Belly bean, sunscreen and TV screen!!

Today, was one of those days, which tested me in every sense and challenged me- especially with my neck n shoulder pain. Not to say, by te mid evening, the back also has, ompletely, gone for a toss. Sigh! As if mommyhood by itself was easy, that I had to experience it through this pain.

The day started with my usual perky chinipie waking up, clutching her tummy, complaining of a 'broken bone' in her tummy. Their cuteness multiplied with their innocent faces just make me sail through these times easily. So, momma checked for the broken bones and declared that she was fine enough to brush her teeth and go downstairs for her breakfast. Each chore was done with much grumble and she declared that she cannot go to school tody as she definitely was sick. finally after many-a-futile trips to the bathroom, a huge throw up on the recently-polished-living-room-couch and carpet, lightened her up. And after shedding tears for 'ultee-ing' on the much prohibited areas of the house and being duly consoled by a calm ( even, I surprised myself) momma, she chirpily went to her room, only to return, perkier than ever, dressed in a fancy tutu( which momma saves usually or the parties). Momma's shoulders had already started throbbing with pain after scrubbing the mis-routed meals of her darling child, so she just smiled n requested her to put something similar on the little sister, afraid that she might throw a fit otherwise. A few minutes later, she heard a couple of shouts(read pleas) for help n rushed upstairs to dress up a super-wiggly sugarbun.

Momma's attempt to keep them outside to get the most of the weather went vain as they kept coming back, asking her to join them. Given the pain and the amount of work (which meant cooking) that she had to, she just couldn't. So, they would play inside and after making a complete mess of their room, they came to the playroom where they spilled crayons all over and then proceeded to momma's room. Luckily, the sun was shining bright by then, and momma lured them on the deck - feeding them their lunches there(which ws khichdi n was declared the yummiest lunch ever!). Everything done fr the day, momma decided to let her tired bones absorb a little vitD and she relaxed under the smiling sun- well at least she tried to.

A distint 'arghh' 'yuck' from the washroom along with the sound of running water, disrupted chinipie's story. Yep! Tht's how a mom gets to relax- listening to non-stop chatter, that is(but who's complaining :)). So the elder one returned with the news tht sugar has cream all over her hand and shez trying to wash it off. Now, sugarbun's half day is spent wither washing her hands n feet or brushing her teeth or applying cream on herself, so momma just ignored that it will just mean the usual extra task of wiping off all the water, soap n cream off the powder room's floor n counter. Okay. Maybe, changing sugar's wet dress, too. As if taken aback by momma's non-reaction, chinipie asserted - it's the sunscreen. WHATTT!!?? THEE NEEWW ONE!! Yes, momma. HOW did she ever get it??? And, mumbling things like," you guys make things o ough for me!" and he usual, momma rushed to see sugar's face, hands, dress, bathroom counter n sink all smudged in sunscreen, while the poir thing was trying really very hard to get it off! And the more she tried, the more it got smudged!! And seeing her in plight, I just grabbed the kitchen towels (tht she had unrolled and spread all over the house earlier) and started wiping her off. Finally, getting rid of all the smudge, poor sugar relaxed and that's when I just started laughing uncontrollably and the girls, joined in too.
Sugar, why r u so naughty?
I m nt naughty!!
Then who is?
Momma is!

Ht's when chinipie led me to the couch, where the whole tube of sunscreen was squeezed out. The exact same spot where chini hd puked earlier, during the day! And thus started scrubbing -round 2!

With so much UV protection on them, the girls definitely needed a bath n then came the newer struggles for momma. Invariably, for past couple of months, they give me a tough time first getting them in the bath tub, then the whole process in there in itself, and later coming out. All in all, the toughest part of the evening was over. Once in their pjamas, they had calmed down and put in front of the 'television' while momma took a quick shower n warmed up the dinner fr them. Once dinner was done and over with, chinipie declared tat she felt much better. My tummy likes to watch tee vee. It wasn't hurting while I was watching it!

So, that and not pedialyte or momma's khichdi n lauki is the remedy for the tummy ache!!

Happy Holi

The weather was perfect, the girls were active, and this is how we celebrated holi(the festival of colors welcoming the spring).

Twig 1 - decorated with flowers made out of tissues dipped in food color.

Twig 2

Twig 3

The end result :)

The left over tissues used for the special holi greeting cards along with blossoms/leaves(chini's idea)

Peacock Rangoli at the doorstep

The message

And the busy hands ;)

Though, at the end of the day, momma was seen dragging her feet, holding her back with one hand and her neck with the other :)

Mom's guilt

So I was told to take it easy for a while. That meant no cooking for a while. Well, I did follow it - for a while that is. Until today. It so happened that we had the veg curry and a side dish, *(courtesy a friend and DH) but, a very important part of our diet was missing - dahi(yogurt). And another ingredient missing from our dinner plate was roti(bread). We came to know of an aunty who provides home-made rotis to the destitute like us. The dad was told in the morning to get them while coming back from work. Also, he was requested and reminded, at least, a hundred times to come home earlier than usual (not his normal 10 o'clocks). So, the dad cancelled his 6:30 meeting to pick up the rotis and dahi for his darling daughters. As luck would have it, he could reach home not before 8:00.

Of all days when momma rushes after them with the food, the girls chose this day to dutifully sit at the dining table at 6:45 sharp! It broke momma's heart to see her girls hungry- waiting for the dinner to be served. When she didn't have the plate ready. Mentally she calculated the time it would take to make the dough and roll out two breads for her jigar ka tukdas, but then, she remembered the last time when it had sent her head rolling and she toughened herself to save her emotions for later when she gets completely well. And that would happen only if she gave her a chance to recover. And then, it would be a few minutes when dad would be home! So she distracted the kids with their favorite episodes. Meanwhile, the veggies were heated up, the salad was cut, and the water bottles were filled. At 7:15, she checked on the kids again. Looking at their momma, they rushed back to the dining table, seating themselves. While momma wondered at her little marvels, who chose this very day to show such obedience, she wished within, for them to return to their normal bratty self - when she had to scream, at the top of her lungs, to have them seated - unmoving, so that she could shove the meals inside them. Not today, though. "Momma, what did you make? what did u make? And the guilt-struck momma, right then, there would have melted in water, if she wouldn't have seen those two faces - waiting for their dinner. So, she started feeding her little bird-lings - the salad, the veggie and the curry. And hungry as they were, they could have eaten a horse right then! Half-way through, the dad made his royal entry and the chicklings spared the horse and nibbled on the tiny bits of, probably, the yummiest roti they had.

The Lorax

The Lorax was released yesterday and what a perfect timing.. On the birth snniversary of Dr.Seuss whose books we have fallen in love at the moment. Though, we still had to read what this book/ movie was about, we still went ahead to watch the movie and what a great piece of work done! Despite all my aches and ains, I am glad we went as a family together as it was a much welcome distraction for all of us. If you have read the book already, there's some extra punch added in which makes it all the more entertaining. And this is the movie, which is a must watch in 3D. Really, I mean it! There are so many 3D movies out there, which leaves u wondering why did I pay so much for it. But this is one movie, which just justifies all the extra spent on 3D.. With all it's specal effects and everything.

And what a lovely message- save the trees! My girls just love the cute bar-ba-loots now and can't help repeating,"I am Lorax and I speak or the trees!" The stone left behind by Lorax near once-ler's house with the word "UNLESS" has left a deep imact on them. And this being early spring, the trees are loaded with beautiful blossoms which have been aptly named as the lovely 'trufula-tufts'. though, they got little scared of the mean guy o'hare but loved the real hero of the movie- the granny!

Not to mention, there was a quiz session for me afterwards, "why was there only one seed left?" "why did the mean guy not want to plant it?" " why did onceler stay in dirty place?" " why did he not show his face earlier?" "why did he come out later?" "why did Ted wan to meet onceler?" "why did onceler cut all the trees?" " why did he call all his family?" And so On and so forth. After I exhausted all my answer bank, I got the book frm the nearest library and we read it again and again together. It's our current favourite.
We have talked about importance of trees, the life within trees and other ways to save nature. I am not sure if they understood whole of it, but at least they got the concept.

Lorax floor puzzle

 

And not to mention, we absolutely love that little guy called Lorax and the tiniest of all barbaloots too!
Have you watched the movie yet? Do u like it? What about the book? Have you read it?

A Seussian Birthday

So, March 2nd was Dr. Seuss's Birthday. Whole week, momma was being reminded of it, who lazily doped all day long and grunted her yes and no. It had been two weeks that she had stuck herself to the bed, and the kids were now getting restless. In an attempt to keep them busy, books were ordered from the library, and a couple of activity sheets from Dr. Seuss's website were printed out and presented to them. She had to be reminded by the pint-sized people though that they need some instructions on how to proceed with them. That's when it dawned on her that, may be, she is required to be involved with them. Her eyes, heavy with the effect of the relaxants and pain-killers, could hardly keep themselves open. Dopily, she gave them the minimal of instructions and lay down on the couch, next to them, for the sole purpose of morale boosting.

The rhyming exercise was fun for both, whereas the hat matching proved to be a little tricky. Sugarbun chose to help her elder sis by providing her the hats to match, who did fairly well till she could concentrate i.e. 60% Afterwards, chinipie found herself getting distracted by the singing and dancing of sugarbun and hurried to finish the activity. That's when she got them wrong. She did fairly well, for her age, I would say. I would attempt to have her do this particular activity again - when I am better and am able to assist her with it.