15 Marbles

 I love looking at my girls, when they are being nice to each other. I love it how they look out for each other, when we are out. I love it how their eyes seek each other out, no matter how crowded the place might be.
We were invited for a party at a play-center,last weekend and the girls played so nicely with each other. They spent a lot of time in the big kids play area. SP took MsAn to the little kids play area for a while and MsA sat down with a frown on her face, waiting for her to finish playing there, so they could play together. They both found it hard to understand why we were the only ones sticking to the rule of ” No kids over 5 years”, when there were other older kids playing rough in that area. SP and I told them why and sent them off to the big kids play area again.
But as the party started to wind down and the center was getting quieter, Ms.An went in the soft play area again and she needed help, climbing up on the giant teddy bear and getting into the spinning chair and MsA put her hand up and said, ” Sit back, Mumma..I can help her,” and she did and that’s when I took this picture of them. All afternoon, I kept trying to take a good photo of them together, but had no luck. This one is blurry, it captures all that made me happy that afternoon- them, playing together.
On our way back, they were so tired, but we could hear them talking and reminiscing over the events of the afternoon. And MsA said to MsAn,”You are my best friend” and MsAn replied,” And you are my best friend”..totally melted my heart.

It also reminded me of the time just after MsAn was born. I think she must have been a week old. We left a sleeping MsAn at home with my aunt and just ducked into the shops to pick up some baby essentials, coz Ms.An had decided to come earlier than planned and obviously, the weekend that we were supposed to go shopping, I spent giving birth to her 😀  Anyway, I digress..So, we ran into an acquaintance of SP’s at the shops and they were talking to MsA, asking her about her kinder(Gosh!! I can’t believe it..its almost time for MsAn to start kinder!) and if she had any friends there, etc. And MsA, all of 4 years old, had replied very clearly, ” No, I don’t have any friends there yet, but it doesn’t matter, because I have a sister now and she is my best friend.” Oh my God, I still remember the tears prickling at my eyes and a lump forming in my throat..4 years later and I still have the same reaction, when I think of that day and when I watch them with each other. And of course, there are moments, when the bickering doesn’t stop and all I want to do is just tear my hair off and scream like a mad banshee..actually, I do scream, but it doesn’t seem to bother them.  Anyway.. this post is about happy moments and I will leave it at that 🙂

More later,
Love,
Trish

I am talking about the blog 😊 yes, I know I have fallen behind. I am sick again- just having a relapse of the chest n throat infection .. Only worse than last time. Back on antibiotics and OMG! I am so exhausted. 

Add mouth sores to that and everything tastes like sandpaper or soap water! This post has been sitting in the drafts for the last 2 days, I figured I should post it tonight. 

More later,

Love,

T

I think I have found a solution to dinner-time dramas! We are moving to Mexico 😃😃 No, I am just joking !! But going by the happy dinner time tonight, we might as well. 

It was Taco Tuesday and there was absolute silence at the table . I didn’t even have to force them to take seconds. 

Here’s our leftovers:

  
And MsA has already called the shots on them! 

I leave you with my Guacamole recipe, one that I picked up from this awesome Mexican place near Plano, TX. The waitress made the Guac at our table and since then, I have made mine like that. 

Ingredients: 

1ripe Avocado

1/2 small tomato(chopped)

1/2 Spanish onion( fine chopped)

1/2 lime 

1-2Green chilli – fine chopped 

Coriander 1-2 tsp fine chopped 

Salt to taste

Method: Scoope the flesh out of the avocado, in a bowl. Add all the ingredients and mash well with two forks or in a mortar and pestle. Enjoy! 

Sometimes I throw in some fresh corn too, just to mix things up 😊 

 

This is from the other night, when we had Nachos And Movie Night. 

I know I have fallen behind with daily posts, but I will make up 😃

More later! 

Love, 

Trish!

So MsA came back on Friday afternoon. I can’t believe how excited I was. I felt tears prickling at my eyes, a few times through out the day and especially when I was driving to the school to pick her up. The last few minutes are always the longest. I spoke to some other mums while waiting for the buses to arrive and they were all in the same state. I think not being able to communicate with the children made it harder. But, I have to say that MsA’s school, kept sending regular updates and that was a relief. And on the first night, we found out that a friend was on parent duty, that put our minds at ease too.
The buses arrived and when the kids started getting off the buses, there were so many smiles and so many tears. I swear, they all looked so grown up suddenly. MsA, hugged me and I didn’t want to let go! She was the one to break the hug, to look for her bag. She went on calmly to look for her bag and then remembered that she had forgotten a bag of wet clothes on the bus. I was just amazed to see this responsible big girl, who remembered everything. Whatever happened to the scatterbrain that used to forget/lose something or the other at school, everyday.
We went to pick up MsAn, straight after and the joy on the sisters’ faces, when they saw each other, was priceless. I had to take photos. MsAn was immediately territorial about her sister- you see, some of her friends wanted a hug too. And she wasn’t going to allow that.
 

We went out to get hot chocolates and MsA told us camp stories of all the activities they did- they made candles, played games(she described in great detail about some game which involved a Ping-Pong ball and water, but I have forgotten about it), saw reptiles, had a camp-fire, toasted marshmallows and so on. She claims to have tried different foods and loved it. Her favourite part was getting a dessert every night. She woke up at 5 am on the first morning, got in the shower and when she came out, she checked the time to realise that it was too early in the morning. She loved the whole experience but when we were sitting at the dining table for her dinner, her wise words were,” I am happy to have my life back.”
Before leaving for the camp, I had asked her what she wanted for dinner, when she got back and her answer was, “Pizza”. After she came back, I asked her what she wanted for dinner, she replied whatever you cook. I gave her a couple of options and she settled on “Kadhi-rice”

  

I cannot tell you how happy it made me that she picked home-cooked food instead of a takeaway. The camp has done her well. As I said before, she seems to have grown up overnight. She is also very tired, we stayed in most of today, so she could rest before going back to school, tomorrow.

More later..
T