After a long time...

I have several posts in my draft.. Need to post them at some point..
I haven't organized it well enough to publish..but, i thought if i dont post something now, i will never get back to blogging..so doing a quick update now.

Summer break is here and as usual having a crazy schedule. But, not as much as previous years. I signed them up only in the camps near my house to avoid crazy amount of driving. So far, so good.
Only one week is going to be hectic...

We didnt go anywhere for the july 4th long weekend, since we travelled to Australia during spring break, we have pretty much used up most of our vacation days too :)

Australia trip was awesome. We went there to watch 2 quarter finals of the cricket world cup and it was an unforgettable experience for the kids. The boys also got to meet the South African team thanks to my cousin and were awestruck. Seeing ABD upclose was something they will never forget i think :)

When we went to meet my cousin, he came with Hashim Amla and received us. Amla was so down to earth and my cousin had promised to make the boys meet ABD Faf Miller and Steyn as well as they are their favorites, but we got to meet the entire team and we even saw the Srilanka players in the hotel at arm's length distance. We didnt dare talk to them though due to the tight security :)

All the SA players were super friendly and very down to earth. Both Miller and Steyn spent solid 10 minutes talking to us about us and US :) They were quite appreciative of the fact that we went all the way to Aus from US to watch world cup :)

AB was pulling Aj's legs as he was wearing CSK cap. He said next time he meets him he should be wearing RCB cap :0) Aj quietly said No and thankfully AB didnt hear him. Next Miller said the same thing..he wanted Aj to wear KXIP cap. While taking pics with them, Faf pulled aj towards him as he is CSK :) And Miller and Steyn talked quite well to Ashu. Ashu was dumbstruck when AB walked in. He froze and forgot all the questions he wanted to ask AB :)  It was quite funny.

We also went to Cairns and went on rainforest tour and it was mindblowing. I am not big into forests and stuff..i prefer beaches..but this was really an amazing experience. I was completely blown away by the depth of the forest and the different kinds of trees over there. It was like pandora in avatar :0) Only green all around....

The second day in Cairns we planned to go for the Great barrier reef tour which included scuba and snorkeling, but they cancelled it due to bad weather :( We were quite bummed, but we managed to get on a small plane and went around the reef. They took us quite low to get a good view of the reef. It was sooooo beautiful. We want to go there once again.  We next went to Sydney and visited Opera house and few other places in sydney. Sydney is where we met the SA team and then we also watched our first QF between SA and SL. We also did a group jetboat ride and it was super fun :)

Then we went to Melbourne and watched the next QF between Ind and Bangladesh. Kids were super excited. The only thing they could't do is get up close to the players and get their autographs like how they did in sydney. We were just 4 rows behind the SA dugout in sydney and Aj got autograph from many SA players again when they walked in and out :)  Miller even recognized him from the previous night and said hey i know you :)

In melbourne we didnt do a lot as we were exhausted the next day and we had just one day left and we couldnt' go to see the 12 apostles at the great ocean road. But we were really exhausted.
We went on our own by the local train to the outskirts and it was a relaxed day.
We went to a haze place. it was kinda lame for us but kids loved it :)

So that pretty much summarizes the australian trip. After the trip, aj keeps saying we should move to a cricket playing country :D

Math funny

AJ to Daddy : You test me in math. I know everything except algebra, calculus, fractions and long division.

Mom : What about Geometry?

AJ : Hahahaha!! Silly! They taught Geometry in PreK..I know all the shapes.

Ashu : ROFL :D

=========================================================================

Ashu : Aj, what is 100 divided by 25?

AJ : Hahaha..(Gives long laughter and calculates in mind) and then says 4...

Smart Alec! :D

Paatu class

Ashu and AJ both started their paatu class end of Sep. I though Ashu joined without any interest and just for the heck of it because i decided to enroll aj. AJ always shows interest in indian music and ashu has shown least bit interest in it. Suprisingly he sings very well. AJ sings well too for his age. They sang the new song that their teacher wrote for madhyasthayi to all 3 paatis and the paatis were all super impressed.

