Easter Egg Hunt

Easter egg hunt is a big deal for me. I'm not a very competitive person am the time, but there's something about easter egg hunt that presses my buttons just right!

Last year we had not wanted to go to egg hunts with too many people so little miss Haana and I set up our own egg hunt, and had Jinu aunty, Kirthi aunty and Varam over. That was a fun day! This year we thought we can hit up an egg hunt in our town, very close to us. On the day, I asked miss Haana to retrieve our egg baskets from upstairs, one for Bobby, one for her. And then prep up Bobby boy so he doesn't let me down during the egg hunt! She demo-ed to him how he was supposed to grab the eggs and put them in his basket. It was hard to say but it looked like he got the gist.

We had our breakfast and all of us were off for the egg hunt - Nana, Nani, Miss Haana, Bobby, Papa and I. The egg hunt was in a super small park that had a gazebo in the middle and eggs all over the grass. We waited at the flag with baskets ready and Bobby chomping on the bit to go. Soon the hunt began. This one was for ages 1-4. And in stead of ages 1-4, all parents jumped all over the eggs and flooded the tiny park. I was scared to loose him. Thanks to little miss Haana we managed a fair share of eggs.  One of the eggs had a coupon from a nearby candy store. So we headed there to spend my money. Since the egg hunt finished so quickly, we headed to the nearby rose garden. It was a good day, and we played around eating candy we just bought. 

But my itch for easter egg hunts was not sufficiently scratched. Next morning,  on Sunday,  a soon as I woke up, I started looking if there were any suitable egg hunts we could still go to. Not too big, not too small, just right. I found one egg hunt in the nearby church, but it was going to start at 945. It was kind of early for us. But it would have to be, I thought. It is now or next year. So I sprung into action. Little miss Haana was already up. Made her her morning milk. Then started on swift breakfast of egg sandwiches for everyone. Raj started on the eggs. We all cut corners to get ready in a hurry and get to the car. Nani stayed at home. We reached the egg hunt barely 5 minutes before starting time, ran from the car, and made it to starting line with 2 minutes to spare. Bobby boy started dutifully putting eggs he could reach into his basket. I told him "Not yet Bobby!", we hadn't started yet. At that, he moved the eggs from his to miss Haana's basket!! 

Soon they rang the starting horn, and I egged Bobby boy to grab more eggs and put them in the basket. He was moving at glacier pace, but he still got his basket full. Miss Haana who was swift as a bunny by now, returned with her basket full too. Satisfied, we headed to the petting zoo. Bobby and I patted the sheep, llamma and the bunny. Bobby boy spoke at length to the goose, saying "Hi goose" repeatedly. Miss Haana held little chicks in her hand! They were so cute! 

It was a good egg hunt, and we had a lot of fun! Now it was time to head home and open our stash of eggs!

Second Birthday

Late March this year was a milestone. Little baby Bobby boy turned 2! It is a big deal!

To celebrate with him, I had taken the day off. In the morning, after planting loads of kisses to Bobby boy, and after he had played at home with his Papa; he and I left to meet Bobby's Godfather Keith. We had breakfast together and then went to Playstreet museum. This was a place for little kids to play with blocks, tubes, mini shopping carts and cash registers. There were all kinds of fun things. Bobby played with all kinds of things. He watched other kids as they played. He insisted of returning cars to other kids' mom's. Then ended up finally fixating on cars, trucks, school bus. And then there was dump truck, his favorite. After playing for quite some time, it was time to head home. It had been a fun, fun time! 

At home, Bobby boy ate some chicken nuggets and soon headed for his nap. Soon little miss Haana will return from school. She and I had work to do. Our plan was to make a 3 tiered chocolate cake for cake cutting that evening. Somewhere in there we managed to have a quick fight and then make up as well.

In the evening,  we had some company. None of the grandparents had seen Bobby boy since he was born. All due to covid. But now, on his 2nd birthday, both sides of grand parents had travelled from India to celebrate with him. In the evening we had Tata, Pati (paternal grand parents), Nana, Nani (maternal grandparents), Kirthi aunty, Karthik uncle and Varam, and Jinu aunty, all together to celebrate Bobby. Bobby boy was delighted to be the center of attraction and to play. After cake cutting, we had cake and ice cream. Bobby boy picked out and stole chocolate chips from the chocolate cake, and stuffed them in his mouth. He wasn't fooling anyone though, cause soon his whole mouth was brown!

