Happy 2008.

We had a great time during the Christmas break. Ashu had great fun with the two boys. She is one hell of a tom boy, I tell ya. Hanging upside down from the bunk bed like a monkey, playing with one of the boys red car non stop and racing it forgetting her doll, hitting the boys right back and pushing them, ... The girl can sure take care of herself. As predicted, Ashu was nt too comfortable in the snow. Just like her lazy mom, she wanted to sit in the warm house and look at the snow outside through a window! :) Had quite an adventure too. We rented the wooden sledges and sledged a 2 1/2 km slope. It was dangerous, lots of curves and one wrong move and you will fall right out of the edge. But the real adventure was that I did nt make it. Hd did a trial run and came back 45 mins later telling me and our friends that it was great. He discouraged me from trying but me being me decided to just do it.

Ashu and Hd were on a double sledge and I was on a single sledge. 3 of our friends joined and we started sliding down the slope. 10 minutes down, Hd and I stopped so that our friends can join us. Ashu was fussing about something and Hd took her out of the sledge and was talking to her when his sledge just whirred off and fell off the cliff! I ran to catch it but could nt. Just 2 seconds, but there was no sign of the sledge at all! I was in shock! Since all the other friends were in single sledges or with kids, we could nt double up. So Hd had this brilliant idea. He suggested I walk back up while he and Ashu sledge down. Since I did nt know the slope, I did nt want to risk it, with Ashu that too. But I suggested walking down than walking up. But Hd said its a long walk but the walk up is comparatively shorter in spite of my protests that I just CANT walk uphill. But being me again, decided to trust his judgement. Felt like final good bye when I waved to Ashu and started walking up. Since it was around 4 pm and dusk was setting, there was no one coming down anymore. The ski slope which was parallel to the sledge slope was also deserted. 2 minutes of walking uphill in knee deep snow in the bitter cold and I already had a dozen ideas to murder Hd in all the most painful ways possible! What kind of an idiot does nt hold onto his sledge, what if Ashu had been sitting on it, what kind of stupid parents are we to take such risks, what kind of a husband lets his wife walk uphill while he sits on his bum and slides down, why, why, why,... After one hour and fifteen minutes of excruciating effort, I reached the top. Five minutes later, Hd and Ashu get down from the ski lift happily and the guy asks me "Are you ok?" I ll leave the rest to your imagination. But yes, hes still alive!

On that cheerful(!) note, Wishing you all a wonderful New year! Come on 2008 I am ready for the ride, so to speak! ;)

Kling, Glöckchen, klinge-linge-ling...

We are leaving tomorrow for the mountains for some skiing (for Hd) and sledging (for Ashu and me). Three days in a Chalet with 2 other families. This will be the first time in snow for Ashu. Knowing her, she would refuse to walk on snow as it ll be uneven and refuse to touch the snow as it will be "so chill amma"! But I cant wait to see the look on her face. And to think that the first time I saw snow was in the ripe old age of 23 in this very same Switzerland. Although I quite behaved like a 3 year old! ;)

Happy Holidays everyone! Merry Christmas, Happy New Year and all that jazz...

The Very Observant Ashu.

The other day I was reading "The very busy spider" to Ashu. I had got the book from the school library. So there is this spider busy spinning the web in every page not answering any of the animals and at last catching the fly and going to sleep. Alls well that ends well, except for the fly of course! So on page 7, Ashu asks me "Amma, wheres the spiders face? Its gone". So I tell her, "the spider is facing the other way and spinning the web, Ashu. So you are seeing the back of its head". For your information, the picture of the spider is relatively smaller. The pictures of the animals are big, bright and colorful. So I was surprised she was asking something about the spider which is in every page and not the different animals in each page. And then I had a doubt. So I took a look from the first page again. Well, what do you know? The first 6 pages have 2 small dots for eyes on the spiders head and they missing in the 7th page. And this little one had noticed THAT. And the thing is I was reading this book for the FIRST time to her. I could sort of understand if it was the 20th time. How freaky is that! I immediately said, "Oh God! You are so much like your Grandma Ashu". And not as a compliment since the grandma I'm referring to is my MIL!