First two classes, ashu was really annoying me by just lipsyncing and not singing and then got into the groove. Aj is a different story! It's a 30 min drive to the paatu class and he falls asleep just before reaching the class and 50% of the class he is yawning or not paying attention, but when we come home, he sings everything right. So somewhere he does pay attention :)

Sheila...a terror :D

 

We went to a picnic arranged by the Sunday school and they played hindi hits and Sheila ki jawani was one of them. One big kid had told AJ that ' ' is a bad word. Thank God he didn't explain it any further :) I didnt know this and when i got in the car, the song was still playing in my head and i started singing it and when i started singing i am too..he screamed "STOP" that's a bad word. i was shocked and i asked him how he knew that and Ashu said some big kid told him. From that time, anytime he heard that song..he would go "OOOOHHHH Bad word"and cover his ears..Good thing he doesnt know the  meaning. LOL. My friend thought it was too cute and everytime she sees AJ she will start  My name is sheila and he would cover his ears and run away from her. She did that several times and i kept telling her that one day he's gonna call her Sheila Aunty. This happened long back..Last week, we were playing "find the song" game..where i hum a tamil song and they find it. I hummed "My name is billa"...Ashu sang the song properly and AJ sang "My name is Sheila..." in the tune of My name is Billa...ROFL!!

But Amma did it!!

I took the kids to the mall after having lunch with B for father's day. B couldn't come with us as he had some meeting regarding the new tamil school that is being started in our area. To start with, kids weren't too happy to goto the mall ..They've taken after their dad and hate shopping!! but, the purpose of the trip to the mall was to get them sandals. Right next to the shoe store was the Candy Craze!! All kinds of candies..Imagine AJ's eyes when he saw that!!

AJ: - "Mom, i am so hungry..since you didnt cook lunch can we have something to eat?"

Me and Ashu : " AJ you just had lunch at TOI"

AJ (with an ooops expression) : "Maybe you didnt give me breakfast and that's why i am hungry"

Me : AJ i gave you tamarind poha and Pasta and you raved about it

AJ : "Hmm..i am hungry, just get me something..maybe from that candy craze?"

LOL!! He tries..

 

So finally i got them a brownie from the coffee shop that was outside. He was kinda okay, still little unhappy that i didnt buy candies :) Had i taken him to the candy store that would've been like "Vengala kadaila yaanai". After coming home i told this to B and asked him to pretend he was upset  that AJ had junk food..So, B asks with a fake shock in his voice "You ate junk food?" and without missing a beat AJ says "But, amma got it for us". Epic jawdrop for me!! :P

Swimming, Camps..Summer

Kids are in different camps and have started their swimming as well. Less than 2 weeks to go for the india trip. So much to wrap up....

Kids are pretty excited about the trip. I will be working from there..first time, have to see how it goes. Mom's not doing well and i dont think she can travel anymore, so i am glad i get to go again this year....
The previous trip wasn't a fun one with Ashu falling sick the first week and mom the last week. I met more doctors and nurses than relatives/ friends i think!

My brother asked AJ if he wants to goto swimming pool at his apartment and AJ says, "Ofcourse, i know swimming now" This he said after taking just 1 class, where he was just floating with a noodle. Didnt even kick!!

Ashwin's not too happy about not being able to swim (after 2nd class!) I guess he expected to beat Phelps after 2 classes! Both their comments only remind me of the proverb that my dad used often about me and my brother :) "Rendum rendu aapai, rendum kazhanda aapai" LOL!

The first week of their holidays, they were at home with me and B working from home alternately and taking day offs. The next week they were in science center and loved their camp. It was robotics camp and AJ's first camp outside his preschool. He even got to make a mini robot and Ashu built a moving mouse and did few more projects.

Second week, ashu had a camp at his school which he loved and AJ went to his friend's sister's camp. He loved it too. Along with Akshi, he had Arthi and Nandu who he likes like his big sisters :)

Third week at Y and Ashu went for one day and AJ was sick from day 1 and hasn't been there yet! He seems to be better today and may go tomorrow. I think we owe Y some money from the previous jenmam :) This happens all the time..we pay and they dont go due to various reasons :D
Not just that..our membership money that we pay every month thinking that we will be come very responsible and goto the gym regularly... but overall mind says go, body says no!! :P We have gotten slightly better now and have started going...will get there..


