Days , Life , DreamsMy life , family , work , and everything inbetween . All posts tagged parks Leaving Chennai , part 1 - Parks At the end of this week , we leave Chennai for Mangalore . We are leaving more than just a city - it 's been our home for the past 5 1 / 2 years . When you leave a place where you have been for so long , memories abound . Like I did for the house we are leaving , I 'm going to do some photo posts of places we have visited and things we have done that will forever be embedded in our hearts . Parks is the topic for this first post . I 've got thousands of photos of park outings , but I 'm choosing the best ones to show you . These are from about 6 different parks that we have gone to regularly over the last 5 years . This was to become our favorite park , being only a 5 minute drive away . Because of that huge tower , it is aptly known as " Tower Park " . Logan , 2 1 / 2 , Lila 15 months . You can almost see Scarlett popping out of my tummy . A good view of the tower . It has a ramp to walk up that circles the tower all the way to the top . but it has been closed to the public for years . I 've always wanted to see the view from up there . And that brings me to the end of the park photo collection . We will have one last goodbye trip before leaving . Of all the parks in the city , we have used this one the most , and I shall miss it . Logan 's 6th and Scarlett 's 3rd Birthday ( January 15 , 2014 : I feel so bad that this post never went up when it was supposed to . I was waiting for hubby to take the photos from his phone and put them on the computer . Can you believe he hasn 't done it yet ? I need to pester him hard for it this week . I will add photos to this post once they are available but for now , here is the post so you can read it . ) Logan had his sixth birthday on the 11th and Scarlett had her third birthday on the 13th . With their birthday 's being right on top of each other , sometimes it feels rather overwhelming to make each one special and not lumped together . This year we kept them separate and simple . Logan wanted a cow cake . By now you should know how he feels about farm animals . He 's twice had a farm cake , and once had a drawn cow cake , but this time I went with a sculpted cake . We invited some friends and went to our favorite park which is only a 5 minute drive from the house . Since his real birthday was on a Monday , we chose to celebrate the day before , on Sunday , so that daddy could be there . The park was crowded , as is typical for a weekend , but we settled ourselves in the small amphitheater so as to have a place to sit and place the cake . ( Picnic tables are not available here . ) Then it was time to cut the cake . I made sure to only cut the outside parts of the cow shape and I left the middle round cake intact . Why ? Because I came up with the brilliant idea of removing the frosting and reusing it for the butterfly cake Scarlett had requested . Glad thought it was a sane idea that would prevent us from having loads of cake to eat later . So I did . Glad decided to stay home the evening of Scarlett 's birthday ( he still works most evenings , but can cancel the classes if needed ) . I cut and frosted that cake that had once been a cow 's body and turned it into a butterfly . Not my best decorating attempt , but she was happy , so I didn 't go for perfect . Logan , as usual , had requested more animals for his gift . I told him maybe , then bought him a book instead . 🙂 I want him to get used to the idea that there is more to the world of animals than small plastic toys , so I picked out an abridged version of " The Voyages of Doctor Dolittle " . We have been reading it a chapter at a time before bed , and he and Lila are enjoying it . Scarlett is easier to please . Her only request was a pink butterfly cake and gifts were up to me . She picked out a tiny cheetah stuffed toy , which we named Itsy Bitsy , and I got her an ABC puzzle set as well . On the weekend we took them to the same Bunny Bounce Funland play place that we went to for Lila 's birthday and they enjoyed it . Understandably Lila feels a little left out at this time of year , since her birthday is six months away , so she tries to get in on the act by making her cake and gift requests now . This year she told me that she wished her birthday was here already , and she also asked if it could be moved to Christmas . She has a cousin who 's birthday is on Christmas Day and she thought it would be great if her 's were there too . These carts are very common here . Almost every street has one . While we have an iron at home , Glad will often take his work shirts to a cart like this and have them iron a stack for the week , to save him time in the morning . For a lot of poor families , the ironing cart is their livelihood . In order to make enough money to eat that day and buy the coal , they work all day . Many have their small children running around on the sidewalk and street while they work because there is no where else for the children to go . The family who work the cart next to our park is like that . They have two small children who I 'm guessing are under 3 years old . The mother often sends them inside the park to play , which is definitely safer than having them play on the street , but of course they have no oversight . About 2 