Blood and gore - All in a day's work.

Today morning there was great excitement in our household as Aditi lost her first tooth and then immediately after, the second one too. Bottom row. About two weeks ago, she noticed her tooth wiggle and has been shaking it non stop to make it fall. Lot of discussions have happened with her friends about their own experiences and ideas ranged from biting hard into an apple to pulling out the tooth using dental floss. The child who hates apples pestered me to buy one, but it didn't work. I am actually surprised it took so long for the tooth to fall out given the nonstop wiggling Aditi has done to it.

Since yesterday Aditi has been complaining that her wiggly tooth is hurting and when i checked it today morning i could see it was ready to fall off. I was scared she might swallow it when she eats her food, so i got a really soft paper tissue and shook the tooth this way and that and then tugged on it gently, lo the tooth was out. Out flowed a whole lot of blood and when just presssing on it did not stop it, Mr.Appa was called upon to bring ice. Big sister Nidhi akka was asked to close curtains as i like to believe the tooth is not to be shown to sky or else the new tooth would take a long time to sprout! :-) And before any of this happened i just said "it's out, it's out" in a soft voice and Santosh turned it into a war cry and Nidhi came running and we all started clapping for Aditi and she was so excited and wanted to run to the mirror to see how she looks. :-) Like i said, it was exciting. To put it mildly.

The newly removed tooth went into a tiny treasure box her teacher had given her specially for this purpose. And immediately after, i used the same procedure to pull out her second tooth. It was a bit of a relief for Aditi not to have wiggly teeth anymore. The second tooth brought forth more blood and  further pressure with tissue and ice was needed. Ultimately, we filled three tissues with blood. I had asked Aditi to close her eyes so she doesn't start panicking on seeing this whole lot of blood.

Santosh remarked how cool and calm i was being about pulling out the teeth and the bleeding that followed. I said that's what Moms do and blood is not something we are scared about. Then i asked Aditi to open her eyes and look at the tissues and not be scared of a little blood. There will be much more to see and bear in future. I have done the same with Nidhi and it has helped a lot that when she had her first period, although she was a bit scared, she did not freak out completely. There is so much more to come when we have a baby, etc. i try and teach my kids not to freak out, rather try and handle  the situation. Sounds a bit cold-blooded, but it helps when a child gets hurt and u might have to do first aid to control the bleeding. Or when u have ur first period. Or when u give birth.

Moms r strong and we want our kids to be strong too! Don't get fazed easily...

Like bacteria?

This happened abt 6 months ago....

Aditi was watching Krishna cartoon. Suddenly she came to find me,
Aditi : Amma, when Krishna's mom opened his mouth, she found the whole world in his mouth. Is that true?"
Me : yes, dear.
Aditi : What! Waa, waa, waa... I don't want to live in Krishna's mouth! I don't want to live in anybody's mouth! 

Boss Baby

Yesterday morning, aditi woke up and found me on the sofa engrossed in my phone. She came and sat next to me and leaned in on my hand and said softly "What happened to Good Morning and everything?"

Elephants, Old Navy

Today morning, Aditi and i worked on a poster where ice age animals meet the jurassic animals. We worked on a woolly mammoth and i was explaining to her about elephants...
Me : u know, elephants r a matriarchial soceity. That means, the female elephant decides when they should eat, drink, take a bath, migrate, etc. sort of like leader of the family.
Aditi : oh, u mean, just like in our family!
:-))

Few months ago, Aditi told me she doesn't like to buy clothes from Old Navy. She said, "Why is it called Old Navy? Do they sell old clothes?"
:-))

Appa's all time fav

Yesterday I was applying oil on Nidhi's hair and she started singing in a soft voice, 'boroline, boroline'. I asked her what it was and she said it's something abt Appa and she even knows the song. I asked her to sing and she went with gusto - 'khushbudaar anti-septic cream boroline!' . She claimed she can sing it like Appa and proceeded with a loud voice - 'khushbudaar anti-septic cream boroline!'. it was hilarious and we promptly sang it to Appa the minute he came home from office.

