The big 5

It has been a very busy and eventful week.

Ads turned 5 on the 25th of August, and we seem to have been celebrating ever since the 21st. For starters, we flew to Chennai for 3 days to spend some time with my m-i-l as she turned 60. We were throwing a party for her anyways, and then she had the brilliant idea of celebrating her 4 grandchildren's birthdays also, in advance. The 4 grandchildren being aged almost 6, almost 5, almost 4 and almost 2 :) So in addition to the large cake we had already ordered for my mil, we also ordered 4 large pastries from the Taj Coromandel cake shop. It was a cakefest with each child cutting their individual cakes and finally S's mom cutting her own cake. Ads really enjoyed the trip, not least the chance to play and bond with his cousins who are much the same age. 

We got back to Delhi on the 24th, and the next day Ads was off to school, clutching a large bag of chocolates to be distributed to his teachers and classmates. Unfortunately a large portion of the chocolates seem to be have been demolished in the school bus itself, leaving just the right amount to be distributed to his classmates and none at all for the teachers! I asked Ads why he allowed the bus kids to dig in without protesting, and he said "It's ok ma, how can I stop children from having chocolates?" Sometimes he talks like a grandfather.  I met his teacher yesterday for a parent-teacher interaction, and it was all good. He is picking up Hindi, has made more friends, reading and writing all ok. She was also relating the incident where he landed up in school on his birthday with half the chocolates missing. I quote her: "He is a very simple innocent child. There's absolutely no guile in him anywhere. You must teach him to be more stern with other children."

My little boy. The one quality that is at a premium in this world and I am being asked to rub it out of you. Your simplicity, your innocence, your trust and your tendency to take things and people at face value are so endearing. But these wonderful qualities will only hurt you as your grow older. I'm so happy at this core of goodness that I know will always exist inside you, no matter whether you learn to be more stern or more selfish or more street-smart. 

Another birthday means another birthday party! And that means loads of stress that I manufacture out of nowhere and dump on myself. Thinking about food, games, music, decorations, return gifts, party favours.....I kept it simple and invited only 5 kids and their siblings. Unfortunately a couple of parents that I had invited couldn't make it so we ended up with only 1 adult and 7 kids (including my own) which worked out quite well because I could completely focus on them instead of trying to make conversation with their parents. It was a simple affair - juice and pasta, cake, lots of music and dancing, four games, and before we knew it, 2 hours had passed and parents started arriving to pick up their children. Ads enjoyed all the fun and frolic which was the main thing and the bonus was that Y seemed to enjoy it even more than him. It was a real challenge keeping her out of harm's way; she wanted to be in the thick of things but with 6 other loud and boisterous kids running around all over the place, the risk of her getting knocked down was significant. It did happen, not once but several times; she seemed to get hurt only once though and managed to stay on her father's lap for all of 10 seconds, bawling and getting the necessary sympathy and consolation; before sliding down and rejoining the festivities!

I shall now relax for 2 months before planning Y's party :)