weeks ago , the kids and I were at the park and the little boy was there . Everything was going great until he discovered a small plastic animal Logan had brought along but had left on the ground . I let him play with it , but when Logan and Lila found out that he had it , they wanted it back and he wouldn 't give it up . He raced to the low side wall where his mother was working on the other side , and cried as she forced him to give the toy back to Lila , who was standing there trying to explain . Had Logan been in a different frame of mind , I would have suggested that he let the boy keep it since he has so many at home . But Logan was very upset . These animals are his favorites and he can 't even stand his sisters taking them unless he is in a sharing mood . As we walked home , Logan kept talking about how naughty the boy was , how he shouldn 't take other peoples toys , etc . I explained to him that the boy wasn 't naughty , but was more likely bored . I told Logan that his family is poor and can 't afford toys ( I 've never seen the children with any ) and his parents have to work very hard just so they can eat . I then suggested that perhaps the kids could share some of the toys they never use with this boy and his sister . Logan freaked out at the idea so I dropped it . Two days later we were headed to the park again . I reminded my kids about the idea of giving theses kids some toys , and I assured Logan he would not have to give up his favorites . Lila was excited to give them something so together she and I found two toys that never got any use - a sturdy fire truck and a squeaky baby doll . As soon as we got to the park , Lila wanted to give them the toys so I let her run over to the wall to pass on the toys . The mother was very grateful for the toys and gave the truck to her son right away . Within minutes he was over at the playground , racing the truck over ever surface that he could . He piled rocks and sand for it , and Lila and Scarlett joined him . There are many poor people here in India , way too many for even the most generous person to help . I rarely give money to those begging , simply because once you do it , they want it every time you pass , and also it is hard to know who is for real and who isn 't . ( There are many who aren 't . ) But this situation was different . This is a family who works hard to make ends meet , but can only afford the most basic necessities . The children wear clothes that look like they 've come from a trash pile , so toys wouldn 't even be on the list of important things for them . Lila sure felt the joy of giving that day . She was so happy to give the toys and see how happy they made this family . As for me , it reminded me of how good it feels to give help when it is truly needed . It also helped me see that I need to talk about these things with my kids . They have grown up here . They see poor people all the time . They also know that they have pretty much anything they want , and it is hard for them to understand that not everyone can buy whatever they want at any time . This has led to more discussion on the topic of how not everyone is born into an equal station in life . Their main question is , " Why not ? " They don 't see rich or poor . They just see people . It can be hard to explain why some are poor and some are not , without getting into topics they are not ready for . For now , I will teach them to help whoever they can , whenever they can . With Logan , it was his premature birth and 10 day hospitalization . With Lila it was the time she drank turpentine at 2 years , 1 month old . Scarlett had yet to do something to freak me out severely ( other than running off in a bookstore and hiding when she was 18 months old ) , but that changed last week . Logan was already fussing when we got to the mall because we were only doing grocery shopping , and he wanted to go to the arcade and toy shop . He has no patience for shopping so he was running around , touching everything - every display , every shelf , every food item . He broke candy bars , crushed bags of chips and grabbed everything he could . Normally he is fairly obedient and can manage a trip to the store without too much wildness , but this day his hyperactive nature had taken over and it was all I could do to not yell at him right there . ( He has ADHD . ) He continued to be wild during lunch and rest time , and on into the afternoon . He was mean to the girls and kept making them cry . Any sort of punishment didn 't faze him at all . I finally decided to take the kids to the playground near our house , hoping that some outdoor play could burn some of his energy and tire him out . Yet he continued to be wild . Several times I had to pull him aside from his play as he was biting and pinching the other children . He even bit his own lip when he fell as he was racing up the slide . The whole time I was keeping half an eye on the girls as they climbed the jungle gym . They are both quite good at it , so , while I stay near them , I don 't have to be right there . At one point I had to go to Logan again , and I didn 't see Scarlett follow me , nor did I see her climb the straight metal slide ( not the ladder but the slide ) until she was at the top . It was almost like seeing something in slow motion . I saw her at the top of the slide . I saw