Cheeky

Cheeky story 1

One fine morning, we receive a whatsapp message from one of our family friends. It is a photograph of the little one with an older boy in the advertisement poster/billboard for her school on display in public  in our nearest mall!

We knew nothing about it. We rush to the cheeky imp and ask ' R, what is this, when was this taken, we never gave permission for this?'

The little one grins from ear to ear and says  'Yay! Mummy I know you will not allow..that is why when I was selected, I convinced them that my Dad would not mind. I did not speak about you at all (!) Please mummy.. do you not like it?! '

I am very wary of having her image in public but she is so happy that I have not picked it up with the school. We go to this mall often and I cannot explain what I feel every time I see her pic up there for everyone to see. The emotions are quite mixed.

Cheeky story 2

In the Teacher's evening , R's teacher was very worried about her. She had suddenly gotten some low marks in English (!) spellings. She otherwise had been scoring 2.5 years above her ageband in English. She also has never had more than 2 spellings wrong max and that too only thrice in all the years she has had spelling tests. So, I was shocked to say the least.

I have been shouty with her the previous few weeks and her dad had been warning me that I have been very strict with her and I may end up breaking her spirit.  He was away from home and I was very confused and upset the whole week. I cried all night thinking I was turning out exactly to be the mum I did not want to be and it is having an effect on my little one. May be she was more sensitive than I thought!

On Friday, we get called again. K drives all the way from 2 hours away in record time to make the meeting with the teacher. She looks stern and tells us ' In our class we give 2 house points for those who score consistently well and 10 house points for those who score low usually but score high due to continued effort. Guess who has been manipulating the system to get more points for her house? " ..and so saying, she burst out laughing. I and K looked and each other stunned. It took a while for the fact to sink into us and we both giggled in relief!

This is at all of 7 years old. God give me strength for the years to come!

Our Family

Mummy : What do you like about amma and appa R?

R: You are very kind, you never fight, you never shout at me, you always allow me to read or watch the tele ....

Daddy : Very Good R! That is exactly what you should say if somebody  else asks about our family! But, really.. what do you ' really' like about amma and appa?

Mummy: Grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr!

Trip to Severn Valley

Yesterday was another beautiful British summer day. We we went to Severn valley. The view from the French windows of the tea house was stunning to say the least. The valley full of trees,with the steam train chugging through was a sight to behold!

We first went on the riverside trail and then on the woodlands trail. It was a good 3 hours walk along the bluebells, watching the canoers  and boaters row past with stops here and there to listen to the lovely brooks amongst the woods and picnicking on the rocks with a view to the river.

Both trails had cosy natural coves made of trees with the sun shining through the golden preautumnal leaves..we had a lovely family time sitting and chatting in these coves or simply sitting together holding hands with our wriggly seven year old sitting on our laps playing the 'silent game'. ( Though this did not stop the young one from saying 'pause game' and proceeding to say whatever she had to!)

We also took the vintage steam train for a small part of the way back and the view  as it went through the greenery was astounding to say the least.

On a whim, we also checked with one of our friends who had newly moved nearby to see if they wanted to catch up. A quick hello turned out to be a long visit with a game of cricket, wine and a long chatty dinner and Oreos ice cream for dessert!

Their house is way away from the maddening crowd and extremely elegant. It had a huge garden with lovely trees and a field beyond. It was on a kind of 'millionaire's row' , so the experience was quite novel for us. Their young one was a good friend of ours' and an ex classmate so it was also a surprise 'gift' for the two young ones.

They had a whale of a time looking for rabbit burrows, disrupting the cricket game and generally exploring around the garden and the house!

We came home around  10.30 pm with the kid fast asleep with a smile on her face!

What a wonderful day it was!

Here's to many many more such days!

US trip August 2015

It has been a year since the US trip but wanted to record some thoughts for memories' sake.

The main purpose of the trip was to meet my brother's family in Atlanta and get to know each other better as families. Which we did.

I and the little one went for three weeks and K joined us after the 1st week.

Chitlu enjoyed the huge trampoline in the back yard and loved trailing her niece who was 14 years old and a musical prodigy of sorts!

She loved running through the huge ambling house ( as houses in the US tend to be!)

