So hia updates

What does it mean when swollen feet stop swelling? Mine were swollenfor a month uptill the last moment that I was pregnant with Anjali and then she came out and the swelling came down. With Sophia, they sewlled up for a day, adn then the next day there was no more swelling.

 

I thought it would mean that the kid would come out, but no such luck :P 

postponement

Late pregnancy is an excellent time to learn the value of not doing tomorrow what you would do today. I fiind myself encouraging preponement of work meetings and projects and tyring to get everything finished as fast as I can. Most of these stuff can wait for a couple of weeks, but not for four months. So there... a tip for people who like to postpone, imagine you are going to give birth within this week and think of what needs to be done before that.

Conversations with Anjali

Husband was helping Anjali with her potty business last night. As they were washing up, an infinistimally tiny drop of water gets on her pants.

 

"Iram!"

 

Husband looks around and cant find anything. "Where is the iram?"

 

Anjali points to infinistimally small patch on her pants

 

"Kutti iram!"

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Anjali has a new mole, on the fore arm. Its tiny compared to the one on her thighs. But still its surprising that we didnt notice it before. Maybe moles come up later in life.

 

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Anjali wanted me to carry her on the way to a party on Saturday. I picked her up. then we had the standard conversation that we have for Anjali to opt to go to husband.

 

"Anjali, who is mummy carrying?"

 

"Anniya!"

 

"Ok. Who else is mummy carrying?"

 

"No No. Anniya!"

 

"Anjali, is mummy carrying Sophia?"

 

"No No!"

 

"Then who is carrying Sophia?"

 

"Daddy!"

 

Much later that night...

 

"Anjali, where is mummy's hospital bag?"

 

Anjali obiligingly goes and takes the bag from the shelf.

 

"Where will mummy go with the bag?"

 

"dotor!"

 

"What will the doctor do?"

 

"Ooshi!"

 

"No baby. the doctor will not do Ooshi! Doctor will tell Sophia, Sophia Sophia, Out!"

 

"No No! Thoppai!"

 

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Now, i attribute this 180 degree change to two things. Both of which I should have anticipated, given how much Anjali understands of the world around her.

 

The first thing was a new batch of baby clothes, tiny ones in multiple colors which Shree's mom got from India for Sophia. They were very cute tops, in simple cotton, and we were exclaiming oer them on Saturday, and telling Anjali that tehse clothes were for Sophia. Anjali is personally not interested in clothes, but I think somehow the arrival of the clothes made Sophia seem all the more like a real person. This is strange, because we did have other clothes of Sophia on the shelf and I have already explained to Anjali that some of her smaller clothes will be given to Sophia and have put them aside and everything. And Anjali has personally agreed to give her big pooh doll to Sophia (though she does not want to give her stroller - she does not use it- but we have not pushed it.. afterall Sophia will probably be baby worn a lot.)

 

The next thing I think pivoted this is conversations between friends who talk to us about how we will have to take care of the baby and has Anjali began to mix well with the maid, or are we planning to let the maid handle Sophia? We are not planning to do either. but Anjali overheard a conversation with a friend where she mentioned that we should teach the maid to handle the baby and give milk to her and everything, as it will be easier for the maid to handle Sophia than Anjali. But thats a no no in the house and now we need to teach Anjali that no one is going to give her or Sophia over.

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As a consequence, late yesterday night Anjali was playing with me in the bedroom. Anjali is very fond of Sophia. She plays over me as usual, I have been meaing to get the sisterly bonding video taken, but havent gotten round to it, and tried to kick me a couple of times.

 

"Anjali, dont kick mummy in the thoppai, you can kick mummy's leg if you want."

 

Anjali crawls to me.

 

"Rub" and rubs the thoppai.

 

"Kiss"

 

"Ok. Very good"

 

"So Hia!!!" she says, poking the thoppai affectionately.

 

"Thats right. Sophia is going to come out soon."

 

"No No! Thoppai!"

 

"No baby, Sophia will come out, and then Anjali can play with her."

 

"No No!"

 

"THen who will play with Sophia?"

 

"Pom Pom!"

 

"Who will teach Sophia how to bottom jump?"

 

"Pom Pom!"

 

"Who will give boobaa to Sophia?"

 

"Daddy!"

