The Apples of My Eyes

Kids are the apple of everyone’s eyes, not just for you and me. They add to the joys of our lives. So when these lovely god-made creatures are in pain, you too cannot stop yourself from getting carried away by their pain and sorrow. When my sons Aryan and Ayaansh are in pain, especially when the monster called 'cough invades their lives,' my life goes topsy-turvy.  Rosaries, prayers, abstinence, penance, fasting and so on, become my way of life for some time, not to mention the researches on the internet for home-made Ayurveda remedies for cough treatment.  What I found from all these browsing and researching is that apart from Ginger and Tulsi syrups, it’s really important to add honey in all your preparations. Besides honey, I also use jaggery in generous proportion, considering it’s cheaply available.  In fact, I have replaced sugar with jaggery and sugar candy in almost all the dishes I cook for them. My mom-in-law, in fact, gets panam kalkandam from Kerala to add them in their milk and other dishes. For the starters, Panam Kalkandam is a crystallized form of palm sugar having medicinal values. It’s believed to have the power to liquefy phelgm from the lungs and is widely used in curing sore throats and bringing down cholesterol levels. All these measures help keep cough in check for some time for my sons. But then this monster raises its ugly head every now and then.

Some of the recipes I use jaggery exclusively for my 11 month old Ayaansh are as follows:

Oat meal

Saute required quantity of oats in ghee. Add milk and water in equal proportions and pressure cook it. Once it’s done, add jaggery to it. If your kid can't have in this form, mix it in a blender.  

Suji halva

Saute suji in Ghee. Once it turns light in brown, add milk and water to it. Keep stirring. Once the mix comes to a semi-solid state, add jaggery to it.   

Wheat halva

Sauté required quantity of wheat in spoonfuls of ghee. Once the mixture turns light in brown and oozes aroma, add milk and water to it. Keep stirring. Once the mix comes to a semi-solid state, add jaggery to it.

These are quick recipes and, in fact, can be made in a couple of minutes. And the best part is, Ayaansh has it easily without any sort of fuzz. In fact, there are many other recipes, wherein jaggery, or for that matter sugar candy can be easily replaced for sugar. For the uninitiated, sugar adds to cough, so it’s advisable to stay away from it.  

And before I forget, I need to add that, both my sons have started having turmeric milk in the morning blended with sugar candy, given that winters are around the corner. Sometimes turmeric is replaced with Saffron (kesar).   Saffron is hot, they say. It also helps fight cough. If you know about any home-remedies that help fight cough, do let me know in the comment box below.

Children's Book Review: Isabella Babysits Baxter

Good Books can be great emotional anchors for your life.  And, believe me, I telling you this from experience. But despite knowing and experiencing the power of magnetic books, I’ve miserably failed to influence my nine-year-old son to do the same. That is to read and get inspired from books. He dislikes them like bitter gourd…bitter and utterly distasteful. You need to literally pin him down to read a few pages of any book. Maybe, the books that I give him are not his type. But give him any book on dinosaurs and he will devour on it, day in and day out. Not to mention the book on sea monsters. But for me these dinosaur books are like bitter gourd…the less you read them the better.

So finding this picture book ‘Isabella Babysits Baxter’ by Merissa Perry Moraja was like an oasis in the desert. The colorful pics and the short descriptions did for him, which my volley of verbal confrontation didn't. Fully mesmerized, Aryan, my son, went on to read it a record two times. (Initially, we both got together and read it out aloud and that got him going, or so it seems. So it brings the total to three times.) Yes, the descriptions are super short and to the mark. Most importantly, you can read it one sitting. In fact, I’ve inspired Aryan to write a book review as well, which he will post on his blog as well as on Amazon.  

I am happy, for I’ve successfully inspired him to take baby steps toward reading non-dinosaur books.

Story In A Nutshell

Isabella is a sweet like kid with working parents. She has a pet dog Baxter for company. Baxter is mischievous and left to its own devices he’s known to wreak havoc in the house. So Isabella’s artist’s mother who works from home, requests her daughter to babysit Baxter for sometime. However, instead of keeping Baxter in leash, the mischievous duo got together and brought the house down.  However, Isabella’s mother is patient enough and doesn’t lose her temper when she sees the house is in a mess. Instead she takes both her daughter and dog for a walk.

Children from 4 to 9 years are sure to enjoy this book. Highly recommended.

