Child’s Play – Akshara Rajaram

Last year, it was the season of the swine flu in Pune and we had Akshara’s first birthday party in Chennai instead of Pune. This year, the media had more interesting things than swine flu to concentrate on and thus we could have a party in Pune.

On her birthday, we were in Chennai and we did a small family get-together and cut a cake. Vidhya wanted a cake with a 3d model of the characters in “In the night garden”, but finding cake shops (within few days) capable of making one based on a photo was tough. Cakes n’Bakes in Nungambakkam were ready to do it, but they wanted a colour printout A3 size! There was a shop close to our house (Cake point) and the guy said that they can put any photo on a cake and it would be an edile layout. Usually, there is a thin strip of plastic paper kept on the cake which is removed before the cake is cut. We didn’t want this, we wanted the photo to be edible and blend in with the cake. We chose the teletubbies photo and the guy did a good job.

We had filled the room with balloons overnight so that Akshara would see them as soon as she woke up on her birthday. She liked the balloons a lot and the entire day was spent in the company of one balloon or the other!

Our families (vidhya’s and our’s) also went to a dinner “party” on the occassion to GRT Grand (the same place where we had Akshara’s first birthday). Akshara and Laya had lot of fun at the dinner, which meant that more time was spent on controlling them rather than on enjoying the food. Before someone asks, yes, Askshara had a cast on for around 10 days last month, because she had hurt her elbow while playing.

Vidhya had been training Akshara for few days before her birthday on how to blow the candle. She was able to replicate the action perfectly albeit the flow of air! Sriram had also invited members of his apartment gang. Akshara was only too glad at the photo requests.

I dont know whether Akshara has been seeing too much of Jayalalitha or Mayawati on TV, but she suddenly decided to act “holy” after the crown went on her and went on a blessing spree!

Back in Pune, we had the birthday party in one of the community halls in Magarpatta. Vidhya wanted to “theme” the party on something which Akshara would recognise. Farm animals, it was then. So, we had ordered a farm theme cake at Copper Chocs and also had animal shaped cookies done at the same place. The cookies had come out better than our expectation. The decorations at the hall also included cutouts of farm animals and a small barn (with hay) at one corner. There was also a tattoo guy who gave all the kids tattoos of their choice.

We wanted to personalize the return gifts. So, Vidhya made the bags with chart paper and ribbons and got Akshara to imprint her hand on all the bags. It was a bit messy, but fun I had also made some thank you cards with Akshara’s photo and these were stuck on each of the bags. The teddy bears were cut out from a wrapping paper we had.

Akshara’s candle blowing skills didn’t improve much, but she was atleast consistent enough for the photos to give an impressions that she is blowing out the candles. Akshara enjoyed the attention she got from her friends and had fun during the party.

And, of course, she loved all the gifts she got!

written by Rajaram S

Last year, it was Krishna. This year, the plan was for Radha. Also, her playschool had asked all girls to be dressed up as Radha and the guys as Krishna for their Janmashtami celebrations. Akshara wore a demo-version to school as it would have been too much to expect her to keep everything on during the 2 hours at school.

So, in the evening, before the official puja/snack time, Radha was up and ready! Akshara is now very comfortable before the camera and very accommodating with her poses, but she is on a world of her own when it comes to her expressions! The matka, which was given to each student in her playschool, was her favourite prop for the day.

Akshara wanted to take part in the Puja. My uncle was also here and he was the one doing the pooja. if you see the photo below, you will notice the change in times. The sloka was being read out from a downloaded text file on the laptop

With lot of snacks like Murukku, Cheedai, Mysore Pak etc being prepared and kept right in front of our eyes, it turned out to be too tempting for Akshara. But, mom said that kids are exempted from the naivedhyam-ritual for god and are allowed to bite-in anytime and this is particularly applicable for naivedhyams to Krishna! I will never grasp the complexity of the rules of all the rituals.

With mama, mami and my mom also in Pune, the traditional as well as the culinary aspects of Krishna Jayanti were experienced to the fullest.

written by Rajaram S

Akshara has been going to the Treehouse play school for almost 2 months now. She enjoys going to school now, but the first few weeks were anything but that. Vidhya had to stay along with Akshara at the school for the first week, where Akshara wouldn’t even go an inch away from Vidhya. Slowly, things changed. Akshara realised that there was more scope for her shenanigans at school than at home and started enjoying it. Some photos from her schooling trips!

The below two photos are from her first day at school. When we left home, she thought that it was just another “tata trip” (outing) and she was happier to have a bag of her own too. Of course, it was a different story at school. Back from school, she was back to her self and started enjoying the school books. That is her school “uniform” next to her in the second photo.

The next two photos are with the school uniform. The uniform actually is just the t-shirt. The good part about treehouse is that they say that the kids can wear this on fridays. It is only “can” and not must. The other school, Bachpan, that we had enquired required that the kids come in uniform on 4 days of the week and i wasn’t in favour of this “rule”.

With the monsoons active during July and August, we had to get Akshara ready for all weather conditions, as she usually walks back from school. The umbrella was already her favourite accessory on trips, but it was more for photos rather than for actual use. So, we got her a raincoat. Even though her school had taught her the purpose of a raincoat and when to use it, Akshara wasn’t convinced by it and insisted that she would wear the raincoat as and when she wanted it. So, it is not strange to see to Akshara walking out of the house on a bright and sunny day with the umrealla and the raincoat!

written by Rajaram S

written by Rajaram S

If you had missed the elaborate introduction-to-swimming sessions which Akshara was put through, check this post. After the brief unsuccessful attempt in Chennai, we continued trying when we were in Malaysia. Slowly, but surely the situation was improving. The swimming pool was visible from our hotel room and Akshara spent a lot of time gazing at the pool with us explaining about the possible fun that could be had by being inside it!

Then, we went back to the usual ploy of a photography session. The constant exposure to the pool seemed to have worked with this photo session happenning much closer to the water (and in contact too!) than the previous ones.

We were back in Chennai by then and back to the same old swimming pool. We noticed that Akshara was more forthcoming to the water this time and the only difference from before were the arm-balloons (or whatever you call them!) she was wearing. Maybe it was the security concern that was keeping her away all the time… But, the reason didn’t matter, the final result did and we were happy.

Next Step: Get her into the water. This happened almost instantaneously without any resistance. In fact, Akshara started to enjoy splashing and jumping around.

She wasn’t happy with my company and wanted the duck also to come in. She sat on the duck and started paddling around. This was a big improvement over the situation that i had to be next to her always.

Then came the part which had all us surprised. Since the pool was around 2 feet deep (just until her chin), she was actually moving around the pool by pushing her toes on the pool floor. She was actually moving from one end to another on her own. This was way too cool to watch!

I later became very ambitious and held her up so that she was in a horizontal position. She started pedalling her legs. Maybe, this comes to kids automatically. But the lessons had to stop here, as proceeding beyong this required the instructor to be knowledgeable, which i definitely wasn’t. So, the hunt is on now for a pool in Pune which takes in 2 yr olds.

written by Rajaram S