Anjali painting

Anjali and I went to the pet store in west mall to see what kind off guinea pig food was available, and the general cost of guinea pig maintainence. Then, on our way back, we passed the paint shop and Anjali wanted to paint. She chose a gingerbread man, and I was quite amazed by how far her painting skills have improved since we did this the last time. Nice features include - Symmetry and pattern generation (The left and the right cheek were both green, both legs had sandwiches on it etc). Also, Anjali has learnt to use her q-tip, push the paint around, and then to clean the q-tip with a tissue paper before taking the next paint.

I tried not to interfere (much) and just observed her painting, and I really learnt much

Sophia talking

It is a well known fact that Sophia talks two to a dozen

"She talks more in one day than you ever did in your whole life", I told husband this morning.

Not just that, she also knows all the songs ever in existence and has a perfect tone (I should try to put her in vocal or something)

She sings, some of which we know, some which we can guess, and some which we donot know. The trouble comes when she asks me to join her in singing those songs that I donot know. She would hum something, stop and then say "amma shing!"

=======

Yesterday night, Anjali had a sleepover at patti's house. Sophia, husband and i came back home and spent some time reading. SOphia's favorite bok, is ofcourse, brown bear brown bear. And now, she has added Lemons are not red to her reading list. We borrowed it several months ago for Anjali, but Anjali already knew her colors.  Sophia is just learning her colors and it is a perfect book for her right now, the die cut pages making reading a pleasure.

doll show at HDB hub

There is a doll show at the HDB hub where they are displaying dolls dressed in the costumes of different countries. We didnt spend too much time there, as we were running to the SPCA, but it might be a worthwhile trip to those who live nearby.

ToaPayoh has gotten a real facelift since we stayed there twelve years ago

So, we settled on a guinea pig

So, we settled on a guinea pig. We even found a very beautiful, very sleek black and white guinea pig at the SPCA.

We were at the SPCA on sunday afternoon after the walk. Sophia was very astounded by all the animals "Sho manny dogsh!", she kept saying.

After looking at all the animals, we finally settled on a beautiful guinea pig, which all of us, Anjali included, liked. It was black and white, with a very sleek fur, and liked to burrow and hide under newspaper.

Unfortunately, she was taken. Two families had already placed a reservation on her, and they were waiting for the vet to finish the sterilization procedures. Now, both Anjali and husband and (I must admit) me also, have fallen quite in love with the sleek rabbit like creature. So much that we are looking for another one.

Lets see where this adventure leads us.

Imam Bayildi: The best ever way of wooking eggplants

What is needed:
eggplants
A large baking tray or corningware which can be covered
Tomatoes
onions
sugar
salt
parsley
garlic
red bell pepper

How to do
1. The night before salt the eggplants (cut in half lengthwise), put in colander and let drain in fridge
2. Drain the next morning
3. Fry eggplants cut side down in oil for five minutes or so. take out the eggplants
4. fry onion garlic bell pepper in the same oil and then add tomatoes, 1tsp sugar, salt, papper parsley etc
5. Put eggplants in corningware such that the fried side is up and then put the tomato mixture on top of it.
6. Bake, covered at 180 degrees for half an hour

Heaven with a bit of crusted bread

Radha and Krishna

Sophia was Krishna and Anjali was Radha. Ofcourse, Krishna refused point blank to wear a band on his head with a peacock feather, although we tried multiple times, but he refused to take off his dhothi until after we got home from patti's house

Stay still Krishna and Radha, and let me take a proper picture

Finally, the proper picture

Isnt this adorable and the very picture of devotion??

Radha favored oma podi and Krishna favored - big surprise - aval

Krishna, donot stick your tongue out - its not becomming

Enjoying the food

Radha did spend some time praying

And enjoying the festivities

But Krishna was so focused on the food

And soon Radha too joined in

More aval for me!!

Radha

Anjali wanted to dress up as Radha for krishna Jayanthi. Ofcourse Sophia also wanted to dress up as Radha, but all her pavadais were either in the wash or too small, so we dressed her in the salwar instead. Here are the photos. Anjali carried her Radha costume all the way to patti's house and was still wearing it when i left for work. Some gopika she is, isnt she?

Changed targets

"when we go to the market, mummy", said Anjali, "Lets buy a cat from the pet shop"

This was a little difficult, for a couple of reasons - first, there was no pet shop in the market, and second, patti would go ballistic if we ever got a cat in our home. (There is a sad story involving my youth, a visit to the SPCA and a returned kitten, but that is for another day)

We were on our way to the market, me carrying  Sophia and husband carrying Anjali, when this strange request happened. The plan had been to buy flowers from Krishna Jayanthy and to return.

"Shapia want it - meeshai", piped up the other imp.

