Fathers Day

Little Miss Haana had been working on her craft project for several days. She'd gotten a box full of popsicles sticks and had been working away with her glue gun.

It was father's day. And little miss Haana was busy working on building all kinds of shapes and designs and crafts with her popsicle sticks. She stuck the sticks together and then colored the sticks, stuck pompoms or covered them with yarn.

In the last few days she had made:
A treasure box with a lid.  A green colored Christmas tree with a small gift box underneath it. A freestanding fan shaped, colorful craft that could be used as a magazine holder.
And then there was this small cage styled to be a little backpack. Or maybe a bigger treasure box!

All these items were the father's day gifts. I was told we would be making chocolate cake in the morning. Since I am doing low carb diet these days, I figured low carb chocolate and strawberry muffins would make a worthy alternate choice. So, early on the sunday morning, miss haana and i got to work. She helped with the mixing and sifting and cutting off the strawberries for the muffins. Then when we got to the baking, little miss Haana got back on her little brown chair with her glue gun and pompoms finishing up the last of her craft projects.

Once the muffins are done, we took them out. We figured we needed 7 muffins with 1 candle each for the 7 years of fatherhood! We sang the happy father's day song, blew the candles and got to the eating-fresh- muffins part!

Later that day we took the 7 year old father to brunch with live music and drinks. It was a good father's day!

Crush

I picked up little Miss Haana from her summer camp this evening. That's when i got the news. "You know what happened Mumma? Two boys came and told me they had a crush on me"!!
Oh my Gawd, could this be happening? I am pretty sure I'm not supposed to, and I've broken several laws of parenting, but I put my hands over my mouth and let out a big squeal; full mischief, scandal and delight. Miss Haana laughed and then we both giggled! "One boy came first and said he had a crush on me.."..
"What did you say?"
"Ughh, gross!", she made a face, " And then.."
"Who are these boys? Which grade are they in?"
"Uhh, they're in the camp. Same grade as I. And then, after the first boy said that, later, another boy came up. And he said 'I have a crush on you' too!!! I even told them, you can only]have a crush when you're in 4th grade.."
"How do you know that? Who told you that?", i wondered how far back do these 'crush' conversations go..
"Oh, Nikhil said that. That you can only have a crush after you're in 4th grade"
Nikhil? Really? The good boy said that, I wondered.
"Oh Mumma.. and I have a crush on you"
Aww.... (Hugs)!!

And Your Job Is..

I've been avoiding this conversation for years now, but it's been coming up in more earnest lately. "Mumma, I want a dog!", says little miss Haana with doggy eyes herself. I love dogs myself, but they're just a lot of work.

When i was growing up, in 7th grade, I forced my parents to get a dog. It was not my first attempt. I had taken many abandoned dogs and cats into my wing over the years, none of them quite made it inside the house thanks to my parents. But then one day we were visiting my aunt when we met Lucky. My aunt was fostering him and he was just a 6 weeks old puppy. This was my chance! I got my parents to take Lucky back to our house. And that was the beginning of an interesting journey! While I did go and run outside to catch Lucky (he liked to run away), my parents ended up walking him many a times.

When little Miss Haana brought up wanting a dog, I remind her dogs are a lot of work. The dog would need to be walked 3 times a day. Trained. Boarded somewhere if we go on a vacation. "I have a plan,  Mumma", she said all business like.

"In the morning, I will have to go to school, so Papa will walk the dog. While he's walking it, Papa will also scoop the poop. (Giggles). In the evening as soon as I come back from school, I will walk the dog. But Papa will still come with me to scoop the poop. Then after dinner, in the night, I will walk the dog before bed. Papa will come with me then too. Why? To scoop the poop."

So, what is Papa's job in this whole dog keeping story?
"His job is that he is a pooper scooper!! "
More giggles erupt, this time from both of us!!

Happy Mother's Day

Happy Mother's Day to all the moms out everywhere!

I had been doing hints about mother's day for weeks. I needed to be treated special, I needed to be surprised. I need mother's day to be outstanding!

My sweet girl said she had some plans up her sleeve. A day before, she asked me what I wanted to breakfast on my big day. She came to me with a notepad and pen, taking down my order with the professionalism of a seasoned waitress! Even asking - 'And would you like some fruit with it?', 'Anything to drink with it?'!

The next morning she and I woke up together, and the first thing she said was, 'Oh no, you're already awake!'. The plan was for walking me up with the breakfast! I helpfully offered, I can stay in bed if you like. She was relieved. Next, Papa was woken up and dragged downstairs to help with the breakfast. Water was boiled for the tea. Bread was toasted. Fruits were cut and arranged in a bowl. Eggs were scrambled. Orange juice was glassed. All of this was arranged on a tray and brought up to me in bed! So perfect, i purred!! There was also a bag full of cards for me! After breakfast little Miss Haana and I played on the bed.

Later that day on the afternoon we went to my favorite place these days, the rose garden. Ah equipped with a picnic blanket. I lay in the grass and watched cotton puff clouds float against the blue blue sky. Again, perfect!

Best mother's day ever!

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.