Sunny Corner

Has been a while since I have either posted or used my camera (except for yesterday when I took pictures for a friend's products) so decided to do both today. Saw Adi sitting at this sunny corner in our study room and found it to be the perfect time and place to take some pictures. Adi had missed school today - apparently his leg was hurting from a fall that he had TWO days back. After an hour of limping around in the morning (when there was still some scope for me to send him to school), he was zooming around the house in his skates!! The hurt had simply disappeared!! :)

Trying To Fit Into Mama's Lap

Told Adi that yesterday was the day he came to WindChimes home from Ashraya 6 years back and his response was 'Boring'!!! And then he wanted to know how big he was then and I told him that he was so small that he could fit into my lap. He straight away jumped into my lap and wanted to check if he still fit in my lap and could sleep like he used to when he was a baby. In the picture, he is not really asleep but just pretending to be :)

First Recipe

Yes, my little "cooker", as he likes to call himself, wrote his first recipe yesterday. While I was having a little nap in the afternoon, I could hear Adi and his friend cooking up something in the kitchen. It's something they do quite often so I just let them be and carried on napping. In a short while, Adi came in with my shopping list pad and asked me to give him a sheet of paper. Very sleepily, I took one off and quickly sent him out to continue with his cooking. When I was through with my nap, I saw the two kids in the kitchen with the sugar, salt, juice containers around them and 9 ferrero rocher chocolates all smashed up and mixed with various ingredients! And then I saw this sheet of paper lying on the mat and saw that Adi had written the ingredients for what he was making - something that he has seen me do often when I take a recipe from the internet. He said that he left out chocolate coz he couldn't spell it and also illustrated the mixing part coz he didn't want to write it. I saw this bit of paper and the wasted ferrero rocher's were completely forgiven!! :)

6 years today

10th Jan 2006 - exactly 6 years ago - we first held our little bundle of naughtiness and ushered an abundance of love, smiles, hugs, happiness and warmth into our home. Every day since this day has been special so we don't really treat 10th Jan as a 'special' day or celebrate it - in fact, I even forgot about it last year!!

This afternoon I told Adi that it was on this day that we first saw him and how happy we were holding this tiny naughty baby. He was thrilled to hear about this and said that he was very happy to be with Papa and Mama too :)

And yes, I have finally managed to explain the word 'adopted' to him. Did it while we were in Singapore last month - although I guess he promptly forgot the word! But it was a word that I was finding tough to deal with while speaking to Adi (although I am very OK using the word 'adopted' and talking about adoption otherwise) and am glad that I was able to finally tell him about it and what it meant. I also met a dear old friend in Singapore who is a counsellor for adoptive parents and she told me that most of the children start questioning about their 'birth' parents and adoption around the age of 6-7. Adi is 6 now and I have had no serious questions from him yet. I guess it could be because he still doesn't understand what it means or does not want to deal with it or is in a very happy place and not worried about the whole adoption thingy. I would like to believe that he is in a happy place - only time will tell :)

I started reading Steve Jobs biography today and this is what he tells of his adoptive parents - "They were my parents 1000%". I hope this is what our little Brat will feel about us some day too because he is our son 100000000000000000000000000000000000%.

Litchi Juice Made Of Grapes!

Quite like making wine out of water, the Brat and his friend Nidhi made Litchi Juice out of red grapes!!! A bowl full of grapes which I assumed would be used for snacking in between play was thoroughly squashed using a garlic press and apparently what came out was not grape juice but litchi juice!!

Drums It Is

Almost three years after the Brat expressed a desire to learn to play drums, he finally began class yesterday. Although I have always wanted him to learn to play a musical instrument, I wanted the instrument to be of his own choice and not his parents. And I must say, for the three years straight the Brat has been wanting to learn only drums and nothing else. No piano, no keyboard, no guitar - just the instrument which would probably drive his parents and neighbors crazy would do!! Anyways, looking for drum classes around Koramangala had been in my mind and I even enquired in a couple of places. But I either did not like the place or the teacher said he needed to be at least 8 years old before he could start. I wasn't desperate for him to start learning either and figured he will learn in his school if he wanted to.

So, that's were the drum class thoughts were at when last month I was driving through Koramangala and I happened to see this new music school called Taaqademy. I made a note of the number and gave them a buzz. First good news - they taught drums, second good news - they would take 6 year olds! Quickly checked them up with Mr. Google and found out that the school was run by the Bangalore based rock band Thermal and a Quarter and the band members themselves were the instructors. I went and checked the place, liked it and soon as the new year began went and enrolled Adi. Adi was super excited and very diligently listened to his instructor Rajeev throughout the class. I found Rajeev to be very friendly and sensitive to the needs of a young child - which I dont find in many teachers in Bangalore. Happy Mom I was and Happy Child Adi was :) Lets see how far this goes. Not sure if this is the beginning of a long journey for Adi or just a temporary phase. For the moment, he is happy and to me that is all that matters.