I Need A New Umbrella

It's just rained cats and dogs here. And some of us have been out there braving the elements.

Miss Haana and I went for a walk just as a few raindrops were falling here and there. We went with my umbrella which- I should say, is not much of an umbrella at all. It is small and goes from a concave to a convex shape at the slightest of balmy winds! Miss Haana kept choosing which way to go (left or right?) so we kept going away from home. Still only drizzling at best. Then we came close to the gazebo by the lake so I suggested let's go to the gazebo. Now it started raining. Big time! I carried the little girl and the umbrella somehow and we made it to the gazebo. But like I said some of us just didn't want to just stay in the shade. Miss Haana wanted to go down the stairs next to the gazebo and walk next to the lake.. There were some spots along the lake partially protected by the rain because of trees. The little girl insisted on singing. 

Suddenly it was raining cats n dogs now and we were stuck beneath a hardly-shade-enough-of-a-tree with a useless umbrella. The little one  and I were giggling like crazy! 

Finally I carried her and the umbrella (really a liability at this point) and headed back to gazebo. Raj had come looking for us at the gazebo with his umbrella (big, big one). She transfered tents. We headed back totally soaking ;)

When we got to our garage all pretense of trying to stay out of the rain were abandoned and we were running around in the back lane in the rain.

Now that's how you welcome the summer :)

Squashing Bumblebees

Heard from the back seat of the car while driving home yesterday, with actions and replete with musical effects:

Oh my Mumma help me clean

I'm squashing my baby bumblebee

Eww! It's all over me,

I'm squashing my baby bumblebee.

Repeated today by most popular demand!

What About My Wand

These days here's the scene for us to get ready.. 

Mumma I want to wear a dress

Ok Gugu

Mumma I want to wear the pink dress.

Oh, which one little girl?

Come Mumma, I'll show you.

I am taken-holding my finger to the closet where all the little girl dresses are hanging.

Ok Gugu which one do you want? Do you want this one?

No

This one?

No

This purple one?

No

This orange one?

No

Pink one?

No

Blue?

No.

Then which one? This one?

Yes. I want this one.

We grab that down and wear it with eager anticipation. 

Then a twirl test is given to the dress - where the little girl twirls and checks out if the dress twirls to her satisfaction.

Unfortunately this one just failed.

Mumma this one doesn't twirl. I want the other one. 

Which one gugu?

The pink one.

This one?

No

This one?

No

This one.

Yes

Ok.

Take the dress down from the hanger and we put it on.

5 minutes and a twirl test later, we are back in the closet.

This time another pink dress chosen.

This one(same as the one worn in the morning). But I recognize there's no arguing at this point. 

Ok but we are not changing it any more.

We wear this pink one. 

I put a small pink flower in her hair to match a white-n-pink flower in my hair. (There's more than 1 girl in this house ;) )

Finally with the dress chosen, we are ready to head out. I chose silver "princess" shoes for her.

Little Miss Haana is pleased with my selection. But then she looked at us with utter shock and doom (eyes wide, mouth O-shaped) and shouted out loud:

Where is my princess wand?

We both looked at each other. 

Then I looked in utter shock and doom and asked Raj- Papa, what about the wand? :) :)

Popsicle Wars

It's not officially summer yet, but it's close enough. So today when I picked the litle girl from her Montessori we headed straight to the neighborhood store for popsicles (sound better when you scream the "Popsicles!!!!" out loud :) )

Both of us girls got ourselves a rainbow popsicle each. And we hung out on the pavement outside the store to enjoy our summer treats. After congratulating each other on how "coooold" and "tastyyyy" they were, we realized our treats were melting away and fast. Soon puddles of sticky pink droplets were forming next to the little girl  with incredible magnetic powers that were calling on Miss Haana and asking her to step or stick her finger in the yucky puddle. 

But then I reminded her the popsicle was melting fast; so we needed to get our acts together.

The little girl decided the litle droplets looked like rain drops. But wondered if they could be made to fly instead of falling from the popsicle to the puddle on the ground. She waved her hand but the popsicle went flying away! The stick was still in her hand. We giggled and giggled and then I saw the stick go flying away too.

And even more craziness followed. Now this naughty little thing wanted to go and step on the popsicle lying on the ground to squash it. "No!!" This time I prevailed but I could see it was a hard decision by the little girl. 

