Happy Place

Psst.. hahaha.. (giggles)

Little miss Haana giggled and laughed suddenly in her sleep. I figured it must be a dream. Filled with curiosity, i asked her, "What is it Gugu".
"Come on", she said, eyes closed, still asleep and evidently at a very happy place.
I wished to find out what was going on in the dream,  so i nudged, "Ok, I'm coming. But, where are we going?". Little Miss Haana, replied in earnest,  "Come on now". Encouraged I was getting some answers, I prodded, "But where are we going?".
But like a cliffhanger, the little girl turned around and no more answers are provided. Oh well, I thought.

Next morning, when I asked about the dream, the little girl remembered. She was skipping along on air, and jumping from cloud to cloud. I knew it! I know a good dream when I hear it!

The Big 7

Last week my little miss Haana turned 7. The Big 7!
We like to travel around the time of her birthday, so this year it was decided that Disney trip that we'd always thought to do the next year- this might be the year to do it. I've never been the one to be enamored by theme parks; nature and history and art places has always been my thing when traveling. But towards the very end of summer this year, we'd made a trip to Universal Studios at CA. It was a great visit! I was so in love with their Harry Potter world, that after coming back from there little Miss Haana and I watched the Potter movies all over again. It was spectacular, most of the rides and the Studios.

We headed to Disney the weekend before the little girl's birthday. The place she most wanted to visit- Pandora (we have recently seen Avatar). It so happens many people's most wanted to visit place was also Pandora. It's 2 rides were the most sought after rides in all of Disney. Having booked our excursion at the last minute(quite literally), we were looking at long lines at Pandora. After beaucoup waiting we were ready to try the Right of Passage ride on the Banshee. While miss Haana was jumping up and down with excitement, i had been fretting over the ride all along. I'm not big into very adventurous roller coasters, and this one had flyers to expect being high above the ground with directives of not riding if fearful of heights. I thought about my fear of heights. In the end, i decided to brave it and do the ride after all. And oh boy was it worth it. The 3d effects were spectacular and beautiful! Miss Haana and I screamed to our heart's content with thrill and wondrous excitement. It was an amazing ride, and the hours of standing in the lines were well worth it.

We did other rides at Disney, but that experience of the Right of Passage ride and the 3D effects of Pandora was the most amazing one in that trip.

We also did the World Showcase at Epcot, where miss Haana undertook an adventure- the world showcase depicted several countries around the world alongside a huge lake; each country represented by its unique architecture style, distinctive landmarks, shops, ethnic wear, language and gardens. Kidscot adventure, should you choose to accept it, was to find in 11 different countries, a special kids' table, collect postcard from each of the 11 countries to get a surprise! We did not anticipate the amount of walking this would entail. But even so, the day became an adventure, going to each country, looking through each shop, each decor to find the special table hidden away, to get our prized postcard. Little miss Haana was on a mission! We completed our mission late in the evening, tired but proud!

We came back from Disney in time for the day of the birthday. I had wanted to have some mother- daughter time on her birthday, so I had taken the day off. It was a beautiful fall day, with plenty of sunshine and a slight nip in the air! I couldn't have asked for anything better! How blessed!

I had no exact agenda for the day. Except of course a home baked birthday cake must start the morning at home. It was a chocolate swirl cake with icing (i tried a minnie mouse face!) with 7 candles. Ideally, the cake should be what little miss Haana wakes up to (like last year). But this year she woke up by herself when the cake was still in the oven.

Once done and iced, we sang happy birthday and the cake was cut. All 3 of us ate multiple slices, and then it was time for treasure hunt! We had had treasure hunt on dad's last 2 (or 3?) birthdays and little miss Haana had requested for one on her birthday too a while back. There were 4 treasures to be hunted- 2 of them dad had gotten, 2 from me. Soon little miss Haana found all the treasures, was wearing one of the treasures and getting ready to play with another!!

After getting ready, the next action item was for miss Haana and i to head out for some breakfast. We went to our favorite sit down breakfast place, meanwhile little Miss Haana attended phone calls all morning from grandparents, softy mausi, aunts and uncles.

