How to grow coriander / cilantro at home with the seeds from your kitchen

Pizza breaks the fast

Today is Day 5 of The Great Flu's bi-monthly visit. I don't know if it's the Bangalore weather or the pollution, but this cough-cold-fever thing is so cyclical and alarmingly punctual that I dread the whole thing. First LG gets it, then I get it and we both are cranky and down for a good 10 days before resuming normal life. The whole saga of no-eating, puking, refusing to gulp down medicines, spiking temperatures, middle-of-the-night trouble breathing, erratic sleep patterns, and most importantly doing it alone with The Seniol away is getting on to my nerves.

After nearly 24 hours of no food intake, I somehow managed to get LG eat two slices of Pizza. Definitely not my choice for a healthy food, but who cares when your child hasn't eaten anything for so long and is so averse to the sight of food. I'd better not start on how many times I've had to trash soup, boiled vegetables, khichdi, and other stuff in general. I believe the worst is over and we're inching towards normalcy.

Any of you out there with some practical advice or alternate medicine to improve our immunity? I know it's the pollution that does us in, and I'm not sure how to tackle that!

No Sucking. No Touching.

We were getting ready for school this morning, when LG hurriedly started sucking his thumb. He turns three this December and there are no signs of leaving this habit. Anyways, so he started protesting he wasn't ready for school. The reason: he wanted to suck his thumb.

We were running late, so I told him he could get back from school, and then we can discuss if it was good idea to suck or not. The master story-teller that he is now, he quickly removed his thumb, and went on to narrate how his ma'am asks him to stop sucking, making school not-such-a-great-place to hang at.

As if this weren't enough, as we were leaving school last afternoon, he tells his ma'am, "No touching mains. Vely dan-ge-lous." From table fan to mains to transformer, everything is dangerous now.

While on vacation last month, he happened to cut his fingers by putting the inside a running table fan. So you know how dangerous entered his dictionary. And I very much regret having taught him that. This is not the age to put fear in their minds. It's enough to know what should be touched and what to stay away from.

The Day Tomato Came to be Known As Tomato

For as long as I can remember, my son has always called a tomato a "potato". With confidence. So, sometime back, I gave up correcting that it is a tomato, and played along calling it a potato. As a parent, you get the instinct when your child is doing it on purpose.

For lunch everyday, LG has a boiled tomato sprinkled with salt. This afternoon, I asked him what he was having? He replied, "Tho-maa-to." I grinned and asked him, "Are you sure this is not a Paa-tho-to?" And LG replied, "Tho-maa-to." This, for me, is as huge a milestone as was his turning over, or crawling, or walking, or talking.

This post is in celebration of discovering the tomato.

You know your child has had good day when...

..he gives a peck on the cheeks without asking for it.
..wants you to sing his favorite lullaby and ready Noddy/Jungle Book at bed time.
..smiles, and in fact, has a hearty laugh while deep asleep.