Empty Nest

So early this morning Dad and Jean left... the last of our holiday guests. It was so much fun spending Christmas together and now the place seems empty. For several days there were 10 people in our house sharing two bathrooms, sleeping in three bedrooms and on one futon couch... and it really didn't feel too crowded, but it's my thing to be surrounded by friends and family. Pile them on... the more the merrier is how I see it. I would forgo the family gift exchange every year if we could spend this holiday together. We had some snow this year, giving us a dreamy white Christmas. Of course, Christmas day was filled with gift opening and a nice big meal, but probably my favorite moment of the visit was one night when we stayed up playing games after putting the kids to bed. We had hoped to fit in another night of game-playing... but the kids really wore us out and we couldn't outlast them too many nights. Anyway, it's back to the regular routine around here and the return of a certain privacy and quietness that we're accustomed to.

Does It Have Wheels? I Want It.

Sanjay is into anything that has wheels... you name it, cars, trains, buses, bikes and fire trucks... he loves them all. So much so that he even sleeps with them. Today he got a monster truck (slightly bigger than a matchbox car) from his big sister in his stocking and he hasn't let it out of his sight since. He thinks that monsters ride in it... doesn't realize that the name "monster truck" comes from it's large size. Anyway, it's his new fave and so tonight it had to go to bed with him. He lines up the things-with-wheels between the 2 pillows on his bed. They park nicely in a straight line all night long. When I tucked him in, he insisted that I cover the monster truck, too. So, I pulled the blanket up covering the monster truck entirely. "No... no, Mommy, like this", Sanjay says as he adjusts the blanket down a bit on the truck so that only the windshield and hood are showing. I guess he didn't want the truck to get scared in the dark! This is also the reason he sleeps with his arms tucked all the way under the covers... he does this every night when I cover him up.

Seriously Suspicious

This year Priya has lots of Santa questions... too many... it's making me nervous. I really need to study up for next year and have some planned responses. I am thinking for sure next year, we'll have to use special wrapping paper for the Santa gifts... something she hasn't seen me use at home. In fact, there's a good chance that she'll notice this year, but luckily we have left the paper in the living room by the tree, so I'll just tell her that Santa borrowed it. I think she'll buy that, but she's a bright one, that Priya. We drove around looking at Christmas lights tonight and that really got her mind wandering. Paraphrased, here are some of the things that she brought to my attention about that mysterious, but jolly fellow we call Santa Claus:

This is a hard decision...but if I haven't seen Santa, he can still be true. I can still believe in him. Who else could do all the stuff that he does?

Does he write "To: Someone, From: Santa" on the tags on the presents? If he does then he must be real because it says it's from him.

She actually flat out asked me a couple of weeks back... "Is Santa real?". Of course, my reply was "yes", but I chose not to elaborate. Seeking proof, she said "Well, have you ever seen him?". So I told her that I've seen him in the malls and at the North Pole (amusement park in Colo Spgs). Whew... again my answer was brief and as soon as possible I changed the subject. There's got to be some advice out there for the parents who are going through this for the first time... I seriously think next year I'll try to find some answers for my interrogating little girl.

Priya's Poem

What a lovely night for looking at Christmas lights. Snow is falling... it's a chilling 24 degrees outside and we're within a few days of Christmas. It's just me, Priya and Sanjay in the car and suddenly Priya starts singing a little jingle that she made up spontaneously as we were driving. It's so cute and nicely rhymed that I thought I would include it here so we don't forget it.

Santa's sleigh is as big as the day.

His reindeer pick up their feet.

Rudolf is the one with the nose that glows

like the traffic lights on the street.

When It Comes I Wanna Wail.... Mail!

For most of the year I don't know when our mail lady comes... and for that matter, I'm surprised I haven't been automatically put on "hold mail" by the post office because my mailbox has been overflowing with unwanted, un-picked-up mail more than once. Now that the holiday is upon us, I know my mail lady arrives at or before 11am, she's usually wearing a Santa hat and she recently got a bigger mail truck. At Christmas I can hardly wait for those cards and especially the handcrafted notes about what happened this year in my friends lives. Love it, Love it, Love it! And each year when I think of shortening my Christmas card mailing list, thoughts of return mail by the dozens keep me from doing it. It's really nice to catch up with the long distance friends and see pictures of what they look like at least once during the year. The best part about the Christmas card tradition is that it starts in early December and goes through Christmas so that means personal mail, my name hand-written on the front of the envelope kind of mail, coming to my house for weeks at a time. Love it, Love it, Love it! Oops, did I already say that?