After breakfast and after having sung our favorite songs in the car as loud as we possibly could, I decided to head to a nearby rose garden. I had never been there before either. It was a cute rose garden with rows of flowers, small gazebo and arches, benches looking into the flowers, and oh so many butterflies fluttering about! Miss Haana tried to play with her newly acquired drone in the garden, but the wind made it hard to control it. After it fell close to the canal once and dived into the bushes next, we decided it's best for the drone to wait in the car. We spotted a swing bench next to the flower bushes and jumped right on it. Miss Haana decided she was Captain Jane Sparrow and I was a ship mate. We played pirate for a while and came up with our pirate language. Our ship Black Pearl could go back and forth in time and distance.

Once we had had our fill of the rose garden we headed to the playground on the other side of the road to soak in some more sun and fun. Miss Haana monkeyed on the monkey bars, and went down the slides. I hung around and climbed up and down the slide. Next to the playground was a park with inviting green grass. I got my blanket from the car and we decided to lay down. We lay in the sun then moved to the shade, finally settling for a partly shady spot to lay for sometime. Even though it sounds very peaceful, miss haana and I managed to fight and then giggle, then complain to each other about each other,  and finally make up. And all in all, got not a moment of peaceful moment in!

We ate a late lunch and headed back home to meet up with papa, only to get ice cream. Later that evening we played arcade games, miss Haana did get first rock climbing (thrice, and all the way to the top all 3 times)! Favorite dinner place and we headed back home after a day well spent!

Happy birthday sweet baby!

Heroes Around Me

Miss Haana's Reflections entry for this year was not easy. Even though they give maybe a month (maybe 2?) to come up with the entries for Reflections, we got going only in the last 1 week. There may be a pattern here but I refuse to see it! Their school makes it quite plain that having an entry for Reflections may not be considered optional.

The theme this year was Heroes Around Me. We were quite lost with the theme this time. Then little Miss Haana saw a video about animal rescuers. I had talked to her earlier about a friend of mine who's daughter volunteers at a bird rescue house. And so she decided that animal rescuers are the heroes she wants to make her Reflections entry to be about this year.

I really love her painting and artist statement.

Artist Bio

Hi Mrs. G and Mrs. W,

This is Miss Haana's mom. I wanted to share something exciting that happened this week!

Miss Haana and I are displaying some of our paintings at our neighborhood Public library for this month! She has worked on her paintings last several weekends. 

For the display, I had Miss Haana write an Artist Bio for herself in the third person. We talked about writing in first person, second person and third person; and she wrote about herself and her paintings in third person. I'm attaching some pictures of her Artist Bio and the display (her paintings and mine) at the library. I'm proud of her writing :-)

Thank you for everything you both do! She loves her new first grade class. And she loves art! 

Glitter for First Grade

Tomorrow little Miss Haana starts another year of school. First grade.

We were invited to their school's "Howdy" night to meet the new first grade teacher Friday of last week. Miss Greene greated us and handed us a sealed envelop with the little girl's name on it in bold. She said it is to be opened only on Sunday night. The little girl met up with her classmates from kinder, who will all soon be first graders. It was a raucous affair. The wannabe-first-graders were bouncing off with delight. I lost track of the little girl at the school and for some time, caught only fleeting glimpses of her running away with her friends in tow.

Finally when it was time to leave, we somehow rounded her up and headed for dinner.

Later that weekend, it was sunday evening and time to open the sealed envelop. Inside, there was a poem about the fun to be had at first grade and advice about getting a good night's sleep before first day of school. And in the envelop was some glitter to put under the pillow for sweet, sweet sleep. (It wasn't really glitter, it was sparkly, glittering flowers and stars and other colorful, sparkly delights). At home, I dutifully put the glitter under the little girl's pillow, although I did manage to negotiate one sparkly, red flower for my pillow too! And we both headed to sleep!

Yes Master

Little Miss Haana likes to bully me when I'm putting her to  bed. "Mumma, tickle my arm". It starts off like that. But then, "Higher up". Then,  "Lower". "In the middle". Then,  "Other arm now". "Higher up". "Now tickle my back". "Not there, on the left side". "ON THE LEFT SIDE MUMMA!". Never shy about showing discontent! One morning, she told me to "Warm my arms now"!

So I thought it would be only fair for me to train her to my ways too. This morning, on the way to summer camp, I taught her when mumma tells you all the things you need to do, you need to respond with "Yes Master". She wanted me to try it first. So, she came up with a directive about her make belief toy: "You shall take this sword and bow to it", she said. "Yes, Master", I complied, eager to get to the rest of the fun.
Then I said, "Make sure you finish your lunch, take big bites and chew fast". To which, she replied with words like honey, "Yes, Master"!!!!

