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I did this tag for Ashu when she was 18 months. Am doing the same for Antu too as an update. Shes 19 months old.

3 Things That Scare Me

Nothing.
I said NOTHING.
I live with my mom, ok? Nothing can be more scarier than that.

3 People That Make Me Laugh
Me.
Myself.
Akka.

3 Things I Love
Dora title song.
Dora book.
Dora stuffed toy.

3 Things I Hate

Only 3? Ok I ll try to keep it short.
When I dont get my way while snatching stuff from Akka.
When Amma does nt fall for my fake puppy eyes and yells at me.
When Akka sits on Amma or Appas lap.

3 Things I Don't Understand

Im not as clueless as my akka was when she was my age. Ask me anything and I ll answer. Nothing is beyond my understanding. Although I dont understand why I cant play with the toilet roll and strew the paper all over the bathroom. And why cant I break every crayon Akka has safely kept for the past 5 years? Why cant I tear Akkas favorite paper books which she has nt even creased?

3 Things On My Floor.

The entire contents of the house. About 1008 things.
My mom coz shes always trying to clean up after me.
Akka coz shes worried what I have broken/tore/damaged this time.

3 Things I'm Doing Right Now

Playing Piano with my toes.
Nodding my head, shaking my butt and clapping along for the song "excuse me mr kandasamy"! Wondering what damage I can do next.

3 Things I Can Do

I can sing "W X Y And Z. Now I know my abc, next time wont you z z z" loudly.
I can say "amma look at me" out of the blue and make Amma jump.
I can sing "kaa kaa mai kondaa, kuvvi kuvvi pookondaa, pasoo pasoo paal kudu" thanks to Paati.

3 Ways to Describe My Personality

Rowdy Raakaayee.
Jealous Jalaja.

Appa Gondu.

3 Things I Cant do

muahaha! Theres nothing I cant cant do. I can list 3 things I wont do though, will do?
I wont let Akka be in peace even for a minute.
I wont do anything easily. Its exciting to make everything a battle.
I wont let Amma win over Karma.

3 Things I Think You Should Listen To

My Akka. She says some really silly stuff and makes me laugh.
My fav song of course. Kangal irandaal...
My grandpa, Pema and Pepa on the phone. I love to hear them talk.

3 Things I Think You Should Never Listen To

My mom. Shes evil.
The research that says kids below 2 should nt watch TV. bah!

That the youngest kids are trouble. You ll get lucky only once, capice?

3 Absolute Favorite Foods
Cheese
Flavored Yogurt
Junk

3 Things I'd Like to Learn

How to reach the higher shelves.
How to hoodwink Amma when Im doing something naughty.
How to speed dial Thatha when Im in trouble.

3 Beverages I Drink Regularly
Milk because I have to.
Water because I like the water bottle.
You mean theres something called juice in this world? *glares at amma*

3 Shows I Watched as a Kid

I dont have the attention span to watch dumb shows. So I watch
Dora title song.
Diego title song.
Gilmore girls title song.

Fellow Babies That I am Tagging
Munch

Plane Paapa

Sweetpea

Come on fellas, lets show them what we second borns are made of. Long time no see. Keeping your mommies busy, I hope! :)

Sis and Bil. The awesome twosome.

Life's never the usual at Boo's. Within ten days of us landing in Zurich, Sis followed us back here. She claims that the trip is official and she had a days work in Milan. Hd and I have been telling everyone that she has come for "collection" because we owe her money and would nt take our word that we ll do an online bank transfer! ;) Poor Bil who is in the US does nt like all this one bit. Especially since Antu has been asking for Pepa all the damn time! Well, Im just crossing my fingers and staying clear from all sorts of places where my sis can jump and break her ankle!! Its just a one week trip and shes going back in two days. Right now, Ashu is sitting on her head and Antu is on her lap and shes trying to work!!

This time in the US, Bil took lots of portraits. He has bought all the studio stuff - the screen, the umbrella, lights, etc... and the poor man set it all up and patiently clicked pics after pics of the kids and us. Ashu with her fake smile after the 12th photo and Antu more keen on running away to the "umbella", it was a tough task! Thanks Bil.

Here are some of the pics.

Avatar.

