Ivana's Poem

 

Deciduous Trees

My 9 year old son was learning about Deciduous Trees and Evergreen Trees.

He learnt that Deciduous Trees are trees that changes its colour and shed their leaves during fall season and grow fresh ones during spring season.

He immediately said "Now I understand, DECIDuous trees can DECIDE when to be green, when to be yellow and when not to have leaves."

😔😔😔😔 Who in the world would have thought of it this way??

SHUT UP & SHUT DOWN

My 9 year old son one day asked me "Mom, what's the difference between SHUT UP and SHUT DOWN?

I explained to him that SHUT UP means that you need to stop talking. SHUT DOWN means closing down some office or even computer.

He said "But SHUT UP and SHUT DOWN are supposed to be Antonyms... Having opposite meaning. Why are they not that way?"

:-):-) :-) What to say? 😂😂

Our Terrace Garden

Cluster Beans

Lemon Blossoms

Lemongrass

Muskmelon

Difference between Acute and Chronic??

One day my 14 year old daughter asked us while eating dinner, "Can you tell the difference between Acute Disease and Chronic Disease?"

My 8 year old son spontaneously replied, "Chronic starts with C and Acute starts with an A"....

Wee wisdom....

Time flies

My kids are allowed one hour of TV time everyday. One evening my son was watching his favourite cartoon during his TV time. After one hour, I reminded him promptly that his time is over and he had to switch off.

He gave a puzzled look at me and said , "Mom, why did it become one hour in just 5 minutes??"

Ha ha ha...

Time flies when we want it to go slow...

Butterfly...

My son asked me "Mom, what do butterflies give us?"

I said "Nothing, They look so pretty. We just admire it."

His immediate response was "Oh mom, We get butter from butterflies. That's why it's named like that. "

Mouthfreshner

My son who had just turned 5 was enjoying his lunch one afternoon. He loves the sweetened fennel seeds that are served as mouth freshners in Indian restaurants​. For lunch I had prepared a curry that had tempered fennel seeds. He saw the seeds and asked "Mom, why did you add mouth freshners to the curry?" We were puzzled at first but later understood what he was trying to say and had a good laugh.

Being funny..

One day 4 year old Ivan was sick with fever. He was unable to eat anything. When I asked him what he feels like eating, he said he wanted oatmeal. I immediately made him some.

When I told him to up and eat, he asked me "mom, can I put my pillow on the dining table, lie down and eat?"

I refused and asked him to finish eating and take rest.

His reply "Mom, do you like funny things?"

I said "yes".

He said, " Only if someone does something funny only you can see funny things. So let me sleep and eat".

😠😠

Starfish belongs to the sea

We had gone for a short trip to Pondicherry chunnambar beach. After playing in the waves, we were on the shore making sand castle. For a change I told the kids to make a starfish. I drew an outline and told them to fill with sand. Just as we finished making, a huge wave came to the place where we were sitting. It washed away everything that we had made. My 3.5 year old son who was making the starfish with full interest was confused about where it disappeared. He said, " Mom, starfish should be in water. That's why the water took it away ".

Big boy

My son JOEL went for his first stage competition on 8th Nov 2015 when he was 3.5 years old. It was the singing competition in our church. After preparation, he was bold until he went to the stage. Once he was in front of the mic, he got frightened looking at the crowd. He started weeping and came back without singing.

The very next week, on children's day, there was a fancy dress competition in his school. This time we were very worried if he would have the same stage fear again. To our surprise, he was able to do well this time. He got a lunch box as a participation prize.

I asked him " Jojo , if you would have not cried on stage last week, you could have got another prize also na".

He immediately responded "Mom, that time I was a small boy. Now I have become a big boy"..

Where is Ivan?

Once dad told Ivan " If you don't listen to us, I will not take you to school. "

Ivan immediately responded ," Dad, if you don't take me to school, teacher will say where is Ivan? Where is Ivan?"

All the girls will search "where is Ivan? Where is Ivan?"

AC in fridge

Our old fridge was not giving a good cooling effect for many months. Finally after managing with it for almost a year, we decided to buy a new fridge.

My 3 yr old son opened the new fridge one day and exclaimed "Mom, who put AC in the fridge?"

Didn't know what reply to give.:-)

Badlands National Park

Badlands National Park is in South Dakota.

Minnehaha falls in minneapolis

Minnehaha falls is situated near the down town of Minneapolis. The falls and the park around it is beautiful and relaxing for spending the evening.

Moon Close-up with Canon Powershot SX40 HS Camera

With my new Canon Powershot SX40 HS Camera, I took the below close-up photos of the moon with full zoom. The photos came amazing with detailed craters of the moon. I haven't seen a beautiful moon like this with my naked eyes.

1. With ISO-100, f-5.8 and exposure-1/60 sec:

2. With ISO-100, f-5.8 and exposure-1/250 sec:

3. With ISO-100, f-5.8 and exposure-1/125 sec:

Painted Canyon at North Dakota

Painted Canyon is in North Dakota. We have visited this on the way to Yellowstone through I94 on rest area exit 32. It's a nice rest area to relax for few minutes.

Ice and Snow Sculpture Festival at Saint Paul

St. Paul Festival & Heritage Foundation is conducting an annual winter carnival at Saint Paul, Minnesota, USA. They are conducting this carnival around January of every year. This is a spectacular festival featuring ice carvings and snow sculpture. I've visited the 2011 carnival. The carvings and sculptures were amazing. Below are few of them.

Responsible Sister

One day my 5 yr old daughter was saying to my 6 week old son "Thambi, nee big boy aana udane naan leapfrog cd pottu unakku phonics cholli tharuven. Ippo unnakku 'A' ku mattum than phonics theriyuthu. Eppovum ah..ah..ah... nu sollite iruka"

Translation - My brother, after you grow up i'll put leapfrog cd and teach you phonics. Now you just know the phonics for 'A'. You always keep saying ah..ah..ah...

Photographic Experiments with Canon PowerShot SX40 HS

With our new camera (Canon PowerShot SX40 HS) I and my wife took lot of experimental photos. I was amazed by the quality of the photos and the camera's features. below are few of the sample photos. All the photos were taken with manual settings.This is the first time we are using manual settings and got unbelievable results.

My little boy's tiny feet:

 Apple with Macro  (ISO-100, f/2.7, Exposure-1/4):

Below two photos are the same building taken few seconds apart in the night. The first one with  ISO-100, f/3.5, Exposure-2". The second one with  Exposure-15":

Our building parking lot at night:

A plant in our balcony with Macro  (ISO-400, f/2.7, Exposure-1/40):

Flower with Macro (ISO-400, f/2.7, Exposure-1/30):

Evening near medicine lake:

Minnehaha falls (ISO-100, f/8, Exposure-1/4):

Minnehaha falls , Night view (ISO-200, f/4, Exposure-1/4):

Few more macro shots.

Moon from our balcony (ISO-100, f/5.8, Exposure-1/60):

with ISO-100, f/5.8, Exposure-1/250: