Am I Lucky?

Won an iPod shuffle today in a lucky draw. Well its was G who had registered his name for the event and it was his name that was called out. But who cares. He was not in the audience when his name was called out and I went to collect the prize. So its mine, what say?

Feel like getting a lottery ticket tomorrow. Maybe the luck will strike one more time?

I am glad I read Sue's blog...

We performed my FIL's first death anniversary couple of weeks back. I had to wear madisar for three days for the rituals. I kinda know how to wear it but did not want to ask my MIL for directions. I remembered Sue doing this post sometime back and promptly went and got a refresher course on how to wear a madisar. Followed it step by step and thanked her mentally everyday while wearing it. I was glad I was able to do this myself.

Thanks Sue.

Fun with homework

Sonu has started getting homework and for me its so advanced for first grade. One such homework is where he gets 15 words each week which he has to use in sentence. Getting him to understand the word and then use it appropriately in a sentence takes quite an effort. At times he uses two or more words within the same sentence Sometimes its hilarious the sentences he comes up with.

Some instances are

The word - worried, married. He makes up the following - 'I married a man who worried a lot'.

The words - cried, reason. The sentence - 'I cried for no reason' (he cried for something just before we sat down to do the homework and he put that in context here)

The word - amazing. The sentence he says 'Bald eagles have amazing eye sight.' I am thrilled with his sentence and ask him to write it down and he writes 'Bald eagles have amazing I-sight.' I start giggling. He is puzzled and asks he why I am giggling. I ask him to check the sentence he just wrote. He sees no mistake. I ask him the meaning of sentence. He says 'bald eagles can see all the way from top.' I ask him to check his sentence again. He says he has written it correctly. I ask him 'with what part of you body do you see?' He says 'Eyes' and then looks at his sentence again and realises his mistake and starts giggling too.

Will keep you updated on this.

Darr...

There is a tag going around where everyone is listing their fears. Something that happened this morning made to want to do this post. Here goes my list...

1. I am afraid of dogs. I admire them from a distance but do not have the courage to pet them. Living in US, thats a big no-no as almost everybody owns a dog and treats them as a family member. They are lovely creatures and are so loyal. But I am just scared of them. This morning I walked out of home to get into the car with Nattu when a huge dog came running towards us. I was getting into my seat and Nattu was going around the car to get to her door. In fact she was the one who saw the dog and froze. I saw through the window that the dog was coming towards her and asked her to come to me. She ran to my side of the car and got on my lap while I closed the door quickly behind us. There we were sitting in the driver seat with no room to move. I asked her to go to her seat from inside the car. She stepped on my work pants as she made her move, but I did not care. I looked around and could not see the dog anywhere. I did not want to back up the car lest I run over the dog. Then I will be in even more trouble. I finally did back up and saw that the owner of the dog was petting it at a distance. The owner had three more dogs with him and he was taking them for a walk. I was wondering why he did not have a leash on the big dog while the smaller ones were on one. I was laughing all the way to my work thinking of the two of us cramped in the driver seat to get away from the dog :-)

2. I am afraid of creepy movies. I cannot watch monsters, aliens, dracula movies. G loves to watch these sci-fi movies but I am scared to watch them and get nightmares even if I watch a couple of scenes.

3. I am afraid of hurting others feelings. There are so many times when I want to say something harsh, but keep quiet because I am afraid that what I say may hurt them. If it’s someone I really care about, I do make sure to get the point across when I am a little more calm and not angry or agitated. But some people take this as to me being meek and try to walk all over me.

4. I am afraid of my behavior around my kids. I sometimes yell or scream at the kids when things don't go the way I want. Then I analyze my behavior and repent for putting my kids through that situation. I can see the hurt in my son's eyes when I do this and feel so bad later when I am more sober. I am working on getting not too worked up when kids drive me crazy.

5. I am afraid of embarrassing myself in public. But I am getting over this slowly and teaching my kids too that it’s ok to get embarrassed and not everybody is perfect

Last week at school...

. . . Sonu had his kindergarten graduation. He was one of the two in his class to get 'outstanding student' award. His teacher praised him on his math skills. It was a pretty neat ceremony. Parents who came to attend it were taken to their kid's class. A powerpoint presentation of photos taken during the year was shown. All students were given some sort of certificate with a candy to highlight a positive quality in them... like 'Dove' candy bar given to a student who is always the peace maker when there are disagreements (read fights), 'Life Saver' given to a kid who always helps others etc. She even had an appropriate candy for the most troublesome boy..'gummy worms' for he can never sit in one place even for a short duration.

