'Rapunzel gallop-a-troted on Maximo. She got scared of a litttttttle bunny and she clinged to Newgene tight. And the bunny hopped and hopped and hopped away' ...... and so she went on with the story of Tangled movie on a Monday night. It was her turn to tell me a story and put me to bed. Three minutes into the story, I hear, 'I will stop now, you sleep now. I love you to the moon and back!'. I almost choked, and successfully held back the tear that was ready to burst out.
It is impossible to describe the feelings that she can evoke within me with her most innocent voice and her creative choice of words. Today I felt, like I relived my childhood through her - the childhood that I will never forget, the childhood that I hope will never get vague as I age.
Earlier in the evening as we were driving back from preschool, she almost broke into a tantrum on dropping her artwork from school. 'I cannot reach that far back when I am driving Nyah, you have to wait until I park the car' I was desperately trying to speak sense through her impatience. "You can reach if you decide to !!!!!" was the response. Really ??? Did she really say that? I am pretty confident I didn't use this sentence on her before.... Did she hear that from one of her teachers? Is it that easy to come up with sentences like that when you are just 3 yrs old, 37 months to be exact? I guess I will never know the answer. Whatever it is, I decided to stop the car and reached over for that green-colored honey bear. Well, just for the record, most of her paintings are green, green bears, green eggs, green pots of gold, green sun, green world ! :)
We were supposed to be heading for a blah evening, with Navin travelling. But the incident in the car, inspired me to take it easy that evening. I was not going to watch the clock for anything, not even her mealtime. There was nothing that HAD to be done for the evening other than, 'us'. I was going to actually pay attention to all her gibberish, play, talk, think, feel and jump like a child(without even worrying about how the pregnant lady downstairs will be cursing us, she can just head out for shopping if she had to!!! ).
We read books (I lost count after six) , stacked blocks and played bowling, made trucks with lego blocks, watched Curious George, played memory game, spit at each other, played pretend swim in the bath tub during the bath. I even let her eat pasta all by herself without worrying about how many she actually swallowed, hugged and apologized to her when she fussed about that phone call I took admist reading books together !!!! I literally lived the life of a toddler even if it was only for one evening. And I don't care even if it sounds cheezy - 'what a poetic evening it was!'
It was one of the best gifts I could've given her and myself and will give this gift to us a little more often than I have in the past.
- All my fun childhood memories are with my sister and my grandfather, and I would love for hers to be with me !
P.S :
'I love you to the moon and back' - is something I tell her everynite when she goes to bed ......
Monday, March 5, 2012
Thursday, October 14, 2010
A Rainy Autumn Day
Its funny how some words in our vocabulary gets replaced by new words, and we hardly even notice it. I love the word 'Autumn' - for the just the way it sounds, and the exotic feel to the season that I never got to experience as a kid, but always read about in the books. August '05, as I was eagerly waiting for Autumn, I really wondered if I will ever get the chills that I always hoped to experience. It was way better than what I had hoped for - that "Autumn". Well, we couldn't get enough of the season that year, and literally chased the colors from New Hampshire to Virginia every weekend for the entire month of September. That was exactly when the word "Autumn" escaped my world, and replaced by the unattractive "Fall".
Well, I do love fall, but rain on a fall day, hmmm, not so much... It was raining this morning, as I hurried Nyah into the car and dropped her off in the daycare. It was only on my way back, that I realized it was the much dreaded first rainy 'fall' day here in Denver. And to my surprise this is the first time I actually didn't mind it, infact I enjoyed and appreciated the beauty of the rain and the wet colorful leaves that adorned the sides of the winding roads. Ofcourse I was looking at it from a whole new perspective, from the warm,cozy, dry interiors of my car. A silly smile escaped the corner of my lips as I remembered those last 5 years in NY on one such day as this :)
Working in midtown Manhattan, has always been a love-hate relationship for me. The energy and vibe that transcends from the bustling yellow cabs ruthlessly splashing water on my crisp new fall jacket - the overzealous tourists absolutely determined not to let the colorful yet gloomy weather ruin their holiday. Infact, a couple of them have actually had the nerve request me to click their goofy grin infront of the giant coca-cola billboard while I am actually trying so hard to save my jacket.