 

So I made her sit down and told her a story of two sisters - Anjali and Sophia and how they love eachh other very much. By the end of the story, Anjali was teaching Sophia everything from how to eat, to how to play to how to swim. And this morning, as usual, Anjali woke up, drank her milk, and poked the thoppai affectionately saying "Sophia, Mummy, Sophia, mummy"

 

Its uphill work, but I have a feeling that we'll make it.

 

 

Bossy kid

Anjali wakes up in the middle of the night to ask for milk. I am already up, unable to sleep properly due to the watermelon.

"Anjali, do you want mummy to get you milk?"

"Daddy!", she says, without blinking an eyelid. If she did , I wont have known, it was pitch dark.

Poor daddy was sleeping and had to wake up. As he was getting up and oreitating himself to vertical ness, the kid says

"Mummy Bed! Daddy Paal!"

cup of tea

I can just about picture this happening at home. Husband, better watch out :P

 

 

One day my mother was out and my dad was in charge of me.. I was maybe 2 1/2 years old and had just recovered from an accident. Someone had given me a little 'tea set' as a get-well gift and it was one of my favorite toys.

Daddy was in the living room engrossed in the evening news when I brought Daddy a little cup of 'tea', which was just water. After several cups of tea and lots of praise for such yummy tea, my Mom came home. My Dad made her wait in the living room to watch me bring him a cup of tea, because it was 'just the cutest thing!'

My Mom waited, and sure enough, here I come down the hall with a cup of tea for Daddy and she watches him drink it up. Then she says, (as only a mother would know... :) 'Did it ever occur to you that the only place she can reach to get water is the toilet?'

Swollen feet

Discovered swollen feet this morning. Atleast its only for a week. With Anjali I remember having swollen feet for a month.

 

Gosh! Only a week to go. Anjali has taken this towel that she likes to put on the bed and lie down on, and ask me to carry her with a towel pretending that she is Sophia. And says that if I carry Sophia without a towel, her head will shake. (Anjali wobbles her head very fast at this :P)

 

And when i told her that Sophia's head will take thre months to stop shaking she says

 

"Appa!!" (Like she understand the meaning of the quantity)

 

She said that same thing when we were studying centipedes and I told her that some centipedes have 140 legs.

 

Big eyes, looks straight at me and says

 

"Appa!!!"

 

Husband tried the tactic too.

 

"anjali, daddy had nine cases at work today"

 

No "Appa" this time.

 

"No No!"

 

Husband laughed

 

"Thats exactly what I said too. No No!"

little gundoos performs shiva pooja

The little gundoos climbs a ladder

An impeccable sense of logic: Part 2

Last night, husband and I took Anjali for a walk (supposedly for ten minutes) and after spending half an hour chasing after kittens, and (I kid you not) touching their moustaches exclaiming "meechai!" She made a beeline for the fitness corner and tried every single machine in the lot.

It was 9.30pm. Husband and I decided it was time to pack up.

"Anjali, lets go acasa!"

"No No!"

"Its almost ten. What do you do at ten?"

"Korr!!"

"Right. So Let's go acasa and do Korr"

Imp got off the fitness machine that she was playing in and put her head on the playground floor.

"Yes Yes, you are very clever. But lets go acasa and sleep. There is a soft bed there."

She didnt even bother to reply.

It took us fifteen minutes to get her off the fitness corner and at one point, we were considering going home and bringing sleeping bags.

Preparations for Baby Sophia

With less than two weeks to go, preparations for baby Sophia are coming along quite fine. Hospital bag has been packed, Old stuff of Anjali that Sophia will use have been washed and cleaned, shelf space has been cleared up and everything is more or less straightened out.

Anjali keeps picking up my hospital bag and running around with it, saying "dotor dotor"

Those who laugh will get a bad scolding

Anjali and husband had a fight last night. It began with me urging her to go on the potty, while the little imp decided that the best place that she wanted to be was the bed. A long circuitous reasoning conversation that lasted nearly 15 minutes resulted in a big wet puddle in the middle of the mattress and a crying girl.

This was made worse by the fact that I had forgotten to tell the maid to put a mattress protector. So the big wet puddle had soaked through the mattress. Husband was annoyed and told Anjali off. "She shouldnt have played so long when you have been urging her for the past fifteen minutes". I went to the kitchen to get baking soda. The imp followed me jumping around, saying...

