Six becomes eight

If you have been following me having fun with Photoshop.. kind of reached the limit on the last two.

Redid the one with six kids.. which translates to "spent another 15 minutes on this one to perfect edges and blemishes you can catch when zoomed to the max" 

and got this one with me in it. The third set of three was unusable. There was simply not enough room in the couch to seat 9 of us!

That one kind of almost got out of hand because the white balance on the two shots got messed up. Not because of the camera setting but because the sun moved outside the window in the 30 minutes between dress up sessions. Took me a good 30 minutes to try and match colors on my face to the closest and then merge the raw images. 

Bottomline? "It is difficult but doable! and if you can spend even more time it would have been posible to match the tones on the two versions of me".

On a funny note the kids have been going through an emotional upheaval of sorts. They miss their mom but don't know how to express it..

This morning though a funny thing happened. The little one woke up and said "Daddy, I had a nightmare. Thought mommy is back already!"

Me "don't you mean a dream.. not nightmare?" 

She didn't get the difference for some reason. She breaks out into tears for no reason and slams the door in anger at her grandparents, again for no reason! Later this evening she admitted "I miss mommy!" 

A minute later she says "But... BUT, I get to sleep in your bed from the beginning.. I have been planning that since mommy told me she was going to India!"

So for now, she is happy to sleep on my arm.

We are finally done with the Navrathri rounds tonight! 

Double trouble

San is in India. The kids are bored.. we can explain.

Have been doing the dressing up the kids and taking them to visit Navrathri golu routine since Friday evening and so far we are on schedule!

There will be a post with all the Golu Photos in a gallery in a couple of days.

Yesterday while visiting a golu, the kids were asked "So how is life without Amma being around?" and the answer was very short..

"Fun!"

There was shock all around at the answer.

Then the little one went on to explain the logic. "When amma is around, she keeps giving us chores to do and keeps telling us what to do all the time. Now that she is not there, we are not all the time being told to do this and do that. So it is fun, but it is also boring! So we miss Amma"

A couple of things to learn from this :

All of San's screamings have been providing pure entertainment value for the kids. So she might as well stop.

As for me, not telling them what to do is not exactly interesting. I am boring. So it is time for me to give them chores...

This morning we had an idea to take photographs of them in their different paavadais in one shot.. They are both protesting on the value of three dress changes for a 30 minute photoshop! In the meantime, I wanted to see how the concept will work. So while they were fighting on the couch, fired a few snaps and merged them.. 

It seems to work pretty well.

Let us see if we can sit 9 people on this couch without an overlap...

A picture is worth... a short play!

Every year Jr. brings this school portrait picture request from school. It is "attractively" priced at anywhere from 28 to 100$ depending on the package.. attractively for the kids that is! 

The photographer in me is never happy with the pictures and the CFO at home says "Didn't we fund all that expensive camera equipment? No way we need to pay for any pictures!" 

This year when Jr. got me the form and envelope told her "how many times have we gone through this? I am not even going to have this conversation. You can have this one with yourself. Face me and act like you. Then face the other way and tell yourself what daddy will say in response and be done with it!"

She thought it was actually a great idea and humored us with the little one edging her on.

The result is..

she did pretty good. At the end she tossed the form and now she gets to spend 14 or 28$ at Target.. depending on if the little one also co-operates and doesn't insist on a school portrait! 

Next year, we do not even have to do this play. We can just review this video. 

Life just gets simpler every year!!!

Creativity to compensate

If you read the previous post on the almost forgotten Tamil, tonight promised more fun.

I ask Jr. "What is the Tamil word for Squirrel?"

She goes into thinking mode, taps her finger to her lips a few times and goes 

"Is it Mara Eli?" 

Burst out laughing. Maram is tree in Tamil. Eli is rat. She called it a Tree Rat. Do not know how she gets this.

The sad thing is that the little one knew the answer to be "Anil" for squirrel.

That answer made me sad first but made me smile a second later.

Sad because Apple : English :: Anil : Tamil

In Tamil you teach the vowels first and it goes a, aa, e, ee.. and the first picture in every Tamil book ? 

A is for Anil ! So the fact that it escaped Jr. is sad.

But my sadness gave way to a smile because it takes a very imaginative kid to go all the way and connect the words for tree and rat and make a creative name for another "rodent?" that climbs trees.. So the imaginative streak make me feel very proud! 

I could not have thought of a Squirrel as a Tree Rat in a million years!

We play a new gave now at bedtime. Anything that anyone has to say to the other two people has to be said in Tamil.. It was hilarious. They actually made an effort and were really good at it too getting creative on using their imagination to compensate for their vocabulary!

Next thing we know.. we will be back to bear and animal stories.. (you have to watch the last few seconds of the first video on this old post to get the reference!)

They never cease to amaze!

Almost forgotten..

This year we did not put the kids in Tamil school. The 2 plus hour time commit every sunday, not to mention the 5+ hours spent by San for preparing them for exams and such were simply out of reach even by thought in August. Why?

At that time it was a very likely possibility that yours truly would be traveling to Austin more frequently this Tamil School year. That concept came to an untimely end, but nevertheless it seems to have been a wise move. What with grand parents being around and our ability to take them to visit local places on Sunday, me going to Yoga Sunday morning to compensate for all the absenteeism during weekdays, long bike rides with kids on Sunday mornings after yoga class.. it has definitely been a plus getting those two hours back on Sunday.

However.. there is a big however here.. The kids have almost forgotten everything they learned in the last three years of Tamil school in less than three months. One would think that the grandparents being physically here and all what with them talking exclusively in Tamil with the kids and between themselves, their proficicency in the spoken language would improve! Not really. 

Apparently the little one overheard grandma betting with Sangeetha "give me one month and will make her talk to me in Tamil".. so she takes this up as a personal challenge of sorts and tells herself "give me one month and I will make granda talk to me in English".

So we are now 4/12 months into my parents 5 1/2 month trip and Grandma is exclusively talking to grand daughter in English. The little one came and bragged to me at bedtime last week "You know. Grandma thought she was going to make me talk in Tamil. Guess who is talking in English now?"

Told her "Shame on you. Grandma knows English and Tamil. She taught English and is a school teacher. You have forgotten Tamil. This is not a challenge. She said it as a wish". Somehow my little beration didn't make any impact and was promptly brushed aside as "rantings from a patriarch not worth giving a damn" and off she went to watching some more Phineas and Ferb on youtube.

So the last one week has seen a revival of the bedtime Tamil Quiz. We sure had some fun early rounds with the kids making up imaginary words when asked to translate words from English to Tamil.  

Asked the little one what is the word for Wheel?

She goes "Is it tayaru?"

We all burst out laughing. Told her Tyre is an English word even if spoken in this house with a Tamil accent. 

Even Jr. starts forgetting things and when I ask her what is for Clouds she goes "Vaanam panju?" (Cloud cotton?). Seriously didn't know at that point if I should laugh or cry.

We have now covered all animals, birds, fruits, vegetables, landforms and everyday objects around the house. 

The bedtime crash course is in full swing. They also seem to have lost the abiltiy to identify any Carnatic music ragas. They could identify 20+ last year. Now it is down to random guessing.  

Lot of work ahead.... but bedtime is becoming a laugh riot!