Radha on the Dance Floor

A lazy weekend.

The building’s cultural committee announces Janmashtami celebrations on Monday.

Kids could go dressed as Krishna or Radha and even perform, if they chose to.

I casually inform my daughter that she could dress up as Krishna or Radha.

She proudly pipes up, “I am a girl. I am going to go as Radha”.

Ok. I quickly make a mental note of what she could wear and the topic is forgotten.

She gets busy playing with her friends.

Sunday dinner time

A firm voice declares, “I want to dance tomorrow. Please teach me something.”

Of course, I dismiss it as a random statement. I am already mentally winding up for the night and preparing for the week ahead.

And I haven’t even thought of any performance. In my mind, there is not enough time to prepare her.

Dinner over.

She walks up to me and says – “Is your kitchen work over? Please come and teach me. I want to dance tomorrow.” 

I stare at her – blankly.

But she is sure.

What follows: Frenzy for the mommy

Mommy quickly wrapping up work.

Mommy mind multi-tasking and thinking of an apt song.

Ahaaa…. Of course… the recent “Radha on the dance floor”

Dishes are clanging.

Ummm no… that song would be too un-Janmashtami.

Leftovers packed and put in the fridge.

Oh yesssss… the eternal classic - Madhuban mein Radhika.

Cleaning up the kitchen platform.

What steps can I teach a determined little girl so that she could perform tomorrow?

And all the while she waits patiently.

Daddy is helping her with her night dress.

Finally I say, “OK, come. I shall try teaching you a few steps.”

1.5 minutes – not a very big deal, I convince myself.

She picks up the steps with rapt attention, practices a few times and declares – am ready.

But is the mommy mind ready?

a)  The program is the very next evening. She has school in the morning. So there is really no more practice time.

b)  Come to think of it, this would be her first solo performance. Won’t she get stage fright? Oh well ok, be prepared, she might just refuse to dance when on stage.

c)  She also wants to carry a real matka!! What if she drops and breaks it??

d)  And she wants to wear a veil !! Oh God, too much pressure on my mind.

All this for a 1.5 minutes performance (would be termed blink and miss performance).

D-day (or rather, next day)

She wakes quickly from her post-school afternoon siesta.

Willingly and very co-operatively gets ready for the dance.

Last moment, (as if my worries aren’t already enough) she comes up with a suggestion –

“Ma, wont you paint my fingers and palms red?”

Ohhhhhh??!!

The little brain understands that the mommy brain is dysfunctional at the moment.

Proactively fishes out her red sketch pen and hands it to me with a victorious smile.

And I get to work quickly on those little palms and finger tips.

I take her to the performance zone and wonder “Will she really go up alone on stage?”

Her daddy returns just in time to catch her. He asks her if she is prepared.

A nonchalant shrug of shoulders indicates “Of course!!”

And Radha goes on the dance floor.

It is not “just” 1.5 minutes anymore.

It is then 90 seconds of pure fun that she has, 90 seconds of pure joy that daddy and I derive.

90 seconds that tell me – calm down.

It’s us adults who have so many worries in the mind.

These young ones are free of all such inhibitions and are hence, brimming with confidence and happiness.

They are more capable than we think.

And those precious 90 seconds later, a delighted smiling face comes off the stage.

Oh, and what do we have here? Unexpected little stinging in the mommy eyes.

A little bit of pride – for the little one had confidently taken to the stage.

And more of happiness – mommy has always cherished the Indian classical dances, especially Kathak. And to realize that the little one is developing a love for such dance is so very heartening.

So… Here’s hoping that my little Radha continues to take to the dance floor. 💃

Sunny Summer Holidays… Part I

Adapting from the legend, Cliff Richards::

“We're all going on a summer holiday
No more working for a week month or two.
Fun and laughter on our summer holiday,
No more worries for me or you,
For a week month or two.”

The first summer holidays of the daughter... Yayyyy !!! 💃

And the first-time dilemma:

Enticing Summer Camps vs. Camping At Home

We grew up surrounded by family and cousins – never short of company or engrossing activities during the holidays.

