The Oct pages - Suhana's Diamond ring, yr 2nd alld trip and lesson in evacuation & yr lil bro

Dear Son,

The seating arrangement in your class is slightly different from most schools. boys and girls are seated around tables, alternatively i.e. boy sitting next to a girl sitting next to a boy... so you know more girls then boys. in a good way - i thought as in your previous school it was always girls vs boys. so every week you come home and talk about a new girl. trust me i was a happy mom till this point. then you drew a diamond ring and asked me to get this for Suhana as was wearing a very pretty frock!!! you initially insisted we go to her house and give it to her. you have changed your plans since last week and now you insist we buy one on amazon and deliver it to her house. because she wore a pretty dress once. We were still reeling when you manned up and confessed your love for Sia but to change the love of your life every week and taking it to the next step forward by locking it with a ring is a chat i had kept aside for maybe 20 years from now.

Snacks - Oh and in other news i shared my choc cupcake recipe with Sia's mom. and we both sent cupcakes. and you came home and said Sia's cupcakes were better. and now you want to take cookies for your class even though its not your turn. Just because you want to...

Yesterday i took you for a hair cut after a very long time. the last time i had taken you for probably 2 years back and you had cried, thrown up and ended up getting a messy haircut. this time i bribed you with a "slim & small" airplane and you were an angel. You were quite keen on looking like Salman and not Shah rukh though. Amir Khan was not in the running this time thankfully.

Recently you have gained a slightly obsessive quality about hoarding things. I got your grandma a wardrobe organizer. You took it away to your kitchen saying you needed it. we saw it being used as an organizer for all things that could be hanged in a kitchen. I was discarding some not so useful kitchen gadgets the other day and you took those too to your kitchen. did i tell you your pink and mauve kitchen has expanded to your study table and chair. we are things of giving you a few side tables too to store your ever-expanding utensils and other kitchen tools.

The second Allahabad trip was historically funny. Let me start with the train journey. You were more aware of the difference in the crowd. You chatted quite freely with quite a few strangers and also made friends with some children in the train. Thankfully in the train bathroom you did not ask me what is this for? You did not run away too. You loved climbing up and down and were not scared at all. But you were still spooked by the bugs and you think Allahabad is a city inside a zoo as there are too many animals here. i liked your perspective, albeit a bit wild.

Oh and did i tell you you tend to chnage your allegiance to different Gods every few months.
Last year you made us buy a statue of Hanuman as you wanted to do puja of a red hanumanji. This time also you started your demans for a hanuman costume and gada but halfway through Allahabad dusshera you became a huge fan of Lord Shiva. we were corrected everytime we said shivji. So then you wnated to get the wig to look like him. and tiger -skin look-alike clothes and a trishul. because you wnated to do the tandav dance. you also showed me how. but you still wnated to do it in full glory - read costume. we didnt find any of these things because you know na allahabd dusshera is slightly busy with ramleela every few kms. anyways i suggested we can grow your hair amd make it dirty to make it similar to lord shiva hairstyle but you were not satisfied. everytime you googled lord shiv hair on my phone you would push the phone under my nose and say i want this hair! thankfully you forgot all about the fake hair in delhi.

On our flight back, you got frantic to understand and touch and feel the emergency landing manual and the gear which inluces the vest and and oxygen mask etc. again. so we badgered a cute airhostess at Vistara to give you a tutorial on the same. you did manage to rattle a few travellers by your persistent what-if in case of emergency handling questions - what of the plane lands on water? what if it lands in the forest and the best - i want the plane to land on water because then i will be on the boat!
btw this is how the con started after all the passengers had de-boarded:
air-hostess - why do you wnat to know about the emergency landing? do you wnat to be a pilot?
you: no
air-hostess - do you want to be a crew then?
you - no
air-hostess - what do you want to be then?
you - i want to be a scientist and do a lot of experiments
air-hostess to me: Ma'am your son ahs high IQ levels thats why he wnats to know these things in detail
me: haha hmmmm can we start the instructions please!

oh and somthing happened recently that made you go awwww so cute. no seriously this is what you say everytime you see your little brother who you refused to call anything but Jack Jack before he was born but now you call him Arjun :) 

Waiting for customers...

Dear Darsh,

Today you received your 1st new kitchen set of the year.  But you have grown up a little now. You didn't want me to be your customer today. All geared-up in a chef hat and an apron, you were waiting for nana-nani (no 6) to serve them. All your kitchen equipments were lined up neatly with 4 mini plates ready to serve dal, roti & sabzi. You were also excited as you knew they will get you a lego set again. They did.
Today, you also cried as you wanted to go to USA with them. Sadly you were told that no one got your tickets. Actually that happened almost 6 hrs back but you are still upset about it. You refused to speak to kaka kaki today.
We have decided that in your restaurant jack jack will be the head waiter and you will be the restaurant manager. The menu, however will be the same.
Today, during lunch time, you showed me how you roll your roti everyday in school. That was the best moment of the day for me. Did i tell you i love you? I do so much more than you know 😚
In August we started you on two new things - table tennis and music. Let's see how long we can do it this time...

