The first snow

The first snow.. I would have loved it,  i would have enjoyed the snow.. Only if it was a matter of vacationing for a couple of days..

The snow is turning into sleet as soon as it hits the car now. The wiper is just nominal as it is smudging way more than its cleaning.

And it's snowing.... And raining... Hard. And we are on the road I76 enrojte to NJ. Visibility is poor owing to the deadly combo of the mist, the rain and the snow. "How can it rain and snow at the same time?", the dad asks. The passing eight wheelers splash huge amount of water on the windscreen reducing the visibility furthermore and the heart almost skips a beAt as the minivan, we are in, skids a little on the narrow trail of snow. The dad is a careful driver though and balances well.. We are already driving at 35mph on a freeway where until last week 80mph was the minimum. But, not today. We already crossed 3 very gruesome accident sites on our way. Good that the kids are distracted with their dora dvd, or else chini would have worried to sickness about everything. Anyways, the 3 ladies of the house are alreAdy down with cough and cold. I cant even believe we are out of the house in this condition(of health and the weather), leave alone travelling. Normally, snow would have sent me back under my bed covers. "Why are we going this far again?" the dad asks. I just smile. It's one of our very close friend's son's birthday and the plans to meet up has been made almost 2 months back. We could have cancelled. But decided otherwise. For two reaons - the kids fall sick so often that our social life had almost come to zero at a certain point (Which was proving to be unhealthy for all of us). That's when we had decided, we would try to be as good a sport as possible, in sickness and in health. Not on the cost of your lives, you fools!! Yeah! Cmon hit me now! Only fools like us would venture out of the house in this storm! Circular storms, that too, coming from colorado. The second reason, we had checked the weather this morning and though it suggested snow by the afternoon, we didn't think it would be this gross. Afterall, it's still autumn. The trees are still in the midst of changing colours and are not even half-way close to have shed them. The positive - the roads are not too bad - yet. This is the first snow, remember? And they are not entirely deserted either! I draw a solace in the fact that there are bunch of others out like us!.. And the snowy rainstorm or is it rainy snowstorm.. Has worsened as i type. We cannot see beyond two cars at the max.

Chini is getting restless in the car now. She has already asked 5 times if we have reached anywhere closer to the destination. "are we there yet?" is her favourite question. Normally, we would have said,"do you want me to pull over?" (from her fav silly joe's song) but today, we are not in moods of any jest. The eyes glued to thetr road ahead. Yeah mine too.. Am the co-driver after all. " please put snow princess dora on." she demands ." it's a perfect watch for todays weather". I stretch and fibble and fumble complying to her request and trying not to disturb( read irritate ) the one in the driver's seat. The Minute the dvd starts, he says,"i wonder how can that backpack hold so much froma pail to umbrellas to the life jacket." it takes me a while to realise hes talking about the purple big eyed backpack dora carries. "on top of it the poor girl carries it all the time without any complains or visible signs of tiredness. We used to be crushed under the dead weghts of our school bags." i just smile, thinking to myself" oh so its okay to talk today." normally, on trips like these, even smaller than these, any attempt to make a noise results in , let's say, facing his music(wrath). May be the snow has cooled him down, i mumble, in my mind though, as we enter a very very snowy patch again ( yeah for a while, the rain and the snow have been alternating). And we cannot see beyond the tail lights of the car must ahead of us, though that car is almost at a distance of 3 cars. "Benny should be given a couple of vicks tablets" he adds. " uh-oh" i reply as we pass another accident struck car that has lost its fender. " sometimes i feel that i can earn billions dubbing all those funny voices of these characters", the dad muses again. Now the chill has frozen his head for sure! I think as our vehicle splurges in a pool of snow.

"i love snow,momma" chini declAres. "i want to make snowman" sugar chips in....
And that makes me the mean witch who hates snow... I can even picture myself on that broom trying to destroy the magic snowy forest!!

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....

Of craziness and innocence

Chini is a very sensitive child. A bit of stern behavior is enough to throw her into a fits of crying. Even a gentle rebuke can guarantee the same effect. Sugar, on the other hand, laughs off at our face if we dare enough to scold her. Nevertheless, if we disagree with her on something, it can turn out to be a tricky situation.

A few episodes asserting the same:
More often than not, sugar eyes the same stuff that chini would be having, be it a toy, a dress, a book or any other silly thing like a leaf. Sometimes,chini puts up a fight and says no, while other times she gives it to her, willingly or unwillingly. Some time back, it was a necklace or a bracelet that chini had to share with her, albeit half-heartedly. To show her displeasure, when sugar put it on herself and declared that she looked like a princess, chini added.. Yeah a dirty princess. Sugar was in such an elated state, that she believed her. Ever since, she takes a pride in being a dirty princess, much to chini's amusement. Any attempts to Contradict can throw sugar in roaring fits!