Of course I repeated my command to hear the yes-master several times.

Summer of 18

This summer we did what we haven't done in last 3 summers. Visit grand parents and great grand parents in India.

Unlike what people may usually think, the long plane journey to India is generally quite peaceful with little Miss Haana. She watches her favorite videos, eats what she wants(and not what she doesn't), sleeps once she's exhausted from the video-watching. It's a dream come true for her! And like all dreams this one gets over once we land.

We landed in Delhi, met nana nani (maternal grand parents) at the airport, and headed towards the home where i had grown up. At dinner it was discovered Miss Haana has quite a jet lag. It was past 1am and she had her batteries fully charged and ready to go!! For the next almost 10 days( almost half of our trip), she would sleep between 3-6pm in the afternoon and wake up between 2-4am.

After a few days of steady in Delhi, we continued to Chennai and various other places in the south of India. Visited the great grand mother, uncles and aunts and cousins. Walked coconut and banana fields. Everywhere we went little Miss Haana was the queen-bee! Commanding everyone's attention and channeling everyone's energy.

I had gotten several story books, coloring books, math workbook for miss Haana to spend time on while we were in India. Story books were a big hit! 

We came back to Delhi to spend about a week with nana, nani. This was also the time when we met with Softy mausi (my sister), Aby bhaiya ( nephew who's now 3 times the size of Miss Haana! And still just as sweet as before if not cuter still!), and Sid uncle. Like last time little Miss Haana followed Aby bhaiya around everywhere and they both kept playing games on their phones that no one else was privy to. We met several of nana-nani's friends and Veer nana and Anu nani.

And just like that, it was then time for us to leave and head back. Summer may not be over yet, but the great India vacation came and went. Like all India vacations, it was a whole lot, crammed into not many days.

End of the Road

I drop little Miss Haana and her classmate Nikhil to school in the mornings. Some days we are quiet, in our own thoughts; some days we talk; some days we jam. Some days I even let them request for their favorite songs 😎!

Yesterday, getting out of the car at school, this was our conversation:
Nikhil - my knees are paining. They're really paining.
Miss Haana- (not to be too far behind) my legs are paining too.
Nikhil - Ya, my legs are paining too. I'm really tired.
Miss Haana - I'm really tired too.
Me- Why are your legs paining?
Nikhil - It's because we are really tired.
Miss Haana - Ya, we are really tired.
Me- I know what this is.
Nikhil - What?
Me - It's early onset signs of old age. It's old age. What are you guys, 6 now? You all are almost at the end of your road now.
Nikhil - (laughing now)
Miss Haana - (rolling her eyes at me).

Seems like a usual morning.

Ears Piercing

My mom had been asking me to get it done for a while, but I'd been putting it off. Not that I don't always listen to my mom(!!) but just because I didn't really want to get little Miss Haana's ears pierced. But now, little Miss Haana had been asking me about it for several weeks, and I realized I can't possibly hold off for the next 10 years (which is what I really wanted to do). So, I decided she can get her ears pierced after-all!

I had had my reasons. To be honest, in my heart, my little girl is so perfect, so astonishingly perfect, the thought of piercing the ears seems unnecessary at best. She's beautiful all by herself, with no earrings needed. 

Then there was also this fear - that getting earrings may send her down the Claire's path of overzealous fashion consciousness (there's a gazillion types of earrings available for little girls at Claire's). So far, between the two of us, I'm the one who swoons over accessories for her (hair pins, fancy bands etc.). Meanwhile she only occasionally uses accessories; those that have not already disappeared into the ether by then. I wanted to maintain the status quo of me finding small trifles to surprise her with, instead of her obsessing about how beautiful her earrings are (see my first reason - she's perfect all by herself, no thanks to any earrings).

So, my real plan (I never told anyone about it), was to just not get her ears pierced at all.. like till she's an adult and can make her own decisions (meaning 30+, maybe! :D). But then she started asking me about it pretty earnestly a few months back, and I realized my real plan may not pan out. So, I had to change course. And after dilly-dallying for several weeks, on Mother's day weekend, I decided we can go to the mall and get it done. 