Today morning I dropped Nidhi off to school and she tells me I drive 'faster, but calmer' than Appa. :-))

Rambles that pass as posts on this blog. But such is life...  :-)

A good morning

Today morning, Aditi surprised me by getting ready for school while I was making breakfast. I finished cooking and turned around, lo - Aditi has selected and worn a dress, applied cream-powder-pottu and said 'surprise!'. Thanks to her I had a 10-min leisure which I used up in the reading 'hot-hot' news as soon as the newspaper was delivered at the door. A very good morning indeed...

Nidhi and I r the same for one thing - both of us can never get enuf holidays in life. Past two days she had her Math and Eng exam and today she did her best to get a holiday. But no chance...

I went to get my car washed. when it was done the guy called out to me saying 'Sasha' and looked sheepish as if he knew something was wrong. I had to lol :-)) S-a-n-t-o-s-h... I even spelled it from him when I entered the place. Either he can't write or he can't read... Yet another fellow who can't pronounce Indian names. That's y I never give out my real name - get very irritated when someone kills it. the worst ones r the ones who give up - 'I am not even going to try and say it!' I always think "well done with the loser's attitude!"

And, all this rambling just to get into the spirit of writing... Need to blog more often. Even though today I don't have anything special to say, this is just to start writing more and also to remind me of a simple thing - what a good morning it was! And all because I got to read the newspaper in the morning...:-)

Advantages of having a Big Sister

Nidhi and Aditi are about to have dinner. Both have taken their plates and are walking back to a cartoon in which a man is crying.

Aditi : Look, he is crying. How is that possible? How can a Man cry?
Nidhi : why is that not possible? Even Men cry. They try to act tough, but men can cry too.

Ha... That's a good lesson for u, Little Aditi. Courtesy : Nidhi-akka.

 

Art of Negotiation

Aditi : Amma, if u don't put the TV for me, i'll call u 'Chutki'.
Me : Wow, I love being called Chutki. That's such a nice name! u can call me chutki, no problem...
Aditi (puzzled) : u like being called Chutki?
Me : yes, yes, I love that name!
Aditi (without pausing a second) : ok then, if I must call you chutki, u have to put the tv for me!

And that is called - the Art of Negotiation. :-)

A for Aditi, B for Bold...

Two conversations:

Santosh's brother is visiting us. He has just stepped into our house and said hello to aditi. Aditi has seen him when she was a baby of 1.5 years. Now, her first question to him : "Why you didn't bring your family?"

Aditi is talking to Thatha on the phone.
Aditi : Thatha, what are you doing?
Thatha : I am watching T.V.
Aditi : Instead of watching T.V., why don't you cook something?
Thatha : i don't know to cook. i know only to eat! hahaha....

Everytime she says something like this my first impulse is to correct her. But, she is just being curious and wants to know something. So i keep quiet and let her be. My only worry is B for Bold shdn't become B for Bossy...

Reminds of the time when Little Nidhi had asked her Bangalore thatha very innocently - "Thatha, onaku kaadu kekatha?"

Aditi at 4

Dear Aditi,

The first time u looked at me and smiled when u were a 1-1.5 month baby, you lit up my soul. i am happy to let you know, even today it's the same. :-)

You have many different kinds of smiles - the shy smile, when u accomplish something and show it to me, the soft smile to cheer me (or Appa or Nidhi-akka) up, usually accompanied by a hug, the smile that u put on when u dance, and then there is a real smile which is when u are really happy or amused or you are enjoying something to the most. Although i cherish every smile of yours, the real smile which shows all ur tiny teeth lined up in a perfect row, that's one that warms my heart the most. Everyday, i strive to see at least one such smile on ur face. When u first learned to smile, no one knew what could make u smile (the same thing would never work twice!), so me, appa, nidhi-akka, amumma and the maid would keep on trying to get u to smile. Even today it's like that - i never know when that perfect all-teeth smile will come. It could be something simple - like taking a ride on the carousel, or watching a particularly funny episode of Krishna, or something which Nidhi-akka says to make you laugh. Whatever it is, it lights up our day.

