Another year rolls by fast. The usual "IBM Childrens party" is enjoyed by the family. The kids and San dress up and Daddy Narayanan wears the same sweater yet again for the 7th year in a row for this party. Given that this is his only sweater, that is no surprise!
The kids have this routine down nicely to the point where they know which lines are easy to get to and which ones need strategy. Feels like we are doing Fastpass lines in Disney at times, the way they race back and forths..
As usual, here are pictures..
Well, that was a picture of a picture. The original is one of our best Santa Photos and is definitely going on a frame!
Jr. picked an angel with a Halo
The little one picked a Reindeer. It came with a Jewel.. and her mole on the cheek nicely blended in as a spot on the reindeer!
This year, we went to BigAl yet again and he looks at me and goes "How many years is it, this time?" and I said "7 in a row!". The line at the Caricature stands are long and usually you have to go to the next artist open. Thanks to this blog and the pictures, I pull up the previous years collage, show it to the Organizers and go "Can you please let us go to BigAl? The first two years was coincidence. The next four was not.. Please ?!" and they warm up to us and go "fine! we will let you wait for BigAl"
Jr. saw this and went "Are we using this like the ruler on the wall to see how we are growing up?! That is crazy!"
Merry Christmas and a wonderful holiday to all of you!
Recently we visited Seattle for my nieces first birthday celebration. There was a formal Hindu ceremony followed by a Western style birthday party with a cake cutting. There was a short break and the birthday girl got her head shaved off and her ears pierced!
What shocked me was that when we went to the local hair salon, we were told that they are banned by law from using a razor to shave off the scalp of the baby! In India we do not cut the hair for the baby and the first haircut is a shave, usually done in a temple that they family prays to. There is a lot of goodness in doing this. The hair grows thicker when you are a kid and we are told that this is a tradition that dates back thousands of years.
Pretty sure some western scientists would have "studied" this in their way to come to a conclusion on hair growth rate, density, eventual impact on long term hair loss, does this apply to male pattern baldness etc. etc. Many Ph.D's have possibly been generated, for all we know!
Why ban this is beyond me! The birthday girl brought back so many memories for me as she looks a lot like our little ones, especially Jr. when she was the same age!
The photographs below are Jr. at 10 months, the little one at 8 months, my niece on her first birthday all on the day of their Mottai's !
They are all soo adorable! Sometimes I wish to bottle up my kids and freeze them at that age.
At least we have the old photos and videos to replay those moments and enjoy!
Here are some of the old and new photos..
Jr's mottai in Gunaseelam Temple near Trichy in Tamil Nadu 2003! We had gone there as a family to pray there after my brother's wedding. She is sitting on his lap and my dad was very happy that his kids were all there in one place after many years!
Look at the size of the mosquito bites on Jr.! That was and is her only complaint when we mention "India trip"!
The little one had two.. one here at 8 months and one in India in the summer vacation when she was five!
The first one was a shave but not with a razor everywhere. I did it for her after the hair salon did a #1 cut. We did put the hair in the temple almost five years later. The thing sat in a ziploc bag for all those years!
The second time she was the star of the show.
This is something that all kids get, both girls and boys. The boys more often.. I remember my brother and myself getting head shaved off 4 times when we were little kids, almost every alternate year! Here is a picture on one of those India trips where my nephew is sporting "the look". The kids were all troubling me that day for a pose!
Now to the latest diva, my niece!
She was amazing. Sat there so peacefully and watched her hair fall. Think she was relieved to see it go!
and here she is with Jr. after she got the earring!
The little one wants a second set of earings after watching her cousin get new earings..
We are now searching for an old photo where my father, me, my brother and sister are all sporting a clean shaved head after a temple visit! Will post it if we find it...
The second week of June is the most anticipated week for me.
It involves three things..
1. Kids graduation from school.. or like we used to say when we were kids "last day of school"!
2. Father's day
3. Our wedding anniversary
We did the last day of school on Wednesday and it was special this year because Jr. finished Elementary school and moves to middle school next year.
This also marks a huge gap when the two girls will be in the same school. In the US we have 6th to 8th grade as Middle school and 9th to 12th grade as high school. In three years when the little one goes to middle school, Jr. will already be moving out of that school to high school.
The last year of school for Jr. will be the next time they are both in same school and that is 6 years away. So we are back to two pickups, two drop offs and different school timings etc. Our hope is that Jr. becomes more responsible and starts walking or biking to middle school!
Now.. Father's day is always nice. My kids give me the extra huggies and kissies and this year I already have my gifts. The school has a limit to creativity (and budget) for the father's day gifts. So guess what the little one gave me?
Same Frog! well, it does not seem to have any storage value given the small mouth but the little one tells me it is a paperclip holder.. Well, now my office will have two frog paperclip holders! Funny thing is I wont know who made what because they both have the same initials and they both were in Room 12 for 2nd Grade!
(Note for posterity : one on left is Little One, right is Jr's)
They also make me nice cards which really make my day! This year they put a lot of effort into it and was really happy to read /see what they gave me..
I did not get the boat and the caption first..
till she told me that I had to flip the flags over to see which my "Jobs" were!
As you can clearly see, my jobs are all non critical functions which involve the fishes and plants. In other words, I am a "Uppukku chappani" or the twelveth man in a cricket team. Nevertheless, yours truly is happy to play any role as part of the crew!
The letter was clear but "What in Perumal's name is a woodly?" I asked and the reply was :
Daddy, I really wanted to say "you are cuddly like my cuddle bear, but what can I do?! There is no C in AWESOME! so I changed the W to say Woodly instead of Cuddly!" . While the concept is baffling to me, the way she said it in all seriousness with her hands waving wildly will stay in my mind forever.
Next was Jr's turn and she gave me this nice heart and card to put in my office!
She painstakingly created the logos for the Yoga studio, my work etc and put them there. The cartoon of me on a yoga mat with a small water bottle cracked me up!
They have both promised to behave their best tomorrow to celebrate Father's day.. will hold them to it, given yesterday evening and most of today was a blur with yet another migraine. Feeling good now after all that sleep. Daddy day promises to be interesting!
As for the third thing that makes our week, we have our Aussie relatives visiting us and it has been a blast! So we celebrate with a larger family this year!
Here is a video of me dancing with the little one and her cousin at a local restaurant..
It is just great to see the kids happy!
We have now crossed two 7 year itches and still "itching for each other".. so that must be a good thing! There are no secret presents planned for San this year. When the whole NSA Prism scandal came out, I realized that San knows every little move I make.. she has all the passwords for the credit cards, amazon, ATT sites etc. and I have none. No wonder I can never surprise her with anything!
Maybe I will handcraft her a card that says "You are my NSA and I still love you!"
