A Toddler In My Kitchen !!!

I entered the kitchen and saw that refrigerator door is open and my two and a half year old son is busy finding something in it.  Upon asking he said "I am working mom. I will cook food for everyone and will help you." I was speechless and completely bowled by his answer. The degree of love I felt for him at that moment can not be described in word, but I am sure every mother out there can understand that.

This made one thing clear that my son wants to spend some time with me while I am in kitchen busy cooking food for the household. Cooking food is a task that can not be avoided but I can ensure that my baby is involved in it so that we spend some quality time together.

But kitchen is not a safe place for small kids so I thought of planning some fun cooking activities with him which were completely safe. Before starting these activities I patiently explained him that stove is hot and kids are not supposed to go near it. I also removed all the sharp materials like knifes and peelers from lower cabinets to a higher one. After going through this complete exercise we jumped into cooking safe food where my son could help me.

I am listing down a few activities for benefit of other moms.

Butterfly Sandwiches

Sandwiches can be made in different forms and with a variety of ingredients and are a complete breakfast for anyone. They do not involve any cooking and can be easily done with help from a kid.

• Take some bread slices and remove corners
• Cut a single slice in half diagonally so that each part is a triangle
• Slice some cucumbers, tomatoes, boiled eggs, olives, cheese slices or fruits and put in a dish
• Optionally you can also make some filling like a scrambled egg or mix veg and add some mayo to it
• Put some kind of sandwich spread or cheese spread on the table
• Now you can ask your toddler to arrange these slices in form of a butterfly by joining two triangles from there top point, back to back
• After that put the dish full of different slices you have made and ask your baby to arrange it on the bread in any way he/she wants. You can also put a filling between two slices
• You can also open the bread spread and ask him/her to spread it on the sandwich.
• Help him/her make a butterfly shape by arranging different fruits and vegetables

Learning Shapes

Learning shapes could be more of a fun if done in way where your kid can enjoy it. For this activity you will need the following:

• Cookie cutters of different shapes
• Bread
• Jam
• Nutella chocolate spread
• Tutti fruity, colored mouth fresheners, crushed nuts or gems

Now the fun begins:

• Remove the sides of the bread and keep in front of your kid
• Give him/her cookie cutters of different shapes (use plastic cutters for safety purpose)
• Let them cut different shapes and ask them to tell you about each shape they have cut
• After they are done cutting the shapes put some jam or nutella chocolate spread in front of them and help them spread it over the bread
• Once done put assortment of crushed nuts, gems, chocolate chips or even chopped fruits in front of them and ask them to decorate the shapes

This will keep the child busy and will make a great dessert for everyone in the family

Coated Fruits

This is a  fun way to keep your child busy as well as make him/her eat the fruits. 

• Chop some fruits and place in a bowl
• Crush some cookies in a zip lock bag and put it in another bowl
• Take a container with a lid and ask your child to place 3-4 pieces of his/her favorite fruit in it
• Then ask him/her to put some crushed cookies in the container
• Ask him/her to close the lid and have fun shaking the fruit. Kids usually love shaking and banging. Let them have fun time doing this
• Once they are done shaking ask them to take it out in a dish and let them repeat the process till they tire
• Later they can eat their own creation

Jam Rolls

My son is absolutely fascinated with the rolling pin and always asks for some dough and rolling pin whenever I am making chapatis. Since dough is sticky he always used to make a mess and ended up in wasting a lot of it. Then I thought of this particular snack which he can do easily and eat also afterwords without wasting anything.

• Take some bread slices and remove their corners
• Let your child sit on the dining table and put the bread in front of him on a chopping board
• Give him the rolling pin and let him enjoy the process of flattening the bread till the time you are cooking your chapatis
• Once you both are done you can ask him to spread some jam or peanut butter on the bread and roll it to make jam rolls.

I hope you will enjoy these simple recipes with your kids. Have fun with that toddler in your kitchen.

Goa!!!! In April???????

It was more than a year that we had not gone out for a holiday. Various responsibilities, family weddings, office work contributed to our dilly dallying the much required break.

It was almost March and I was dying for a chutti. One look at the calendar and we knew that April had a really good potential for taking a week off with 3 official holidays coming up together in a week.

Me and my husband applied for leaves and the next big question was where should we go. Since it was April and beginning of a hot Indian summer, everyone's usual suggestion was any hill station. Being a Delhite I have been going to all sorts of hill stations all my life and I really did not feel like spending an entire week on a mall road. I wanted to go to a beach destination and Goa was my ultimate choice.

What??? Goa, in April!!!!! was everyone's reaction. "you people must be crazy to even think about Goa in April. It is off season, there will be no shacks and beaches will be up and on top of that it will be so hot that you people will not be able to step down on any of the beaches."

My husband got a little skeptical by hearing all this but I was adamant. I started looking on goggle to find out how is Goa in April. To my disappointment, I could not find anything which gave me a fair idea of GOA in April. There were some Yahoo and trip adviser queries and most of them were answered by people from Europe or US.  As we all know Europeans and Americans have different parameters for what is hot and whats not than Indians, I was not satisfied by these findings.