Talking. That's the main activity of our day. u talk, i talk. u talk more, i talk more. u talk some more and then, make me talk some more. and then, u talk again and then i am tired of talking and Nidhi-akka and Appa come home and u start talking to them. we can talk to u abt anything. everything will be entered, processed and given an output by ur tiny self. every thing is of interest to you. i can and have literally talked to you abt anything on earth, from cooking to space, from fish to God, from spoons to continents. U will listen, ask, talk and store. A couple of years later, u remind me i had told you something someday. And, that makes all the talking worthwhile.

And, same thing applies to books.

Aditi, u and i share a good wave-length - it's probably all the time we spend together. When u say something, i am the first one to get it. Or maybe it's bcoz u keep me on my toes, i need to be with you, if not ahead, to understand you and amuse you. Like for example, Appa and me were talking buying a new car and u butted in with 'mamma, can u buy a hiccup?', and i retorted 'u mean pick-up?' and Appa shook his head slightly at both of us! lol.

But i must confess, i dunno what you will say or do the very next minute. It's never what we expect... At your 4th bday party, u had to answer a question 'Whom do you like most - Amma or Appa?' and u said 'My friends. i love my friends the most!'.  And then gave appa, me and nidhi-akka hugs so that we don't feel bad.

i am trying to think of what are your qualities and ur nature and ur behaviour and what u r at 4 years, i am unable to find the right words. or maybe i don't want to judge u or slot u into anything. so instead, i am going to just write down a few conversations that have happened in the recent past. it will also serve to understand why we don't have cable TV at home.

Aditi : i have a pattern at school.
Me (not paying complete attention coz i am cooking) : Are you learning patterns at school? (it's something she has come across a couple of times in her prev school in CA)
Aditi : yeah, there is a pattern in my school.
Me : ok, tell me. what is it?
Aditi (gesturing with hand in chopping motions) : See... school, no school, school, no school.... Can u see a pattern?
Me (stunned) : O My God, you are talking of a real life pattern.
Aditi (excited smile) :yes, yes.
Me - speechless and cooking forgotten...
(Aditi goes to school on Tue and Thurs and it works out into a school-day, no school-day pattern if u work it out).

Santosh and i are watching a scene from Rangeela where Aamir Khan is selling tickets in black saying 'dus-ka-tees, dus-ka-tees, dus-ka-tees'. We didn't realise Aditi was paying attention too, until she asked "why is that man going arnd saying 'disgusting, disgusting, disgusting'"!!! :-))

We celebrated a 10-day long Ganesh Chathurthi Festival and Aditi was very involved with prayers and neividhyam twice every day. Once, she pointed to the agarbatti and asked "Why we have to do smoking for pullayaar?" :-))

I am discussing with Santosh "Nidhi has gone slim", Aditi interrupts with a shocked "What! Nidhi-akka has become Muslim?" :-))

Appa and Nidhi-akka are discussing the problems in their new office, school respectively.
Aditi : i also had problems in my school. But i am brave and managed it.
Me: How did u manage it?
Aditi : Simple, i changed my school.
:-))
(We had moved her from one school to another after coming to Texas.)

So, that is Aditi at 4 - Entertaining and Thought-provoking - 24X7. No need for cable-tv (Tv is television as she will tell you).

Happy Birthday from Amma, Appa and Nidhi-akka! May God bless you and happy long-life to you....

Best wishes,
Amma.

Dear God

On the morning of paal-kaachal in our new apartment in Texas, Nidhi is watching me as i boil the milk. I explain - "Now i am going to give the milk to umaachi". Aditi - "And, corn-flakes too?" :-))

All our saamaan arrived from California today. After the unloading was done and all the furniture fixed, i say "Thank you God, for bringing all our saamaan safely." Aditi can't keep quiet "Amma, u have to thank the truckers. they brought all our luggage."