I filled out the paper-work at the store, showed my ID, selected the earring we wanted to buy, and it was time to get them pierced. Dad was so worried, he hovered to ask how painful its expected to be and then lurked in and around the shop. The actual piercing was pretty quick. Little Miss Haana and I held each other. She did not cry or complain. And just like that, we were done. Her friend Rushil and his parents were with us at the mall. We all commented on how pretty the earrings were, and then for the next hour or so, both the Rushil and Miss Haana ran up and down playing games, riding escalators, playing "It" and behaving like usual 6-year-old-things. 

Maybe the ear-piercing was not as big a deal after-all. 

I Love My Mom Because

Little Miss Haana made this for me 😊. She'll not trade me for a million dollars.

Levels of Defense

There are several tactics at play against me these days.

On this last weekend, when I asked little Miss Haana to do something she didn't want to do, she first threw out her first line of defense. Her first tactic is ignore.

She was standing right there barely 10 yards from me, and pretending like I never said anything. It never fails to make me mad. So, i switched from calling her "Gugu", to Suhaana, along with a slight touch of the sinister in my tone.

It must have had some effect. She switched to second line of defense - plead tactic. "Pleaaaaaseee mumma!". Other than being annoying- the pleases are not going to abate until heeded-  it also has a psychological impact. The yearning in the pleading, begs to ask how heartless would someone have to be to turn the poor poor child down. "No!", i stuck to my guns. She retorted with "Hmph! Mumma is too mean". I pretend it doesn't matter to me.

Then, her third line of defense - bargain. Maybe she knows my resolve is probably weakening, she now switches to bargain mode. "Only for a little bit Mumma! Only half a video". Again, how could i possibly be so unreasonable so as to turn down such a well meaning, good hearted, desperate plea for videos are that obviously needed for her well balanced, all rounded development! 'Oh, not the half video trap again!', I'm thinking to myself! But this time, i had been fooled just one too many times! "No", i refused.

Fourth line of defense- tantrum. Angry, frustrated crying ensues. Followed by "I'm telling on you". To be honest i find the Im-telling-on-you part totally funny!  On occasions when i actually laugh out loud, it only gets the little girl madder.

Somehow,  after battling through multiple lines of defenses, traversing multitudes of odds, navigating physical mental psychological tests of time and resolve, after all of that- success is finally mine. Sometimes anyway! And until next time😊

Are We Gonna Be Friends Again

This week little Miss Haana got in some trouble at home. I got really mad at her. She got an earful. A few minutes later she came up to me and asked, "Mumma, are we gonna be friends again?". I was still very mad, and even though I was melting inside, I held on. I said, "I'm still mad at you". She shrunk away.

A bit later it was bed time. Without saying anything, I got into bed and picked up our reading book, getting ready to do our bed-time reading. She cuddled up to me and said, "Mumma, i thought we are never going to be friends again". I hugged back and said, "But Gugu! Mumma always loves you, even when I'm mad at you. Just like you love Mumma even when we have a fight!". By this time, the hugs are more intense - she's climbed over on top of me quite literally. And now her tummy is on my face! I remind her I can't possibly read with her tummy on my face. "Oh ya, I forgot", she said with a giggle.

I start reading. We are all smiles.

The Case of the Lock and Key

It's spring. Here in Texas, its also the season of bluebonnets. Fields full of flowers. Green turf taken over by purple bluebonnets, as far as the eye can see.

I had been prepping Little Miss Haana to go to the nearby bluebonnets and partake to just laying in the flowers and seeing cotton puff clouds move in the sky, while also taking a few selfies. A couple years ago when we were trying to do that, little Miss Haana pretended like the grass was coming after her, and was about to go get her! There were no good pictures or peaceful moments that year. Last year, i was just late.  I waited too long, and the bluebonnets were all gone. This year, i was determined not to let them pass!

Miss Haana and I found our favorite patch, and walked around, sat and lay in the flowers for sometime. Then, after selfie time, we headed back to the car. But there was a problem. I didn't have the keys with me.

Oops! They must have dropped out where I lay down in the flowers. But there was a field full of flowers, and we sat at several spots, all of them looking just like the others. Sun was low on the horizon and we didn't have many more minutes of daylight left. We walked back retracing our steps, eyes glued to the ground.

