Rhyme and Rhythm

Sparsh has been treating us to some wonderful songs for past few weeks...just realized that it was all for the rhyme and rhythm day at school! Looks like the little master did pretty well!

Festivals of 2012

Festivals are integral to a culture rich upbringing. I am glad that schools are reinforcing the same by celebrating all festivals irrespective of the faith and belief. Festivals make ordinary days special and here is a glimpse of how Sparsh celebrated the recent festivals-

What goes in the tiffin??!!

Big school means big infrastructure which means a little distant location..long bus rides..longer time away from home and therefore need for a filling snack in the tiffin! All this is very unlike a two hour playschool where tiffin is more meant to teach sharing and less focused on really eating!

Well the early attempts to give healthy food like dosa and paranthas were futile as the tiffin came back almost untouched. I next resorted to dry and cruncy food like chikkis, pop corns, honey loops, etc.. But how long can we put the same stuff so slowly started introducing fruits..and to my surprise the tiffin can empty..fruits seemed to have worked. But again everything gets repetitive after a period of time and just when I was running out of ideas, this came to my rescue-

http://www.archanaskitchen.com/kids

real simple, real easy and real healthy...well i guess I am not running out of options till the time that Archana is around :-)

Greenwood High Saga

School.....probably the word that takes most adults on a trip down the memory lane bringing back all the experiences which probably shaped what we have become today. because I attach so much importance to a school and its significance in our lives, we spent a lot of time before we zeroed on "Greenwood High" as the Alma mater for Sparsh.

He officially started school today without any tears on tantrums and as we waved our hands watching him board the school bus could not hold back the tears which signified my little boys new found independence. Wishing him all the very best in life...muaaah!

Own room in new honeycomb

Life has moved on and we did make a few upgrades here and there. Finally it was the turn for a new honeycomb and as we toiled to transform a new condo into our new home. The best part of all this was decorating Sparsh's new room in "Car Theme"! We were probably more excited than him about doing the room and sure are please with the end results. Here is a sneak peek!

Summer of 2012

Sparsh's first summer camp! he had loads of fun with interesting themes like- Space, healthy food, environment and best out of waste!

Feels like a fish!

Everybody says that Sparsh is a water baby and they have reason to say so considering he takes to water so naturally. This video captures his first attempt at swimming( off course with floaters!).

Graduation- from playschool!

Graduation!!!! Blame it on lack of touch with modern times...but a graduation ceremony is what we had least expected from the annual bash at Sparsh's play school! To top is Sparsh was the first one to walk up to the stage to receive his graduation certificate, clad in a gown and hat :-).
My heart skipped a beat as the crowd cheered for him (I guess most of them were in the same boat as us and were not expecting a full-fledged graduation ceremony) and he stood there with all the grace...for us it was more of a flash forward of what might really happen two decades later...but this was as serious and as important as the one to come :-). Congrats Sparsh!

Aaj mere Mama ki shaadi hai!

Sparsh has been to a few weddings in the past but this one was special because it was "Mama's wedding"! My nanha sarbala was looking the cutest in his ethnic and formal clothes. Hmmm.....one day he will become a groom too and marry the women of his dreams..hope I will be around to witness and bless :-).

Hathe Khori!

Here is to the beginning of a long innings of learning! Sparsh performed Hathe Khori with the blessings of Goddess Saraswati...now he is officially all set for the big school :-).

Cousins in arms!

Thanks to much younger cousins and siblings we had not been attending a lot of weddings since Sparsh was born. It was his first experience to attend a wedding when his Chahu got hitched and wedding was scheduled at Jamshedpur.

My boy is not a big fan of fireworks so the baraat part was not so happening for him but he did like the company of his one and only cousin- Tamanna. Cousins are an integral part of growing up and the first friends to hang out with. I wish my boy lots of happiness and fun out of these beautiful relationships :-) !

Kolkata!

Sparsh's first trip to his grandmother's place at Jamshedpur since he has become more aware of his surroundings. We had an adventurous journey which included a much delayed flight, possibility of missing the connecting train and numerous calls to family back at home to help us make alternate arrangements.

The city of joy failed to impress Sparsh and he disliked everything right from the mess to find the pre-paid taxi at airport, to the old and beaten yellow cab and then the much crowded Howrah station. Even the trams failed to impress an otherwise vehicle enthusiast.

Well, I look forward to a much better experience next time..till then "All the best Kolkata"!

Kicking off the troublesome threes!

So troublesome threes have entered our lives. I am not sure if it is totally a mind game or is it true that the kids behavior changes drastically after his each birthday. He started talking non-stop right after his second birthday and he has become the trouble-maker right after his third.

Any which ways, after a small celebration at school, we celebrated his third birthday at home with a "Dino" theme. Sparsh did love his cake and was super excited to host our little guests in the evening. Here is a glimpse-

And the cycle begins!

Finally, Sparsh got what he had been desiring for a long long time- a bicycle! While we still thought that he is not big enough to ride one..he took to it like a pro and is extremely thrilled about this 3rd birthday gift from his grand-mother.

Sports day!

Sparsh had been preparing hard for the Sports Day at school and the results were obvious when all proud parents clapped in unison on the splendid show put up by the young ones! He also got the best advise from his favorite Doctor aunty that "participation is more important than winning" !

I hope he grows up to be as great a sportsman as his father was in college :-) !

Fancy Dress!

So it was fancy dress time at school again and this time the theme was "community helpers". We deliberated over a lot of roles and then zeroed down on "Policeman" partially because of the availability of costume and also because of Sparsh's slight interest in guns.

The dude looked cute in the attire and now he firmly wants to become a policeman when he grows up!

The independence in field trips!

I am glad that Sparsh is very fond of his playschool. he likes his sense of independence and was simply overjoyed about the recent school field trips to a Nursery, Aeronautics Museum and a Fire Station. The excitement stayed for days and he is now an authority on plants, air-crafts and fire-brigades :-)

Childrens' day with Tin-Tin!

So..we celebrated Sparsh's third childrens' day with a movie! Yes, our first full movie in a Theater with Sparsh :-).

And we bought him a McDonald's playset...and he is grinning cheek to cheek!!!

Doraemon!

Finally...Doraemon has captured our living room too!That damn thing plays on TV the whole day long and my lil boy who used to hate watching TV has suddenly become a big fan of this twenty second century cat!

But let me tell you..I like watching the episodes too..kind of a stress-buster for me as well..only if Nobita cried a lil less :-).

Nose Job!

Nose Job..but of a different kind! So the little genius was playing with my mother's "Churan golis" and was perfectly fine. Suddenly I saw a green discharge from his nose. A totally alarmed me looked at it closely and was shocked to notice that it smelled like churan. Sparsh got scared looking at my expression and immediately started pretending that he is asleep and not aware of anything that he has done to his nose.

It was close to 11pm and my father made some frantic calls to the ENTs that he knew but none was available at that hour. Finally I myself tried to push that big churan goli out of his nose by applying slight pressure. The goli was out after 20 minutes, but thru those 20 minutes I felt like I was operating a major surgery in the OT. And the lil genius was back to jumping right after the goli was out!