"Why on earth do you girls want a cat?", I asked. "The cat will run all around the house and leave cat hair everywhere"

Anjali paused to consider

"I will clean up the cat hair mummy", she explained. "Every morning, after I get up and brush my teeth, I will take a byoom and sweep up the cat hair and then I will take the cat with me and give it a bath and I will take a bath also"

"What if the cat does not want to take a bath? What if it does like you and says "I dont want to take a bath?" then what will you do?", I asked

"Then I will open the door and let it out of the bathroom", replied Anjali promptly. She firmly believes in not letting animals do things that they dont want to do

"But then if the cat doesnt take a bath for one month, it will become dirty and smelly.", I countered

"Then I will carry the cat and put it in the bathtub - you know the red bathtub in which Sophia take a bath - and then I will take a sponge, dip it in water and dip it in soap and then clean the cat up"

"taie meeshai, take meeshai, hug meeshai"

"Ok, but what happens when some cat hair gets into patti's nose and if patti is alergic to cat hair, and then she will catch a cold" I asked

It took Anjali a few seconds to consider this, as terms such as allergy were new to her.

"But there will not be any cat hair in the house", she replied, "I will clean up all the cat hair. I will do it every morning. I will not go to school and spend my time cleaning cat hair"

Ah!

"Anjali", I said, very sternly - as sternly as i could while trying to keep a straight face "You cant skip school and clean up cat hair. It doesnt work that way"

"Alright", said Anjali unconcernedly. "I will clean up cat hair everymorning and when I am not there, Sophia can take the byoom - you know the byoom mummy? - Sophia can take that byoom and clean up the cat hair"

"take byoom.. clean up...", echoed Sophia from my hip

"Ok", I said, trying to see a way out of the situation. "How will you take care of the cat"

"Oh!", said Anjali, "You must let it yun ayound and yun ayound... " - she paused - "I will ask some people who have cats how to tae care of them"

Ah! an escape route!

"Do you know anyone who has a cat?"

"No!"

Atlast! "So, how will you learn how to take care of a cat?"

Anjali stopped for a bit, thinking. I turned my attention to the other imp.

"Meeshai! Thake Meeshai, Thaaaie Meeshai"

"What do you want?"

"Meeshai want it Shapia!"

"But it will be putting cat hair all over the place"

"tlean up!" (As if that were so easy!)

"Mummy", interrupted Anjali, "You know... i think Tricia has a cat"

"Ok", I said. "You find out from Tricia how to take care of a cat and then we will get a cat"

But Anjali wasnt finished.

"I will sleep with the cat in the hall", she continued, "and you, daddy and Sophia sleep in the bedyoom"

"But what if the cat wants to sleep with me on the bed?" I asked

Anjali looked at me as though I was quite daft

"But the cat will not want to sleep with you", she explained, as though stating the obvious. "You know it will only want to sleep with me, because I love evything!"

Right!

"We will have to put a mattress or bed in the hall for you and the cat", I said. "The floor will be too hard"

"Never mind mummy", said Anjali. "I will be ok, I can sleep on the hard floor"

"What will you feed the cat?"

"Oh, we can give it milk", came the prompt reply.

"How much milk do you need to give the cat?"

"One kilo.... no, I think half a kilo will be ok"

"Half a kilo everyday?"

"Yes. Only me and the cat will drink all the milk in the house!"

"Can Sophia also drink the milk?"

"Ok"

"Can daddy drink some milk also? Daddy likes milk you know?"

"Ok."

"Anjali, why dont we just pretend that daddy is a cat and feed him milk and then it will be all fine"

"No mummy, I want a real cat"

"Anjali," said husband "Why dont we give you another little sister (WHAT??) instead of a cat? You know, you can change diapers and everything"

"No daddy! I want a real cat"

"Shapia alsho"

"What do you want?"

"Want it anai!"

"huh!"

"Want it tutti anai thaaaie"

Well.. whatever!

Chestnuts

I was on a phone for about a quarter of an hour yesterday morning and Sophia was hanging on to me as she and Anjali had had a fight about who would cook balloons in the oven.

To keep her a bit busy, I took out the box of chestnuts, a spoon and a couple of bowls. She was quietly playing with them for ten minutes

========
The balloons in the oven game:

Husband got the girls a pack of 50 odd balloons on Friday evening. We blew a handful of balloons and tossed them around. Then Sophia took the box and was doing something with it near the printer. I wasnt paying much attention to what she was doing until she kept saying things like "This is vei hot"

I thought, ofcourse that the printer was warm.

"Sophia", I said, "if it is hot, dont touch it"

But she went on touching the printer, opening the feeder, closing it, and going "vei hot! No toush"

So I went up and stood there, amazed at the ingenuity of her play.

The girl was putting balloons in the printer feeder tray (the same place where she had put husband's phone a couple of months ago), pretending that they were cakes and baking them. Thats why it was "vei hot"

So, now a very elaborate game has gotten around at home, involving baloons, multiple ovens (the printer and the small oven that is inbuilt in the cardboard kitchen I made) and birthdays. The conversation that happens is as follows:

"Sophia, what are you doing?"