After several minutes little Miss Haana found the keys!!! What a relief! I thanked her for being such a great helper! We headed back to the car again. When we sat in, little Miss Haana said -"Mumma, can you get me a car?"
"Like this car? You want my car?"
"No, I want a toy car, for which i have a key, and when i turn the key the car starts. "
Now that little Miss Haana had helped find my key, she wanted a key of her own. And for that, she wanted a car to go along with the key.
"But you can get a key to lock your bicycle.", said the voice of reason!
"Really? A can have a key for my bicycle? How does that work?"
I tried explaining to her how the bicycle lock works. She liked the idea. I had her approval! Now i just need to find the lock and key.

A few days later, a cute bicycle lock with one end shaped like a red dog (his name was Biscuit) got delivered. Immediately the key chain was embellished with a key-chain tag. And then i showed little miss Haana how to lock her bicycle and how to unlock it.

Over the last few days of bike rides, every time little Miss Haana had to stop for a water break, or just for rest, the bike had to be immediately put on a stand and locked. In fact, since the garage can not be considered a truly safe place either, the bike is locked up even in the garage.

One cannot be too safe these days! I'm glad we found the right lock for little Miss Haana's key!

Easter Egg Rewards

Easter egg hunt is a serious affair at our house. Mostly for me. Remember a few years back the egg hunt had not been all that smooth? Read about it here and here. Luckily in those egg hunts the organizers had folks doling out eggs to kids who's baskets were empty, to ensure all kids leave happy -a very smart move indeed! We were saved by doled out eggs. I realized hence forth, I shall need to take such important affairs into my own hands-to ensure adequate amount of pressure has been created and that little Miss Haana has been sufficiently psyched up for such events! Certainly parenting at its best!

So, couple days before the egg hunt, in perfect parenting mode, i reminded Miss Haana what the Easter egg hunt is all about - fill the basket with many eggs as she can! Rrruunnn, jump over the hurdles (we all know who they are!), grab the eggs, secure them in the basket and runnnn again!! I repeated for good measure. She was with me!

The day of the hunt came, and little Miss Haana and I placed ourselves on the white line in the field, looking out at the field full of colorful, candy filled eggs, waiting for the hunt to begin. At 5 minutes before the hunt, little Miss Haana needed a bathroom break. I could barely believe it! But then, we turned around and ran towards the restrooms. I thought that was the end of our egg hunt. They'll probably start while we are in the restroom, and all the eggs will be gone in seconds. 'Oh well', i thought to myself. But miraculously we returned just in time, seconds before the count down for the egg hunt. Little Miss Haana's buddy Maurya joined us too.

The hunt began and all the kids were running around grabbing eggs. I followed Miss Haana with my gaze and laughed at how incredibly cute and hilarious these kids looked. Maurya's mom and I laughed enjoying ourselves in the spring sunshine. The egg hunt was a success afterall, both kids returned victorious with numerous eggs. They both sat on the grass, opening their prized eggs, fishing for candy from inside. I made a mental note to make the candy suspiciously disappear once we get home. For now, Miss Haana and Maurya ran around in the sun, there was jumping  at the bounce houses, more running around, more candy eating, ice cream, and the world's tiniest donuts (for which we were in line for a good 30 minutes). Finally, it was time to head home. All with a basket full of eggs; a sign of a very successful and rewarding egg hunt 😊. Happy Easter everyone😊.

Shopping

This is why i don't shop much.

My usual perfume was about finished, so I had to run by the store to grab a new one. I asked little Miss Haana to come with me. She agreed but with demands. I had to get her some glue and craft sticks. This is not the first I had heard of these things, so I agreed.

I made the first stop at a small convenience store, thinking they'll have small craft supplies. I found us some glue. Little Miss Haana ambled in nearby aisles asking me to take more colors (No, you already have too many), or a velvet coloring book (No, we already had one just like that, earlier), or sunglasses (No, you already have these ones) or a kitkat (simply, no). I paid for the glue and we hurried out.

Next pit stop was the store where i get my organic perfume. Little Miss Haana and i made our way to the aisle with a section for the perfumes. I started testing some thinking i may be ready for a change. Little Miss Haana began opening tester bottles, spritzing some perfume mist or rolling some roll-on sticks, on left arm, then right, then both hands, then both wrists. Maybe even the arm pit! By now i could barely smell anything at all!! Now, little Miss Haana was holding 3-4 different perfume bottles in her hand,  "These are for me", she declared. "Gugu, we can't take so many. I'm going to take 1 between the two of us". After more negotiation, she now had 2 separate sized bottles. "Ok, we'll take one of each kind". I looked at her exasperated. When had we ever decided she gets to wear perfumes? We hadn't😋. "I'll take 1, that's it". Now, she wanted to take this one perfume that didn't smell great at all, but had unicorns on the bottle. I somehow got her to choose a different one that i liked, and we hurried out of the store. By this time it was hard to tell if it was the right choice or not, cause I could hardly smell anything at all in the medly of all the perfumes we had sprayed. When we sat back in the car, little Miss Haana told me this was her perfume and only she would use it. I laughed at her!

