Double Digits and Rice Crispy Pops

"What do you think my special talents are, Mama?"
"Do you think I have any special talents?"
"What should I do when I grow up?"
"Will I get pimples on my face in a few years?"
"When can I go to the park by myself?"
"Is it okay if I stay home by myself now?"
"What treat can I share with my friends for my birthday?"

All I could think of, by way of answers to the stream of questions by the newly minted ten year old, was just que sera sera... and, "rice crispy pops!!"

Usually inordinately taciturn, the girl has been spouting a lot of queries, some of which were easier to answer than others.

Seeing her every day through my mommy filter, I end up treating her like a baby more often than needed. Even if I know deep down that she is strong and thoughtful, I end up rushing to protect her or lecturing her when all she wants is some space for herself and distance from me.

On the other hand, I am thankful that we can still find things that we both enjoy doing. She made Rice Crispy Pops for her friends. I helped. Instead of the other way round.

She makes her own breakfast and lunch most weekends. I've been egging her on to cook a meal for us soon. She does not like using the old and temperamental gas stove. I catch myself saying, "When I was 10, I would cook..." hoping to nudge her into finding joy in cooking. But, all in good time. Whenever she is ready.

It was a low-key birthday, no fuss. I made some fun t-shirts for her, or rather, added some iron-on transfers to store-bought $3 t-shirts which I customized for her style. One got a scalloped hemline plus some photo pile-like arrangement of pictures from her recent trip to Winston Wildlife Safari, Humboldt Redwoods, Golden Gate Bridge, Monterey Bay Aquarium and such.

One white t-shirt was partially dyed blue to evoke a feeling of flowing water in which I had ironed on some pictures from our recent trip to Monterey bay Aquarium,

One shirt got an angular and slightly asymmetrical hemline. to which I added cute picture of her pets - cat and guinea pig - with the words, "Make new friends but keep the old; One is silver and the other's gold."

And her favorite is this white one with a picture of the cake pops that she had made a couple of years ago; the special feature being the fringe hemline and sleeves that I added. Coupled with white capris, this t-shirt has become her favorite outfit of late.

Seven it is

Oggie turned 7 a few weeks ago without much fanfare or fuss, just the way he wanted. We planned a small family celebration at Gilbert House Children's Museum with just his sister and parents. Quite by coincidence he ran into two of his friends and former classmates from his preschool there and had a blast anyway.

We rounded out the day by visiting his grandparents who made a delicious dinner for all of us.

We didn't have a party this year... and he didn't ask for one either. A quiet and low-key way to mark another year of fresh experiences and joyful living.

I did make him a custom t-shirt - exact;y the way he wanted it: With flags! The front has 6 of the Russian administrative divisions (krais, oblasts, republics) and the back has the German Bundesländer.

Another Year Went Zooming By

More than age and its associated idiosyncrasies, it is the stocktaking that I wrestle with around birthdays. What have I done to earn another year of existence? This thought can sometimes take me out of alignment.

Anyway, I woke up to a steaming cup of coffee that Papa and daughter made for me. Doesn't seem like much, but for someone who prefers freshly brewed 6 oz of strong, dark decaf every morning, and has to make it herself every morning, it is practically a pampered state to be in, to be handed a hot cup just the way I like it. (Yes, I do leave instructions handy for how many scoops per cup, and which cup exactly - as not all coffee mugs and scoops are made equal.)

The littlest handed me a 5-page booklet card, with the central message of I Love You, Mama!

Being a stormy weekend, I didn't plan on any outing. A brisk early morning walk in the crisp autumn weather was just the pick-me-up I needed to kick-start the day.

Not a big fan of eating cakes, and knowing that kids will expect a treat, my wish list had Pumpkin Mochi Ice Cream as well as Chunky Monkey for nostalgia's sake.

The 9 year old gave me a regulation volleyball. I was so thrilled as I had mentioned that it was my favorite game when I was in school. So, I invited the rest of the troop to head over to the park nearby and play volleyball with me.

