My Model Parent

My ideal of parenting has always been Calvin's dad. The one who takes parenting with a healthy dose of salt and parent humor! I've been telling little miss Haana this story of where she came from, for years now. We got her from Walmart, on sale, from this box label "Good Kid", but they tricked us! She was the naughty one, but by the time we figured out, she wouldn't fit back in the box anymore, and there were no more returns! 

Her reaction is not quite as dramatic as Calvin's. I might have lost some credibility along the years! I just need to work on keeping a straight face. ;)

Holding Hands

Second grade just started. Big girl class. But with it, some little girl routines I used to love are gone.

I used to love holding hands with little miss Haana and walking together to the school in the morning. Now, I am no longer permitted to hold hands (or even the pony tail, which used to be my second option!). I used to love it so.

In related news, little miss Haana was telling me, her best friend Cora and she hold hands when they form a line to go to lunch, so that they don't get separated in the wilderness on their way to lunch. I told her when I was at a school, my friend Arunima and I used to hold hands all the time. The practice continued till middle or high school I think. I remember our teachers used to take jabs at us sometimes!

Leisure

'If it were up to Mom, leisure would be as bad as work', would be exactly little miss Haana's sentiment. We have actually had much of this exact conversation, and the same end result (though not without a fight) on multiple occasions!

To Do List

Key Takeaways -

1. Hot glue shall save the planet. 

2. We need to watch Mary Popcorn (who is erroneously also known as Mary Poppins, but we know better!)

3. Since only 1 hot glue item has "me" next to it, the rest of them obviously must be for Mumma! 

Bonding Experience

This morning little miss hanna and i woke up at exactly the same time. 7am. This is the last weekend of such luxury. School opens on Monday and we will have to be all ready for school by 0715 every day.

Little Miss Hanna crawled on top of me in the bed and were giggled sleepily. She said, "Mumma. Why didn't you wake me up earlier? You said you were going to wake me up early today". "Ya, gugu,  I just woke up right now too. I couldn't sleep well last night".

Then the little girl said,  "Mumma can I get the hell pens and we can color together?". I nodded yes and she was off. Yesterday the little girl and Dad were at home. They went to a book store together and got an origami book and a set of gel pens and coloring book! In short, they shopped a ton!

Soon little miss Haana was back with her coloring book and gel pen set, propped up next to me in bed and patted me to wake up. I nodded, and told her I'll take 5 more minutes. To which she said, "See, isn't this a great idea? I thought we can bond together by coloring together". Awww!

Just Add Magic

Last week I was taking a day off to spend time with little miss Haana. But unlike other times, i hadn't made any plans of what to do. I bounced off several ideas against miss Haana and all of them met with approval - water park? Yeah! Splash park? Yess! Zoo? Sure! Movies? Yes! Pottery? I always wanted that! I wasn't getting anywhere!

So i thought let's start the day with a breakfast of chocolate cake! When we got to the cafe, i got us chocolate cake, and scrambled eggs and toast for the little girl. Two bites into the breakfast and she realized she wanted to have yogurt. I welcome such challenges! "Only when you finish your eggs". My bullying paid off, and soon she had finished her breakfast and we headed next door to yogurt zone.

I decided i didn't really want yogurt except for a few spoonfuls, so it was agreed I will share with little miss Haana.  We were long due for a fight, so we got that taken care of when i put some roasted coconut flakes on the yogurt indicating that she should at least try it, and she insisted she didn't like them! We made up with yogurt!

On this day, we had had Dad leave us his fancy Tesla "Ocean" for us to zip around town. After yogurt we headed back to the car. I could feel sweet naptime coming over me, and little miss Haana has several games she likes to play on Ocean. And so we just hung out in the car.

After several minutes of peace, I casually asked little miss Haana if she wanted to get manicure and pedicure done. The suggestion was met with resounding excitement and I found potential for climbing the hall of fame charts of motherhood! Soon we were in the Hawaiian Nail Bar. Sitting side by side with our feet in warm water, our arms being massaged, the little girl drinking a slurpie. We felt great! The little girl got fancy nail paints on both toes and fingers. With flowers and colorful zebra stripes. I got foot massage and warm towels on my feet. Both the little girl and I were in heaven!

We came back him home past lunch time and heated up last night's left overs. Miss Haana wanted to watch Just Add Magic series on tv. I would have protested, except a few mintues of watching it, i really liked it too. We kept watching one episode after the other, till, of course it got too much for me to keep my eyes open and i took a nap.

The day was indeed magic!

Purple Haze

Play dough nails!

The Constitution

Yesterday little Miss Haana came back from summer camp with a different hair style than the one she had when she went in the morning. This has been becoming a regular occurrence, even though I've tried to discourage it!

This time, though, the head was also looking sparkly. I asked, "Did you put sparkles in your hair?!". "No, it's hair sparkles", she educated me. I tried unsuccessfully to grab a hold of her (she escaped). I asked, "Who gave you the permission to put sparkles in your hair?". "Its not sparkles, it's hair sparkle", she insisted. "Fine, who gave you the permission to put hair sparkle in your hair?". She paused and then, "Umm, the constitution?!".
We laughed out loud!