Pasg Hapus!

Egg coloring is always fun, not just around Easter. Masking seems to give the most interesting effects. Paints and markers seem to be a second choice with us. Turmeric, Beetroot, Hibiscus, and Greens are some of the natural dyes we like to use. But, food color is not taboo for us so we use them as well.

Oil pastel resist is a favorite. But, this year, eggs tie-dyed with rubber bands turned out to be the most satisfying.

Gado Gado, Gulai Telur, Egg Salad are all on the menu for this week, thanks to the two dozen colorful boiled eggs the kids made.

I finally sorted through the 100 odd photos Ana clicked during her visit with Nana. About 80+ photos were focused on derrières and nose hairs. No surprises there.

Of the 20% that weren't blurry indoor pics, a handful were truly beautiful - albeit to a doting mommy's eyes who realizes that these were most probably happy flukes. And not surprisingly, they were pictures of animals in their element. The binoculars close-up took me a while to figure out, though.

Two here, two there

Quite a Spring Break it was. Ana had 2 weeks off, whereas Og had one. So, the week of overlapping vacation was managed somehow, juggling our schedules, taking time off from work and so on.

I try not to rant in this space, but, every once in a while I feel the need to vent. And school closures are one such where parents who work outside home and have no relatives in town, no support group, no daycare/camps nearby (or the means to afford it) are left clambering...

And, it is not just major school breaks - it seems a norm that once a month or so school is closed all day for some reason; and again, once a month or so there is early dismissal (half-day). Lucky are those who have family in town to help out considering the frequency of non-school days happening in these parts.

Naturally, one or the other parent has to make serious adjustments in their work schedule (and be glad that they are able to, and can still keep the job) to accommodate such closures, but I shudder to think how a single parent manages it all...

Thankfully, the extra week that Ana had for Spring Break was a time D could travel and work and so dropped Ana off at Nana's in Canada. Ana had a blast with Nana, it was too short a visit but she is growing into her own person and Nana loved her company. But, Nana has to work as well and she made some adjustments to spend time with her grand-daughter...

So, it was just Oggie and me for a week, with Oggie going to school and me going to work and then hanging out together the rest of the time. He loved the one-on-one attention.

Whereas Ana prefers to do independent work by herself most of the time since her pre-school days, sitting still and focusing for hours at a stretch, Oggie likes company. He likes to have people around him. He likes to work in pairs or more. He loves to talk non-stop. Does not like to sit still.

Oh, he is capable of focusing on a work for long duration with full concentration and he does it when things interest him. But, for the most part, he is an attention-seeker. So, in the interest of sanity (and rounded development), I try to give him more of positive attention than negative when I can. It is not always easy. I am usually multi-tasking and parallel-processing.

Which means, we do have plenty of moments where I am in the kitchen and hear a gleeful voice from the living room inviting, "Mama, look at me! I am jumping on the sofa!" knowing that he is breaking a house safety rule when I have to deliberately take that extra moment to not respond with an immediately exasperated "Get down now!" but rather with a calculated neutral, "Do you want to help me make pasta salad in the kitchen now? Or should we make lemonade?"

And by mid-week of this two here, two there, it was clear that Oggie was missing Ana's company more than she was missing his. They did talk on the phone twice but not quite a conversation per se.

Anyway, when Ana got back right on time for Easter, I was grateful that they enjoyed each other's company by sitting quietly side-by-side on the lush unkempt grass coloring the eggs using oil-pastel-resist.

Pasg Hapus!

Since Ana arrived, Easter has come to mark a non-denominational spring celebration of sorts in our household. We color some eggs and have our own little version of egg hunt in the backyard.

The first year, we just hid the eggs around the house as it was terribly cold to let Ana wander around in the yard early Sunday morning. Now that Oggie is catching on fast, we feel motivated to keep up the tradition.

Over the last week or so, we read some Easter and bunny themed books. Here Comes T.Rex Cottontail (by Lois G. Grambling, illustrated by Jack E. Davis) seems to have appealed equally to both Ana and Og, among the casual picks. I didn't like it much, but that doesn't matter :)

Ana seems smitten with Rechenka's Eggs (Patricia Polacco) and wanted to color some of her eggs à la Babushka.

Just like last year, we went with mostly hard-boiled eggs for coloring, and some blown eggs for making into ornaments to hang indoors... we just used markers and food coloring, not much painting despite being inspired by Rechenka's Eggs.

And, typically, since we end up coloring way too many boiled eggs, I use them to make either a simple egg curry which kids don't mind or a spicy Gulai Telur which is D's favorite.

Kids Crafts: Egg Coloring

Whether we want to honor Eostre, the fertility goddess of the Anglo-Saxons, or whether we want to simply mark the return of spring after a cold hard winter, this does seem like a good time to celebrate renewal and rebirth. Eggs apparently were exchanged as gifts in ancient times, and rabbit being Eostre's symbol, it was inevitable that Easter Bunny came into existence practically effortlessly.

Last year, we started the egg coloring and egg-hunt just to give Ana another reason to have fun and have something to look forward to. We managed to keep it up this year.

Egg coloring is easy and fun, and am sure it can be done at any time, not just for Easter.

1. Simply hard boil the eggs, allow it to cool.
2. Draw squiggles or patterns on the eggs with crayons; Ana does some chicken scratches.
3. Prepare the colors: I use 1/3 cup very hot water, 2 tsp distilled white vinegar and as many drops of food coloring as I like to get the color intensity/depth that is pretty; wait a few minutes if allowing kids to handle the colors to let the water cool a bit.
4. Dip the eggs in the color solution for about 4-5 minutes turning it half-way through to ensure coloring on all sides; or, simply dip one side/ one half in one color and then in an other and so on, just have fun
5. Allow to dry; can add glitter or even paint on it if desired

I use the hard-boiled eggs to make my favorite egg curry afterwards. But, if not using eggs later, then rather than hard boiling, simply poke a hole on top and bottom of egg shell and drain out the insides and use finger paints or crayons or even stickers and glitter to decorate the eggs. This requires some delicate handling as it is hollow.

Happy Easter!

Hi All,

This is the (in)famous "Appa" aka "D", writing on behalf of my darling wife who requested that I post this post-haste... not sure why...

Anyway, fwiw, here goes...

Even though this is not Ana's first Easter, this is her first when we did something fun together - viz., coloring easter eggs!

Being a soggy Easter Sunday, I didn't hide the colored eggs in the backyard like I had planned. Instead, I hid them around the house and helped Ana find them and collect them.

She loves to sing that little Peter Cottontail song: "Here comes Peter Cottontail, Hopping down the bunny trail, Hippity-Hoppity Easter is on its way..." from one of her board books.

She knew something about Easter Bunny as they did a few activities at her daycare. She was quite thrilled when we made the colored eggs and I told her that Easter Bunny will come after she goes to bed and hide them... and if she finds all of them, he would have left her a treat and a present as well!

Gosh! What a gullible age :)

Well, am sure Sheela will take over shortly when she is feeling a little better...

Ciao!