Diya's Face Art

Surprised to find out ~1500 photos in my iPad this morning … 80% of them created by Diya using the PhotoStream App! 

While I got initially angry to find all these Junk Photos … thanks to the 'Motion' feature in Google Photos (PicasaWeb), it turned out to be a good content for a blog post :)

Cartoons - Getting Started

Last week I ended up buying a couple of books on cartoon drawing. I have been thinking about going to Barnes and Noble for several months, but couldn't get it to it until last week.

But when I got home with the books, it turned out that Diya and Aadi were more interested in getting started than I am.

Here's the 1st lesson and Aadi's sketch!

Mishti

This Christmas Santa had a special present for all of us – Mishti! The kids are thrilled and Mishti has filled our lives in a way only a puppy can. She is with everyone and everywhere and into everything at the same time.

She is absolutely fearless and quite adventurous. She simply cannot be contained. She jumps over baby gates, she crawls under the TV stand, she sneaks behind the sofa,  she flies up and down the stairs, she dashes out in the snow even in the arctic cold we have right now. She causes so much mischief that our friend Ken has coined a new word for her, Mishti-evious !

She clearly prefers the  kids over the adults. She is constantly following Diya around and Aadi is her favorite play-pal as she likes his toys ! She is constantly trying to pick up one of his matchbox cars and then the Aadi-Mishti chase begins and is a sight to behold. With me her business is all about potty training. With Suvo, her relationship is about chewing his stuff – the dozens of wires he has lying around the house, his slippers, his office bag!  Infact we cannot leave her out of our sight for a minute because you never know what she will start eating. Little Mish-terror!

We were initially very hesitant to bring home a new puppy – given how busy we are already and the winter etc etc. All those worries are gone. Mishti is trying so hard to be a good puppy – she eats on schedule, sleeps through the night and is a trooper when it comes to potty training. She has also brought a step change in the kids behaviors – Diya is a “proud little Mamma” who puts Mishti’s needs before her own and Aadi is trying to be a big brother, constantly worried that Mishti will get hurt or chew something small and choke. We are now thoroughly convinced it was no Mish-take,  Mishti was meant to be part of our family and we are completely Mishti-fied !

Aadi’s “Jokes” ….

Aadi has been saying such hilarious things lately that we are finding it hard to record everything. He is very well aware that he is making “jokes” and each delivery is accompanied by mischievous smiles !! Here are a few from last week.

1.      Suvo was trying to teach Aadi “opposites”.

Suvo: The opposite of ‘up’ is ‘down’.

Aadi: Oh.

Suvo: The opposite of ‘light’ is ‘dark’.

Aadi: just stares and digests.

Suvo: (Trying to tease ….) Aadi now your turn. What is the opposite of ‘Aadi’.

Aadi: (Thinks for a sec …..and says smiling) …. its “Diya” !!!!

2.     Aadi is in the night time potty training phase. He is trying to stay dry through the night. As soon as he wakes up in the morning he goes to the bathroom and removes his night time pull up. This is hard for a 4 yr old as all he wants to do at that time is cuddle and drink milk in bed. So to encourage his self-help behavior I am trying to profusely praise him when he is able to go through with the morning routine himself. The other morning, I heard a rustling sound and even before I made it to the kids room, Aadi was already in the bathroom. I was so thrilled, I told him, “Aadi, I am so so proud of you. You woke up and first thing you did is open your pull up. You are such a big boy now.” Aadi thought about it for a second and said, “Mamma, I waked up and first thing I did was to open my eyes” !!!! I assured him he was still a “big boy” and that opening the eyes first is a really good idea! J

3.     Diya’s school had a fundraiser and the grand prize for whoever raised the most funds was a trip to Dairy Queen in a Limousine!! Diya was so excited she was explaining this to us the other day. Aadi interrupted her and asked, “What is a Limousine?” Diya explained to him that it is the looooooong car that you see in the movies. Aadi’s response was, “Hmmm, then they should call the prize ‘Dairy McQueen’ !!” J

Quotable Quotes

On the way to Diya and Aadi's Kumon class (an after-school education program), I heard two quotable quotes from Diya and Aadi which I thought are worth noting down!

Context: Running out of interesting books to read, I recently started reading Diya's books - the Ramona novel series by Beverly Cleary. The stories about the 8 year old girl has triggered my guilt trip of not being an attentive dad. So, since this morning I am seizing every opportunity to make encouraging remarks to Diya and Aadi.

When I told Aadi that he is a very smart boy he replied, "I know I am smart!"

After a brief pause he asked, "Do you know why?

I asked, "Why?"

My 4 year old son replied, "Because my brain tells me to be smart. And my heart tells me to be correct."

The conversation moved to Diya. I was trying to explain to her in 1-2 sentences what our patent application (at work) is about, "The current method for calculation does not always work. So, we made an improvement to the method for calculation."

Diya interrupted, "So you mean that you fixed their method?"

I replied, "In a way, yes."

She asked, "Does your method of fixing have a problem?"

Before I could get a chance to reply, she explained (just in case I don't quite get it), "You know - if you try to fix a problem, it will also have its own problem. And this will happen again when you make the next fix. So, you can never make it perfect."

Lesson learnt - I am doing ok as a parent! ;)

Just A Few Chords

[Alternate title suggested by Saurav Mitra: Minors for Minors!]

After coming back from a 2-day trip Ankur still had the energy to cook a special dinner for us - Chicken with Green Peppers, Pulao and Garlic Naan!

After overeating (a lot!) I decided to top it off with some of Diya and Aadi's Halloween candies.

Overall effect … Absolutely Bliss!

To prolong the mood I started playing a few random chords on the keyboard. A tune seemed to emerge. I decided to record it on my iPhone … just in case one day I find the time to turn it into a complete composition.

Aadi was playing around. I decided to play the recording to him and asked him, "Is it a happy or a sad tune?" (A few weeks back he seemed to intuitively connect minor chords with sad mood … so this was repeating the experiment to get another data point.)

He seemed to be perplexed. He asked me back several times "Baba, it is happy or sad? Is it happy or sad? …"

I asked him, "What does your heart say?"

He replied, "Sad … but beautiful"

Is it?



For those who are musically curious, the chords were Fm Ab C Bb/Fm.

For those who get time to read our blog, the incident got me back to blogging after a gap of several months. I really don't want them to grow up fast!

Fifteen Years! And Counting ……

Fifteen years ago …. today

On the bank of Mississippi

We said, “Let’s make a life, come what may …”

And we strived.

A half painted sari

A cabinet full of mismatched cups

Boxes in the basement

Full of baby stuff we saved

1 apple tree in the backyard

A dozen trips to the hospital

Hundred Sunday morning cuddle times

Thousand trips to the park

Ten thousand diapers

Mixer, blender, chopper, juicer

Freezer, toaster, pressure cooker

Wheels on the bus

Wheels on the bags

Wheel on shoes

Everything  that drags

Tears for friends who left

Cheers for family members who joined

Beers for everyone !

2 bundles of joy

A zillion toys

Smothering hugs

Slobbering kisses

Many heartaches

A few time outs

Here we are

And I am happy to say

We have arrived.