We headed next to Michael's to get the craft sticks. These are the sticks that are inside popsicles. On the way, i kept suggesting we should just get lots of popsicle and eat them all and save their sticks for crafts. She was not so sure about my capacity of popsicle eating. At Michaels, we both ambled through the store- me browsing through all the Easter decor and activities while Miss Haana was throwing about a hula hoop that had just found a new perspective buyer. We headed out eventually with the craft sticks and hula hoop.

Back home, little Miss Haana immediately acted very mysterious and quiet. My perfume had been taken over and hidden at a safe place. Safe from Mumma's prying eyes or hands. It was gone! Now I'm not laughing at her anymore😊

So, this is why i don't shop much anymore😊

Bird House

Following up on the Tree House story with a Bird House.

Little Miss Haana's friends came over last week eager to build something together. Although, let's be honest here, mostly they were just eager to run around, jump around and play!

I had gotten Dad to order bird houses that they can build and then paint. They started on that right away with excitement. The bird houses were built soon enough and then came the coloring. I left them to work on it, and hoped while they worked on the coloring perhaps i could catch some TV time. After a few minutes, i  heard some giggles and playful banter. I had to forfeit some of my cool mom status to warn them not to play games with each other while they're coloring. After some more close circuit hovering/monitoring (no TV time for me), the coloring was done.

Then the three of them were back to running around and play time. Out of the three of them, we had a knight, a horse (little Miss Haana's fixation with horses continues) and a monster with a sword. After some time the monster wanted to switch roles, but niether the horse nor the knight wanted to be a monster. They came to me with the proposal that i should be the monster. I politely declined. Somewhere in there, they did some math games (strange kids). And then Miss Haana turned on some music. It was around this time that i was made the DJ and requests were made to songs i had never heard of before, and I'm still not entirely sure they actually exist. I don't think i got rave reviews for being a DJ. Few chocolate chip cookies and chips' snack later, the playdate came to an end.

A colorful bird house is hanging on the tree outside. 😊

Tree House

Upon reading several books from the Magic Tree House series, little Miss Haana must have decided she had had enough.

Magic Tree House is a series of chapter books where 8 year old Jack, and his 5 year old sister Annie find a tree house in their neighborhood. They climb in and find several books inside. When they find a picture in one of the books and say i wish to go here, pointing to the picture, everything would swirl around and voila, they would find themselves there! Every book is about a unique adventure they have where they visit different places in all parts of the world, even go back in time. And it all starts with the tree house.

Miss Haana decided she's done just reading about the adventures of Jack and Annie. She needed a tree house of her own. Her dad and her had had some initial conversations around building a tree house one weekend. But then, i heard about it last weekend, when her school friend's mom texted me. Ishaan wants to come over to help build a tree house. That's when i realized she's been recruiting her entire class to build a tree house.

We are going to start small, build a bird house first. Let's see how next week goes!

MAP

MAP stands for Measured Adaptive Progress. It's a test designed to gauge a student's grasp on reading and math; and designed to measure student's growth in the subjects over time. Little Miss Haana's school had them take the test at school for their kindergarten class. I hadn't even heard about it till this Tuesday, when they had an open house. The school had several informational sessions of 10-15 minutes about the MAP test scores. The parents had been give a flier the previous week to register for a time slot for these sessions. I never saw the flier. I think the pet ate the flier (thats my story, although we don't have a pet.. not one that's alive anyway). We went and sat in one of the informational seasons anyway, where the lady talked about how the questions get harder if the child answers correctly, or easier if the child answers wrong- to gauge the level of mastery in the subject. The test is conducted multiple times in a year to map the trend of how the student is doing. The scores are mapped against the district and national averages. And finally the students score is reported with their percentile.

