My daughter's 3rd birthday! Mickey mouse theme

I started planning for my daughters 3rd birthday, almost 2 months before her birthday. The planning first involved thinking about a theme and a lot of online searching and reading.
She loves 2 characters the most - chhota bheem and mickey mouse.
I decided to do a mickey mouse theme for her, and read a lot of blogs on it online, and got so many wonderful ideas, it was just too exciting!

As usual, I first had a birthday planning excel prepared :-) with all the things I wanted to do.
It looked something like this:
1. making mickey ears - DIY - using plastic hairbands and making ears from foam
2. return gifts - i had bags already - wanted to buy mickey related stationery etc to fill it up
3. mickey related decorations
4. snacks
5. invites
6. games
7. prizes for games
8. list of kids to invite (it was to be a kids and moms party - with about 10-15 kids)

There is a wonderful market in Pune in raviwar peth (ramsukh market), which has shops lined up with all decorations you will need for a birthday party. They sell thermocol cutouts, decorations, balloons, whistles, return gifts, so many things, its worth a visit once, just to check out all the variety available.
I love shopping in the streets, than any malls, they are value for money and the experience is simply incomparable to that of a mall.

Making mickey ears:
Bought more than a dozen black plastic hairbands, from a street shop.
Bought black glitter foam sheets with adhesive, so they are very easy to use, you just peel off like a sticker. I found these after a long search at a shop called samrat ,near to tulsi baug, its a big shop with so many art and craft related materials, any crafty person would love :-)

Return gifts:
Bought mickey shaped piggy banks.
Got a mickey stationery set - with a pencil, eraser, sharpener, paper scissor from ebay.
Mickey glow in the dark stickers from amazon.
Packed them in paper bags, along with some chocolates :-)

Games:
Colouring activity for kids - gave them a sheet each with mickey mouse printed on it, and a camlin crayon box, which they could take home in their goody bags.
Mom and kid game - Passing the hula hoop over mom and kids body, similar to a passing the parcel game
I had planned for some more stuff, like dancing ,making paper planes etc which I couldnt do, due to lack of time.


Snacks:
Made idli-chatni and pulav at home.
Ordered white sauce pasta for kids - kids love pasta :-)
Starters - popcorn, grapes (yes, i decided to keep only healthy stuff, and avoid fried chips etc) served in small paper cups, vanilla sticks, and the best part - mickey shaped muffins :-)
Bought the mickey shaped silicone muffin tray from ebay and used pilsbury eggless chocolate mix, the muffins were really yummy :-) and a hit with the kids!

Decorations:
1. Thermocol cutout of mickey - bought from the market
2. strips of mickey face cutouts hung on a satin ribbon - i hung them in the living room as well as outside the door of our house.
3. red mickey face cutout of card paper on the door of our house
4. circular fan like decorations made of card paper stuck on the wall in the living room
5. red balloons with white polka dots gave a really nice look

Invites:
- created these invites, to be sent on whatsap to friends living a little far
- made small mickey face shaped cards and wrote on them to give personally to kids in our building

There is so much more that can be done.
Below few ideas that you could use, that I couldnt implement:
1. Cup cake decoration for kids - give them gems and other little tit bits to decorate the cupcake and give a prize for the best decorated one.
2. Pin the bow on minnie - create a cutout of minnie and give a bow to the kids, blind fold them and ask to pin it
3. Cupcake toppers can be made - with mickey face cutouts , stick them to toothpicks and put them on the cupcakes.

All in all, i had a lot of fun doing the preparations for the party, thanks to all the ideas I got from other blogs on the internet.

Taking a toddler to a restaurant

If your toddler is anything like mine, and refuses to sit in a high chair in restaurants, then this post maybe very much relevant to you.

My daughter was 5 months when we took her to Goa. 

Me and my husband love the breakfast buffets in hotels, and planned to enjoy it in the hotel we were staying.

We took our baby and sat on a sofa, with her on my lap.

(TIP#1 : We didn't take her pram to Goa, reason being it was a big size pram which would be very difficult to carry in the flight, so if you plan to travel frequently, buy a lightweight stroller as opposed to a pram).