In a nuclear set up, with the daddy at 48x7 work (+traveling) and the mommy on 24x7 child surveillance, it does become a little tough.

Especially because the mighty pre-schoolers have been bestowed with certain super powers –

Super activeness, Question bank-ness, Supernatural ability to discover hidden “treasures”, just to list a few.

And the summer camps nowadays promise:

To keep the child engaged with exciting activities = A few hours’ breather for the carer at home.

Nevertheless, Hubby and I decided to simply “Let Her Be”::

1) After all that’s what we did in our childhood, right?

2) Mommy is at home – so why not let the daughter enjoy at home too?

3) The motherly (and over-the-phone concurring grandmotherly) over-protectiveness kicked in – Let her sleep as much as she wants.

School days meant waking her up earlier (and she has surely done the parental genes proud – definitely not an early riser).

4) Add to that, “She gets to eat her favourite complete meals at proper times”. And, of course, our hearts did the melting number.

5) Plus, when would she use all the resources that she has at home?  Toys, books, puzzles, the works….

6) And our consciences chimed in - she’s only 3 after all. Shouldn’t she be allowed to do just “nothing”, too, if she so chooses?

Q.E.D. She’s going to camp at home.

Shhh…. trivia:

Mommy also wanted a break from the daily groove of dropping her to a camp, waiting around there for the couple of hours before bringing her back.

And what an awesome summer holiday this has turned out to be. The delight on kiddo’s face each time she could engage in a different / new activity, reassured me that I was faring pretty well on the summer holiday engagement meter.

A fond look at just some of our regular activities :-

(Note: when she chose to do so)

Rollerball Paints – Mommy (nearly) Faints

She found herself her first activity - Rollerball Paints gifted to her.

Seemed pretty trouble-free to me.

Needless to say, she had a thrilling squealing colourful fun-time.

But, mommy was definitely not prepared to handle the eventual disaster.

Not only the papers and the ground around, but also her little self and her clothes were now a riot of colours.

So mommy promptly decided to do an “Abracadabra…. Vanish….” act and vowed to tread with caution on forthcoming projects.

Luck By Chance

Let’s just calls this “Lucky To Have A Birthday Right Before Summer Holidays” phenomenon.

She got ample chance to explore her varied gifts.

As she lounged on her new inflatable Hippo, she leafed through her new (picture/ rhymes/ story) books, narrating her interpretation of stories to herself or to her entourage of “children”.

For the uninitiated, she considers herself a mother to all soft toys and dolls that she possesses!!

Crayons, colour pencils, colouring books, empty papers – all were fully utilised as the lips were pursed up and the colours thrown in.

Sound of Silence

I heard my pots and pans and dishes clanking around.

I realized it had been 20 minutes since no other sound had been heard – no non-stop chattering, no giggles, no sudden wails, no singing, no…. !!!!

What could she be up to?

Aaaah, I had valiantly handed over water-colours to her.  And she was colourfully engrossed.

Now before you wonder, “Whaaaaat??? Didn’t you learn from the first Rollerball mistake??”

Well, I did. And I did not repeat the oversight.

My summer holiday mommy brain had been coming up with innovative hacks.

We didn’t have an apron to save the clothes…

Eureka !! Out came the outgrown bathrobe à Made her wear it back to front à And we got ourselves a handy apron without spending extra bucks.

So, while the little painter would keep busy, I would finish my chores. This daily routine had a serene calm at our residence.

Homework Quirk

I don’t recall ever being so thrilled about “holiday homework”.

She knew her teachers had given her few homework sheets.

And she wanted to finish all the pairing, colouring and other activities at one shot.

Took a lot of gentle coaxing to make her understand that we could do this over the holiday period.

But then who wouldn’t want to do such fun stuff?

Rub-a-dub-dub, Kiddo In Her Tub

She loves water.  And her school had been engaging them in Water Play just before they closed for the holidays.

What a perfect idea to keep her cool in these hot months.

Now, getting an inflatable pool = Space occupied, unnecessarily.