"thake making Shapia"

"you are making a cake?"

"mm"

"For who?"

"Daddy"

"Why are you making a cake for daddy?"

Sophia pauses and considers

"tuni sella?"

"Its daddy's tuni sella?"

"mm"

"Go tell him"

Sophia tears asa fast as a toddler who is not yet two can toddle

"Daddy, tunisella twala!"

fixated on a dog

Anjali is still fixated on getting a dog. We brought up the getting a guinea pig or a fish topic again. husband had found out that people were on classifieds and offering guinea pigs for adoption and things like that. But Anjali would have none of it. She wants a dog. And thats that.

The one thing she cant have, and she wants it. And to make matters more frustrating, bunica brings the little bobby to the webcam every time. Now, how can i get around this?

We had a picnic at the bukit batok hill park on saturday evening. Nothing fancy, we just packed our dinner, brought it out. The Bukit Batok hill park has an adjoining playground and a nice grassy area for picnicking. Now, there was a little kitten that was frisking around. Sophia chased after the kitten a little but wouldnt touch it. Anjali and husband had been out for a bit of a walk, and when they came back, Anjali saw the kitten. One bound, and she was at the kittne, and was stroking it asif it belonged to her. I was very surprised at the lack of fear, and ofcourse, rather pleased.

Anjali was so comfortable with the kitten that after a bit, Sophia also came cautiously along and touched the kitten with the tip of her finger.

Anjali is starting to be very comfortable arund animals. We were at the bidpark, and she, quite fearlessly, and bravely fed the lories, tried to catch the parrots and even held a cup of worms for the birds to eat from. Sandhya has photos, and I guess I'll have to chase after herto give them.

working and no working

we all know that a white marker on a white floor is classified as "no woking" and a green marker on a white floor classifies as "this woking".

There are other things in and around our home that can be classified as working or not working.

The funny thing happened when i tried to put her in the bathroom before going out on Sunday. She obiligingly sat on the toilet seat and tried to do something

"no woking!", she said morosely when nothing came out

More reflection: Money and toys

"You are quite different from other people, you know", said Sandyha, as she sat with us one evening, helping Anjali and I with one of what she calls my "crap innovative projects". I was going on about how I was looking at toys in the store and they were all made of plastic and felt and were mostly so uniform and expensive and soulless.

"Why?", I asked

"Let me see", she said, "for one thing, you think a lot about money"

Whoa. That was unexpected. Do i think a lot about money? Ofcourse, I naturally think a good bit about spending and then, before buying something, I stop and think if I can make the same thing. For instance, when i was in Portland, I saw this fairy garden kit for $25. It was really pretty, with a box and all. Then i looked at what it contained. A potting tray ($0.50), grass seeds ($1.50), pebbles (free from the park), soil (five kilos for $5 or, if I am adventurous, free form the park). Now which kind of Mathematics makes it add up to $25?

Then again, one of the things I was firmly brought up to believe was that if we think about money, and enforce its value, so will the children. And we do intend to implement an allowance scheme in a couple of years time.

On the topic something nice happened yesterday evening. The girls were drinking some juice from a nice carton. After the juice was finished, Anjali brought the pack to me.

"Mummy, finished juice", she said

"Good, now through the carton into the garbage", I advised. My hands were a bit full, as I was doing something with Sophia.

"Mummy, throw catron in garbage", said Anjali. And then she added

"Maybe we can make something with it... like a flower vase?"

"Maybe we can..." I said, thinking. "in that case, we'll have to wash it". Can you put it in the sink to wash?

So she went and put the carton in the sink. Now I have to think about how to turn it into a flower vase without all the fruits showing up. Paper mache seems an obvious idea. but we spent all of yesterday evening paper macheing my tissue paper roll stool, that I dont think Anjali will like another session of paper mache. I'll try to rip off the top layer and get her to color them with markers or something.

But the delightful thing is that she has come to understand that we can make something out of throw away stuff. 

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Evil people

Two nights ago, I was feeling surprisingly awake at night. So, when the girls clamoured for story, I rose to the occassion with the story about the crows and the serpent.

In retrospect, however, it might not have been the optimal story to share before bed time.

"Mummy", said my daughter, "If you leave me and Sophia alone at home and some evil people come, then we will close the door and pray at the altar"

Faith and theology: check
Practicality: needs to be worked on.

"Thats a good idea", I said, while internally uh ohing myself. "But I am not going to leave you alone"

"Why mummy?"

"Because you are small and someone needs to take care of you, so until you are bigger, either mummy or daddy or patti will be at home to take care of you and Sophia"

"No, but you can leave me in Bharatnatyam class and then go shopping or something"

That is very magnanimous of her, especially since she is not letting me get out of her ballet classes

"I already do that", i pointed out.

