Monday, November 15, 2010

Thrills of Parenting - Cheeky Tales

Every year the schools we go to (yeah so far we have kept the record.. we do not stay in a house for more than a year and that applies to the schools too)! Anyway.. the schools we go to have this lovely concept called “Star Student of the week” which they claim makes the selected kid feel special all of that week. However what it is really aimed at is making the parents sweat some. The arguments about favorite toys and books does not end and what’s more leads on to demands for fav toys and books. Now if we had to go shopping every time someone asked you for your favorite things I wouldn’t be a mom! So we argue through the week and the weekend we make and unmake our mind. But that’s not all.. we have to do things with Curious George and take pictures!! Sigh… and there is more!! Mommy (because Daddy won’t do it) has to write a letter or a poem about Cheeky!

Last year Mommy wrote this poem that made the kids laugh (Mind you I scribbled it in 5 mins that morning and did not intend for it to be funny.. but when I try to get sentimental apparently even Kindergartners have a good laugh!). This year we re-used the pictures and were about to re-use the poem when Cheeky declared he wanted neither a letter or a poem this year. He wanted funny stories! So this mommy sat slaving over the computer to come up with this. After all the effort I need to share it here! Who knows what the 6 yr olds will think of it.. let’s see what you think! (Remember this is addressed to 6 yr olds.. I am hard trying to make them laugh. I will have to find out what the verdict is!)

Our Son A
We have a nick name for A. We call him Cheeky. He is a funny guy sometimes and keeps us laughing.

When Cheeky was 10 months old his favorite toy was Pooh Bear. One day we went to a store and there was a huge pooh bear which was as tall as an adult. Little Cheeky loved this toy and kept looking at it. At that time he had begun saying his first words. He would say “baa” for come. So as we started leaving the store Cheeky started screaming “Poo baa Poo baa” at the top of his voice. And was very upset when Pooh wouldn’t come!

When Cheeky was 2 yrs old I had a broken thumb and had to go to the doctor every week to fix it. One day 2 ladies came in and started talking to Cheeky. They kept calling him “Ronak”. So I thought they had got his name wrong, or maybe they thought he was someone else. But they told me that Cheeky had told them his name was Ronak. I was confused. On asking him Cheeky said “But Mama I like the name Ronak and am going to be called that”. We had to plead with him to be called Cheeky.

When he was 2, Cheeky went to school one day and his teacher was talking about different occupations. The kind of jobs parents do. All the kids were telling the teacher that their mom was a doctor, nurse, teacher, manager and so on. It was Cheeky’s turn. Teacher asked him “What does your Daddy do Cheeky?”

Cheeky replied “My daddy hugs”

The note from school said "We discussed what we want to be when we grow up"

Mom: Cheeky did your teacher ask you what you wanted to be when you grow up?

Cheeky: Yes I said I want to be a firefighter.

Dad: Do you know you have to go into a fire and rescue people?

Cheeky: Yes. But I won’t go.Dad: But that’s what a firefighter does.

Mom: So what will you do when there is a fire?

Cheeky: I will be a NASCAR Driver.

I asked Cheeky one day “Do you want to write a letter?”

Cheeky who was almost 3 replied “Yes mommy can I write it on my laptop?”

I asked him “So what will you write”

Cheeky replied “The letter L”

When Cheeky was 3 he came to me one day and asked “Mama can we break the roof of our car?”

I asked “Why?”

So he said “Because then we will have a convertible”

We went to a friend’s place for lunch and she had made some yummy food. Cheeky was not much of an eater, he wanted to play. So our friend asked him “What do you like Cheeky, you can eat whatever you like”

Cheeky replied “I like the plate, can I eat that?”

Do you remember the nursery rhyme?

“Piggy on the railway picking up stones, Down came the engine and broke piggy’s bones”

Cheeky did not like Piggy being hurt so he would sing it like this

“Piggy on the railway picking up stones,Down came the engine and piggy not there”

Recently Cheeky’s aunt called him over the phone and told him she had bought him a piggy bank and would send it to him. Cheeky thought this over and then said “But aunty can you buy me an ATM instead?”

I hope you had fun laughing to these stories about Cheeky. We sure had a good time with our buddy Cheeky.

Wednesday, November 10, 2010

The little pixie called Tootsie

"Don't pick her up so much you will regret it" I told my friends. "Don't give in, be strong" I advised them. "Stick to the rules" I gloated. Little did I know that I had gotten lucky. The little guy did not want to be picked up, he could stay entertained looking at little hands and feet. The light, the fan, the curtains and even the toys were his friends. Rules were not questioned.. And then he turned 6 and all hell broke loose. Because along came a little itty bitty girl named Tootsie and Mommy had to eat her words!
At 4 months the little chipmunk has a mind of her own. She has decided she loves to sit up and hates lying down. She wants to watch mommy work from the royal seat.. mommy's lap! She wants Mommy and Daddy to talk to her not into the phone! She voices her opinion to the doctor and the nurse. SO much the doctor turned to Mommy and said "She is a strong personality already".. A nice way of saying "Boy is she stubborn?" The little one who is lying next to mommy as she types this and stirring in her sleep! She is the little one we call Tootsie!
Now I will no longer hand out free advise to friends will I? Reality bites!! Tootsie is not a cry baby though.. she is a talker. So when she doesn't get her way she whines, coos, calls and finally shifts to a loud baritone so no one else can be heard! Aaaha now I got your attention pick me up smiles the little pixie. And everyone (Cheeky not excluding) dance to her tunes!

In other news..
Halloween was a hit. Like all 6 year olds, Cheeky had a full social calendar and celebrated Halloween for the entire weekend, starting that Friday. As we hopped from Parades to Carnivals to Haunted Houses, Dad spent some quality time with the lady bug. Mom watched as the Transformer along with a few other super heroes were turned loose on the streets on Halloween night. Among Pirates, Skeletons and Dracula's (Apparently the Princesses and Fairies and even the Witches did not want to have anything to do with this assortment of characters and took another route). No house was left unknocked. No alleyway was left unexplored. At the end of the night the little imps were already discussing their costumes for the next year and planning their next Halloween. The tired parent chaperons were just glad to drag our feet home behind the super heroes high with just the sight of all that Candy. And we planned how to hide the stash away from prying eyes and hands.
Cheeky is becoming a gangsta. While they don't call themselves a "gang", they call themselves "group". "They" are a group of 4 friends. They were 5 and one kid moved away... so now they are trying out different kids to initiate them into the gang! These kids plot and plan how to trick parents. Every afternoon they would sit and talk, and throw out their lunch so the unsuspecting parents would think they had actually eaten it! But we are not parents if we don't know that history repeats itself!! Every afternoon when I saw the clean box I kept getting flashes of the sand I threw in my box every afternoon to fool my mom and the milk that was drained into the sink every morning. But Geeky Dad was the one who wormed the truth out of the clever Cheeky's mouth.. So now he just brings the box home with all the food intact! Seriously where do these kids get their energy?
Meanwhile, I have been invited to lunch by "the gang" next week. Only if I bring cup cakes.. so I will take me and the cup cakes and meet the privileged 5! I heard from a reliable source (another unsuspecting parent of the gangsta's) that I would be ignored, but would get to listen in on some very interesting conversation. I must say I am looking forward to meet the gang in their setting!

This bedraggled mom has a messy house to turn her attention to.. but wait hear that? The silence.. the little pixie is asleep, maybe I will rest my head for a few before we have to do the pixie dance again!!!

My introspections on Women's day

  It is International Women's  Day and a day for us to celebrate women. Every year for me this is a day of introspection, it is a day to...