So we watched Avatar while we were in the US since I wanted to watch it in 3D Imax. Like the majority vote, it was an experience in itself to watch the movie. But I just could nt help comparing the story to the dozens of village subject Tamil movies and snigger. Replace Pandora with a village in interior Madurai area. Replace the dragon with a murattu kaalai, Panchayathu thalaivar, his daughter, bad rich people who want to construct a hmm... factory? in the agricultural fields, the hero falling in love with the village belle, good over evil climax scene, praying to Mariamman and dancing with Veppilai to save a life, the murai maapillai,.... No? You dont think so? Im not able to stop once I start. Even Neytris father, the leader of the clan has a distinct nose like Nasser. (and coincidentally he has acted in the tamil movie named Avataram!!! LOL! )

Seriously! The hero falling in love with the first alien he sets his eyes on! Typical or what! Why cant he be involved with the Pandora people just like Sigourney Weaver was? The boy meets girl angle is so unnecessary for this kind of a movie, I thought. That said, I loved the movie. If in spite of the story line I loved the movie so, its only because of the stunning visuals, the attention to details, the amazing way a brand new planet with aliens have been created,.. Pure genius. And watching it in 3D was mind blowing.

Also watched Kurbaan. There was this movie theatre which was showing this movie FOR FREE and Hd and I went to watch it. We even got soda and popcorn free! Only in the US, I tell you! It was an ok movie. It was good the first 30 mins or so. Then *yawn*! I told Hd later,

"if I were her, I would nt care about my dads life. I ll do everything to get away from you".

Hd - If I were him, I would know in an instant that you were seducing me to get the map!

Me - *rolling eyes* And you would ve stopped anything happening I suppose?

Hd - Well,.. I did nt say that!

Men, I tell you! May be they WILL fall in love with the first alien woman they set their eyes on, after all! With or without a tail.

Travelogue: Hawaii.

We are back in Zurich and badly hit by jet lag that the entire household got up at three in the AFTERNOON yesterday! All thanks to Antu who was awake from 2 am to 5 am. I think we ll get back to normal once school reopens tomorrow for Ashu. While shes so looking forward to school, I'm not. Since one of my new year resolutions is to stop whining about the weather, I wont.

Three weeks in the US just flew by. Like always, social life there is more hectic than here thanks to my sisters huge circle of friends who are almost like family to us now. Not to mention the huge range of restaurants, much to Hds delight. Since it was Antus first trip to the US, for the first time Utbts duo and my duo had a blast. Luckily, we were also able to attend Chulas birthday party and it was so much fun. Met Sundar, San and the girls too. (where are all the boys?) Asaaan was kind enough to drive all the way with her four kids to meet me and my sis. I was thrilled to meet her. Though I had followed her blog earlier, I had stopped reading after she moved to a new domain. So once she mailed that she wants to come and meet us, I hurriedly read her blog and updated myself with her life! Thanks S for being so sweet in spite of that! :)

Now about Hawaii. Where do I begin? It was the best vacation ever. Just perfect in every way. Since Sis and Bil planned the whole thing, I did nt know anything except that "we are going to Hawaii" until I landed there. Add to that that only Sis and Bil were registered drivers for the rental car, so we were literally chauffeur driven everywhere! :D Now tell me, who gets this lucky? Only me, for sure! :) I also did nt hesitate to pull the SAHM card every time I could and left both the kids either with HD or my mom! So who got to do the Diamond Head Crater hike in Oahu and go on a submarine in Kona and go snorkeling in Kealakekua Bay? Me. Me. Me.

We landed in Honolulu with the usual Lei welcome. Stayed in the 25th floor of Aston with a fantastic view from our room. Checked out the Waikiki beach and the girls had a blast. Then lazed at the hotel pool some more. The next day, we went to the beach again and in the afternoon, leaving the girls with Hd, we 4 did the Diamond Head Crater hike. Though its supposed to be a moderate hike and takes 30 mins to reach the top, it was like climbing Mt Everest for me. My moms fitness level was better than mine and only the thought of my girls made me not fall from the cliff and kill myself! That night we caught a Hula dance performance at the beach. It was really beautiful though the men sure wished for some coconut shells instead of a top on the hula dancer! ;) The next day we took a plane to Big Island.

