All about Ashu.

Ashu had quite an eventful week with a Violin Recital and an Indian group Dance, both at her school! Remember how last year she danced for O Re Kanchi? It was a mix of "Mukunda, Mukunda" and "Radha kaise na jale" this time with one boy and 8 girls! We had less then a month, we could meet only once or twice a week and add to it, I was the only one choreographing and making the kids dance to my tune since my partner in crime from last year has moved out of Swiss! What an uphill task! It was so difficult to even fix a date when all of us were available. At one point, I just gave up and asked Ashu if she wants to dance alone or with Antu. She refused instantly and proclaimed, "group dance or no dance, Amma!" Sigh! The things we do for our kids! But once we managed to meet, things started working out. We took turns and practiced in each others houses and after a while, I even started to look forward to these things just for the yummy food and chai! I think I behaved more or less like a circus animal trainer! The moms loved me and the kids sort of warmed up to me towards the end. Much like stockholm syndrome, I guess! Everyone was admiring me for my immense patience with the kids and I felt like a fraud! Why is it so easy to be patient with other peoples kids? The d day was last Saturday and the kids did me proud! It was so cute to watch them do the moves and try to be in sync. Though the day before the dance was when Kolaveri went viral and I had an acute case of earworm and was *this* close to actually playing this song instead of Mukunda for the kids to dance. Not that they would have known the difference! ;)

Coming to the Violin recital, it all started a couple of months back. Ashu was stubborn that she wanted to learn the Violin. She kept asking us last year too and we thought she was too young and I did nt have the time or energy to cart her to yet another class! But when I learnt that theres a class she can take once a week in her school during lunch recess, I jumped at the chance. At least, I dont have to drive her around! One fine day, we took her to the store and rented a Violin. Thats where I learnt that there are actually different sizes in violins and one always rents Violins for kids. Ashu was a happy camper. We also bought her the recommended book and a stand. And of course I threatened Ashu with dire consequences if she did nt practice regularly just before we paid the huge amount! One can always dream! The classes started soon and she quite enjoyed them. After a few classes, I had no idea what she was doing so I decided to attend classes whenever I could along with her. So much for less driving around, huh? But that helps both of us. (Poor Antu though who has to sit still for 30 mins!) A month alter, the teacher informed us about the student recital which happens in November every year and asked Ashu to choose a song she wanted to play. She chose A Mozart Melody. (popularly known as Twinkle, Twinkle!) Poor little thing practiced it almost every day for a month! Of course, I had to be a Tiger Mom at times but then who am I kidding? It is who I am! The improvement you see is tremendous though. It amazes me what one can do with practice. (I am there with her in every class but theres no way I can read the notes like Ashu does.) The teacher was also going to make a group of kids play a few songs and Ashu was part of it. There was much excitement on the day of the recital. (last Tuesday) Choosing something formal to wear, shiny black shoes, cameras charged, proud parents in the front row, the works! Ashu played beautifully and the group recital was very cute too. Some of the middle school kids were amazing! Unbelievable talent! Wonder how many hours they practice every day! ;)

There is nothing to look forward to now and Im wondering what to do with all the extra time I seem to have since yesterday! Pay attention to my poor neglected second child, you say?

Ashu's Bookmark.

Q: How do you know when your child has graduated to reading chapter books?

A: When she makes something like the below bookmark!

Me: Ashu! You could have just placed a paper inside the page. Or any bookmark!

Ashu: But how will I know which page to continue reading from, Amma?

Keeping a bookmark on the page you finished reading and a note to remind you to go to the next page "without reading"! Im going to copyright it! There are books for Beginning Readers. But bookmarks? Height of Originality or what! Any buyers? :)

ps.

Though she is devouring the Rainbow Magic books these days, this bookmark was specially designed for Roald Dahl's "George's Marvelous Medicine"!

Everyday Math.

