Rhea’s new picture pose.
She is now bored.
All smiles. From left to right…. Nutty, Suman, Charu and no-idea.
Charu, Rhea and Suman
Best friends
Something really really funny happened.
All formal and “quiet”
Suman and kids
Dance moves by Rhea – Robot like.
Totally Robot like.
Charu’s snake dance
Bored? Happy? Can’t tell.
Rhea at her Christmas recital. She had a sore throat so a lot of highs in the song were removed by her teacher. We offered her to back out and I am glad to say that she refused to do so.
My brother is visiting from the States and here is what the kids were upto…
My daughter, Rhea recently started vocal lessons and gave her first recital a month ago. She finally gave me her permission to post the video here.
I thought the piano was too loud. Other than that, I loved the fact that she was able to stand in front of people and sing.
These days hosting a kids birthday party is soooo darn easy.
Book a trampoline place : check
Get a birthday cake : check
Invite kid’s friends : check
Order a pizza, fruit and chips : check, check and check
Pay : cheque (sorry couldn’t resist ;) )
Drink the insipid coffee at the trampoline place : check
First some stretching
Then some jumping
Then some cake
Then cut the cake
Play a truth/dare game
Then watch the truth/dare game escalate to a cake fight.
But in the end it is quite endearing to watch the children have a great time!
Happy birthday kiddo!
“Dear mom and dad you know I never go to sleep but why can’t I? How about I change my bed time to 9:30pm to 7:30am? Then I will have enough rest and have more time to rest. What do you say? From you wonderful lovely daughter rhea please.”
The funny thing is that she has managed to push her bedtime steadily to 10pm!
My daughter got a book from the library titled “I Survived The Attacks Of11SEP2001”. Why she picked this book, I have no idea but I think the covermight have had something to do with it. Tall buildings on fire; People running; bold letters of the book title in red.
She read the first chapter and suddenly, she was full of questions. Why it happened? How it happened?
And this question really threw me off : “Did they arrest the pilots?”
In the mind of a child, there is no concept of mass murder, no concept of someone deliberately harming another human being for no reason. In the mind of a child, your actions may lead to damage (even that is alittle hard for a child to comprehend “why would they hit the buildings?”) but everyone has to face the music after the act.In the mind of a child everyone is pure. It is us adults who ruin that feeling and ruin the mindset that is desperately needed.
But then again, she needs to see what the world really is….sometimes a beautiful place and sometimes a heartless monster. I can only hope her thoughts will remain on track that they are on right now for as long a possible.
Well she is now singing and composing her own songs. Could not have been prouder of my little girl.
Candy Time!!!
“What? Me a devil?”
Counting her loot
My baby, not a baby anymore!
……the song is so prevalent in the house!!! I am singing it :(
Me and my baby watching the French Open.
Here’s my baby singing Celin Dion’s famous song. Yes, I do wish it was some other song but what the heck. Music is music!
Sometimes I think it’s too early to go into deep conversations with Rhea. She is still too young to comprehend irony, sarcasm and “what if…” scenarios. Which is why when the other day as we were driving past a cemetery and she asked “papa and mama, can I ask a question? I know that Christians and Muslims bury their dead. What do Hindus do?”
I knew right away that this conversation is going to places where we all would get very uncomfortable. I could have easily ended it with some nonchalant answer about this or that but I disagree with that kind of thought. So, I decided to take the plunge.
“Rhea, in Hinduism we cremate the dead”
To which she asks : “What’s cremation?”
There was no way getting around this – “Rhea, that’s when the dead body is laid out on wood and set on fire.”
The next few moments were crucial cause I could see that the information was sinking in and I knew what her next question would be…so I pre-empted it.
“Don’t be scared baby, the person is dead and does not feel a thing.”
This message took a little while to explain cause she had difficulty in comprehending that the person is gone and all that’s left is just the body. So the conversation went to what happens to the person after death. My reply was straightforward : “Nothing baby, when the person dies there is no “after”.”
This did not settle well with her and my wife told her about souls. Thankfully she started with “Some people believe……” And I tried to expand on the conversation but we could see it’s not making sense to her at all. And we left the conversation pending.
And I did not help matters when she asked me what was going to happen to me when I die. I should have just given her sound bites instead of saying “baby, after my organs are donated to people who need them, I will be cremated too.”
“WHAT DO YOU MEAN YOUR ORGANS WILL BE REMOVED FROM YOUR BODY??? YOU ARE FREAKING ME OUT”
Oh boy, took me forever to calm her down!
This happened a few weeks ago and in the meanwhile, she caught Harry Potter bug. She has watched the first two movies and has been insisting I get the book for her. We have been discussing the movie in detail including the deaths in the movies. I think she is a little more receptive to a broader discussion and I will be using the movie heavily for examples.
Thanks Ms. Rowling
This is the note that my daughter had left for me on my iPod.
“To papa I just what to say happy father’s day to you I love you so much that happy father’s day from’rhea
psYou are cutie.”
I have read this 20 times already and it still makes me feel all gooey and a little tearful.
My daughter called me yesterday and I was surprised to hear her voice at 2pm. She should have been in school! Turns out that she was pushed by a student (who is mentally challenged) and she got a bruise on her head.
As Rhea was narrating me the story, I felt a pit in my stomach and my first inclination was to abandon my work and reach her as soon as possible. But my next thought was “no”. She is a strong independent girl and she will handle it herself. And by all accounts (the way she was talking to me and at the same time telling me of the new J. Bieber song she was listening to) she seemed fine. Then what in the world was she doing at my in-laws house in the middle of the day?
Turns out that the school had called my in-laws (who live very near my daughter’s school) and they immediately went and picked her up. For a few moments I was REALLY angry with my mother-in-law. But then I realised they are just being grandparents. So I let it go.
Reason number 234 why I want to be working nearer to home and not 1 hour away.
Watching Rhea grow up is amazing. Here are some of things she has done that make me immensely proud of her.
Her favourite book these days is Rise And Shine Bunny. In the book a bunny rabbit wants to sleep late on a holiday and his mother allows him and goes to another room with the other kids.
At the end of the book the bunny rabbit realizes his mistake and apologises to his mom and his brothers at the dinning table. At this point Rhea stopped from reading and asked “papa, where is the father?”
“what do you mean?”
She said “how can mommy bunny take care of 4 children? Why is the father bunny not there to help? He must be a meany father”. And she continued the conversation in this line asking that on each picture in the book there was no father and the mommy was soing work lile making food and doing the laundary.
I was amazed at the perception by a 6 year old about the work involved in raising kids and the fact one of parents was missing.
My daughter is into listening heartbeats quite a lot these days. This is the conversation I had with her recently as I come out of the shower :
Rhea : “Papa, I want to hear your heart beat”
Me : “Sure, Rhea. “
She places her hand on the left side of the chest. Trying to correct her, I said “no Rhea, place your hand a little towards the center”
Rhea : “You mean between your two boogies”!!
LOL!!! Things that kids pick up from god knows where……
You are 2 years old today. It was exactly at 8.58 am on a Saturday morning in 2003 that you arrived in our lives. It is such a cliche to say “….your life will not be the same after a baby….” but it is SO TRUE. Our lives have been enriched with your presence and each day since 16th August 2003has been an adventure on it’s own.
We remember the first time you sat up and looked at us as if saying “what an amazing trick I have learned!!”
We remember the first time you stood up and promptly fell down on your bum and did it again, and again, and again, and again….
We remember the first time you walked (with the baby walker) and crashed into a pillar in the basement and fell over. I have it on tape so feel freeto use it when you want us committed to a home.
We remember your first faltering steps as if you were walking on stilts.
We remember your first word. It was SHOE. You pronounced it as SHOOOOOO.
Now you are a toddler…which means that you can throw a toy further than you used to.
It also means the cute way you used to kick a ball around in the kitchen is no longer cute when the ball you kick lands on the counter top while yourmom cooks!!
It used to be easy taking you to the park where you would stay strapped in the swing but now you run headlong down the slides as if safe hands will materialise and save you. I have lost count of the number of times you havescrapped your knees or landed on your face in the sand.
It used to be easy to take you for walks but now you insist on pushing the stroller or the wagon on your own and drive it into a ditch.
It used to be cute when you would get pissed off, now you hit us.
Your mom and I try not to scold you but sometimes you just infuriate us to no end. Your eating habits. Don’t get me started on your eating habit!! It takes, on an average, 45 minutes to feed you a bowl!! And for that 45 minutes we have to endure Dora, Shah Rukh Khan and the like. The mind numbing boredom that we feel saps out all the energy we have left at the end of a day. So when, at this point, you spit out your food, I am usually readyto tear my hair.
Whenever you are upset, you cry and run away from us like your world has fallen apart. You usually run to your designated “time-out” place which is the at the bottom of the stairs and you stay there until I or your mom come and get you.
You love to be outdoors. It is a treat to watch you play outside. Whenever you are in a bad mood taking you outdoors cures you instantly. Whenever we want to take your mind off something, going outside usually does the trick. The neighbour’s love to watch you play outside as well. They always thinkyou are the perfect happy child!!
Whenever I think of you while working at my office, I cannot help but smile even though you woke us at 4am the same day.
Your quick smile, your giggle, your way of tickling us, your way of kissing us, your way of teaching us from your book, your way of thrusting your hand on our lips and not removing it until we kiss it, your anger, your tantrums, your love for yogurt, your love for chicken slices, your love for Dora thatkeeps us wondering how empty our lives would have been without you.
Happy birthday, my love.
Papa.
I have been working on a project over the wekend and it was probably the first time that I have stayed away from you for over 24 hours. And the seperation anxiety I felt was nothing that I have ever felt before. The whole day at work I kept thinking of you. When I came home your mom had already told me about this cute thing that you have started and when I saw you do it I just wanted to kiss you for a long, long time.
There you were sitting with your new toy, a baby cot. You had the baby doll in it and you were putting baby blankets on her. You were looking so adorable doing it carefully and making sure that the blanket was not dnagling out of the cot. I shouted out loud “Rhea!!!” and you looked and me and put your finger to you r mouth and did a loud SHHHHH!!!! Your mom and I were in splits!!
Desi In Toronto 