Easy Clown's Hat

Tomorrow is Circus day at school for my toddler and we are short of the right costume. So we did this activity.

The stationery store is just a hop and skip away from our home. We got :

a birthday cap,

a white chart, any colour will do

colour papers,

craft glue and a pair of scissors.

Begin by pasting the chart on the cap to cover the print. For this, cut out a semi circle, with radius equal to the length of the cap, from the chart. Fold it into a cone and adjust it on the cap. Glue it on.

Cut small circles from the coloured papers and stick them on to the cap.I let my toddler stick the circles because she likes to work with glue.

Cut a few strips of the coloured papers and stick them in a bunch on the tip of the cap. You are done!!

Cashew Brittle/Chikki

Made this today with 1 cup cashew nuts, 1-1/2 cups jaggery.

Dissolve jaggery in 1/4 cup of water and heat it in a heavy bottomed pan till you get a hard ball consistency.

Remove from heat and add the cashews.

Let cool a bit, not completely. Shape into balls or cut into squares while still warm.

Once cooled, store in an air tight container.

Vegetable Puree for 7 month old baby

This simple and wholesome vegetable Puree is a must try, if you haven't done yet. I wasn't sure my baby will like it but she almost finished it.

Ingredients :

1 medium sized carrot,

1/2 small potato,

1 small piece bottle gourd,

1 small piece pumpkin,

2 cups water

1/2 tsp ghee, optional

Dice all the vegetables and pressure cook them with water.

Drain the veggies of extr. Water

Blend, strain and serve with a dash of ghee.

When baby gets used to this puree, you may add more veggies to it like peas, beans etc. This puree may also be mixed with cooked Dal for a high protein meal.

Do not add salt to the puree or any baby food. I'll post later why salt is bad for babies. Baby food tastes good enough without spices.

To keep baby attentive while feeding, maintain eye contact and tell a story or rhyme with vivid facial expressions.

Do leave a comment if you like this.

To my children

A beautiful poem by Helen Steiner Rice :

A wee bit of heaven, drifted down from above;

A handful of happiness, a heart full of love;

The mystery of life so sacred and sweet; The giver of joy, deep and complete,

Precious and priceless, so lovable too; The world's sweetest miracle,baby, is you.

Miss my first born

My first born child is very much with me, but I miss some of the things I did with her before my second was born. I miss her cuddling up to me at night, I miss rocking her to sleep, I miss taking her to the park everyday to meet her friends, I miss telling her stories, I miss giving her my hundred percent.

My little sweetheart suddenly became the elder sibling the day we welcomed our second baby,oh I miss her dearly while she sleeps now.

I wish she knows that I miss her more than she misses me. Wonder how she deals with it.

How we came to BE : R P Feynman

Well known for winning the Nobel Prize (physics) for his work on Quantum Electrodynamics(QED), Richard Feynman was an eclectic mix of science, art and fun.

His multifaceted personality earned him as much popularity as did his Nobel and his work on the atomic bomb.

While he worked on the bomb with the likes of Otto Hahn, Oppenheimer etc, his first wife, Arlene succumbed to tuberculosis. He later said she was the only true love of his life.

He took to painting models, hanging out at pubs to deal with his loss, may be this triggered an appetite for dabbling in various hobbies like playing the bongo drums.

"Seriously, You are joking, Mr.Feynman!" is a good read which offers snippets from the life of this genius scientist.

It would be apt to say that if James Bond were a professor, he would be RPF!!

RPF wrote poetry too and this is my favourite poem which elucidates his take on life and how we came to be.

There are the rushing waves, mountains of molecules, each stupidly minding it's own business; trillions apart, yet forming White surf in unison

Ages on ages before any eyes could see, year after year thunderously pounding the shore as now; For whom? For what? On a dead planet with no one to entertain

Never at rest, tortured by energy prodigiously wasted by the Sun poured into space; A mite makes the sea roar

Deep in the sea, all molecules repeat the pattern of one another till complex new ones are formed.

They make others like themselves and a new dance starts

Growing in size and complexity, living things, masses of atoms, DNA, protein, dancing a pattern ever more intricate; Out of the cradle, on to dry land, here it is standing : atoms with consciousness,matter with curiosity

Stands at the sea, wonders at wondering : I, a universe of atoms, an atom in the Universe.

Feynman had read this poem as part of his address to the National Academy of Sciences

Glass painting

Driven by the urge to make sun catchers, I browsed the net for suitable designs and chanced upon a treasure trove here by artist Chantal Pare.

I started with " Dutch Windmill "

Did some others too but this is the only one left undamaged

I used the same colours as shown in the artist's page. Water based and oil based glass colours are available at any stationery shop.