I listened to my gut and booked Goa for a week in April with my whole family. After coming back I thought of sharing my experiences with people so that anyone else going through a dilemma like me can have a clear picture.

We boarded for Goa on a morning flight on 14th of April. I was dreading the moment when we will land there and was totally expecting heat and humidity welcoming us. When we got out of the airport all my fears were subsided by a cool breeze and it was about 2 in the afternoon. I was quite happy with this warm errr cool welcome.



We hired a taxi and reached our hotel the Silver Sands Resort at the Condolim beach. We have booked here for two days and for rest of the three days we had a booking at Terra Perrasio Resorts at Calangute.

The resort looked really good from outside and we were all in all happy. The rooms of the resort were very basic and did not match up to my expectations, but they were clean. Wherever I stay my first preference is a neat and clean bathroom and so I was satisfied in that aspect at least.

After relaxing and changing we came out and my son was excited to see the swimming pool. He could not wait for us to even finish our tea. I took him to shower room near the pool and it was stinking badly of urine. I could not make myself go inside so we avoided that shower and my son landed in pool with his grand dad.

Meanwhile me and my husband decided to go for a walk on the beach which was 5 mins walk from the resort. The beach was nice and there were many shacks still up and bustling with activity.

We avoided any meals at the resort except for our complimentary breakfast which was nothing to boast about. They were not at all accommodating if someone did not eat eggs. When my son did not eat his sandwich, I thought of keeping it in a napkin so that I can make him eat later on but that was also not acceptable to the staff.

All in all it is a decent enough resort if you are looking for budgeted hotels which are neat and clean, and quite close to the beach but do not expect any luxury.

Our second accommodation at Terra Perassio was simply amazing. It is a small resort but beautifully made and really good and spacious rooms. Their room service is also up to the mark and the food at in house restaurant is great. They were very helpful when I asked them to cook paranthas or stuffed kulchas without any spices and were ready to customize food as per our needs. Breakfast was also a lavish spread with live egg counter. variety of fruits, bf cereals, juices, 3 main dish and an assortment of breads.



As far as weather is concerned it was certainly hot in the day time and going to beach after 10 and before 4 was simply out of question. Morning and evenings were cool and breezy and that used to be our beach and shack time. During the noon the breeze was cool if you were in shade and we spent that time either in pool or sight seeing like old Goa and forts.

Although the foreigners as usual used to relax on their recliners whole day on the beach but I was not able to even walk on the beach because sand was quite hot during afternoon. Water sports and activities were still on and we enjoyed our share of it.

Because it was off season the beaches and shacks were less crowded than the madness we have in peak season. All in all it was a great holiday and we did not feel like we are in a hot oven ready to be baked.

We came back with some very good memories and an experience to advice people who really want to go Goa in April due to any crazy reason like me. Yes, it wont be as pleasant as in December but you can still go and enjoy cool morning and evenings and avoid those hot afternoons. So Goooooooo Goooooooooooa!!!

Twinkle Twinkle Little Star

Twinkle twinkle little star... how I wonder what you are??

It is 7:30 am in the morning and news paper guy has still not arrived. I am pacing up and down in anxiety while my tea is getting cold. My mom in law asked me to have the tea while its hot as that's the way I like it but I went to the balcony to look out for the paper wala. Suddenly I heard a bang on the door and I went rushing down to collect today's newspaper. As usual I gave the main paper to my father in law and leafed through the pages of my Delhi Times. There it was... my today's fortune.. CAPRICORN.

Now I picked up tea and asked my maid to re heat it. Though I do not like re heated tea but I guess that's the price I have to pay for my luck.

I rushed through the remaining news paper and glanced at my antique wall clock. Its 8:00 am and I am late for office. After having a quick bath and almost gobbling my breakfast I rushed out of the house. As I started my car my forecast's line flashed through my mind .. "avoid rash driving". I smiled and raced my car towards the highway.. Thanks to my news paper guy I was already late for office and to grab a perfect parking spot I should drive fast. Well fast is not rash, is it?

I reached office and saw that Saumya, Akash and Ranjeeta are sitting close together looking like triplets in blue color cloths. Not again I thought. Last Friday all three of them were in yellow and the day before that in different hues of green.

After working continuously for 4 hours I felt hungry. I do not care if my fortune said "treat work as worship". I will first treat my stomach and then will worship my work. Since no one else saw in a mood to eat food, I went to everyone's desk and yanked them up.

Lunch time is always fun, sharing food, recipes and office hot gossip. After finishing lunch I took out my fruit box and was delighted to see my favorite mango in it. As a custom as passed it around so that everyone can have their share.

"Yikeeees", shrieked out Saumya and spitted the mango out. I looked surreptitiously at the mango thinking it might be rotten or something to drag such a reaction from Saumya.

