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!

Name Game

Something very nice happened two days back. i heard a litle voice call me 'sangee' :o) i hate it when someone mangles my name, but at this instance i was more than ready to tolerate being called 'Shanky' especially since the little person was calling my name for the first time and that is something we have never taught her before. i immediately went back to my old blog and relived the memories of Nidhi calling me by name for the first time. Now after being corrected gently (one can tolerate only so much after all) i can hear 'shun-gee', 'shun-gee'.

And yesterday, we stepped out of an ice cream store, walked a bit and enjoyed our ice-creams sitting on a bench. Nidhi went back to the store to fetch some water to drink. Little Aditi wanted to go with her but i held her back. She kept waiting for her sister and as soon as she spotted her she shouted out 'Akka!' and ran towards her. Then i heard a lot of nidhikka, nidhikka and lot of gibberish passing for conversation. ever since aditi was born nidhi turned to nidhika and when we talk to aditi nidhi is referred to always as Nidhika, with the stress on akka. i am happy to note it has the intended effect and aditi calls her only akka or nidhika. Lesson 1 accomplished : Respect ur akka! (Not just becoz she is elder to u, but bcoz she's the one loves u the most and is always on ur side).

when aditi was born we all stood around her and introduced ourselves 'appa', 'amma', 'nidhika'. We did it for a year patting ourselves referring to our 'name' and then pointing back to aditi and telling her she's 'aadu' or 'aditi'. a year later aditi took over and she would touch each of us and say 'appa', 'amma', 'akka', turning back to herself with 'aadu' and later 'aditi'. 'what's ur name?' (or the equivalent in tamil) would fetch an answer of 'aadu' or 'aditi' depeneding on her mood.

Ever since Appa heard 'shun-gee', he is trying his best "what's appa's name?" - pat comes the reply 'Appa!' :o)

Aditi Updates - Part II

Pottu, Paatu, Bath, Baby, Papa, Bye, Hi, Shoe r the words pronounced perfectly by Aditi.

Then there r cute remixes - chee is tree, michie is mixie, dajee is daddy and there is something that sounds like 'thank you' which will be said if u fall at her feet.

tha-tha-tha-tha-tha... will go in an infinite loop, each 'tha' in a higher pitch than it's predecessor when she wants something that's in ur hands. after that comes the falling at feet part if u want a thank you.

A whispering, accompanied by folded hands (and surreptious tasting of fingers), sounding like 'saami rakshikaname' is done whenever we ask her to 'umaachi thozhu'. come to think of it, it is Nidhi's prayer even today after being taught as a baby.

she sticks to me like a fly the whole day. except the time when nidhikka and appa go out in the morning. then she sticks to each of them alternately hoping to con them into givng her a ride in the car. most of the time it works. appa will be super-busy at office but will take a detour to pick up Aditi before going to fetch Nidhika from school. A combination of trying to wear the shoe(saying shoe, shoe, shoe..), waving bye to me(saying bye, bye), tryng to capture the keys and bringing up her jacket during winter wins over appa's heart. And sticking to him the minute he bends down to tie his shoe-lace. She has worked her strategy to perfection.

aditi and i cook together, each busy with their own tasks. at the end we feed each other what we cooked, i get 'tholu'(veg peels) and pieces of raw-vegs. she gets something similar(in her opinion), but sometimes she is lucky coz she gets to eat a hot-hot papadam.

When u ask Aditi to do something - fetch something or keep something back - she obeys immediately. although, while keeping something back, she does it only for a sec and takes it back while looking at ur face to see if it's ok. a smart thing to do to keep u happy as well as for her to go on doing wht she was doing.

when she is thinking or has found something new, she frowns. (yeah, that's me there).

The 24-hour battle in our house is to save the library books from Aditi's hands. All three of us pitch in and even then it's not enuf sometimes. The last thing Nidhi does everyday is to keep the book she's reading above her head and fall asleep. And the first thing Aditi does everyday is to rush out of her bed and grab the book . If she likes the book she will relax in the bed, half-cover herself with a blanket and browse (imitating Nidhikka's manner). If she doesn't like it she'll simply tear a page or two. Or worse, look for a pen to scribble with.

If i ask her 'Aditi kochunda epidi kathuvaay?', she makes a sound exactly like Donald Duck.

She talks so much, accompanied by little fingers and gestures and expressions, words, sentences, questions - but a language which we still have to learn.
 

Aditi Updates

One. (the number one doesn't work yet on my keyboard, thks to Aditi. In addition, keys for i, j, k r missing). Aditi is Eighteen now. In months.