Funny Things They Say

Sanjay's got a runny, runny nose and a runny, runny bottom... he's been like this for a couple of days now. At night, Bartee insists that we apply Vick's to keep his nose clear. After the application tonight, Sanjay comes to me with a shiny face and says "I don't want it on my forward head". Even after I say, "Did Daddy put it on your forehead?", he still repeats the same "I don't want it on my forward head". How cute! He'll be one day using all the right words for things and we'll miss these funny mistakes he makes while learning English. The other thing he's been doing is when we are watching a TV show, he'll say "When it gets to the end, it will be over"... as if he's really figured something out and he's letting us in on it. Totally cracks me up.

Letter To Santa

So Priya tells me that she has written a letter to Santa. Evidentally, this is what it says...

Dear Santa,

I've been wishing for skates and a sweater for a long time, but now I want a play set with animals and a person. Will you please think about getting it? If you can't make or get that toy, just get something that you would think I'd like.

Love,

Priya

Then she wrote one short and sweet one for Sanjay which says, "Sanjay wants a truck with cars in it".

Sanjay's Story

While coloring a page with a picture of a frog, Sanjay says to me, "I will tell you a story". And, then he proceeds to ramble these words...

"Once upon a time, a frog came and then a bad guy came and killed him. A girl came and then some more family comes with some frogs and some frogs comes with some help. Then they go to the doctor, then a firefighter truck came and put some fire on the frogs and they put some fire on the house, too. And the house was broken. All the frog families and the person families and then the two bad guys were killing the frogs. The End. And some more bad guys and some more firefighters and some more bad guys and some more firefighters and some more bad guys and some more firefighters came and fight them. They were trying to get the fire things and some guns and killing the bad guys. They were trying to kill them but they can't, but then they shoot one of the bad guys then they get all of the bad guys. And then they shoot one of the firefighters and then they get all of the firefighters. The End."

Ok, clearly we have grammar issues... but the violence, too? I keep chalking it up to him being a boy and all, since Priya didn't use the word "kill" until she was at least twice as old as he is now. Hopefully, I'm not taking this too lightly.

The Dream Is Coming... or Is That Sanjay That I Hear?

The alarm rings at 4:45am for me to wake up for swimming and not 5 minutes later, I see a light shining from Sanjay's room as he quietly walks over and asks me to hold him. Once he climbs in bed with us, he says, "The dream is coming" which we knew meant he had a bad dream. This fearless boy is suddenly starting to be afraid. It turns out his dream was about spiders... spiders walking on his leg. This is the first time he's ever come to us in the middle of the night... and hopefully it will be the last, although honestly I was looking forward to snuggling with my little man. It was all I could do to pull myself out of bed this morning to swim instead.

Christmas Countdown

I feel like it's under control finally. For the past couple of weeks I've been overwhelmed with all that needs to be done for Christmas and I've slowly been checking things off the list. Teacher's Gifts, Fix Light in Kitchen, Annual Family Newsletter with Christmas Cards, Shopping for Gifts, Those Family Calendars, Put Up Christmas Decorations, well, you know the drill. But, I can finally see the list is dwindling and it's time to enjoy this beautiful time of year.

This year the kids are old enough to help with the tree trimming... the only problem is that they finish in about 5 minutes flat. I prefer to take more time, enjoying the Christmas music in the background and generally spending time together as a family. Now that the house is festive, Sanjay is growing more and more impatient waiting for Santa Claus. He's been asking, "Mom, when is Santa gonna be here?". At least we've got him focused on Christmas now instead of his birthday, but it's still more than two weeks away... an eternity for this soon-to-be 3 year old.

Let There Be Light

After nearly 3 full days working on the installation of some new kitchen lights, I think I'm done. Ok, I say that like I did all the work when in reality it was Laura, my handy-dandy neighbor who took charge of the project. There were some glitches, yes... lots of them actually, but I learned a little bit in the process. The most important thing I learned is that I'm not doing this again and the next time I say, "I think I can do this" pertaining to something around the house, someone should just slap me. I should really just stick to taking pictures and digital photo enhancing and stuff that I'm reasonably good at.

