Christmas Performance!

Mysha's year end Christmas celebration was a gala event in Stamford Hotel, quite unusual for a usually sober school. I was told that this was one event on which the school really spends (hmm I doubt because we paid a handsome amount on the tickets) Nevertheless the main point not to be missed was that this was Mysha's first stage performance at school. Her group of toddlers sang and emoted to carol songs. Mysha seemed to enjoy her songs on stage; not bad I must say!!

After the event we devoured the food and snacks served outside... Niki and Mysha here simply chose to sit down here and enjoy their meal.

Later as we were walking down the lobby we caught this cute picture of Abha with Mysha and Aditi

Nobody like my Desi Girl !!!

Today was the first day of 'Desi week' at my school. AND I decided to wear my flashy green earring to match my salwar kameez. As you would have presumed, at the end of the day Mysha was flaunting them. I could not help but say, 'Nobody like my Desi Girl' !!!

Mysha Diwali Performance

This Diwali Mysha was took part in the Costa Rhu's Diwali night at the Swimming Club. It was a short 1 minute dance choreographed Hasika and Aruna. The two spend a lot of time trying to get the toddlers to be patient and do a few tries every time they arranged for some practice but we and they both knew that the kids would probably just stand on stage and not do anything much in front of the lights and crowd :) .... Well watch this ...THEIR PERFORMANCE!

Mysha and Nandika's date

This weekend Vineeta's parents were here for Diwali

and we all were invited home ....it was a fun filled evening of bursting crackers and having good food. Mysha and Nandika even had a dance adding a zing to the fun-filled air. Have a look...

Mysha new found love, Amit Uncle

One of my friends, Amit, visited us in Singapore on his trip to the US. He spent two days with us and Mysha grew really fond of him... We went to the beach and SkyPark together and Mysha sure seemed to enjoy the small little Jaipuri purse he fondly brought for her.  Come back again AMIT !

On Eid - My cute little angel

It was Eid today so we were all up early. Mysha & I had a bath and were ready for namaaz at 8am while Ilyas had gone to the mosque for prayers. As usual, I always encourage Mysha to pray with me. On this occasion, she readily agreed and infact insisted I put on her dupatta the proper way. Way to go my little angel!
MAY ALLAH GUIDE YOUR WAY ...

In the afternoon, Dolly and Sushil had come over for lunch. Dolly as usual had Mysha all glued on. She made the most amazing and quick butterfly and elephant drawings with Mysha new Faber Castell set.

Singapore Heritage Fest

Just before school starts, Msyha, Dadi and I went to the Singapore fest where there were special activities arranged for kiddies. Mysha had a real fun day out and I enjoyed the chilled out day too. After all it was my birthday!

There was storytelling where Mysha listened with rapt attention as the story of Ravan and Ram unfolded

... and thumb printing where Mysha made two little 'I love you' cards for Papa

... and painting where Mysha got to fabric paint here own beautiful white scarf

... and kite making. Mysha posing with her creation  and Dadi

For more photos of the event check out Museum Heritage Fest 2009

It's Arna's b'day

We had a lovely time dancing to the tune of 'Desi Girl' at Arna's b'day party. Party was the usual but what made it special was meeting everyone, enjoying a good laugh and sharing moments

It's Arsheya's b'day

Arsheya was once Mysha's best friend, but these relationships change so frequently at her age. Neverthelesss, here is to Arsheya's b'day -

ENJOY EVERY DAY AND EVERY YEAR OF YOUR LONG LIFE GIRL!

Book 4 - Banjo Granny

The story about Granny with a Banjo who sets to meet her grandchild, Owen. In doing so, she has to cross a river, a mountain and a desert. Each time she comes across an obstacle she picks up a banjo and sings and magically the path is made easier. Meanwhile birds give Owen the news that her Granny is coming. Owen excitement grows with each progress news that the birds bring along. Finally Granny meets Owen and Granny sings Owen her song.

