The One in Which Hd Gets Another Year Older.

Me: Dude! What do you want for your birthday?
Hd: iPhone?
Me: That you re going to buy anyway. What do you want from me?
Hd: I don't know.
Me: Come on! Help me out here.
hd: I cant think of anything.
Me: Lets go shopping. Pick whatever you want and that can be my gift, OK?

So on a Saturday, he takes Ashu for swimming class. Once hes back, gets the kids ready and drives us across the town to a mall. Mom and I get some groceries done on the way while hes in the car with the kids. Then we go to a mall. He takes the kids and my mom around while I look around a shop to buy something for him. No luck. But I end up buying gifts for my sister, friends, clothes for the kids,some glass bowls,... I join them and Hd says he ll go keep my shopping bags in the car and come back. In the meanwhile, I go to another shop and end up buying clothes for myself. Hd takes the kids on a toy train ride. I go to yet another shop and buy more stuff for me and the kids. Then I try to focus and get a generic gift for Hd. Nothing special. Hd goes to a shop and buys booster seat for Ashu. We meet and he takes all the stuff to the car again. I ask him not to peak into the bags. He promises. Then we do another round of groceries and he drives us back home.

Feeling guilty of making him slave to get him a generic birthday gift, I decide on a personalized gift. Some funky coupons would do. A dear friend(Congrats mayG!) had shared some coupon templates earlier and all I had to do was to type some cool stuff and print them out. And then I find out I cant edit word doc in my laptop. So when I tried to sneak in to Hds laptop and edit it, I locked out his login. Hd found out and he had some very urgent, important work to do and got very mad at me. After apologizing a million times, he let it go. But not without a warning. phew! Then I sneaked again(what did you think?) only to find out that the printer was showing error messages. Sigh! Clearly not my day. So I called Hd and asked him. He fixed the printer and I had to ask his help again to give a print command. I asked him to close his eyes and not to look at what I'm doing. He obliged!

I guess it shows that its the 10th birthday of his we are celebrating together. And he even had to clean up the kitchen once I was done with the cake baking! Poor guy! I think he ll use one of the coupons first thing tomorrow! :D (the coupon holder is free of any housework for one whole day! :)

Happy Birthday, R! I might hog the TV remote all the time. I might get mad at you for the silliest of things. I might never take the trash out. But I love you in my own way. By hugging you when you feel low. By encouraging you to chase your dreams. By being there for you when you need me.

Love.

17 months of Antu and 4 years & 7 loooooooooooong months of Ashu.

Bad news first. Ashu. Seriously. Im not exaggerating. Everything is a battle these days. Shes like how I was in my teens. So she gets up in the morning and comes to me and complains. Then she goes to Antus room and tries to pick her up from the crib, makes her cry. Does nt listen to me. Then depending in her highness mood, we throw a tantrum for anything. Like the other day, she asked me to keep her gummy vites near her cup of milk. So I did. But she wanted the gummy bear to stand. But like luck would have it, the wretched bear would nt stand and kept falling. So I propped it near her cup. But no, thats not done. So she refused to drink her milk, went to her room and sulked for a good 20 mins. And its only 7.20 am!

Hd and I call Ashu "Time bomb" these days. One can never predict when she ll explode. Once I accidentally dropped a toy of hers and broke it. She said, "Its ok amma" and went about her way. One other time, I breathed the same air as hers in the room and she pounced on me and said, "You are not my friend Amma. I wont talk to you forever and ever and ever". I dont know till this minute what caused it.

Antu is a very avid observer these days. I think she ll be doing all the above by the time shes two! God save me! Her sister is her everything and shes goes "akka akka akka" for everything. Oh, and Dora. She loves the dora figurines, stuffed toy, cushion, books,... "doya doya doya"...

Antu speaks a lot these days and understands every damn thing. Its beyond cute. Loads of times Im left wondering, "Was ashu ever this cute" and I go read the archives of this blog! :) I realized that if you successfully sleep train the baby and if s/he is a non fussy eater, theres nothing like that. Im a happy mom of a toddler this time thanks to this. As yet, that is!

Ashus school was off for 2 days last week and we decided to go with Hd to Geneva. The weather was awful but we managed to have fun in spite of it. My mom was glued to the 15th floor window of our hotel room with a fantastic view of the city. While Ashu did nt want to step out of the hotel room, Antu wanted to run around in the corridor and explore other rooms but not ours. We managed to visit Yvoire a medieval village on the French side and the castle at Nyon. Both have fantastic lake views but we could nt see a thing because of the fog.

We went to the transport museum in Lucerne the other weekend. The kids had an absolutely great time. Ashu watched her 2nd Imax movie. This time - African adventure. Her attention span is still short. Even for a 50 min movie! It was a 3D movie too and my mom and I were blown away by the documentary. Fantastic. The museum had both outdoors and indoors fun and the day was pleasant thankfully. Ashu and I raced with the scooters and rode bikes. Spent a good five hours there. The place is huge.

Whats a post without talking about the weather? The kids have an everlasting cold, mom and I just recovered from a throat infection and I feel feverish today. In short, the weather sucks. It gets so dark and gloomy even by 4 pm. These days I find myself eating dinner at 6.30 along with the kids and even after all the housework, its only 8 pm!! What do you guys in cold places do?

When we were in Geneva, we were walking across a bridge. Antu stopped to hold the rails and watch the lake. The gap was a little wide and I pulled Antu back. Ashu gasped and asked ,"what will happen if she falls down, amma?". "Well, she ll drown, thats what will happen. I cant swim so I ve shout for help", I told her and tried to change the topic. After a few seconds of silence, Ashu told me "I know a little bit of swimming, Amma. But I cant swim in this big lake" and held Antus hand very tight and walked the rest of the way. I guess, thats the good news.

Car conversations - part 2.

Remember part 1? Something along the same vein...

So we were driving home from school.

Me: Ashu! you know what? Amma got my first speeding ticket, boo hoo! *makes a sad face*

Ashu: oh ho! what ticket amma?

Me: You know theres speed limit on the roads? Amma went too fast one time and the police have sent me a ticket by post.*makes a sadder face*

Ashu: oh ho! so is Appa at home?

Me: No. hes at office.

Ashu: when will he come? will he take care of us?

Me: what do you mean?

Ashu: When you are gone.

Me: *knowing very well whats coming* gone where?

Ashu: When you are gone to the jail, appa will take care of us, right?

Me: !!!!!!!!

Like I keep repeating myself, that that person,...!

The One in Which He Knows Me Too Well.

(during a random conversation)
Me - So! When will you become VP of a company, huh?
Hd - Only if I start my own company, I guess.
Me - Dude! if you start your own company, would nt you be like the President or something? Not just a VP!
Hd - I was sure you would want to be the President there too! No?
Me - *grins* Thats true.

The man sure is catching up with me, is nt he? :D

Ashu & Antu at 16 months.

Im sorry but I cant help doing this! :) Especially when I still ve some of the old clothes! Bear with me please.

ps.
previous posts here, here, and here .