Welcome to the world, Sophia! 18-1-2009

She looks, overall, a lot like Anjali. There are minor differences ofcourse, A slightly darker hue, I think Sophia will be more tanned. A little more sensitive to her surroundings, though both scored 9 on the Aphar test.

We were a bit afraid of Jaundice this morning, but thankfully her Jaundice score was low also.

Just out

All squished up and wrapped up
Tired and exhausted after 4 hours of labor, of which half an hour was in the hospital. Time we left home for hospital: 7.35am. ETA at hospital: 7.50am. ETA arrival of Sophia: 8.12am. I am not kidding you. The doctor was doing rounds early that day because she had a test to take at 9am. If not, she would have missed the delivery. Husband and thattha are just thankful that this happened on a Sunday and hot on Monday, when it takes 45 minutes to reach the hospital from home. Wonder if Singapore taxi drivers know how to deliver babies.

Its funny because I was having pains since 4am in the morning at 10 minute intervals. But when I called the hospital, they said, wait and monitor till they are at 5 to 8 minute frequency. So we sat and watched Lage raho Munna Bhai. At the time where Munna sends Lucky flowers, we had to stop because we had reached 8 minutes, andw ent to take a shower. By the time I finished my shower, we were down to 5 minutes. When husband finished his shower, we were down to three minutes. Thatha was panicking. And said run. How do you run for a taxi when you are in the middle of a contraction? But I didnt stress until we reached the hospital, whereupon the pain burst on me when I got off the taxi and I really needed a wheelchair to transport me (not like in Anjali's case where I was offered a wheel chair and I said confidently, "No no, I can walk")

She looks just like Anjali.
Anjali came to the hospital when Sophia was having a bit of cranky time. She immediately turned to me. "Mummy, Mummy take Soia baby!" We were astounded.

Sophia, Sophia, Up!!

We just got home this afternoon from the hospital. Anjali was all excited to welcome Sophia home. Patti said that she was shouting Soia baby to all the people in the bus on the way from Patti's home to acasa.

Sophia, on her part, slept, fed, slept, and fed again. She already loves the cradle and to sleep attached to me. She didnt like the hospital cradle at all and slept with me on the narrow bed all night. I guess she needed the security for the night, because this morning, she was perfectly fine with sleeping alone.

When Anjali returned from the playground this evening, Sophia was feeding. I told Anjali to grab a book and read to Sophia.

She got out her Pooh encyclopedia, all excited, gae teh book to me, and as I opened it to read, seh said, "Sophia, Sophia, up!"

Sophia was blissfully drinking milk and drifting off to sleep.

Anjali, my darling, it will tae a few months yet before Sophia can get up and drink milk.

"No No! Ippa!"

Well, she understood when we explained to her... I guess she expected Sophia to get up immediately and bottom jump.
Anjali wanting to Sleep with mummy and Sophia on the hospital bed. (When she saw that Sophia was a baby, Anjali switched the calling from Soia Soia to Soia baby. Husband says that its because she discovered that Sophia was a real baby. Befre, there was every chance that Sophia might be a little monkey! :))
Proud daddy, beautiful daughter
Sleeping at home.
Two girls and smiling mom. Husband's going to use this photo wen I complain sometime in the future. See how quiet your girls are and how little trouble they give you.


Anjali looking at Sophia.

Kid's probably going to come out in a couple of months

When we were still dating, husband bought me a chicklit book by Marian Keyes. Keyes is one of my favorite authors and this book had a collection of her published and unpublished articles from various topics.

One of the chapters in the book was called "Push", and it was about getting up the pole and giving birth to kids. When I read it, I was so amused by the contents of the book that I got all my friends to read it. Infact, i even typed it out to send to a cousin when she got married.

Now, as I wait, feeling like a detonatable timebomb, I reflect on the chapter and am not amused. I especially recall the part where the author is afraid, more of not giving birth, than of giving birth. About how she had a friend whose baby was two weeks over due, and how everytime she went to her birthing class, people would wink at her and say that next week they wont be seeing her. But they still saw her, week after week.

And how her husband and she planned a weekend end trip to a resort just because they thought that this is such a wonderful thing that something will have to come along to ruin it, and perhaps that would be the baby? But no, even that went smooth as silver.