The new words Aryan got to jot down in his dictionary are:  Enormous, Strolled, Cuddled, Curious, and Siblings, apart from Yikes and Yipppeee.

 This book review is part of motherdaughterbookreviews.com

What My World Would Be like if My Comrade-in-arms didn’t Exist

I would be going nuts…literally. Yes, stress and lack of sleep is taking a toll on my tolerance level. When Aryaansh is in a foul mood, I go berserk. (But then you can’t be saintly all the time. In fact, there are times when I become too abrasive. Poor Ayaansh, he becomes the target of my mercurial moods. May be God won't mind raking me over the coals for being so lousy, insensitive mother on the judgement day. Anyway, the point here is that, I have found a great support in my elder son Aryan. I and he team up many a times, to handle Ayaansh’s tantrums. Active and supportive, Aryan is always there for me when I need him. 

Aryan bring tingu’s diaper. Aryan bring tingu’s medicines. Aryan bring this and bring that. Aryan does it all running around the house. No, not even once has he shown his displeasure while helping me out with his younger brother’s routine. He is soft-spoken and soft-hearted (unlike his parents) and listens patiently to whatever his elders have to say to him. I seriously do not know whether he should stay that way.

I want him to street-smart. Because that’s how the world operates. He better be accustomed to the ways of the world, sooner than later. Don’t you agree with me? But come to think of it…he is tenacious and stubborn to a very large extent. The toy he wants, he gets it. The book he loves, he gets it. 

No, he doesn’t get them as soon as he demands it. He gets them over a period of time…it can take one month to six months’ time. But he’s persists till he succeeds. He keeps twiddling his thumbs and strikes when the iron the hot. Simply put, he patiently awaits for the right time and knows in his heart-of-hearts that his daddy won't say no to him now.  Yes, softie knows how to lovingly tug at your heart strings and ges what he wants. Probably, that’s his way of being street-smart.

My Rockstar Boys

Don’t they look like rock stars!!! Btw, the younger one is 9-month-old Ayaansh and the other one is his elder brother 9-year-old Aryan. Yes, their age gap has been grabbing several eyeballs. (Who cares?) But then you should see them play together…Ayaansh in his walker and Aryan in his computer chair. Both wheel around the house merrily. Heeee, haaaaa, heeee…their laughter fills the house. (I  just love them.) 

But what takes me by surprise, more than anything else, is that both the brothers love high-voltage music. In fact, you should see Ayaansh gently foot-tapping to Bhaag Dk Bose, Bhaag Bhaag Dk Bose, while gingerly holding to the center table. Man, that’s a sight to behold. And Aryan, on the other hand, shouts (that’s how he sings), at the top of his voice to add more punch to the song.

In fact, there love for electrifying music is a saving grace for me. Ayaansh, like many other toddlers, probably, is quite fuzzy while having food. We have to sing, mimic, and play with his toys just to make him eat something. However, things don’t remain the same when the music is on.  When Ajay Devan and his kiddo team shouts Aata majhi Satakli, my Ayaansh simply gets carried away. This gives me ample time to shovel some food into his mouth as soon as possible.  And Aryan helps me in this cause in a big way. In fact, he has recorded all such songs. So as he jumps from one song to the other, Ayaansh is done with his food. 

So all these Gen-next songs, be it dil hai pani, pani, pani, or party all night, or Johny, Johny hai ji, my sons love them to the T.  

Hey people, you might think, how could you expose such small kids to such vulgar songs? (as my office colleague thinks so). But then remember ladies, it’s the music that catches their attention. My Aryan finds it hard to figure out the actual lyrics of the song. So where does the vulgarity come in picture. Ayaansh is just 9-month-old. So you know how much he can comprehend? And if they enjoy it, I believe, yes I believe, there’s no harm in listening to it. 

Truth to be told, I too love these numbers. I too feel like dancing with them. Whenever 'will you be my Chammak Chalo' is played on TV, my Aryan goes crazy and dances to every single beat of the song. And that brings a smile on my face. It's a heavenly feeling seeing them dance and play together.

Do you feel the same as me? Happy, when such playful songs are being played on TV. Damn the lyrics. What about the music?  Or do you think songs such as Char Bottle Vodka affect the psyche of children and they should be banned. Go ahead, scribble your thoughts in the comment box.