More jumping and "hurray"s later we headed home. These were the fun-nest popsicles of my life! :)

A Thing Of Beauty

This morning I was listening to an old B. E. King song 'Stand By Me'. I was on a binge-repeat mode.

And the whole time I was remembering a phrase and realizing how true it is- a thing of beauty is a joy forever. I often think of this phrase when I hear some of my favorite music from the 70s or even 60s. And I wonder if the people who created it knew or could foresee that someone 50-60 years later would still be listening to what they produced and still appreciate it! It's such an amazing thought. 

I think amazing things happen when one does something from the heart- uninhibited and free of judgement (whether others' or ones's own). Beautiful things can happen when one accepts the risks but takes the courage of following where the heart is. I think that's how such beauty- that transcends time and age, got created. 

Miss Haana and I have been dabbling in paints lately. She's painted with me before- we did sponge painting first. Then we did q-tip stencil painting. But now. Now she does the very grown up paint brush painting. No stencils, no sponge, no plans, no inhibitions. I am just told which colors she wants. I take my job of the color mixer and palette preparer very seriously! And then she takes the paint soaked brush and paints. I am so proud of her. 

My Favorite

It's been a couple weeks since the little girl started her new Montessori school. They had soccer practice this week. And my best part of the school experience is when I pick her up.

Little Miss Haana comes running up to me as I open the class door and I kneel down and we have a big big hug. Followed by kisses of course. Some days I'm required to bribe so we can come home. "Let's go to the slides and swings", usually come in handy. 

And then as I turn to their teacher to ask her the days' report, the usual report is- "Oh she is so good! She talks so sweetly everyone here just wants to hear her talk! She's very good! No problem at all! And she picks up things so fast, as we tell her how to do certain things... She was perfect". She is everyone's favorite!!

I am beaming both inside and out!

Return Policy

Yesterday I was remembering something about my India trip - few months back. I stayed for a couple days at my sisters'. Miss Haana and my nephew Aby became best buddies ever! If Aby was around no one else was needed.

My sister (Miss Haana's Mausi - mom's sister) and brother-in-law had this wondrous  excitement in their eyes when they were looking at the little girl! As if she's the most fun and awesome thing that ever came about. And they're trying hard to figure out how to please her!

Sid uncle talked to the little girl and asked her if she wants to see some birds outside on the balcony. She seemed interested and immediately went to his arms to check it out. I saw her Mausi's eyes widen in surprise and jealousy :) 

They both has this wondrous look in their eyes around the little girl - this little impossibly cute little thing-  that talks and walks and cries and laughs. And then goes wherever Aby bhaiya goes! 

 My sister- still maintains that the little girl is just like her and should be returned to her with immediate effect! As per her, I break the return policy every single day :)

Construction Fun

Today we did something seriously exciting and bold. We (Miss Haana and I) are rule breakers now. The way I look at it- it's always better to start early; why wait?! I must add though, thanks to my friend Christine's wisdom I now know that this is not our first foray into rule breaking. Bluebonnet is our state flower and you're not supposed to pluck it. Well, before I knew that, the little girl and I had been playing in the flowers and I made her get a bunch of flowers and carry it home for Mumma. :-)

Today it was different. Our neighborhood had been home temporarily to a little excavator a few weeks back. This was the little-st, tiniest excavator I've seen. It's tracks were barely 3-4 feet long. It looked like a baby excavator! We'd been watching it, driving by it several times and I had planned to get down one day and go with the little girl and check it out at close quarters. However it just never happened and last week, it was gone. Just the day I planned to make a stop finally, it was gone! I felt so very bad for missing that opportunity window! 

But then, another baby excavator surfaced not far at another small contruction site. And this time I didn't want to wait too long. So today at dusk, when all the construction site workers had gone home, the little girl and I set out for our own adventure!

We walked over to the baby! And we looked at it, the little girl sat on the excavator seat and pulled at all the levers (mildly disappointed that it was not doing anything and wasn't running). Actually the key was right there but I decided that would be going too far. I told Miss Haana that the baby excavator probably just turned in to bed for the night. He must've been tired. I asked if I could sit on the seat with her, and I was granted permission. It was super cool! 

Finally it was time to head back and the little girl bid her "Good bye baby excavator! Good night, sleep tight!" And then in the end: "See you tomorrow!" :-)

First Day of School

Today was the first day of school - for both the school and little Miss Haana. And I am delighted to report they both had a wonderful time. 