I find myself half cringing at these occasions. I did my K12 schooling at one of the best schools in Delhi. Grades were very important in high school. The value of getting good grades was obvious all along. But what was not so obvious was the value of self reliance; to value what you personally like and pursue that. I do believe different kids have different skills, and not every skill scores high on tests. I don't think children or what they can achieve should be equated with a number/score. For that reason the test scores and percentile numbers make me cringe just a little bit. Hard work is important. But for parents to believe in their little ones' abilities is way more important, i think. Human capability is beyond miracles. Numbers, tests, statistics and even science cannot fully explain how we are able to achieve what we can achieve.

We didn't get Little Miss Haana's test results that day since we hadn't signed up for the session (pet ate the flier;) ). Miss Haana showed us around the school, her classroom. We saw her family tree on the wall, her flip book on Texas where she'd researched and taken printouts of various aspects of the state. We saw her write up about how to learn how to ice skate. We saw her art work. We went to music room. It was a fun visit! She raced around with her buddies like she's never seen them and they'd never been to the school at all!

Today her MAP test scores were sent home. I was telling her they obviously have not been able to measure how naughty she is. That would have broken the test ;)

Meditation

This is a scene related to me, between little Miss Haana and her dad.
Dad was sitting in his room for his evening meditation. Little Miss Haana had been instructed to not disturb Dad while he's meditating. So, she's working on her new app on the iPad where in she can design colorful pages for cards or book covers and print them out on the printer.

At some point little Miss Haana decides to quietly go up to her Dad while he's sitting with his eyes closed. She goes up and sits right next to him for sometime working on her iPad. Then she crawls up to him and taps him.
Little Miss Haana- Papa, Papa!
Dad- (opening his eyes) Suhaana, I'm meditating, don't bother me right now.
H- But Papa, i need your help!
D - Not right now, give me 15 minutes to get done.
(Dad closed his eyes, goes back to meditating.30 seconds later, another tap on the shoulder. )
H- But Papa! I need your help.
D- Suhaana you have to wait, did i not tell you to not disturb me?
H - But the printer is not working. I switched it off and on, but its still not going to printer. It's not working, Papa.
D- Ok, do you like it when i bother you? When i snatch your iPad?
H- (head shaking to a vigorous no)
D- Ok, so don't bother me right now. Wait till I'm done.
H- But Papa, I'm trying to get this to work. But the printer is not working.
D- Are you even listening to what I'm saying? Can you hear me?
H- (weak nodding with ahmm).
A minute passes by. Dad is back to closed eyes attempting meditation. He can hear the little girl sitting next to him tapping furiously at the iPad screen which is obviously not cooperating. Another obvious fact - the meditation is not really working out today!
H- (She's back tapping on Dad) Papa? Papa? The printer is still not working Papa!

Dad decides to give it up for this evening. Goes to check on the printer. 🙄

Pre Valentine Day

As a pre valentine's day activity, last night I was busy working on valentine's day cards for little Miss Haana's class party.

Earlier, over the weekend on sunday, little Miss Haana said she wanted to make something for her friends. At first she said she wanted to make a diary. Now, the way that usually pans out when she's making a diary for herself is, she grabs a bunch of perfectly useful plain white papers, then staples or otherwise binds them together. Then, she colors the front page, the face of the diary. And that's usually it. The rest of the perfectly useful papers in the diary mostly never see the light of the day. So, I retorted, too many wasted pages in making a diary for every one in the class.

Then she decided it will be a crossword puzzle book. She's made crossword puzzles before. I liked the idea. She made 4 pages of crossword puzzles and decided she needs a break. The rest of the weekend we watched Harry Potter 😊.

Then came the day before valentines day. I told little Miss Haana to make 4 more crossword puzzle pages, and then we can give 1 page to each of her friends ( instead of making a puzzle book for each friend). After putting up a huge resistance, i "pursuaded" (read: managed to force) her to get working! She mumbled and complained 'Mumma is too pushy'. 🙄 I may have heard that one before, so i didn't pay heed. Then she complained  that all her friends work on their valentines with their parents. She had complained about this on Sunday too - that she had to work on it alone, while all her friends are working on Valentine's day cards with their parents. But on Sunday, there was a load of laundry calling my name. But this day, i said I'll decorate the crossword pages while she made the puzzles. And that's how we both got working on it together. She actually ended up making 1 extra for her teacher as well. And we made special decorations for all the girls in the class too. 

