These are some snack boxes I got back for Apu while travelling. He loved the animal theme boxes in different sizes, but as you can see from the condition of the print on the lids, his preference tends towards the largest. (It doesnt matter that the snacks rattle around in the box since I dont like him to get too full before lunch)

Here’s what Apu did one morning when he got too full to finish his toast, but didnt want me to throw it out…

More silliness… Some lovely playdoh snakes Apu made one evening…

And here’s my other handsome – Pappa Le Ploop – in his newely dry cleaned jacket – All set for a boys night out:

Here he is looking at the drawings in the book while I get dinner ready. (Break between two chapters)

One of the sections we like best is:
‘So the Wicked Witch took the Golden Cap from her cupboard and placed it upon her head. Then she stood upon her left foot and said slowly, “Ep-pe, pep-pe, kak-ke!”
Next she stood upon her right foot and said, “Hil-lo, hol-lo, hel-lo!”
After this she stood upon both feet and cried in a loud voice… “Ziz-zy, zuz-zy, zik!”
(We demonstrated this chant with actions a couple of times to ourselves before Apu went to sleep)

So well, he isn’t always so grown up and all… He misinterprets things all the time – but his logic makes sense too!
Another favorite bed time read is ‘The Velveteen Rabbit’
And there’s one page that reads – ‘Weeks passed, and the little rabbit grew very old and shabby. He even began to lose his shape, and he scarcely looked like a rabbit anymore, except to the Boy.’
At this point, Apu always shouts out – “Yes! He looked like a bear!”
Here’s the picture that corresponds to that page :-)

Earlier, he would insist on creating (only) Lego planes – Exactly the way they were shown on the box. Any small difference would be noticed and pointed out and made to be fixed immediately.  Of course the assembled planes provided at least 1/2 an hour of solitary play… and ‘baw’s’ if the blocks came apart from too vigorous play.

No amount of persuasion that the whole idea of Lego blocks is to ‘create whatever you want with them’ and the nature of blocks is to come apart easily would convince him otherwise.

Till the day he started making these really cool Lego sculptures all by himself.
Here’s one of his cool sculptures – I never cease to be amazed by how intent he is on making symmetric figures. He toils untiringly till he achieves perfection!

In this sculpture, he started off creating a car being serviced in a garage and ended up with a robot looking figure. I love the way he has used the wheels to make eyes.

Seeing his creativity, of course we HAD to rush off and buy more blocks… This time we bought much smaller blocks that he is still trying to get the hang of.

The current theme seems to be for me / Shibani to create elaborate Lego objects – working late into the night – So Apu can wake up and find them all assembled to play. A few minutes of extra sleep!

Here’s Apu working on his own – Trying to combine the old and new blocks… (Don’t miss the pirate bandanna and eye patch)

Here are some pics from the evening – I’m telling Apu something about my childhood that he found hilarious… 

Unfortunately, there is no record of Shibani in his nappy bandana, as he took all the pictures.

The Blog-Health-o-Meter™ reads This blog is on fire!.

Crunchy numbers

The Leaning Tower of Pisa has 296 steps to reach the top. This blog was viewed about 1,000 times in 2010. If those were steps, it would have climbed the Leaning Tower of Pisa 3 times

In 2010, there were 28 new posts, not bad for the first year! There were 106 pictures uploaded, taking up a total of 43mb. That’s about 2 pictures per week.

The busiest day of the year was August 23rd with 62 views. The most popular post that day was Cooking fish curry in a stone pot.

Where did they come from?

The top referring sites in 2010 were filthwizardry.com, scatterthebatter.com, facebook.com, en.wordpress.com, and Google Reader.

Some visitors came searching, mostly for bangalorekaleidoscope, tissue paper window art, nora and tilly paper dolls, importance of kadumbuttu, and paperdolls nora and tilly.

Attractions in 2010

These are the posts and pages that got the most views in 2010.

Cooking fish curry in a stone pot August 2010
3 comments

Window Art October 2010

About August 2010

Book Memories August 2010
8 comments

Boiled Eggs and Raffi August 2010
3 comments

For example, the ‘born pinkosters’ who are picked on by their own mothers. Before they even know what pink is or form color preferences and dislikes, they are imortally linked to the color pink by the pink name their mom gave them. (Pinkesh Shah)
Some born pinkosters are closet pinkosters - since the pink is in their nick name or house name. Their official names are suitably serious and no-nonsense. (Amandeep Singh aka{only to close family and friends} Pinku :-) 

I am an imposed pinkoster myself – For some illogical reason, my husband is convinced that I would enjoy owning electronic gadgets in shocking shades of pink – So I first got a hot  pink Motorazor and then a hot pink IPod… (Both of which I try to use / used unobtrusively to attract minimal attention, in order to maintain and protect my carefully cultivated ‘stiff upper lip’ image)
The sad part is that using / being seen with pink products seems to elicit a viral reaction – I actually went and bought myself glittery pink flip-flops and hot pink nail polish (Albeit at different points of time) – and now my girl gang’s image of me is definitely and irrevocably pink :-(
I am also now the owner of several assorted pink products that were gifted to me – like a pink pashmina shawl, tops in various pink floral prints, a hot pink ‘diva’ t-shirt, even a silver ‘little box’ (for want of any other description) with a purple pink slipper on it…

I’m convinced now that imposed pinkosters begin to unwittingly give off a pink aura – after a substantial amount of imposed pinkness.
If I were to place an anonymous video clip of myself on an anonymous website and asked random people to associate me with a color based on what they saw, I wonder if that color would be pink?

 My Apu has taken to calling me ‘Belle’ (after the beautiful princess in Beauty and the Beast.) – Mainly because he thinks I’m beautiful. Sometimes he does change this to ‘Bluebell’ though (as in Bluebell the cow) and then I have to respond by calling him ‘Tinkerbell’ (Don’t ask me why)

There are countless little ‘my-mama’ things he does both consciously and unconsciously…

Like last night – He was talking in his sleep – ‘Mama! Only Mama! I want only Mama’

At lunch one day, when I was serving him his peas – ‘You are SO kind mama…’

This morning, just before leaving for school, he was monkeying around the house with his car pool pal – V. Apu with his bow and arrow and V with the green plastic bazooka.

V – ‘I’m going to shoot your baba now’ BANG BANG BANG (sound effects)

A – ‘ok.. I’m also going to… YAGA YAGA…. PINGGGG! (Plastic arrow hitting baba)

V – ‘Now let’s shoot your mama’ BANG BANG BANG (sound effects)

A – (Silently walking to me and kissing my stomach) – No – You CANT shoot my mama’

So do I feel flattered and special by all this ‘Mama-giri’?

Well I try not to encourage it too much… And it does get tiring at times… But YES! Hurray for little boys!

 So this is not to say that the relationship that boys share with their dads is not special too – But I will leave it up to Fooze Monkey to comment on that.

Here’s A painting the roof red… He sure isnt as angelic as he looks in the picture…

The related game involves cars hurtling down the black slide, only to topple over (kalti – palti) and sustain extensive damage – to be fixed by the resident mechanic in waiting – Eager to fix with giant plastic tools.

BTW, the red cover that looks like an inverted cloth bag – is in fact that. The idea is courtesy my friend Sivan who made several of these out of plastic for her son’s birthday party.
I made mine out of disposable woven material (I don’t think it’s cloth – and it’s not paper), and use it on A whenever he is doing anything messy. A couple of washes later it is still going strong.