Time travel

Was browsing through old posts on the blog to see what we did for Varalakshmi Vratham week and also to check on my mother's theory that every Aavaniavittam week I have been sick.

Two things came out of that browsing..

1. My mom is right. No surprises there! Retired school teacher that she is, really no surprises there. . . 

2. We are very consistant in our way of handling mid August.

There has been a photo shoot of the kids every year since the little one was born! 

Made a collage of those photos from 2006 to 2013 

Click for a larger version.. 

One photo, so many memories!

Baby photos? Not anymore...

One house tradition here is that we see "baby photos" from the archives once a week before bedtime to tell stories of how things were during those good old days when Jr. or little one were teeny and tiny!

The babies are growing up fast!

Here are some photos from a backyard photo session this week.

here is one where she didn't know the camera was still rolling.. 

Jr. is a big girl now, almost as tall as her mom and the same shoe size. She is making a claim for some of mom's dresses like the pretty frocks and that was tolerated.. Now she started touching the Jewelry and tensions in the house are high!  You want to mess with the Sheik, fine.. but taking those oil wells.. you have crossed the line mister! ... something along those lines... tension!

She looks exactly like my sister at the same age.. This week I accidentally called her by my sister's name and Jr. was giving me the "What the hell?" look. Had to explain to her that for a few seconds it was like my sister was standing in front of me.. frozen in the eighties. She even stands with her toes bent weird!

Worked very hard to make her smile with lips open but this is the best we got. She is still conscious of the braces. Hopefully those come out soon and we can have Jr. smile like she used to without being conscious of anything.. 

Well, another week has rolled by and I learned a lot this week.. some stuff at work, human relations, cooking, dealing with tweens.. etc. etc. 

Planning to teach them both how to "code" at home using some online guides and free ware. If you have any recommendations for materials or tutorials to help introduce "coding" to kids, please let me know. Was watching a Youtube video where this guy Chamath was being interviewed and he was right on. Teach your kids how to code if you want them to have a nice future! 

Java is going to be the Yajur Veda for Jr. and the little one. Maybe I should turn Java into a hymn for easy memorization and make them sing it?! Yet again, the brain is getting all funky on me.. should go eat something and slap myself back to reality...

Memories..

BIL sent me an old picture while cleaning up his stuff from 2008.. 

It was a keeper! While the background distracts you, the smile on our faces is priceless!

Spent a few minutes in CS5 to get this one.. 

Wish to bundle her up like that now! 

See what I mean by they are growing up sooo fast?!

Thanks to my BIL for saving old pictures. Have purchased a negative scanner as my Christmas gift, thanks to Costcos 24 deals of Christmas in 24 days.. Have literally 1000's of negatives from 1989 to 2002 in India and in my closet. Can scan a lot of those before the film starts to decay! That should be a fun Christmas project to try and set up.

All grown up

Came back home this afternoon to find the kids all dressed up and ready to go to a function at a friends place.

Another one of those moments where it dawns on you that the kids are growing up and growing up fast.

Too fast for my liking that is. Wish I could freeze frame them the way they are!

Growing up and Growing old

On a cheeky note, we all grow older at the rate of one year per annum but we grow up at different rates...

Case in point, the 25 something crowd of more than 20 guys who happened to be in the theater last night for a show of "Mayakkam Enna". Had gone to watch the evening show with Balaji last night and it was a full house.

Mayakkam Enna (you can watch trailer here) is a movie by Selvaraghavan with his brother Dhanush as the hero. If you thought this was some feel good, masala romance movie that targets the twenty something youth, you may be mistaken.

It is a visceral movie about a group of friends growing up and growing old based on the circumstances they face in life. Some deal with the hand they are dealt with courage and conviction while others simply struggle to pick up the pieces. Selvaraghavan does a fantastic job of creating vivid images of the characters with all their idiosyncrasies and Dhanush stands out as an actor. The heroine steals the show throughout the movie. A first timer to Tamil movies, this girl can act.

It is a treat to watch a heroine in a Tamil movie get a chance to show her acting skills as opposed to just showing herself for a change.

Went to the movie without knowing anything about the movie. Had not heard about the storyline, the cast, nothing. Just that Sangeetha watched it the previous night and said "you will like this movie because there is a lot of good photography in the movie".

Came out loving it. Sad part was that the crowd of guys totally spoiled the movie going experience. They simply could not handle the serious scenes and would start making loud ridiculous comments to the whole theater which was not much different from little kids who act out to crave attention.

Was telling Balaji that one needs to be a husband and or a parent to understand "the growing up" aspect of life and clearly this crowd was not ready for it.

This movie was 80% tragedy, 20% happy go lucky and another bonus 10% if you managed to connect the dots between the two.

A must watch for a mature audience!

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