"Then, when patti is taking care of me, and when some evil persons come to our house, patti will close the door and tell the evil persons to go away."

Right you are

Shapia

"Thish ish Shapiash thing"

"Shapia do it"

"taisam" (that coule be either try some or thair sadam)

"Anchaali sitting Shapia behind!"

"Amma take off dutta" (when she was crying and I had to carry her in a duppatta and cut veggies this morning)

"Thish Ish Shapia's belly"

"This Ish Amma's belly" (Oops!)

"Poing water take off jetti too much water in it now!"

"Amma ba bua Amma ba bua Amma ba bua Amma ba bua Amma ba bua Amma ba bua Amma ba bua Amma ba bua Amma ba bua Amma ba bua Amma ba bua Amma ba bua Amma ba bua Amma ba bua"

"Want to do it. Shapia. thish penshil." (white pencil) "no thish penshil" (another white pencil)

"Thish pen no working. " (white pen on white floor) "Thish pen working" (green pen on white floor)

"Amma ba bua Amma ba bua Amma ba bua Amma ba bua"

"pal pal hai bhaai bipta hai aayi! Amma shing!"

"tooda toda toda toda"



"Amma ba bua Amma ba bua Amma ba bua Amma ba bua Amma ba bua Amma ba bua"

"Nandita medhini" (dancing)

"Amma! want it bua bua! now!"

A new activity

I took a leaf out of jyothi's book and took the girls to the carwash yesterday. They spent a happy quarted of an hour standing behind a glass window seeing the cars getting soaped and sprayed

Ofcourse, the journey to the carwash (about 200 meters) took half an hour. We stopped three dogs, watched badminton games, played in playgrounds, picked flowers and finally went to the carwash. On the way back, we stopped a the playground again as jessica had gotten her duplos (Should I get a small pack of duplos for Sophia? She fixed them and was really excited about it).

Then Sophia started asking for patti. This was wierd, as Sophia never asks for patti.

"Are you hungry?" I asked her

"patti feedu me", she said, morosely

i asked Anjali to come home, but she wanted to stay in the playground. So I left her with Jessica to play and went up for Sophia's dinner. The idea was to ask husband to come back and pick up Anjali. But husband wasnt back from work and so Sophia and I and the yogurt rice came down to play with duplos.

Fun evening. We'll probably try the carwash again.

I am not going to cave in about the puppies.

More on puppies

Anjali has gotten into the habit of stopping passers by who have dogs and asking them how to take care of the dog.

"Excuse me!!", she would say, running boldly after the dog walker.

"Yes"

"can you tell me how to take care of your dog?"

Usually, the person would smile and let her play a bit with the dog before continuing with the walk. She is not very daunted, however, and keeps asking, at every available opportunity, for me to get her a dog. I dotn suppose I can bowl over easily.

I guess she can have her turn at taking care of the new puppy when we go to Romania. That will teach her the responsibility of having a dog.

Motherhood in retrospect

"Enough Sandhya!", I exclaimed, as my girls huddled around her miniscule laptop watching lakdi ki kathi for the 20th time.

Naturally, neither Sandhya, nor my own two girls took any notice of me. Instead they switched videos and watched clips from sound of music.

"Well", i said in retrospect, "i suppose that we all come back a full circle. About ten years ago, I used to be the person introducing Sharukh khan songs to Sandhya and Sabreesh. And Chitthi used to keep telling me to stop. Now I understand where it came from."

"Atleast Sandhya has better taste than you had", replied husband, as "So long, good night" came on

I have always scoffed at aunts and some friends, who, when faced with motherhood, had to give up some of their other passions. When i was seventeen, an aunt said that she never watched movies, she didnt have the time. And I was so shocked about it. Now I scoff at people who do watch movies, remarking sagely "But movies are such a passive medium of instruction. You are better off reading books"

But have I really stopped doing everything I liked? I sit back and I think - what are the things I liked to do before motherhood?

I used to love reading. I still do. I have not changed in that bit. But something has changed - what i read. I am aware of the limited time I have, and therefore have upped the quality of books needed to satisfy me. No more trashy nora roberts volumes. I am going for more "intellectual??" "witty??" books.

Computer gaming. I did  a fair bit of it. But now I have given it up sompletely

Movies: I still watch movies. But it follows as with the books. What I watch is not what is randomly thrown at me, but something that I pick with my own discernment

Crafting: My prebaby days were filled with crocheting and crafting projects. My post baby days are too, just that i tend to involve my kids in my crocheting and crafting projects.

So there is not much of a change in the type of work appreciated pre and post baby, but in the quality of work appreciated.  I think its a fair tradeoff, isnt it?

When we run out off messy stuff to do, this is another option that we play with often

Incase you are wondering, I am singing in the background, trying to make Sophia go to sleep.

