The journey of 5 years

Apr 1 2004: Just 4 days young and you would look at everything so curiously.


March 29 2005 : An year young today and your lovely smile and giggles would enlighten any heart!


March 29 2006: On your 2nd birthday. You had started to become a bossy little man but still as adorable as ever.


March 29 2007: 3 yrs and you would amaze us with little little things that you would do.


March 29 2008: By 4th birthday you had become a total brat!


March 29 2009: 5 years today and you have already started giving us threats of leaving us ;) but then Mumma Gogi bestest!

Happy birthday Betu!

It seems so unbelievable that it has been 5 years since you came into our lives. Rather 5 years 9 months as I would rather count from the time I concieved you. And what you have been for us ever since is just too difficult to explain.

You made us smile, cry, jump up and down with joy and at times made us angry too. But whatever we love you so much!

Happy birthday our little baby! *muaahh*


~~ Keep Smiling! ~~
Sent on my BlackBerry®.

Why are you not a kangaroo?

I was reading a story to Betu from one of the books that his chachi had got for him last year. The book had lots of animal stories. He really likes that book since it has a huge variety of animals in it from elephant to walrus, anteater to flamingo etc

So as we were flipping through the drawings/sketches of one story he stopped me short and asked in a very thoughtful tone "Aap kangaroo kyun nahi ho?" I didn't know what to respond and looked at him in a confused state of mind thinking now where does this come from?

He probably guessed that and said "Kangaroo ki pocket hoti hai. Agar aap kangaroo hote to main aapki pocket mein baithta. Kitna mazaa aata na?" :D

I just hugged him tight and kissed him on the head. Such are the simple hearts and simple desires of these little ones.


~~ Keep Smiling! ~~
Sent on my BlackBerry®.

Braveheart - thats my little boy!

Yes..that's what I called him when I saw him being so brave after he got hurt on the forehead which required suturing up. This happened on Mar 23 late afternoon around 3:30 PM. He was playing with another boy who was pulling his t-shirt from behind while Anirudh was trying to run forward. Suddenly the boy let Anirudh's t-shirt go from his grip and Betu lurched forward with the impact of sudden release and bumped his forehead on the wooden chair close by.

I reached his daycare by 4:00 PM and by that time he had been bandaged up by the supervisors there. They told me how brave and strong he has been throughout and how he didn't cry at all minus the initial tears at the time he got hurt. And that was not all.When I took him to the nursing home nearby, even at the time of stitching and cleaning up of the wound he did not shed a single tear. That is why I called him a brave heart while I was going weak in the knees, heart, hands, head...weak in every single part of my body.

While I was still shaken up throughout the rest of the day, he was up and about like any other day playing and talking and laughing. I was also trying to smile and laugh and be normal but I knew it wasn't coming naturally to me. Every time I would look at the potato sized bump on his forehead I would get so uneasy.

After we came back home me and him played with his newly bought wooden building blocks, our gift for his 5th birthday a week in advance of his birthday. The mother of the boy who he was playing with at the time of injury and the little boy dropped by our house as she was feeling a bit apologetic. Somehow I never even developed any ill-feelings towards them as it was a just-by-chance accident. They are kids and they will play. Sometimes wild and sometimes not. However I did pull up the daycare people to be careful so that the wild play doesn't go out of hand to this extent again. They were feeling quite sorry too and I knew I didn't need to drive it in their head any further.

Mar 23: Few hours after the injury. Notice the bump on his forehead just above the right eye?

Mar 23: Playing with the wooden blocks.

Mar 26: The stitches (in blue colored thread) all dried up.

Today on the 3rd day post the injury we went for a checkup and his pediatrician said its healing up well. He removed the bandage and asked us to leave it open. When I showed this pic to Betu he was actually excited to see that the stitches have been done in blue color :D

These kids I tell you...

Mera Pappu pass ho gaya

Today I went to Betu's school to collect his report card. It was nothing more than a formality. I knew he was doing fine and I knew very well what he had been doing throughout this year because he would come home with bits of assignments which we would do together. So to cut it short, I was happy with how he was learning and growing in terms of his vocabulary, English conversational skills etc.

So with a brief interaction with his teacher wherein she said all the good things she also mentioned one thing where she felt he needs to focus on and improve over a period of time. And that being conversational skills. I was actually taken aback. Him and conversational issues? I could have agreed if it was not listening to instructions or not doing work. But this surely was a surprise. I asked her to tell me in detail. And then she told me when she asks them questions in a group, turn by turn, he invariably fumbles and ends up doing "umm..." and not responding at all.

After I heard her in detail, frankly it doesn't matter to me. Some are comfortable speaking in front of a big group and some aren't. Its just OK.I will try to tell him to not be nervous but I am not going to do any bit of pushing. I'm going to let him be.

So to conclude "Pappu pass go gaya" and shall be going to KG now. Yippee! Good job Betu. :)

"Disney Cars" pasta

Thanks to Ruchi Mausi, Betu got a box of car shaped pasta few days ago. It was only today that I finally was able to cook it for him and but obviously he was ecstatic.