When I went for my consultation to the doctor after new year, (she had gotten back from two weeks of vacation), she mentioned that she had been afraid that I would deliver while she had been away. If I had done that, Sophia would have been three weeks early. Now, nearly a fortnight later, nothing. Not even those silly little contractions that I had when I was with Anjali. Doc's not worried. Second babies dont give you prolonged labor. They just come out very fast.

Meanwhile people in the office are exclaiming about why I am still here. And I am extremely sick and tired of being treated like glass and water. It is alright to have people stand up to give you room in the bus (that way you can get some reading or crocheting done in the traffic jam), but I am not an invalid, and should be able to do some work, stand up and sit down, and take up wierd positions (like sitting on my knees or bending to pick stuff from the floor). Yesterday, just to be contradictory, i followed a colleague to the store and carried back 5 litres of softdrinks for an office party. If I can carry 12 kilos of Anjali, I am sure I can carry 5 litres of fluids.

Now, if husband and I plan to take Anjali to the beach on Sunday, would fate be eejit enough to make Sophia come out before that? Maybe we better make it an overnight camping trip with tents

kids are a pain in the ...

My kid has started to know whom to manipulate and exactly how to do it. In the mornings she tries to prevent me from going to work, hard enough, but not too hard, because she knows it is going to happen anyway.

In the evening, the story is a bit more tricky. She knows that patti has to go home, and usually when patti is by herself does not turn too many hairs. But when thattha is here, it is another story, she knows that all rules come off when Thattha is there, and starts crying. And the bottom line was that thattha makes patti stay the night. Just because the imp opens her mouth.

And the worst thing is that the cheeky little brat knows this. And I get scolded when I say that she is getting spoilt and knows exactly how to manipulate people.

"She is just a baby. what does she know?"

Well, you'll be surprised!

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While I am on the roll, I might as well be on a good roll. Thattha introduced Anjali to chocolates when she was about six months old. Against all my protests. Really expensive Godiva chocolates that cost about 40 dollars a bag (A bit of good and pure chocolate is good for the system).

Maybe it is. I could be very sarcastic and say that a bit of pure red wine is good for the system too and is recommended by doctors, but will keep my mouth shut for the time being.

And what did the chocolate do? The imp does not know the difference between Godiva and m&m but she knows that they are both chocolate. And the sweet tooth has kicked in.

Last week, at the NTUC cashier, Anjali pointed to all the sweet boxes saying that they are bleh bleh (thats my doing, as I didnt want to tell her that they were chocolate. Bleh bleh stuff has the same appeal to Anjali as lemons and salt and pepsi). Husband inadvertently told her that it was chocolate and immediately she wanted to buy m&m. We bought the smallest possible bag we could get to appease her, distracted her before she could open it and chucked it in the fridge.

Patti saw the m&m packet, thought that we are giving the kid bad chocolate and brought the Godiva box over (I personally think that the Godiva chocolate does not taste that exotic for the price you pay for it, but who listens to me?) I have no clue if Anjali is being fed chocolates without my knowledge

The imp doesn't even brush her teeth. She just doesnt. Sometimes, during her bath, she lets us brush her teeth with her finger, for two seconds flat. But after that she stops. A month ago, we got her a new toothbrush, kid size, and two toothpaste flavors, apple and strawberry. The novelty of it made her brush her teeth three times a day for a week. And then the whole thing stopped abruptly. Now she says that she doesnt want to brush her teeth and let the cockroach come and sit in the teeth if it wants to.

AAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH@*$#

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One of the nicest things that Tom and Stephanie has done over the new year is to remove their sweet stand that was near the cashier. I am glad. Anjali had been starting to form the habit of asking for a sweet each time we paid the cashier. Those are really ridiculous nno nutrition sweets, with jelly and a lot of sugar over them.
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I am always worried about kids being brought up by their grandparents getting spoilt and indulgent. I guess in that way having Sophia will be to an advantage. Because it is easier to spoil one kid than it is to spoil two.

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Sophia.. What tricks are you going to get up to when you come out??

a protective elder sister?

We got the mattress set up for Sophia. Its a pretty single mattress that goes flush against our big mattress. Anjali went with us to the mall to choose the sheets, initially we chose one with circles and one with flowers, and then changed them to one with horses and one with a baa baa, apparently along the kid collection

 

Currently, the baa baa sheet is on the mattress. Last night, husband was sleeping on the new mattress. Anjali came into the bed room, took one look, marched right up to husband and said

 

"Daddy, no no, up. So Hia bed!" 

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?