If we had her pram, we could have kept her in it and probably (not very sure) might have enjoyed our food in peace.

She was crying, trying to pull things (yes even at 5 months), one of us had to take her around while the other ate. From the next day, we decided to go separately and each of us took turns to go to the breakfast place and enjoyed in peace :-)

After this episode, we avoided taking her out for a very long time. 

But we realized the only way she would let us eat out is if she gets used to it. So we decided to take her along the next time we go eating out.

Next time we took her to Rajdhani thali restaurant, she was a little older, could walk (!!) and refused to sit at one place. Me and my husband took turns eating, but it was a thali restaurant, all the food went cold and it was not an enjoyable experience at all!

(TIP#2 : Thali restaurants can wait until the child is older)

Not to be deterred, we planned to go to a restaurant called Fresco, which has a Mediterranean buffet.

My daughter sat on the high chair for a good half an hour! And also seemed to enjoy pita bread.

But once her tummy was full, she was all raring to go, and once out of the high chair, she was running all over the place. So again we were back to taking turns at eating.

(TIP#3: Choose a restaurant which has some open space, inside or outside, so if the little munchkin has feet that need to run around, one of you can take her outside.)

BTW, we tried Rajdhani again when we went with our family, i cannot say it was better, but somehow we managed to eat.

(TIP#4 : Kids love things like papads, so thats a good way to keep them busy)

We also tried Ramkrishna on MG Road once. We ordered cheese dosa for her, since she loves cheese. 

(TIP#5: Choose a table which has a sofa, not chairs, so she can be comfortable on it and you can make her sit towards the wall, so she is kind of, umm, trapped :-D)

We once went to a restaurant in the Taj blue diamond hotel, it was a nice maharashtrian food restaurant, with most people eating quietly. We had one challenging time there with my daughter trying to run around, pull stuff, and making general mayhem. So there I was eating all alone while my husband took my daughter outside and vice versa.

The waiters at restaurants don't realize that there is a toddler on the table and treat them just like adults, by placing very much breakable plates and sharp forks and spoons right under the kid's nose. So be quick and remove all such dangerous stuff far away, you need to be really fast here, because the things will be in the small chubby hands in a second :-).

One restaurant called Kokkita in hadapsar, has a huge aquarium with huge fish and also a small play area outside. It entertained my daughter no end, but it resulted in us eating separately yet again!

Over time, after taking her out several times, we have achieved the state where we can both eat, and maybe for 5-10 mins towards the end we need to take her around and eat one-by-one.

We avoid crowded places, but food courts in malls are also a good option to try, although it is very difficult to keep a toddler busy there, since they get so much space to run around :-D

So don't be afraid, go ahead and eat your heart out, your toddler will help you in burning all the fat  :-)

PS: I think i need to write about all the restaurants i have been to and review them :-)

Maid/Nanny for Baby - Part II

The search was a difficult one, time was running out and I had not yet found a nanny.
The nanny who was leaving, one day came with another lady, who said she needs work.
I thought why not, lets give it a try, I was desperate.

I decided on a transition period of about 10 days, where both will be taking care of the baby, with the old nanny doing KT (knowledge transfer, its the term we regularly use in our world :-)).
Even after spending 10 days, my daughter refused to go to the new nanny!
After the old nanny left, I decided to work from home for a few days, until my daughter adjusts to her.

A couple of days passed, and it was just not working out! My daughter would start crying if the new nanny tried to feed her, to put her to sleep etc. So I had to leave my work and go to her all the time, i was not really able to work from home.