Naturally, it didnt work

Helping husband

The girls helped husband install my new plant support on Sunday

Putting the screws on the holes. A very good hand eye coordination activity

See the expressions of concentration?

The story of the kickscooter

This is a long overdue story of the kick scooter.

One day, when the girls were talking with me over Skype, Anjali told me

"Mummy, I lost my kick scooter"

Naturally, I was a bit shocked because the kick scooter was new. It transpired that Sandhya and the girls had gone down to play and they had left the scooter near the exercise playground. When they had finished playing, a few mintues later, they had returned to find the kickscooter gone.

Naturally, we were upset, especially since Anjali loved her kickscooter. Husband and i were saying that we should get a new kickscooter when I returned, when patti had a nice idea

"I met Jyoti on the way", said patti. "She said that some kid might have wanted a shiny new scooter and taken it home, but the parents would reinforce honesty and return it. maybe we'll print out some notices and put them up. Someone may return them."

"It wont work!", said my ever pessimistic husband

But patti can be quite tenacious and she got husband to print a few copies of the the lost and found announcement.

The next afternoon, someone called. It was as Jyothi had said. Some kid had take the scooter up, and their mother met up in the playground and returned it to us

This is where we slept on Saturday night

Anjali wanted to sleep in a tent on the beach

That was out of question because Sophia was running a barf competition, so we did the next best thing and camped in our living room.

Evidently, the girls enjoyed this more than me and husband, the floor was hard (as opposed to the grass you would camp in), but it was worth it when, on Sunday morning, Anjali woke up, took stock of her surroundings, got up immediately and said "Mummy, its morning!"

Of pets and such

Husband had to take care of the kids for a couple of hours while I was away at IEP meeting.

"I know!", he said. "I'll take them to the market and we'll buy an aquarium for keeping fish."

Anjali thought that it was a grand idea. However, an hour down the road, she was not at all satisfied.

"Daddy!", she said after lunch "Lets go to the petshop and buy a hamster"

"huh!", said husband "When did the fish change to a hamster?"

But Anjali would have none off the fish. She wanted hamster and hamster it had to be.

Husband therefore did some research and found that for a pet, a guinea pig is better than a hamster.

"I want a guinea pig", said Anjali.

Sandhya thought that we were all quite crazy.

So husband bundled up the kids and took them to the clementi pet store.

"Do you know what is a guinea pig, Anjali?", I asked her

"What?", she questioned, confirming my suspicions

"A guinea pig is a pink color water bottle", I tried. "You can drink water from it"

"Ha ha", she said. "Very funny!!"

So they went to the pet shop and I went for IEP and when I came back, Anjali was very sad

"Mummy, i want a puppy, but daddy said that I cannot have a puppy"

"Ofcourse you cannot have a puppy. Do you know how to take care of it?"

"I know how to take care of a puppy!"

"How?"

"You must let it yun ayound and yun ayound and yun around and then after that you must catch it"

"Ok, and what will you feed the puppy?"

"We will just feed it some bones"

"We dont eat too much chicken aorund here, so where will we get bones from??"

"Oh, we can just buy some bones from the bone shop", says the girl of all answers

One of these days she might bamboozle us into buying her a puppy, but for now I think we can still persuade her. 

Adventures with Barf

THe pattern has been going on for three days. Typically at midnight, Sophia would wake up and go "Amma Amma". I would turn to her and nurse. Ordinarily, she would nurse away and go back to sleep. But this didnt happen on Friday.

"Amma Amma, want it bua bua".

"You are already having bua bua"

She bagan to cry.

"Amma, want it bua bua. Now!"

I was beginning to wake up and as I did, i realized something odd. Sophia was unusually warm. A quick check with the thermometer showed 37.2 degrees. Not high, but not nice either, especially since, two hours before, she was sitting in thattha's lap and giving me the cheek.

A dose of panadol and a drink of milo didnt alleviate things.

"Amma taie me. Amma taie me. sleep amma thoppai. want it bua bua now!"

I must have known that what happened would happen. She barfed. And we had to change the sheets.

On Saturday night, we changed plans and slept in a tent (More on that later). The girls were quite excited by the tent, that, though the coughing continued, the barfing didnt.

But last night was the worst of them, especially as I was battling with three nights of unglorified wakefullness.

The good news, however, was that Sophia coughed up phlem (all over me) and now her cough appears to have broken

At the botanical gardens on husband's birthday

Fish feeding at botanical gardens

Jumping around the grass

Walking in the grass

Anjali in her kick scooter

grass crawling

Photos from husband's birthday

Here are the long overdue pictures from husband's birthday

Birthday cake: apple and apricot cobbler

And a video or the birthday songs

laptop regrets

"Anjali says that she wants a laptop", said patti. "I told her that she should ask thattha to get her one"

"There are such things for kids you know", I replied. "I have seen that Vtech has a learning laptop for children. I have been putting a string on electronic toys for the children, but I know that they exist"

"mummy, I want a learning laptop", says Anjali, who always hears the stuff that we dont want her to hear. "I want a pink learning laptop."