We had to remove the old light box fixture, move the ceiling holes over a few inches so that we could install a metal plate to the beam, patch the ceiling, paint the ceiling and finally hang the new light fixtures. This involved at least 4 trips to Lowe's and lots of free labor from Laura. I have a new respect for people that do this type of work. They really make it look so easy. So, the kitchen looks better for it and let's hope there's been some value-added by going through this... I'm anxious to see if my family notices anything different when they come at Christmas.

1, 2, 3 ... 100... 200... 10 100... Infinity

Priya has recently been fascinated with numbers, particularly counting higher and higher. She knows that infinity is the highest number but doesn't really understand that, no matter how hard you try, you cannot physically count that high. On the ride home from the condo she was challenging herself to count and she proudly proclaimed that she had successfully counted to 215, then asked how high I could count. We talked about counting being a pattern, so once you know the pattern you can count forever or at least until you get tired of doing it. After thinking on this for a while, she says... “I probably can count to ten one hundred”. It made me chuckle to see her brain working like this... very logical considering she hasn't been taught the number one thousand yet.

The Secret Behind Character Costumes

So, I think Sanjay has figured it out. The chicken on the street corner holding a sign for “Free Wings – This Way” and the tiger on the sidelines of a football game... yeah, well they aren't for real. He knows now that there is one of us silly adults behind every good character costume. He told me so last night when he pointed out the tiger on TV. I asked him, “Was it a real tiger?”... and he looked at me like I should've known better and said, “No, it's a pretend tiger. There's a person inside.”

Before this, there were only hints of suspicion. Once when he was too young to have figured it out, he said about the chicken on the corner, “Mommy, that chicken has shoes.” Good observation little one, real chickens don't wear shoes. And, then during Book Fair at Priya's school back in October, he met Clifford, Curious George and Geronimo. The adults in the costumes were so patient with him as he asked for hug after hug after hug. We had to drop something off inside at the school office and the characters were finished their greeting duty so they came inside to strip down. Well, Clifford took his head off right there in the middle of the hallway and when Sanjay and I walked out of the office into this, he was visibly devastated. He couldn't take his eyes off this human-headed Clifford. He was confused, bewildered, shocked... and my heart went out to the little guy. The belief in these bigger-than-life characters would have gone on longer, I believe, if he hadn't seen this now. While walking out to the car he kept repeating... “Someone hurt Clifford” and it was on his mind for the rest of the day. With Halloween following quickly behind this incident, I think that sealed the deal. He is now convinced that these big, furry characters are really just us adults in costume. Sanjay, you seem to young to know this already... how can I help you hold on to the magic??

Age Stifles Creativity

Kids see things differently. They just do and I love it. I wish I could bring some of this free thinking back into my life sometimes. At lunch the other day, Sanjay is facing the bay window and looking outside while he eats his rice. The birds are flying from tree to tree and he says so seriously, "The birds are making a show for us". How interesting that he thinks they choreographed their moves and flight so that we, the humans, could be entertained. His statement reminded me of something someone told me in college of her childhood. She used to believe that the stars in the night sky were the air holes for us to breathe. The earth a glass jar and its inhabitants the captured fireflys of the giants. What if she's right??

You're So Glad of Me

Sanjay is getting the hang of it. He hasn't pooped in a diaper for 2 days. He's been using the potty and insisting on wearing "underwear pants". This morning after a successful splash-down of the brown stuff, he called me in to see what he'd done. He immediately declared, "Mommy, you're so glad of me" and gave me a big hug and kiss. All morning he's been without a diaper and as I'm writing this I just realized that I put him down for a nap in regular underwear. Oops. That was actually unintentional and I'm sure I'll be paying for it in about 1 ½ hours. It looks like at least in his waking hours, he can tell when he has to use the bathroom. Big strides for this little boy.