Rating: ****
Review: The book contains a song with the musical notes that I didn't know how to read. This book may be even more magical with audio since at every stage Granny sings to make her way

Book 3 - Bamboo and Friends - The furry caterpillar

The story about the formation of butterflies. It's about 3 friends Bamboo(bear), Velvet (zebra) and Beak (bird). Beak looks out for an egg which he intends to have for breakfast but finds a furry caterpillar under Bamboo's head. Bamboo says its his pillow and Beak says that its HIS breakfast since it hatched from HIS egg. They keep quarreling on the same note. On the side the caterpillar is hungry and starts devouring leaves and getting bigger and bigger. One day they both find that it's become a hard shell and Bamboo no longer wants a hard pillow and Beak no longer wants a hard shell for breakfast. One day the shell cracks and a beautiful butterfly emerges.

Rating: ***
Review: Good pictures, but its not really a great story; velvet character not well developed and mentioned just one a few notes.

Long Live Jessie

Mysha recently saw Toy Story 2 and she was fascinated by Jessie esp. in the song "When somebody loved me, everything was beautiful". Ever since she has been imagining that Jessie stays with her and does every thing with her. The other day she misplaced her flower and she said "Jessie will find it for me" and then role played a third person (and her horse) till she found it !!!...

Now-a-days it's easy for me to get some things done from her (the usual eating food and brushing teeth) I just tell her that Jessie is sad, or going away or waiting for her and up she springs into action ... LONG LIVE JESSIE !

Stamping (only pen) on the new table

I have been encouraging Mysha to sit on her table for her play-activities like drawing etc. so its easy for her to do stuff. On this occasion she was happily stamping away from a Pooh pen that she received as a return gift from Nandika's birthday:)

Oh, I just remembered that I picked up these cute little hair pins and loved doing up her hair during my summer break. 'You are my DOLL,' I told her on one of the occasions so you should let me make your hair just like you do to for your DOLL. Then I realised how incorrect that statement was; Mysha does not love to dress up her doll, only undress her ;) Her poor Barbie lies around naked in the house and each time we try to put the clothes back, she discovers it and pull out her clothes again! POOR BARBIE!

Love hiding in the quilt

Mysha's favourite activity now-a-days is to jump into our quilt, pull it over her head and sit there playing by herself... Even the heat is Singapore does not deter her. When you ask, 'Where is Mysha?', she will peep up to show her face and squeal out with laughter. This was one of those moments.

Book 2 - Snow Angel

The story of a mouse family - Mama, Sam and Daisy - on Christmas day. They were playing around in the snow when they see a kind of a Snow Angel coming down from the sky. It's a giant swan which they think is an angel. Daisy is mesmerized but Sam thinks that there is something wrong. The angel does not look well. It speaks finally and says it is tired and hungry and lost his friends. The mice rush to find some berries and nuts for the swan and after having some the swan feels energized to go. The mice feel very proud about this and go back and tell their mom about the episode.

Rating: 5*
Review: Great lesson on sharing on Christmas and great visuals.

The series unfolds ...Book 1 - The Great Monster Hunt

I had once attended a children's seminar where the speaker advised that instead of watching TV, family should focus on reading stories to kids. Infact before a child goes to formal school, 500 stories is what he/she must have heard ....

Ok, I have GOAL... no its not a new one, Mysha has heard countless stories till now, but I thought it would be nice to record them on her blog. So here come the first set of books -

The Great Monster Hunt - A story about a duck that hears some noise under her bed and cries out for help to the pig. The pig in turn calls the strong bear, the bear in turn the loud fox and the fox in turn the clever owl. The conclude that there is a MONSTER under the duck's bed. So they plan to trap him with a rope and a net. When they all reach the duck's house and look under the bed, they find a little mouse under the bed sleeping making a 'pssst' sound and they smile saying they made a monster of a mouse.

Rating:  *****
Review: Well developed plot with sounds expressions building into the climax. Very good pictures covered expressions well.

School starts

It's 19th Aug today and school starts again for Mysha. We have been intimated that she is moving into a new class with teachers Shanika and Xui Zhi. I prepared her upfront showing her teachers photos from the welcome letter, but to my surprise when I asked her, upon her return, how her new teachers were, she replied she was still with her old teacher. I dashed a letter to the Princi to confirm the same and he said that she had infact moved into her new class. HMMM ... I guess Mysha still needs to put names and faces together a bit more ... On my part, Im just happy that she is happy to go to school :)

The princess of seduction

Well, I warned her that if she did not wear her panty in 1 min I would click a photo of her bottomless. But she was in a defiant mood. So here you go, let me introduce to you Mysha, the princess of seduction

The tresses story

Just before school starts I thought it would be a good idea to trim Mysha's mane. It was more that a year that she had had a hair-cut. As usual Mysha did not have any tantrums and quite enjoyed the novel experience.

