Got an extended weekend due to Friday being May Day. Woke up early on both Friday and Saturday (just 6.30 AM, pretty early by my standards for a weekend) to order groceries and vegetables on Food Delivery Apps. I was not successful in ordering on Friday but was able to order on Saturday. Somehow I have not been sleeping at the usual hour and I have been staying awake till 2 AM on both Friday  & Saturday morning. So the combined effect was that, during the first part of the day I was feeling extremely sleepy and moving around my house like a Zombie.

For about an hour on Friday evening and about an hour on Saturday evening, I played cricket with my daughter & son. I also played cricket with my son for about an hour at around Noon on Saturday as well. We used my son’s plastic cricket bat and a bunch of plastic balls. I was the bowler to both of them as they took turns as batters. It was fun play time for the three of us. 

One of the things that I have realized is that the only Truest Measure of Love is Time and not money. And you get to see that and feel that when you have very young kids. I have heard Conor Neill ask in one of his YouTube videos, ‘How does a child spell love?’ And went on to spell the answer as: ‘T-I-M-E.’ I got to experience this fact so dramatically a couple of days ago. On that day, I was going for my evening walk  trying to catch up on my step count for the day (more on this in a later post). As I was going from one room to another, my son was frequently crisscrossing my path and making it difficult for me to walk fast. So I told him, “Let’s go for a walk,” and held his hand. At this very moment I saw his face lit up with a smile that was better than the sight of a million flowers blooming at the same time. As we were walking from one room to another and taking left or right turns, he was visibly excited and was laughing out loud. During that indoor walk session, I  realized that parents spending time with kids means a lot for them, even if that time is spent on simple activities. In fact every activity and every moment that parents spend with kids is absolutely special for them.

On Friday night, post dinner as I was sitting with my son in our room not knowing how to keep him engaged, I made paper boat and paper gliders for him. As I finished making the glider my daughter walked into our room. She too wanted to make paper boat. I gave her a sheet of paper from one of her old homework notebooks. As she was making the paper boat I thought this could be a good way to pass time. So I went to YouTube and typed ‘simple Origami for kids.’ I got a string of results from which I chose the video about making a paper shirt. We did not have colorful Origami papers so we decided to use papers from my daughter’s old homework notes. After finishing the paper shirt, my daughter chose the video about how to make princess dress. The instructions in both the videos were easy to follow and we ended up with final products that looked like something shown in the videos. It’s a big surprise to me that even I was able to get it right!!! 

On Saturday night, we decided to do a couple of Origami stuff once again. My daughter chose both the videos. The first one was on how to make sun glasses which was very easy. The second one was on how to make sword. This one was more complex than the other three stuff that we did. We kept missing the folds here and there and had to watch sections of the video multiple times to get the sword design right. But finally we managed to get both the swords right. Overall the time and effort was well spent. Not only did my daughter like it, even I found the time spent on doing the simple paper craft very refreshing. 

Just before the lock-down I had gone to Odyssey to buy some craft-work DIY kits for my daughter. I had picked up an Origami kit in my hand initially, but decided to a buy the Quilling Jewellery kit and Amar Chitra Katha Mahabaratha book-set for her. The Origami kit would have come in very handy yesterday and the day before it. But it’s OK as long as we get any paper. For sometime now, my daughter has been pleading  to open the Quilling kit and make the rings. But, I have asked my daughter to make the rings the week before her school reopens so that she can gift those rings to her school friends. Instead she has been keeping herself busy reading or drawing. 

Checked on Amazon for Origami kits but they are still delivering only essential stuff. Till we are able to get Origami kits from some shop or Amazon, guess we will have to use papers from daughter’s old homework notes.