All this from the child  who on Vishu day last year, when she received $100 from her Appa, we told her keep it safely. Immediately she kept it back near Vishu-kani and said "God will keep it safe for me!"

Aditi, i have to say, dear child, i am trying very hard but it's not easy to understand the little person that u are and the way ur head works!! Help me, God...

Butts, India, Tamil (Unrelated :-)

When Nidhi was small she had asked what kinda currency is 'bucks'? Aditi has gone one step further and calls it 'butts'. She will take something in her hand and announce confidently 'this is 5000 butts'.

After our trip to India, Aditi keeps talking abt it. Santosh keeps asking her questions abt her trip and her replies bring back memories.

Appa : Who's your friend in Chennai?
Aditi (without hesitation) : Selvi (the servant-maid in chennai).

Appa : What will thatha buy you in Chennai?
Aditi (again without hesitation) : Kinderjoy!

And, one conversation from Chennai - Aditi peers at her thin shirt-less thatha and announces to him:
Aditi : You are a skeleton.
Thatha(with a smile) : I am an old man.
Aditi (shakes her head) : You are an old skeleton.
:-))

One day in chennai, my mom calls me and tells me Aditi gave her a shock. It seems my mom told her Aditi is Appa's daughter, Nidhi is Appa's daughter and asked her if Amma is Appa's daughter too? Aditi shook her head and said Amma is thatha's daughter. Without someone expicitly telling her who is who she seems to have got it... :-)

Aditi's fav story from India is one of 'Woodcutter and the kodali' narrated by my cousin Jyothi exactly once during a busy wedding we attended in Kerala. After coming back, she sat on her father's lap and proceeded to recount the tale flawlessly, surprising us. Aditi has become a fav with all my cousins and uncles and aunts. Our entire family stayed in a hotel in order to attend a cousin's wedding and Aditi grew very friendly with Viji-chithi. She tells me even now that she needs to go back to that hotel bcoz Viji-chithi is waiting there for her. Praveen weds _______ (dash) and Archana weds ________ - has become our fav fill in the blanks with Aditi supplying the names. i am sure no one sat with her and expained who is marrying who but she seems to have picked up all these things herself. She is (was at that time) almost three after all!

Yesterday morning i was talking to myself aloud 'oh no, horlicks is finished' Aditi sitting on the kitchen counter announced 'Oh, let's go to india and buy horlicks. come, come, let's say bye to Appa. let's go!' :-))

Aditi picked up a lot of tamil when we went to India. She surprises us by using it at the most appropriate times after coming back here. Today morning i informed her 'Appa-ku padalai'. She thought for a second and replied 'Naan paathukaren!' Wow! :-))

Then and now...

I went back to my blog and saw that the last thing i had written abt Aditi was in Oct 2013. She says 'ibi book' for library book.

Cut to Oct 2014...

Today morning, Aditi announces : I am a boy.
Me : Why?
Aditi : Bcoz i changed my mind.
Me : Ok!
:-)) What else can u say...

A long long ago when Aditi was a tiny little girl... whatever i do, Aditi is always with me(this is to keep her away from TV and at three years i am happy to say she watches very little of it). everyday she sits on the kitchen counter with dangling legs when i stand next to her making chappathis and conversation. one day i gave her a small ball of chappathi-maavu. Having seen me roll the ball then press it flat and then roll out the chappathi i assumed she would have learned how to do it by now. She went on to roll the ball, press it flat and shape it nicely and annouce to me - 'see, dolphin!'. i was a bit taken aback and asked her if i heard correctly. she insisted it was a dolphin and needed to go to 'pool'. These were the days when we had visited Seaworld San Diego for the first time(we got a year round pass after that) so dolphins were very popular with Aditi. i learned a very valuable lesson that day that when life gives u chappathi-maavu, u can make even a dolphin out of it and it's completely upto u what u do with it. Also, i learned not to take my daughter for granted...