"Soda! Bubbles! Soda! Bubbles"

When I returned from the bedroom, the imp was still standing in the kitchen, with a toffee in her hand, open, and her mouth full of chocolate.
"Who gave you chocolate?" I asked.

"Daddy!" She replied, without blinking her eyes

"She snatched it from me", said husband.

We have a rule in the house about chocolates for Anjali in the evening. So, husband went and without any ceremony, snatched the chocolate back from Anjali and with even less ceremony chucked the thing into the dustbin. This, I think, was the second straw. The imp began to throw a tantrum, whereupon we tried the distraction routine (I cant begin to tell you how much we love the distraction routine in our house. It really works!!)

The imp then brushed her teeth, played another fifteen minutes or so, and then decided that she wanted milk and sleep. So she drank her milk, and the lights went off. But instead of sleeping, she went back on the bed and started giving orders.

"Mummy, Sheep!", "Daddy Sheep!"

The imp was lying in some weird position where it was impossible for two of us to sleep around her. So husband tried to pick her up and put her properly on the bed.

"No No Anniya!" She said.

In the half a millisecond that it took for husband to interpret that she wanted to move on the bed herself and to put her back down, the temper flared again. She plopped back on bed (in the ridiculous position) and began another tantrum.

The distraction routine calmed her. But it was the final straw.

"Anjali, say sorry to daddy!"

"No No!!"

Daddy tried to hold Anjali's hand.

The imp snatched it away.

"Anjali!" I chided, torn between amusement, exasperation and a need to preserve some sanity. "Thats not the way to behave. Say sorry!"

"No No!"

"then mummy has nothing to say to you." And I lay down on bed.

The imp began to crawl towards me in the dark.

"Mummy. Mummy Mummy....."

"Ok, come here," I said, softening up.

"Anjali, daddy loves you."

"No No, mummy!"

I was glad it was dark and she wont have to see the expression on my face.

"Baby! daddy loves you and just wanted to help you"

"No No!!"

"You must say sorry to daddy"

"No No!"

"Dont nag her", said husband wisely. "It says so in all the books that you must not repeat the same thing more than three times, then it loses the effect."

So I dropped it. But I still intend to make her apologize to her dad this evening when we get back from work.

If I can :P

Anjali visits temples

Lighting incense at the Buddha temple
Fish in the apa
Doing namaskaram
Nataraja

Blessings from the priest

And Anjali wears a pattu pavadai!!

An impeccabble sense of logic

Husband and I wanted to take Anjali to the nature park on Saturday. Among other things, there is a nice sand playground over there which we knew she would like. We left early in the evening. It was probably around 5pm. However, Anjali took a detour, and we ended up in a very small playground, with a explorable ladder which Anjali enjoyed. So by the time we actually left the playground, it was 6.45. I told husband that I wanted to buy a couple of things from the shops, so could we go to the market before returning home for dinner?

The imp, who had been playing ran up to me and kept saying "Mummy Shad Shad Shad".

"What is shad? Do you want me to stand?"

"No no. Shad."

"I dont understand, baby, can you show me?"

Then she made my mouth open.

"mannu!"

"Right! You want sand!"

And so we went to the sand playground where Anjali spent a happy half an hour playing in teh sand until it got too dark to see by.

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On Sunday we went for the walk at the bedok reservoir. Anjali, as usual, wanted to take off her shoes. The path was gravelly and as we couldnt convince her to put her shoes back on, husband decided to be sympathetic and took off his shoes as well. Anjali snatchhed up husband's shoes and tried to roll them on the ground.

"Anjali, do you want to do broom broom with daddy's shoes?" Asked husband encouragingly

"Dont give her any more ideas!" I chided

"I thought that's what we are supposed to do. Give her ideas to explore?" he retorted.

"Ok fine" I said, irritated at seeing good sandals get full off dust. "Anjali, do you want to throw daddy's shoes into the water?"

Then she made my mouth open again.

"No no. Iram!"

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Sunday evening, I was discussing with husband as to what to ask the doctor in today's appointment. Anjali, who was playing at the time, said, at the sound of the doctor "No No"

"Anjali, mummy must see the doctor to ask about Sophia"

"No No!" (very vehemently)

"Why baby?"

"Ooshi!"

Then I had to explain to her that the doctor wont put Ooshi on mummy but just check her up to make sure everything is alright.

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But where does she get all these logic from? We were reading Dr Seuss Hop on pop and there is a page with

THREE
TREE

Three fish in a tree

fish in a tree? How can that be?

And every time we read that page, she opens her hand in exasperation, saying

"Apa!!!". Fish must be in Apa, how can they be in a tree??

Why it takes us 1 hour to walk 1 km

Cause we have to play joola and climb ladders and explore everything in the microscopic level.

Do ants understand english? Do they go away when Anjali says "Ant Ant go away?"

A week with Anjali

I had a most enjoyable week. Over Christmas and new year, it was a total joy to take leave and spend the time totally with Anjali. There is  bit of regret in getting back to work but over all, one thing I am grateful for is this time that I had before baby Sophia comes out and my attention gets divided.

Pattiya came over nearly every day to help out and to play with Anjali. But for the most part it was not really needed. I was plesantly surprised to see how easy it has become to manage her, over the past few months since the trip to Auckland. Sure, she still required constant attention,  there were a good number of tantrums, a handful of squabbles, but what amazed me was her abbility to communicate.

Husband had a ten hour flight with Anjali back from Auckland, something he was terrified about. But at the end of it, he told me that she played till 3am and then crashed, and slept for seven hours in the plane. That gave me a lot of encouragement. Surely, if husband could manage her, I could too.

Here are some interesting observations:

1. Anjali's tantrums come more readily if there are more people around her.

If husband or me is alone with her, she has absolutely no problem, she goes out, plays, listens to stories, sings, dances and has a good bit of fun, goes to sleep on time etc. If husband and I are both with her, she usually sets up a "mummy mummy" tantrum once in a while, tries to stretch her bed time by a couple of hours by striking up a conversation after lights out etc. But husband and I have wisened up to her tricksand have learnt that after ten thirty, ignoring is the best thing to do.

Unfortunately, this doesnt work with patti and thattha. Thattha is very happy to extend the imp's bed time, and entertains her as long as she wants, and then exclaims how come she doesnt sleep till past midnight. One day during my leave, patti and thattha came over to spend the evening. The imp refused point blank to go to sleep when the patti was there. The patti and thattha, afraid that she would cry if they left early, stayed up, hoping that she would go to sleep. But nothing doing. It was past 11pm when I forced patti to leave, whereupon, Anjali began to cry. The first time this happened, patti opened the front door and came back in. Ten minutes later, I coerced her into leaving again whereupon the imp cried for a grand total of 10 seconds, and then decided that she wanted to go to Auckland and give bread to the seagulls. So we entertained her for ten more minutes and she went to sleep pronto at 11.30.

2. Anjali can be very well argued over by logic and treats

Anjali generally loves to have a bath, but it is hard to make her get to the tub unless she has a good reason. The old reason we used to give her was to encourage her to bath her pooh and snoopy. Now that does not work anymore. We changed it to making soap bubbles, which is fun too, but only during the bath. Right now, it doesnt entice her enough to let go of what she is doing to step into the bath. The newest treat is to allow her to wash her clothes. Sometimes, as a better treat (to allow mummy to take a bath too), I let her wash my clothes as well. We usually shower her while the clothes are being washed.

The logic also works for potty. We have gottne the potty training down pat, except the bit with sitting down on the potty. So once in a while, we need to take either the meow meow, or the tortoise or gita or someone to sit in the potty, and ofcourse, they dont know how, so Anjali must show them how to sit in the potty. And we also get to climb up and flush the toilet.

Too bad the logic doesnt work when we need to dress Anjali up. The only thing that works then is to tell her that we are going to the playground. We dont even need to bring the tortoise to the potty in that case.


3. Anjali knows how to make (and keep) a deal

Every few hours or so, Anjali would come to me, and say "Sheeta!!". That means that she wants to watch Pal Pal Hai Bhari on the computer. At first I was getting a bit worried about it. As the song has played atleast 50 times in the house. Then I decided to tell her, Ok, you can watch it, but just once, or to ask her how many times she wanted to watch. Usually she would say one or two. So then i would tell her, fine, you can watch sheeta x number of times, and after that we must do this or that. Ok?

"Okay!" she would say

"Do we have a deal?"

"Deal!"

And at the end of the thing, she would climb off by herself and go to keep her end of the deal.

