The Stories

Little Bobby boy has been listening to stories. He also has been weaving some of his own for me!.  

Lately when you ask bobby boy to do something, he usually retorts with an indignant "I'm doing it!". For instance at home when I ask bobby to come to me, he says " I'm coming!", but actually he is continuing doing whatever he was doing, and is not coming! When i ask him to go to the bathtub for a bath, he'll say "I'm going to the bathtub", but actually he just wants to hang out around the house in his nakedness (I do love that! Lol)! When i ask him to come inside from the garage when we just drove in from somewhere, he'll remind me " I'm coming Mumma!", but actually he's hanging out in the garage and is not coming in at all! There are so many such examples... too many stories the little Bobby boy weaves for me!

Walmart

I like my neighborhood Walmart. It is well kept, and is well stocked up on milk and groceries. 

The other day little miss Haana and I went to walmart together. We each had our walmart wish list, but then invariably we find other things we now want, that have never been in any lists! Little miss Haana found a sleep wear set she really really really wanted! I looked at it. It was cute looking. But then I noticed, it wasn't the right material. It was long sleeve polyester, hence for cooler weather, but the pj bottoms were tiny shorts. I told little miss Haana I'm not getting it, is just not very useful. She didn't like my answer. She was irritated. I paid for our stuff and had to do a return, so I stood in the returns line. Little miss Haana grudgingly came up to me, and was still very upset. She said "I'm going", and left me at the returns line and was off. I was irritated by her reaction too and did not so much as turn around at that time either. 

But once the returns were done, I turned around and couldn't see her anywhere. I thought maybe she's lurking by the car, so I went to the car to offload our purchases. She wasn't there. I came back into the store, I expected her to be by the cashiers. But she wasn't anywhere to be found. I went back to the parking lot and checked the car inside too. Nowhere to be found. I now realized I am unable to find her anywhere and a sudden panic hit me. I went back to the store, up and down the cashiers. No sign of her. I called up Raj, he said he'll come to the store and look for her too. I was talking to Keith and told him I can't find her too. 

Then as I was going back through the aisles we had been, didn't see her, then I went back to the cashiers. That's when finally I found her. Walking around and then, seeing me, coming towards me. I was so so mad! But i didn't say anything. I just called up Raj and told him I found her. Pinged Keith and told him she's found. 

We came back home and Raj met us at the garage. Asked her why she behaved this way.. I asked her if she felt all those emergency texts we get on the phone, of child abduction, are they happening on another planet? No, they're happening around us, in front of walmarts. I was so scared, so mad and also so relieved, all at the same time - I could hardly say much. 

Summer Break

Little miss Haana's summer break this year has been somewhat like her - whimsical, creative, some prepared agendas but plenty of room for surprises and explorations. Here are some of this things miss Haana spent her time on this summer:

Gardening flower bed - Miss Haana did a project at school that got her interested in growing her own vegetables. This was back in spring. We made a couple trips to the nursery, but didn't get anything. Then I found a youtube video for building your own flower bed. Papa and she made a few trips to the nearby lumber store and for supplies to build it all. Over the next few weeks, they built the flower bed, got several bags of soil and mulch, laid it out, got seeds and finally planted them later in the summer. We now have a few small tomatoes plants that have tiny green tomatoes hanging in there, 2 okra plants growing crazy, several cucumber plants but no cucumbers yet, a couple basil and an Indian variety of basil called tulsi, I got from the temple. Miss Haana has been diligent about watering them through the scorching summer.  

Wooden toys - Everyone month we get a package for miss Haana that is a project for her to build. It's called a tinker crate. These are science and engineering projects, with all supplies included. She loves them and it is quite cool. One of these crates came with an ad for a woodworking project. I thought we could try that. We now get packages every month with pieces of wood and supplies like nails, hammers, screws and even paints and stickers for finishing up. Last time she made a lime green quarry truck (after some frustration).. it was promptly adopted by Bobby boy!

Violin orchestra - Miss Haana has been learning to play violin for awhile. Last year I had an idea that little miss Haana might like to play violin as part of a team -an orchestra. But last year I didn't do anything about it. This year, I got my act together. We downloaded the required music she needed to play for the audition. I spoke to her teacher, and they practiced the pieces for several weeks. Finally, on the last day for submission, she recorded videos of herself playing the pieces required for the audition. And then,  we waited. And waited. And waited. Several weeks later, we got a response. She made it into the youth orchestra! Super excited!! We texted her teacher, and he was really pumped up too!! 

Animation and editing - Little miss Haana has been drawing quite a bit lately. Occasionally on the laptop too. But over the summer I let her loan my laptop and she got adobe fresco software on it. Then she found a course offered by one of the artist she really liked online. We bought the course and she enjoyed every bit of it! Suddenly she was practicing all day on the laptop and coming up with really expressive faces! Seeing her progress, i finally relented. We created an instagram account for her to post her art work on. Her handle is suhaana.balak. Do follow her!

Animation - in June, I had an opportunity at work to recognize and celebrate my team and what they were able to accomplish. I thought of doing something funny and creative. I thought I will check with little miss Haana. I told her I want to do a video with animation using avatars for my team members. This was her turf. She told me about this website that can help with that. She worked the entire day or two, helping me make the creative content, edit and put finishing touches on everything. It was a big success at work, and everyone loved it!! Big thanks to my new intern, although she now says I owe her $$!

Hang out with grandparents - this year we had something that we hadn't had for last several years due to covid. Grand parents. My parents came for just one a month in the spring. Over the summer Raj's parents came to visit. Bobby boy loved hanging out with grandparents and so did little miss Haana. 

Combat training - Over the summer I had little miss Haana try a class for combat training. I wasn't sure if she'll like it or will it be intimidating to her. They practice skills that will be useful in real life situations using a combination of martial arts and street fighting elements. The school I found teaches krav maga- a style of combat training used by israeli military forces. Little miss Haana liked her initial class. I signed her up, but I was still waiting to see if this is something she'll stick to. It's been a few months and she still really likes it! I'm glad!

Loving Bobby - Little miss Haana hanging out with Bobby and playing with him has been one of the highlights of my summer! Every evening she would wake him up from his nap by entering the bedroom with a resounding "gooood mooooorninnng!!" (Even though it would be 5pm or so).  And then she'll pick up a feather and rub it in his face saying "feather in your face! Feather in your face!". And for some bizarre reason, the boy will sit up in his crib, just woken up from his nap and laugh out loud!! They are an odd bunch, aren't they!!

Bambaid

Little Bobby boy has being watching as little miss Haana put bandaids on her boo-boos, and soon after, it gets all better. He's also observed when little miss Haana helps Mumma. When Mumma gets hurt, Haana puts a bandaid for Mumma so she feels all better soon.

Now, since little Bobby boy is a big boy now and he knows things, he wants to help too. So when i get hurt, Bobby boy asks me, "Bambaid? Want a Bambaid Mumma?". Then,  he takes it upon himself to go to the bambaid drawer and get one for me. He gets plenty of fanfare and "Oh, my sweet baby!!", from me!

This week Bobby boy got a boo-boo himself. Now he's a big boy. So even though little miss Haana put a bambaid for him, Bobby boy decided this is something he has to do himself. So he went back to the bambaid drawer, found another bambaid, ripped it out from its packaging and put it on. At first, the bambaid wasn't put on just right. He needed to get just one more bambaid to make it just right. I'm not sure how many bambaids were sacrificed in this process. All i saw was a wasteland of bambaid packaging and a content and satisfied Bobby boy. Well, at least the boo-boo will heal. I put more bambaids on the grocery list!

Doodles

Little miss Haana's doodling at our neighborhood coffee shop Dragonfly Coffee House yesterday.

Look Don't Touch

Little miss Haana is the master of art and crafts of all kinds! This summer she spent on many many different projects. But somewhere in between her projects, little miss Haana made this special sticker to be stuck on top of Bobby boy's onesie. It says "Stop! Your germs are too big big for my little body! Look, don't touch".. Not really advice one can actually follow!

Bobby thought it was too curious to let the sticker stay on his onesie anyway. 

Sleeping Dragons

Why do babies look so utterly cute when they're sleeping? Look at this one looking all so peaceful. His sister likely taught him to look so sweet and innocent.. 

Makes me wanna squeeze them like a toothpaste tube. But I don't. Only because i know what this toothpaste tube can do to me when he wakes up unhappy :-/!!!

So i admit defeat and let sleeping dragons sleep :-)