"ok. Lets go to the library", i said, trying to change the topic.

"no mummy.", counters my imp. "lets not go to the library. Lets go to the laptop shop and buy a pink learning laptop. We can go to the library tomorrow."

"sigh"

Somehow I got the girls to the library. When we were leaving Anjali tells husband.

"Daddy, i want a pink laptop"

"You want a pink laptop.", repeated husband, a bit shellshocked

"Want it alsho", says the other pixie

"What do you want?", I ask her, hoping against hope

"pink tompooter"

"uh oh! A pink computer"

"I dont want a pink computer!", syas Anjali. "I want a pink laptop"

"Shapia want it. pink tompooter"

"Ok, Anjali wants a pink laptop and Sophia wants a pink computer"

"ayange tompooter, puple tompooter"

Well, I am sure that skins are available

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The Alaskan Airlines that I took to Portland. Portland Airport

A fountain with sealions

two sea lions.

Karl, Tei and Bryan. The first evening

Rose garden

Archway at rose garden

The rose by any other name smells just as sweet

Shakesphere garden

Kids playing in the fountain

Pioneer square fountain

Portland waterfront

One of the multitude of fountains in portland

Ducks or geese??

Me and the ducks

Ducks and bridge

Isnt it a beautiful rainbow?

The place I found myself in the most often and that which contributed to most of my luggage

Going to school

I have come to a conclusion. Anjali generally goes to school without trouble if Sophia is not awake in the morning. When Sophia is awake in the morning, then my attention is divided. As I usually take Sophia with me to the busstop, it gives Anjali a chance to push me. it is kind of hard for me to be crative when i have to put Anjali on the bus, while carrying Sophia. She knows itt and taps on it.

The last two days, Anjali had been crying just before getting on the school bus. I was prepared for it this morning. Sophia, however, was sleeping, and that simplified matters.

Anjali got up.

"Mummy, dont send me to school today. I dont want to go to school"

I let it settle for a bit while I dressed for work.

"If you dont go to school, how will you make new friends?"

"I will make mummy friend and patti friend and Sophia friend".

The imp had an answer for everything.

"If you dont go to school, how will you learn?"

"I dont want to learn."

"Well, maybe, Miss Audrey will teach you how to fight with a dragon. Dont you want to learn that?"

"No. I dont want to learn how to fight with a dragon. I am scared of dragons"

(Lord grant me pattience!) "Its a friendly dragon. Its big and green and has a long tail and smiles at you. Ms Audrey is going to teach you how to fight it. Dont you want to learn?"

"No. I am scared of the dragon."

"Well, shall we write a note to Ms Audrey and tell her not to teach s about the dragon, but to teach us about puppies instead?"

"Ok..."

"Well, we'll tell Ms Audrey to teach us how to fight with puppies."

"No. She must teach us how to cuddle with puppies"

So we brushed and went to the dining table. i pulled out a piece of paper and wrote down, as the grand princess dictated.

"Dear Ms Audrey, You must give us some puppies to cuddle, especially to Mikaela, Tricia, Nathaniel and me. I think that is all. wait, there is more, and you must give us twinking stars in chinese. Yours sincerely, Anjali"

So we put the note in Anjali's bag, got dressed and had breakfast while reading about candyland.

It was time to get out of the door.

"lets take the caterpillar game to the busstop and play while we wait for the bus", I suggested, taking the caterpillar book with me.

"I want merlion and balle", said Anjali.

"You want merlion and ballet?", I repeated.

"Yes"

"You want a merlion in your ballet class?"

"No! I want merlion and balle", she said.

I looked around the house and my eyes fell on the national day goddy bag that Vishnu had given the girls. there were a couple of courtesy lions there.

""This one?", I asked, passing them to Anjali.

"No", she said. "i dont want to go to school!"

Uh oh!

"I want merlion and balle to the busstop"

"I dont understand", I said desperately, one eye on the clock. It was 7.35. Anjali was dressed, shoes on, backpack on. And i had no clue what she wanted.

I could
1. pick her up and carry her to the busstop. This would be effecient and result in a tantrum or
2. I could try to figure out what on earth she was talking about.

I decided to give myself two more minutes

"Ok, Anjali. I dont understand what you mean by Merlion and Ballet. Can you tell me in some other way?"

"No mummy", said Anjali, her lips trembling. "I want merlion and balle story"

"Merlion and Ballet story..." I thought, my brains whirring.

And then it clicked.

I went to our reading corner and picked up a book. We went to the busstop reading all about how the merlion and balle danced with each other and how they fell in lvoe and the mean witch spell was broken and they lived happily ever after.