Next week they will be back at the science center and this time Aj's friend kutty ashu will be there  as well :) 

Chess

I haven't posted anything in months now.But, i have lot of them in drafts..will need to post back dated. But wanted to give a quick update here..since i am planning to update this blog regularly. Once you are out of it, you are out of it. It's really difficult to get back to it. :P

Anyways, this month Ashu has been on a roll :)
1) He get outstanding certificate in tamil. We were surprised when we got the mail from his teacher. He can read and write at a very slow pace and speaks like settu payyan. But there not many kids in his class and only two kids are fluent in reading and writing, so they both got outstanding certificate. LOL! What was even funnier was when i called him to say we need to go to the temple in the evening for that, he said "Amma, stop kidding" LOL! But getting that certificate has certainly increased his interest in tamil for now :) and also AJ's :)

2) Ashu got on the window! There is this list that the maintain at his school called the window. The kids names go up in it if they make very good choices and are very well behaved. They get to have lunch with the principal and few of them even get some goodies from lucky draw. Ashu got selected this month. He obviously didnt bother to check with his teacher why he got selected. He ws just happy that he got selected and got to go for lunch with the principal. He got a t.shirt from the lucky draw too.

3) Ashu got bronze medal in school chess tournament. He didn't make it to semifinals last time and this time he beat the kids who beats him regularly and was extremely thrilled when he made it to semifinals. They gave him a very pretty looking medal that has some chess coins embossed in it, a king key chain and $5 cash prize.

4) All 4th graders wrote a book and they had the book display today for the parents. Most of them (even boys) did a great job. Loved Ashu's book and he got 100/100 on his book report :)


Ashu-ism : Today CSK lost and it is very highly unlikely for them to make it to the play offs. They now depend on other teams' performance. And Ashu came and said Tomorrow is a critical match for his soccer team and if they dont win they dont get to play on Saturday - Semis and finals. So, i said, Oh you are in a bad situation like CSK and he says..No, we are not. We dont have any teams who could help us move up. It's a true do or die situation for us :D

I will update about AJ later

April 2012

I am so bad with updates these days. It's gotten soo sooo hectic :( i definitely missed out on atleast some of the cute stuff the boys did :(

 

End of march, i had to travel to wisconsin for a training. It was 4 days..i returned on my bday and the boys were waiting with B at the airport with Ipad 3 as my gift :) They surely missed me. Ajay said that Appa was almost good but not 100% good to him and also said i should never leave the house without him ever again..but the next day he was mad at me for not giving him a chocolate and asked me to goto texas or some far away place and realized i might go and said..but come back the same night. lol.

 

Ashu's report card came and he's gotten to level 6 at writing. something i am proud of because he started with 5 and went down to 4 because he started getting bored with writing and then i didnt say anything , but i think as the saying goes silence is golden. he put extra efforts and got it back to 6. Here the level means the grade level for writing (Creativity, how they group the information, etc..) He got straight As on the others and everything was close to 100 (98 or 99) and that's another thing i was happy about because i know Ashu's good with concepts, but makes careless mistakes and never checks back on the answers..so 99 on math is really great stuff :)

 

He is in level E at Kumon too. We started Kumon very late. all his friends were already in E and he was worried that he won't get G by 5, but now i think he's happy that  he moved to E so quickly :)

 

AJ's school had international festival and he took part in a dance and also sang two lines with me. he was sucha  sport and agreed to wear kurta even though he hates it. I said we are representing India and he agreed without a fuss :) but ofcourse he was dancing stiff because of the kurta. It was kinda funny but cute :)

Both Aj and Ashu won a gift at the geobee station and were happy. They were allowed to participate only once. Aj got dhoop sticks from the bag he picked for his gift selection and Ashu a cute Pillayar. We had a great time too with our friends.

I was glad they did it on a weekend this time as Ashu got to enjoy all this too.

 

B went to india for a week  and AJ cried so much when he left. He was mad at him for not taking him to Chennai.. I took the boys to bruster's to cheer them up and they were little better after that. Ofcourse me and aj got the crappiest of the flavours and threw it and attacked Ashu's icecream ;-) After B reached chennai, the first thing AJ told B was to get him Safari chocolate bars :D

 

Ashu  won a lego box for winning a "How well do you know your flags" contest at his aftercare. He was so happy and then next day he comes to complaining that AJ opened it without his permission. I told AJ he shouldn't have done that since Ashu worked on it so  hard and AJ innocently said "But, i thought he won it for me" LOL

 

 Taping up the 39 clues cards :

 

I got a book each for Ashu and AJ and AJ's school book fair. I got 39 clues for ashu and it had some trading cards in a pouch attached to the book.

Ashu was mad because AJ had put ton of tape around that pouch making it impossible to open it and get the cards out. AJ said "I  made sure they are safe for you ashu" and Ashu didnt know whether to laugh or cry!! :)

Mar 2012

We had AJ's birthday at a new place and everyone loved the place. It was an indoor park called Inside Out with lot of activities. Pizza was great too. Only thing i didnt like were their goody bags. I didnt have time to check in advance what they would have in the goody bag and they really didnt have much :P 

We had lots of friends come in for the party and AJ was one happy kiddo. Ofcourse, Ashu too since most of his friends were invited too :) They both had a total blast.

