Mother Daughter Day - Down for the Books

Last Friday little miss Haana's school was off.  I took off from work too, to make it into a mother-daughter day. But our plans were sketchy at best. What will we do?

I asked little miss Haana for suggestions and some expected patterns emerged. We will lunch at the Korean bbq place we dined last time. I looked up movie schedules but nothing good jumped up. Little miss Haana asked to go to a nail place, but it seemed too repetitive. Then I thought of visiting the immersive Van Gogh experience on Friday, she would love that. But when i read about it, I thought Bobba would like that too; perhaps all of us should check that out. But then what of our mother- daughter date?

On Wednesday night I was listening to an audible, and the author mentioned 'SUP' rentals - Standing Upright Paddleboarding. It struck a familiar chord. A few weeks back in Colorado, we went boating on the lake, there were a couple boys who rented a paddleboard and paddled their way through the lake. Little miss Haana had wanted to do it. Instead, the next day she did kayaking by herself on a single person kayak, along with Dad. I looked up if there are SUP rentals on my area, and found out -Yes! There were! There was a paddleboard class near by!! Available for friday! So perfect! 

Next day I called them up to make sure they had equipment for 9 year olds, and then made my booking for friday morning. It was a 2hr class. I figured we will spend some time on the docks while the instructor explains to us how to be stable on the board, and then the 2nd hour being in the water. 

Next day on our mother daughter date, little miss Haana and I had a hurried breakfast and headed out for our 10am class. Put on our current favorite song in the car, singing along as we went. At the class, we put on our life jackets and within the first 5 minutes, we were already on the paddleboard floating on the water. Our instructor told us how to paddle, how to steer, how to turn etc. Somewhere in the middle of that little miss Haana asked when can we be in the water. I wondered what does she mean, we are already on the water. But I realized in a minute, she meant when can we be 'in' the water. Soon after she jumped off her board to float in the water! Of course! She is part mermaid! I somehow cajoled her to get back on her board so we could head a bit farther down the lake. But soon when we were a little bit father, she wanted me to jump off the board too. I didn't at first, but soon our boards rammed in together and i lost my balance and jumped in anyway. Oh! It was great! The water felt great in the summer sun. Little miss Haana and I laughed in delight at the unadulterated fun we were having! We floated for a while and played with each other. It was great! When we got back on our boards it wasn't for very long. Thanks to little miss Haana we were back in the water soon enough. But it was a lot of fun both ways! At one point our paddleboards seemed to be floating away while we played in the water; we had to swim up to catch them. 

After a lot of fun it was time to head on back. We were both hungry by now, it was time to move to our next activity of the day. We dried ourselves and changed in the car then headed to the Korean bbq place for lunch. We both love Korean bbq. We had a big lunch and headed out. It was time to head home. 

But there was another activity in our mother daughter date yet. A movie! I popped some popcorn in the microwave. Made myself a decaf coffee, little miss Haana made herself a decadent hot chocolate with whipped creme and chocolate syrup drizzle on top, and we headed to the couch for our movie afternoon. Little Bobby boy was taking his nap, so it was timed well.

The movie began but soon I had trouble keeping my eyes open.. it was all so cozy and perfect! I may have slept through the whole movie, though little miss Haana kept shaking me up every so often. I woke up just at the closing credits. It was a good movie indeed! :)

It was a great mother daughter date! A perfect one in fact! :)?

2nd Grade Show And Tell- Family Heirloom

I forgot writing about this earlier, it's been almost 2 years, but hey, better late than never. 

For 2nd grade winter break assignment, the theme for project work was- family. Little miss Haana had to interview her grand parents or family about how growing up was different for them. She also had to prepare to show a family heirloom and talk about it in class. 

She wrote her interview questions and then called up nana, nani in India on how it was growing up back in the mid 19s for them. Some things do remain the same - she discovered they were naughty at school too, they liked hanging with their friends in school, took home lunches, liked recess time. But some things were different - they had to walk or bicycle to the school, the school didn't have any laptops or devices, school was more strict with teachers who were not that fun, and classrooms were uninviting.

The family heirloom project had me scratching my head.. what family heirloom? Then somehow i remembered something.

My nani (maternal grandma) was very good at sewing, embroidery, knitting and crochet and a whole bunch of other things. As a little girl I used to love my dolls. I still do even though I didn't actually have so many dolls then. Nani had stiched several fancy dress for my doll. In the winter time, she knitted sweater dresses for her. Fancy dress with multi-colored wool and custom belt and tie-back ribbon. I loved these dresses and my doll changed her clothes every now and then! 

A few years back, when visiting my parents in Delhi, my mom handed me these dresses and since then they are with me in my dresser. 

Those handful of doll-dresses are my family heirloom! They're so cute and precious. And they represent the unique bond I shared with my nani. I didn't actually learn how to sew or knit from her; at that time growing up, I wanted to be like a boy. And those skills were too girly for me. Now i don't think of skills being girly or boyish. 

For little miss Haana's class show and tell project, she prepared her speaking part. We wrapped one of the dresses carefully in a ziplock bag, attached it to the rest of project work on a big cardboard. In class, she narrated her story of heirloom and little bitty dresses to her fascinated friends while her teacher recorded her. All her friends wanted to see the dress up close, touch it,  marvel at it like I have for the past decades.

Of course I only breathed easy once the dress was back home, and safely back into my dresser with the others :-). That's where a family heirloom should be!