some days just happen...

Usually, I work in spurts, I don't have stamina and am sort of temperamental... so, there are several consecutive days when I cook, craft, clean, sew, what-not, and then feel spent, so, I just sit back and catch my breath for the next few days, doing practically nothing other than going to work, coming home, presenting dinner, and finishing up daily chores..

Tharini's Quirky Nicknames, Boo's Indian Writing, Kodi's Mom's request about toys that were a hit with Ana are a few things on my list... I have been meaning to collect my thoughts on them and at least save them as draft soon, but, when I sit down to blog, I usually have one specific theme in mind and decide to blurt out my thoughts on them and move on to other chores around the house that seem to need my attention...

Anyway, today, Ana and I had a blast of a Sunday morning so, I decided to record it here for the days when I feel inadequate as a mom, and as a person, so I can try not to beat myself up too much...

Around 6:30 am Ana's delicate coos and chirps piped in via the baby monitor sitting by my bed and after a few minutes of soft comfort, the jarring "Amma! Cummere... cummere plaise..." reluctantly induced me out of bed.

I lazily picked her up from her bed, hugged her tight, greeting her with a "Good Morning, raani kutty, my little honey pot!" and set her on her little divan promising the first dose of coffee juice (Ovaltine), which she seems to relish more than anything.

Ana's routine in the mornings is to sip her coffee juice while "reading" her favorite books. After handing her coffee juice, I settled on the sofa to sip my cup of coffee and bask in the teeny voice reciting words from her books aloud confidently, knowing it is a weekend and I don't have to rush, wondering what to make for breakfast and what activities to do with her...

After a simple breakfast of toast+homemade jam and scrambled eggs with peas and carrots for Ana, I decided to let her have some physical play, some exercise of sorts, while I warmed up my muscles by following her around with a camera. She hopped around on her little pony for a while, and then jumped around in her room, playing with her toys and singing some songs.

Then, it seemed like it was time for some Art. When I was little, I enjoyed making potato stamps and suchlike. With that in mind, I had saved the bottom portion of a bunch of bok choy to use for some painting/stamping projects - bottom parts of lettuce and greens bunch make very interesting flower patterns :-) Anyway, I didn't get around to using it yet, so, I decided to introduce the fun of using vegetables for Art by letting Ana stamp and paint with the bok choy bottom. She had a blast. She stamped and painted with it for about 15-20 minutes, and I stole a few moments to make this short movie of her.

Of course, the lighting is poor in my morning videos as the sun hadn't started streaming in...

Then, we did some "sticker art" as she loves these foam stickers I found a while back in bulk: we make up a story as she removes the backing meticulously and pastes the sticker in her "art notebook". If it is a bee sticker, we wonder where it came from, and where it might want to go, and what noise it would make when it goes... if it is a lamb sticker, similar thing... maybe recite a nursery rhyme or two involving sheep - baa baa black sheep, or little bo peep... you get the idea:-)

Then, she wanted to make a parrot. So, we sat down and I drew a rough outline on a cardstock paper, and dotted it with some glue, and let her create her own parrot. As before, she enjoyed putting the googly-eye in! She kept taking it off, asking for more glue, and then putting the googly-eye back on!

She was so proud of it, she went looking for D to show it off!

Then, we enjoyed some outdoor play in the garden, when I got some weeding and cleaning up done in the backyard.

Back inside, we had a small snack of nuts and juice. It was close to 10:30 by now, still about an hour before lunch and naptime.

So, we decided to start winding down a bit and have some relaxing bubble play. This is a special game Ana and I enjoy and I was happy to have devised it for her by accident: I have this Foot Spa thingy ( a generous gift from my parents) that I rarely use. We spread a vinyl mat on the floor, add a little water to this foot spa thingy, plug it in, add a few drops of bubble bath soap and turn it on to bubble&vibrate setting. This starts the fun.

Gurgling and sloshing accompany this huge tower of bubble that rises up almost to 2 feet, which Ana and I then disperse messily either by hand or pails or cups; even try making shapes with it and such. This went on for nearly 30 minutes non-stop. When the bubble dies down, we'd turn on the spa again and make another bubble tower and happily create a mess.

Now, when I say mess, it is not really bad. Ana, fortunately, is a dainty little prissy. So, she rarely gets things messy enough for me to consider it a mess. And, she insists on having a towel or wipe handy when she is doing art or water play! Go figure!


Well, she is having her lunch now: cooked chick peas, steamed and flavored veggies, rice and yogurt. So I decided to write a quick post about the activities so far. Hopefully, she won't protest too much and will take a nap soon after lunch so I can cook something fun and add the recipe to my recipe collection.