A Mother's Day to Remember

I am not great at preserving or taking care of stuff. I don't remember birthdays and I don't remember where I left my glasses. Maybe DD has inherited this awesome trait from me. She also doesn't find her stuff when we need it. She'll know where her sunscreen is, after we've bought a new one. But DD seems to remember dates. That's a huge achievement in the family because except for memorizing the dates of war in history classes, I need to be reminded about people's birthdays and anniversaries. I am sorry I didn't remember your birthday, but now you know why.

This is my sixth mother's day. Yes, time flies, yes, it doesn't seem real, yes DD has indeed grown up so fast! That's something I can't fight against, and am not going to, at this stage. It's a losing battle, she has to grow up and I am trying to come to terms with it. Trying being the keyword. But I don't want to burden you with my struggles and immense emotions. I want to share just the happy emotions here, and that's the fact that this year's mother's day was arguably the best. No offense to hubby who's tried to be super creative and make up for D's motor skills. This one was particularly awesome because not only did D know  about Mother's Day, she understood the concept of secrecy and kept her gift a secret from me. Of course her father was in on it. She had to tell someone!

Her class teacher was the one who taught them to keep it all a secret, and boy did she do a good job!

She did not give in to my incessant coaxing and pleas either. "My teacher said so..." If only she listened to half of what I say. 

Anyway, Sunday came and she did not need to be reminded.

She hugged me, gave me a slurpy kiss and wished me a Very Happy Mother's Day. 

All the kids may have written the exact same thing, but it still moved me to bits. 

She said she loves me a lot because I am kind and help her read and write. That I will be the happiest when she learns, that I am awesome because I write and tell her stories and she'll always love me. 

She also made me a poster with anime like characters of me and her, her love was clearly overflowing, and she also made me a really big bracelet. 

I cherish these. I don't know where her 3-D creations are right now, she makes so many everyday, but I was prudent enough to snap pictures. So they're there... somewhere, but I know I can see them whenever I want. They're in 2-D,  2 deep in my memory.

This is how we do it!

Taekwondo is a Korean martial arts form. Contrary to Kung fu - the martial art form from China, Taekwondo focuses more on kicks than on hand movements. 

DD and I do one of these two forms of martial arts. Watching DD, I am pretty confused which. We are both yellow belts now. Her yellow is a darker shade than mine, so she says its closer to orange and so she's more qualified than I am. 

A typical day at our martial arts class begins with us walking in - sorry my walking in and her prancing in. The day she isn't prancing, the master gets worried. "Is everything OK with you, you didn't twirl and announce your entrance."

We need to change into our uniforms - I take 2 mins, she takes, 7 minutes - 3 minutes to talk and report her day at school to the Master, 2 minutes to prance into the changing room and hear my lecture on the importance of 'hurrying up' to class and 2 more minutes to actually change. 

"Line up" the Master announces. DD doesn't walk to her spot, as you may have already guessed, she twirls up to it. 

There's a break after every move, because DD has some observation that she absolutely has to make, "Master, your pinky is sticking out", she'll correct the teacher or "One inch lower", she'll tell the whole class when we are doing our stretches. 

She uses her hands a lot, the tiniest person in class, that's the only way she can meet any of us half way. Her kicks start with plies. Her hand moves have a musical twirl to them and she keys up at the end of her forms and moves in an orchestral note. While the rest of us shout, "Haai!", she sings, "Haaaaaaaaaiiiiiiiiii."

The Master is always amused with her, but DD does her forms and moves well, its just the background score that's not in line with the main performance. "She'll learn, she's only in kindergarten" the Master justifies.

I would have believed that, had a similar thing not happened in her tennis class. All ready positions were different plies. She dressed up in jingling skirts and flowing dresses for a tennis class. The coach would watch her twirl and spin and come to her position. "Give us a a big hit!" he'd say and she'd dance back and forth and hit the ball, well, just about touch it, and twirl and smile and sing and go back to her place. "Well, she's only 4." the coach would say. 

"So how was class today" Ady would ask and she'll say, "Good!"
"Did she dance?" Ady will turn to me and ask.
"Did the Sun rise from the East today?" I'll respond.

"This is how we do it, Mamma" she'll say when I try correcting her. The 'we' of course is just her.

I'm just going on a wild guess here, but I think, I think,  my daughter likes ballet and if there's a ballet-fu or a  ballet-do or a ballet- tennis, she'll ace it!

(Image Courtesy: khongkitwiriyachan/freedigitalphotos.net)

Changing Priorities

Spring Break was a welcome breather. After the hectic curve balls from life, the few days off our routine was surely something we could use.

We wanted to go to a place that D would appreciate too. But a lot of fun for her meant not so much for us. Disney Land, Disney World or any other place starting with a Disney was out of question. Especially since the trailer of one of the most dreaded movies is out - yep Frozen. 

So we headed out to a water theme park after enjoying the Tulip festival. 

"What is the best vacation you've ever had?" Ady decided to ask toward the end of the trip. 

"You mean in my whole entire life?" D answered. 

"Yes, of course, your whole entire life." 

"India!" She answered. "I love going to India."

"Why?" Of course the father wanted to know all the reasons. "Is it because it is shiny and sparkly and has great clothes or is it because of your family?"

"It is because of my family in shiny bright clothes" came the reply. You ask a leading question, you get an expected reply. 

"Mamma, what about you?" D wanted to know.

"I love camping."

"Why?" Now she wanted to know my reasons. 

"Because its just 'us' time, and we get to talk and sing and dance..."

"And there's no internet..." Ady added.

"But there is no internet." D almost added at the same time. 

"What?" both Ady and I were shocked. "What did you say?"

"There is no internet. How will we play games, watch movies?"

"It is exactly why we like camping" Ady said. 

"No, I mean Mamma works on the internet too, so..." 

As usual, we were rendered speechless. It is the generation of sparkles, shiny clothes and the internet.