She was very comfortable with my patient and loving sister in law.

Though she was initially wary of my very tall and reasonably built nephew..she soon got comfortable with him as well.

Of course her mama ( her uncle,  my brother) was gentle, playful and fondly indulgent with her and allowed her to call him 'dino' since she thought he must have born with the dinosaurs as he said he was 48 years old!

Unbelievably K had 4  of his college mates/ ex colleagues living around the same locality and we were asked to dinner at each of their places over the course of our stay there. Chinnu
with her British accent and huge brown eyes was a hit everywhere we went!

We were taken to the Atlanta aquarium which was huge and wonderful and the 4d shows were her favourite!

In the zoo she loved petting the animals and calling her Raja mama to view each and every one of the creepy crawlies that he was patently averse to!

We also went tubing in the Chatahoochee river! It was as funny as it could get! The sun was shining bright so we thought the tubing would be a breeze in the cool water. What we did not realize was that the tube left us burning all over with just our bums immersed in ice cold water! (Imagine a flat lying tyre - that was the tube!) It was  a long winding float down the river and by mistake K , the little one and my niece got off the tubes on a small strip before the actual landing which was further down.

I could not the bear the thought of going farther away in that silly tube, so when I could not navigate to this stupid (wrong!) stretch , from the middle of the river, I simply  jumped into the river (off the tube) and pushed the tube away. Only later realised the depth of the river (!) and started swimming desperately to the shore!

In the meanwhile, K is simultaneously shouting encouragements to me to swim safely and asking the other tubers to please recover the tube that I had so inconsiderately pushed away! ''20 dollars, 20 dollars'' he kept saying! (Grrrr!)

Finally when we all tied ourselves together and floated down to the actual strip.. we found that some bright spark from the tubing company had carefully fished out the tube I had sent floating without once wondering whatever happened to the poor soul who was supposed to be on that tube!

My nephew who was 17 found the entire episode hilarious and would not stop teasing me and K! :)

Never again shall I ever go tubing!
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The highlight was our trip to Florida with our cousin, her hubby and her two lovely boys. The three families stayed in a holiday townhouse and we all got on very well. Pattu slept on a Mickey Mouse bunk bed and was very thrilled!

We celebrated her birthday along with one the boys and had great fun decorating the house with balloons and bubbles and donning party hats and cutting cakes!

She had breakfast with the princesses at Disney and of course was deriliously happy. She was dressed as Elsa complete with tiara and everyone at the resort addressed her as a princess ! The employees at Disney Florida were a delight especially after the sour faced ones at the Paris Disneyland.

We went to Epcot and to the other resorts. Her favourite ride amongst everything was splash world and her favourite show was Beauty and the Beast where she was made part of the show along with the other kids!

My favourite bit was the disney fireworks in the evening. It was truly magical and memorable. We saw the same in Paris too but we were shivering in the August weather and the crowded alleys did not help the enjoyment. Here, I laydown right in front of the castle lawn and thoroughly enjoyed the magical show!

The trip to NASA (Kennedy Space centre, Florida) was quiet enjoyable as well. The 4 d film on space was quite an experience.

Once back to Atlanta we went on a day's trek to Amicalola falls and enjoyed the view from the top of the valley below.

The trip to the botanical gardens in Atlanta  was great as well.

One special personality to remember from the trip was 'Star Bucks', the cute chocolate Pomeranian in one of K's friend's house that Pattu petted so much that he growled only for the second time in his entire life!

We still tease her about that!

Perspective

This summer of 2016 is turning into one of the best ever! The weekends have been full of sun and breeze and with good friends for company we have been exploring Bosworth park, Ryton pools park etc. Boating in the lakes of Bosworth park, walking around the huge lake, picnicking ..repeating the same at Ryton pools with the additional perk of riding our bikes through the dense woods has been nothing short of fantastic!

Our young one rode the bike with us, the entire distance we did and also did the hikes and was still active in the evening too! Touchwood for the fitness!

The three kids - our R, her best  friend S, and our new kiddie neighbour N had a blast on the play areas, the muddy pool and boating. The ice creams in different colours helped their bonding too;)

No longer my little one, the young one also went Strawberry and Rasberry picking at Matlins farm followed by a trip to the war memorial park wither friend T. Her school friend T and her then came home and played till 11 pm!