Now, who can guess the name of the book?

Our makeshift reading corner

back to earth

I got home at 2am yesterday morning. After unpacking all the fruits (they all came alrright except the rasperries which had juiced up a good bit), and chatting with husband, we heard Sophia crying. I went in.

Sophia had her eyes closed. She didnt see me.

"Sophia", I said.

"bua bua!" came the answer

"And hello to you too"

So Sophia hung on the bua bua until 7 in the morning, even without realizing that I was home.

Anjali woke up at seven. She was very enthusiastic about seeing me, and even more enthusiastic about all the stuff in the suitcase for the girls. Sophia also woke up at seven, and a thousand watt bulb shone on her face. All day, she refused to get off my hips.

Anjali was fine till we got to the busstop, when she began to cry about not going to school. "mummy only..." she kept saying. I get a bit guilty about that, as I hardly had any alone time with Anjali since I got back. Last evening, I had the mother of all jetlags. At seven pm, I was so sleepy, and so totally overwhelmed. Husband stepped in and got Anjali to help him with cutting planks for our new plant space.

We did a number of things - played candyland, with the foam playdough,  blowpen tattoos etc etc. They were fun, but had a sense of randomness to them. I'll have to begin my evening plan and scheduling once I get back on track.

Of all the things I got back from the states, Sophia was most attached to thhe monsters, and she wont understand when i told her that they werent for her, but for her friends. She goes around carrying the package, saying things like

"Sandhya's mohshter... Vishnu's mohster.. miaki akka's mohshter... All Shapia things."

When Anjali zoomed through her candyland without using the cards, Sophia goes "cheating no!!"

Anjali liked, of all the things, the books "The monster at the end of this book" and "the runaway bunny". She also liked the play foam. "Mummy, this is not playdough mummy, this is stifoam".

"have you played with this before?", I aksed her

"Yes. In my school"

"Do you play with it all the time in your school?"

"No. Only somedays.", she said, "when Mrs Gan and Mrs Liew were in my school"

=========

Anjali tells this story about Harry potter and the deathly snake. Harry potter is going to kill a snake, because the snake will eat him otherwise. This is because the snake is bad and Harry potter is so cute.

"What does cute mean?", I asked.

"It means Harry potter is a little good and a little bad"

"Why is he bad and why is he good?"

"He is bad because he ate something, and there was poison in his stomach and the thing died"

I swear that I didnt tell her anything about "deathly hallows" or "deathly snake" or anything like that. I did starrt telling her philosopher's stone, but there was no mention about all the stuff she has made up. My best bet is that someone in her school must have watched Chamber of secrets and made up a story about it.

Anjali has gotten some kind of phone toy. She hoodwinked thattha into buying it for her. There is a Doreamon on it. So she says that one eye of Doreaon is mummy and the other eye is Harry potter and the deathly snake.
=====================

We were looking at Graeme Base's animalia. One of the images in that book was a skull, on the S page.

"Mummy, what is that?"

"it is a skull"

"A skull is like a bone?"

"Yes. Its a bone"

"It is the bone of someone who has died?"

"No. Its the bones of everyone. you have a skull just like that, and so do I"

Anjali digested this.

"Mummy, but when we die, our bones will come out."

"Who told you this?"

"I learnt it all by myself"

It is natural for me to pinpoint all these conversations to something she is picking up in school. But do three year old children gossip to such a depth of fact exchange such as a harry potter story or the nature of skulls and bones?

Or is some knowledge that is innate coming out.

Exactly what does "i learnt it all by myself mean?"

What about when, when Anjali uses the blowpens, she says

"Mummy, do you know why the ink comes out when you blow?"

"Why the ink comes out when you blow?", i ask, trying in  my mind to see how the laws of motion could be simplified

"Yes mummy. When you blow, the wind goes through this hole and the wind pushes this button and then it goes through the tunnel, and it drags the color with it"

"Wow!", i said, impressed "you are going to be a scientist"

"I am going to be a scientist and a mummy"

"And a mummy!"

"I am going to be a scientist and a mummy and a dolphin. "

ready to go home

I have seen the world. I am ready to go back to my kids now.

Probably feeling so homesick because I finished giving my presentation today and thats always very anticlimatic. A year of work reflected as a pinprick in an ocean.

Well, thats that, and I have learnt much. Another day of symposium and I am glad that I am getting the first flight out on Sunday morning. Now, if I can get some nice fruits for the kids and husband it will be great

A walk by the river

I took a nice little walk along the waterfront this morning. Portland has a path that runs along a river that is full of cyclists and joggers at 8am. I guess the weather is pleasant and it makes jogging at 8am not just a possibility but a nice thing.
So I went along the river, seeing fountains and bridges along the way, and realized that it was half past 8 and I had to be in the conference at quarter to nine. But I am glad that I decided to finish the walk till the end of the bridge, because guess what I saw?