We played games and ate. And soon it was time to call it a night. 

The celebration for Bobby's 2nd birthday continued though. Little miss Haana and I had invited few of her friends over to celebrate Bobby's birthday in the park on the coming weekend. We decided we will bake and decorate our own cupcakes for the party. 

It was a beautiful sunny, spring morning. I had fresh cooked muffins on the trays, ready to be decorated. Little miss Haana, Nani (grandma) and I got busy icing the cupcakes. Little miss Haana, who knew her baking thanks to cooking shows and a summer spent in numerous baking adventures, showed Nani and me how its done! Three generations working on cupcakes!

When we got to the park, we hung up the baby shark pinata, put up other baby shark decoration on the picnic tables, and set up baby shark paper plates and napkins! I put on coco melon and baby shark songs on the speaker! Bobby heard them and giggled in delight! We had only 1 guest who was Bobby's age- miss Siyona. She was the guest of honor. All the kids hung out at the party ground and enjoyed the day. Soon, it was time to break the pinata. All miss Haana's friends took turns and it was only after several tries from all of them that the pinata gave in. All the candy was recovered, looted and divided amongst the kids. Bobby boy stole all that he could. 

It was a great birthday for Bobby. 

April Fools Day

I had a feeling something is brewing late yesterday evening. Little miss Haana told me I had no idea what's in store for me tomorrow. "Tomorrow is a Friday, what else?", I wondered aloud. She gave an ominous laugh. Later she was making some lists and whispering urgently into Nana's ears. 'How suspicious', I thought. 'What is it tomorrow?'.

This morning has been so strange! First, my usual alarms didn't go off early this morning. (I keep 3 different alarms in quick succession, and still sometimes manage to sleep through haha!). Luckily I had to answer another call, I had to use the bathroom. I would've been surprised not to find my toothbrush anywhere, but late last night Nana had told me my toothbrush is hidden behind the air fryer in the kitchen... in a tall jar of water! Things were about to get stranger still. 

I went to the study to keep my personal laptop back and found something looks missing.. My work laptop was gone from the table. And with it, the charger too! I looked in all the cabinets and drawers and found random things relocated in random places, but no sign of my laptop or charger! 

Prepping breakfast, I found a bowl of cereal in the freezer! Frozen fruit loops? I don't think so! Also, they had something in there.. pepper! Pepper in frozen fruit loops! What in the world is going on! 

While I was discovering these strange things I had a trick up my sleeve too! I shook up little miss Haana awake with my usual "Wake up sweet baby, it's 7 o'clock. It is time for school". She demanded to see the time, but I distracted her, telling her I'll show her the time when she brushes, gets ready and come for breakfast. In fact it was only 645am. For reference - in the race to get to the school on time every morning, 15 minutes is an eternity! When she was having her milk and enjoying my surprise at pepper in fruit loops, I asked her, "Did you like my April fools surprise?". She asked "What?", innocently. I showed her the time, it was barely 7 then. She wasn't super impressed, but I revelled in my limited success, before trying to goad out my chargers' location!!

As she was leaving for school this morning, she warned there were more tricks up her sleeve today! I wondered what else is in store for me. Just as she left with Dad, my phone alarm finally rang. "YOU'VE BEEN PRANKED", my phone screen yelled! No kidding!!

Later I found this note on her table...

Coco

Little Bobby boy has a best buddy. It is Coco! Well, i call him Coco, cause that's the show on TV that Bobby loves! The little baby's name in the show is JJ. But I like Coco better, so around here, he's called Coco.

Coco is the best baby ever. He listens to his parents, never fusses about brushing his teeth or changing clothes or taking a bath. He's even thinking about potty training now. So obviously Coco is fictitious! Real babies are much much different,  not naming names here! 