We landed in Kona mid morning. Picked up our rental car and drove to our condo. It was fantastic. The vast ocean was just out there from our balcony and we could nt wait to get out. Seeing Big Island, we sure felt we wasted our time in Honolulu. While Big Island still looks pure and untouched, Oahu is slowly becoming a concrete jungle. We got some lunch, looked at the gorgeous sunset from our balcony and called it a night. The next day after breakfast, mom, sis, Ashu and I went on the Atlantis submarine. While the whole experience of going in a submarine is very thrilling, we did nt see that many fish nor was the reef that beautiful. I got sea sick to boot. Ashu (and my mom!) enjoyed the whole thing though. We all went to Hapuna beach later. It was the most awesome beach ever. I ve not seen such soft sand before anywhere. Antu was covered from head to toe with sand. Ashu was like a little monkey hanging from her Perippa or Appa in the ocean. Sis and I nicely sunned at the beach.

The next day, it was moms turn to baby sit while we four went for snorkeling. The whole experience was so thrilling. We drove to the harbor and from there, in a small raft which can hold around 20 people, the captain took us to Kealakekua Bay. It takes around an hour and a half to reach the bay. And the ride was just mind blowing. You just grab a rope, literally hold your life in your hands while the raft goes super fast, spot spinner dolphins, Manta rays, even whales, and stop and pee in the ocean if anyone wants to go! ;) Its as close to nature once can get, Im sure. The captain stopped and showed us the lava tubes, sea caves, entertained us with the Hawaiian folklore and history. It was amazing. Once we reached the bay, we were given snorkeling gear and ordered to go, jump! Literally. Thank God for my sis and Bil who have already snorkeled a few times. Otherwise I was sure I was drowning even though I was wearing a life jacket and was very much on the surface! Once I firmly told my brain to breathe through the mouth and not the nose, I was fine. It was a surreal experience to swim with the fish. The reef was beautiful and even a reef shark was kind enough to make a blink and miss appearance! After an hour, we got back to the raft, ate lunch which was included with the package and got back to the harbor with a heavy heart. It was pool and jacuzzi time once we got back to our condo!

The next day we left early in the morning for Hilo to visit the Volcanoes National Park. On the way, we checked out the Place of Refuge temple at Honaunau. It is the most complete restoration of an ancient Hawaiian religious sanctuary in Hawaii. The location was out of the world. We also went to the Black Sand beach and saw two huge turtles which were sunning at the beach. They were so carefree and did nt care a bit that we were there and photographing them like crazy! I almost felt like one of them is going to look at us and go "duuuuude" like the turtle in Finding Nemo! We reached the Volcano park in the afternoon. Hd immediately started wheezing coz of his breathing problems! One can actually feel the difference in the air and the strong smell of sulphur. Thankfully, he had the inhaler handy. We went for a drive and checked out the steam vents, the view of the Kilauea Iki crater, the lava tubes,... We went only on the short hikes. Walking inside the lava tubes was scary to the say the least. Hd stayed back with Antu while we all checked out the sulphur bank trail. Later, we checked out the Kahuna and Rainbow waterfalls before leaving back for Kona.

The last day in Hawaii(boo hoo hoo!), we went to the Waikoloa beach after breakfast. We swam in the ocean to our hearts fill even though there was a shark alert! We caught a late night flight back to SFO. And the next four days went in a buzz because I shopped like crazy so that I don't have to buy a thing in this expensive Swiss for the rest of the year. If you saw a woman shrieking, "its so cheap" at Target,, "is this also one dollar" at the dollar store and "is this denim skirt really for 3 bucks" at Kohls, theres a good chance that it was me! Dragging Ashu who wanted to live in the US forever and Antu who was stuck to my Bil like a leech and me who hated to come back to the freezer(there goes my new year resolution!) was an uphill task for Hd even though he caught a cold as soon as he landed here. hmph! It was a beautiful vacation thanks mostly to my sis and bil. Mahalo guys! Hang loose! :)

Aloha!

The vacation from vacation was Hawa Hawaii! We just got back after a fantastic week in Oahu and Big Island. It was fantastic to say the least. We had the time of our lives. The kids and my mom had the most fun and we literally had to drag them out of the water every time we we were in a beach. Us sisters and the husbands were able to go snorkeling together leaving the kids with my mom. It was one of the most beautiful experiences of my life. More on that and the Volcano experience and watching the ocean animals and the Hula dance and the gorgeous sunsets and the delicious pineapples,... later. Now we are busy packing. Yet again. Off to Zurich in a couple of days, boo hoo hoo. Hope 2010 began with a bang for all of you just like it did for us. See you on the other side.