A Major Crafts Project

Thanks to her pre-school, DD has immense interest in projects. She tries her hand at creating various crafts but as her mom lacks the tactile skill, she continues with her other passion - art projects.  Art is easy - she doesn't need help there, she just needs to color inside the lines. Well, I at least hope it's not complicated at 5.

It's only when she needs to glue stuff together or sew something, she needs adult support, rightfully so. But instead of seeking help from someone as uncoordinated as Mamma dearest, she'd much rather focus on building blocks or solving Jenga challenges. 

I was OK with all that till, the beginning of this week. DD's just about a week short of entering Kindergarten and that scares me. Once she starts, I know my little munchkin will turn into a super busy young girl. I want to hold on to DD as much as I can and if crafts is the way to do it, well, that's what I am going to do. 

So I brought the idea up to her. "Really?" she asked, half excitedly and half suspiciously. 

"Really"

"Ok!" she exclaimed. 

But what do we work on? I didn't want anything elaborate. She had just seen her grandma knit a sweater and I had clearly stated that that's a natural gift her mother could never acquire. So I was hoping she wouldn't want me to try crochet or some other complicated work either. 

"Let's go search for something to do" she declared. We started prowling around the house. Bead bracelets, she'd already done, rainbow loom - done to death, play dough dresses - done. Something else...God please, something, before she loses interest... and then I struck gold!

I found a pair of old jeans. Ady's of course. "You want to make something out of this?" I asked enthusiastically. 

"What? With Papa's giant pants?"

"Yeah...maybe we can make a table spread?"

"Or maybe we can use the pocket for something?" she said. Clearly the girl was more creative and had better ideas. 

So we set about. She got the scissors and I got the needle and thread. Her broken abacus beads were put to good use and the beads found a home on the pocket. 

So this is what we finally did. I won't lie, it took us 4 hours and I was thoroughly exhausted. I had to sew, remove and sew again multiple times before she was happy with the color coordination. By the time we were done, my faith in my assessment of my talent to create 3-D objects was reassured - I didn't have any and neither did I have the patience to sit through.

But the look on her face, after it was done - totally worth it. I would do it again in a heart beat, well not really. I'm probably going to find another interest in the next few days. "You wanna dance, D?"

Missing Someone to Infinity

We came to India, leaving Ady behind in Seattle about a month back. 
It was a much awaited vacation and D and I were very excited to visit our family. At the same time, we were disappointed that Ady wouldn't be able to join us.

It was a wonderful surprise when Ady did manage to make it to India for a couple of weeks and we did get to meet both sets of parents (his and mine) together. 

When we were about to board the flight, D couldn't curtail her enthusiasm. "Yay!" she screamed, "we are going to India."

"Why do you like going to India so much?" Ady wanted to know. 
"The clothes are so beautiful and shiny and sparkly." she said. 
"So you are going for the clothes?" Ady asked. 
"... And to meet my family - thata, paati, dadda, daadi, bui, my friends and cousins"
"But it's mainly due to the clothes?"
"No." she instantly replied. "Even the jewelry -the bangles, chains, earrings.."
While we were amused with her honesty, Ady really started feeling lonely. He was after all going to miss us for a good month and a half. He hadn't made a plan to visit us yet; if he did, he didn't tell us. 

"Will you miss me?" he asked, hugging his little daughter. 
"Yes!" came the reply on reflex. 
"How much?" the engineering brain needed quantification. 
"Umm.... 100" 
"That's it? I thought you'll miss me till infinity."
"But I can't miss you till infinity, papa"
"Why not? You don't love me?"
"I love you till infinity, papa, but I can't miss you till infinity."
"Why?"
"I love you till infinity because I love you a lot - it's huge and you can just not count till where I love you. But if I miss you till infinity, that means I can't meet you ever again. I want to meet you again papa and I know I will. So I don't want to miss you till infinity."

"That's so sweet, baby" I smiled, hugging papa and baby. 
"It really is" said Ady hugging us back.
"She understands the concept of infinity" the engineering brain whispered. 

Stop! Stop Now!

Every time we're on foot, I try and see if the coast is clear and there aren't any interesting personalities around. By coast, I mean the sidewalk and by interesting personalities I mean the police. No, nothing to hide here, just that the little girl who accompanies me gets so fascinated by them that she makes a dash toward them as soon as she see's one leaving me behind. 

The other day we were trying to negotiate a very difficult turn in heavy traffic, (it would have been a normal day back in India, but by Seattle standards, this was huge - 4 cars blocking the alley in front of the parking lot!) I was concentrating completely on selecting the next song to play on the iPod while DH was trying to navigate through the 'mess' without honking.  And DD... well, DD was surprisingly silent. She startled us, when all of a sudden she started screaming... "Stop, Stop!" 

"Are you OK?" I screamed looking back to her from the navigator seat. "Stop! Stop!" she kept screaming. 
"Can you pull over at the next turn?" I asked DH, just as the car in front of us made way.
"This is not India" he reprimanded me. "I can't stop just because your daughter feels like it."

"What's the matter, DD?" I asked ignoring the driver. 
"There's a police guy!" she yelled back. 
"See, she's warning you to be careful" I tried justifying.
"No" she immediately corrected me. "I want a badge from him."

You see, every time we see a cop or a fire man, DD makes it a point to ask him for a badge and they always oblige her with a 'Junior Officer' sticker badge. 

"This way, Sir" the officer pointed as he was clearing us to leave. 
"Put my window down! Put my window down!" DD screamed. 
"Put her window down!" I screamed too. 
And DH put all our windows down as he struggled turning around.
"Can I get a sticker?" DD screamed out, to beat the noise of moving cars outside. 
"Hun?" the cop was confused. 
"Sticker please?" DD smiled. Now, who can ignore such a plea? And she knows it. 
He looked at the traffic, at us, at DD and just said "I can't now, honey. It's in my jacket pocket, which is in my car. But the next officer you meet, ask him to give you two. Tell him I said so."
"Ok. Thank you" DD sighed and we finally did take the turn. 

"You were saying..." DH said. "How important was your daughter's scream?"
"Hey, she's practicing..."
"To stop the traffic?"
"To be a cop. She needs her badge."
He didn't argue. He knows better than that now. 

And yesterday, as we were walking down the street... this is what happened.