Also, just before that, the very first time Aditi opened a book and pointed out and said the word 'Dolphin' correctly, Appa took an impromptu decision and took us all to Seaworld the same day so that his daughter could look at real dolphins....

Re-start

A few days back, i came across the draft of a story i started to write on my desktop many many months ago. A couple of paragraphs were written and when i started reading it, even though it was a story i had written myself, i liked it so much that i became eager to know what would happen next. For the life of me i don't remember! it started out so well and i can recollect thinking abt putting it into words, but i did not do it and now i have lost a story. With a jolt i realised this is what is happening in my life too... Aditi has turned 3 and Nidhi is growing up so fast too, everyday is an interesting day(to put it mildly), but unless it's recorded here in this blog things r just slipping thru my mind.

Okay the excuse first - When Nidhi won the 'Student of the Month' Award in 2012 (the very next month after she first started school in America), i had put it up on facebook. the very next day she fractured her wrist. Everyone in my family seemed to believe it was my putting it up on fb that brought the 'evil eye' on my daughter. i defended myself tooth and nail saying it was not the first time i was writing abt her achievements, but being a Mom after all i did not want to do anything that would harm my daughter. Slowly i stopped putting up things on fb. No more pics, no more announcing anything when she wins something. Less than 1% of our what was happening in our lives found its way to fb. The same thing has happened on this blog, as if writing abt it would somehow jinx it. This is very much against what i believe in - that family and friends are well-wishers and there is no such thing as 'buri nazar'. More importantly i am missing out on all the things that Nidhi and Aditi would like to read abt themselves when they grow up and come to my blog.

So, here goes... yet another attempt to revive blogging...

First thing, Nidhi did win 'Student of the Month' in the next year 2013 too. No one knows it except for us and the grandparents. when her teacher called us the second time to tell us Nidhi has been selected, i blightly assumed they must be awarding every child every year and that maybe its an award given in rotation to keep all children and parents happy. Then i asked around and found that i was most certainly wrong. There r many kids who have never received it even once in all their five years of elementary school. also, some have received it even twice in the same year. so it's all abt achievement. needless to say, i was extremely happy for Nidhi for doing her best in everything.

Second thing is Nidhi is growing into a very good dancer. She is flourishing at a rapid pace and loves her dance class. All this might change in the few months coz there is a very real possibility we might move and she will have to start afresh at yet another dance school. But for today, i thank God for being kind enough to give her such a good teacher and such an enriching atmosphere in the dance school that brings out the best in Nidhi.

The most important thing abt Nidhi... i notice i have used the word best twice in the above paragraphs - that's a good thing bcoz its not a word we use many times in real life. Having been a topper all thru my life, i vowed i would never tell my child to come first in class ever in her life. i would never place such an expectation on her shoulder and it was all upto to her what she wants to do and how well she wants to do it. i want her to feel happy for her own achievements and not do something bcoz her parents wanted her to do it or to make them (us) happy. So, when she does well in something i feel all the more proud bcoz she is doing well on her own and not due to any pressure that we have put on her. Also, she derives a lot of pleasure in whatever she does and that is what is most important to me.

Since last month she surprised us all by taking an interest in drawing and has been turning up master piece after master-piece during summer vacation. The bigger surprise was Mr.Appa who has never been known to draw even a straight line all thru his life - he started a fun drawing time with his daughters where all three if them spread out their drawing-ware in the living room, pore over their papers for the best part of an hour and come up with some stunners. i let them in peace coz i am usually cooking dinner in peace myself(rare opportunities - not to cook, but to cook in peace). then i am invited to be the gracious judge and pick out the best. invariably i pick out Santosh coz he turns out to be the best, followed closely by Nidhi. The best pieces go onto my refridgerator-door and now there is almost no place left.