She is definitely having a more roaring social life than either of us!

We also went to two houses for varalakshmi viratham and the other ladies there talk about having seen her the years before in these functions but do not remember me at all!

Now, to the real point of this post. While driving to and back from these places we get some nice songs on or the chart toppers from SAAVN. Sometimes we go nostalgic and this way we were listening to ' Taareef karoon kya uski jisne tumhe banaya! ( How do I praise the one who made you!) which is a romantic track of yester years.

Of late there has been a similar tamil song that goes ' Evan unnai peththan? (Who (the male equivalent) the hell gave birth to you!) which is also supposedly romantic.

K usually is very chilled out about this ( like he anyways is about everything else in life!) so I was quite surprised when he quipped for the 'Tareef karoon' song - how beautiful and elegant this song is when compared to the crass version of the latest song!

My suspicions were immediately aroused. I said ' That is new for you.. you never really bothered about these things before!'

K sheepishly replied ' Well, I now have a daughter and they could be , you know, if you take the literal meaning, in a way singing about me!

Aha! So that is the matter!

So  looks like God knew exactly what he was doing when he made K the adoring dad of a daughter huh?

:)

Paphos!

Back from beautiful Paphos and unlike the US trip..would rather write before I forget!

Stayed at the Aliathon fishing village which was also opposite the Louis Pedra beach. Personally for me..walking along this beach and going to sit on the stones jutting in to the waves to view the sun set in to the sea in warm pink and orange tones was the highlight of the trip!

As the little one commented ' Look mama!Sea and sun meeting and greeting in pink!'

For the little one the Jolly Rogers Pirate cruise where they played games, did some pirate face painting , magic show ( especially where the pigeon popped out of the hat! ) and the funny acrobatics was the highlight!

This despite her joining us in parasailing over the Louis Pedra beach ( where the rest of the crowd clapped for her for her fearlessness as we landed on the boat! ) and swimming in the sea ( across 9 metres deep water)  in the blue lagoon on a cruise there!  Though I must admit that due to the saltiness of the sea water she did say she disliked the sea swim.

The holiday village itself was loads of fun where we swam everyday in the big pool and in the paddling pool. The little one and her dad had enormous fun doing what they called Tumbly wumbly's'  ( where the kid gets flipped over under water by her daddy!) and diving off  and swimming lengths racing to see who reaches the other end first!

She also had a great time at the First Choice kids club chocolate party from where she emerged smeared in chocolate all over! Of course, what is not to like in that!

What I particularly liked was that when we went parasailing ..not only was she game enough to try it but also asked sensible questions about having to land in a moving boat and what she needs to do to land safely.

She however refused to go to kids club saying firmly that her idea is to spend more time with us and not making new friends. We were gently admonished for having suggested otherwise. :(

K had a wonderful time with the blue lagoon cruise and spent 3 hours swimming in the emerald sea.  I swam too but after an hour came on the boat to enjoy the lovely breeze and the live music not to mention the barbecue lunch and cold coffee!

I also have to say how friendly and relaxed all the locals were and it was a pleasure to interact with any of them. They were really lovely to kuttima and that for me is the deal maker!

On the negative side the resort massages were over priced and the excursions should never be booked through TUI as they did not deliver all that was promised and we seemed to have paid atleat 50percent more than those who booked onsite!

Never mind..we spent a lot of quality time together and the extra money is for a lesson well learnt for next time ! :)

The Dubai Trip!

Jotting titbits for memories sake!

a. The weather, cleaniness and the company ( V and C's adorable boys and their niece were wonderful company for the little one!) made this one of the best trips ever!

b. Loved the miracle garden. The wonderful weather was an added bonus.

c. Burj Khalifa was wonderful but missed clear views due to the clouds. However whatever we could see through the clouds was still fantastic!

d. The Dune bashing was ok. But the dunes themselves were mesmerizing..

e. The dolphinarium was surprisingly not the same as the ones we saw in Florida or Italy or Spain!  This is because the dolphins played some games amongst themselves without the instructor being involved at all.. I personally found it really good!

f. The wild wadi water park was good fun. I particularly enjoyed the aritifical beach with the warm waves. I floated on my back and lay peacefully looking at the clear sky. It was, for me, a beautiful experience.

g.The dubai water front was lovely. We went on a family exclusive boat ride and I had great fun!

h. The little ones enjoyed the Dubai underwater aquarium and zoo. But after the London sea life centre, the Spain aquarium and  the Atlanta aquariam, the little one was not impressed!

i. The fountain show was wonderful in the night with the music and did I mention the wonderful weather ? :)

j.I forget the name of the beach we went to - but it was clean, the water was lovely and we all had a blast!

