Snatches of Conversations

Driving home after school...
Amma : Nidhi, hows ur new science teacher?
Nidhi : Nice. She talks like our GPS.
:-))

Aditi is playing with Nidhikka's tiara. she places it on her head.
Amma : Are you a princess?
Aditi : No. King!
ha! Attitude... :-)

i sent Nidhi a flavor of pudding-snack which she doesn't like. When she's back home,
Amma : Did u like ur pudding-snack? i told u u will like it.
Nidhi : it was ok. i choked it down!
:-$

At school, Nidhi is taking a test on the computer after school. Aditi and i wait for her just behind her. A big boy from her class(4th-grader) walks up to her and makes a very 'Ewwww, what r u doing?' kinda face and asks her 'Why r u taking the test now?'. Nidhi gives him a look of steel, says 'Because.', turns back to the computer and says 'I want to.' Big boy slinks away with tail between his legs and i silently applaud my daughter.
:-)

In Aditi's words...
'ibi book' is library book.
'it's working, it's working', exclaimed jubilantly everytime the laptop is switched on.
'go there, go there', pointing to the bathtub when she wants to have a bath there.
'ong eck' is long neck, the giraffe has it.
'bushy tail'  is the one the fox has.
'odle doo' is cock-a-doodle-do of the rooster.
'to u' is the happy birthday song.
'gummy girl' is the gummy bear song.
'mandeel' is madila, which means mommy's lap.
'ketchups', 'thannis' - tomato ketchup and water, for some reason they r plural.
'got it!' when she gets something out of her sister's cupboard with great difficulty.
'found it!' when we r looking for something like jacket, shoes, etc.
'no way!' is wherever even a simple No would do.
'Not me!' is when asked are u sleepy/are u hungry/are u anything-nice.

last week, she approached me with 'gimme chips'. The next day her dad was at the ATM and she asks me 'give money'!

If u ask her she'll show you her eyes, ears, nose, tongue, teeth, mouth, chubby cheeks, dimple chin, rosy lips, hair, shoulders, elbow, hands, fingers, nails, legs, toes, knee, thigh, feet, heart, head, brain and thoppai(stomach). She'll also show faces for happy, sad, surprise, angry, thinking and tasting a lemon.

Everyday she asks abt her thatha. She has a song which goes like this 'thatha, chennai, thatha, chennai, thatha chennai'(infinite loop). When thatha talks to her on the phone she gets very excited. And even if u fall at her feet she won't say 'ammumma', she just refuses witha shake of her head and a smile on her face. clearly she enjoys teasing us. Couple of weeks ago, as usual one day morning she asked me 'thatha enge?', i said 'chennai'. Then she said 'Amaaama?'. Ha! At last! For the first time!

she can recite nursery rhymes 'johnny, johnny', 'twinkle, twinkle', 'chubby cheeks', etc. All other rhymes she'll tell u the last word of each line like 'pat a cake', 'wee willie winkie', 'this little pig' and all others. she'll tell u the days of the week starting from sunday. My fav is 'sat-ur-day', pronounced with utmost clarity.  She can tell u the numbers from one to ten, sometimes skipping seven and eight - she doen't like them. And one day i just asked her for fun 'ten' and she surprised me by reciting the number line backwards, 'nine,six,five,four,three,two,one', again skipping seven and eight, clearly not her favs.

i have to stop writing because Aditi is saying 'apple milkshake', each syllable clear and deliberate. How can i not obey!

Lastly, posting my current facebook status:
Halloween is approaching and everybody here's decorating their house with carved lit-up pumpkins. i asked santosh if we plan to celebrate halloween this year. he said, 'y not?' and bought a huge pumpkin and asked me to make sambaar out of it!

This was just after summer vacation...

We got out of the car and started walking towards a mall. We put Aditi in her stroller. It's very difficult to get her to sit in it, but for once she was sitting without complaining. the seat-belt was not strapped on and i noticed that she was trying to buckle it in. i said to santosh "it's a good thing. she'll be occupied with it for sometime and sit quietly for that much time at least." Santosh said "excuse me, please look down." and what do i c - Aditi has managed to strap herself in! :-( when does she even learn these things! that seat belt is just like the one in the car and it takes a bit of effort to buckle up. aparently not for Aditi!

Aditi has learned a lot of words from Nidhi. Only Nidhi says 'thanks', we all say 'thank you'. And now, Aditi says 'thanks' for everything. For past two days she's been saying 'yeah' whenever she means yes. And yesterday, she was in Nidhi's room, i called her out from the drawing-room and she came running to me yelling 'commmmmmmmmming, commmmmmmmmming...' :-)

Aditi and i were going thru a book and we found the picture of a tiny wrist-watch. she gazed at it thoughtfully and i told her it was a watch. she tried it out aloud 'watch' and then ran to the wall pointing up 'clock, clock' :-) similar thing happens when she goes to a store and finds a top which is like mine. she runs abt saying 'amma-du, amma-du' (meaning mom's). i think the first time we noticed that she is making such associations is when we were in India last jan. her cousin-sister had a huge keyboard which she let aditi play with for a few mins. couple of days later she gave aditi a smaller piano from her toy-set. immediately aditi ran to the keyboard (which was covered with a cloth)and started pointing to it excitedly. her athai noticed this and was mighty impressed with her!

The first time i pointed out to aditi from a pic that animals(i think it was a lion) have tails, she turned round and round and tried to spot a tail behind her. she seemed surprised and then disappointed that she didn't have one!

a few days ago my cousin-sister was in chennai at my parents place and we skyped on her son's computer. all of us were very happy to see all of them. and yesterday, aditi starts pointing to the computer and saying 'shaadi, shaadi'. i understood immediately and asked 'shashank?'(my cousin's son). aditi nodded her head vigorously and corrected herself repeating forcefullly 'shashank, thatha, ammama!' it was daytime here and i told her they r all asleep in india. she keeps asking for them very now and then.

And the most important thing this summer is that Nidhi has learned to ride a bicycle. it took her just under a week. first two days i helped her and the next two santosh did. by the fifth day she was riding alone and we were all so happy. she announced happily to her grandparents on skype - 'i can ride a bicycle... *clap, clap, clap from chennai*... without balancing wheels! *willd cheers and applause from chennai*

Good summer, this!