imitation - best form of flattery??

We were watching TV last night. Me and Kutu. I was also gobbling up my dinner while watching and kutu was sitting beside me. He was trying every possible antics to keep me from eating. He somehow dislikes the idea of his mother having some food. :)
Then came a commercial break in the programme that i was watching. And he just loves these advertisement.

Some Ad featuring a mom and a little girl came up. I dont even remember the details of it. At the end of it the girl gives her mom a quick tight hug and a kiss. And almost spontaneously, instantly out of the blue, kutu came to me and gave me a similar hug and a kiss on my cheek and then a bright smile...his face glowing with happiness!!! I was pleasantly shocked. :) That little act made my day to say the least.

Creatively Challenged?? Help Needed!!!

Realisation dawned on me today morning...Yes...I figured out that I might be creatively challenged...

What else do infer when my kutu wants a new story or a new conversation or something new to entertain him every meal time? I have already mentioned that he is a fussy eater. The only way to thrust something into his mouth is to distract him with something and then shovel food into his mouth.

When he was young(ok...younger than what he is now) he used to have his meals sitting in the balcony. A lorry or a bus or a car or bullock cart on the road was enough to distract him. Then all the crows in the neighbourhood used to entertain him while fed him his food. The crows also got a taste of his food. Sometimes the kids in our flat come play with him during his meal time. And then there was this black cat in our neighbourhood. Its not anyone's pet in particular. It just hangs around here and there. I say "Kutu...Karutha Poocha varum..." and make a scary face and food just used to disappear. Later he became braver and let the cat play with him... :)

Nowadays..i just have to keep jabbering to him. no karutha poocha or velutha poocha..no bow bow...no kaaka...he is bored of all of these. Off late it is monsters. We saw the trailer of a programme called "walking with the monsters" on Pogo TV. For the benefit of all those who are ignorant or those who dont have any kids at home, Pogo is a kiddie channel. I digress. The programme is about dinosaurs and he was happy. And me too. So we all transformed into monsters. Kutu will be called kutu monster, his dad achan monster, his mom amma monster, his cousins chetan monster and achu monster respectively. Each one has to have their unique way of enacting a monster. So during meal time, it will be this monster or that waiting to pounce on him and he seemed to like that game and it was easy to feed him.

The latest is again thanks to Pogo... the "May Movie Magic". All the four harry potter movies were shown during the weekends in the month of May. Like mother Like son. He seemed to like watching those movies. All subsequent meals will be about harry potter and dobby and the Huge snake from the chamber of secret, hagrid and of course the Hippogriff. We do a little enacting of the scene when Harry first meets Buckbeak the Hippogriff. I would bend low and tell him that Harry Potter said "Hi Hippogriff!!". And kutu bends low and says "Hi...". Hippogriff being too complicated a word for him. Through all this of course his momma is busy shovelling food into his mouth.

BUT!!! I am running short of ideas now. God has just not given me the gift of the gab. I cannot keep jabbering away to glory about anything. I should have taken part in all those speech and extempore and dramatics competitions in school. To think of something new and creative every day is exhausting to say the least. I want to know if all the chatter box mommies have a better time than me? All the mommie-to-be and bride-to-be girls out there...beware...if you can cook up a story in split second's time on about anything under the sun then you are probably good to go!! :) :)

I leave you with a picture of my little monster!!

A picture is worth a thousand words...

Here a few photos of kutu!!

This was taken when he was barely a month old and this is the first time he smiled at me and i had a person handy to click on the camera.
Kutu: Aunty V took this snap. V was my roommate in hostel. She is a sweet girl full of life and laughter. She has also declared that she is kutu's first Girl Friend and insists that he should not call her aunty!! :)


This is kutu when he was around four months old...


Kutu at six months with his cousin akshaya(achu).


My darling is a goody goody mamma's boy..doesn't this picture say that?


Kutu and his favorite Winni the Pooh Vandi...


This is his most recent snap.He is delighted at having successfully completed his game of "cup-in-a-cup". This is not the official name of the game. The game has been coined this way becoz i dont know its official name. :) He used to be crazy of this game once he learnt to insert all the colourful cups in the order of their sizes. Sleeping, eating, bathing and playing with this and only this.

All in the Game??!!

"Well begun is half done". So any day that begins well is bound to end with a happy note. Or so they say.

Mine didnt begin too well today. First kutu was over cranky during feeding time today. Had to literally thrust food into his mouth. Somehow finished that task and got out to take my cab to office.

I need to walk some distance to take the cab. Enroute there is a dilapidated playground which will always be filled with boys playing cricket with makeshift stumps and bats and what not(me no cricketing expert to know their gadgets by name :) ). Looks like I happened to pass by in some dramatic moment of the game and everyone was shouting in the highest decible levels their voices could reach. And what do i hear?? Wow...it was raining profanities to say the least. In both Tamil and English. All kids who are barely 14 or 15 yrs old.