Priya's People

Priya's drawings these days have lots of expression and detail. She has a unique way of drawing people and I want to document it here so I can remember how they look. I love the bell-bottoms that her people are always wearing. They seem to have arms of rubber that bend gently at the elbow and hands with 3 fingers that are always waving. Most often they are leaning left at approximately the same angle and they generally have brown skin, matching the way she sees herself. Here are some examples to treasure:




These are quite an improvement over her first attempt at drawing a face, this one with the big ears, back in March 2004:

Back To School

Well, it's back to school after a week long vacation. It felt a little like the first day of school when I checked and double-checked everything... lunch packed?, daily folder empty?, water bottle filled up?, quiet-time blanket washed and in backpack?. Ok, so I forgot the quiet-time blanket, but 3 out of 4 isn't too bad.

She was feeling sad about heading back to school. All the kindergarten friends can't make up for the comfort of home. During the drive we talked about kids that go to school at home... she wanted to know how they figure out what to do on what day? How do they keep the same schedule as her kindergarten class? Then she asked me if she could be home-schooled. And, once we got into the parking lot at school she wanted parent-pickup today instead of a ride home on the bus because then "I can see you sooner". It broke my heart to leave her at school this morning... we'll miss each other, but I have to stay strong and help her through these transitions. I agreed to do parent-pickup today, but she'll ride the bus the rest of the week.

Her behavior today caused a flashback to a time when I was her age... I can remember vividly the first day of school (for at least the first couple of years of elementary school) begging my Mom to drive me to school instead of send me on the bus. Each year, she insisted that I be brave and ride instead. I don't know whether or not this made me a stronger person, but it seems like the right thing to do. Even if you wait until the next day, the first time you step on the bus it'll be your first day on the bus, so why not make it coincide with the other kids who are already on the bus waiting for you?

Life Lessons from Priya

In the car on the way home from Golden Corral... she suddenly reminds us:

"Always remember this... trees are the real heroes. They give us air, they grow food, they give us wood and paper".

Happy Birthday Priya

Finally it's here... the long awaited birthday. For at least 2 weeks we have been answering questions like "How many days until Mommy's birthday?", "How many days after Mommy's birthday is my birthday?", "When is my real birthday?", "When is my birthday party?", "Will you promise that you'll get me a gift card from Target and something else?", "Can I open those gifts on my real birthday?", "Is it Saturday yet?"... well, you get the idea. I have never seen her so anxious about her birthday, so I was hoping that today wouldn't be spoiled by all the hype.

After opening the family gifts this morning, we went to see "The Bee Movie" in the afternoon and let Priya choose her favorite restaurant for dinner. She decided on Golden Corral which made me very happy and made Bartee really sad. Birthdays are about the only way we can drag Daddy to our favorite home-cooked buffet-style place. As it turns out, we received some surprise birthday benefits. Bonus points for the Corral!! While getting our drinks, I decided to ask if they do anything special for birthdays, and the lady mentioned that they will come out and sing. I have never seen this at Golden Corral before... something to keep in the back pocket for unsuspecting friends. Anyway, then she mentioned while ringing us up that she would "comp" Priya's meal. Wow... unexpected savings... we may have even won points with Daddy here. Just about through with our meal, and the waiter, Matt, comes over and says, "I hear it's someone's birthday over here" and drops 3 puzzles on the table for Priya to take home. You gotta give it to them; they really outdid theirselves this time. Only solidifying my love for this down-on-the-farm food that reminds me so much of my childhood.

To top the day off, Priya has one of her very best friends over for a sleepover. A near perfect birthday for a 6 year old!

About Growing Up

This week has been a fun break from the routine of school. As a family, we have had a lot of fun together, and of course, we have been busy planning a birthday party for our little kindergartener. All this family bonding has spurred some thinking from Priya. While we were walking into Lowe's today (ok, so some of the fun involved running errands), Priya says to me, "Do you have to move away from your parents when you grow up?". When I told her "no" her eyes lit up and she said, "Good, 'cause I'm not going to". And later, she wanted to know, "Can you pick me up from college every day?"... "Do I have to stay at college every night?". These things warm my heart and I know I have to treasure them because some day when she grows bigger she will be reluctant to accept even hugs and kisses from those that raised her.

Happy Thanksgiving

So for the past 6 days, Sanjay has been wishing me a Happy Birthday. The excitement of my birthday has lingered, but now there's something new to celebrate. Today is Thanksgiving and we were lucky enough to have shared it with some good friends down the street. He's already said "Happy Thanksgiving Mommy" a few times today. Let's see if it spills over into tomorrow.

