Sameer is three today!

Well the subject line says it all. It was a hectic day but ended well. We are in the middle of a move back to USA. We are leaving in three days. However we did take some time out to celebrate his birthday in the evening. As his birthday present we gave him a bar of 72% dark chocolate and three carnations. He is fond of flowers.

I wanted to note down a few things that I want to remember about him at this time of his life.

1. He loves being around family. Whether it be his dada-dadi, bua and Naman, Nana and badi nani, mausi-mausa and bhaiyas, he just loves their company. That makes goodbyes really hard for him. He'll cry really hard, specially when we have to say goodbye to his dada-dadi, bua and Naman.

2. He loves being around Naman, his younger cousin. Since the first time Sameer laid eyes on Naman, at the age of 17 months, he has showered so much affection on Naman, it's cute and funny. Although there were times when, while trying to give a big hug to Naman, he ended up pushing Naman to the ground. Now ofcourse they both have started playing with each other and are a lot more like buddies than before.

3. He loves to play with lego, and read the atlas. He knows most of the big Asian countries, a few European countries including Germany, some in Africa and all the countries in North America. He knows quite a few flags by now. His favorite is the Canadian flag. I think he really likes the maple leaf on their flag and the red and white colors.

4. He remembers a few word spellings. He is quickly able to read 2-3 letter prepositions- in, on, and the, and a few other nouns.

5. He is developing quite a sweet tooth. I have a feeling he gets it from me.

6. While he is hardly ever interested in dressing himself, he has to open the door when the doorbell rings, he will explain to the lady who comes to chop the veggies, what needs to be cooked and what needs to be prepared for salad, etc. Cucumber, sometimes should be cut lengthwise, sometimes round slices, same with carrots and radishes that we really enjoyed this winter. One new thing that I got to enjoy thanks to Sameer was turnip. Yes I have had turnip before but never raw in a salad. It was so sweet and so nice. Delicious.

7. And that brings me to the last thing I can think of right now. Sameer is really fond of trying new foods. He will give everything a try at least once, sometimes more than once even if he does not like it.

I hope he continues to be as open minded about important things in life as well and yet capable of being firm as he gets at times.

Organic Holi

We got to celebrate Holi in India this time. I was pleasantly surprised with how much urban India has changed in how it celebrates the festival. I feel rural India still predominantly celebrates it organically as they probably have less access to pigments and dyes. Newspapers had many sections on raising awareness against artificial Holi colors. There were a good number of sections on creating water colors through natural means such as flowers, vegetables and fruits.

We got 2-packets of dried tesu (Butea monosperma) flowers. Making a yellowish color from it was easy -- boil them with water and leave them overnight. This gave us enough color to fill a normal size pail. We also got herbal Gulal, dry powdered color from a grocery store.

It was really satisfying to see Sameer enjoy Holi with his family. He easily learnt how to use the pichkari. He sprayed the yellow color from tesu to all and didn't mind being sprayed at. He wished all "Happy Holi" and "होली की बधाई". We got to celebrate it guilt-free with natural colors.