As for Student of the Month this year, for the very first assembly, Nidhi was invited to volunteer in giving out the certificates (The principal announces the award, shakes the hand of the awardee and the child collects the award from the volunteers). She was so excited to be be doing this job with her classmate. Seeing her excitement we went to the assembly to see what exactly she is doing. i must say she and her friend did such a good job (with no confusion abt handing over which certificate to which child, etc). After the assembly one of the other Moms even told me that Nidhi did so well and looked so confident on stage :-) Small joys in life...

Ok, that was a reasonably good attempt to 'restart'.... Now let's c if i can keep up regularly.

No surprise that...

... after 10 years of marriage, one day, Santosh and i came home from the grocery store to find that both of us have picked up the same brand, same color toothbrush for ourselves. Now, mine has a rubber-band arnd itself to look special. :-)

Also, a couple of years ago, i started learning to drive a car. Santosh was the one who taught me. Day 1, Class 1, i have just taken the driver's seat, Santosh right beside me and the two kids in the backseat. i open my mouth to say something and Santosh says "Now Mamma will make a rule. No talking when i am driving. All children must keep quiet and let me concentrate on driving. haa...haa...haa". Needless to say, those were the exact words i was planning to say! Now that i think of it, two years ago we had not even crossed 10 years of married life!

But what i do find surprising is that though we can practically complete each other's words and even thoughts, we still talk to each other all the time all day and life remains interesting... Thank God!

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!
 

Nidhi

After a long day spent playing in a park, as we r going home,
Nidhi : Amma, if i go home and ask for the computer, what will u do?
Amma : i'll give u one on ur bum!
Nidhi : Violence is not the answer to everything!
:-))
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Nidhi, Aditi and i were at home tracking Santosh's plane when he was returning home after a business-trip. Nidhi had reached the end of her patience waiting for him, as is evident from the 'plane announcement' she made,
in a sweet voice : 'pu...pu....pu... (the pinging sound u hear before every announcement being made on a flight) we r happy to inform u your plane has just landed.
harshly : Now, get out of the Exit. RIGHT NOW!!!'
:-))
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After updating a profile pic on fb,
Amma : Yay, i got (xyz) likes in an hour.
Nidhi : wow! now what? u get some reward?

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Nidhi : Amma, how old r u?
Amma : *mumbling insignificant number*
Nidhi : Which year you were born?
Amma : y do u want to know?
Nidhi : Did u take part in the Indian Freedom Struggle?
Amma (shaking head) : No.
Nidhi : At least a World War?
Amma (shocked) : No!
Nidhi : You never wanted to join the army?
Amma : No, no. why? u want to join?
Nidhi : No, i don't want to join. i can't join, boz i can't kill people.
And with that, she walks away. Just like that. And that in one line, is my first daughter Nidhi - all of 8 years. Kind, gentle, thoughtful...
 

Saami Rashikaname! (rekshikaname)

Santosh handed over the bell('mani') to Aditi when he was doing his puja. (Generally nidhi is the one who gets to ring it). Aditi immediately ran to the drawing-room, where i was sitting, and started doing puja to the TV! She would ring the bell, fold her hands in a namaste and say 'saami rashikaname' multiple times in whisper. i was puzzled for a second as to why the TV is being worshipped when i understood that it's becoz Vishnu Sahasranamam was playing on the home-theatre. Although the TV was off(no pictures of God being seen on TV), Aditi knew a God's song was being played.

i have noticed this before also that (only audio, no video being played) a bollywood number would make her dance while a devotional song would make her fold her hands and pray. Reminds us that children know/understand more than what we give them credit for!

Wordly Wise

Many writers have said that unless u sit and write everyday, ur writing will not improve. Practice makes writing better. i find that's very true. When i come back to my blog after a hiatus i find it difficult to write. Although the mind brims with ideas, words don't flow easily. it will take some time before i like what i write, but until then no other way but to plow on until i find a rhythm.