G was totally proud of Sonu's achievement and asked me to call my mom to share the news. He has seen how my mom openly shows appreciation when anyone excels in education. She is someone who feels truly happy for anyone doing well at anything. Even when I did not get good grades during my school days, she would be genuinely happy for my BF who always was one of the class toppers. She would never compare me with my BF but would always point out my lack of effort. I knew how happy she would be to know about her grandson's achievement. She was super excited and I could visualise the huge smile on her face. She wanted me to give Sonu a treat, like ice cream or candy or prepare his favorite food as a reward. Thats what we used to get as kids when on rare occasions we excelled in something :-)

I was also proud of Sonu's achievement and also guilty for expecting too much from him all the time. He is naturally intelligent but gets bored easily with mundane stuff. He needs to challenged to make him and keep him interested to finish anything...be it homework, or artwork or even games. But that boy is so interested in watching TV that no matter how much ever I try to keep him occupied with other activities, his priority always is TV. Well, his TV addiction warrants a seperate post in itself.

Congrats my boy.

Where did I go wrong?

There is this craze for 'silly bands' among elementary school kids in US now a days. They are actually stupid rubber bands that has shapes of animals or birds. Kids wear it around their wrist where it looks like a proper rubber band and take it out and put it on a flat surface to show off what shape it takes. Sonu and Nattu have not asked for these silly bands or not even mentioned it in passing conversation. We went to a get together last weekend where some of their friends were wearing these bands. S and N were intrigued by these bands still did not ask me to buy it for them.

We attended a light music show yesterday where the kids sat with us for the first hour and listened to the songs belted out. Sonu got bored after that and asked when we can go home. Right around that time the show had a break and we came out of the auditorium to the front lobby. We met a few of our friends there and the kids made some new ones. The show resumed after the break. I went into the auditorium with MIL while the kids continued to run in and out. G stood next to the door and kept an eye on them. They were not disturbing anyone and no one was complaining. So I let them have fun with their new found friends. In the middle of a song, Sonu and Nattu came and asked me whether they can have a dollar to buy a silly band from one of their friends. I said 'No'. The show got over and on our way back the kids show me the new silly bands around their wrists. They take it out to show the shape of the band. I was surprised and asked them where they got the silly bands from. They said 'we got a dollar from appa and bought this from one of the boys'. I was hopping mad at G. I asked G why he gave them money. G said he asked the kids to ask for my permission if they can buy the silly bands, they came back and told him that I said 'OK' so thats why he gave them the money. Now I was mad at the kids for twisting the truth to their benefit. I ask them in front of G what my answer was to their request for a dollar, they said that I said 'No'. Then I confronted the kids and asked them why they lied to their appa to get the silly band. Ofcourse Sonu knew what he did was wrong and remained quiet while Nattu said 'I got two bands amma while he got only one'. I felt like banging my head on the wall.

I was mad at G for not checking with me before giving the money to the kids for something as silly as the silly band, I was mad at kids for lying to their father to get something they wanted, I was feeling miserable having failed somewhere in this parenting gig.

Where did I go wrong?

A song for every word

My dad is a big fan of old hindi songs. He sings songs appropriate for everyday situations changing words here and there to suit the moment. Everytime the door bell rang he would start off 'kaun aayaa mere ghar ke dwar pe...'. My brother and I picked up this habit and sing songs picking words out of everyday conversation. I continue to do this even after marriage and kids. I keep humming songs when I am cooking, cleaning, bathing. I do what my dad does, pick up everyday conversation and break into a song.. When my kids ask 'Who is it' - I break into the MJ song 'Who is it'. Sometimes they are amused and other times they are irritated that I am not answering their question.

Sonu has always been a chubby big kid. I stopped carrying him when he turned 5 because my back hurt everytime I tried to. I snuggle with him in the sofa or bed but don't lift him. Even when he falls asleep, I gently wake him up and walk him to his bed. I lift Nattu at times, she being a petite little girl and carrying her does not throw my back off. Sonu, one day saw me lift her and wanted me to lift him too. I said 'you know I don't lift you because I get back ache if I do'. He started off Adnan Sami's song 'thodi si tho lift karade...Mujhko bhi to lift karade..'.

Nattu is interested in drawing and coloring. She made a beautiful painting one day and I told her 'Nanna color panni irukkiye (you have done a good job)' and she goes off 'nanna re nanna re nanna re na na re'

I ask Sonu to show his tongue (nakku) as part of his brushing routine and he sings 'nakka mukka nakka, oh shakalaka, oh randakka'

I think I have passed on the genes on this one quite successfully.