neha learns a new word

Neha: appa, anusha was doing ship leader yesterday at school and asked me to wear the collar button
Me: She was doing what?
Neha: [gathers thoughts for a while and says] she was doing leadership appa, she was checking shoes, nails and uniform

Few Firsts

Firstly, the kids are in first standard now :-)

Notice the label on this post, kids are into their seventh year now. You would have noticed the new clothes to this blog for that reason.

Kids now have longer school hours and so more grind. They have new uniforms - blue pinafore and white shirt for 4 days a week and all whites on Wednesday

Nidhi had her first tooth fall. She was mighty thrilled about this event. Couple of her friends at apartment and several at school had started shedding their milk teeth a while back so there was enough peer pressure built up for this.

Last Sunday was the first fathers' day that I got wished by daughters. They made cute greeting cards and kept them by my bed before I woke up. That was cute.

Neha & Nidhi have their first pets now. A full blown aquarium with 3 mighty gold fishes and several gourami fishes to tag along. Thanks a ton sham & geetha for giving this.

Nursery Ends

Kids graduated to "standard" class yesterday when they got promoted to first std.
Photos of kids in their nursery uniform. First one taken on the last day of school .
Second one taken 3 years back.

Can I turn back the clock?

musings

it feels odd to listen to a 6 year old singing "give me some sunshine, give me some rain, give me another chance to grow up once again". Especially when you are her parent.

I & my brother's 5 year old daughter usually tease each other like this, "me: neenu tomato" "she: neenu carrot" "me: neenu potato" "she: neenu kumbal kaayi"
On Ugadi day, she had prepared greeting cards for neha & nidhi but not for me. I asked her where my greeting is. She said "ai, ninge avathe anniversaryge kot idhe". I replied you could have done one more today and said "neenu conjuice", she retorted "neenu lemon juice!"

veena was resting on the swing and neha & nidhi started circling around. Veena said you shouldn't circle people around. kids wanted to know why. she said when people die, we need to circle them and not when they are alive.
nidhi : so why do we circle the chairs in musical chair game?
veena : chairs are not living things, so its okay.
neha : why do we circle god in temples, isn't god living thing then?

kids are studying for their exams and one of the questions they practice is "name any two animals that give milk" nidhi says goat & cow. We felt odd that she thought of goat first, for this question. Then she asks 'why cant I write giraffe or donkey as well'? Technically she is correct, the question should have been "name two animals that give milk that humans dare to drink".