2. A very insistent "Amma,amma,amma,amma..." can be heard in an infinite loop when the following things r encountered :
    (a) the bathroom door doesn't open
    (b) the grip while getting on/off the bed is tenous
    (c) a book needs to be read thru... now
    (d) something interesting is happening outside the window

3. Some r called by names - turtle, fox, croc, bear, fish while others r by sounds - BOW (which was a very soft 'ba' little while back - appa's fav), meeeu, MOOOooooo, quack-quack-quack. Some have not yet been called but merely pointed out when we say the name - elephant, giraffe, hippo, camel, peacock. The fav animal is bear. And trips have been made to the zoo just so that she can watch her favourite animal. Another thing she likes is to go to nearby lakes and feed the ducks, geese, swan.

4. The most important thing in her life is to watch the garbage truck from the window in Nidhikka's room. Whatever she's doing will be abandoned in an instant the loud clang of the garbage-bins being rolled out is heard. She runs to the window and watches with fascination until the truck rolls away after finishing it's work.

5. WHATEVER i cook, if u ask her 'is the food nice?'/'did u like it?', she shakes her head NO. sometimes she scrunches up her face and screws up her eyes tightly to indicate it's horrible - just to make sure i get her point. It started as an innocent question i asked many months ago while feeding her lunch. her reaction was so hilarious that it has become a part of every meal she eats. i have asked the question in many ways and in different languages, just to see if she has understood the question in the first place - she refuses to budge from her answer. Meanwhile, i have grown a thick skin.

6. when she's upto some mischief, i call out 'आदू'. She has taken to repeating this and likes to say a drawn-out 'आ....दू....'. Mostly when she is abt to do some mischief, she calls out before i do and makes me smile and gets on with her mischief in peace.

7. Aditi likes short-cuts. She uses same words to mean different things - आदू  also means 'aaaappu' (flowers), and baby is used for little kids and 'birdie' as well. 'tat' stands for cat, bat, rat.

8. She loves to play with all of Nidhikka's friends and they in turn, adore her.

9. Last week, i asked her casually 'where is your thala-mandai?' and she pointed to her head. i couldn't believe it and procceded to ask her for 'kannu', 'mooku', 'vaay', 'pallu', 'kaadu' - all correctly pointed out. i was so surprised. although i taught her the english versions, she has picked up the tamil ones on her own. this performance was repeated in front of the rapturous audience of Nidhikka and later, Nidhikka and appa.

ten. Aditi had her first mottai in a barber-shop called Super-cuts. A week later we were in a garden and Nidhi found some flowers fallen arnd. She picked up a white one and placed it on her hair coz it matched her dress. Lo, World War broke out - Aditi wanted to do the same. How does one fix a flower on a motta-mandai? Just as we were abt to go home to fetch some cello-tape, she gave up the flower. Thank God.

And thus, life goes on. Entertaining and being entertained...

Attention Please

Achodi, said Nidhi, giving her sister a huge hug and deftly moved her aside, plonked her down and proceeded to carry her school-bag out of the door. Little Aditi followed her out saying 'daai, daai' (bye) waving both her hands. The sight of his little daughter was too much for Appa, who was ready to leave for office directly after dropping Nidhi in school. He changed his plan and took Aditi along and came back on a detour to drop her home before going to office.
Yet again, Aditi conned us for a ride early in the morning. something like this happens every morning and no matter what the rush, Aditi's wishes get max priority.
Last weekend Santosh was having a (rare) afternoon-nap. i was attempting to feed Aditi her lunch, which she didn't want and started shaking her head sayng 'no, no', crying out loud, doing her best to wriggle out of it. Nidhi was watching cartoons on my computer in her room. she came out (without being called by me) and started singing nursery rhymes, dancing, etc. and successfully diverted Aditi's attention and i quickly fed her the meal. The meal over, Nidhi thanked Aditi(for eating her meal) and I thanked Nidhi(for helping out wth her sister). Nidhi went back to her cartoons.
When Aditi was born, my neighbour in Muscat (has two grown up daughters) started telling me how all the attention was for the first-born and the second one somehow grew up and learned to manage on her own. i had assumed a similar thing with Aditi. but as the days go by, i realise the opposite is happening.
When Nidhi was a baby she had only me taking care of her(Santosh used to be super busy at office all the time). Now, Aditi has me, Nidhi and a brand-new Santosh (trying for a better balance between work and home). She even has Nidhikka's friends who drop in to play most evenings and who drop everything else and end up playing with Aditi only. on our recent trip to India also, one or the other adult (her Paati, athai, periappa, periamma, cousin-akka) would sit with her and keep her amused all the time.
Needless to say, Aditi's happy.
 

