Lorry or Glory ?!

I recently came to know of one long running series in Asianet thats been entertaining the Mallu junta for over 3 yrs now.Its at 7 in the evening mon-fri.all the usual masala et al . And I for one am totally against these serial killers!!! And I had no clue that my Achan and Amma were addicted to this series as well.And how I came to know is funny. We'd reached home much earlier than usual by 6:30 that day. TV was playing in the backend as usual, and then suddenly when one of the lead female characters came onscreen, Achulde exclaimed ' Look Lorry, Lorry'. I couldn't find any HMV in the screen and was confussed.Following the serial for a minute explained it all. The lead character's name was Glory.I looked at Amma with disbelief and my amma was like" its ok, its coz he sees all these advertisementsabout this serial, he doesnt watch the serial, we dont watch the serial or anything, you dont worry kinds!!!' I would have believed her,but then in the next scene they showed a white swift car coming from adistance and Achulde was like' Look Amma , thats Prakash's car' and you know what Aakash drives a blue Zen Estillo' and my jaw dropped, surely my son wouldnt know all this from the advetisements for sure!!!My child has been following a serial at this age and that too a painkili one!!

Updates

A lot of things have changed, lots of water has flown through Thames as well as our Aluva puzha. Mommolde turned two and is much more naughtier than Achulde was at this age. And the favourite pastime for both has been to take on each other as if they are equals,they fight atleast 80% of their waking hours. At school, Achulde is more interested in keeping to his friends circle and Mommolde likes playing with himself.Hes not yet reached the age when they start playing with friends.But they both keep an eye on each other. But once they reach home, its as if they've entered the war zone. They play together for the first 10 mts and then they start the Big Fight. And I reach home, a good 4 hours after they reach, hats off to Achan and Amma for playing referree till then.

Oh well!

oh well, If my procrastination continues at this pace, I will soon defeat the purpose of this blog. when my boys come to this page, after the initial ecstasy of being able to see how they were when they were babies, they'll soon find what a lazy bum their mom is,not able to even key in a few words a week and that too when they are upto n thing every hour!!! certainly its not coz she cant find things to write about, shes spoilt for choice in that arena. then what is it thats keeping their mom from keeping her word!!!Well she had decided to start afresh from New Years, but then that would look too ordinary.every other resolution maker and keeper would be doing the same. And in any case the birthday is coming up soon, so why not be a lil' diffnt and start from the b'day onwards!!! the birthday came and went, birthday resolutions are better than New Yrs. Thoda hatke hain. but again it isn't that diffn't. So just take up another day, when no one would think, you'd be back in the act and then pretend, you were never out of the scene, its just that, your friend weren't visiting your page that often, you know.
Last time I tried a diffnt trick altogether, I had not been active for almost 3-4months and then one fine day descended with half a dozen entries and adjusted the dates and my friends were baffled, " Oh we didn't know you were writing'!! comments poured in ;)
This time, let me hope, I stay active as a regular for long time, making frends, visiting frens and most importantly , sustaining the same...

Boys are fun

People often ask me about how I've been able to manage work and home without much hassles with 2 boys around?! Until recently, I used to think that this whole stuff they talk abt managing two boys is a much hyped up non- issue. But slowly, it has started to sink in.Now the sitution some of the time atleast makes me move into ' I couldn't agree more agree more to it ' lines.

Especially after my chetts and family came for vacation(they have two girls), I am forced to accept the theory or fact that, bringing up boys is a different ball game altogether. Girls(at this age atleast) , I think listen and think more. With boys ,the acting comes first and thinking comes later at leisure time, if you have the patience to explain it to them then.Or is just with my boys?!!! I wonder.

Boys resort to fighting physically at the drop of a hat. With Achu, pushing /pulling/beating/pinching Mommo is like second nature. I think girls cry more than boys do, but my lil ones offer competition in that arena too, they can beat any girl in wailing/crying non-stop.

On days when I feel esp bad for scolding them or punishing Achu, I feel miserable and take resolutions on how I would behave from that day onwards. But once back home, resolutiosn fly out of the window, mostly in the first 10 mts - latest within the first 30mts itself.I must admit that this must have something to do with the long hours at work as well, cannot deny that. But the credit due to the boys- they must get that, rite ;)

I dont know why both of them need the same thing at the same point in time and have not qualms abt laying hands on each other to get possession.We made it a point to point to buy anything and everything in twos so that such fights dont occur.But then for certain toys, you just cannot buy two of them like the mini toy car- how can you have two ofthe kind in one home. I think you should not have it at all, if you cannot have two of a kind!!! And guess what, it doesnt stop there, even if you buy two of anything. Theres a competition on to dismantle anything that they can get hold of and its a matter of an hour or two, before the parts are seen lying all over the place. Once this is achieved, both of them would want the better toy all to themselves!!!And the latest trend in this industry is that they mostly want only the thing that the other one is playing with currently and not anythingelse!!!And Achulde, who is quite popular in the class for his penchant for prophesing the joys of sharing with his Kuttaaaar( kuttukaar for friends),is no role model when at home. He is the one who needs anything and everything that Mommolde is playing with. Mommolde on the other hand lets go most of the time (in comparison), but if its something, then he must have, then theres no stopping him either.And mind you, you can't take sides, you need to be impartial- but in my case, one of them is still a baby and not a boy yet, so Achulde gets the advantage most of the times., when the two take in each other.And the moment, I take Mommolde's side, this fellow throws tantrums!!! I'm just waiting for the time, they can take on each other as equals. I'll atleast be spared from taking sides then!!