I have been going crazy trying to teach Addition and Subtraction to Ashu. It takes talent to teach a kid something as basic as 2+2 = 4, I tell you. And I sorely lack that talent. She is getting better though after a month of me sitting on her head. Though the ride has not been smooth, it has been quite comical. Like when I ask her whats 15 + 4, she ll do some calculations in her head and answer "11"! And Im like "Dude! how can you add two numbers and then get a lesser number?" But of course she ll give me a blank look like her father does when I explain to him the method of loading the dishwasher. For the 100th time! And then she ll start guessing, "Is it 15 then? Or 17?" And when shes in one of those annoyingly silly moods, "Is the answer fifteen hundred and twenty, Amma? Or a Trillion and one?" Sigh! One day she wrote 9 + 9 = 19. I was nt even sitting with her or anything. She was playing with stencils and using the number stencils, wrote this in a paper. And many other sums. All of them were right except this one. I winced. Told her as gently as possible that she has done a very good job except this one. And thats it! She exploded! "I hate maths, Amma and I hate you! Im never ever doing addition again! 9 plus 9 is 19! You dont know anything!" and stomped off. I gave her the royal ignore. A few minutes later she walks to me and asks gently, "What is 9 + 9, Amma?" Phew. At least she is interested!

A few weeks back she was asking me when her Easter break was and I told her its in April. "Thats a long time away, Amma! Its only February now", she sighed! I told her that its only a month and a half away and that February is a short month with only 28 days instead of 30 and it will fly. "But thats only like 2 days less, Amma! Thats not a lot!", she responded! I was stunned needless to say!

As if all this drama with Ashu is not enough, Antu for her part shocked me the other day. So theres this shop (Migros) which gives out a small toy called "Nano" every time we buy something for 20 francs. Collecting them is the current craze amongst kids here. I dont shop there a lot much to Ashu's disappointment. So she had only two. The girls treasured them like gold and played with them all the time. Then a couple of days back, Antu and I went to Migros to buy groceries and got two more of them. I gave them to Antu and as soon as she saw them she screamed, "Nano!! Ippa namba kitta four irukku!" (Now we have four!) I refused to believe my ears. The girl can count, yes. But adding?! That too instantly! I think its time I ask Antu to teach Maths to her sister!

O Re Kaanchi...

Ashu danced on stage for the first time on Saturday. It was a group dance with 5 other girls. I had never thought that Ashu will ever climb a stage, least of all dance in the near future. Shes extremely self conscious. So when a month back, an Indian school mom suggested a group dance by the kids, I reluctantly signed up Ashus name and was ready to accept Ashus decision if she wanted to quit. On the first day of practice, I wanted to beg her to quit because she was err.... not graceful. (And Im being kind here.) Another mom and I were the choreographers and I was cursing Hd for passing on the two left feet gene to our daughter! (of course, hes to be blamed!) She was also the youngest in the group. Us two moms were exhausted after every practice what with making 6 precocious kids dance to our tunes and not to mention all their younger siblings wandering around and distracting everybody at every turn! But we did it somehow. Ashu slowly progressed from not-dancing to exercising to partial-dancing. Grace is a long time away but Im not complaining. ( Cute little girls in cute little outfits! Whats there to complain about? ) I am so proud that she did nt quit. That she cooperated so nicely during practice. That though she was the youngest, she acted mature. That she remembered all the steps. That she made friends. But most of all, that she had fun and enjoyed herself.

Since the successful performance,the choreographers decided to milk the situation and make the group perform the same dance in two more events next month. As long as its not a dance competition, we have nothing to worry. ;)

Little Miss. Smarty-Pants.

Ashu strongly believes that one day Antu will catch up with her and they both can be twins and go to the same class, look alike, do the same things, etc... etc... And I totally understand where shes coming from because when I was a kid all I ever wanted to be was a twin. "Twins" was such a magical word. Ashu has a twin in her class this year and its a fascinating experience for her. Even though the other twin is in a different class, they all meet during recess and Ashu is always proudly declaring how she always know the difference but the boys always get confused. (they wear different dresses everyday, duh!)

I burst Ashus bubble and told her that Antu will always be younger than her. They can never be the same age. But she threw a googly at me and asked, "Amma! When I become big and you are dead, can Antu be my baby?" Sigh! I should learn to keep my mouth shut.

The other day she was being very difficult and I yelled at her. She got very upset and marched off to her room. I took some time to cool off too and then went to talk to her. But its like talking to a wall when shes upset. Nothing works. So I tell her, "Listen Ashu. You have a choice. Lets just hug each other, move on and make this day happy. Or you can keep on sulking and make this day sad. What are you going to do?" She looks at me and says, "I don't like both the choices." "OK. So what do you want to do?", I ask her. "I want to play some game with you", she says. Sigh. I wish my demands were so simple too.

