A gift is a present...and the present is today!

e were quite late in shopping for Winkie's gift this time. Why? Well...I have to confess I didn't think a gift was really required. After all, he was getting a fun party at the place he loved, with the people he knew so well, and he'd be getting a lot of gifts anyways...so why overindulge? That's what I thought at first.

In fact, I went a step further. I had almost decided that there would be no gifts brought to the party. Lets have a donation bank instead...I told Rajesh. People can just donate how much ever they want into that, and we can send it to a cause we feel strongly about. He liked the idea in concept, but felt that Winkie should not miss out on the thrill and simple delight of receiving gifts. And I had to go along with that.

Anyways, coming back to the original point...we almost didn't get Winkie a gift until the end. In fact, Rajesh shopped for it on the 15th, in the afternoon while Winkie slept. We had already agreed on what he would get, and there was to be one little surprise and one big surprise. Both surprises got postponed to the next day, since Winkie was still not in the best of spirits that day. Come Saturday morning, he revived and started asking for his presents. The big surprise wasn't yet ready...it had to be assembled, and with all the party prep, we didn't get a chance to do it. But the little surprise was waiting. And Rajesh had already gift wrapped it prettily. (Its all about the packaging!)

Here we had two options...we could either give it to him simply, in his hand, say Happy Birthday son, and have him open it and feel happy. OR...we could play a little game with him and have him win and unearth his surprise on his own. We picked the second. And here's how it all unfolded...

4 years old. So 4 little clues. On 4 little chits of paper, numbered 1, 2, 3 and 4. What were the clues? Well...the clues were not in the paper. They were verbal hints from us directing him to the possible location of those chits of paper. And once he found 1,2, 3 and 4 in succession, he would get the final clue for the location of his little surprise. And so we began...

First I sat down and prepared the chits. I filled them with 3 words each. The idea, of course, was to enlist his newly acquired reading skills.

On chit # 1, I wrote...bit and bat, and this I hid in the drawer where he usually keeps some of his books.

On Chit # 2 it was....fish has fins. This, I inserted into his little DVD pouch.

On Chit # 3 were the words...the mad duck. This went into his big dump truck.

And then Chit # 4, the hardest of them all....sugar in water. I put this into his little Eeyore money bank.

We hid the actual gift inside his colouring bin. And then I called him downstairs. He was pretty excited and jumpy. With me manning the camera and Rajesh with the handycam, I gave him his first clue.

Where do you keep your books, Akhil?

He immediately went to the book rack first where we kept all the library books. Nothing there. He looked over at me. Where do you keep your home books?

It finally registered and he scurried over to the place of hiding and extracted the first chit. The look of triumph on his face was unmistakeable. He read out from it...bit and bat! Correct!! Next clue...

Where do you keep your Nemo CD?

No hesitation here. He quickly found the pouch and unzipped it and the second chit fell into his hands. Yeaaaay...I found it... he squealed. Fish has fins. Bingo. Onto the third clue...and he was really in the groove by now...

Where have you kept all the puzzle pieces?

The truck was right under his nose. He jumped at it. But didn't find the chit right away. He emptied all the pieces on the floor, before the bright yellow colour caught his eye. He opened it and read...the mad duck. Alright!!! Last clue...

If we gave you coins, where would you put it?

He thought for a minute and then registered the location and moved swiftly to Eeyore's side. The yellow paper was peeping out of the coin slot. I just prayed that he wouldn't push it in, in his eagerness to get it out. He didn't. He read out the last phrase...sugar in water. He struggled a bit, but used phonetic logic to piece the words together. We were mighty proud and more than happy to provide him with his final clue...

Where do you keep all your drawing stuff Akhil?

He looked over at his little table. He dug through all the paper clutter in his drawing bin and found the hidden little surprise. His face was the epitome of pure and unadulterated joy. He ran over to the sofa and plonked himself comfortably before ripping upon his gift. Take a look...