We had 1/1 in aj's school and he got rave reviews as usual. Not just on studies also on socializing aspect. Apparently he is a social butterfly and a delight to be with. :) They said he is way ahead in language and math. They work on some science too, but not much on geography and history. Obviously it is just a preschool and these are just a bunch of 4 year olds and expecting them to know all these is too much too. Ashu went to a daycare that was also a preschool and tey didnt even do as much as what aj's school did and B and i used to challenge him all the time and he knew a lot more than any 4 year old would know. He knew most countries, most states in US, their capitals etc. He knew most presidents..and some facts about most of them too. But, we never really spent a whole lot of time with AJ on these topics. So, i asked AJ few questions and noticed that  he knew very basic stuff like how many continents, their names..some countries and some states and no idea on capitals. For instance he would say one country as a captial of another..and some funny stuff like that. Ashu found it hilarious..us too. He is a sponge and takes in whatever we teach him in a jiffy..So i decided to focus on geography and teach him some stuff abotu history..just what i know and decided to start with presidents of US and i gave him the placemat that has all the presidents and he knows a lot now, but the funniest thing was he kept arguing all the presidents lived only for 4 or 8 years and then they died..Ashu (actually all of us) found it hilarious..Just funny how a little kid's mind works :)  Also, how he made the learning process fun is by checking how many presidents  were born on our birth months and found that his birth month had the least no of presidents (among the 4 of us) and was quite P'd off. hehe.. 

 

On the geography front, before we started teaching him the states and their capitals, ashu decided to test and he was wrong on the first few questions and thoght it was funny and started giving all weird answers. At that point ashu stopped finding it funny and got serious and said "AJ, if  you behave like this you are not going to be a Geography Bee" and AJ said "That's fine..i can always be Geography A" Ashu's reaction was priceless!!

 

That reminds me..Ashu got selected for the school geobee. He was the only one from his class and we came to know when he went back to school after our india trip and the contest was next day. We were severely jet lagged, we had no material to prepare and no energy to go get anything from the store or from the library. Ashu slept at 7, so no point in trying also and i told him in the morning to take it easy and we can always try next year.He made it through 3 rounds and got out.and said from the next round on he knew the right answers..maybe better luck time :)

Happy Five AJ Baby!

Aj turns 5 today. Something he's been waiting for..like forever :) He cant wait to goto "big" school. I told him that since he is a big boy now he needs to eat like a big boy and he said for that he needs to wait till he turns 10!! Hmmm..and what does he ask the first thing in the morning? "Daddy, now that i am 5, will you let me drive your car"? Very selective..proves he is the same sunsign as JJ ;-)

 

He told me few days ago that he has selected "my gift for him" and it is the peargram and applegram since we already have the bananagram and then he said he has selected "car2 wii for daddy and motion plus for ashu". He said it in such a cutesy way that we all fell for it and got everything for him!! The little brat!! :D

 

They have this norm at his class called Celebration, where the birthday kid has to carry the globe around the sun (pretend ofcourse) the birthday number of times and then talk about his life :) For that, he had given me clear instructions on how i need to prepare the charts with his photos and then he did the presentation. He really loved it :) In the evening,we went to the temple and then to PF Changs for dinner. He loves PF  changs for their dessert. I made kaju katli for him and he was quite excited about that too and said i am the nicest girl in the world :D

Feb 2012

 

 

Feb 2012 :

 

Can't believe it's already  Feb! Since we came back from chennai, we have been taking turns and falling sick. The winter  isn't even half as bad as last year, but i guess all the travel and change of place are factors for falling sick.

 

Ashu participated in the county level 4-H contest and came 5th in his group. He didnt make it to the finals as only the top two from each group were qualified.But, they gave  him a ribbon and took  a photo of the top 5 :) We were super proud of him. He did great,especially considering that he was the first to go!!

He was little soft and did not smile. I think if he works on it, he can be #1 next year :) AJ told  ashu that  he thinks  that Ashu was thebest and they should've given him the 1st place ribbon :) And within seconds he started annoying ashu...