Meanwhile Papa came back from Wal-Mart with more goodies and trinkets to pack with the valentine's day cards for the kids and teachers. None of these goodies or trinkets were about to go pack themselves. Somewhere in there, once all the puzzles were done, i sent little Miss Haana to bed. Putting the valentine's together till late on feb 13th is turning out to be a tradition now. I distinctly remember pulling in a late night last year too. And I have my suspicions, this might not be the last one.

God Of

A few days back little Miss Haana said to me - 'Can I tell you something Mumma?' 'Papa is the God of health '. Why? 'Because he does everything for health. He knows all about healthy food.' I agreed with her, but then jumped to the only logical next question. What about Mumma?
She paused for a moment, while i wondered if that'd was a wise question to ask. Finally she said, Mumma is the God of Fun!
I can live with that, i smiled to myself😊

High School or Kindergarten

A friend of mine at work was telling me the other day how her son had a minor emergency at work, and had been calling her several times in the morning while she was trying to get some work done. 'They only remember mom when there's an emergency', she rolled her eyes. I had to share my story from that morning.

I drop Miss Haana to school in the morning everyday. Most days one of her classmates car pools with us, and i drop both kids to school. When we reach school, i park the car, we all get out. The three of us walk over to the school building, i holding Miss Haana's hand. Once inside the building, we walk across the cafeteria, towards the corridor past the double doors. That's how far i can go without the additional hassle of a visitor badge. This is where i say 'Bye, i love you',  give a hug and plant a kiss or two on her cheek. Miss Haana and her buddy walk down the corridor to her class. I watch her go with her backpack on her back for a few moments, then turn around towards my car. This is our daily morning routine.

That day, as i was parking the car, Miss Haana and her buddy saw their friends walk to the school. They were eager to catch up to them. So, as soon as Miss Haana got out of the car, she said 'Bye mumma'. I arched my eyebrows, bye? Here? Why? I was contemplating this, meanwhile Miss Haana was already running towards the school building. Not wanting to be left behind, i ran behind her. We ran into the school building and ran past the cafeteria. I tried to catch up to her before we got to the double doors, but the little girl was ahead and ran through. Giggling and saying byeee! And there i was, i said 'Bye!', and watched her run and finally catch up to the other kids further down the corridor. No hug. No kisses.

And so i returned back to the car. My friend laughed to my face at my attempts of running down the little girl. I admitted it was kind of... sad😊. But i thought this was supposed to happen in high school, not at kindergarten!

Pajama Party

We had a landmark day this weekend. Last week when Miss Haana went to her gymnastics class, she came back with a news. They're going to have a pajama party at the gymnastics place this Saturday. They had raffles and prizes (including a secret spy kit), and gymnastics all evening. What would be not to love about that!!

The following week i heard the wish list (to go to the pajama party) on repeat mode, several times. Little Miss Haana has been to pajama parties before, but that's either at our place or at a friend's place where we (parents) are there too. I wasn't sure I had reached a place where i can let her go to a party all by her 6-year-old-self! More repeat cycles of how she excited she was about the party played during the week. Including a reminder that the raffle prizes included the secret spy kit, which she was definately going to win!

Finally, i made some calls. We weren't going to be sending her to the party alone. So i arranged for her best friend Rushil and her to go to the pajama party together. They were both stoked! Us parents were looking forward to an evening dinner with grown up conversation unpeppered with kids.

On Saturday, kids brimming with excitement, were dropped off at the gym. We were a little shaky leaving her there, but this gym is a known territory for her and for us. And they had our phone number in case anything comes up. We adults went over for a dinner with some real conversation. Towards the end of the dinner, though, we were eager to pick up the kids. Are they sleepy? Are they tired? Did they have fun? Was it too much?

I was expecting when we pick them up, they'll be terribly disappointed to see us. Turns out, i was spot on. Rushil wanted Miss Haana to come over to his place from the gym, for a play-date, and was heartbroken when he was told that wasn't happening  (at 930pm). Miss Haana was in a line to get a nail paint in 1 finger nail, and was heartbroken when she saw us, thinking we will pull her out of the line when she was so close to getting that blue nail paint. We waited till the snail-paced line moved so the little girl could her nail painted and almost her heart's content.

Driving back home in the car, we were told, remember that secret spy kit in the raffle prizes? She didn't win it! Another kid got it. Oh! The secret spy kit was amazing. I got my hint and took to some internet shopping. Meanwhile i was wondering if the pajama party sans parents may be the beginning of a disturbing trend. I have to say, I'm not ready for it just yet.