Winter Break!

Ansh's school are closed for the Holidays!! Finally! I've been waiting for this forever. The first day was, as always, fun but went unnoticed since Ajay was here. :-) Ansh was oblivious to my excitement over his winter break. He woke up with the usual gusto, "Wake up, Dad"! Next question was "Dad, can we play a car game today?" Both father and son enjoy playing the Motorstorm on PS3 with Ansh holding the secondary game controller which just makes him think that he's in control of the game and not Ajay.

Then came Sunday, the day we go to the airport to drop Ajay, like we always do. Although this Sunday was different from others. Firstly, it was the first Sunday of the winter break, so no school the next day. Yippee! Secondly, Ajay was going to be home for a week starting Christmas Eve. So we went back home after seeing Ajay off at DFW Airport. We settled in, danced, had snacks, saw a movie and then the kids went to bed after dinner. Hence, the break began!

Surprise surprise!! It's Monday and it started off all chaotic! It was easy until breakfast and then began the requests. "Can I watch TV, Momma?" I said, "OK!", "I'm hungry! Can I have a chocolate?", "No. How about an apple?", "Can I watch something else?", "No, let's play with the blocks", "I want to go to the park" (it was pretty windy outside and Avani had a cold), "No, how about some TV?". I was in a fix, had to come up with something that would keep him organized and keep my sanity intact until Christmas Eve. I had to think quick!

I thunk and I thunk and I came up with an idea of making a schedule which I could put up on the refrigerator. He can refer to it and figure out what he should really be doing when he's not sure (I did that once with his snacking schedule which I drafted on the back of a junk mail envelope). So, I gave it a try. He can recognize letters and his name. Other than that, pictures are the only thing that he can understand. So I sat by my PC, and started Illustrator. The first thing I created was a black and white toilet (a touchy subject for Ansh). He recognized it instantly and I took it from there and ended up with a collection of graphic icons which has made my life so much easier. No more No(s) or may be(s). It always ends with "Let's look at the chart".

Here it is http://www.cre80vt.com/acrobat/schedule.pdf

Since then, we have made art, done some cool join-the-dots "work" and eaten well. All in all, we're a happy family.

Happy Holidays!