The namesake

As the clouds begin to clear, Mr Edison decides to pop his invention in my brain - all of this, mind you, this morning as I struggle to keep my enthusiasm levels at keel with Nino's who has miraculously woken up happy, brushed happy, done potty happy, had a bath happy, eaten breakfast and drunk juice happy and ready to go to school happy. As you can see, each individual step is a miracle, and has taken the sleepy and knocked-out with cold mother by surprise. So yes, as I watched my son evolve into the poster-kid that inspires most parents to make more babies, the lightbulb went on.

This blog is about Nino, no? The proof lies in the name of the blog, in my introduction to myself even. So it's a tad unfair that the last few posts have been devoid of Nino. So I'm making up for all this with a Nino-only post and pictures too! We recently did a road-trip to Udaipur, Rajasthan and Nino had a blast watching the mountains. He's a beach bum, and I was keen to see how he'd react to the hilly terrain. Well, he loved them, how 'mighty' they are. We climbed a few - by car, of course :) - and he could not get over how tiny everything else had become. And yes, he wanted to 'climb a mountain' all by himself, so Nino's Dad and he climbed a small hillock - and came back looking like they had conquered the world! There was boating and camel rides, folk dances and a puppet show. And then, there was shopping - lots of window shopping, with Nino happily trudging along, mouth open at the colourful displays, tiny streets filled with cow and 'cow potty', and the hundreds of nooks and corners that offered tantalising slices of the city's famous lakes. We picked puppets - a horseman with a sword and a 'raja rani' couple - and a wooden doll house/temple that opens like a secret compartment and is painted with the tales of the Ramayana.

The downside of having an enthusiastic kid is the many gazillion questions that need answered - so much so that while the other adults are kicking back and enjoying their drinks, the Bacardi breezer that I was nursing evetually turned into more of cough syrup than manna from heaven. Fortunately one of the couples' we travelled with, has a daughter slightly younger than Nino. In the beginning they couldn't stand each other, but were quite the friendly types by the time they dropped us back home after the trip. Here are some pictures of the two of them, managing to be friends over the sharing of Nino's much loved connector markers and his mother's tattoo making skills...

Kicking back on cane, Nino waits to colour while his friend hands out the markers.

Admiring his gecko tattoo: okay, actually, I'm admiring it, he's trying to find out if the marker runs when its rubbed.

And then one for Nino's friend too: as I struggle to keep a steady hand next to a kid who's trying to test the guarantee of the hotel furniture we were perched on: how many jumps-proof is it?!