So what to do? Thought of another clever little hack.

Got out her outgrown bathtub à Pretended it’s a mini swimming pool.

Made her wear her favourite swimming costume.

Got her little squirting animal friends to join her.

Voila! We had a shrieking splashing fun pool.

Kept an ear on the happy squeals, an intermittent watch on the kid (and animals), and there, I could finish some more errands while she cooled in her “pool”.

This Is The Way I Help My Mom

The best thing was to involve her in the regular house activities – and she revels in doing things “on my own”.

💝 So I got a mini helper assisting me with::

💝 Setting the bed

💝 Putting out clothes to dry à Taking them in again in the evening à Folding little items neatly

💝 Keeping washed dishes back in their designated places

💝 Shelling the last remaining fresh peas from the market

And the list is absolutely inexhaustible…

And that kept both of us really content and happy.

Pat A Cake, Pat A Cake, Baker Mom

Holiday time – a perfect time to bake that whole wheat banana cake or experiment with a super soft honey-soaked cake.

And obviously she wanted to be involved

Proudly wore her little apron, mixed the batter, helped me pour, stuffed some raisins in her mouth, licked some honey…

And then patiently kept watch in front of the oven, lest the cake runs away like the Gingerbread Man.

Love Thy Neighbour

And then we adopted the daily summer holiday custom –

She would waltz into the neighbour’s apartment to play with her bosom buddy.

And then the little girls would come over to enliven our place. (This deserves a dedicated post)

There would be a mess once play ceased for the day – but it is the happiest mess that I cherished.

Evening meant park time where she giggled as she ran through the sand, climbed up the slides (much preferred over sliding down!!), bonded with other kids and basically, had FUN.

A few “Play Dates”, loads of birthday parties … hence, more happiness and fun.

Sing, Dance, Make Merry

The perfect opportunity to take out that musical instrument lying unattended at home.

And to re-introduce the little one to the beautiful sounds.

The perfect chance to play the favourite songs and dance along with the mini trainer – she alone knows how she conjured up those funny dance moves and comical facial expressions.

But these would probably be the most enjoyable work out sessions I have had in a long long time.

What Next… Puzzled??

Not at all!!

She took out the multiple puzzles that she loves working on.

Cute fruits, animals, vehicles lined up the floor.

And she graduated to solving ones with more pieces.

Maximum Utilization of Resources

Never before have all her toys/ activities been so fully utilized.

💝 All story books were read.

💝 The colourful wooden blocks were used to build many a houses.

💝 The cooking sets were utilised to whip up interesting fare like apple soup, strawberry chicken and whatever she deemed exotic.

💝 The Play dough was rolled out into various forms.

💝 The toy train set chugged along.

💝 Meows, Bow wows, Moos, Howls and Growls filled the house as Toy animals stepped out of the cupboard.

💝 Mommy totally enjoyed doing finger puppet stories for her.

Cherry on the Cake

Could a perfect summer holiday be complete without flying off to the granny’s place?

And that shall be the next blog post.

Till then… let me reflect on all the fun that the daughter lavished upon me this summer.😃

Daddy Daddy Cool… Cool !!

It’s the Two-s, I tell you.

It is day Two of this month - our Two year old tot completes Two months at her preschool and the Two of us couldn’t be happier with our choice.

The last Two months have been a whirlwind of settling her down – and well settling us down too - so hadn’t quite settled my mind to reminisce about the first day!!

So, after I dropped her off to school, took a deep breath & thought about the saga that led to today.

A few months back…

Mr Cucumber devolved on Ms Nutty, the “delightful” responsibility of selecting the pre-school where Miss Apple would start her “education”.

To clarify - Daddy is the Cool Cucumber avatar. Daughter is the Apple of our eye. Thus, in this simile game, I must be the crazy Nut!!

Now hats off to fabulous persistent advertising, branded pre-schools were deeply embedded in my psyche. Badgered by me, the Two of us (plus an unsuspecting little one) made the trip to Two such schools on Two consecutive weekends.

“Oh baby!” I thought, as she sat on my lap in the car, “You are going to be away from us for at least Two hours.”