Jetlag

Although i am setting out to write abt jetlag, if i end up with something else then u know what to blame.

After numerous attempts(read three) at battling jetlag, i have arrived at my own pet theory. And this is after being ardently advised by two sets of people - one for sleeping throught the flight, the other opposed to even a short nap. My theory is dependent on the landing time of the flight. If it is really early to mid morning (and if u know u r not going to get a chance to rest thru the day), better to sleep thru the flight and arrive at the destination as much rested as possible. Then remain awake thru the day and go to sleep early to bed in keeping with the night time at the destination. But if u r arriving late afternoon, early evening or night, u can tire urself out during the flight(the in flight entertainment system is the best aid, followed by regular interruption for airline meals). Reach the destination, eat well and go straight to bed. Wake up refreshed the next day morning and resist the urge to sleep during the daytime next day. u'll be fine.

And, if u have kids travelling with you, esp toddlers/babies, throw all theories out of the window, try to get some rest whenever ur child sleeps(which will be impossible coz u know ur child, but ur body-clock doesn't) and pray that things return to normal in a week and u don't fall ill in the meantime.

yeah, i religiously stayed awake thru the day and then was kept awake thru the night by darling Aditi. For one week. On the onward journey. And now after the return journey, fifteen days apart.

i am surprised i only have fever. Had expected to go insane with all the lack of sleep. i guess the little voice calling out insistently 'mma, mma' is responsible - for both the fever as well as not going mad. amen.

Little Ms.Smarty-Pants

The first time we bought a book for Aditi, i had picked it up in the book-store, ruffled thru the pages admiringly and declared to Santosh this is just the book i would buy for Aditi when she grows up a bit. She was one at that time and i wanted to wait for 6 more months. Santosh said no need to wait and bought the book immediately.

whenever one of us had the time or felt like it, we would sit with Aditi and point out different thngs like banana, train, grapes, bread, apple etc. from the book. Aditi would point out randomly and we would supply the words. she was immensely pleased. we would be busy reading our own books and aditi would sometimes sit by herself flipping the pages of her book back and forth.

then our samaan arrived and aditi was very happy to see nidhika's books. since the one thng i can't bear to give away is books, we still have books from nidhi's toddler days. now aditi had a lot many books to browse thru. she would tear up the ones she found boring. i would be cooking in the kitchen and she would be sitting somewhere i could see her, with a book in her hand. i would continue to cook with a smile on my face(unless she was trying to tear it).

in between all this, although we didn't notice it, she was learning a lot.

one day i was in the kitchen and santosh and aditi were sitting with a book of animals. a little while later santosh called out to me and pointing to a pic asked aditi what is this? 'wux' came the reply and my mouth literally fell open. indeed, it was a fox. i was so astonished that i asked her agan what is this? 'wox' she replied again. :-)) needless to say we clapped and danced and carried her arnd and aditi felt very pleased with herself. the best thing was when the first time she said 'wux' and saw my reaction she gave a big laugh and fell on her father's shoulders in such a cute fashion, i felt as if she's saying 'what's the big deal? u find this amusing?' :-)

the 'wux' became such a hit that aditi would point out to all the animals in the book and say 'wux'. i didn't mind. after all her nidhika, at age one.5, had looked at a real elephant and clapped her hands in glee and said 'bow-bow'.

i had taught aditi to show us the 'light' in each room and she would drag us to bulbs and lamp-shades. Now, i showed her the clock and she learned to identify the clocks in the drawing hall and bedroom. she also started looking at Lord Ayyappa's pic when i asked her to show 'saami-umaachi'.

Santosh and Aditi spend some time daily going thru one or two books. he succeeded in teachng her to say 'duck'. for sometime duck replaced wux and everything in the book became duck. this was a pattern - aditi would learn a new word and use that word everywhere. one thing was clear she was learning fast, touch-wood. when playing, when nidhika squealed with laughter and excitement aditi would imitate her squeals in pitch and tone.

she even learned fake laughter so that she could jon in when santosh, nidhi and i shared a joke. when i am trying to get her to sleep, if i ask her sternly to go to sleep, she would close her eyes in a fake manner, baring all her teeth in her attempt to squeeze her eyes shut. it's totally hilarious.

And, today morning, i showed her the same pic-book of animals which she had been going thru with her father. when we reached the bear, aditi started showing her tongue. it took a moment for it to click and i looked closely at the pic of the bear. lo, what do i find, the bear has a little pink tongue protruding from its mouth. wow, so that's what aditi's trying to show me.

now i have serious doubts. someone pls tell me just who is teaching whom.