Just saying..

Daddy had just come back from yoga class, showered and was trying to get into equilibrium on the couch.

Mommy and the kids were watching some Tamil TV channel and a conversation started about an exercise class that mommy attended recently

LO : so what is so hard about this exercise you did?

Mommy : I had to sit down on the floor and move my hands to the other side while sitting.. (makes gestures on couch)

Jr. (gets down on carpet) : Tell me what it is.. I can see how hard it is

Mommy describes the move and Jr. does it and goes "that is easy"

Mommy : That is not easy when you have to do it many times and fast!

Then the little one chimes in with 

Amma, you are "Oh - El - Dee" and she is "why -oh - you - en- gee" ! Of course it is easy for her and difficult for you. 

Unfortunately I was deep in the corner of the couch and unable to escape immediately. thinking that any global catastrophy would be more welcome than what was about to follow in the next few minutes, I quietly slinked back deeper into the couch and opened my laptop to shield any direct eye contact with other house inmates and mom takes it in for a full second and says 

"unakku evvalo thimiru dee?" (which crudely translates to "how dare you" *10^27  with a wind chill factor given the look on mom's eyes) and the litle one calmly goes 

"What ? That is why I didn't SAY it. Didn't you see how I spelled it out so I didn't say it?!"

Somewhere something snapped and we all burst out laughing and we have lived to see another day!

Yeah, there is an App for that! Is there?!

The girls are glued to the i-devices every chance they get.

When daddy travels, they get the devices back.. think of it as a grown up girls pacifier of sorts. Something to keep them from creating new issues for mom who has way too much to juggle!

Issue is, when daddy comes back, they don't even bother to look up from their screens.

Sometimes we have to call their names a dozen times from the kitchen to just get a response or acknowledgement!

What if there was an app that you could run from your iPhone and have that as the master device and every other idevice designated as a slave device? 

When the kids are "engrossed" and have literally gone inside the screen, we send an interrupt which will stop everything they are doing and broadcast the parents via video to their screen so we can scream at them live?!

When the little one was pitched with this idea, her response?

"if you do that, I will press the home button, cancel out that app and do something else which does not involve the ipad!"

My response ?

"Great! then the app worked! now that you are out of the iPad you WILL hear me call your name and most likely show up to the kitchen!"

Daddy 1: LO  0 

These moments where my logic wins over are few and far between these days.. today I am savoring this till it lasts.

Someone should make an app like that, if there isn't already one. If you know of such an app, do let me know!

Yet another family tradition

Just like carving pumpkins at their cousins place or doing portrait photos after every new dress up session during the Navrathri festival, the Traveling Narayanans seem to have come up with yet another family tradition.

The IBM Children's party that celebrates the holiday season in style.

This blog has photos of the kids attending this party over the last 8 years now. This year the tradition was almost broken because the little one is sick. However she did brave her misery and came with us to take a short break and enjoy the usual activities. 

First, the caricatures by Big Al ! He was almost ready to close and was wondering how come we missed it this year.. 

This year we also made two separate collages, one for Jr. and one for the little one so we can frame it 

The little one is not a baby anymore. You can see her face change all too clearly in caricature!

Here are the rest of the photos.. 

the little one posing like Mona Lisa..

Decorating reindeer cookies with frosting ..

Getting animaloons from the clown..

Then there was the last thing on the list.. Face painting!

Finally, the picture with Santa! This Santa worked for 30+ years at IBM and retired. He reminds me of my own grandfather for some strange reason. Same matter of fact tone when he speaks, same smile.. can't pin point it.. but he does! The team there took this great picture and gave us a printout (this is a photo of that printout)..

Yet another year has gone by! The kids are looking beautiful every year and daddy has gone down.. what happened to all that hair!

Look at the photos from our very first party 8 years ago and you will see what I am talking about. 

It is great to have a blog where you can see how things transform over time. Even when my memory fails me and that seems to be happening more often these days.. the blog is like a search into my own head!

I digress as usual. 

Christmas is almost here. Here is to a wonderful holiday season!

Merry Chirstmas and happy new year to all of you from the Narayanan Family!