Another time, Anjali refused to get off patti's shoulder because she thought that patti would go home if she went into daddy's arms. As we were at the market, patti had to carry Anjali while doing other stuff. After watching her for a few minutes, i decided to try a new tactic. "Anjali", I said, "If you let daddy carry you,  patti will come with us." And Anjali immediately nodded and jumped into husband's arms. Patti decided to keep her end of the deal and Anjali was happy. Patti and thattha came back, and then left for home as Anjali was having her bath.

4. An ever increasing vocabulary is not necessarily a parenting advantage

I have written before about how an increasing vocabulary makes Anjali totally bossy. This morning, I asked Anjali if she wanted to wear a shirt.

"Naked!" she exclaimed, running around the house and beating her stomach with her palms like some kind of King Kong.

5. Anjali becomes more rowdyish when she is dressed out of the anamoly

Two days ago, we went out for new year's eve, to pick some stuff up for baby Sophia - clothes cotton, a bottle etc. Anjali was dressed impeccably. Pretty sleeveless T-shirt, red pants, pink shoes. I was so proud of accomplishing such a pretty dress up. But she was clingy and wanted to be carried. Until at some point of time where she spilled water all over her pretty dress. Upon which we had to take off the clothes. Which was fine. But she didnt want new clothes to be put on her, and ran around the mall with just a diaper. Husband chased after her and put a T-shirt on.

As I was eating at that time, and as the day was fairly warm, husband didnt bother with pants. And then somehow, (and I still cant figure out how it happened) the imp managed to remove her diapers. And decided to run around the restaurant without a diaper (thankfully, the T-shirt was a long one). As husband caught her and forced a new diaper on her, he exclaimed, "Kithu!! I want to stay at home and rest. Please!!"

But then, Anjali was perfectly happy and non clingy after the pant came off. She walked, ran, charmed all the babies etc.

The same thing happened on new year's day trip to the center. Pretty pink dress and blue shoes and the girl got all clingy to mummy. But then somewhere between the restaurant and the MRT station, she lost a shoe, and happily began to run by herself. "No no caie, walk". And so, to improve her balance (and to simplify her life), we took off her other shoe as well. Her feet were pitch black when we got home. But she was extremely happy and active and walked and hopped and ran all the way home.


6. Whoever taught the imp table manners (namely me) forgot some crucial points

I should have insisted on the high chair, but now it is way too late. A trip to the restaurant is fine if it is a fast food or a buffet. But go to a sit down restaurant, or even Pizza hut, and it becomes a true ordeal, one of the reasons is that you need to wait for the food, and then you need to eat it. We went to a nice, family friendly (lots of kids and babies around) restaurant for new year's eve. Why cant she sit in her chair? She kept running around between spoonfuls of soup, and then she got full and didnt want any noodles and got very interested in the family at the next table with three kids. She kept saying baby and touching each kid in turn. I was pretty amused. Husband was not. Of course, he was the one running after her (i have the up the pole excuse).

For the record, this was after she dumped water over her pants.

photos and videos of Anjali

Facebook page on Anjali's Chrstmas party
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=48962&l=f5e3d&id=534678290

What the kids did at Chinese garden. Remember to put the audio on.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tiKaclnt9-g

I have asked the uncle who made it for a better quality version.

Anjali singing Anjali

She gets a bit distracted on camera, but she fills up complicated words like pallakku, rajathi etc.

Doe a deer

Photos from Our Christmas party 2008

The menu:

Oriental Salad: by Adi, verdict, excellent
Green salad: by Adi: verdict good
Stuffed eggs: by Adi: verdict excellent
Pumpkin pudding: by mummy: verdict good
Conzonac: by mummy: verdict ok
Pasta: by mummy: verdict good
Mee goreng: by Ramani: verdict good

Games:
Guess the chocolates, pictionary and dress up. Every one had fun.

Photos:

Anjali at the tree before the party




Playing Oru kodam thanni with Ramya and Ohviya



The dress up game

Getting dressed


The tree, Ruldolph Santa and the elf



Children at play



Mum mum time

Anjali's Christmas

I am just taking a breather. The imp and her dad have gone down to the market with the broom broom bike to get olives. We are just waiting for the guests to arrive, and to put together the last bit of salad.

One thing that has made today's planning much easier is the advent in our house of yema, who has been a tremendous help in cleaning. YEsterday, i felt so freaked out walking across the floor with nithing sticking to my feet, and the bathroom is actually clean??? Toys put away, messes cleared up. It may be easy to get used to this stuff in the long time, a bit of a luxury, but for now, with Sophia on the way, we might as well sit back and relax the work away.

