Back to the grind

With the start of the academic year here, life is almost back to the grind. School is priority uno for both G boy and me. This year looks promising with him learning cursive writing and more in his second and third languages. For me, storytelling has taken it's roots after four years of toiling hard. Classes and workshops for parents and teachers have started this year. On my toes already! Let's hope for a good reach this year!

Wiggly Tooth Won't Go - Part 2

After a long day of trying to get Gnan to yank off the wiggly tooth, Mommy G was tired.

Lunch time went by. Tea time went by. Milk time went by. The grand finale of dinner happened and the dangly tooth got more dangly.. if that's even possible.

That's when Mommy G and Grandma G took things into their own hands. And by things, they mean G man. After putting him on their laps, one held him down and the other yanked off the dingly dangly tooth without any pain or blood but loads of tears.

What turned out to be a painless and useless tooth had caused a lot of worry in little G man for many days. He was smiling finally, toothless smiles of course!

Kids, worry is a small thing. Wait, adults and kids, worry is a small thing. Stop chewing it over and over in your head. It's all going to be a nothing at the end of it.

Wiggly Tooth Won't Go!

G man and his wiggly tooth

Gnan was beyond worried about his dangling tooth. For over two weeks it had been dangling by the root and giving him so much trouble while eating.

He wasn't able to bite into his favorite Nutella sandwich because when he did, it was there.

He wasn't able to clean the delicious pull off the ripe mango seed because when he did, it was there.

He wasn't able to brush his teeth properly because when he did, it was there.

G man got worried. He found a corner where he could try and wiggle his tooth off with his tongue.

For three days, he would eat minimal and would find a corner where no one disturbed him and try wiggling his tooth off but in vain.

Every night he would go to sleep praying that when he wakes, his tooth would have fallen off in the morning but in vain. His mommy suggested he wait till the day his tooth decided to fall off on it's own.

For two weeks, his wiggly tooth was so attached to him. G man and mommy G were anxious to get it to fall off but the tooth just won't go.

To be continued...

Ramayan obsessed.

For over a month, my household has been obsessed with the story of Ramayana. The Ram Navami that went by, I did a storytelling of the Ramayana and since then we've been hooked.

G man and I have been retelling the story over and over at bedtime. Even the most exhausted days end with Ramayana. The happiest part of this is the transition my son has made from Baahubali. Yeah, Baahubali. From dinosaurs to Baahubali and from Baahubali to the Ramayana. I don't know where we are headed next, but the happiness we get from these books and stories has been fabulous!

Remo - buddy, brother, friend.

Remo, our four legged brother, passed on to a better place. A place where I hope there are loads of little grasslands to play in, loads of little younger brother puppies for him to dote on, loads of milk bread for him to munch on and loads of love to be showered on him.

He went through the natural process of aging and breathed his last among us all. He lay with his eyes open staring us as much as he could. He lay with his ears up listening to every little sound around him. The entire family including his four legged younger brother Chitti, were around him for the last days.

For us, as a family who had him as a first pet, it was an excruciating process of compiling our feelings of this loss. We sat by him hours together and tears came involuntarily. My grandparents made their evening porch time their time with Remo and Chitti.

When Remo came home for the first time, he was a wee little pup with a few spots here and there. He would sleep in my parent's room and follow my mum around everywhere she went. He was the best greeter ever. He would know when I was visiting 500 metres before I reached itself.

Chitti, our other pal, was Remo's best buddy and confidant. They made a great team. Chitti was different over the past few days. He didn't look Remo in the eye at all. He would lie near by and look the other way. He would walk by so many times but not touch him at all. He is the elder brother now. We hope he copes with this loss of a wingman and roomie.

Remo - buddy, brother, son, friend. We are privileged to have known and loved You!

Reflections..

I've turned 31! And February is almost gone.. just tomorrow left. Well, so far 2018 has been fabulous! Packed, busy, satisfying. We've had our first guests in the home and it was amazing! Germans trying idly dipped in sambar with a fork is so satisfying to watch when you've cooked breakfast on a school morning.

Ever since we've moved in, I've tried to be an organised minimalist to an extent. It's been about 1.5 years of trying hard and decluttering.. it's still an on going phase but the satisfaction derived thereby has been immense. A feeling of contentment like no other.

For 7 years I had cooked for 10 people in one house and I had no idea how to reduce the dish amounts to just 3 of us when we moved here. Shopping for grocery looked so little.. so I opted for farmers markets. What a difference! All I need is a cloth bag and Rs.80 every week. This includes all my greens and veggies.

I had started off with the Marie Konmari method but later I was inspired by a friend Nandini. Yday I attended her workshop on organised minimalism and at the end of the class I realised I had pretty much done most of what she had covered. Well, minimalism isn't stinginess or being miserly. It's just living within your needs.

So far this has been applied as a thought to all aspects of life. Mentally.. at peace and content.

30s itch!

Over last year, I tried a lot of mind training. I focused mostly on my parenting skills and how I can be a nicer parent. I've always been focused on being a disciplinarian but he has made me a nicer parent. It's learning both ways. There have been moments when G would want to try something that i would never want to do. Then I would go ahead and try it anyway.

For instance, he once saw me putting on kajal and said, 'Amma, you look pretty. You should put that everyday.' And I did. I tried it for a while and then I stopped again. But the days I did wear it, G would say the sweetest things - 'Amma, you wore it because I told you to. It doesn't hurt your eyes no?' Another day he just said, 'don't open your eyes fully. They are already big!' He's funny and can make me laugh as much as he can make me a crazy person.

He tried for me too. I wanted him to learn swimming.  Not for silly reasons like 'what if you fall into the river' types. I'm aware enough that our rivers dont have water. My reasons for his swimming lessons were simple.. to encourage a sport in him, to help him learn what exhaustion meant, to help him understand the courage he needed to show himself. He did. He learnt to stay afloat on the fourth day and by day seven he was swimming. After two months of classes, he said he wasn't interested to continue. Fair enough.

Talking to him has taught me so much. He hasn't showed too much interest in cycling or cricket. Being the two activities the kids at my apartments play the most, he would come back home and say he wanted to watch his Bahubali CD. For a while, I did feel worried. But his interest was to watch the Hindi version. He would listen to all dialogues and whenever I spoke in Hindi, he would ask for meanings. It made me so happy to see a little language loving nerd in him. I haven't discouraged the Baahubali addiction. Indian superheroes are so few. At least this one is somewhere from our History.

Loads of stuff didn't work for me. Every time I drop G at school, I would see other mother's all dressed up and decked up at 830am and I always thought my track pants and mommy waali tees were just not good enough. I decided to make myself looks presentable at the least but I'm just not made of that material. Even for the few days that I tried it, G would say, 'Amma, come like you.' This minion likes kajal eyed mommy in track pants and tees. Fair enough.

Trying to read more didn't work out for me last year at all. I gave in to the Amazon Prime videos for the last two months on 2017 and I have successfully weaned away from them. Once you start rusting on Netflix and Amazon prime, you are rust ridden. For someone who hates TV, I was addicted to them for 2 months of time I will never get back.

I'm back to reading now. Starting 2018 with The Subtle Art of Not Giving A F*ck. Given the irony of this post, I thought I should write about my side of this topic before I jump into the author's.

30s seem like fun.