There are times that there are role reversals and chini is suddenly reminded that she ever had that kind of toy with her(obviously, this illumination has to happen when sugar has that object). Just a disapproving comment like, sometimes you don't behave good proves out be extremely touchy. On being asked, why is she screaming, she replies, "you hurt my feelings!"
what?!? Now we are not supposed to even correct them?

One such day, very casually I remarked,"pagli kahiin ki". And before i knew, there she was rolling on the floor, with her vocal chords pulled to the extreme!!! I can't recollect what led me to pass that comment but i was definitely not upset with her. Puzzled, I asked why was she screaming an she complained, "you said bad words to me!" Now, this was really absurd, that girl doesnt even know much Hindi to make so much fuss. So I asked,
Do you even know what I said
No.
Then why are you crying
I don't know
Atleast try to know the meaning, before you take an offense
What's offanse?
Before you feel bad
What did you say then?
Pagli means crazy
and with that I braced myself for another session of fits..
You called me a crazy kid?
Errr yes
still trying to prepare my ears for their next set of exercises..
Ha ha ha.. I m a crazy kid..
She started laughing amidst her rolling tears!!!

And ever since this remark is bound to make her laugh whenever she's sad...
As for sugar, she just says, "I am not paghi tunki"

Such is the craziness and innocence of my pinkie pies!!

Goldilocks

Have u read the goldilocks story? Goldilocks is a curious little girl who sneaks in the home of the bear family and then goes through a whole lot of paired and and alternate experiences, where the porridge she tastes is either too hot or too cold, the chair is either too big or too small and the bed is either too hard or too soft, before she finally settles down for all the baby bear's stuff which are just right..

Meet the goldilocks of our home! Introducing to you, our very own sugarbun, for whom everything is either too big or too small. Each time, only after a huge tearful session, we settle on something for which she says, "it's my favorite!" We assume that would mean it's just right! Wondering, what it means? Take, for example, each clothing session, where if she doesn't like a particular dress that I choose for her, she starts Her histrionics with,"it's big for me. It's small for me." c'mon, my girl, how can it be both? But,only when I rummage through her closet and show her at least five more other weather appropriate clothings, that finally she settles for one with a tearful smile,"it's perfect!" if you think the melancholy stops here, it doesn't. It extends to the accessories, including bracelets, necklaces, socks, shoes and not to mention the headbands(for which she runs with the first stroke of sunlight!). And the list extends to the bed and the beddings, where the blanket and the bedsheets, too, turn out to either too big or small for her! And it continues to every mom's nightmare -the food! So, you can be pretty sure that she doesn't want to eat the meal you prepared with much efforts, when you hear her say,"it's too hot! It's too cold!" lately, she has even started with funny dialogues like "soup finish o Gaya" though a bowl full of soup would be set right in front of her!

Sugar sends me to hysterical fits, when seeing me in a jeans and Kurta outfit, she says,
"Mommy, is that ur dress? Are you playing dress up?"

And then her enthralling experiments with her ever building vocabulary! Sugar used "a little bit" for almost everything.. Like
Momma can I have a little bit duddu?
Momma, i have to go for a little bit walk.
I am reading a little bit book?
Can I dance a little bit? And here comes the best one..
I have to go a little bit pee-pee!

More recently, 'a little bit' has been replaced by 'For a while'.

When I am upset with her for something, she says, "Are u happy or r u mad?"
If she catches me yawning, " are you Sleepy or wake up?"
If by accident, I hurt myself, she gives me a kiss, looks at me and adds, "do you feel better?"
And, if she's the one who got hurt, she comes running to me, "can you kiss me?" After I comply, " I feel better already"

Of late, you can catch her counting, "One two chee four five" or singing her best loved song, "the inchy binchy spidor" or listen to her commentary as she sits down,"I am sitting on my thinking chair(courtesy blues clues)".

A few conversations between chini and sugar:

Playing with the magnetic words, sugar says,
I have to finish my story.
No sugar, that's my story.
Stomping her feet, Now what shud I do? (this she picked frm chini, herself)
You can help me with the words.
I don't wike(like) it. I am messin up.
Then she messes up all the letters. Chini tries to save her work by standing in front of it.
I hit you. With that sugar hits chini and before chini cud react, starts crying, "she's hitting me!"