 

14 Feb 12: V-day!

 

Kids were excited not because it was V-day, but because of all the goodies they would get from school!! ;-) For ashu, we picked the cards with a mini candy bar that can be rolled into the card, but for AJ i picked plain cards thinking his school is strict with those stuff, but he came with lot of candies!! I was one of the few "stingy" moms who didnt send any candies for the kids. I got big chocolate boxes for the teachers and later in the evening, aj told me "Mommy, you know there is no rule that you need to send chocolates only for teachers, you can send for kids too..hehe" :D

 

Another funny thing was, he was helping ashu with his cards the previous night and ashu had  3 left over cards and aj said, "ashu give appa one, one for me and you can have the other". I was wondering why he didnt mention my name and ashu asked him right as i was thinking of that and aj said "Oh don't give amma, because she is dieting and i will make sure she is eating only healthy food"!!! The little brat!! :D

 

I volunteered at ashu's school for the party and the kids were pretty independant and i didnt have to do much there and got to chat with my friend ;-)

 

17 Feb 12 : Calling God!!

 

Today, i was packing lunch while aj was eating his breakfast and he was squishing his idly and making a mess.I said "Krishnaaa!" and he asked why did you call Ummachi and i said so He will make me not see the huge mess you are making and AJ said " Well, you could just turn your face away from me and that will make you not see the mess..why are you calling God for such a simple thing?!"

 

Jan 2012

We had a short trip to Chennai end of december and were back on 14th. We left on Christmas and the kids were super excited. Our office and kids schools were closed on 21st and the kids were literally after us asking why we didnt book our tickets for 22nd. We tried, we did not get any tickets. We tried in july and it was still too late. Anyways, i had to work till the last minute and the 3 days i got helped me in shopping and packing. I did all the shopping and packing in those 3 days only. I should say i did a good  job ;-)

 

The kids were so excited when we landed in chennai and they didnt know how to react when they saw their mama. LOL! after few minutes they started chatting away. When we went to mom's place the next day, ashu had started coughing and then we went to sil's place for dinner and the next day his cough got worse. I was wondering if it was due to ashu running around in the grass. Anytime he does that his allergies get triggered, but ended up being bronchitis. He was sick for a week. Poor kid. He was totally bummed because he was really looking forward to going to the beach and MGM this time. That didnt happen.  Nevertheless he had enough fun once he recovered and also quite some while being sick. He was just grumpy in the nights when he was sick. We didnt go out much during that time as i was sick too. Also the cylcone  in chennai!!! Everybody blamed me for bringing cylcone to chennai  :)

 

AJ had a terrific time from the second he landed. He was non stop. He was with my brother all the time that i wondered if somebody stuck them together with fevicol. He called Janani a sweetheart and made her  blush. LOL! This time both the boys got along with Gau. the kids had a great time and i had my special time with both jan and gau. jan, especially. She is turning into a wonderful litle lady  - intelligent and stylish :)

 

At inlaws, we had a good time with Sri and Harini. Sri refused to play with aj at first and then after couple of days she saw him playing a word game with kindle and became friends with aj :) Harini was full time entertainment for us and the kids. For some reason she ignored aj. she was fine with ashu and the first time i saw ashu "konjing"  a baby other than aj :) They both had fun with harini's thooli also.

 

Once ashu was okay, my brother and sil took us to EA mall.  B didnt come and my brother called in Vinod and Karthik for rescue. He decided not to handle two ladies and 4 kids all by himself. They took the kids to fun center or something like that while we both shopped. We first at at Rajdhani and it was awesome. Big mistake though. With tummies sooo full it was difficult to shop!! Even Ajay ate more than his normal share.

 

We attended my perippa's sadabishekam. I left ashu at appu mama's house as he was still sick and i didnt want him to be exposed to homa pogai and also didnt want him to eat outside yet. Ashu was so good at their house and did not trouble at all. AJ had a terrific time at the mandapam running around with Gau and Mukhil. I got to meet most of my dad's side relatives. Met my cousins and their kids too. Missed a few of them though.

 

The worst part of the trip was the last week. Mom got sick and frightened me and put me in panic mode. She was hospitalized. I got to spend time with her in the hospital and since we didnt have anything to do, we talked about old times and it was great. She told me stories about herself and dad when they got married and also about her grandpa. Precious memories for me to carry :)

 

I didn't travel to Tirupathi since amma was sick and Ashu stayed with me as he just  recovered. AJ and B went and AJ came back gol gol..with mottai :)

I thought he would throw a huge fit if someone made fun of him..but he was totally cool. Gau called him motta boss and he casually called him "mutta gos" and walked away. It was hilarious :D

 

Back home now. Kids were very unhappy to leave chennai and i am too. Now we are back to u.s. and back to routine life...How boring!