So only the cooking was done by us and all the cleaning and the intermediary messes that is made by Anjali, post mealtime stuff etc were cleared by Yema. And now, by 4 pm, we are almost ready.

Anjali has had an interesting Christmas so far. She kept up quite late last night, waiting, I think for Santa, whom we told her, will come down in the night to leave presents for her. But she fell asleep around eleven, asking if Santa will leave her a big present, if he will leave presents for Mummy, daddy, patti, thattha, aunty, pom pom etc. When we convinced her, she nodded off.

She was up and asking for Santa, who had left her two presents under the tree. So, satisfied, we spent a happy hour opening the wrapping, making a mess, exploring the new toys etc.

Anjali is ttoally fascinated by Santa Claus. And presents, which she likes to open herself, by tearing the wrapper. So no chances of saving the wrapper while she is small.

I agree that the songs in Swades are very good but...

I have watched pal Pal Hai Bhari about six times on You Tube and have sung it some 55 times so far. Yup, i know the lyrics and I loved it (note the past tense) especially the part where SRK sings Ram hi to Karuna me hain....

Anjali is very fond off the yeh tara woh tara song, which i used to sing to her since she was something like three months old. And after husband put stars on the ceiling, she pointes to them and does the dancing sign. i tried to sing twinkle twinkle but she says "no no", indicating that she wants yeh tara woh tara.

So last weekend, I had this brilliant idea (aleast it seemed brilliant at that time) that why dont we go to music india online and put on the actual song. After all, Udit Narayanan or who ever sings the song sings it far better than me. So there we started with the playing and Anjali climbed up on the computer chair and watched mystified as to why the song mummy sings is coming in an uncle voice over the computer screen.

Then husband had an even brighter idea. "I should have though of this before!" he exclaimed. "Every thing is on you tube. Why dont we let her watch the video on you tube?" So we let her watch the bit with the song as it came on in you tube. Anjali was fascinated by the song. But more than that, she was fascinated by the visualization, and once the sequence with the plough-star finished and the song began, she kept exclaiming "tar! tar!"

After acceeding to her "gain" request a couple of times, I decided to change the song and put on pal Pal hai bhari. At first Anjali said "no no!!" But after watching for about 20 seconds, she realized that the song featured characters from her favorite story. So she keeps asking me to turn it on and watch it on the computer. When she watches, her eyes are wide and glued to the screen and she doesnt blink, so i try not to let her watch longer than 15 minutes. So the song runs about three times, before i have to drag her out of the chair and tell her that mummy will give her a live performance.

But now, when mummy opens her mouth to sing, I cant get two words out before she says "no no!" to every other song except for pal pal. I have told her not to shake her head and dance, but to ask for "sita song" for, after all, every two seconds of the song, she exclaims "Sita!! Sita!!"

Another interesting note to add, Anjali does not like ravana to fall down. The first time she didnt understand why the statue of ravana burst into flames and fell down. The second time, she said "no no!". The third time, she burst into tears. So we are always careful to stop just before Ravana falls.

Maybe Anjali was Thai in her previous birth. I remember that the Thai version of the Ramayana ends with Rama forgiving Ravana and they are living happily ever after.
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Anjali knows three Christmas songs: Ruldolph, Santa claus is coming to town and Jingle bells. She finishes them nicely. But her favorite is Santa Claus is coming to town.

We were at West mall last friday and they had a snoopy show, where snoopy, charlie brown and lucy were dancing to a couple of christmas songs. So whenever she hears them, she starts saying snoopy. The bottom line was when yesterday she insisted on going to West mall to see "Shoopy!" and tried to get me. When I told her that the show was over, she got all upset and climbed on husband saying "Daddy Daddy, Shoopy!" Well, daddy couldnt help her either, so she got down and, looking rather morose, went about her other business

Anjali's new books

We got a couple of board books from the library, Dr Seuss's there is a wocket in my pocket and Beatrix potter's Peter Rabbit. Here are some stories.

Dr Seuss
Anjali at first was amused by some of the illustrations, saying that the Zelf on the Shelf looks like a tortoise. Soon, she started to see patterns in the words, and now can finish sentences, like when you ask her "where is the noothgrush?", she says toothbrush. and the geeling - ceiling etc. She got pretty much all the words after about three looks at the book.

