Miles to go before I sleep ....

Suvo and I came up with a brilliant idea. We will take the kids for a walk after dinner until they are sleepy - to ease the everyday bed time struggle to some degree. Ofcourse, the side benefits were that we could revive our failed exercise program and also get some chance to talk to each other while enjoying some outdoor time this gorgeous summer. It will make for many memorable evenings. All in all a fantastic idea, too good to be true.

Well, on more than one occasion, I have learnt that when something feels too good to be true, it usually is. And this incident was no exception.

The first time it happened spontaneously enough. I had taken Aadi for a walk some evenings. One evening Diya insisted to join and then after only after walking for half a block declared that her legs were too tired. So we came back home to fetch our big bicycle stroller which can seat both the kids. While we were at it, we fetched Suvo as well! It was getting some what late in the evening, but we kept going and by the time we returned both kids were fast asleep in the stroller and mildly snoring. Hurray !! That's when it hit us that we should be doing this everyday.

The next evening, we decided to head out early as the mosquitoes had declared a war on us as we were out after dusk the previous evening. We gave the kids a bath and fed Diya dinner (with the bribe of a walk and dubious hints about going the Swan Lake park if she finished dinner without any theatrics). Aadi had already had a big meal at his daycare so we figured we will give him some snack on the way and his nightime bottle once we are back. So with many hopes we started from home. Diya as usual insisted that she is a big girl and she will walk all the way; and as usual after 10 steps wanted to get in the stroller. We had planned for this and were prepared this time and had brought the bigger stroller along. So on we went. We had barely reached the end of the lane when Diya commanded us to turn around and head back "right now" - she needed to go potty. So we rushed back. Aadi was starting to fuss by now so I urged Suvo to go around the block once while I helped Diya with her business. Suvo did the round and came back to find us in an uproar. I had forgotten to close the garage door in the hurry to get Diya to the restroom quickly and Maple had used this golden opportunity to escape. She did not go far but made it clear that she was not going back in the house. She wanted to come for a walk with us. We gave up on catching her after chasing her around the yard for sometime and figured we might as well bring her along. She can use the family bonding time as well. And so we started yet again on our odyssey. This time with the whole family, including the member with floppy ears and fuzzy tail.

We did not get very far though as Aadi started wailing. He was hungry. So I made another quick trip to the house to get a bottle for him. Diya was feeling cold, so I got her a blanket too. This time nothing could stop us. Diya offered to feed Aadi on the walk. We had barely made our way past our next door neighbor Cathy's house though that we had to make another pit stop. Maple pooped. I ofcourse collected the goods but did not want to carry it all the way for our long walk. So I ran home to make a deposit in the trash before finally heading out. I re-joined our little caravan, which was still parked in front of Cathy's house, and saw the most amazing sight, Diya was feeding Aadi his bottle and Aadi was cozy in her arms. They were so cute together !!! I had to capture this moment in the camera so (for the last time) I sprinted home to get the camera. It could not have taken me more than 90 seconds, but when I got back it was as if the director had called 'cut' and a different scene was being shot. Aadi was bawling, Diya was looking very grim; Suvo looked stunned and Maple, blissfully oblivious, was now rolling in Cathy's freshly mowed lawn. It took me a few seconds to take it all in. I asked Suvo what had happened and he had no answer; I asked Diya what happened and she refused to answer. Meanwhile, Aadi doubled his screams as he saw me. I started to unstrap him from the stroller to pick him up, this made Diya feel neglected and she started crying 'Mamma uppi....'.

Well that was that .... the end of our ambition to take the kids for a walk until they fall asleep. It took us the rest of the evening and whatever was left of our energy to calm the kids down and put them to bed. Suvo and I collapsed after that without dinner. It indeed was a memorable evening.

Detailed Drawing

It was one of those magical evenings. Aadi had his dinner and was fast asleep. Diya also had her dinner all by herself (watching some new DVD). Ankur and I were done with cooking and cleaning. And it was just 8:30pm!

The night was still young ... so, I decided to spent some time with Diya. I told her that I'd teach her to draw something new. We got some paper and pencil, I started drawing a human figure (a man with shirt and a pair of pants). Diya kept watching me apprehensively. I knew it was a bit complicated for Diya - so I reassured her, "This is a lot more details than you may want, so you can pick and choose whatever you want to do".

She looked happier and commented, "Yes, I can try and do whatever I want to!". Then she indeed drew a human figure - a woman - mostly a stick figure. With Diya's fluent efforts, suddenly the legs became extremely long. She realized her mistake and didn't like it at all. She made sure I had no smile on my face. Then, with an afterthought she decided to give a realistic touch to her stick figure. With one horizontal like she deftly made the two extra long legs a skirt, and added some big flowers on that. That definitely changed the aspect ratio of the figure. Anyway, the show went on, and I amused myself watching her efforts for the next few minutes.

After all that Diya said, "Now, it's my turn to teach you a new thing - how to draw a real house!". She confidently turned the page over, found a scale and drew a margin all around. I was indeed impressed since it was a while back that I demonstrated that to her (and also remembered commenting about that's the way real drawings should be).

Soon a house started emerging on the page, with a running commentary on what all things to remember in each step. She started with the main house, then the roof, and added some windows with "real curtains". With only the door remaining she asked me, "Now, can you tell me what I am going to draw next?". I decided to be a little mean and smartly replied, "The door!".

She wasn't expecting the real answer, and was taken aback momentarily.

But then she gracefully recovered and remarked, "No, it's not the door ... I will just add some details."

I made a Herculean effort to suppress my laughter for the next few moments. But then she made it easy for me. She looked at me smilingly, and we both broke out into spontaneous laughter! :)

An Evening Story (Part 4) ...

An Evening Story (Part 3) ...

An Evening Story (Part 2) ...

An Evening Story (Part 1) ...

Smash Cake on Aadi's 1st B'Day

The Smash

I didn't know what a smash cake was until Ankur got one from the Kwalski's Market (it was free) for Aadi's 1st B'day. We decided to have a small family celebration on June 4th, Fri (which was Aadi's real b'day) - a day before his b'day party.

Ankur and I debated for a few minutes on whether we should have Aadi all dressed up or be just in diapers. Finally we decided, what the heck, his 1st B'day is not going to come back. So, after a few minutes, Aadi was in a brand new Indian Kurta (Panjabi), sitting on a washable mat, and with the smash cake laying in front of him. 

For the first few seconds, Aadi was not sure what to do. He looked at the cake for a while (he had never seen a cake before). Then finally he decided to do a little experiment. He gently placed one finger on the white icing - he just wanted to feel the texture. 

Well, it definitely felt nice and smooth and yummy, because what happened in the next 30 sec can only be described with pictures!

The Real Disaster

We anticipated it'd be messy, but not thaaat messsyy!! 

After diligently smashing the cake, Aadi was super-thrilled and started walking towards the sofa. Ankur and I were a bit inattentive (fiddling with the camera and making sure the pictures came out ok), and were a few seconds late. The real disaster took place. Before Ankur and I could spring upon Aadi, he neatly cleaned up all the white creamy mess from his hands onto our brick red sofa! 

How could he do it that fast - he just turned ONE?!!

Afterword

a) Diya kept jumping on the sofa and shrieking in delight at the top of her voice while we stood there discombobulated!

b) Maple had a jolly good time licking up all the cream and cake from the mat while we were still digesting the nature of the calamity.

c) After 30 min we gave up on removing the stain from the sofa, and started planning on how to hide it before the real party on Sat!

In case you are wondering what happened to the cake ... well ... here's a picture: