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!!

The Repartees

Seeing sugar pop something in her mouth from the floor, momma frantically runs to her, "open ur mouth! Show me. Show me. What's in ur mouth?"
Very calmly, she looked into momma's eyes, and answered, teeth!

As momma steps out of the bathroom, ready to go out, sugar gives her a bright smile,
I love ur oatfit momma! It's so pretty

During the well-check, the doctor asked, what languages fo we primarily speak at home. "Hindi", I said.
And English, chini adds. you speak Hindi while I speak English.
Not to be left behind, sugar adds, and Spanish! I say para!!


In an argument with sugar I say, it is a horse!
No! It's a pony, she says.
No ponies are small. This is a horse.
I know!! it's a unicorn!


Watching me flip over an omellete, sugar exclaims,
Wow! You are making a egg-roti!

It was story time and Momma was narrating one of her own, with lots of actions. At one time, momma pretended to pull something out of an imaginary bag, and placing her hand flat in front of the kids, asked," what do you think is in the hand?"
MAENDI!!!(mehandi) sugar answered!!


Oh, sugar accidentally bumped her head into momma, resulting in a big cut on momma's lips. This happened two days back. Since then, much to momma's amusement, sugar is insisting,
I will kiss on ur boo-boo and make it awll better!!

And the autumn is here..

With days growing shorter, the air chillier, and the sky cloudier.. Which means the girls and I either have to miss or shorten our routine evening nature walks. And that, ladies and gentlemen, is one of the prime reasons for not being able to post for past few days. The other reasons were the runs that I had to make to the school, the doctor, to the pharmacy and the various such chores. Before you get alarmed, everybody is fine. It was just a normal check up for my thyroid(one of the side effects of having babies..). Which should have been not more than a few minutes but turned out to be an entire one and a half hour process owing to all the formalities associated with a new patient and such. And then another entire half day was spent (on phone) in getting the medical records transferred from the previous doctors to the new one .. for the four of us. Another couple of hours, on another day, was spent at the radiology department, cuz the doctor had suspected nodules while examining my neck. Thankfully, the ultrasound came out to be clean, but the days between the examination and the ultrasound had their share of tense thoughts and research, and of course, the silent prayers! And then, the nurse(read vampire) had turned my right hand blue and black by sucking out blood, apparently for the test, but I have my doubts. Anyways, the hand had been sore ever since. Initially it was the forearm and now the pain has mysteriously shifted to the shoulder. Well, the point is, all this running around, usually exhausted me to the core and I just used to crash every night, leave alone any desire to get on the Internet! . ( I know, am getting old. Please don't remind me that!).

And then the medication itself had its effect, I had been off medicine for almost two months (due to sheer laziness of finding a doctor), so restarting them, that too on an increased dosage, left me more tired than ever! Hopefully, I will not skip them now.. And then after four weeks, I will have to visit the Dracula again! Yeah! The doc wants a re-check. Sigh!

The school trips included sugar's mommy and me program once a week, monitor parent duty, parent open house and the guest story time for Diwali. I had done it at chini's old school last year too. In case, you are wondering what a monitor parent duty is.. Chini's school asks parents to volunteer, at least, once every semester and have set up a station/table for the same. The parents basically help teachers out with their chores, like filling up their water pitchers, escorting the kids to and from the bathroom, any paper cutting work for their projects, etc. Plus, it gives the parents a chance to interact with the other parents(there are usually two on any given day) and the teachers. It worked well for me, as sugar did wonderfully good that day and we also went to the playground when it was the outside time for chini's classroom. Personally, I didn't become a fan of this major event and am glad am done with it for the semester. Why, you ask? Cuz I had hoped to be able to see chini more. Also, it left me wondering, how would it work out with the working parents. But then, as it is a volunteer thing, am sure it's not an absolute must. I did get to know another parent, which gave me more insights into the American life, family and more, an insight on my life here, too, which I will share in another post.

Parent open house was an evening extravaganza, where the parents get to visit their kids' classrooms, get to see their progress, and talk to the teachers, a little bit more. Primarily, because the drop-offs and pick-ups are at the door and usually, the teachers are not able to talk much except if there is an exceptional episode related to any of the students. It was on a rainy evening, and I had gone, albeit half-heartedly, as they had done a good job of marketing the event to chini, who had finished all her evening chores, including the dinner, bang on time. Any refusal, would have resulted in throwing it all back at me. Yeah! She is very good at it! The open house turned out to be lovely and chini's workbook had a beautiful picture of the family drawn by her! She , obviously, had the Rapunzel hair, the dad had bountiful of black hair on his head (he is bald) and the mum was taller than the dad( the best part.. As i hardly reach his shoulders!) and ofcourse, there was a cute little sugar too. I wrote a note for her in the book and sugar added (read scribbled) hers too! I will make sure to upload those images, when we get the workbook at the end of the school year. And of course, there was the alphabet book too, where chini had done wonderfully, as well. It was also a book fair night at the school, and I lost the only twenty dollar bill I had owned, somewhere in that rainy parking area.. It just fell from my pocket. I wasnt worried about losing it as much I was groped with the fear of chini's reaction to the news that we won't be able to buy any book. Luckily, the book fair was until next noon and we got the book next day. Though not without a gentle rebuke from her before going to bed, "momma, how can you forget to get the money every time!" the last time, I hd forgotten to get the money was on a 'hot dog and pretzel' day (another fund raising event) when my girls love to buy gogurts. I love the idea of them going by themselves and paying for it by themselve. Who cares for the idea when mom did a severe crime of not getting the requisite amount.. And she ought not to be spared for that!

A guest reader at the school, for the Diwali story, has become an annual tradition for us. It all started at her old school, where the parents were encouraged to be the surprise readers and I came up with the idea of educating the kids about one of our major holidays. The teachers were very excited and later, I had received very encouraging feedback from the other parents, too, who said that their youngsters couldn't stop recounting the experience to everyone for days. Then, I had done a big deal too.. With decking myself and sugar up in a very pretty embroidered salwar Kurta .. And taking one of chini's lehanga n jacket n cap for girls and boys to try on. A lantern craft work, coloring sheets with dia(earthen lamps), And a very special treat of 'pedal' (made by myself) for every kid and teachers. They had combined, other classrooms as well and it had turned out to be a major event. Maybe, I will dig out the pics and post them.
This time, I was assigned only half an hour and as many of the kids had allergies, I skipped the treats and the dress up. But I did the lantern, which the teacher has hung in the room for the entire week of Diwali! I passed out a very beautiful 'dia' for everyone to look at and of course, the coloring sheet was there. It was an equally, refreshing story time.. Not to forget the special help from one of our neighbors! It turns out that she works at our local library and when I had gone to pick up the books , I told her that I was doing a Diwali special at my daughters school the very next day and the books that I had ordered hadn't arrived yet, she remembered it. And personally, came to give me the book that very evening(the book had arrived after I had left). Don't these little things make your day so special and make you appreciate the beautiful phenomenon called life, love and friendship!!

On another note, chini had here first ever official play date with one of her schoolmates, since coming here. It was decided, on the spur of the moment, as both friends had been asking their respective moms ever since the start of the school year. So, that afternoon, while picking them up, we just decided to meet after a couple of hours, followed by a restless wait and frequent checking of time. The friend had arrived on time. It was a sunny afternoon, so most of the playtime was spent in the balcony.. Both chini and sugar enjoyed the playdate. Sugar, of course, thinks that every friend of chini is her friend too!

Chini also was invited to the first ever birthday party of one of her classmates(again read from the new school). The party was at a sports gym about 15 min drive from our home. She enjoyed it to the core, though it turned out to be a little taxing for me. Details, may be or may be may not be(as it is one of very emotional episodes for me), some time later.

Along with all this, we attended one story time@library each week, read lots of books, sung lots of songs togethers, tried new dance lessons for chini formally and enrolled her in weekend gymnastic classes. We tried to keep with our evening walk routine, as much as we could and even made a couple of trips to the park. We loved jumping inthe piles of the dried autumn leaves as much as splashing in the water puddles. There were lots of shared laughters and jokes together. All in all, autumn has been good so far.. If you forget my aching right arm, that is....