Thankful Turkeys

Inspired by a friend's blog, we did a craft today related to the holidays. We should all spend time recalling what in our lives we are thankful for, and Thanksgiving is the perfect time for just that. It has always been my favorite holiday... whether for the big family gatherings, the warm indoors when the weather is starting to turn, the delicious pumpkin pie with a ratio of 1:1 to the whipped cream, my birthday kicking off the season or the egg nog. I just love this time of year. We have been in Colorado now for 5 Thanksgivings and are fortunate enough to have been invited to crash family celebrations 3 times now. I am so thankful for the close friends we have because there's nothing worse than spending Thanksgiving in a Mimi's Cafe or Golden Corral. Thanksgiving should be the one time of year that you spend dining with a big group of close friends or family. It is this holiday that makes me miss Maryland the most. So, the kids are thankful for at least 4 things each... as indicated by the feathers on their turkeys:

Priya: I am thankful for...
my family. (originally spelled famely, but insisted on correcting it)
native Americans.
having a brother.
the differences of everybody.

Sanjay: I am thankful for...
having Priya.
having a race truck.
Daddy.
having a Mom. (I had to pry this one out of him)

The Case of The Crying Cave

This evening at dinner Priya shared with us her plans of writing a book called "The Case of the Crying Cave". The plot... some boy scouts walking in the forest stumble upon a cave that is making noise. Inside the cave, they find a monster. End of story. Daddy suggests that a mystery shouldn't be scary like that and instead maybe they solve the case by figuring out that the noise was made by the blowing wind in the cave rather than an actual living being. It made for a very interesting dinner conversation. However, Priya is still very concerned about how she will make it into a book. She still can't spell all the words that she can speak, and how will she ever bind the pages?? Oh, the worries of a 5 year old.

Company for Christmas

Earlier this week, Jeanette and family made plans to come visit us for Christmas for a few days. Although this will be a short visit, it's always fun to be together with family during the holidays. Unexpectedly, Mom called today telling me that she was trying to talk Jean into coming out for Christmas and that Dad had already made up his mind that he was making the trip. Wow, can this be true? Am I dreaming? One thing that has really bummed me out about moving to Colorado is that we haven't been home for the holidays since leaving. Every year we justify it by promising to head East for the summer when we can enjoy the beaches, but there's something about celebrating Thanksgiving and/or Christmas with family that I've been really missing. So, needless to say I am anxiously looking forward to Christmas with my family. The only thing that would make it better would be Mom joining us... maybe she'll change her mind. I can only wish.

Out To Breakfast

This morning we are on our way to The Egg & I for some pancakes and eggs. It's fun to go out to breakfast as a family... we can all find something on the menu that we like, the lines aren't too long and everyone is well-rested and not cranky! Anyway, Priya says from the back seat, "...after we have breakfast...", and Bartee notices that she actually pronounced it "breakfast". Our little girl is no longer mispronouncing words in a funny and recognizable way. Even though her speech has been clear for a long time, this word "breakfast" has come out a little more like "breh-fext" until very, very recently. When these childlike qualities start disappearing we feel a certain sadness that they are growing up and are that much closer to independence from Mom and Dad.

Warm, cozy sleep... or maybe not

Yesterday, on the doorstep was a package from Bed, Bath and Beyond. It came sooner than expected, so Bartee quickly named it my birthday gift due to the impeccable timing. Priya tried to carry it inside for me, but only made it half way. The box was too heavy and awkward for her.

Since our bedroom is located directly above the garage which is not insulated, we generally climb into a refrigerator-like bed on winter nights. So, this year we decided to do something about it. Do we put the space heater in our bedroom? Should we buy flannel sheets? How about adding a wool blanket to the layers of bedding? Remembering my high school days of sleeping in the basement and the electric blanket that saved me from almost certain teeth-chattering shivers at night, we decided the perfect solution would be an electric blanket.

