milestones Archives - Obsessivemom

18/03/201515/04/2017

10 things to remember on a journey without kids

I had often wondered if/when I could ever leave the children and travel on my own. Well, finally it happened. As it turns out the Husband was home and it was just four days (out of which two were over the weekend).

Off I went.

It felt weird – to say the least – to be travelling without two small hands to hold on to. If you’re a mum too and have forgotten quite what it’s like to travel alone you might find these pointers useful.

1. It’s normal to carry just a single piece of baggage. Nah, you haven’t forgotten anything. And it’s not even important whether the bag is pink, blue or yellow.

2. On the flight, you are not allowed to cuddle people sitting on either side of you (to be on the safe side, keep your hands off the hand rests).

3. If your boarding pass says window seat, you actually get to sit at the window.

4. You can survive a two-hour flight without a visit to the loo. As a bonus – you also survive take offs and landings without admonishing your neighbours to ‘hold it in’ even while wondering anxiously if they will hold it in.

5. You can get through a flight without a single apology.

6. You don’t need to ask the airline staff for favours – no change of seats, no extra water, no extra tissues to mop off said water.

7. Airport shopping zones are a grossly misunderstood lot. Far from the disaster-waiting-to-happen-zones you thought them, they make for blissful browsing.

8. You get to decide what you want to do on the flight – reading, listening to music and sleeping being real options (over visiting loos, ensuring co-passengers don’t get kicked/ pushed, mopping messes and refereeing seats).

9. The baggage carousal is just that – a baggage carousal, not a forbidden slide you cannot allow your kid on.

10. A two hour flight is way too long. After a point you don’t quite know what to do with yourself.

A last bit of advice. Sit back, relax and try to enjoy yourself just as much as the kids are enjoying your absence back home.

Linking to ABC Wednesday for the letter ‘J’ for Journey. Joyful thanks to Mrs Nesbitt who thought up this wonderful meme.

04/03/201515/04/2017

When hugs get few and far between!

Sometime back I needed to pick up a gift for one of the kids’ friends. I took the children along with the understanding that we WOULDN’T be shopping for them. However, the obvious happened. H found something he just had to have. N somehow never troubles me as much as he does. While she sulked quietly H threw a full fledged tantrum. We had a big blow up and walked out of the shop. A few slices of pizza later, when all was forgiven I put out my arms for a hug. And H refused. Simply refused.

“No hugs or kisses when we’re out of home, mama,” said he biting off a huge slice of pizza. “Only high fives,” he added putting out his hand as a concession to my bewildered look (or was it to ward me off?).

This is H – the cuddle freak. H who could be soothed with a hug even at few weeks old, who would sleep for hours on end as a newborn as long as I held him tight, who would snuggle endlessly and when I’d try to move he’d say ‘I can’t let go we’re in a permanent huggie.’ And my heart would totally melt making me wonder why I ever wanted to get up at all.

He was refusing me a hug. My son has officially entered the tweens and he’s not nine yet.

It’s strange how kids change. While H the born hugger is suddenly conscious of his big boy status N, the one who often howled to be put down in her crib and enjoyed being left to herself as a was baby, is growing more and more cuddlesome, even in public.

For now, I’m just glad I get to hug both my kids at least at home. Mercifully H’s hug embargo doesn’t exist at home. However, this does make me wonder if sometime in the distant future there exists a day when he’ll say no to hugs completely. That will be a sad day indeed, though I have no intentions of going down without a fight.

Wonder if they turn back into huggers once the awkward teens are through.

Linking to ABC Wednesday for the letter H. Do drop by to see other H posts.

30/11/201215/04/2017

The tooth fairy comes calling

Finally, after much waiting, it fell off.. the very first one.. Hrit’s tooth. For some reason he felt it was a major achievement and insisted I call and tell everyone. He followed me around asking, “Are you H A P P Y?” These days he’s spelling out half his sentences. If you’re wondering why, well so am I.

He showed off his gaping dentures to all his friends and all the aunties he could find reminding me of the hilariously gross character Lugaretzia from Gerald Durrel’s ‘My Family and Other Animals’. Great book, by the way.

Getting back to Hrit.. he was just too thrilled.

Then he got worried if the tooth fairy would consider his tooth worthy of being taken away. He wanted to know if it would help if he would brush it now that he could hold it in his hand and see it ‘properly’. Finally, the tooth, all brushed, bathed and cleaned was laid down reverentially under the pillow.

Had there been a real tooth fairy she would have been thoroughly confused wondering where to check for the tooth considering Hrit changes rooms more than once during the night. Oh we have enough activity between 11pm and 6am to confuse the sanest of minds.. but then that’s another post.

Anyway the ‘tooth fairy’ decided to leave the task to morning and just before she woke the kids up for school, the tooth was smuggled away and some money found its way under the pillow to their immense excitement. Hrit looked like he couldn’t believe his eyes and is planning a major ‘eclair’ treat for his friends with the princely sum of 10 bucks.

I so so love this age. I’ll miss them when they grow up.

06/04/201213/09/2017

.. and so they graduated

First, here are a few things you must do at all school functions:1. Do NOT sit back, relax and enjoy the proceedings. Remember you are a smart proactive parent.
2. Make a video of the ENTIRE proceedings. Don’t bother about other parents struggling to get a snap, after all you’re the only one who needs memories of your child’s growing up years.
3. Make sure all family members attending the function are out of their seats, clicking. If your hifi handycam misses something it’ll surely be caught by the camera phone of one of the other family members. If one makes a video the others can click pictures.. of course you need both. Nothing is too much for your child.
4. Do not move away after you finish clicking pictures of your child. Don’t worry about blocking other parents’ view, after all their children aren’t half as special as yours.
5. Don’t forget to smile and wave at your child. So what if that makes him forget his part or spoils the formation, after all it’s just a small school programme. Exhibiting love for your child is way more important.
6. Do not bother to clap for other children. Their parents are there for them.
7. Do not bother to listen to or follow instructions that the lady at the mike is reiterating. Use the time to marvel at the pictures you’ve clicked and the video you’ve made.
8. Do not remain seated a second after the proceedings are over. You need to be the first parent to take your child home. It’s through small initiatives like these that you teach him/her that winning has to be the cornerstone of one’s existence.

Whew! Now since I’ve got all of that out of my system, onto happier things. Finally, after four years of school, the kids qualified for class 1. Though calling it a ‘graduation’ sounds a bit strange to my Indian ears I have to admit the ceremony was the sweetest ever.

N gets her ‘degree’

Don’t they look sweet?

That’s H raising the flag of Egypt in a song they performed

… and he gets his license for class 1

Picture quality’s not too good because I didn’t get down to doing this post until after the ceremony. Will post super-class video next time. Watch out.

01/08/200815/04/2017

A few firsts

Here are a few firsts from us
First potty in the pot
First time I agreed to wear clips in my hair. Hrit bhai bawled because he wanted clips too so mama put one on the pocket of his trousers which made me want to put mine on my pockets too… what’s the point of putting clips when you can’t see them at all! Anyway finally we went to school with mine in my hair and Hrit bhai’s on his pockets.
And now for the biggest first of all – Hrit bhai can count up to ten. Every night papa counts with him and one day he just went on without papa’s help!
Talking of firsts — here are some more… we’re eating dal roti regularly these days so mama’s most potent fear that we’ll be the first twenty year olds of the world who will survive on mashed food have finally been put to rest. We’ve also started eating egg which makes mama feels soooo good.
Rinku masi get very irritated because mama’s happiness so depends on how much food we’ve eaten. I guess even she didn’t know it mattered so much to her but apparently it does.