Momma go....di (pick me up!)
Momma. Busy preparing dinner says sternly, No godi!
Starts crying n goes to chini who is playing in the other room, " momma shouting me!"
don't cry sugar. Go tell her,"no shouting, momma. Use ur nice words."
Okay. I will say that. Comes to me. " momma, no shouting. you cannot shout me"
I am sorry sugar.
That's okay. Runs back, didi I said it
Good job sugar!!

A birthday...

...would have been like any other day, if not made special by the wonderful kids!

And it all started 3 days before the b-day, when chinipie Realized that it's just around the corner. She said, "momma, I have to go to your birthday party." I guess, either she linked in her imaginative mind that birthdays means parties or she remembered that we, unfailingly, went out for dinner with our couple-a-friends every year. Sometimes, they would be the surprise ones arranged by the dad(yes! He is still very romantic at heart!). But, this year, my birthday came in the midst of the navratris when I fast. So, any such thing was out of question. So I say, "I will turn 31. We don't have parties at that age". I expected her to come out with her usual why's and how's series followed by a huge tantrum, and I started to think of all the possible answers for the upcoming rapid-fires plus preparing myself to face the melodrama. Instead, she stopped(we were walking to the car after picking her up from school) and gave me a surprised look,
"you will be 31?"
Yes
"wow! That's a big number!"
Errrrr. thanks for reminding that am fast aging honey

Later in the evening, when dad returns from work,
"papa, did you know momma's birthday is coming up. She is going to be 31."
Sugar adds, "she is going to be a big girl".
Thanks my lovely darlings

The next morning, " papa, it's momma's birthday tomorrow. We have to do something special."
What do you want to do, beta?
"I don't know"
Awwwwww

The evening before the b-day, she comes running to my room, "momma, here are some coins for you. I got them from my own piggy bank. Now you can buy that thing from the mall that aunty did to your nails!"
I just went speechless with the flow of her words. That was almost two weeks back. It was raining constantly since past few days and our routine evening walks had come to an halt. Me and the girls had taken a trip to the mall, where they had enjoyed playing at the slide. On our way back, a girl at one of the stalls stopped me and had demonstrated the nail polisher cum cuticle remover thing. Now my chinipie, being so pinkalicious had loved my nail instantly and wanted me to buy it. When I said I couldn't, her curious mind could only be satisfied by the answer that it was expensive. She had somehow remembered that episode and had opened her piggy bank to be able to buy that for me!
Just then, sugar comes running, "momma, a coin for you!"
And they kept trotting back and forth between their room and ours, bringing me coins with each return; until their profoundly touched momma caught hold of them and showered two wriggly and squirmy gals with hugs and kisses.

That very night, chinipie developed very bad ear infection and couldn't sleep well coz of her aching ear. Still, she was the first one to wake up in the morning, and the first thing she said as soon as she opened her eyes was, happy birthday, momma!" and her momma, with her sleepy eyes, mumbled a thank you and tried to snuggle with her, on the pretext of giving her a hug. But she managed to wiggle free and brought a page she had colored earlier as a gift. And the whole day, both the sisters kept bringing me some pictures they had colored. Though, originally they were painted with some other intention, but it's the thought that counted. My little girls thought that they had to give something to their momma and they kept bringing more and more!

And then whenever they remembered, they wished me or sang the birthday song for me, either alone or together.. Isn't it amazing how fast the time flies! Last year all my sugar could sing was " aaeee yayay u uu" in tune and this year she sings so flawlessly! Until last year, chini used to get upset that wad not her birthday, so as a rule, each birthday in the house were everyone's birthday. And she used to be so happy, that it was momma's, papa's, hers and her baby's(she still believes that sugar is her baby!) birthday. Chini has always loved playing pretend birthdays.. Ever since she was around 18 months, many a times we used to make pretend cakes out of handkerchiefs, napkins and blow the pretend candles out with her or me singing the birthday song! We, then, moved on to the drawings on the paper, cut outs, play dough and blocks! Invariably, those cakes are made for me. Oh, how I remember that teeny tiny chinipie, swaying side to side, shifting her weight from one foot to another, singing the birthday song, and pointing at me with a smile, every she would say happy birthday to momma! And she passed on this passion to sugar too, who just couldn't stop singing it fo me whole day!

How many more such birthdays do I want? Well, chini's current favorite number, 100!
Why? Coz just before going to bed tonight, she started crying," I do not want my momma to grow old and die!"
And only when I said I will live upto 100 years of age, did she go back to bed.
The dad muttered under his breath, "and then we will keep her in museum."
"nooooooo. I do not want her in a museum. I want her to live till 100 age and stay with us."
Yeah my sweet baby! Until you grow tired of your over-protective, old-fashioned and loud mom!