We had been prepping he little girl for the change by telling her she will go to a new school soon. And finally the big day arrived. This morning Dad went to drop her to school. I was anxious she may feel distraught and would resist being left at a new place. I got a phone call at 9 to report how it went:

Dad took the little girl to her teacher and told her about school. She seemed a little anxious but didn't resist much. As dad left and then watched her classroom on the camera from the school lobby, the little girl looked around to absorb the new surroundings. She listened to the teachers. Went and got herself some toy to play with. She helped and directed another little girl on how to use another toy she was playing with. She had been talking to the other girl when the class was then taken to wash their hands for snack time. She was ahead in the line for washing hands and then was placed on a chair. She grabbed a few bites and milk . She seemed concerned about a couple of other kids who were very unhappy to be there. I could see in my head her itching to go to them and say "Oww, it's alright! It will be fine!"! That's what she would do at home.

Then a few more minutes of toy time. And then the class was lined up for going out to the playground! I thought she would have a blast in the playground- and she did. To begin with, once outside she remembered (not that she ever forgets it) that she, afterall, is a ballerina. So she practiced her twirls and bows and more twirls for a bit. After that she ran around round and round. More gleeful minutes of playground later, Dad decided to leave her there and my live running commentary into her day stopped as well. But I was so releaved that she was having fun.

I had planned to pick her up earlier than usual - a little after 3pm. As I reached the school I saw her teachers outside in the playground. They waved to me. I ran inside- urgently wanting to meet and hug her. We had our usual animated high pitched hug and kiss meet-up routine. It's been maybe a year since I've been picking her up from daycare but our animated pickup routine is still as animated as ever! Disney should take notice of her;-) Very soon, though, she wanted to get out of my grasp to go back to the slides. After one slide down, I was taken (holding by my finger ) to try the other slide. I didn't anticipate this, but I had trouble getting her out of the school to go home. In the end, I had to resort to bribery and tell her we will go to the other slides closer to home. And then we both got into the car and went to the other slides! 

That was Miss Haana's the first day of school.

New School Anxiety

Another chapter in my baby's life draws to an end and another begins on Monday.

Miss Haana had been going to a home based montessary for almost a year now. And this last Friday, was her last day.

With much trepidation and several tours and visits, a decision for the pre-school was made. 

Meanwhile Suneeta Aunty had a send-off for the little girl on Friday - her last day at the daycare. Gifts were exchanged. Photos were taken. Hugs and kisses and much more!

Starting Monday Miss Haana is to join a new Montessori school that just opened in our neighborhood. It is right around the corner and has a packed schedule with petting animals on Tuesday and donuts with dad on Friday and many more activities planned the following days. The school will also have music, arts, drama in their curriculum. And then ballet lessons, karate classes and soccer practice! I am excited the school will have so many activities that the little girl will loove! She has already decided she's a ballerina, and would give a demo twirl and pirrouette if you're willing!

As expected Miss Haana is looking forward to her going to school. And both her parents are extremely extremely anxious!

Training Dilemmas

Potty training has been on the radar for quite some time now. But nothing has been done yet. 

This is the experience from my dearest friend (the mom) and Miss Haana's best friend Rushil:

Picking Poop...
The first time I had a conversation about picking poop was about using cloth diapers with a colleague. My Q was how to clean the poopie ones.. He said wash it down in the toilet, I asked using what, He said....hands and I almost puked.

I decided to go with environment unfriendly option - regular diapers. After two years and 5000+ diapers later came the Potty training time. I read the best way to potty train is using Potty chair, I have the same issue, how will I clean it, the answer is wipe it with a cleaning towel...I know my son is ready but I am NOT.

My son hates diaper changes and throw his legs all over, basically he is kicking me during the entire process. The other day, when he kicked again on the changing table, I got really upset and gave him a timeout. Since, we were in the middle of diaper change, old diaper was off but new diaper was not on. I picked him up and put him next to the time out wall. After few minutes he started crying and I went to check on him... 

Guess what, there is poopie on the floor. he is scared of his own pooping experience, crying and wanting me to hold him, clinging to me. I am panicking that what is this, you are all dirty, don't come near me, let me clean you up etc...Poor kid, After throwing few wipes around, I managed to clean him and put him back on the changing table. Well after putting the diaper, l still had to clean the floors.

I was about to puke all over the floor, luckily there were only two patches to be cleaned... That was the end of it and I am still not ready how to start the Potty training without picking any poop...