Monday, March 30, 2009

Feliz Cumpleanos, BigGeek

So, BigGeek turned, err, ok, I am not telling how many years. Let’s just say it was his birthday yesterday (happy budday, love and now en espanol, feliz cumpleanos, querido). The thing with BigGeek and birthdays is this. Two words. Low maintenance. The poor man will ask for something nice to eat and want to spend time in company of family and a few friends. It is a fairly easy birthday (or not) wish to grant. Throw in a gadget or two and the man is in budday heaven.

Which is how the day started. By receiving customary phone calls. And Chip singing Happy budday in a cute, ear splitting voice – an oxymoron only your own child is capable of executing with aplomb. Chip had also made, with not so gentle nudging from his Aie a card for his Baba. He is not big on drawing – he has inherited my genes in that regard - the only things he draws are things that look like people. But they are encoded. In squiggles and strokes and furious scratches that only a mother’s love and father’s adoration can decipher. So the card was basically, an Easter bunny cut from a catalog, stuck with blue glitter glue – for who would not like a little sparkle in their life? Inside, I drew a line for Chip to write the words Baba, but the pressure it generated for Chip was a bit much. In the end, after much hemming and hawing, he made me hold his hand and write the letters. Then he scribbled a picture of Baba with a wide grin and some hair, cut it out and pasted that alongside the lettering (for what if Baba can’t read?) with some more glittery glue.

Chip was so happy with the result, he was jealous. Of his own self for making such a fab card for baba. So from the bits and pieces of scrap left over, he fashioned another birthday card from himself, with huge globs of blue glitter glue. And made a train ticket for him to ride the train at the mall while he was at it too.

This year, BigGeek wanted pooran-polis for his birthday. Which is what he got (and het also got to grind the pooran in my very buggy Anjali food mill.) Unlimited quantities of pooran poli. And sabudana khichadi. No cake. (Chip asked BigGeek several times in the course of the day if he would like some cake, made with “special” eggs that doesn't cause an allergy.)

The gift I ordered for BigGeek did not arrive because they sent an email saying it was backordered. A fancy telescope with a motorized drive that will allow him to take pictures of nebulae and the moon and stars. And, in his own words, other “heavenly bodies”.

But that was not all. What a birthday without a little excitement? While we were talking with the ILs (mine, not his) over sykpe yesterday afternoon, Chip, who was pottering nearby, came in and told me he had a bead up his nose. I peered inside his snotty nostril and true enough a bright pink plastic bead lay wedged. I panicked. BigGeek did not. He is the man that does not panic. He has nerves of steel. He is the rock of Gibraltar. A man with derring-do. And lots of it. While I was blurting out words like “drive” and “E.R.” and “now” with as much coherence and syntactic accuracy as a pet goldfish, BigGeek leaped in the bathroom and came out flashing a tweezer. As I held Chip down, he very carefully, inserted the tweezer up Chip’s nose and extricated the bead. I don’t think I know anybody who was extricated a bead from their kid’s nose while their parent’s looked on the other side of the world in a different time zone on skpe, on their birthday? Do you? See? Told you BigGeek was one of a kind.

27 comments:

Cee Kay said...

Happy Birthday to BigGeek! And Kudos too - for cool thinking under extreme circustances. Tweezers - the MUST HAVE item in every Network Admin's toolkit, and a parent's!

Altoid said...

I want pooran polis too! :-) Happy birthday to BigGeek.

Anonymous said...

:D LOL! happy b'day to bg, belated. and LOL @ li'l Chip for making it an eventful day!

-Kodi's mom.

Sands said...

a silent visitor till now, I had to comment on this one. That was good thinking. I would have been more like you :) Happy B'day to BigGeek!

K3 said...

Happy B-day BigGeek!!! May your gift arrive soon.

Puranpoli, sabudana khichadi, can I get some? YUM!

aie said...

i thought he will ask chip to sneez. brave act by BG.

noon said...

Happy birthday to BG! Hats off to him for being so calm and getting the bead out! Man what's with these kids - scaring parents this way! How did he do it - get the right size bead that would go in but get stuck in his nose of all places! Why did he push it up his nose?! Kids!!!
Sabudhana Kichdi - man I love that stuff. How did it turn out? Recipe pl.