Verdict: excellent book for a funny way to introduce words, and I should get more of them from the library. I am tempted to buy them, but decide it may be better to hold.
 
Peter Rabbit
Anjali loves this story. Seriously. I think it has to do with the illustrations. Anjali's favorite parts in the book:

1. Where the mummy goes off and tells the kids not to go into Mc Gregor's garden. Anjali likes to say that the mummy should not go to "office", but must go to the "market" to buy "vegetables", which she must then "cut" and "cook" and "make" "mum mum" to "eat".

2. the bit where peter rabbit hides in the watering can where it is "cold" and "dark" and peter rabbit did "atchoo" and Mc Gregor was after him in no time.

3. the bit where peter rabbit has to creep past the cat, that is staring at the fishes. There is a pot next to the fishes and Anjali likes to say that there is "bread" in the pot for the "fish" to "eat"

4. The part at the end where Peter rabbit has to eat "medicine" because he is "sick" and flopsy, mopsy and cotton tail will eat bread and milk and "black berries".

Verdict: excellent book. Now should I borrow Benjamin bunny or buy it?

My bossy girl

 We found a meow meow in the playground yesterday - a small playful one - the kind that likes to rub against your legs.

So first it sniffed and rubbsed against me, and then against husband. Anjali cautiously peeked from behind my pants and it approached her, but wouldn't let it touch her, nor would she touch it (Incidentally, she touched two dogs the day before yesterday, and husband and I were very proud of her but more of that later...)

So back to the meow meow. Husband thought that it was hungry and went to buy milk for it. When he got back, he poured milk for the cat and Anjali sat watching excitedly as the cat slurped.

"meow meow!! Paavu! dink!!"

Meow Meow finished slurping the milk.

"Neiya!!" (Neriya!) and taking the carton from me, opened the tab and poured a load on the floor.

Meow Meow gave the milk on the floor a couple of licks and then walked away to do other business like climbing the playground slide.

Anjali ran after the cat.

"meow meow! no No! milk!"

Meow Meow ignored her

Anjali doesnt like to be ignored. She came to the edge of the playground where the milk was.

"Meow Meow!! dink! milk!"

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Development note: Anjali says about 5 new tamil words each day and about the same number of new english words.

Independence

How cute she is

In this smile, you can just see the dimple coming out.

Got the tree up

This year, we got a bigger tree, About three feet taller than the one we got last year. Shopping for the tree was, as allways, quite a strenuous experience, as we had to walk across the whole of Thomson, look around, select the tree, and it was such a hot weather. But finally, we found a nice tree, ordered it for delivery and then on the way home, stopped for flowers. The carnations in Thomson are usually very beautiful.

Anjali went with me in the cold room, she wanted to be carried as it was too cold, and carrying her is like carrying a teddy, it warms you up nicely. She picked the carnations, "pupple" and then chose the white ones with purple edging, Then she wanted candles, so we got a packet and then she wanted to find out what the fertilizer was for. She was very interested to find out that the fertilizer was mum mum for the plants and that plants ate little brown round pellets.

We then wanted to go home, as it was so hot. But we happened to pass by goodwood florists, and there were lots of interior decorating fountains on display. There, Anjali went crazy. While I sat and stared at the bundle that is naught but energy, she ran from one fountain to another, touching the water, trying out the mist creator, exclaiming at curtains etc. At some point, she found a cat sitting in the shop, and a little dish, whereupon, she promptly decided that the cat needed water. So she made trips from the fountain to the cat and while the cat stared balefully at her, dumped "apa" in front of the cat for it to drink.

Then she wanted to carry the cat home "meow meow, anniya, caie, home", but ofcourse that's not an option.

Not yet anyway.

However, we wonder if we could get her a small fish tank with a couple of fish. She had a grand time with the koi pond at the botanical gardens, but then she might end up dumping all the fish food into the tank at once and then what would happen to the fish? Or what if she tries to put her hand into the pond and fishes the fish out, thinking that it is some kind of pooh toy in the bathtub?

Maybe we'll get a live tortoise. But that will drive patti crazy.

It was close to one pm when we left the Thomson road and caught a bus. She was so exhausted to the point of bring almost cranky, whereupon husband tried to quieten her by asking her to swing from the handles in the bus, which she did, for about three minutes, before her eyes glazed over and she fell asleep, still holding on to the handle bars and hanging in mid air.

