Officially a "tween"!

Or that's what M proclaimed quite proudly this morning. The hurricane is 11 and continuing to turn our lives upside down!

I can begin to distinctly see mood changes or moody behavior. I used to think your kids always smell sweet to you till our pediatrician amusingly told me oh, you'll know! And oh yes, I do know now. :)

But the quintessential mature Manya - the one I can bank on to have my back in an emergency or an urgency, the one who makes the best travel companion, the one who is quick to compromise for the best in the situation, the one who just knows how to make you feel better - that quintessential daughter of mine just continues to shine thru the tantrums and the tween angst - fingers crossed! We have the trial by fire (teenage) awaiting us!

Manya and I are almost the same length, breadth and width now so it is part fun and part annoying stealing each other's shoes, clothes, accessories - as she wears my denims and i try to pull off her high waisted cargoes with cropped sweat shirts - shopping has gotten much more exciting for sure - the one time we are all buddy buddy with no fighting!

She continues to be a champ at school as always. For after school activities, we have closed doors to horse riding and gymnastics. It's piano (she's onto her 5th year now!), coding, and swimming for now.

Love you to bits Manya, continue rocking!

We are 10!

 Hello double digits. 

- We are 10 and we know it all. 

- Mom and Dad are no longer cool. 

- Friendships run strong.

- Other things not cool: Pink, Glitter, Frills

- What is very cool: Anime, Black - all shades of black :D, and all things Kawaii!

- Dream destination: Japan - because anime, duh!

- Roblox is the new Minecraft. 

- We stand tall and can't wait to surpass mom's height.

- Best co-traveller ever. Loves new experiences.

- A bit of that teenage whiny noise finds it's way and mom shuts it down immediately. 

- Overwhelming emotions sometimes - mostly when asked to clean the room.

- Horseriding, coding, gymnastics, swimming, piano - we do it all. Slave driver. Mom's the slave :D.

- We are still cuddly and snuggly but mostly at bedtime and in the morning. Any other time love yous or kisses are exchanged, mom's just sappy.

- We love writing fiction! Oh I am so proud of her writing. The genre is usually horror or something but the vocabulary and the plot complexities promise to keep you hooked!

- Fits into mom's shoes, steals mom's clothing even. 

Can't wait to see what the decade brings. Actually, scratch that, can wait :)

Last of the single digit birthdays!

 She is nine!

At home celebrations again this year - as everybody continues to mask.

- She is growing and every now and then I observe the baby face fading away. Tall but very huggable still :).

- Lot of missing teeth - finally!

- She's doing very well in school - Has joined the high capability - Discovery program at school and is acing it. Loves to read and write. Her writing has just flourished - her vocabulary, complexity of thought and emotion portrayed just blows me away! So very proud of her.

- Wanted a black bike with gears for her birthday - Though she still loves the occassional dresses, I can see the pink and glittler moving into oblivion on most days. Has her own sense of style - for some reason she loves sunglasses :). Still kinda likes jewellery and accessories.

- Minecraft has been big this year. Lot of online gaming with friends. It can be very educational mom, she tells me. Oh well, we know how that goes!

- Restarted swim after the pandemic break, piano doing great. Two big new additions this year - horseback riding and gymnastics!

- I see the obsession with politics easing off as the election madness has died down.

- Guess who is the new selfie queen in the house? My phone and ipad are filled with tonnes of selfies she's been taking! It's very very amusing.

Can't believe we are at the end of the single digits already!

Milestone Update - 8

 At 8, M is impossible :). But more here:

- She is tallish for her age - no longer tiny weight wise - she matches up at her height percentile and that is huge!

- She has lost 2 more baby teeth this year (totalling 4 till date).

- She no longer believes in magic, fairies, santa etc etc. She's, at most times, a ruthless pragmatic typhoon on steroids - go figure!

- She's going thru an intense politics phase! 

- Loves her piano - we are onto our second year of lessons!

- Thanks to COVID we have stopped swimming - physical games and exercising is something Manya does only because she must ;) She blames lack of comapny - I blame lack of will!

- She is strong willed and opinionated - we have our more than fair share of tiffs but makeup is mosly quick with snuggles and cuddles and kisses - While I keep hoping the first part becomes better- I pray the latter never changes!

- She loves travelling and like her parents has a never ending list of places she simply must visit.

