1 2 3 Pico

Those coded cognitive toddler stories; Bubbly gestures; Lively imaginations: Their sparkling eyes, innocent charm; Inquisitive and persistent questionnaire - Children



We are all stories in the end. But those unending stories our children paint in their own words,  fill up the blanks of our life to be some of  the finest chapters. Isn't it?

Little fella in action- weaving stories about space characters 

It was last week, a cloudy evening 7pm. I walked in my backyard with my cranky little son, a toddler. And he had so much to express how the moon had finished dinner too early and slept off (hidden) inside the clouds. How it will pee and we all will get rains! I was astonished and added fuel to fire encouraging him to continue. He then told me the sun and the moon do fight a lot too to reach "his house"! Wildest imagination eh?

Some opportunities hit your door right on time. This time it was BlogAdda which introduced me to the complete activity set to foster creativity in such kids. The "Magical Space Adventure" special pack for kids by Colgate-Palmolive. 

It was easy to grab one set for myself. Thanks to super fast BloagAdda. This pack first reached my little nephew. Little "V" let's call him. Just 3 and he's that same fellow who persuaded me, how the little water heater fitted on top of his bathroom wall WAS the "Humpty Dumpty" and apparently I started visualizing it like one too! I was now keen to know what stories waited for me when V lay his hands on these space characters. Hoping none of them resembled me at least!



The box opening ritual, with non stop chatters and valiant efforts seemed to fill his day with lot of energy. All I can say is that I simply relished watching those moments in videos as he opened the box, piled up all the characters. Eagerness overloaded, with his best possible gestures, coded fumblers  and few giggles in between, we managed to get to what V kept saying.

In action

Oh!  What a marvelous time, there was a full cinema in V's  stuttering words though. 



"Those characters really act too smart you know. Do you see the one wearing hoola hoop like didi, is he jelly fish? May be...how will he ever sit in the rocket and go up? And that fellow (Saturn for us) with dabba (box in kannada) is fastest, because he has the dabba with him. zooooo...Night...yeah they all come in night and go in the rocket in the morning. Only the sun is wearing the pappa's sunglasses and he will come in morning. See angie (V named a character!) , he sat on the blue helicopter and went off to see the rocket".

Non stop tales by V filled the entire weekend with unique fun and enthusiasm.

Now that, V is so fond of a TV cartoon character called Shiva, he thinks these space characters borrowed Shiva's helmet. And what exactly do you think they are trying to do? Wait to understand what the 3 year old had to tell. They all sat in the merry go round (the space ship becomes a merry-go-round) and say 123 pico and fly into the sky. Upon asking what the pico thing was about, pat came the answer- "it comes in TV don't you know it"?. Well, my bad. Missed it, but had to google, scratch my head and find this video( the one below) on YouTube to finally understand him and hack his fumbled code. 1 2 3 take off! So much fun. Pico indeed.



See, this is where the children are innocent and intelligent. He connected to the TV commercial he saw, soon after opening the pack of this space characters.

Do you know there is no food  box in the sky. So when debie (another space character named by V) is hungry he behaves just like this".

These little toddler tales can fill all corners of your mind with so much laughter and freshness.

We adults try reading stories from books for our children. But have we ever wondered how much they have to say? How much they have to express on their own? Imagination is the door to possibilities. It is where creativity, ingenuity, and thinking outside the box begin and foster creative problem solving in children. Love them, pamper them and talk loads to them. Who knows, one day few of them would be traveling in the space too.

I’m blogging my #ColgateMagicalstories at BlogAdda in association with Colgate

Honey I Am Pregnant

Picture Courtesy - Google

The day I almost fitted back into my old jeans four months after the baby was out, I was as happy as reaching Mars myself.  Only those mothers who have bothered to walk in worst ever cat walk throughout pregnancy, with the baby bump, can relate to my madness.

Few months before it was, when my family was finally frustrated, how terribly I was worried about inflating and inflating to a double XL size, outgrowing my beautiful wardrobe, they consoled me. Come on you have given a good news! In my India there is only and only one meaning to the "good news".  That's when you are going to be "mommy darling".