Staying in a 2 bedroom apartment with V's family was great fun as one kid or the other did or said something naughty or charming. Even the little one's fights or tears were fond memories for me. To quote just one example, the littlest was 3 years old and fancied himself to be a lion roaring at everybody in his tiny voice. One day he got off his breakfast and announced ' The lion is now going to go for a wee!'. It was so spontaneous that it took a while for the rest of us to stop laughing! The 'lion' was mighty offended! :)

My precious daddy

1. 39 year old daddy is going out into the garden to fetch something..6 year old daughter pipes up ' Mummy Daddy is going out without his coat on! He may catch a cold! '. Dear pattuma.. your precious daddy  is much stronger than you think .. and I do not need to hold the coat and get his hands into his sleeves like I do for you!

2. Daddy is fixing the trampoline for his darling daughter now that summer is finally here. The little one comes rushing in. ' Mummy please may I have a band aid?'. ' Why Kannamma? ' . ' Daddy has got a scratch in his hand and it is bleeding. He has not even seen it. I do not want it to hurt! '. Need I say more?

3. Dad is away travelling. I pick her up from school and am driving home. 'So, what did you do at school sweetheart?'. ' I was thinking about daddy and missing him!'

4. This happened when the little one was barely 5 years old. We were at a softplay area and having not able to spot the little one amongst all the other children, dad gets up from our restaurant area and goes to check if his little one is safe. Shoes are not allowed in the soft play area so he removes them at the entrance to the area. While he is searching on one side, the little one comes out through the other side, spots her dad's shoes and brings them over to me saying ' Mummy, these are MY daddy's shoes. Somebody took it there and I have brought it back! '. 

In the meanwhile Daddy comes having not found his daughter and as a bonus, having lost his shoe! ' I did not know even people in this country stole shoes! I am very surprised'. I had to then explain to him that the 'thief' was none other than his own precious darling!

Letters to my Princess -4

Dear Pattumma..

You made me burst with pride again last week..

Basically you started to learn to ride your bike with the stabilisers off just last week. In a matter of half an hour you had cracked it and albeit unsteadily - you were whizzing past a lot of amused joggers (and their dogs!)  :)

So.. this went on for a while and appa was worried you would be too tired.! Now-as parents of an precious, much awaited for, much loved and only child - we do plead guilty to being over protective of you and being 'helicopter' parents that may do you more harm than good..

However, that day we all wanted to end the day with an icecream and appa suggested that he would carry the bike while you and I made our way to the icecream van that was quiet a distance away..

Just hoping to tease you I said.. 'No daddy ..do not carry her bike.. if she wants her icecream, she would have to cycle for it!'.. And pat came your reply ' Do not worry Daddy.. I want to earn this icecream! ' and you rode like the wind to the van :) Only some 'Rocky' style back ground music was missing!

We know how much these things tire you - so we know what an effort this is.

And this is not just an one off! Your uncle cannot praise you enough for your positive and sunny attitude to every day of your life, your teachers keep talking about  your great attitude and how you think hard work is something to be proud about..and I cannot but notice how even my temper tantrums fail before your persistent beaming sunshine attitude!

You are small, of low weight and height even for a year younger to you and you are always the youngest in any class due to the date of your birth..but you happily refuse to acknowledge any of the above and just focus on punching well above your weight..

Sweet heart.. no Diva 'Earns' her icecream or any other reward  as stylishly as you do my darling..

Love you to the moon and back..

Amma

PS

You did also learn Division and earn your stars for the same this same week but this was way more fun!

PPS

You also turned a corner in your handwriting..lovely, neatly spaced sentences making their way now..well done chitlu!