October 5th 2013
A wonderful and adorable yellow Labrador pup became our first ever pet. He was a naughty pup who was non stop chewing everything even our hands. Arav named him Booster. After 12 weeks we took him to his first puppy class. We really enjoyed the classes and the concept of shopping with your pet in petsmart...very smart marketing strategy.

Booster is now much better trained and a very happy and cuddly and obedient puppy. He follows Arav everywhere. Arav even calls him bro!!

Two more days to go for Christmas holidays to begin. Arav cried so much today because The 25th falls on a Wednesday and not on a Monday like he had expected. Sundar and I had a tough time calming him down. It was also his bedtime and he was not ready to wind down.
 After  showing him the calendar and explaining the  story behind Christmas, he suddenly came out  of his crying spell and said " it's only going to be 5 days more.. I'm fine with that amma" !

And then there was calm after the storm.

We saw the croods on Saturday. It was a good movie. Arav totally enjoyed it. He almost fell of his booster seat laughing. Every time something funny happens I had to look out to make sure he didn't hurt himself !

Field Trip

Arav went for his first ever school field trip to the play museum. He learned about nutrition and the various components of the special plate. He totally enjoyed the trip out with his classmates. He also brought home his unit test paper in which he had given his name as Ben Ten !

With the fever and the rashes all conquered, Arav went to school this week. It was a difficult morning the first time after two weeks but he came home happy. Also came home with a bunch of papers to work on. Suddenly it seems to me that everything is speeding up in March. First graders are busy people.

Its still very much winter and we are already looking forward to spring time with eagerness. More for the break that we might get in the temperature. I have planned to visit my cousin for the spring break. We are hoping that Arav recovers well enough to make it for this trip.

Arav: Amma I want to become a scientist when I grow up!
Amma:  Wow! That's great..
Arav (looking at amma suspiciously): What have you become?
He then rephrased his question thinking I didn't understand
" what did you want to be when you were a kid?

Blogging via Nexus

Wow finally I can blog through my nexus. I don't have to trudge my laptop along anymore. The nexus feels really compact and is my companion for most of the day. 

Bug

Arav has caught a bacterial infection and it is really taking a toll on him. After two days of Tylenol and ibuprofen, he is now on antibiotics. He has never been so sick any time..worries me. I am hoping that it gets better over the weekend and he is up and about being his active self again.

So Sandy came along yesterday and she was not very pleasant. We were quite worried that the power would go out so we stocked up for about two weeks...yeah we panicked!

Arav's school declared a holiday. The skies were gray and gloomy. But tomorrow we are back to business. Looking forward to the weekend already.

Weekend of play at the Strong Play Museum.

We went to The Strong Play Museum at Rochester for the first time. It is a huge place and can keep you and your kids busy for more than a day. Arav took the whole day to check out the place and we still have more to see..

We would definitely go back to The Strong to have fun, play and keep Arav busy.

Halloween Parade

Today was the Halloween parade at school. Arav was walking sniffing a lot because he had a cold and he almost looked uncomfortable.The moment he saw us his frown turned into a wide smile and he kept waving out to us! He wore his favorite Batman costume without the mask, as it was not allowed in school..security issues. It was a nice day and the parade went on well.

At 6

Mom: Arav clean up your room..
Arav: OK I will..but I am leaving a little mess at the end so you will have work when I'm in school.

Question 1: Hey mom..how come the grass is green? Where did it get the colour from?
Question 2: (gesturing outside the car's window)..When did this all begin? Who was there in the beginning?

The questions are normally asked when we travel, it's almost like once he gets into the car he turns on the think tank and also becomes very philosophical..for e.g. " This world is so beautiful" or he would break into a "It's a beautiful day " song..will get the complete lyrics soon!

 It's nice to hear him ask these questions and have a meaningful talk with him..but sometimes the questions never end and when I need that break..fm music comes to the rescue!

He wrote his first letter to a girl .." Dear M , I love you..play with me during recess"!! We made him change the love word to like :) Don't want him growing too fast..

Today was my first day of volunteering at the school. It was a relief to get out of the house and not watch Grey's anatomy. Arav was super excited and he was so shy and happy at the same time. He makes the cutest expressions when he goes through those emotions. After I finished he hugged me goodbye and let me go without crying which he used to do in Patasala after observation.

Then when he came home today..he had forgotten his jacket, not written much and had only drawings in his writing papers. 

Arav is in first grade now! He was struggling to write in the beginning but now he is so much better in writing his wonderful stories. The first story he wrote was about going to his friends birthday party. It took 3 pages! I am so proud. 

Five is a transitional age for all children. Arav became a person with a whole load of new questions..some skeptical. He has become this logical person who cannot take bull shit from anyone..but this magical transition unfortunately just whizzed by me and i failed to record it in here..:(..but right now here at webster, NY..there is hope for revival of some serious writing just so boredom never beckons.

Happy Independence Day!

Happy Birthday Arav!

So we had a rollicking time in Arav's 5th birthday party. I did not have the time to write down about it so..what we did was we had the tattoo people who drew beautiful tattoos on the childrens'  hands and the balloon people who carved out the balloons in various shapes. There were totally some 15 children who were invited and I ended up entertaining 20 of them instead! That is always expected to happen when you live in a 200 apartment complex :)

We organized a small game for the children. It was passing the parcel which was fun until it was time for them to open the parcel and then all hell broke loose. But we managed that chaos as well!

When it was time for cake cutting, we organized for a small table and so we ended up being swarmed by the children.  The cake cutting  photos did not come out well because there was no way to take any snaps with children hovering over the cake and the birthday boy.

This was the first birthday with the apartment kids and we loved it ! It was also the first ever time that my boy took his tattoo seriously. Yeah he did want a skull tattoo and all that but on the brighter side he finally ended up with the spidey tattoo.

The children ate the cake, had the mini pizza and many of them did not want the ice cream. After  politely asking for the return gifts, and getting them, they left immediately.