The time, it keeps on flying..

As a person who skipped Kindergarten completely and went to first grade at the age of 4, the whole hoopla about a pre-Kindergarten graduation ceremony for Jr. sounded crazy!

Graduation party ? For graduating from what ? Playing in the yard ?

Add to that the timing of the party at 10:30 in the morning on a weekday, there was no way I was attending the ceremony. Jr. came and gave me the extra special hug and kiss and practically begged me to come. I still had to disappoint. San however relented and went for an hour. Apparently the ceremony was a huge success. All the parents were teary eyed that their little ones were now graduating from the daycare and moving on to different schools to attend KG.

In a way, I guess it is fitting to have some kind of graduation, because making it through all that playing in the yard, knowing your ABC's and 123's is an accomplishment by itself. All that hype with the gowns, tassels and caps are a little too much, but maybe even that is for the better ! They get used to the graduation ceremony concept at an young age.

The only problem was that San took the old S30 to take pictures.
San suffers from a not so rare disease called newmachineophobia where the symptoms are :
initial fear of touching new machine
expectation of extensive hand holding in terms of using said machine
learning to love the machine
hogging the machine
forgeting that they actually were afraid of the machine at one time
declaring that they always were okay with the machine

The beauty of this disease is that it cures itself. We have seen her go through this with the car, the van, new DVD players, cameras, camcorders, etc. Now she is going through it with the new Canon EOS! So she took the S30, which failed to open its shutters during the ceremony! Now we are waiting for photos from cameras of the other parents who were present, so I can get glimpses of what happened at the ceremony.

To compensate, I took a photograph of the little one with her hat..

Now, that is something to get all teary eyed! My little baby is all grown up..

In other news, this blog graduates after its second year and on to its third! Let us see if can go on for another year!

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Adai for Tiffin ?

An evening conversation after father's day celebration at the daycare between Jr. and me.

Me: didn't you say you were hungry at the function ? Daddy is going to make some Adai (south Indian crepe made from Lentil flour, red chilis and curry leaves). Do you want some ?

Jr. : Yes daddy.

Me : Here you go (and I give her a piece)

Jr.: This is so voraikkardhu (hot and spicy). I don't want it.

Me : (after tasting it) No, it is not! You have to eat at least one.

Jr.: No, I DONT WANT IT.

At this point I decided that the usual coaxing, cajoling, threatening etc. will not work. So I decided to take the same batter for 1 Adai and made 4-5 little adai's. They looked cute.

Me : I have a surprise for you. Come to the kitchen and see what I have made.

Jr. : (looks at it)You made baby adai's for me !? Give me one.

San who was busy feeding the little one, came back and was very impressed that I managed to get something inside Jr.

That "#1 DAD" medal that Jr. put around my neck at the daycare function.. I think I earned it!

:)

Happy Daddy's day

To

Daddy

From

Jr.

Sub : Happy daddy's day.

Dear Daddy,

Have a wonderful Father's day. I know you were invited to my daycare for Fathers day function. That too on Friday evening at 4:00. I know you will have to miss the weekend last minute planning meetings and come, which also means your phone will ring friday night and over the weekend and mommy will do "Pilliar eyes" at you all weekend. Thanks for coming!

This year I am surprising you, again! I know how you are really happy with whatever I give you on father's day and act surprised and give me a big hug and a kiss. I have given you trinkets made from paper bits, pieces of cloth left over in the tailors shop, ice cream sticks, old pepsi bottle lids, and things that look like they were picked from the street by my teachers who are hell bent on teaching me valuable subjects like economics at this young age. I also know that you really liked the ice cream stick "I love you daddy" tag I gave you two years ago and display it on the rearview mirror, but the rest of my gifts are nowhere to be found!

This year I am giving you the "#1 Dad" medal. I know you like this one too. You were wearing it even after you came home! But as an additional surprise, here is what I have done with my teachers. We have a brand new mousepad for you with my portrait on it!! Now, now. Stop crying. I don't know if you are really touched by my going the extra mile, or if you are shedding tears for the fact that this daycare actually shelled out money for a gift! Either way, I am happy for you. Now you can finally show your co-workers that you got a commercialized product for a Father's day gift that stands up to those coffee mugs, photo frames, etc. that you will see tomorrow. I know daddy. I know. We live in America.

I give you my usual love and you are still the best!

Love

Jr.

ps. I have another surprise for you. I have taught the little one to say "de da, ove you". I was actually going for "Daddy, I love you", but it is a question of time before she gets the "I" and the "L".

pps. Mommy thinks you are expecting too much. You can't seriously expect to start "onnu vitta mama's rendu vitta marumaan day" just based on the gift potential.

---

From

Daddy

To

Jr.

