Second hand

The thing with having kids of all sizes and ages in this family is there is so much stuff to pass on to the next baby.

From toys to stroller to woolens to mittens to baby towels to tiny mattresses, Moo uses everything second handed. I have purchased only just born stuff for her, once she outgrew them, I had loads of clothes to chose from for her. That does not mean I am not spending on buying her new dresses and all, but I do that on the lesser scale. There is a certain charm in seeing the same dress being worn by the elder one and the now younger one. Usually it brings out the memories associated with that particular shirt or frock, and it makes for a happy nostalgia recall.

While initially I was a bit hesitant to use all the stuffs second or fourth handed, it later made sense as to how much money I am saving 😆

Now what is the point of this post? Nothing actually. I was just making Moo wear a sweater when I got a comment as to how lovely the niece used to look in the same 🙂

Without gifting in a birthday party

The niece celebrated her birthday on Saturday. She was very excited about the evening from two days and kept insisting her dad that he get strawberry cake only and no other cake would do. Now what to gift her became a big question for me. I had to run some errands so was out for most of the afternoon. When I came back it was almost 7. I got repeated calls to come as soon as possible since they were waiting for me to cut the cake. To top it I was hungry as hell. I started readying Moo while Zack went to get me a Faasos wrap. He came back in 15 minutes and Moo and I were ready. I shoved down the wrap into my mouth in the most humane way possible as Moo wore an incredulous look ( read-how can you eat without giving me).

When I stepped into the birthday party came the realisation, oh my God, I did not get her the gift! As she cut the cake and we sang the birthday song, I whispered to her mom that I forgot to get the gift. “That and all is no problem, first help me to cut the cake correctly and serve all, otherwise she herself will sit down nicely and finish it by herself”, said my sister-in-law with a hurried glance at me. Moo was quiet until the song got over and started crying once I got out of the sight with the cake in my hand. It took several minutes for her to calm down, but till then, all the guests were served with the food. The niece proceeded to finish her share of the cake and made sure all her friends ate quickly too, so that she could play with them. After an hour or so, Moo got very sleepy and I left without bidding the niece goodbye.

The next evening, when I handed her her gift wrapped in a shiny pink paper, she was all smiles and said, I love surprises! you are the best!

Kids are the best 🙂

The would be story-teller

I love telling stories to little kids. There used to be a 3-year-old kid in my neighborhood during my school days, her parents used to love me solely because I would make her go to sleep within minutes, courtesy my stories. I would not start with any particular sketch or outline, but would go with the flow taking any animate or inanimate object. I love to tell animal stories though, and would incorporate at least one animal in whatever story I cooked, elephants used to make a regular appearance 😀

The niece loves to hear stories and I like to hear her imagination when she reasons the characters out. She will remember and recall exactly where we had left off the last time and ask me to continue. One such story was of a little elephant who loses his way in the big city but eventually finds his way back to his parents who are in the jungle.
After hearing it, she is waiting to get lost so that she can too get back to her parents. A complete face palm moment for me, but nevertheless I believe it will be useful to her if and when she has to face this situation.

During the last Skype call with the family, she told me that her mom is not telling her stories the way I do. I asked does she remember the older stories. And there she goes to list out each and every one which I have told her. She also adds, “I will tell all these stories to your baby, and some more of mine too. Every day one new story.”

One thing less for me to worry about 😉