If my mil was in a gathering, she would sit in a corner and scan every moving and non moving object with her laser eyes. If a person crosses her, she would say things like "Ava kaadhula pottundu irundha jimikki gold aa enna?" (Do you think the Jhumkas in her ears were gold?) And I'm the sort of girl who after talking to a person for an hour would nt notice even if the persons ears were missing. So I would be like "What ear rings?" And if you tilt your head suspiciously towards the Hd, let me assure you he has nt inherited this gene from my mil. Hes a man after all. So mostly he ll be like "What person?" So I cant believe together we have made this specimen which notices 2 tiny black dots missing from a small spiders head. Karma, huh?

Doo!

Ashu is becoming a handful these days. Out of the blue, she has got this habit of saying "Doo!" and getting cross at me or her dad. "Doo" (Katti in Hindi I guess) means "Im cross at you and am not going to talk to you" among kids. I accept I made the mistake of saying Doo to her whenever she was behaving badly. But little did I know that this will come back to haunt me. Its Doo for every little thing these days. She gets up in the morning and says Doo to me. "Doo Amma, Po(Go) Amma" are the first words coming out out of her mouth everyday. How much ever I want to ignore her, its getting really annoying. And one cant reason with her when shes in this Doo mode. "Why do you say Doo to Amma, Ashu? What did Amma do?" is asnwered with "Doo amma. Dont talk Amma" with an additional "Bad boy Amma!" (Yes! People are either bad boys or good girls in her dictionary. No good boys or bad girls. Atta girl!) And she always sides up with Hd when shes in doo with me and comes to me when shes in doo with him.

After a while, she ll forget about the whole thing. Only to start all over again. If shes playing with the blocks and the blocks keep falling down, its Doo amma. If shes feeding her doll and the doll is nt opening its mouth(!), its Doo amma. If shes hungry, its Doo amma. After a meal, its Doo amma. Im going crazy with all the Doos. Shes so unpredictable and theres no pacifying her. When shes in this mood, she might transfer her Doo but wont quit. For example, she ll be in doo with me and playing with her dad happily. Then if I say, "Bath time Ashu. Come on now!", she ll immediately say "Doo Appa. Nee bad boy. I dont want Appa" and come running to me. But if I had said "Lunch time", it ll be "Doo Amma. Dont talk amma." What in the name of DOO is happening to this child?

I swear Im not exaggerating and this stuff happens around 25 times every single day. Shes at the peak when she gets up from her afternoon nap. Shes in an absolute fowl mood and it takes me an hour to bring her back from this Exorcist mode. Its exasperating to say the least. I tried to ignore her but she does nt like that either. TV works but I don't switch it on unless its TV time. Same goes for the meal. She wont agree to eat if its not her meal time. Reading a book works occasionally. Playing with her works like a charm but then I don't always have the free time to drop everything and go play with her. During such times, she does nt want me to do anything in the kitchen or read a book or watch TV or talk on the phone or with the laptop. She snatches the book, closes the laptop, switches off the TV, grabs the phone or rolls on the kitchen floor generally getting in my way. I am *this* close to tearing my hair out trying to find out why she is behaving this way. Someone help me please. At least tell me something remotely weird like this happen with your toddler too. Otherwise, I'm going to say "Doo" to you all and go Sanyasam.

And please tell me this. Do you want to mess with this face?

All about Swimming, Driving, Partying, Cleaning and Sulking.

Ashu has joined a Swimming class and goes once a week. Its for kids under 4 and its basically to get the children get used to the water and lose their inhibition. Ashu has always loved to splash in pools. So shes having fun. A parent has to be present with the kid in the pool so I get to splash around too! The teacher is very sweet and comes up with very cute stuff to keep the children interested. A 4 year old boy there is bullying Ashu while his mom is watching helplessly and I rolled my eyes at him and threatened him when his mom was nt looking. He backed away after that.