Now he's never watched Curious George on TV before. So we thought it was only appropriate, also keeping in mind his birthday theme. He was well and truly happy. We all sat down with him and watched an episode or two, before getting back to work. He watched the entire DVD, and we let him.

But we still couldn't get to the bigger surprise the same day. And after the party, he was too busy opening up all the gifts he got. So we postponed it to the next day. On Sunday afternoon, Rajesh set about assembling it carefully. Once it was done, we once again went over how he was to see it. My mom was roped into the plan as well. We went outside to the driveway and stood in front of the closed garage shutter, holding our respective cameras. Grandma brought Winkie to the garage door, and had him open the garage shutter himself. And as the shutter started to slide upwards, we waited expectantly for a sight of Winkie's face. He took one look at the object between us and his eyes lit up. He's not a very vocal little guy, for I don't think he said anything other than wow...but he came running out to the object...and the realised he didn't have any slippers on his feet. So he went running back to put on his sandals. Imagine the agony of a little boy, excited beyond words at the prospect of getting to his gift, and having to stop to tend to practicality...he fumbled around trying to hurriedly don his sandals, and those few seconds must have been like an eternity to him.

He came running out in his slippered feet and climbed atop his new cycle. We had bought him a little trike for his second birthday, but he had begun to outgrow it. So this time, we bought him a bigger boy tricycle, with training wheels. He was all excited at first and mounted it surely. But I guess the added height and the awkwardness in pedalling it, quickly made his enthusiasm wane, and he wanted to come back inside the house, 5 minutes later. It was a bit of a washout for his father, who had been looking forward to taking him on his first round around the community. But its been customary for Winkie to learn to properly use a birthday gift only in time for the next birthday. So, we have another year to go before he becomes good friends with the big surprise.

Now, a talk of gifts in this 5th year of life that he has begun would not be complete without chronicling some of the other lovely surprises and personal touches he received. We were all in for a very pleasant surprise when, on the morning of the 16th, we opened the front door to be greeted by a little brown box waiting at the doorstep. It was from his Chitthappa. A gorgeous wooden zoo puzzle set. I was really thrilled beyond measure. The gift was so appropriate keeping in mind his interests and this was like a collector's edition item, in terms of the quality of the puzzle face and the box it came in etc. It was an instant hit with Winkie, and the current rage, which he loves breaking up and redoing over and over. Once in the morning. Once after school. And once in the evening. Thanks Mahesh!

The evening we got back from the My Gym party, there was another little surprise waiting in the mailbox. I saw a large orange bubble wrap envelope and for a split second, wondered how the gift sent by his grandparents had reached so quickly. On closer inspection, I noticed the Hongkong stamps and instantly figured it out. What a huge surprise it was to me!!! I eagerly opened the envelope and found a bright, vibrant little work of art inside. And my first thought was that it looked sooo much like his 1st year birthday cake. The sun, the balloons....it all seemed like an amazing coincidence. Thank you dear Appu, Abhay and Gauri...for all the joy and cheer you stuffed inside that envelope, for that's the first thing that jumped out at me and touched my heart.

Winkie got some other wonderful gifts too from the party, keeping in mind his current interests, age appropriateness, and scope for developing new skills in the near future. And what stood out to me in all of this was certain personal touches that were made. I loved this little card that his friend from school had illustrated. I interpreted it as two friends...him and Winkie. And it was so cute. There was another little card with cute birthday wishes. And what made it sweeter, was the blank side of the card. And on it, the little line drawings by one of the cutest budding artists that I have ever met. Thank you dear sweet Kodi. Your choice in colours and strokes is impeccable. It is nothing short of a masterpiece. And for what its worth, I have given it the special privilege of being one of our cherished fridge art. Check it out!

And that brings to a close the whole saga of the gifts that were showered on Winkie this year. I don't know how much of this he will remember in his later years, but I hope he will always feel surrounded by the love that it came with.