June 3, 2016

Dear Darsh,

Brace yourself because this is a long one…

Your nani was pretty mystified when she saw you crying today. After much cajoling you told me on the phone that the reason you were crying was because you broke a fridge magnet and because you do not want to go to Angad’s birthday.

Till date your attitude towards broken thing is that ‘it’s okay, we would get another one!’ Broken things do not cause a calamity in our house as much as a lost hand or the missing toilet roll of your lego people. So I guess you were majorly upset because of Angad. I am quite sure you will not be friends with Angad ever and here’s why: You both have hated each other at first sight and even though the moms get along pretty okay, there has always been a lot of friction tempered with jealousy between you two. You pretended to be excited about going to the party last evening and even today morning when I said bye to you but I guess you must have reflected over it during the day and you must have decided that you hate him after all. I am sure you will make lots of friends and enemies along your way but I am happy that you have finally decided to be honest about your feelings to me and to yourself.

Summer holidays are becoming unbearable for you I guess because you have been watsapping like crazy to your aunts, uncles, multiples grand parents and your dadi. You are luring the oldies with food and movies and you tempted your Simmi mosi with a pair of red stilettos. She came of course.

She has been mollycoddling you like a baby and you are thoroughly enjoying every bit of it. She litereally does everything for you and everytime she asks you who is your favorite mosi you tell her it is neha mosi!

The superhero drawing have gone beyond me as now you draw all of them together and then ask me to identify them. Most of the time they look like ants crawling on a paper so then you patiently point out each by his and her name and then expect me to remember it for next time. And if that is not enough to torture,  you are also planning to recite a superhero story in school as part of your summer assignment even though it clearly says it has to be story from a “book” and not an imagined war scene!

Btw did i tell you that you drew/inserted an ironman in the 3 bears and Goldilocks story?

We went to Hon Kong in May for a week again this year. You bought more than a sozen lego superheros and villains and I really thought we were done for now but you have already started your new shopping list on amazon.

You have started reading on your own these days but we always end up arguing when I try to correct you. You still hold the pencil awkwardly but atleast now I know you prefer to use your right hand.

We spoke on phone yesterday and because I was in office I did not say those 3 words so you kept waiting for me to say it and when I didn’t you started it this time. You said mama I love you and then waited for my I love you too my baby. Really, I think I can do with some raised eyebrows in my office these days J  

4 elephants on my wrist: 16 may 2016

4 elephants on my wrist: 16 may 2016: Dear Darsh, Your new best friend’s name is scratchy. When you come home from school, that’s the first thing you grab on to. It literal...

16 may 2016

Dear Darsh,

Your new best friend’s name is scratchy. When you come home from school, that’s the first thing you grab on to. It literally hangs around your body all the time, especially when you are sleeping. Yesterday I had gone to pick up my parents and you insisted on coming along. With Scratchy ofcourse. That’s what you call it. I don’t know why since it does not scratch at all. The journey down those 12 floors to the basement has never been this embarrassing. People in the lift would look at you and then at me. I simply shrugged. Scratchy in this lemon green flower printed summery blanket that I cover you with when the summer bedroom temp goes south of 20 degrees (yes the a.c., my age old nemesis). For some unknown reason you have adopted the blanket it as your pet, but since you have not started feeding it yet , i should probably just call it your friend or your inseparable companion. Your father likens you to Linus - the younger brother of Lucy. He made sucking thumb and holding a security blanket normal for kids his age. He also gave rise to the dictum – “happiness is a warm blanket, Charlie brown”. You are way past his age. But yet you remain happy with the oversized blanket.

You broke my favorite pie dish yesterday and when you saw me distraught over the loss you simply said we would buy another one mama. I could have never gotten away with such a statement at your age. Someone would have disciplined me then and there and there were so many disciplinarians in my house as it was a joint family… Anyways you also locked me while I was taking a bath. Thankfully there were people around.

The weekend school project was to aesthetically create a“self portrait” with dead leaves from the garden. Basically the school wanted you to re-explore the natural surroundings of the park in our society, at ground-level to be exact. You are ofcourse a cleanliness freak and found gazing up at the sky more interesting so I had to get down and point out the leaves/ grass etc for you to pick up. This went on for a few minutes until I pointed out something that wasn’t really decayed leaves and flowers …. yup dog poop. And then you spotted a very scary frog. After that you ran home and I had to follow you. I told you to draw yourself on a paper as we had to then stick dry leaves on it. The self portrait was more like “Wilson”, the friend that Tom Hanks had drawn in Cast Away. and if the self portrait was not scary enough already, it looked even creepier after it got adorned with the park fauna. I wonder what your teacher has to say about it.

You really enjoyed the zumba class on Saturday even though it was for women and you were the only kid around. You also enjoyed the skating class last week and we were amazed to see you move around so effortlessly in skates. I have plans for you now :D

Keep smiling my baby, my superstar my little Linus

hulk vs ultron lego

LEGO Super Heroes Mighty Micros Hulk vs. Ultron 76066 https://www.amazon.in/dp/B01AW1RAVI/ref=cm_sw_r_awd_qY.jxbG28Q9E0

LEGO Super Heroes Mighty Micros Hulk vs. Ultron 76066 https://www.amazon.in/dp/B01AW1RAVI/ref=cm_sw_r_awd_qY.jxbG28Q9E0