One day I go to Ashus room to find that she has emptied all the draws from the chest and all her socks, caps, tights, vests, hair bands, clips, stickers, boxes and other miscellaneous stuff are strewn all over the floor. I got the shock of my life as this is a first. She usually hates mess and likes things to be in order. In the order she likes, that is! Then I found out that she has been looking for one of the missing shoes of her doll and could nt find it and hence the search! I told her never to do such a thing again and to ask Amma if she needs to find something. Of course the next day, the draws were emptied again to look for something else. I miss the Godrej steel bureau which was her wardrobe in Bangalore.

My driving skills are improving as I am driving everyday to drop Ashu at school and then back. Im also picking up Hd in the evening from office. I was reluctant at first to drive after dark. "Pahal laye pasu maadu theriyaadhu. Raathri la eppadi erumai maadu theriyum" (I cant see a cow clearly in the day. How can I spot a buffalo in the dark?) The logic did nt work with Hd. Kazhudhai vayasu aachu, come and pick me up to save 6 Francs, he said! Being the Paththini that I am, I agreed. Oh, I also got clicked by the speed camera one day. I was going in 52 in a 50 zone. Hd says I ll only get a warning letter and no fine! I am both proud and ashamed at the same time!

Ashu has almost a month off from school in December and I want to go to India. I cant believe its only 2 months since I came back from my India trip. Seems like an eternity. Hd gave me a look and suggested I go to the US instead. Nice pair we are, are nt we? Anyway, Im sure I wont be going anywhere. Sit in this freezing cold place and sulk all the time is what I will end up doing. *sulk*

On to some cheerful news, it was Hd's birthday on Friday. 2 days before that, Ashu and I were making a card for him. We were drawing and painting and cutting and pasting and then hid the evidence. I told her we ll give the card to Appa on his birthday and its a surprise. As soon as Hd came home, Ashu ran to him and told "Appa, we made happy birthday appa card. Amma give the card. Wheres the card? Amma card thaaaa!!!!" Thankfully, I did nt tell her anything about the surprise party! Yes, there was a surprise party. My first one as a hostess. I have never thrown a party, let alone a surprise party, for Hds birthday before. It was always the two of us eating out that night. This time, I decided to throw a party for him as he was all depressed that hes getting old! Took his colleague S to my side and she managed to convey the message to the rest of the colleagues. She said she ll bring the cake. One less work for me. I was talking to her and the other wives everyday for the past one week and keeping my mouth shut to Hd was the most difficult part. Then the marathon cooking started on Friday as soon as he left for office in the morning. He suggested we meet up for lunch but I declined. I told him I have some special restaurant in mind for dinner and its going to be a surprise for him. He bought it. At least I think he did!

He came home at 6 pm and I am sure he had his first suspicion as soon as he saw the house spic and span. (What does that tell you about my house keeping skills?) Then I had put balloons all over the living room with some of the party decorations from Ashus birthday party. I had hid all the dishes I cooked in various kitchen cup boards. Hd said, "I can smell puffs and cookies. Did you make them?" I was shocked to say the least! He cant notice my new hair cut but sure can smell puffs and cookies that are hidden inside the cupboards! Duh! Then at 7 pm, the door bell rang and the gang entered with the most amazing looking cake! SURPRISE! Few people turned up later and so the surprise factor was continuing until the last guests arrived!

Out came the food from their hiding places. The menu was Veg puffs, Jam cookies, Jalapeno and Pineapple Pizza, Tortillas chips, Pineapple salsa, Mexican rice, Mexican chili, tortillas, Salad, Spaghetti with Garlic and Pepporoncini and Ice cream. (Yes, I made them all for 15 people except the tortilla, chips and ice cream) Since I dont believe in being humble, let me accept that I outdid myself and the food was a huge hit. The puffs, cookies, pizza and spaghetti were the hit items and people stuffed themselves with all that that I ll be ending up eating the chili and rice for this whole week! Theres enough of that awesome orange cake left for dessert too! Lets just say that Hd is mine for the rest of the year and my wish will be his command! Like I would have thrown a party for him and cooked for an army without any ulterior motive! Duh! How little you know me. ;)