December 2011

Bad Start to the month : 

 

My chittappa passed away last week and i was upset. AJ asked me why i was upset and i said my chittappa went to to ummachi and he immediately asked did he have water in his lungs too, like sridhar. i was stunned. Dont know when he listened to this and i was surprised how he related it to my appa immediately.

 

 

Ja adore tu

Just to show off my very little french knowledge, i told the kids i know French and said Ja adore tu. They asked me what it meant and i said it is something i tell you all the time and Ashu goes "Is it, do your homework?" and Ajay goes " Is it stop troubling me?". Note to self : I really need to say Ja adore tu more often than those two sentences. But atleast i got a little consolation when i said it is "I love you" and they both said, yeah you do say that often :) 

 

 

4-H

 

Ashu got selected for county level 4H - a public speaking contest. All kids who score above 90 get selected for county level. He troubled me so much to prepare, as usual though..And was mad at me for all the inputs, but when i went to pick him up..he came out holding his ribbon and said thanks ;-)

That's his way of apologizing for troubling me i guess :D

Bartering : 

Ashu's school had bartering day where the kids were allowed to bring few small things and exchange with the things that the other kids got. Ashu offered ajay taht he could take something from him and get something for him also. Ajay gave two small cars that he never played with. 

Only because he did not like those. And i guess he was expecting something great in return. :D When ashu got back he gave him a small sticky mouse that you can throw on a glassy surface and it will stick to it. And a cookie and another small car for him. Ashu got himself pokemon collection cards.

AJ threw a fit and took half of the pokemon cards! Poor Ashu got so fed up and gave it to him! 

Why this kolaveri?!

The latest "hit" song why this kolaveri has caught on to aj too. He keeps singing that line and pa paan pa paan all the time and then he asked me amma is this song about temple? I said no and asked him why..he said it says kolaveri...isn't it temple! He got totally confused with kovil and kolaveri. Hope he doesn't speak in tamil in chennai and get dharma adi!

That reminds me..i was asking them to speak in tamil and aj asked me to teach english to the paatis since that will be easier! :) Good point! but anyways, i forced them to speak in tamil and they were really murdering tamil (Esp. aj) and all of a sudden i was singing uppita tamizharai naan marakka maaten and both asked me what it meant and i said uppu means salt and asked them if they knew what tamizhar meant and ashu said pepper and aj said sugar!! *Banging my head*

then again another day i said aj you have to say something in tamil if you need this and ajay said "un peyar enna?" which is the only thing he says whenever i ask him to speak in tamil and gave him one stare and said say something else and he said "En peyar enna"?!! 

Nov 2011 - Funnies

Counting sheep! 

AJ kept troubling me saying that he cant goto sleep and i told him to count from 1 to 1000 and went to do the dishes. He was behind me in few seconds and was making "grrr" sound. I asked him what and he said, "if i have to count till 1000 i will become a grandparent, can you suggest a better idea?!" :D

Troubled/Troublesome?

I didnt goto sunday school with them one day as i had too much work. I asked B to take them and AJ said "Mommy, are you sure you dont watn to come? I will feel so troubled without you" and AShu says " You will feel troubled? Others will be troubled without mommy coming with you"! LOL!

Nov 2011

Birthday party! 

For his mama's birthday, aj wanted to go to india and celebrate it right away! and he got mad at me for not taking him to his mama's party! :D When mama asked him what he got for his birthday he generously said "Pokemon cards" (that belong to ashu!!)

I told B that we need to make sure we highlight Ashu's name in bold, italics, double quotes and what not..in our will :) 

Thankful for self! 

For thanksgiving AJ had written, " I am thankful for my brother, my dad, my mom and myself" :) Ofcourse seeing brother on the top of the list melted the big brother's heart (for few minutes!) 

Generosity!!

I got my new iphone 4S and AJ had been waiting longer for it than me because he got to play cut the rope at my friend L's place and unfortunately it was not available for android..well the free version and i didn't order the full version because i knew i was gonna switch to iphone. So, as soon as my phone came they used it to the heart's content before i even figured anything out! Ashu downloaded HP spells and AJ cut the rope! And then he made some bad choices the next day - he was talking back and in general not listening to anything i said. So, i refused to give him my phone and he said, mommy i am sorry, can i please have your phone. i said no and he said he would give his piggy bank to me and i can take all the money from it. I couldn't stop laughing, but i said, but you don't have that much savings anyway so i dont want it. And he generously says "You have mine + Ashu's savings - all of it, if you give me  your phone". Now that is an offer because Ashu is good at saving and has a decent money in his piggy bank ;-) I told Ashu that AJ offered his savings + ashu's to get the phone from me to play CTR and the look on Ashu's face was priceless. ROFL!