"Get a bottle of milk ready when we get home, before putting her to bed", said husband, wisely. Otherwise, she will not sleep properly, she's a bit hungry.

Accordingly, when we reached home, I prepared a bottle of milk, sat on the bed and gave it to the imp, who drank her milk in her sleep. As she was drinking, I noticed that her pants were damp, presumably from all the fountain water and decided to change it as well as her diapers.

She lay still until we took the diaper off. When we put on new diapers, she rolled over and decided to get up. That was about half an hour of sleep.

The tree got delivered on Sunday morning and here's the imp with the tree. If you think her dress is cute, there is a story behind it. But thats a story for another day.

And the nominees are...

Anjali Curic for




1. Most glamorous costume

2. Most original costume
3. Most beautiful smile


4. Most elegant look

5. Most chic hairstyle



And the winner is Anjali curic, for all five categories

Bathtime with Anjali

Also features is husband's haircut for Anjali. I would have taken a video of him doing it, only thing is that I have having Anjali on my lap as she slept peacefully through her afternoon nap. Husband can moonlight, I guess.

Anjali, when she woke up, didnt realize that her hair had been cut. But at night, when she was sleepy, she started to run her hands through her hair and was plenty surprised to find that somehow her hair wont hold.

Back to the bathtime, this is only five minutes of a whole sequence, which starts by making bubbles, putting bubbles on Anjali and then on mummy, putting bubbles on pooh and snoopy and squeezing them (take queesh) and other stuff. The whole bath time takes between 20 minutes to half an hour and the bottom line is when she has to eat, and i ask her to come out to the kitchen, she says "no no, here!", here meaning the bathroom.

Pooh and Snoopy

Snoopy is totally retro. We didnt control any of the colors. looks totally like a work of Picasso's art, doesnt it.

cheese cloths, no no anniya and other stuff

At home, we use old veshti cloths for a lot of things, from putting babies head on them for small babies, to filtering whey when making cheese.

I hadnt made Cheese for a while, not since returning from Romania, because there was so much cheese around the house. But, on saturday, i wanted to make mamaliga, and as it goes well with homemade cheese, I made some up fresh on friday. Anjali was watching me wtrain of the whey using a veshti cloth.

She pointed to it.

"Pattiya idi!"

Huh?!?

And then it dawned on me, that patti probably uses the same kind of cloth to make idlis.

Just got it confirmed with patti.
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Today was the first time that Anjali said rain.

"Anjali, what is falling from the sky?"

"Apa!" said husband, enthusiastically

"ain!" said Anjali

What?

"ain!"

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Anjali says some 10 new words a day. And watching her say them is very cute.

"Anjali, where patti and thattha will go after you go acasa?"

"'mu gan sthoes" (Murugan stores)

"Anjali, Paramagama"

"Pattathiye, teeya!"

"What do you want to see on teeya?"

Anjali puts her leg on her head

"Whats the name of the song?"

"Shenniya"
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As she grows, she gets more bossy, and expresses her wishes very well too. Its common for us to hear things like

Daddy shiere (sit here)

Daddy Daddy change

Daddy new shirt

Teddy bear diapers (when Anjali doesnot want to wear diapers)

Baby Okka (while asking a baby on the street to sit down with her)

Baby daddy caiie (baby's daddy is carrying her)

Anniya daddy caiie (Anjali's daddy carry her)

"No No Anniya" is still the most popular phrase, that is used whenever we attempt to help her with anything whatsoever. from putting on her shoes, to taking off her pants, to taking off her diaper to opening the bathroom door. She gets terribly frustrated if she cant do it, but will still not accept help from us. Butt if we encourage her by saying that she can do it, she kind of laughs through her tears of frustration and tries hard. So I guess thats the way to go, even if it means waiting ten minutes in front of the front door for the imp to put on her shoes.

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Anjali, do you want to watch Auckland on Tv?

"Auka Auka!"

We turn on the tv and as  all the stuff with Anjali is burnt into one dvd, the first video is of her doing shuffling when she was a baby.

"no no!"

We hit skip track

"no no"

And finally we end up at the Aukland track.

"Pia Pia!!"

Ok, hit fastforward until we reach Piha.

Piha gets finished and a small segment with Anjali mopping the floor comes on.

"No No! Geesher"

Ok, fastforward again until the geyser comes on.

"Apa shot"  (Apa hot)