Going to the movies is something of a luxury for us and we save it for a worthwhile movie or occasion. I picked Alexander and his terrible, horrible, no good, very bad day, thinking kids might like it if it is anything like the book. Every 15 minutes of the movie, the 6 year old couldn't stop himself from declaring, "I don't like anything about this movie. When will this movie end?" The 9 year old and I tallied up the things that were wrong with the movie afterwards, things that derailed the movie for us...

All in all, just another day, doing everyday things, and some not-everyday things and taking it as it comes...

All of Nine

It's fun to have a simple celebration at home on the special day. Then, a nominal celebration in the classroom with teachers and classmates. Plus, an extra fun one with a handful of close friends in a chosen venue.

At least, that's what the nine year old said a few weeks ago once the dust settled from all the festivities and she felt like a seasoned nine year old.

A beautiful hand-made dress sewed by Paattee with vintage cross-stitch around the neck, on the chest and at the bottom - just amazing, one-of-a-kind dress.

Awesome Mochi with candles, as she declared that does not care for cakes anymore.

"Dirt Dessert" to share with classmates as it just happened to be Earth Day: A scoop of vanilla ice cream, a scoop of devil's food cake "dirt", a few gummy worms, plus favorite toppings that kids get to assemble to their liking.

A nice thing about keeping the extra fun party small? Bountiful eco-friendly goodies in the goody bags. The little girl put a lot of thought into it - asked my input and budget - and chose items she'd like to receive in a goody bag. Things that can be used over and over, not a lot of plastic novelty that gets tossed away once the novelty wears off. What's not to like about socks and headbands? Or stamps, glue, and chalk for that matter? For that hand-made touch, seed paper and bead necklace worked well. One can never have enough markers, especially if they are double-ended mini stamp markers.

Easy-to-Do Eco-friendly Party Favors

The newly minted 6 year old wanted to get together with his friends and have a special group play-date to celebrate his birthday.

Right from picking the venue from the 3 choices we gave him to checking the RSVPs; from listing possible things to make for the party favors to actually making them, the kid was fully involved. I like it that he can make up his mind quickly and stick with it. I wasn't that sure about anything when I was six.

Hand-made things are much-valued in our house. The 8 year old doesn't feel happy to wrap up a birthday present for her friends unless she has at least one small hand-made thing that she has put some thought into and the time and effort to make it. The 6 year old has been the same way since that first set of Holiday Cards he made for his friends when he was not yet 3.

Making the party favors was the highlight for the kid during the previous weekend. He wanted to include 6 items in the goody bag as he is six. Much like five items when he turned five  and 4 items when he turned four. He did agree that he will break this trend when he turns 7 and come up with something new.

Being partial to eco-friendly re-usable things, it wasn't hard to assemble the items for the party favors. Especially when the kids were keen on doing most of the work.


1. Rainbow I Spy Jar: Much like the I-Spy Jar he made for himself when he was little. Assembly-line precision is his game. I re-purposed a few used  plastic drink bottles from the reycling bin.

From choosing the food colors to use, to mixing the color in the rice to make the filling for the jar; from selecting things to put in the I Spy jar, to laying out containers with the chosen items for assembly; from scooping and pouring the colored rice through the cone-funnel  in rainbow order, to tucking in a few extras in each jar so there's the surprise element, the kid was completely in-charge of this item, and loving it.

I simply printed out labels to go with the jars with a short list of items to spy and attached it to the jar. So, it wasn't much work for me at all.

2. Six Stories CD: After the usual bedtime reading, most nights he also listens to music or stories-on-tape in bed. So, he wanted to make a CD of stories for his friends.

Initially, he wanted to make up his own stories and have me record it. But, knowing how wild and long and convoluted his original stories can get, I steered him towards just reading his current favorite books.

But that proved difficult as he has a zillion favorites, most of which were non-fiction. So, to make things easier, I suggested that he choose six fiction picture books, short and fun and rhyming.