Fall is actually when I am least prepared for the weather. Huh-afterall-it-isn't-that-cold attitude creeps in from the second fall onwards and the gloves/hats are yet to find their way out of the boxes. I guess even the sun is ill-prepared for the season, it starts showing up very late. So finally after a long angel/devil argument in my half-awake mind, the angel convincingly says 'hey just take a quick shower and get into the bus - you will get another hour's sleep at the least during the bus ride'. Little do both of them know that it is raining today, and the temperature has actually fallen by 10 degrees since yesterday! So just as I lock the doors behind at 8:02 AM being aggressively optimistic that I can still take the 8:02 AM bus, I notice that it is actually 'RAINING'. I get a tiny bit realistic this time around to realize I actually can't go back up for my umbrella or the gloves, which could be in any of the 3 winter wear boxes, I head straight for the bus. At the end of the bus ride, I decide I cannot afford to get my hair any more hideous than it already is from all the drenching from the doorstep to the bus stop I give in and finally buy another one of those $5 umbrellas from the PA building gift shop. I did actually end up being an $5 umbrella-collector with 23 umbrellas at the end of the 5 yr period. I could have actually opened up a gift shop myself - better still I could have rented out the umbrellas for $1 a day to guys just as ill-prepared as me :)
As I step out of the PA building, my mind effortlessly wanders off, and becomes a vibrant part of the rainy morning new york quirkiness. Little do I mind, how wonderful my wet hand that is holding the umbrella upright for the last 20 mins, feel against that chilling fall wind and the burning sensation of the sensitive inner nostril lining from breathing all that fall air. It is all a harmonious part of the fresh breathtaking fall morning.
I smile again with my hands on the warm steering wheel - 'I do want to go for a walk again today, just to be reminded of how I hate to love this rainy Autumn day :) '
Working in midtown Manhattan, has always been a love-hate relationship for me. The energy and vibe that transcends from the bustling yellow cabs ruthlessly splashing water on my crisp new fall jacket - the overzealous tourists absolutely determined not to let the colorful yet gloomy weather ruin their holiday. Infact, a couple of them have actually had the nerve request me to click their goofy grin infront of the giant coca-cola billboard while I am actually trying so hard to save my jacket.
Fall is actually when I am least prepared for the weather. Huh-afterall-it-isn't-that-cold attitude creeps in from the second fall onwards and the gloves/hats are yet to find their way out of the boxes. I guess even the sun is ill-prepared for the season, it starts showing up very late. So finally after a long angel/devil argument in my half-awake mind, the angel convincingly says 'hey just take a quick shower and get into the bus - you will get another hour's sleep at the least during the bus ride'. Little do both of them know that it is raining today, and the temperature has actually fallen by 10 degrees since yesterday! So just as I lock the doors behind at 8:02 AM being aggressively optimistic that I can still take the 8:02 AM bus, I notice that it is actually 'RAINING'. I get a tiny bit realistic this time around to realize I actually can't go back up for my umbrella or the gloves, which could be in any of the 3 winter wear boxes, I head straight for the bus. At the end of the bus ride, I decide I cannot afford to get my hair any more hideous than it already is from all the drenching from the doorstep to the bus stop I give in and finally buy another one of those $5 umbrellas from the PA building gift shop. I did actually end up being an $5 umbrella-collector with 23 umbrellas at the end of the 5 yr period. I could have actually opened up a gift shop myself - better still I could have rented out the umbrellas for $1 a day to guys just as ill-prepared as me :)
As I step out of the PA building, my mind effortlessly wanders off, and becomes a vibrant part of the rainy morning new york quirkiness. Little do I mind, how wonderful my wet hand that is holding the umbrella upright for the last 20 mins, feel against that chilling fall wind and the burning sensation of the sensitive inner nostril lining from breathing all that fall air. It is all a harmonious part of the fresh breathtaking fall morning.
I smile again with my hands on the warm steering wheel - 'I do want to go for a walk again today, just to be reminded of how I hate to love this rainy Autumn day :) '
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