The mother in me wanted to pull each one of them by their ears, make them stand in a line and give them a piece of my mind. But common sense told me not to. Firstly i was alone and they were atleast twenty in number. Secondly, to be frank my looks betray my age. I can easily pass of as their kid sister whom they bully at the drop of a hat...:( sigh!!! So I just moved on.

But I did fast forward my life some ten years from now. Yeah...I am a day dreamer too...so i foresaw myself telling kutu that any such behaviour from him will be unpardonable!! He is going to get a sharp twist of his ears and a good whack on his bum if he does that!!

I know...I know... I am a cruel Momma too...when it comes to disciplining the child i believe in the cliche'd Spare the Rod Policy.

The GoodBye and a Welcome Dance

I am a working mom. Many of you would say the term "working mom" in itself is redundant. All moms work.Period. :)

I have to start to office at around 8 in the morning everyday.
and before leaving I give kutu his breakfast, change him into a fresh set of clothes and then get dressed myself and rush to office. I don't want to start off ranting on the task of filling his little tummy with some food. That deserves to be a separate loooonng post of its own! :(. I think it should suffice if I say he is a fussy eater!! Why dont human babies start eating by themselves soon after they are weaned off from their mommies?? All other mammals are like that. Why did God Almighty create us homo sapiens this way? Sorry. I digress!!

So, after this he keeps hovering around me for something or the other. In the midst of all this i get dressed, pack my lunch and gobble up some breakfast. and then comes the star event of the morning...the Goodbye Ritual. I would take my bag and say "Kutu, Amma office pogunnu"( Kutu, amma is going to office). First he gives me one look and then a smile and resumes whatever work he has been doing. All the while watching me from the corner of his eyes knowing very well as to what is going to happen next. :) Then i would pick him up. He would start wriggling and giggling. Then comes our mandatory doses of uuummmaaas. One on each cheek, one of forehead and then a big tight hug!! And then he says bye and goes dutifully to his grandmother. Sometimes we have another round of uuummmaaas. :) Then he stands with his grandmother on the balcony and waves tata and bye till I vanish from round the corner of our street.

Oops!! i forgot!! Sorry A...i forgot to mention the GoodBye Ritual that happens before mine. Kutu's Dad, leaves to office before me. That would be bang in the middle of the time when kutu is having his breakfast. Somedays when kutu is in a good mood, he finishes his breakfast before his dad leaves. hah!! Peace! :)
The moment A starts packing his bag, kutu starts shouting "achaa...fast fast!!". I try running behind him blackmailing him saying "Monu finish ur food else amma wont take u down". But he gives a look which means " i am too smart for these old tricks to work...better luck next time lady!!". I heave a loong sigh and give in. We go down and his dad takes him for a ride on his bike up and down our street. Then another round of Bye and uuuummmaas follow(between father and son!! ok?)

we both cherish these precious little moments with our baby!! There have been days when i had to sneak out of the house stealthily to prevent him from crying when i leave for work. He is a big boy now and he understands. my darling kutu!! :)

Guess what he does when we return from office?? No, he doesnt come running to us...he doesnt shout achaa or amma in glee...he doesnt shower us with his hugs and kisses...He just jumps up from whatever he was doing...and starts running round and round the living room. he does a minimum of ten laps of running around and comes crashing into our arms. The welcome dance is even better for A. The moment he hears his dad's bike turn around the street corner he starts jumping and dancing. It doesnt stop until he picks him up. :) The smile on kutu's face after this....Just Priceless!! :)

ok...a loooong post....Anyway these are just a few of the precious kodak moments of our everyday life. We love you kutu!!

For you...A Thousand Times Over!!

What better gift can i give to my darling hubby on our wedding anniversary? A blog post..my first attempt on blogging...this is just for you A...

The wedding bells rang on this day exactly four years ago to unite the two of us into wedlock. Me dressed in all the wedding finery and flowers, very much a picture of a shy and docile indian bride.and A..looking all dignified and serious in his mundu. I was afraid i would crack up the moment i saw him sitting on the mandapam in a mundu and garland et al. i was not used to seeing him that way. The only picture i had of him till then was a humourous, witty fun loving guy

well...all that seems so long ago now...:)
maybe i should have begun the post with "Long long ago..so long ago there was a girl...". and from then on...we have come a long way A. Been with each other through the ups and downs of life. and all the while i am only grateful to god that i found you or rather we found each other.

if i were to live my life all over again...i would still want you. with you..For you..A thousand times over!! :)

P.S: The title of the post as well as the last phrase is not original. I picked it from the amazing book -- The Kite Runner that you bought for me. I just loved that book and this sentence in that book. :)
The words might not be original...but the sentiments behind it is. :)

To Kutu...with love

Yes!! I did it!! overcame all my inhibitions and made an entry in to the blogosphere!! :)

and the inspiration for this...my kutu!!
this space is to chronicle the events in his life...or rather...our life!!

This is dedicated to u kutu...and to the other wonderful person in my life - ur Dad!!