Last week, she came home from school and told me, "Today we had to pick a non-fiction book from the library, Amma." And I was all, "What?" So she explains, "Non fiction books are not stories. You learn something. Like about animals or birds or people." Oh, OK. And how do you know if a book is fiction or non fiction, I asked. "I just look at the spine label, Amma, Its marked!" But of course!

Ashu also educated me on what is symmetry. "If we slice our body in two halves from top to bottom, everything on the right matches the left, Amma. So we are symmetrical" and also folded a paper in two halves, opened, sprayed some paint, closed and opened. and showed me the symmetry on both the sides. "Even this baby is symmetrical, Amma. Look at her eyebrows", she said pointing at Antu. Poor Antu. Reduced to a lab experiment by her older sis!

Today we had the parents teachers meeting at school and as always I was tearing up hearing the teachers sing her praises.( For the money we pay, they better! ) Ashus class has this class stuffed toy which is given to one child each day to take home and then write a report on what the child did with the toy at home. Its fun. The kids think that they get it only if they are very well behaved in class and make good choices. Ashu got it the first time in the third week of school and patiently waited until then. She asked me once when she will get it and I told her that she has to make good choices. And she replied, "But I always make good choices, Amma!" Since its coming from Ashu and not Antu, I believed it too!! And today her teacher told me, "If I could, I will send her home with that toy everyday. Shes such a good kid!" Now what more does a mom need, you tell me!

Five years.

Who would have thought? I love you my dear blog. Happy Birthday!

That reminds me, when Ashu was a baby all I wanted to know was how will Ashu look like when she is 5. How will her voice be? What will her interests be? Who will her friends be? It was such a giddy feeling. Sigh! Good times. All I want to know now is when will the girls go to sleep! Ha ha ha! (Just kidding, Dad!)

Did I tell you Ashu is riding her bicycle without the training wheels? The big milestone happened last Sunday when Hd removed the training wheels and took Ashu down to teach her to ride. I gave him all sort of gyaan and told him that it will be great if Ashu can learn to ride by end of this year. Ha! 15 minutes later, he calls me and asks me to look out of the balcony. And whaddayaknow? Ashu is riding the bike on her own! This man does nt have to sweat for anything in his life, I tell you! Anyway, yay! I was so proud at the moment. Lets just say that I could totally relate to how Neil Armstrong's parents would have felt when he landed on the moon. (Or at the photo studio if thats what you believe! ;)

Ashus Art Gallery - The Doodles.

Ashu is becoming such a young lady now that I thought I ll display all her doodles before shes embarrassed by them. ( Remember her art gallery? )

Yesterday she was doing some finger painting. Basically she was using her index finger as a brush and painted a flower. So I asked her, "why don't you use a brush, ashu?" Pat came the reply, "Because i want to feel the paint, Amma!" I rest my case.

I don't have her doodles pre 2007. Below is circa July 2007 when the artist was just over two years old and was still pronouncing boat as boot. One of the artists first doodle after the artist moved to live in Switzerland. Those were the periods where the artist doodled first and then based on the outcome, named the art.

Without further ado, presenting the first exhibit.

1. Das Boot.

The below two are early 2008. 2. Octopus and 3. Snake respectively as is obvious.

The next ones are late 2008. A very struggling period for the artist since she became a big sister and was forced to draw stick figures in pairs.


4. The Unhappy Stick Figures.



5. My Sister's Balloon Keeper.

Now we move onto 2009. Where the artist accepted the fact that the sister is here to stay.

6. Resigned To Her Fate.

In mid 2009, at the age of 4, the artist was becoming very fond of writing and started labelling her own doodles.

7. The Bunk Bed.

8. The Astro Nut.

"Thats the moon and thats the flag on the moon. Its the US flag. And thats the astronaut." - the artist was overhead describing thus to her mother.


9. The Queen.

10. The Flower.

11. Now I know my ABCs.


In a daring attempt, the artist tries her hand in self portrait and labels herself.

12. The Brat.

Later part of 2009 brought a sudden difference in the artists strokes and she comfortably settled in these patterns. So much so that the artists mother can now recognize her daughters crap doodle from the 20 other pieces of crap doodles the school insists on displaying!

13. We are a Happy Family.


Currently the artist has almost abandonded her doodle board medium and moved on to paper. Her mother is running out of storage space. So please contact her by email for trade enquiries and save the rain forest!