Sub : Thank you

Dear Jr.,

I actually always love the time and effort you put into the father's day gift. All these things don't really matter. I love you all the same. You already know that you girls have me wrapped around your finger, and you put that knowledge to good use! When I was a kid we never even knew about a special day for father's or mother's. We knew childrens day was November 14th and that too because it was more of Nehru thatha's birthday than anything else. For us every day was father's day. We "paduththied" daddy all the same, on father's day or on any other day. You do the same.

Keep the trinkets coming. Who knows, at this rate, I might actually talk to your teachers on suggestions for next years gift. I also have to go find out if mommy bankrolled the mousepad and is not telling me.

You are a darling.

Love,

Daddy.

Ps. you are doing some great work with your little sister in building her vocabulary. I can also see that you have some strange hypnotic hold over her and see listens to you more than she listens to me. Please remember, we are a team. We are counting on your new powers to help the family.

pps. Mommy tells me that she had nothing to do with the mousepad. I am really impressed wih your daycare now! I will ask for a USB drive with your photo on it for next year's gift. I was not serious when I came up with the other relative's days. It was just to make a point with mommy.

---

From

The #1 Daddy

To

All daddy's out there (with or without the medal)!

Happy father's day!

Sundar.

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A day in the life of Jr. and baby...

Decided to go eat with friends at the famous "Yan Can Cook" restaurant. As fate would have it, there was some ingredient in the yummy stuff that I was allergic to, and ended up sick on friday night. That meant, spending some quiet time at home with the kids and keeping a low profile (not to mention the two birthday parties attended over the weekend)!

They were up to their usual antics..

In other news, the canon S30 has reached its limit. After making it through steam and sulfur at Yellowstone, even daylight images are getting grainy! (the fringes you see in the video however are not due to the S30, they are due to the insect screen on the sliding door!).

In other other news, San is getting me a new camera for our wedding day!

To all those (you know who you are) who have recently gifted digital cameras to your spouse for various occasions like anniversary's, birthdays, fathers day etc. thank you, thank you, thank you!!!

Needless to say, you will hear all about the new camera. I can't wait to open that box!!

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Flying with kids..

In a recent post on kids travelling under constraints, a couple of links were pointed out to me by s.b. These links were good, really good!

Here is how we manage the kids during our flights. We do not let them float in the aisle. We did have two other kids walking up and down on their own constantly, during our last flight. One of the kids actually stopped by for almost 20 minutes near our seat and I was holding his hand so that he wont fall down. Eventually his mom came and took him back to the seat! We do let the little one out of her seat, but she is confined to our row, and sometimes I carry her up and down the plane.

We do not let them open the door hatch! Jr. is entertained extremely well by San and her mom, by teaching all kinds of grandma games on the flight!

This one is Dosai amma Dosai! (Dosa is a south Indian Crepe and amma is mommy).

It goes

Dosai amma dosai
arisi maavum ulutha maavum kalandhu potta dosai
ammavukku 4
appavukku 3
baby-kku 2
Jr. ukku 1
suda suda suttu
neiyla thottu
vayaru romba saapidalam!

(translation)

Dosa mommy Dosa
crepe made by mixing rice flour and lentil flour
mommy gets 4
daddy gets 3
baby gets 2
I get 1
hot hot and fresh
clarified butter dipped
lets eat till our stomach is full!

This goes on for 15 minutes before they switch to ice-cream soda!! Or I play "find that word on this page" with the in-flight magazine.

Point is, our kids are equally cranky, but we deal with a lot less negativity.

I have been thinking of starting a kid friendly airlines!!

1. I will have wide aisles for kids to run around
2. the walls will be painted with Disney , Sesame street, Barney, Dora characters.
3. I will hire daycare teacher turned air-hostesses or air-hostesses turned daycare teachers only!
4. Will not have any carbonated or sugary drinks on the flight that would make the kids hyper.
5. There will be little tables in the middle of the plane and little kid chairs where they can draw, paint etc., once the seat belt sign is removed!
6. There will be music and videos for the kids to be distracted.
7. There will be little beds for them to sleep comfortably instead of trying to lie down horizontally between daddy and mommy with those annoying arm rests pulled up halfway!
8. All adults who board will be asked a few extra questions.
a. do you like kids ?
b. did you let your kids put things in your bag without your knowledge ?
c. do you think kids should be allowed to travel on planes ?
a "NO" answer for any question will promptly trigger a cavity search by airport security and they will not be allowed to board the plane.
9. Instead of the pathetic paper barf bags, there will be a button next to the seat marked "V" which automatically drops a bucket from the top compartment. That way you can save yourself an inflight shirt change!
10. there will be a diaper change area and some special diaper trash containers. Have you ever tried pushing a full diaper into the small rectangle which says "trash" on local flights?

I have a lot more ideas for this plan, but don't want to get carried away! Damn, I already thought way too much about this. Now all I need is some nice billionaire to loan me some money to start Babiaire / Littlewings or Kidsfly Airlines!

Hope this inspires some other parents to control their kids during flights!

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