That proved just as hard as well. So, I offered to choose 3 from our bookshelf for him, while he could choose 3 from the current batch of picture books we had checked out from the library.

This worked out well. We finally had six fun stories he read aloud which I recorded and burned a CD.

I made the CD labels. The kid helped make the CD "cases". We had a bunch of Marble Papers from various times that we do it at home. Shaving Cream Marbling is one of the staple favorites at home: after the first few beautiful prints, the kids love the sensory experience of just playing with the shaving foam and making a mess, which is fine.


3. Polka Dot Sidewalk Chalk: Both the kids love sidewalk chalk and they love drawing either on the easel blackboard or the sidewalk. They are always on the lookout for fun chalks. When we came across these polka dot ones at Michael's it was settled. These were the chalks his friends would love to have.

4. Wood Stamps: If there is one thing that I can't easily walk away from, it is wood stamps. I love the variety, I love their versatility, I love the potential they present... and looks like some of this has rubbed off on the 6 year old.

Rather than just some random design, the kid zoomed in on the alphabet set of stamps.

When he was still working on his writing skills but had so much to write down, he found the alphabet stamps at home very handy. Simply pick out the letters that made the sound he wanted, and stamp it on the paper. Lo and behold! He has written.

I still treasure the "i luv mumu" card he made for me at 4 - his first card with those words - stamped on.

I did pick out some design stamps for the siblings of his friends who were joining us for the party, I couldn't resist.


5. Seed Paper: We called it "Friendship Paper: Plant it and watch it bloom!" On and off we make hand-made paper at home.  Add a little seeds to it and we have seed paper, ready to plant. It looks like we default to seed paper for both kids' birthday as it is in Spring and 'tis the season to plant.

The kid helped tear up the unwanted papers and soak them in water to make the pulp. Then, scooped some pulp into my mesh frame to make the paper. We let it dry by the vent. Then, cut the seed paper into heart shapes and attach a label and it is good to go.


6: Friendship Book: At first, the kid wanted to write a book. But, I talked him out of it as his books tend to be too elaborate. Then, we talked about how fun it would be to make your own book! So, we decided to make a sort of acrostic poem-ish activity book that his friends get to fill out and customize as they like.

Along with the alphabet stamp, this would be a fun activity for the recipients, hoped the kid. I printed the pages and used a paper-fastener to hold the pages together. For some reason, the kid prefers brads to stapler... and I think it might have something to do with the ease of adding more pages to his existing book...


7. Fabric Goody Bag: Last but not the least, he wanted a reusable fabric bag for holding all these lovely goodies. I sewed them quickly. His sister helped add the cinching ties.

The kid wanted to personalize each bag. So he stamped a rainbow fish. Used his alphabet stamps with fabric ink and stamped the names for each of his guests. And the sibling's name if they had any.

Plus, knowing how much both my kids love to label their things, I printed a few custom-design name labels for the friends and tucked it into their goody bags. The 8 year old girl loved making the flags using the printed label, chopsticks, and some Scotch™ tape, to go in each bag.

All in all, a fun day with friends, with parents catching up and getting to know each other better while the kids filled the space with their collective energy and warmth.

"I can get on the top bunk now!"

And that's the first thing he did that morning.

Or at least, tried to do before the sleepy occupant of the top bunk - viz., the older sister - unceremoniously burst his birthday balloon by belting out some impromptu rules:
You still have to get my permission.
And you can't be here when I am not home.
And you can't be in my bed when I am sleeping.
And you can't sit here with bare feet or bare bottom.
And you can't...

"MAMA! Ana is shouting at me! It is my birthday today! I am six and you said I can go on the top bunk when I am six! Ana is not letting me!"

Thus started the beautiful day of the younger kid turning six.

No more looking longingly at the top bunk and exercising immense self-control to stop himself from climbing up there, respecting the house rule that only 6 and older can go up. A rule that Papa and I made up to not have to arbiter every single day. A rule that made it seem like 2 years was an eternity. A rule, in short, that was the most difficult for the then 4 year old to understand when we laid it out for him.