It was a very frustrating time, I even thought of taking a sabbatical maybe and looking after my daughter myself.
But I knew it was not something I could really do, I cannot sit at home, and would surely get frustrated soon. Even in my maternity leave of 7 months, by the end of 4-5 months, i was itching to go out and have some space of my own.
Finally, I decided that the only way my daughter would get used to the nanny is by me getting out of the way. So one day, while she slept, i left for office, telling the nanny and my father-in-law to call me if she cries.
And what a day it was! I was constantly worried at work, looking at my phone every few minutes to see if there's a call. But what a surprise, there was none, my daughter stayed with the maid the whole day!!
And then from next day, i started going to office as usual and all was fine :-)

Since then, its been almost a year now with the new nanny, it has not been an easy journey. I have had to constantly monitor her actions, her cleanliness habits were clearly suspect, and her work not of the greatest quality.
There has been a lot of improvement now, and my daughter also enjoys with her, and learns marathi songs from her. Her favorite is "Chando mama chando mama bhaglas ka" which she asks me to sing every night when I put her to sleep. :-)

Maid/Nanny for Baby - Part I

Before my daughter was born, I had thought I will put her in daycare when she is 6 months and then resume office.
But things change when you become a mother, you become protective, emotional, and I couldn't imagine keeping my little baby in a strange place with strangers, and so the thought of keeping a maid/nanny for her came up. Thankfully my in-laws are living with us, so the nanny wouldn't be alone with the baby.

Nanny search isn't an easy one.
I started by informing our building security to let me know if anybody is interested. I also had a lady coming home for "maalish" (massage) for my baby, she is very well connected with many such people, so she too was looking for someone for me.

The ladies who came to me looking for work, came at odd times, at 3 in the afternoon, ringing the bell loudly, which in turn made my baby wake up!
Also, some of the conversations i had with them were hilarious, some of them were so unsuitable for the job, i didn't know whether to laugh or cry.
Sample conversation:
Me : Have you worked somewhere before?
Candidate (holding her sari pallu in her hand, looking down, and blushing, god knows why) : hee hee hee hee
Me (Again) : Have you worked somewhere before?
Candidate : (hee hee) yes
Me : Where? What work do you do?
Candidate:  "Te, tikde, hotel madhe" (translation: there in the hotel)
Me : What do you do in the hotel?
Candidate: (hee hee) "te bhandi ghasna, cutting karna" (washing utensils, cutting vegetables)
Me : have you taken care of a baby before?
Candidate: No
Me (Already decided she isn't the one) : Give me your phone number, will call you if i need
Candidate - cant write :-(

The basic expectation i had from a nanny:
1. should be able to read and write
2. should be clean
3. speaks clearly

The above candidate failed in all.
I met several ladies, who came looking for work, but really, it was a nightmare for me.
Finally the lady who massaged my baby, found me a nanny who had taken care of a kid before for 3 years, I also spoke to her previous employer, who had only good things to say about her.
After about 8-9 months, the nanny left me, since she found some other job.
The search for a new nanny started, which is a story for my next post.

In general, some points to note when hiring a nanny:
1. If she worked somewhere before, do take their number, call them and ask them about her.
2. Note down her address and phone number, if possible check the area she lives
3. Make sure to tell her that the priority is cleanliness and only cleanliness, her measures of cleanliness might not measure up to you, so spell out the exact things she needs to take care of.
4. The nanny I hired turned up on the first day in a sari which was a little dirty and had sharp sequins on it. The next day i bought her 2 saris, which she was supposed to wear when she comes and wash before she leaves. This might seem a little awkward to some, but believe me, for a mother, baby comes first, and I don't mind asking the nanny to do this. Just tell her you are getting her 2 new saris which she needs to wear while handling the baby, and she will be okay.
5. Make the job description very clear, if you want the nanny to do additional jobs around the house, make them clear before you hire, so later you don't have conflicts around it.
6. If you are hiring the nanny for full day, then surely she needs weekly holiday so agree on that beforehand.
7. Ask the nanny to get her own lunch, because one thing, she might not like the food you eat, second, you will be obligated to arrange some food for her, even when you have other plans, don't want to eat etc. The nanny I have currently follows many religious fasts, so many times she eats only fasting food.
8. There are maid agencies available, I didn't try them so far, but have heard that some of them are good, they charge a little more though.
9. The nanny might expect a holiday on every festival, but we don't have holiday in offices for all festivals, so make it clear to her, she will get a holiday only if you have one too :-)