On his 2nd birthday Bobby boy's Godfather Keith gave him Coco. Bobby loves it. So now not only does Coco goes to bed with Bobby boy,  along with Monster ball. But also Coco must be tucked into the blanket with him!  :-)

Sweet babies! Bobby is mumma's Coco! 

An Ode To Mini

A long time ago, before the kids, before I married, before a lot of things, I bought me a really cool car! It was the first new car I bought. It was my Mini, a tiny Mini cooper,  red with white stripes on the dash, convertible. Completely automatic convertible top, and so much fun to drive! Everytime I drove my Mini with the top down, I was glad I shelled out the extra cash and got me a convertible! 

It was a unique car, fun to drive and very entertaining. I loved my mini. Over the years, little miss Haana and I had driven with the top down, on good weather days, with music on, around the town! Recently, there were a few times little Bobby boy and little miss Haana both hung out on the back seat with the wind in their hair from the convertible top open. 

When little miss Haana was about to be born, I contemplated changing and getting a bigger car. But giving up on my little mini and getting an suv just didn't seem right! We did great with the mini, and there was a long period of time when little miss Haana used to enjoy my car. All of her friends thought he mom had the funniest, coolest car. 

Lately though, she had changed her mind. It was too small for her, too hot in the summer and just too inconvenient for her. She'd choose to go on Papa's dazzling Tesla anytime she had the option to. With the years, the music system didn't work anymore. The mini was from a time before Bluetooth connectivity. And I hadn't quite had cup holders in the last decade or so. Most recently, the passenger seat would only be in an almost laying down position. 

Now with Bobby, it was evident Mini was a bit too mini now. I looked for options. Unfortunately, with mini I was thoroughly spoiled. I was sure I wanted to get a hybrid car; something that wouldn't burn gas with usual city driving, but could do so if going long distance, or outside city. Since my parents were now visiting, I decided it needed to be 6 seater at least. I finally decided I'm going to get a new mini van. A new Chrysler Pacifica hybrid mini van! 

Instantly, so much room! Its like an apartment on wheels! All the latest technology.. Bluetooth connectivity, network hotspot connection, 2 screens at the back individually connected to the internet, hands-free doors opening,  great music system and cup holders!!! Ha ha! 

In the last 4 weeks, the mini van has gone some 800 miles. And only used a few gallons of gas (that too mostly in the first few days when the battery was not charged) thanks to electric charging! 

I went from mini to a mini van! I still miss my mini sometimes, but cup holders and good music are here to stay!!

You Seem Frustated

One day last week i was really upset! It had been a long day.. Babysitter had decided to take the entire week off at the last minute. I had a lot to do at work. Grand parents had just come over from India, so there was a lot to do at home too. Little Bobby boy was not on his best behavior. He had been fussing, wanting to make a mess while eating. I was so mad! I was frustrated having to watch the boy all the time. 

My sweet and so very thoughtful little miss Haana quietly slipped away to her table and emerged only several minutes later with a paper for me. 

This (picture above) is what she had for me. A suggestion to throw the baby to a "servant" and get me some TV time. I liked the thought and the suggestion, but I told her I lake a necessary ingredient - "servant"! She suggested grand parents. Hmm.. food for thought!

Man in the Middle Attack

In cyber security, man in the middle attack is a well known attack type, where someone intercepts a message, potentially changes it and impersonates as the sender to the receiver on both sides. At sleep time, we have a different interpretation of man in the middle attack. 

I love cuddling up with both my babies in bed. Most days they don't cooperate. Little miss Haana is usually asleep before she even hits the bed. And Bobby boy moves too much to cuddle. Some days when little miss Haana and I are in the bed, next to each other and both awake, Bobby boy decides he must have a role in this picture. While I try to encourage him to come up next to me on my other side, he has different ideas. He hikes up on the bed, on top of the pillows, balancing himself precariously, stepping on my face and then getting to a foothold between little miss Haana and me. Here, then, he settles in. There obviously is no place in between. But he decides to land his baby butt on either of our faces till we grudgingly make space for him. Now, between us, he quickly slips back on the pillow, gets inside the blanket, gets his monster ball closer to him, thumb in his mouth. He's in his happy place! And so are we!!

We just got a man in the middle attack!