“Chill darling – she needs to start school someday”, Mr Cucumber speaks up.

“Yeah right” – I snarled in my mind – “Easy for you to say because you don’t spend 24 hours with her.”

The Right Choice at the Right Time

But the school visits put us in dilemma.

Dilemma #One: Where is that instant “connect” we were supposed to feel with the school?

Dilemma #Two:: But we wanted to keep her school within Two kms of our residence.

Though unconvinced, we were about to finalise a school for her, when at the right moment, a dear friend purred into the phone “Montessori still exists darrrrrling !!” [Grateful forever, dear friend]

Voila! I had now shortlisted the methodology that I wanted our daughter to get inducted into.

Turned to the friendly search engine which led us to a friendly school.

Two things made up our two minds –

#One) The feel of the quaint school with a lovely garden.

#Two) The interaction with their crew.

Now we were sure - this is where our darling would start her formal education - a friendly secure environment.

Going Nutssssss

And Ms Nutty set out to prepare for the D-day, going nuts over

• what would Apple wear on the first day
• what we need to carry for her: hankies, socks, diapers, change of clothes...∞
• “THE” right bottle
• figuring out what would be the right combo of snacks to send
• labelling everything
• memorising the route to and from school to fulfil the drop-pick up duty
• locating yoga/ music/ dance/ swimming/ crafts/…. heck, whatever classes [a café would also suffice] nearby to keep me occupied
• meticulous planning of which of us would stay and for how long with her in the first week

And the list is not even exhaustive.

Oh yes, Cucumber has been missing for a while.

Exactly [angry feeling] – he was missing in the entire ideation process [though he was helping me execute some]

And me, well I had these moments of angst and hence ire towards the man – “Hello … aren’t you supposed to be a little more involved?”... and listen to my plans for the zillionth time.

Confession here – Admired how he could be so placid.

D-Day

D-day was here. Finally, dressed the Apple in a pretty red dress – a blessing from my mom.

We drove her to school –

~ Nutcase obsessing over mandatory milestone photos to be clicked

~ Cucumber with his sedate demeanour intact

~ Apple, clueless again

And then the moment – as imaginary trumpets played in my mind, a friendly “aunty” stretched out her hand and took the unsuspecting little one inside.

Lump in my throat. Couldn’t believe my child who had so long been under my protective wings is flying off to a new start.

And I was just wondering if I should shed some tears (had heard so much about this – I always thought I would manage some too). 

Alas! Before the droplets could make their way from the catchment area, I happened to glance to my right.

Where Is Cucumber??

What’s happening?? Help! A goofy grin is conquering my face!!

           

And Cucumber wasn’t to be seen!!

In his place I saw an emotional daddy with anxious eyes and a brave face. And did I just catch a lump in his throat too?

He just kept staring… at the little back crossing the threshold & going in to explore what would be her environment for the next few years.

“Has she really grown that fast?! I still recall holding the little swaddled bundle in my arms – cautiously so as not to drop her, so as not to wake her up. And she’s already off to school??!!”

Nutty could just grin & nod.

“She didn’t even turn to look at us”

[aaah well, she did come running out 10 minutes later looking for us and with tear-streaked cheeks]

“Do you think she will be fine inside? She’s never been without us. What would she be doing? Will she manage to take care of herself? Did we have to put her in this early?”

[Daddy, it’s been just Two minutes and the teachers around her are very confident and capable]

Nutty grins confidently – “She will be fine”.

Je-Kool And Hyde

So that’s it Daddy!! 

The calm Je-(cool)-kyll demeanour was something that I saw and was perhaps a way to keep the Nut calm.

But in all my nuttiness, had missed that you are Hyde-ing this deep concern about our precious one being away from us. That although you would be happy and proud, you have been apprehensive about the moment when she might not require us anymore for some stuff that she would now independently handle.

And you might, with all your Daddy might, want to hang on to the moments that are fleeting by.

Yes daddy - your darling princess, your precious doll is now out to explore the world. She has indeed grown Two fast :)