checked the date of their ticket and their ticket was not for Sunday 24th Feb… Hurray.. their ticket was booked for 25th Feb, same time, row and seat… Poor thing, I felt sad.. they too were highly embarrassed about this. In their rush to vacate the seats for us, their huge tub of popcorn toppled over . They moved out just in time at the start of the movie…

We cozily settled in our huge Maharaja seats to watch ‘Stars on the Earth’ or ‘Taare Zameen Par’…

My thoughts and feelings on the movie follows in the next blog…

How arl you?

This new year i made a habit of saying ‘i love you’ to both Genie and DH at least once a day.

Whenever i say ‘i love you’ to Genie, she responds by say ‘how arl you’ in her baby language and laughs aloud.

her ‘how arl you’ means ‘i love you’ for us…

It feels good to know that she too means the same by using the words from her vocab

ciao

Genie

I have realized that I have not blogged about my girl at all. Its high time I change that…

At the onset, let me disclose her age - 20 months and her nick name is Genie.. I am not sure, how we arrived at this name.. her nickname means ‘an invisible spirit who carries out the wishes when summoned by a person’.. well in her case its different, she represents Genie just in name, while we make sure that her wish comes true when she summons us…

All those who know me knew that, I wanted my first child to be a girl. When we conceived our first child, we were keen on a girl.. Our (mine n DH (darling hubby) instincts were telling us from day One that we were having a baby girl… we even bought a pair of gold earrings :)… I know one should not buy anything before the baby comes, but I just could not stop myself.

I did not have any morning sickness in the first trimester, I always ordered food twice a week from restaurant while at work, despite warnings from well wishers, etc… I had two of my very good friends who were pregnant while I was preggers… the difference among all our babies are just 2 months. I was the second one to deliver in June, while one friend gave birth to her second baby, a boy in April and another also a boy in August. Another of our close friend gave birth to a boy in March 2007… So it is 3 boys and 1 girl in our friend circle in the same age group.

When the doctor told me that I got a baby girl, I was over the moon, I shouted yippee, hurray on the operating table :), the nurses thought I had lost it :)…

Why I yearned always for a daughter - was to dress her up in beautiful girly clothes, make-up and jewelry and all the other pretty things that one enjoys doing for their daughter… (even if I have a second baby, I would prefer a girl)

Besides the joy of having a baby girl, we had to face a difficult time during her birth as she was hospitalized few hours later in NICU - (neo-natal ICU)… Genie was a big baby. At the time of the delivery, she swallowed the water inside my womb, which got lodged on her chest making her shiver continually and heavy breathing… For 6 days she was kept in the incubator in NICU… I had seen her for a short time period after her birth and then I met her next after 2 days when I was discharged.

We had shortlisted 5 names for girls and 3 names for boy incase we got a boy… I scoured baby names sites for religion appropriate name with a nice meaning.

My DH n myself bonded with Genie very soon…  Each day was a new experience with her for me and DH… Now that I am back to work after a sabbatical of 16 months, I can’t wait to go back home and play with her…

At 12 months, she was babbling more than kids of her age. She achieved all her milestones earlier than the average time of milestones… She discovered running (not walking) before her 1st birthday… And this new discovery, she allowed her self to run all over our home and neighbor’s too… thank god, my neighbour did not mind it much as her baby girl is 2 months younger to Genie (Genie is the eldest child in our building and her 2 friends are 2 months younger and another friend is 4 months younger - all the bahus got preggers around the same time with 2006 being the highest year of baby production in our building)

Even now, each day is a new day, as she adds a new word to her vocab every day and uses it all the times… She even tries to repeat the sentences spoken by us either in English or Gujurati…

She will ask for ‘doodh aapo’, ‘choci’ ‘choci doodh’. She even gives money to our laundry guy and our servant who gets milk every day.. Genie tells her ‘doodh’ and ‘tran (meaning 3)’ instead of 1 lt.. Everything for her is in three or rather ‘tran’ (3 as said in guju language).

She climbs on the chair kept near my MIL’s sewing machine n pretends to sew by swinging her legs up and down. She even helps us lay the table for dinner every single day… Now a days she tells me to leave home jaldi for work, so I can get a ‘laddu’ for her in the evening.

When I get home from work with DH, she yells ‘Papa aaya, Mummy aaya’ and claps excitedly… She does not want to be picked up by me at least (its ok if papa does it)… she then takes my bag and proceeds to empty the contents from it… and then play makeup with my powder compact…

She clings to me during dinner and especially when I go to the loo.. she guards the door and announces to all that I am inside and laughs aloud..

When she is sleepy she walks in the room, plonks stomach down on the mattress… then she tells me to come very near her, puts her hand around my neck and pats me to sleep for a minute or so and then it’s my turn to do the same till she falls asleep…

In the morning she is always in cuddly and chuckly mood.. If she is awake before our breakfast, she always wants to take breakfast for her papa.. She has learnt the art of balancing the plate perfectly while running with it to her father..

She snuggles into my DH’s arms when he picks her up in the morning (practically everyday), her head tucked into his neck, and one chubby little arm around each of my husband’s shoulders.

She is a bit fussy eater… who loves her chicken / tomato soup and rotis.. She loves papayas, nanakhai, strawberries, bananas, shrikhand, dahi, cheese, boiled eggs, sweets, icecreams, mithais and anything with chocolates (cakes, choco, yipee… she is chocoholic like me). She enjoys eating chicken (even mutton and fish are chicken for her)…

She has inherited the temper from her mother - when she doesn’t get what she wants, she cries so bad and becomes stubborn wanting it, that most of the times we have to give in to her demands. Talking about her being stubborn reminds me when I went for scan in the 6th month, she was just too lazy to move around for scanning… so the doctor had mentioned that your baby is going to be one stubborn kid :).

She loves the swings that her father does for her… She loves her ‘haathi who takes her all over the house’ (my DH)… Genie is always running, jumping, playing and never still, except when asleep.

She loves dancing, and any catchy tune, an ad jingle, or himesh’s song, her round little behind sways sideways and her fingers go bhangra… Now a days she dances like ‘ringa ringa roses’ by running in circles in one place and them plonks down happily…

She can laugh at the slightest smile from us and has to have a last laugh every time somebody laughs…

I love it when she lies vertical on when I m sleeping straight (she calls it sleeping ‘upat’ maane upaar)… she turns her head from one side to another and then snugs herself comfortably on my chest with my hands around her…

I forgot to mention one thing about her - she has to fall and hurt herself at least once or twice a day or else the day is not over

Those are the times when I feel I just cannot get enough of her or hold her close… Those are the times when 24 hours in a day are not enough time to spend with her…Those are the moments when I realize being a mother is the best thing in the whole world…