Ever since summer holidays started, Aditi has been following Nidhika arnd everywhere, doing exactly everything she does. Nidhi was pleased initially but after a point she got irritated - why is she doing everything i do? when i told her that she is a hero in aditi's eyes and wants to learn everything from nidhika, she felt better and even started teaching her a few things. the first thing she taught her was to say 'awesome'. so now we have two voices, one tiny another a little bigger, both saying awesome at random times, each in their own inimitable style.

i dunno when but a whole lot of words have entered our house. what i noticed was there would be a week or two of quietness(or older words) and then a week bursting with new-new words, each one spoken perfectly at the first attempt and taking up permanent residence in our house. Another thing i noticed was when nidhi started speaking she would hurry to say a word and many words would take up their own pronunciation and slowly evolve into the officially correct form. Like baikkut. Took some time before it turned to what is actually is - rabbit. Baikkut was infinitesimally cute and is still a part of our family. But not so with Aditi. She likes to say each word perfectly, starting with her some of her very first words, 'bear', 'turtle' and 'fox'. right from the very first time she spoke, u could hear even the 'r' in turtle.

somehow button, bubble, cycle, shark, apple, tree, leaf, hello - all have appeared and all of them soft, but clear. tree is 'chee', but let's assume that's american style. the easy ones like shoe, car, cheese, shell, book took no time, others like fofer(flower), pepper, lion, tiger, pider(spider) (last three spoken spookily for max effect) amaze me in their proximity to the actual words. thundu(towel), porum(enuf), paal(milk), pattu (patudu - got hurt), paatu(songs) take care of our tamilian roots.

The most dangerous word in our house is - wait for it - Bath! Anyone saying this word is at their own peril, coz the min Aditi hears this word she starts saying 'bath, bath, bath....' in an infinite loop, simultaneously trying to wriggle out of her clothes, grabbing a 'thundu' and running to the bathroom trying to drag u along. these days aditi has her bath first thing in the morning, then have another one with nidhika, douse herself with as much water as possible when i take a bath and then insist on an evening bath when appa comes home from office. in between if anyone said the word bath, she would insist on having one at that time too! Slowly bath is becoming a bad word in my dictionary.

Last month we went on (yet another) shopping-spree for aditi and she ended up with 7 new frocks and 1 pair of shiny shoes. This kick-started the dress-free-spree. Meaning Aditi would refuse to wear a dress after bath. Major tantrums happened and the child would act as if i am trying to kill her when i approached her with a dress after her morning bath. i had no option but to let her roam arnd nangu until noon, when i would insist she has to wear something if she wanted to take her lunch on the stairs outside our home where she loves to sit with me. it took 2-3 weeks for me to crack this one - turns out Aditi wanted to wear 2-3 of her fav ones among her new dresses. once i understood what she wanted i gave in happily, i had reached that stage where i just wanted to see my child fully-clothed at least, and then slowly we progressed to making her understand 'house-dresses' r not our enemies and she started wearing all her dresses once again. even now once in a while we have a 'dress-free day', but i don't mind coz it's only for a short part of the day thankfully.

Each one of us has to remember that Aditi is picking up very fast now. Once Aditi hurt her hand a bit badly, and nidhi and i were at home and we freaked out a little for a minute or so, both of us saying 'shit, shit, shit!'. And this leads to what else but Aditi explainig to Appa when he came home from office, pointing to her finger saying 'shit, shit, shit!' :-)

i dunno how she learned this but when she wanted something she would grab it or ask for it saying 'mine, mine, mine!'. alarmed that any child of mine could turn into such a rude brat i nipped it in the bud teaching her to say 'please, please, please'. Now we hear 'peesh, peesh' regularly and feel very happy with ourselves.

The latest starting this week has been the unexpected receiving of a heartfelt 'thanks' when handed food/water/toy/anything. it appears spontaneusly with the act of taking something from us accompanied by a grateful look towrds the person's face, who is handing over the said object. Well, as i always believe, it's never too early to start being polite, nor will it ever go out of fashion. i hope the 'thanks' is here to stay forver and ever too!