her begin to turn , and then I knew she was going to fall . I was too far away to get there in time to catch her . I left Logan and forgot his naughtiness as I ran to my baby . The slide was about 6 feet at the highest point and she fell from the top , landing in the sand flat on her chest and tummy , hitting her lips hard on one side . Horror stories that I had heard of kids dying from falling off a slide filled my mind , and I struggled to push them away so I could focus on Scarlett . At first she cried while I carried her to a bench and tried to clean the sand off her face , but then she was quiet , scarily quiet . She just sat on my lap and looked at everything . I kept asking her questions but she wouldn 't answer . I managed to round up Logan and Lila , and we rushed home . All I could think of was getting her home , putting ice on her ever - swelling lips , and helping her recover from the shock she was in . She wouldn 't let me put ice on her lip , nor did she want me to get the sand out of her mouth , both of which made her cry . I was afraid she had some internal injury since she was so quiet . I called Glad , who was working on the other side of town , and told him what had happened . He asked some questions and then reassured me that she was probably fine but to keep an eye on her . I held her close and told her how sorry I was that I hadn 't been close enough to catch her . I couldn 't do anything but rock her . After about 30 minutes ( from the time she fell ) she began to move around . I put a video on for her and then went to my room to cry . The guilt I felt was massive . How had I not noticed her following me ? Why wasn 't I paying more attention ? Why hadn 't I been right there to catch her ? It was awful . Finally I realized I had some hungry kids on my hands so I forced myself to get up and cook dinner , even though I wasn 't very hungry and could hardly stand to look at food . Surprisingly , Scarlett ate a good dinner ! I thought she might just have some yogurt because she could hardly open her mouth , but she figured a way to slip the food in on the side that wasn 't sore . ( Fried chicken liver , French fries , and cucumber slices . ) Afterwards she was perky and climbing around , even jumping ! She was fine as I showered everyone and got them ready for bed . I let her lie in my bed and she went to sleep quickly . I kept her in bed with me all night . At one point she scared me by waking up and just sitting there and staring straight ahead . After what seemed like forever , she told me she wanted water and to get up , but it was only about 4 in the morning so I convinced her to go back to sleep . In the morning her lip looked scary . The top one on the right side was big and puffy , the bottom about half the size . Above , below , and on her lips were all the tiny scratches that had scabbed overnight . Scarlett herself was perky as ever , ate a good breakfast , had a normal bowel movement , and showed every sign of being ok internally . But just to be safe , Glad took her to the hospital for a checkup . I didn 't feel relief until they got home . The doctor had confirmed that she had no internal injury , and her lip was going to be just fine . The swelling went down rapidly over the next two days , so fast , in fact , that we could see a difference from one hour to the next . Now , exactly one week later , all the scabs are gone and there is no evidence that she had such a bad fall . Since that day I 've made sure to stay right next to her at the park whenever she is climbing . She is daring , like Lila , and will climb on most anything , so I can 't let her out of my sight . She may be a good climber , but she is still a toddler and doesn 't have as good balance as Lila does . I shudder every time I think back on that moment when she fell . I 'm thankful she fell from the 6 ' slide and not the higher spiral one that she so loves . I 'm thankful I wasn 't far when she fell , so I could pick her up right away . I 'm thankful she wasn 't seriously injured . And I 'm most thankful she is still here . Mommy Fears and Heart - stopping Moments From the time Logan was small , one of my greatest fears was that someone would grab one of my kids in a public place and run off with them . When Logan learned to walk and could get away from me , I kept my eye on him like a hawk . I remember so clearly how hard it was for me to turn my back for even a second . I literally would have to tell myself it wasn 't awful to glance in another direction for a second . It got harder when Lila came along and began walking and both wanted to go in different directions at once . I think if it had been possible , I would have turned into some version of Inspector Gadget with extendable arms and a 360 degree rotating head . Ha . Taking them to the park was crazy , and we only survived the mall because of the stroller where one of them would always be confined . I 've since learned to watch them closely but I don 't have my eyes glued to them at every second . I spend most of my time anywhere moving my eyes from one to the other to the other and back to the first one again . 