A few weeks before his birthday, putting on my cool-and-casual persona, I asked, "What kind of cake do you want for your birthday?" hoping for a simple answer, nothing too complicated to make.

The answer could not have been simpler: "I just want a large carrot, Mama. No cake. Only carrot for my birthday. Okay?"

"Oh-Kay!"

And out of nowhere came the distressed voice of the 8 year old, "But Og, your birthday is not just for you. We only get to make cake at home on birthdays. So, you should choose a cake. Because I want to have cake on your birthday!"

Prehistoric life being the current area of interest for the kiddo, the cake had to be something extinct. No terrestrial or avian dinosaurs. So a marine animal it was.

And thus was born the Stethacanthus cake - a smallish, modest carrot cake cut in the shape of this prehistoric shark.

Why the unremarkable Stethacanthus and not his favorite Liopleurodon or Thalassomodon or Carcharadon Megalodon or even the notorious Mosasaurus?

Because my skills and time and patience are limited. And because Stethacanthus males had this distinctive growth on their backs that is easy to mimic in a simple cake.

Anyway, he did get the carrot with 6 candles on it to blow out. That was his birthday treat. The carrot cake satisfied his sister's cravings. And his.

He had the usual simple yet beautiful celebration at school. And he presented two books to his class, to add to the class library.

And his sister sewed him a heat pad, a pillow case, as well as a wonderfully cozy robe as his birthday presents. She picked out the fabrics with me. Not surprisingly, the pillowcase and heat pad fabric featured angry birds. But the robe is a classic plaid. [Pictures and Sewing post to follow.]

Another year just rolled by...

Nice and quiet, just the way I like it. It was a low-key birthday with Papa and daughter cooking up some treats-- mainly because the girl loves it more than her Mama.

 However, my favorite was the Lemon Poppy Seed cupcakes with Lemon Curd filling. It was perfectly moist and not too sweet. Of course, the little girl decided to add the "filling" by gouging out a top piece from the cupcake, but, it was still delicious.

The Vadaam Stand was a surprise present from my parents. It worked out well!

Halloween came and went with the usual fanfare-- pumpkin carving, roasting pumpkin seeds, and trick-or-treating.

Older child was an Elf Princess (more like Galadriel than Arwen in her mind, I think...) The elf ears were achieved with some scotch tape and foundation and a pioneer girl dress doubled as an elf princess outfit.

The younger child was set on being a Banana, but changed his mind.

 Deepavali, the festival of lights, had a special significance for me this year. Am glad it was special and hope many more are like this.

 All in all, an uneventful few weeks have rolled by this Fall where I cherished the everyday things. The yearning to sit back and do nothing is growing stronger by the day. Even just for a day, if I can linger in bed, read my favorite book, not worry about feeding the family or being productive... just shut down and recharge... sounds like a distant dream.

Eight is nice...

Not quite a "big kid" and yet not quite a "little kid" either. A nice place to be for a year.

It was a quiet celebration at home. The newly minted eight year old got to decorate a dozen cupcakes to her heart's content. All I did was fill the pastry bags with a quick-and-simple butter cream frosting, each with different tips.

My two favorite cupcakes of the 12 that she decorated embodied simple elegance for me.

She also made some cake pops to share with her friends. She had a blast decorating them.

Some cake pops even got happy nicknames - like, The Bearded Chicken, The Weird-Eyed Rooster, The Orange Cream Mustache Man, The All White Lady, The Purpley-Blue Swirly...

It was a sunny Spring day... she got to ride her bike, present a puppet show at home, build a huge fort indoors, and just enjoy the day. No pressures, no fanfare. Just Simplicity.

Five Times Around The Sun

Ocean critters being the current fascination with the kiddo, it seemed like a natural "theme" for celebrating his fifth. Since I don't do theme parties (I am too lazy for them, they are too confining for me), I try to make something for him that relates to his interest each year.