Parent Teacher one/one for both the boys :

They both made us proud!!

Ashu : Ashu's school they have groups based on the level of the students in each subject. Teacher said he is in the highest group for all the subjects and is quite happy with him. She said that there is very limited number of students that go for gifted program and Ashu didn't make it to the gifted program yet, by a tad difference in aggregate marks (they consider tcap scores from prev. year + initial assessments for this year) and she is going to give him additional assignments and take it to the gifted teacher and show that he should be in gifted program. hope that works out :)

She said that she likes Ashu particularly because he takes his studies very seriously, but when it comes to recess he is a typical kid out there. She gave me an example that when she did spelling test, he was making some careless mistakes and even though she knew he could move to the next level, she kept him in the same level and he kept asking her what he needs to do to move to next level :) She said she hasn't seen many kids who cared this much about the levels :)

AJ : is idenitified as gifted child too and is being given more challenging work. Ofcourse AJ's school being a private school, they don't have a separate gifted program and they just give additional work to him. They are doing Kindergarten level work with him already and said they will move to the next level when they feel he is ready. His teachers are pretty stunned at his reading level and also math :D

AJ-ism

A brilliant question : 

Aj asked me amma what is the difference between a truthful person and a liar. I said a truthful person will never lie and a liar will lie all the time. He said.."Wrong! A truthful person will lie only when he goes to sleep and the liar will lie through out the day till he goes to sleep" 

Monopoly: Ashu got monopoly as a gift from V aunty for his birthday. We played it one day and boy AJ could beat our ex-tenant Rex in rent problems! When he has to pay the rent to us, he would just say no and say it is not fair that we keep asking him money, but when we reached one of his squares he would snatch the money from us promptly! If i ever come to know that our ex-tenant Rex buys a house i am sending AJ as his tenant and take revenge!!

Oct 2011

SanFrancisco : 

B had to goto SFO on a business trip. Aj cried the evening B left to Sanfranciso and when he called he said, next time make sure you take your wife and the kids! :) LOL! 

Knowledge : 

AJ  keeps going to school late whenever B is not in town. I have a meeting at 8 and i need to get him ready before that, but he stalls and stalls and somehow we were 10 mins late everyday. I got frustrated and said AJ if you continue to be late like this they will stop you from school and you will have to watch the buffalos and cows that your dad will buy for you.  That means you will stop gaining knowledge and he goes " No..if i watch the cows and buffalos and try to find if they have horns or not, that means i am gaining knowledge" Case closed! 

Tooth problem :

A week back Aj saw my mil's dentures in the bathroom and asked Ashu what it was. That's when Ashu noticed it and explained to AJ what dentures are and why it is needed. 

After two days, i had terrible tooth ache and had to have a root canal. After root canal, i had severe pain and had tears in my eyes. Ashu was terrified,i guess. When B called from SFO he said :DAddy, please take me to the dentist as soon as you come. We haven't visited the dentist in a year. I neither want a root canal or even worse the dentures. ROFL 

Stale Mate : 

Ashu lost the first match at chess club and then next week he lost again and said GRR i am so mad i end up playing with the same kid every week and he ends up winning and he's older than me so it's not fair. Then this week he had a stale mate and was quite pleased with himself and said atleast it's better than losing :) 

He also wants to become like Vishy Anand (Thats how he refers to Vishwanathan Anand). I told him the story of Anand winning all the t.v contests about chess and they called and said you come and take whatever books you want, but please give other children a chance to win :) He was super impressed and now the little dude is impressed too and they both want to become like Vishy! :D

Golu:

 

 

On sat, i went to couple of friends' house for tamboolam and it was both good. I left ashu with his friend H and took only Aj. Aj was pretty upset that i took him to girls houses only. Next day he was even more shocked when i invited my friends for tamboolam. LOL! He was fighting for men's rights!! Kaalam maari pochu!!  He said i need to find something for men to celebrate!!

Sep 2011

Not much updates this month. It was just so hectic getting back to a routine. Ashu started his chess club again and Ajay is getting back into routine as well. I have signed him up for keyboard classes at school along with abrakadoodle. Will sign him up for tumbling when they start it back in October.