🙂 Well , I can sort of trust Logan , and sometimes if the girls want to run to the small lake and Logan wants to be in the adjacent playground where I can see when he is on the top of the slide , it 's okay . Or if in the toy shop he wants to look at books over in the next aisle where I can 's see him while the girls play with the Lego display , it 's okay . I do check on him often and he 's fine . But I can 't trust the girls . Scarlett loves to run as soon as my back is turned , and has given me more than one fright at the skating rink . Often someone will see me looking wildly for her and will point me in the direction she went . And last week at the rink , Lila decided she didn 't want to finish the exercises with the teacher so came looking for Scarlett and I . I was at a place where I could see them with the teacher , but she managed to sneak out , and then went and asked some lady to help her find me . I was proud that she remembered what color I was wearing but upset that she left , and after I spotted her and called her back , she got strict instructions to never leave the rink if I wasn 't in sight . What makes it harder for me is how people here in India are so attracted to them , because of their light skin color . People constantly sneak photos of them , touch them , pinch their cheeks , and want to be near them . The very few who do ask for photos first always get denied . I mean , why do they need pics of my kids ? The rest can be glad I don 't go smash their phones . It 's so rude of them to just take their pics but what can I do ? Kidnapping is a very real fear here . At least once a week I read about one in the paper , often with sad results for the child . My kids being white could be targets so I do have to be careful . Even though most people are just being friendly , it 's better safe than sorry . Just last Friday , while at the skating rink , I saw what I thought at first glance was my nightmare coming true . There is a balloon vendor there every day , and of course Scarlett spends lots of time watching the balloons . I was seated on one end of the rink , further from the balloons than normal , but I could still see her clearly so I let Scarlett walk over . I was watching her the whole time , so I jumped when I saw a man run and grab her real quick . I ran through the rink to where he was standing , but before I could exit the rink , a cow with large horns ran in front of me , with her owner at her heels . Lazy Saturday It 's been a while since we had a lazy day . I often spend saturday cleaning and the kids spend most of it watching t . v . or playing , but they had been asking to go to the large park next to Lila 's school so we went this morning . Since it is so close to home ( 5 minutes by auto ) we left at 10 : 30 and spent a good 2 hours playing there . Being October , the weather has cooled down considerably . During the hotter months you don 't want to be out after 11 a . m . but today the high was not too bad at 35 deg . C , so long as we stayed in the shade . ( If that sounds terribly hot to you , remember that our summer this year was 43 deg . C . and extremely humid . ) ﻿﻿ Logan is getting bolder with climbing . After we finished at the park , we headed across the street to a bookstore / giftshop and picked up a few discount books - some paint with water books , a book of poems , a Richard Scarry story ( they love those ) , and a special Winnie the Pooh one that I am saving for Christmas . They 've been asking for that one for a while and I grabbed it now because it was the last one there . The whole time Logan was asking for strawberry ice cream and I was wracking my brain trying to think of a place in the immediate area that served ice cream . Then I remembered a place that was only a short distance away that we had seen numerous times but had never been in . It is a small shop that serves ice cream sundaes and special drinks , but the attraction is that it is called Ice Age and is full of the movie characters . Mommy dino ! Scarlett found the 3D wall art scary and refused to let me put her down so I had to hold her the entire time we were in the shop . She does love the Ice Age movies though . I guess these looked to big and real for her . Enjoying their strawberry ice cream . And upon arriving home at almost 2 p . m . , all kids went straight to bed and are still sleeping now . No cooking ( yet ) today . Yep , it was snack foods for breakfast and ice cream for lunch . Not bad , huh ? I will make them a good dinner - homemade pizza . Share this : EmailGoogleLinkedInFacebookPinterestLike this : Like Loading . . . 1 Comment The father must be close to 70 years old . He is balding , with a ring of white hair around his head . He always wears a short - sleeved button shirt , a lungi and sandals . He has bowed legs yet manages to keep a decent pace . He is in good shape for someone his age . The son is tall and walks very straight . I put his age around 40 . Except for a pot belly , he is not overweight . He always wears the same thing : a checkered , short - sleeved button shirt and navy blue pants that are frayed at the bottom . He walks at a slow pace , sort of lumbering along in his bare feet . But there is something else about the son . He has a disability of some sort . I can 't tell what it is , though it seems to be mental . He spends his whole walk calling to his father : " Papa , papa " . Should his father get out of sight , he calls louder " Papa , papa " . Since the father walks faster than the son , he can get far