So, we invested... yes invested... with their new lower EMF emissions and dual heater controls, they get away with charging an arm and a leg for this kind of comfort. I installed it, pre-heated it and made Bartee climb in to feel the warmth generated under the sheets. Ahhh... this is nice. While Bartee steps out for a quick bathroom visit, I decide to play with the controls. Let's see how it feels at level 8? Then, promptly... before even enjoying the increase in heat, I fall asleep. In the middle of the night Bartee wakes up twice... once to turn his side of the blanket off because he's too warm and then once more to throw the blanket off himself and onto my side of the bed because he's hot and can't understand why it's not turning off. Oooooopssie, somehow during the installation I put his control on my side of the bed and my control on his side of the bed. Sorry for inflicting you with level 8 heat, honey... but maybe that's what you get for claiming a household item, that we agreed on buying, my birthday gift. :)

Do you have the I-Pie?

Both the kids love listening to music, loud music, my music, in the car. I have trained them this way. Because of this love of music, they often have requests which cannot be filled unless I have my handy dandy I-Pod loaded with the tunes they know. So now Sanjay always checks with me first to see if I'm prepared... "Mom, do you have the I-Pie?". It's so cute that I make him say it a few times before I will answer him.

Still potty-training

So, you can see I'm not real good at this blogging thing... skipping days here and there, but I thought I should at least post a followup entry related to the Potty Time happenings. Turns out, that was a fluke. I haven't been able to get him to do it since and not only that, but he generally protests wearing underwear these days. It'll happen some day... I don't think he'll be going to Kindergarten in diapers.

Riding the Bus

Priya has been begging me to let her ride the bus for a while now because "Parent Pickup is so boring". So, finally I got the courage to let her try it. I'll admit, it was more scary for me than it was for her. What if she didn't get on the bus? What if she gets off at the wrong stop? What if I am a little late picking her up... and she has no adult to watch over her? Anyway, today is the day that I slipped a note to her teacher in the daily folder indicating that her dismissal routine has changed. I am expecting her bus at the local elementary school at 3:46pm. I get there early just to be sure. I see several buses and more are filing in as I wait, but I don't see Bus #41. Still waiting and waiting... and these buses are about to be filled up with elementary students on their way home, so I decide to ask one of the drivers about Bus #41. His reply, "Hmm... I don't think Bus #41 comes here. Yeah, I'm pretty sure it doesn't". So, I'm about ready to freak out now even though I had called the transportation department the week before to verify all the bus route information. The driver suggests that I check with a teacher. She confirms, "I don't think Bus #41 comes here". "Yikes" I'm thinking... then behind her on the road I see Bus #41 coming down the street. The driver and the teacher were right, the bus doesn't pull into the school, but it stops instead on the other side of the street to drop off kids transported from other schools. In the midst of all the confusion and worry, I forget to take a picture of Priya getting off the bus. Oh well, there'll be another day for this... at least she made it safely home.

Potty Time

Today I decided to put Sanjay in underpants. This isn't the first time, but I was hoping that today would be more successful than past attempts. He's pretty good, honestly, about peeing on the potty. So, I reminded him every 30 minutes or so to go and take care of business and all was going well. Then, suddenly I hear him... "Mom, I'm pooping", so I'm like "Quick, let's go to the potty". I managed to get him there on time and he actually did it! We celebrated big in the bathroom with some congratulatory remarks and funky dancing then I promptly took him to the kitchen where he received 3 M&M's for this amazing feat. Will it happen again? Let's see tomorrow.

R-E-S-P-E-C-T

How do you effectively teach your kids respect? Priya is only 5, yet she acts like a teenager. We constantly have to remind her about respecting her parents as she would her teacher. She does things at home that I know she would never do at school. The words “thank you” and “please” have just been lost from her vocabulary and she has become reluctant to take “no” for an answer... pushing and pushing... asking and re-asking... until I blow my lid. On the drive to school there was a lack of soothing songs on the radio and instead lots of lecturing from Mom.

Is it time to start blogging?

Recently I stumbled upon a quote about toast that inspired me to start this journal of our lives. Here's the quote:

“I cannot stress this enough. One second your toast is fine, golden brown; the next second it is black.” - Amy Krouse Rosenthal

I see this as an analogy of life. It passes by so quickly and things change without warning... where does the time go? It seems like yesterday I was a single career-minded woman with a dog, now I'm a married stay-at-home mom with 2 kids. Not that my life now is burnt toast, but much of that time passed without documentation. So, I think it's time for me to start blogging and capturing the precious moments and memories of our daily lives. Hopefully we'll someday look back on this and appreciate it, not necessarily for a great work of non-fiction, but simply a journal of the Natarajan family.