 

None of the extra curricular classes have started yet for Ashu except Chess. Will decide what he will be doing once we get the announcements. Apart from the school activities, i am thinking of enrolling him in guitar as he has been asking since the school started.

 

Sunday school started and is in full swing. This time it is little more organized than previous year and am happy about it :)

 

Since Ashu was sick during his birthday week and also the weekend being a long weekend, we decided to skip the party and went with his idea and took him and his friends to watch smurfs. Before that, we took them to chuck-e-cheese for lunch and they didnt want to eat obviously. So, B came up with a trick. We first gave them few coins each and when they were done we said whoever has a slice of pizza will get some more coins and made the kids eat even more than what they normally eat :) They had a blast. After lunch we watched Smurfs. Cute and funny movie. all the kids loved it. The kids were good overall and troubled me only when i was driving. My car had 5 kids and lucky B had only 3 kids in his car. I really thought i would become deaf that day and luckily i can still hear :) They were loud as it is and one kid started with who can scream the loudest contest :-O  Poor Me!! Ashu said this was the best birthday celeb ever..Well, he says that every year anyways ;-)

Happy 9th Ashu :)

Ashu turns 9 today! As i always say it's bittersweet as they grow. Where is the baby ashu? Well, he will always be our baby and that's different. :-)

I still remember what a rowdy Ashu used to be till he was 2. Then he started changing. He got more into reading and less into the rowdiness :) He is now a full fledged book worm. You give him a book and he is the happiest kid in the world. It's nice to see him that way and there are times where it pushes the wrong buttons as i dont see him do anything else :-) I have to push him to get active and get out and play. Given a choice he would rather bury his nose in a book.

He is turning into a fine gentleman with a very generous and soft heart. Sometimes i worry that people may take him for a ride and i teach him the importance of assertiveness. Haven't seen him be very assertive, but i think it'll slowly sync in.

He is a loving elder brother and takes good care of his brother to the extent where the little brother gets annoyed and it ends up in a fight. He helps me with some chores too.

I wish him happiness always and many more to come :)

Aug 2011

Llama Llamas acting in a drama!!

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I signed up both the kids to act in a panchatantra tale "Tiger and the brahmin". D called me and asked if they would be interested and asked if ashu can do the brahmin role. He said, "I am a brahmin, so i am the right person to act as a brahmin" and agreed to it immediately. Then, when she sent the script he wasn't too happy. Brahmin character was throughout the script with too many dialogs. lol.

 

AJ is elephant. the original plan is for him to just stand there and the narrator would say the lines, bue when Ashu was practising his lines AJ just learnt his and surprised everyone :)

 

1-Aug-2011

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AJ got his first certificate in Kumon and he said "Boy, i am so happy..i have been waiting for ever for a certificate :)" Ashu got two already and close to getting his third..but, with little kids they take tests in parts..so it takes more time and he was really worried about not getting one.

 

2- Aug- 2011

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Took Aj for his well care checkup - almost 6 months overdue!! Had it postponed so many times due to something or the other. Last time i postponed because of Aj's fieldtrip and his teacher was asking me if i could postpone since it was a fun trip for the kids. So today when we went late and i told her i had been to the doctor she asked oh is it the one we asked you to postpone and i was quite surprised that she remembered. i didnt even remember i had to postpone because of that. First they poked his blood for bloodtest and aj whispered in my ears that i should never bring him there again..and then the doc gave him a sucker and he was all happy and said he liked that place after all! His doc is real fun. She knows how to talk to kids and made him feel at ease. She asked him to sing a song and he sang abcd and then she asked him to count with fingers and he started counting till 4 and started singing abc again!!

so much attachment to that song...then she asked him to draw mommy and he drew a big square and i was wondering if he's thinking i am that fat and then he drew a thin lady inside it and put a roof on top of the square. Phew! she asked what mommy does in the house and he said she walks around all the time :) I remember when Ashu was 4, he said i do dishes all the time! Thank God neither said i keep yelling 24/7!! 

 

The doctor said that he is way above average for height and average in weight, but when they take the height weight ratio he is really underweight :( I wasn't surprised though. I told her what a fussy eater he was and she gave him some advice. AJ didnt open his mouth. When i came out and asked him if he heard what she said about eating. He said, "Nope"!

 

29-Aug-2011

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Aj got his distinction honor roll cert in Kumon :)