Last Saturday was Parent's Day at the montessori school D & S study in. D is one of the "Captains" - the senior most batch of about 12 children and she was involved in a whole lot of things - singing the prayer along with the other captains, doing some of the compering, narrator of the play, and a dance at the end. Whew - I thought - how was she going to manage all that, but she did a really good job. Talking/narrating especially seems to be her "thing

Among all the articles about impolite auto drivers, and all the road rage they usually seem to set off, it was a refreshing change to come across a really nice one. I was coming out of Woodlands Hotel, and was having visions of needing to ask atleast 4 autos before one accepted coming to my area (which is the usual way of things!). But this elderly person came up and asked me so politely "Yelli hogbekkamma?"(Where do you need to go, ma?) that I actually looked at him a bit suspicious

D & S sang for a Christmas Carol service by the St. Marks Children's Choir last Saturday (Dec 11th). Was so proud of the difference in way Damita was singing compared to the first time she performed. She knew all the words by heart, and sang with all her heart - it was so nice to see. Achievement by Shehan - to have stood on stage for all 14 songs :). Don't know how much he actually sang - waiting for the video to come out to see that! No photos unfortunately as I didn't have hubby around t

Most times when I sit to write something in this blog, I feel guilty that I'm probably writing more about my son (2 yrs 9 months) than about my daughter (5.5 yrs). When she was a toddler I hadn't yet discovered blogging as a regular experience and so it feels like many of those wonderful memories have become hazy :(. So it was a refreshing experience to sit down and write nearly entirely about her, for a short speech at her school's Parent's day on the 18th (That sp

Hyundai Verna... SX4... Alto.... Chevrolet Tavera... I20.. Maindra Xylo... All this said in a loud voice with hardly a second between names.. Yes we are on the road and S is reeling off the names.. Apparently this is a "thing" with boys and cars.. I hate to label my kids with gender-activities but this was definitely a big difference between my darling girl and dear boy!!! I have to identify a car for him all of twice for him to know it the next time.. the latest

Story begins 5 years ago - we discover our dear daughter is terribly prone to being car-sick. I "graduate" to the back seat to be able to give her and myself more space to deal with it. Fast-forward 3 years - my son enters the picture. Thankfully not much car-sick but my daughter still is, so the back seat becomes a place for children and me. Fast-forward another 2 years - Damita is 5 and a half, getting better at handling car-sickness and Shehan is quite comfortable standing in the back of t

1. Literal translations like : "Mookku odaradu illaiya" (Nose is running!) this came out of S a few days back and I just had to laugh for the next 5 minutes! He's still reasonably bi-lingual and speaks both tamil and english though the tamil is getting quite a bit less since he's started school. Thank God for gems like this one - said in a sing-song tone like the way adults usually speak to children in :). 2. Conversation while watching TV and I was switching channels.  &nb

I am not a vacation planner by nature - we decided to take a Club Mahindra membership a few years back - and this forces us to use up those vacation days once or twice a year or else they could just lapse - always better to have "I have paid money for this!" looming over your head to make good use of something :). So this time our Dussehra vacation was to Ooty which is a popular hill station in Tamilnadu. Coming from a "non-vacation" family myself (We visited relatives during vacation

Where a tiger and a rabbit stay in harmony.. or as much harmony as siblings can stay anyway :). That is S's idea of a smile for the camera, not a growl because of the tiger costume ;). This was for a fancy dress "party" at their school. They have one every year at this time - and are very particular that it is a party and not a competition - so no pressure on the kids to perform and they can just have fun! The tiger costume is what I made for D last year - had kept it because it was my fi

I am an only child and I learn something new about siblings everyday :). Just some random thoughts and memories - Leave D & S in the same room for more than 2 minutes and you will hear loud incessant giggling and nearly immediately afterwards crying or shouting from one of them with a follow-up complaint of "He did .." or "She did.. ". S loves to go and fall all over D wherever she's sitting. Sometimes she's also in a tumbly mood and this leads to a lot of gymnastics all over our livin