Independence Day!

Aug 15th, I woke up Mysha in a jiffy and set a deadline of 20 min to be ready... It was Independence day and we were headed the the High Commissioner's Office in Singapore for the celebration (well suggested by Sai and Archana from my school).

Sigh!!! We missed the flag hoisting :( but it was nevertheless great to catch up with a few performances. Mysha was content holding the flag and seemed to enjoy her time moment we got some space to sit (phew !!! more that 1000 Indians must have attended the event)

Jai HO!

Happy Birthday balloon girl

The next day post her b'day Mysha picked up some decorations that we bought back home and strutted around the house from one room to another. Happy B'day balloon girl is what I called her.

And yet another celebration !

On the weekend, arranged a party for Mysha's b'day celebration with family and friends. What a pity that we didn't take snaps. Thank fully we had a few cellphones clicking. Mysha look adorable in her white fairy dress.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY,
                MY DEAR LITTLE

1+1+1 makes her third birthday

 Dished out a cake for my little one on her birthday just to realize that the oven would not work in the new house. Had to call on a few friends to get this one baked :) Mysha went personally to the friend's house to collect what she called "my cake" and insisted that we cut it soon ... Sorry Dada we didn't wait for you but was a pleasure to have nana, nani and khala join in too :)

It's Nandika's b'day

Yes, its the b'day season ! Here is to Nandika, one of Mysha's best friends ... LONG LIVE GIRL

Play date with Aditi

Mysha "besttest" friend - as she calls her - came home today for a play date.  I was 3 hours of fun for her I must say. I spent 1/2 hr or so telling them some stories and playing with them, but for most part they seemed to enjoy each other company and were happy to be left to play by them selves. Towards the end Mysha was drowsy so I suggested that she could sleep. Seeing her go to her bed, Aditi joined in too and I gladly put the blanket over them to complete this picture.

Moved into our new house

This Tues 13th July we moved into our new house :) The prettiest room was ofcourse Mysha's. Ever since she has seen it, she has fallen in love with it. After a difficult first night, today is the third day she has slept on her own in her pretty room. Must I say I'm proud of her.

Strutting around

This early morning pic when Mysha wore a pretty lucknowi kurta given by her nani and a set of matching danglers from my collection

Cap photo shoot

In Fonty I found this really good store selling caps. I picked up a pristine white one with a pink ribbon for Mysha. And Mysha's papa did this wonderful photo shoot with it.

Term End School Photo

Oh Mysha looked adorable in her term-end school photo. She wore a lovely orange-red dress given to her by Arshi baji.

Oh Where Oh Where!

It's been 2 months since I updated this blog :( Intentionally kept it so, because I know the void I left in Mysha's life by deciding to go to France for my studies. This entry, with collection of photos during this time, is a dedication to Papa, Dada, Dadi and Anna, Dolly, Vineeta and her innumerable friends esp. Aditi, who kept Mysha from missing me ...

Needlework

I probably need to ask Mysha's teacher what she has been up to with this work, but for the past 2 weeks Mysha has been bringing home this neat thread work. Wonder if she learning to use a needle!

Mysha's cute laughter

This is the first time I explored using video on YouTube. Her laughter is so delightful and endearing that it was worth all the effort. Looking forward to adding more videos of her :)

On this occasion Mysha was enjoying every bit of her time on the Bedok reservior with Dolly and Sushil. Near the water there were so many small mosquitoes dancing on our heads. The voice is in background is Dolly's who is trying to animate flying them away and Mysha as you can see is tickled to the bone to see her.

Allah-hu-akbar

Ilyas and Dada usually call out to Mysha before praying so she can join in. This was just one of the moments when she decided to join. Both Ilyas and Mysha were praying so much in sync that I could not resist capturing the moment. Alhum-du-lillah.

INSEAD Olympics and Mysha's gun

This Saturday, INSEAD had organised a day full of games and fun at Sentosa aptly titled the "INSEAD Olympics". We trooped there, family and all and truly had a gala time. Mysha took fancy of the sharp shooting water gun. Once Ilyas taught her how to use it, she could not lay her hands off it. She tucked it right under her arm with an action ready to shoot. I had my spray, everyone else beware!