 "Yikeeeeeees" she shouted again, "I am not supposed to eat that" she said. Upon asking, she admitted that her forecast warned her to keep away from any and everything yellow. Suddenly Akash and Ranjeeta also stopped eating explaining that all three of them are Taurians. So that sums up the color coded cloths I guess.

When we went back to our workstations I saw Sachin sitting in a rather sullen mood. On inquiring, he said that his onsite travel plan is getting postponed every week. According to him his weekly forecast read "A travel can happen this week", but nothing is happening. I tried to console him by saying that many people have the same star sign and more than half of the star signs every week predicted a travel. That does not mean that all the people of that star sign will travel together every week,

After consoling him I sat thinking, how a two line forecast in morning newspaper can affect our mind and soul. I also read the forecast everyday but treat it more like a fun reading, something like reading archies or garfield strips on the same page. I never thought that it has the power to affect people so strongly. Someone does not want to drive down to office in his red car because his forecast read "Red is dangerous" whereas someone is avoiding having a bath as his forecast advised to avoid water. As hilarious and funny it may sound but this could be a serious issue.

Millions of people around the world have same sun sign. They can in no way share the same two line prediction. Moreover these predictions are so generic and ambiguous with words like "May", "Can", "good to avoid", "your hard work will pay off this week". When I picked up few months' newspapers, I saw same or similar words doing a rotation between different signs. If it is supposed to be so serious then why is it clubbed with comic strips and crosswords on the entertainment page. To take it seriously or not is one's own perspective but all this makes me wonder what these stars are and what kind of power they have...and they make me recite the favorite nursery rhyme of all times

Twinkle twinkle little stars
How I wonder what you are!!
Up above the world so high
Like a diamond in the sky!!!

Fun Activities With Toddlers

Fun Activities With Toddlers

When I was a small kid summer holidays use to be a fun time. I used to look forward to these two months of holidays eagerly and had all my plans ready for having a fun filled summer.

Times changed and now I am mother of a 2 and a half year old, restless toddler. Now mere thought of summer holidays gives me jitters. Knowing my son and his restless and energetic nature I thought of planning some activities so that I can channelize his excess energy in a positive direction so that I do not have Chota Bheem and Doremon playing on my television the whole day.

Kids these days are extremely energetic, so I thought why not share some of the activities with fellow moms to make there life tiny winy bit easier.

Dance Your Feet Off

This is a fun activity which lets your kid have some physical exercise while making a lot of mess (all kids love to make mess). For this activity you would need following things:

• An old bed sheet
• A big dish 
• Natural colors
• Towels
• Your kids favorite music

Take the old bed sheet and spread it on the floor. Make sure to fix its ends by placing something heavy on top of it. Mix any natural color in the dish. Now dress your toddler in rags and ask him/her to stand in the dish. Play there favorite music and let them have a ball on the sheet. They will enjoy dancing as well as paining the bed sheet with there feet. My son was quite amazed to see the different patterns he was making on the sheet.

Keep some old newspaper and towels handy so that you can avoid your kid from making patterns on your floor.

Lets Color That Wall

I was thinking of doing something different with my sons' play room. I kept on thinking and then got an idea where we both had a chance to show our creativity. I decorated his playroom and kept him busy as well with this activity.

You will need following things:

• Water Colors
• Chart Papers
• Spray Bottles (2-4)
• Glue or tape
• Scissors

Take some chart papers and paste them (using either glue or tape) on the wall you want to decorate. You can either take white, one single color or multiple color charts. 

Mix water colors in water and fill them in different spray bottles. You can use as many as you want depending on how colorful you want your wall to be. Now give the bottle to your kid and let him/her enjoy by spraying all over the wall.

You can use this as the creativity wall going forward. Whenever your kid wants to have a freehand you can give him/her colors or spray bottle. You can also draw birds or flowers and ask you kid to experiment on his own.

I am sure this will keep the kids occupied for couple of hours for a few days at least.

Bath Time

Kids love water and what best time to let them have fun in water than summer holidays. To keep your kid busy for an hour or two in day time you can ask him or her to give bath to or wash his/her toys.

Buy a folding splash pool and fill water in it. Depending on the wether condition and space available you can either keep it in your back yard, balcony or bathroom.

Then ask your kid to make his/her toys bath. Make sure the toys are either plastic or rubber so that the child does not hurt himself.

You can also ask your child to wash his/her cycle, car or rider. Mix some soap in water and soak a sponge in it. Give your child the sponge and ask him to clean his cycle. Then help him wash away the soap. This way his toys will be cleaned and he will also keep busy.

Find Your Way Out

This activity will not only keep your toddler busy but will also improve his/her motor skills and balance.

In your toddlers' playroom keep some obstacles and make a path so that your child has to find way between the obstacles. At the other end of the path keep your child's favorite toy/cookie/chocolate.

Now ask him to reach his toy without bumping into the obstacles. Yes kids will bump initially but you can show them how to do it the right way initially. Soon they will learn will try there best not to bump.

There a lot more activities which can be planned with kids. Stay tuned for my next blog to look out for next set of fun activities.