Another thing I noticed is that the boys speak louder than girls and if you have to make yourself heard, your volume needs to be even higher. Then as the TV would be playing in the background atleast 16/7, your voice needs to be on a higher decibel than the boys and the tv's!!! And I think boys are fuzzy eaters as well. My boys had not had much of an issue in terms of being very selective on food, but post the cousins' visit they've been introduced to the worldly vices of maggi and black juice-'pepsi'. And of course ice creams!!!
All said and done, I realise how much of a challenging task this is. To bring them up well, without any partiality or prejudice and giving them no reason to complain, being there for them, not letting them down - thus paving the way to bring them up as confident , responsible caring and compassionate individuals- thats the bare minimum that we as parents should be able to do for them.(Touchwood, I hope they turn out so!!!)

Certification time yet again

Those who have been regularly following me on my blog would know already, how I've been faring on the certification side, that my company has mandated. Now they have slightly modified the rules. 2 certs in an year has been changed to one cert every 6 months!! So it requires you to take the certification every 6 months, you cannot postpone till the year end :( And I had to take one before Sept end. And since my chetts and fmly are coming over for Onam which falls on the first week of Sept. I just thought it would be best to take it before Onam. And I was feeling quite confident on taking this exam, as I was also involved in preparing the training material for this certification sometime last year, I hoped it would all come to me, while in the certification hall.I just needed sometime to read the material once.I had registered for the exam on 20th and on 18th nite, Achulde started showing symptoms of fever!!!Now , how many times I've warned myself against procrastinating- and I dont understand how I end up doing that all the time. And I had kept most of the material untouched, saving it for a last time read on the eve of the exam!!! I ended up touching the material only by 8 in the nite, after taking Achulde to hospital et al.Ended burning midnight oil and somehow managed to read it all once.

Managed to scrape through, which is more than enough for me. Couldn't ask for more. :)

On Sabarimala and grand parents

Last time the husband went to Sabarimala was before our kalyanam, and he'd been planning to go eversince. So when his cousin called up , informing his plans to go during July, he decided to go alongwith them. So we all went to Aluva and from there they did the Kettunirakkal and proceeded to Sabarimala. It has been raining cats and dogs this monsoon and the Manalppuram temple is already submerged.

You know what, every year, during the monsoon, the river overflows and the temple submerges completely, during which time they move the Deity to another place in the vicinity and perform pooja there. And where the area allotted for regular car park et al during the normal times, the river would be just ankle deep when it overflows - making it an ideal place for recreation-the whole town would be present there on such occasions . That evening me and Amma took Achulde and Mommolde to Manalppuram, and both of them were scared in the beginning, but I somehow tricked Achulde into entering into the waters, after which we had a nice time there. He just refused to come out later on.

The husband and cousins had a nice Darshan at Sabarimala and came back by evening of the next day.

After coming over to Tvpm, we've been frequenting Aluva atleast once a month, I guess.My children have been getting to meet both set of grand parent quite frequently. And they are quite attached to them as well.That I think is a very rare thing to happen these times.

Aerobics

Though I'd not put on much weight during my second pregnancy, whatever I've put on has been on the wrong places,and its just refusing to go way. And since you could call me a foodie, there's no way I could diet my way into my good ole' clothes, that have been waiting patiently in the wardrobe all these years. I just had to shape up to get into those , I kept on telling myself, but couldn't bring myself to start attending any session - there was nothing in the vicinity and I was way too lazy to start practising on my own. It was then that the HR team of my org announced a week of activities based on themes. One of the sessions was Aerobics, High speed exercises were never my cup of tea. I preferred the Yoga any day. But in this session, that lasted for barely 40 mts, we were made to do a workout for 15 mts, that left us all out of breath and panting and excited as well. I never thought I could move fast and I thought I needed a long time to grasp the steps. But I guess, I was just imagining thing up maybe. So when this hoarding ' Learn Aerobics' popped up in my neighbourhood, I decided to give it a try. yeah true, it takes me more time to master the steps, but I've been improving and I've not called it quits yet as well(touchwood!!!). Though the results on the weighing scale are not encouraging, I am determined to continue. I would love to wear those dresses before the new year!! No high hopes, as I am fully aware of binging habits and weakness for good food!!!