Ducks! About a hundred of them. But they dont look like ordinary ducks, do they??

The sprinklers were making rainbows so nice.

I asked a lady to help me to take a picture. Then we were talking and she told me about a six hour cruise on the columbia river. Oh, wont I have loved to take the cruise? It would be great to see the America out of the city. Then again, to each his own, and I have seen many wonderful things in Portland itself.

Story telling

Sophia telling Ramayana story when patti is too tired.

Rama, sita. Sita see tortoise. Sita maaya maan. Want it maaya maan.

Then she sings Ai giri nandhini about ten times

News from Portland

Weird stuff in America
1. People ask restaurant to split their bills and give multiple credit cards by just signing against their names. Restaurant breaks it down, but sometimes limits to 4 cards. Thought it weird
2. A man in the road begs for spare change at night to buy condoms. Very queer
3. Man spends a good five minutes explaining directions and helping to analyze map. This will never happen in Singapore
4. Portions of food in restaurants are three times the size of a portion of food you would get in Singapore. After two failed attempts at trying to finish the food that was put in front of me, I took a leaf out of Karl's book and boxed up yesterday's dinner.


A very strange thing happened last night. I went to bed at around 11pm, while listening to some brain related audio book on the laptop. The phone rang at midnight. I woke up, groped around the bed, tried to pick up the alarm clock and was wondering why it had no receiver. The phone stopped ringing. I was then wondering who had called.
As my fuzzy brain couldnt process fast at midnight on a jetlagged situation, I tried contacting the concierge and then the bellman to see if they could trace the call. Both insisted that there had been no calls to my room and that it must have been some kind of room to room call which had been misnumbered. I could however, not shake of calamitous thoughts and didnt go to sleep until an hour later. My most comforting thought was that no one at home knew, thanks to Skype, my room number, and I was almost sure that they didnt know the hotel details either.
As though on some sort of cue, my mobile rang early in the morning, around 4am, I think. It must have been some 7pm in Singapore, not at all late to call. But when the mobile rang, I picked it up, and then no one answered. The caller ID registered anonymous and my overimaginative mind mixed up a lot of calamitous stories which effectively prevented me from going back to sleep. Therefore it came to be that I was up and logged on to skype long before the kids came online. I think I will crash this evening – forget the trip to the park that I had planned.

Talking about a trip to the park, I went to Washington park this morning. It was really beautiful, and given that it was so beautiful, I may go again tomorrow morning. My intention today was to visit the rose test gardens. The rose gardens were small, but really beautiful. However, it was a miole and a half walk to get to them. The weather was fine, and I had to burn out all the double portions that I had eaten, right – so I went ahead and took a brisk 25 minute walk to the rose gardens. The garden was so beautiful that I simply had to take pictures. But there was absolutely no one in the gardens- it was too early in the morning. So I took photos of myself. Not bad, all in all – I think.
I also found tons of pinecones. I have never found pinecones since Ooty. And a very nice white flower, which I know I have seen, but no idea where. Perhaps it is also a memory of Ooty. I have stuffed my bag with pinecones – we cant get pinecones in Singapore and I think I can use them for some crafts with the girls. I obviously couldnt stuff my bag with the white flower, but I did take a picture.

Question: Are there such things as blue roses, or do you dye their water, as you do with celery??

Went shopping this evening, didnt hit Powell's for once. Went instead to Finnegan's toy store. Sweet place, not overly cheap, but plenty of wonderful toys. They sell fairy garden kits at $25. Should I begin a business? Bought a toy that I have been wanting to get for a long time. Another one that looked nice. They didnt have geoboards.

Managed to find a store with good and reasonably priced clothes. Got the long blue dress thingy that was requested for multiple times. And an adorable jeans/ Tshirt/ jacket for the dora lover

Cooking with daddy. A story in pictures

I took the pictures through skype when I was talking to the girls, patti and daddy this morning. They are making chocolate

Getting ready the ingredients: milk, cocoa, sugar and flour

See that cocoa on the floor, that was because Anjali uprooted the whole cocoa onto the mixing bowl. Most of it was salvaged. What about the rest that was on the floor? WE shall see

Adding sugar

Adding more sugar.

Still more sugar??

Anjali dusts off sugar and cocoa from her legs

mix with a whisk

drinking remaining milk while daddy goes to get flour

Heres what happens to the rest of the cocoa that stayed on the floor

Oh Oh!!

Doesnt matter. We are good at multitasking

Especially if it is got to do with chocolate

Both of us love chocolate. Cocoa is big people's milo, you know??

The travelling multitasker with her vehicle

Anjali is back after putting the batter in the oven, engaged in her favorite activity

Yummy!!

Clean pot

Of course, no body told me how the chocolate looked or tasted afterwards, though I asked husband to tell me. However, I suppose that it must have been good. The batter was, at any rate.