How I just subscribed into vomiting for 9 months. After a big Diwali clean-work rush, when you decide to iron your laundry and almost faint on the laundry table, all you are told is to rest. The real haunting symptom was yet to come, when you puke and fuss and finally rush to the doctor who doesn't refuse to analyze your waste and declare you are now eligible to vomit for the next 9 months. What! it's happening, I told myself, laughed alone in the washroom and finally got to my car. Why, I had to immediately ring up and tell him about the "good news". However the workaholic daddy to be did not answer my phone call. I decided to pop a text message with 2 words "It's positive". I did get an immediate response. The quick reply read- "Congratulations to you".

Please do not fall pity to my plight. As I drove on a main highway reading this pitiful message, I urged myself to reply "same to you too". Blood boiling in me, but kept my cool. Yet, my mind refused to get out of thoughts like, what if during delivery pain I call him and he says "good luck". What if I myself had to drive to hospital, and he visits labour ward singing "congratulations". Huh. Home was nearing and luckily he called me. Immediately I acted "Congratulations to you dear, you gonna be daddy". It was then I saw a thrill in his voice and in order to hush him down I had to remind him, honey am pregnant, not you!

Next few weeks passed by, making friends with big multi-coloured vitamins and other tablets and also the devil in my throat called nausea. Like a typical Hindi Bollywood movie, I started showing up with few vomiting sessions, dizzy times, lesser work, full fledged pampering by family. The head count of our family was going to increase by another. 

As if the world just toppled over  you, you dread those times when you can neither see your own feet without a mirror or wear your own sock independently. Sometime back had heard few jokes like the first few years of marriage and your room smells of perfumes. In the next few years it's baby powder, baby soap and stuff. The last stage sees and smells only medicines and medicines.  I looked at myself in the mirror and decided, Thank God I was still in 2nd stage.

It was not just the clothes that were changed. The seating settings of my office chair, my car and what ever. Huh. Whole lot of a roller coaster adventure. Many a times my expressions wore a disgusting warning sign that almost read "Under severe pregnancy hormonal influence- Beware of me". And people suddenly turned sober towards me. You just had to walk in to the shopping mart. The cart would just walk into you from nowhere. Soon I was learning the trick of sticking my shopping list on the cart and only pretending to bend on to pick something. Those things would pop onto my cart. There was always a good Samaritan for me everywhere. It was like a mega offer of "feel pampered-if pregnant". Not just the family and friends, but anybody who sees you pampers you. The 9 months of luxury seems like one of those air travels in the business class, where in the cabin crew is always after you with cup of juice or food, whether you asked for it or not.

Pregnancy is not about get pampered, eat and sleep. Sleep? Hell...yeah sleep. I wanted to, badly! Who loves being in an insomniac spell for few months though. Last person was me.  Walking inside the room at mid nights were so boring. Also , I could not ignore looking at my own legs too. For my size, my thighs had turned into thunder thighs, once slender thighs. Now it is more apt to be called wonder thighs. 

My first child however, was on her thrill high. She often made salad snacks for me and would deny my stepping out of my bed even to eat. She would  demand an additional balloon at the Mac Donald's for her brother who was swimming in mummy's tummy! She had it clear. She will be the first to hold the baby after me. 

Myself with my kids

As the roller coaster months of doing the cat walk with the baby bump rolled over, awaiting another happy spell, of a new life in your arm..... there ceases flow of words. It's a feeling. That's it. As promised, my first one gave her best to her little brother, including lessons on "selfie". Without wasting much time. The world moves fast. 







This Mother's Day I had my new born along with my first one. The joyous moment yet pinched me. Given this day, if I were to wish, I wanted to wish the same stroke of happiness to those who could have no child of their own. I was worried of those children in orphanages who never saw their mother. Or, the one who sobbed for months in the hospital losing her son to cancer.



Being a mother is a unique feeling. Motherhood is a feeling bubbling in heart of every woman. Please feel it and share it with your own child or a needy another.



This post briefing about my wonderful journey of pregnancy, is tagged for the #yummyMummy blogging activity at BlogAdda in association  with Marico Bio Oil.