But after 10 min I was ready to tear my hair out because he would look at each piece for 2 minutes by turning it left and right and only when the full inspection was done that he would eat it. He did this for the first 10 minutes and then I asked him to finish eating it or I shall take it away. Call me a meanie mommy or whatever..I don't care! :D

Our contribution to recycling

Betu and me are helping towards the cause of Global Warming by doing our bits in recycling/reusing stuff. This is one example of it -
Using Surf Excel Matic boxes in which we get the washing machine powder as toy storage boxes. I had thought of covering them up with some paints etc but now I'm just leaving them like this.
What says you guys about this?

Treasures from the pocket

Couple of lil Kitty picture cutouts that I found in his pockets yesterday night while doing the laundry. Yup. After a long time I found something in his pockets:)

Annual Day at Betu's School

Anirudh's school holds a separate Annual Day for Nursery and KG kids. I really liked the idea of a separate one for such small children.

He was part of a play where he was supposed to play the role of a granpa. He told me about this play about 15 days ago and said "Pata hai. Main dadu hoon!". I looked at him a bit bewildered wondering what he meant. Later he explained me that he is in a play where there is a boy Ken who doesn't take care of his toys and his dadu helps him fix his toys. He then proudly told me that he is playing the role of Dadu.

As per Swati, he was just perfect for the role looking at his bossy nature. She has also written in detail about his cute bossy nature in a guest post on this blog :D

Coming back to his performance, after the experience from the open day and also from one of the rehearsal sessions I attended, I was not sure he would say his lines. But the moment he entered the stage, it didn't matter to me if he would say it well or not. Just seeing him on stage made me feel so very proud of my lil guy. But then today he said them just perfectly making me even more proud. Its another story that after saying his lines, he was standing with his back towards the audience (as you can see in one of the pictures below) and playing with the other kids on the stage.

Now I leave you with some pics from his Annual Day -

Thanks Dear Anirudh !

Hi Everyone, I am Anirudh's chachi and Aryan's (of Times of Aryan frame) mother.

I am here to thank dear Anirudh for all the parenting lessons that he has given me to help me raise Aryan into a good boy. NO , I am not here to thank ~nm. I am here to thank Anirudh.

He told me that , I should teach Aryan to pee in bathroom and not in diaper. He taught me that I should make Aryan wear sweater ,when its cold. He taught me that I should not let Aryan walk bare foot. And I even got scoldings (with frown and lines on forehead) for letting Aryan do his Big Job in diaper once. Where do I get just advices from a little wishful thinker.

I would also like to thank Anirudh for being a responsible big brother that he is to Aryan. Witness this :

Scene : Aryan gets extremely angry and starts hitting me in fit of anger at a public gathering. All the other cousins of his left from the sight like I told them to (till Aryan becomes calm), since I did not want them to be the victim of Aryan's anger. But Anirudh being Anirudh stays and goes like this , with finger up and a frown on his face and lines on forehead :

"Aryan !!!! Aaapne Mumma ko kyo maara ???? Aaapko pata hai na , ache bache Mumma ko nahi marte??? Gandi baat."
The !!!! , ???? in the above sentence denote the stress on the words.

He looked so cute that I felt like leaving Aryan to hug him. All the irritation that I was feeling that moment because of Aryan's behaviour just flew away.

And another one :

Scene : We are at ~nm's place. Anirudh just started his dinner , having dal roti and subzi. Aryan attempts to get hold of the spoon in Anirudh's bowl to have a spoonful of daal. At this Anirudh reacts :

"Aryan !!! Yeh Bhaiya ki daal hai !!! Isme bahut mirchi hai !!!"
The !!!! in the above sentence denote the stress on the words.

His tone was a mix of anger and shock , it was like a mom would react if the kid is about to touch a hot vessel. He looked so very adorable.

But the funny part was that Anirudh does NOT eats mirchi and his dal had NO trace of mirchi. He was just behaving like a grwon up big brother.

So here I am thanking dear Anirudh , for being such adorable teacher and guide to me and such a responsible bro.

Love you Sweetheart !


Big Brother feeding the younger one with ice cream!

The cutest panditji ever

Ain't I right? :D

My cute little Giraffe

The play titled "Blue Elephant" was staged on feb 14, 2009 where he was supposed to say the lines "I've never seen an elephant which is blue in color". After initial hiccups of making him learn the lines since he wouldn't accept as he had seen a blue elephant. So when the final show day came, he was very excited since the morning.

I sent him off in the same brown dress which I used for the goat activity. I just didn't have any other dress at home which could be brown or yellow in color from top to bottom. Betu did question me saying "Yeh to goat ki dress hai" but I somehow managed to convince him that lot of animals can have the same color.

They were to perform twice and the parents were given time slots to come and watch the show. Ours was the second slot.

I did a mistake here. I forgot to tell Betu about the slot business and when he didn't see us but saw the parents of all his friends he started bawling away loudly. He didn't say his lines at all and was crying in the top of his voice. So was I told from a mother of his classmate, called me to ask where was I when she saw him crying, with whom I'm pally with.

So when I reached he was in a really off mood and it took a lot of cajoling to agree him to speak his lines again. But when the second replay happened he spoke only half of his line "I've never seen a blue elephant which.." and he broke off. It was obvious that he was still not OK.

I didn't say anything to him but just said a "good job" when he came back to us. here are some of the pictures from the show