Mamma mia! Me a mamma? said...

Hey, hey, hey BigG!! Happy, happy and all that jazz!

Wish you more sumptuous delights to fill you up and gladden your heart!

Have a great year!

Sunita Venkatachalam said...

Hey happy happy birthday to BG. What would we do without our strong silent men huh?

Just Like That said...

Happy b'day to BigGeek! and LOL at the grandparents looking on- truly one of a kind!

Choxbox said...

that last para was nerve-wrecking. kids i tell ya.

but the birthday card for self is delightful! and motorised telescope - whoa! pooranpoli is my favourite too.

Parul said...

Feliz cumpleanos, GrandeGeek, hehe!

Rohini said...

Happy B'day to BigGeek. And love to Chip for the cute card. and lol!!!! for the bead and the onlooking parents! :D

rayshma said...

dottie... i also want puran poli and sabudana khichadi. i think BigGeek and i will get along oh so well!!!

here's wishing him a belated, but VERY happy budday!!

Yet Another Mother Runner said...

you made pooran poli?? and sabudana kichadi??? i knew i shdda walked over and not just called or face-booked to wish him :))
Jealous of himself - rotfl!!

Good job, BigGeek on saving the day! Happy birthday again!!

DotThoughts said...

gtn: thanks, hon

altoid: Come one over for a PP party. :)

Kodi's mom: thankee.

Sands: thank god for the big geeks in this world, eh?

k3: come on over!!!

aie: its those horrid beads he plays with.. don't think it could have been sneezed out.

noon: he has beads that his brill mom got him for fine motor skills, sigh. he was trying to smell it. i make khicadi every now and then. its easier than pie :)

m4: thanks, muchos.

poppy: you said it:)

JLT: lol.

chox: i love it too.

Parul: hehehe. muchas gracias. solo escribes en espanol a partir de ahora, por favor:)

Shobana said...

He definetly sounds like one...Happy birthday BG!!!

Anonymous said...

Happy birthday to Big Geek. And good presence of mind!

Bead up the nose? We've bee there. My son once put a button battery in too. Luckily he knew how to blow his nose and we got it out. I've been told that inducing sneezing (by tickling the other nose with a paper piece or yarn) can help.

Veena

Subhashree said...

Belated birthday wishes to BigGeek. Lovely gift you ordered, btw, have you guys received it yet?

That part about bead-up-the-nose is hilarious, sorry I'm laughing at Chip's expense :)

Mama - Mia said...

very belated happy birthday to big geek!

and quite an eventful day, eh?! and you can make puran poli! i bow to thee! time i try to learn it too me thinks!

and a whole spanish conv happening between parul and you?! hehe!

cheers!

abha

By Deepa and Supriya said...

:) happy b'day Big Geek! and agree with Altoid...can we have some pooran polis too :)
a beady finale, eh?

Vinita said...

Puran poli..wow. Agadi sugran ahes ga tu.

hey I had a question about your earlier post. Which were the sites you checked for low air fares. I am trying to book a flight. I did not know about Kayak till i saw that post of yours. Which other sites should i check.. if you could pl help.

DotThoughts said...

veena: my mom had the same idea too! inducing sneezing.

subha: not yet :(

abha: :)

orchid: come on over first!

itw: will do it. pwomise :)

vinita: the usual suspects - expedia,priceline,travelocity,orbitz,kayak,travelzoo,vayama.
Southwest and Jet on their sites. Where are you off to?:)

Vinita said...

thanks ga pahate. mala kayak ani vayama ajjibaat mahiti nhavtya. Achanak philadelphia la jaycha thartay..hee hee tey mhantat na tahaan laagli ki vihir khodaychi tasa ahe amchyat. Long weekend yenar hey kiti adhi pasun mahiti asoon sudhha shevatchya kshani maryamarya.

Vinita

DotThoughts said...

vinita: cool. email kar malaa. dc la chaar taka na. bhetoo :)

Unknown said...

Geez. *slowly releases breath*

Unknown said...

Happy belated birthday to the Geek...I thought I had commented on this post before...strange...btw, you have been tagged!