- She continues to be a reader! Reads a wide variety too! We still continue our bedtime mom and daughte reading and it is one of the more special moments of our day - I really wish we both continue this forever :)

- She loves her gadgets - though thanks to online schooling - she is not as much into electronics over the weekends - she has developed interests in coding, pencil sketching, sewing.

- Earlier this year, she gave her room a complete makeover - the barbie dream house, the kitchen, 90% of her soft toys, her doll closets, barbies, LOLs, play dressers etc etc all were thrown out - I am too old for this stuff mom! Her room now has mainly a four poster bed with a delicate blue canopy, a huge L shaped desk, her piano, a small bunk bed for her American Girl dolls , a few toys and some paraphernalia around all this. Much much easier to clean but I miss the stuffies that I had curated over the years! Sigh! She is also into puzzles, LEGOs, board games, card games etc.  

- The other big change has been clothing - she tries to copy my wardrobe many a times - has ordered two pair of jeans that are exactly like what I have. Has a cable knit sweater dress like mom. Likes more chic clothing compared to the pinks, purples, glitter and frills of the earlier years! 

She can't wait to grow up and I can wait a lot longer :)

Goodbye Pink, Purple, and Princesses

We are truly in the Pharaoh phase.

This weekend M cleared her room ourt of most things pink, purple, bling and princess. Her room looks like a tween's room now - no play kitchen and doll house. A nice canopy bed, with a functional desk and her piano! She downscaled her soft toys collection from a few hundred to just a few! Her wardrobe is smarter and chicer - not too many frills or cute things!

"Mom, I am done with this cute, pink, princess phase."

Yes Ma'am!

Milestone update - 7

I don't know how many times a parent must say and wonder how time flies. Well it does, and it seems to get ahead of itself, if that was possible.

So what is our little 7 year old upto...

- Social, pragmatic, diplomatic - M is a joy to have. She is feisty, rebellious, and extremely sassy too especially at home - she is no goody two shoes all the time - but she is genuinely warm and kind. So go figure who she is - she is a hurricane with the right intentions mostly - haa!

- She started a new hobby this year - piano! She judiciously practices and seems to be enjoying it for the last couple of months and let's see where this musical journey takes her.

- Lost her two baby teeth! and gained a couple of inches - she does stand tall and threaten my position as number 2 tallest in our family of 3. ;)

- I think we have a reader here and quite a decent writer too (when she feels inspired enough that is). Horror as a genre fascinates her to no end.

- I feel the princess phase is kind of mellowing down and we might be on the pharaoh stage now - she wants to rule! But on a serious note - i think her mind is wandering beyond glitter and pink - literally and figuratively. She loves all her girlie accessories still but is embracing mustards and auburns and denims again, which is a welcome relief.

- She loves being out and about and busy - we have activities 2 days a week, another day she stays back at school for after school clubs (currently - Robotics), 2 other days she has recurring play dates most weeks - and she still thinks has has time for gymnastics, spanish, and what not. I had heard of overscheduling parents - ever heard of overscheduling kids?

- BabyCenter sent me an email this mornign congratulating me that I have now entered the most rewarding phase as a parent - well I am not celebrating yet - Agreed Manya is a great companion for most things - travel, car rides, conversations, activities, etc etc - but does she has an opinion or what. And she is defiant. My ears seldom hear, "Yes mom" at the first go. So many times anything that i say is replied by something that begins with But or However or No or How about. The sass, and sarcasm, and attitude all combined with this beautiful heart and intelligence is a deadly combination!

#MorningCardiacArrest

Me: Manya what are you pouring over this seriously first thing in the morning.
M: Mom, I finally figured out the f word that is really bad so now I am checking out the exact meaning in my dictionary.
Me (😱😳🤭🤨😖😫), composing myself: Oh really, what is it?
M: You tell me, I’ll tell you if I got it right or not.
Me (not falling for this): How about we take turns to spell it. I’ll go first - F
M: Okay, R
Me (kind of calmed down but now in a fix): I?
M: Freak has an i or an e after r?
Me: E E E - come I’ll help you find the word - let’s learn how to use the dictionary. And remember Freak is very rude - you will not use it. Okay?
M: okay, now let me look for some more bad words.
Me: 🤦🏻‍♀️🤷🏻‍♀️

Hello Grade 1!

Goodbye long idle summer days! Hello Grade 1! We have three parallel careers to work on, so high time we got started!