Taking Stock - Oindrilla

Its a year now that there has been any post on Oindrilla’s blog which was set up to chronicle her birth and growing phases for the huge group of Uncles & Aunts, Grandparents, Grand Uncles (& Aunts) and cousins spread all over the place. Days have been zipping past with us and not leaving enough time to chronicle the happenings on a regular basis. She has been growing fast (very fast I guess) and too many things have been happening. And therefore definitely busy to get back to blogging. Hence, I thought about shifting our experience chronicle to the main blog.

Just after we were back from our Durga Puja holidays (Oct 2008) Oindrilla made her first steps to interact formally in the external environment. She had to start playschool from 10^th Nov 2008. It started with visiting the studio and getting her mug shot clicked!! In fact we also had to get ourselves clicked for her school records. The Playgroup it appears has given her a much needed outlet for social interaction. She had her first sports day on 14th December. She participated in the "Mother Daughter race". All spirited, at the starting line, when the referee blew the whistle, she was bored to her gills and not keen to walk. After a few pulls, she reluctantly strolled towards the finishing line!

Jia became 2 in Jan 2009 amidst a big birthday treat for herself at the local Pizza Hut outlet. The major anomaly of the birthday party was that there were only 6 kids and 26 adults in attendance. On the family front, apart from her parents, she had both sets of grandparents, grand uncle & aunts, and a set of great grandparents too. The organizing guys never had such a scenario and had a tough time thinking of games to arrange to include elders!! But overall we had a blast. Once most of the guests had left, she and her friend Sharanya kicked off their shoes and ran amuck all over the place. And the aftermath was a bout of fever, coughs and cold for a few days. But with grandparents available to pamper her and use their innovative grandma’s medications alongwith the usual prescription meds, she was back in action in no time.

The other significant event was the Annual Function of Jia’s school. It was held at Gadkari Rangayatan – a cultural hotspot of Thane, the venue for theatres (plays) and such events. She had been showing her dance moves to us quite often but we could never make out what it was all about. They had a group dance to the rhyme “London Bridge is falling down”. Have a look at the video. One of the groups (senior class) also had a dance number against Rehman’s Jai Ho (Slumdog Millionaire). And then we realized the reason as to why she always broke into a jig whenever this was playing.
So now we have a smart lady, who is highly decisive in when and what she wants to have. Ofcourse, she is mostly on a dietary binge these days with lot of juices and less of solids ;). She is attracted to Tom and Jerry & Ben 10 shows on Cartoon Network. She also knows Ben’s “Granpa” and asks for “cartoon” whenever the TV is on. So all this has made us both, highly innovative cooks (to cater to her variable palate) and innovative excuses like “Ben has gone for dinner” or “Tom has gone sleepy”.

It is fun to experience the daily surprises and the wonderful challenges of parenting. Hope to be more regular in putting posts now that the blog is on the main site.