ahead and out of sight often , but as soon as he is close again , he always acknowledges his son . Today I noticed them as I was leaving . They were passing where I was sitting in the playground and the son called loudly " Papa " while gesturing to the benches . His father gave a reply that I took to mean he wanted him to walk one more round . It wasn 't in English so I won 't swear to that meaning but it made sense to me . What really gets me is how much this father loves his son . Obviously the son has stayed with his parents his whole life ; he is still a child mentally and needs care . Imagine the dedication of the parents ! Most of us can 't wait for our kids to grow up and move out , but they have , knowingly and willingly , given their whole lives to the care of their son . That is unselfishness at its best ! I 've tried to imagine how I would act if one of my children were disabled in this way . Would I really be unselfish enough to dedicate my whole life until my dying day to my child ? Would I be able to endure year after year , knowing my child would never leave home , never be self - sufficient , never be able to reach a point where they would care for me in my old age ? I hope I would . Share this : EmailGoogleLinkedInFacebookPinterestLike this : Like Loading . . . 2 Comments Exercise No matter how tired I am , I 'm up at 6 every morning . I need time to myself before my kids get up . Free time is one thing most mothers don 't get much of , if any at all , so I have to make my own free time . Weekdays I work out between 6 : 15 and 7 : 00 ; weekends I can get an hour or more since I don 't have to wake the kids for school . There is something to be said for early morning exercise . I find that it clears my mind , melting away any stress I may have had . All that blood racing to my brain awakens creativity ; I get some of my best writing ideas while jogging or jump - roping . When I am outside in nature , doing something good for my body , I feel free . I let the demands of the day ahead wait and I focus on me . That is my time . Weekend mornings , when my hubby doesn 't go to the gym early , I get to go jogging at the nearby park and he wakes up with the kids . Well , it 's more them waking him up . 🙂 Ha . This morning at 6 it was raining so I slept some more , and when I got up at 7 , the rain had stopped so I decided to go for my jog . About 10 minutes into it , the rain came back . The park cleared out rapidly , but it takes more than rain to get me to leave so I kept going . I now had a clear path with no slow walkers in my way and I got a good 30 minute jog . It was so refreshing . I aim to work out 5 or 6 mornings a week , simply because my days go better when I start with something good for my body . Exercise clears my mind , helps me relax , and of course , has helped me lose some weight that I desperately needed to get rid of . I have yet to reach my ideal weight but I 'm not quitting yet . Once I 've had my workout , I sit with my coffee and work the daily crossword , sudoku , and a few other puzzles that come in the morning paper . That way , I 've had both a physical and mental workout , all before my kids get up . I find I am a better mother when I get time to myself regularly . I took my kids to our favorite park first thing in the morning . We left at 9 a . m . in order to " beat the heat " ( 38C was the predicted high ) , and so we could have some fun when it wasn 't crowded , which it is later in the evening . I found myself taking it slow today . We didn 't rush and run all over . Instead , they went on the slide as many times as they wanted and spent a good 20 minutes on the swings . My kids like to go slow on the swings and often when there is a crowd , there will be a line of kids pushing to get on and I feel like I have to rush them through their turn . Today there was none of that . The only people in our part of the playground were workmen removing some tree branches they had cut earlier . The girls got to sit and swing at their own pace and they both learned how to move the swing by themselves . There was no rush or pressure to leave - I had nowhere to be and the house had no idea it was a mess . I put all thoughts of the waiting mess out of mind and we had fun . Now if only I could do that every time we go . How about you ? What are your trips to the park like ? Do you find yourself hurrying your child along or do you let them go at their own pace ? Summer Fun - Parks One of the simplest things you can do with your children is take them to your local park . Parks are great places for them to run and play safely , and being in nature is relaxing for you too . Whether you stay for 1 / 2 an hour , a morning , afternoon , or all day , parks are a great option when you are stuck and don 't know where to go . Simply pack a bag with a few outdoor toys ( balls , bats , frizbees , sand toys , etc . ) , a snack or picnic lunch , water bottle , wet wipes , disinfectant , sun hats , and anything else you might need , then go and enjoy some time in nature . Here is a selection of photos from the times over the past few years when I have taken my kids to a few of our local parks . These first ones are from when Logan and Lila were small . Post was not sent - check your email addresses ! 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