Blowing Raspberries: August 2020

Cutest tongue teaser Ceyone,

You developed a unique habit that time. It was to circle your mouth and show a short part of your tongue with innocent eyes. I thought it was a bit unique as I could not copy it easily. It was likely because your permanent teeth were appearing as well. In almost all photos we clicked, you posed that way.

I'll start with some memories from the past when I found these old photos. The first one is Dolly Mausi's birthday party and I was feeding her cake, see how tiny we both are.
The next one is my school gang at the E-3 Arera Colony house where I grew up entirely. We had so much fun after school and would often go out to have fun together on our two wheelers. Some of these friendships mean a lot to me and they have stayed with me through highs and lows all along.

We often did fun chats on each others' birthdays and had fun laughing on silly jokes.
That was my favorite swing at home in Bhopal where I spent a lot of time.

Our book and podcast club was coming along well and we covered several authors ranging from Julia Donaldson, JK Rowing, Jeff Kinney, Anant Pie, Enid Blyton and so on. Introducing the love for reading in you and your friends was something I was passionate about. I was happy that you befriended books well.

Often we had friends over for meals to enjoy together all the sumptuous food that Tita used to make.

I found an old note that I wrote. I took photos of all the items that were dear to me but could not be with me forever.

Handwriting classes were in full swing with a lot of children interested to come to our home and learn.

Fun reading liars and favorable conditions with aircon, water and snacks. Our little library was a treasure trove of books and we kept adding to our collection.

We learned about Uncle Pai or Anant Pie who was the father of Amar Chitra Katha and Tinkle comics. You loved Tinkle and Suppandi was your favorite. I was always amazed to see how some things become evergreen. A lot of times change seems massive but in reality the change isn't that huge - what people liked then is also what people liked now.

Your weekend trip to the zoo, which was like almost every weekend.

We were invited to your classmate Daniyal's birthday at his home. His mom gave him the surprise of inviting you, without telling him until the last minute. He was rejoiced to see you after a long stretch of home schooling and summer holidays. They lived on level 54 at a high rise in CBD area and had beautiful views from their apartment.

It was a great experience for us to spend the evening at their home and learn about Bangladeshi British culture from them.

You savored the food cooked by his mom and went down fast on roasted chicken with fragrant rice.

Then you guys did some dancing on the wii. I was worried that you might knock their television off :)

Then they cut the cake, clicked some nice photos and we left for home.

We also went to Samar's house for dinner on Ganesh Chaturthi. I couldn't think of anyone who didn't like chhole poori and halwa.

One of the days Papa took you to Goat farm along with Vivaan. You fed goats there and some of them snatched and pulled the hay from your hand. You were not ready for that and it was fun to hear your story later on.

You also finished writing your 2nd letter to Riyansh and we posted it in the 'international letters' window to reach America in its own sweet time.

Art class was coming along well too. You worked on Kandinsky's colorful squares with concentric circles work and we both had a lot of fun doing it. You were also into Tom Gates series at that time.

Meanwhile I received a beautiful bouquet from my team member Naomi for some good work progress at office. I was very happy to receive those beautiful flowers.

Your trip to the zoo. Every weekend you visited some or the other nature and animals place with Papa. One attraction was to enjoy some snack outside later on.

My handwriting classes in progress.

In one of the classes we made cards for migrant workers who had been stuck in community facilities to quarantine for many months. Below's what you made.

Trip to Singapore Botanic Gardens and spotting monitor lizard there was the highlight for you.

You knew that you were my cutie pie :)

One of the weekends I took you out for a mommy and son date. We went to Marriott in Orchard and you had your ritual of hot chocolate there, then we bought breads from their Java bakery and dug into coconut ice cream from Coco-nut-ing stall on the way back.

Your swimming lessons were in full swing with coach Deric. You were beginning to learn butterfly stroke. I was happy for you to pick up swimming well.

The biggest highlight of that month was restarting of school! It was your first day going into Grade II and also to take school bus. Your school had moved to Preston Campus, which was far from home and we signed up for school bus. You were a very good boy, waking up in time and getting ready properly and calmly in the mornings.

I was also your crazy mummy! After seeing you off in the bus, I jumped into a taxi and reached your new school campus to welcome you there. It was nice to see welcome back balloons for all the kids and I was super happy to see you arrive at school. I had taken the day off from work for you.

When you came back home I got cupcakes for you. You loved KrispyKreme a lot and we got the box of minis.

I got the chance to attend Shweta's 40th birthday party at our building. Neha who hosted the party had prepared 40 items to celebrate her birthday and it was just stupendous to see the spread at the table.

Quite mindblowing I'd say!

We all were fans of Laxmi's biryani!

More handwriting class weeks in progress.

When we listened to podcasts we did that in style.

While eating Indian food, you needed help. So Papa fed you with his hands, breaking small pieces of the paratha, dipping it into daal and then putting into your mouth.