That's how the Mola Mola swam into my head and refused to go away. Should I make a book about it? Should I make a game or activity around it? And then it struck me.

Ocean Sunfish aka Mola Mola cake!

Pretty much for the same reason Penguin Cake came about last year.

Of course, the more popular Hatchett Fish and Siphonophore and Viper Fish and Oarfish and Tripod Fish came to mind as well.

But my cake-making talent being quite limited, I latched on to the Ocean Sunfish as it is a big rotund white fish with odd fins and hence seemed remarkably easy to do even for me. Especially if one is going for a general likeness with no finer details. And, thankfully none of us care for fondant so I can just slather on some simple butter cream frosting and be happy.


Goody bags filled with interesting/utilitarian/amusing party favors are always fun. Especially if it involves some hand-made items done by the kids. It is quite tough to find time to do anything elaborate, of course.

Much like last year, Og had quite a few ideas for the goody-bag favors and wanted to make a lot of things. Time being the constraining factor, he settled for choosing 5 items for each goody bag as he is five.


Item 1: Spring being around the corner, we made Seed Paper as we did last year. We called it "Friendship Paper: Plant it and watch it bloom!"

Using junk mail and old envelopes, we make a batch of "handmade paper" on and off anyway, so it wasn't hard to add some seeds and create this favorite gift.

Item 2: Wooden Bead Necklace. Beads, assorted size/shape, strung each one of it himself. It took a while, and we did it in two sessions. I threaded a large needle with the yarn and cut the desired length and tied the knot. So, technically, all he did was string the beads, but, that was more than I did at his age. And, he did insist on 5 beads per necklace as he is five, no more, no less.

Item 3: Both the kids seem to love Crayola's Multi-color chalk sticks. Our sidewalk is filled with "rainbow" drawings thanks to this product. And, Oggie wanted his friends to have the same joy.

Item 4: Glue Sticks are easy to use for the small hands. I remember asking my mom to make the paste every time I wanted to do some paper crafting at home - she made it with flour and water, I think - "Maida Pasai" as it was called. Anyway, these glue sticks came in lovely colors with cool names like Lava, Sun, Ice, Fire, Earth... and if I can find refill sticks so I can reuse these plastic glue stick containers, that'd be awesome.

Item 5: Rubber Stamp. I cannot have enough of them for some reason. If there is one thing I hoard, it is rubber stamps along with stamp ink pads in all colors. Anyway, since I wasn't going to include any sweets in the goody bag, I was thrilled to find these cute wooden rubber stamps at Michael's - a jar of sweets, a jar of lollipops, a cupcake and such - Sweet-motif!

Wrap up the five items in a tissue paper, attach a small Thank You tag and a cute party favor is ready. Filled with eco-friendly useful/usable goodies, with a few hand-made ones, making these party favors was fun to do with the birthday boy. (Since tissue paper is going to be ripped apart anyway, we re-used some of our old tissue papers to wrap these up.)

And as a special treat, Ana had made cake pops for his friends - those of his friends who are allowed have one, of course. With food allergies and sugar-sensitivity, it is tricky to share treats. But, looks like those who could have it, loved it immensely! (Candy Crush Saga fans may recognize the resemblance of the cake pops to Color Bomb, the said game being a recent family obsession.)

Typically birthday presents are not a big deal at home -  we stick to hand-made item or books or utilitarian things like clothes or shoes or an occasional bike. Which hopefully makes him all the more grateful when kind and thoughtful friends give him some amazing presents.

However, books are a big deal in our house. Anytime. So, he was thrilled to get a few books for his birthday from us. One of them is a one-of-a-kind bilingual lift-the-flap book+CD made by his sister. Which deserves its own dedicated post  here someday.

I am always filled up with emotions and sentimental thoughts around kids' birthdays but I'll savor that for my "diary" rather than ramble on here.