This week’s theme for the Thursday Challenge :
Have been struggling all day with blogger. It just wouldn’t let me log in. Finally got through on The Husband’s laptop. Whew!
Ripples in the sky
Rainbows on the ground
It was the morning rush hour. I was hurrying down to the gate where we wait for the school bus. I was trying to hang on to the mobile phone, the house keys, two bags (which the kids begged me to carry since they wanted to race to the gate) and two sweaters (which they refused to wear). All the while I have to have one eye out for incoming vehicles, another one at the gate looking out for the bus and at least two more to keep track of the kids as they race through their preferred short cuts … no wonder I was feeling light headed. It’s at times like this that I envy the Gods with their multiple arms and Mad Eye Moody for his eye. Anyway .. I digress.In the middle of all this chaos “BHAI! RAINBOW” yelled N. I got just as excited as the kids (rainbows do that to me) and looked up at the dull grey sky but all I saw was a thick mass of black clouds. I looked back at N. She was jumping excitedly and counting.. “…. four, five, six rainbows. Mama look so many rainbows”.
“But how come they’re on the ground?” wondered the son.. “Maybe it’s a shadow of a real rainbow,” he reasoned squinting up only to find nothing. He then looked around wondering aloud, “Where did they come from?”
“I think it’s just magic,” said the daughter, eyes shining.
Feeling like a bit of a spoilsport I told them about oil spilling on wet ground and breaking up into colours.
I’m still wondering if I did right in taking away the magic from those rainbows.
A summer project
Hrit Naisha are hugely into story-telling. They have been making up stories since when they were a little above two.. from simple tales to long winding complicated ones. Most children do that, I think. Naisha’s are full of prince and princesses and evil witches while Hrit sticks with aliens and monsters and scary/friendly wild animals.
We decided to turn one story of each of them into an illustrated book. What fun it turned out to be.
The stories were entirely their own… including the characters’ names! I wont tire you with the stories but they were very much in character with both of them.
I typed and printed them out and the kids stuck them on with the relevant pictures on sheets of paper. Finally I stapled the sheets together to make a ‘story book’. Pretty simple.
Hrit wanted to star in his book as the protagonist. He manfully sat through my amateur efforts at the ‘photo shoot’ after which I printed out the pictures. That was easy. Naisha decided to illustrate her books herself. It took me weeks to get her to make all of them. How many times do I have to make the prince? She’d ask. She did a pretty decent job in the end. The pictures were a bit crooked and the sticking a tad sloppy but the kids were thrilled.
Check out some pages from their books.
Hrit’s story first …
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| Kaku and the leopard |
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| Once upon a time… |
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| Hrit the actor |
And now for Naisha’s tale. I was just so relieved it wasn’t about a damsel in distress.
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| Aurora and the prince |
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| The evil witch trapped the prince on a tree |
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| .. and then the evil bird flew away with the prince |
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| Finally Aurora rescues her prince and then it’s happily ever after |
It turned out a great summer project.
Never two much
Here’s something I stumbled upon at momofrs’ blog and couldn’t resist sharing here. Thanks momofrs for letting me.
There’s two to wash, there’s two to dry,
There’s two who argue, there’s two who cry.
One’s in the mud having a ball,
The other holds a crayon, another marked wall.
Some days seem endless, my patience grows thin.
Why was I chosen to be a mother of twins?
The answer comes clear at the end of each day,
As I tuck them in bed and to myself say,
There’s two to kiss, there’s two to hug,
And best of all, there’s two to love!
~ Anon
Beautiful isn’t it?
Angel Day
Today has officially been declared as an ‘Angel Day’ by the kids. In case you’re wondering .. it’s a day when everyone tries their hardest to bring out the angel in them. Put simply, everyone has to be good. Remember the Angel Devil concept?The rules (made by them) are as follows:-for me..
I can’t shout at them.for the Husband
He must get back early from office
He must get sweets for them (detailed instructions regarding their choices have been given)And for them…
They can’t get cranky
They can’t fight
They’ll eat their food fast
They won’t do naughty thingsThe maid is also included in this ‘angel family’. H tried to explain the concept to her saying, “Didi you have to be happy today’. When my Maharastrian maid gave him a smile that said ‘I didn’t understand anything’ and a totally blank look he explained… ‘aaj aap happy rahiyega, okay?’.It’s been an hour since the declaration and already.. N’s spilled milk while H tried to ‘help’ the maid with the dusting trying to get her to hand over the bottle of Colin (an obsession of his because it works like a pichkari).God help me. Waiting to see how the day turns out.Edited to add: We did have a good day. We needed to remind each other over and over, though.. ‘Bhai.. Angel Day’, N would say and H would stop getting naughty. Each time I thought they were getting too boisterous all I had to say was.. ‘Okay so does Angel Day end now?’ and they would quieten. It was fun except The Husband came unusually late but since he got the stuff he’d promised he was promptly forgiven. I must remember to do it again.
I can’t shout at them.for the Husband
He must get back early from office
He must get sweets for them (detailed instructions regarding their choices have been given)And for them…
They can’t get cranky
They can’t fight
They’ll eat their food fast
They won’t do naughty thingsThe maid is also included in this ‘angel family’. H tried to explain the concept to her saying, “Didi you have to be happy today’. When my Maharastrian maid gave him a smile that said ‘I didn’t understand anything’ and a totally blank look he explained… ‘aaj aap happy rahiyega, okay?’.It’s been an hour since the declaration and already.. N’s spilled milk while H tried to ‘help’ the maid with the dusting trying to get her to hand over the bottle of Colin (an obsession of his because it works like a pichkari).God help me. Waiting to see how the day turns out.Edited to add: We did have a good day. We needed to remind each other over and over, though.. ‘Bhai.. Angel Day’, N would say and H would stop getting naughty. Each time I thought they were getting too boisterous all I had to say was.. ‘Okay so does Angel Day end now?’ and they would quieten. It was fun except The Husband came unusually late but since he got the stuff he’d promised he was promptly forgiven. I must remember to do it again.