Baking bites

The apple cake that we baked last week finished on sunday, so yesterday evening, we made a banana and chocolate chip cake - another Esther Brody recipe. here is what happened.

First Anjali peeled the bananas and put them in a bowl. Sophia took one banana and bit it with the skin on. She ate the banana and spat out the skin. "manana manana", she said, pointing to the bananas in the bowl. So I took another banana to give her while husband supervised Anjali when she used her fingers to mash up the bananas.

Husband measured out flour to pour into another bowl. Anjali poured one cup of flour. Shapia doit poured another cup. The girls then measured out sugar and salt and baking powder.

We took out the chocolate chips. Anjali spooned out the chocolate chips to pour into the bowl. Then we added oil. It needed to be mixed to the right consistency, so I did the mixing at this point.

We set everything aside and then gave an egg to Anjali to crack,  which she did admirably well. There were no shells in the bowl. We mixed in the milk and added the previously mashed bananas. All these got poured into the flour mixture, which Anjali whisked beautifully.

I had set up a blue chair which she could stand on to work on the kitchen counter. She whisked everything up, and then I gave her a scoop to scoop the batter up into the baking dish. She did it so beautifully. At this point, Shapia do it also wanted to scoop batter. I gave her another scoop and husband had to watch over the scoop and the batter to ensure that too much of it doesnt get on the counter. The cake then went into the oven and the mixing pan to the girls, who licked it clean.

I got a bit of the cake for lunch today and its simply divine. Soft and moist, because of the bananas with a hint of chocolate. The girls learn a lot by cooking.

After the cooking was done, Anjali shifted her blue chair to the sink, got out the sponge and washed all the dishes. She asked me to turn the water on small, so as to not waste the fish water.

Shapia do it

We were getting ready to go to the playground. Anjali had gotten her bicycle and the door was open

Me: Sophia, come and put on your shoes

Sophia: No!

Me: Put on your shoes and we'll go to the playground.

Sophia took her shoes and went inside the living room.

Sophia: Shapia do it.

Me: let me put on your shoes

Sophia: Shapia do it

Me: You want to put on your shoes?

Sophia (nodding head and body vigourously): hmm

Me: ok. Anjali, this will take a while, take your bicycle for a couple of rounds in the lift lobby

So Sophia began to put on her shoes. its a task thats entirely too complicated for a one year old, and whenever she half got it right, she was so excited that the pulled the shoe off. i waited for five minutes

Me: Sophia, can I help you?

Sophia: No. Shapia do it

Me:Ok, but we need to go outside.

Sophia carried her shoes outside.

Sophia: Sitdown

Me: Ok. Sit down outside. Can i put on your shoes?

Sophia: No. Shapia do it oushide

So she sat there in front of the door and repeated the process. I waited another five minutes. It was 8.15.

Me: Sophia, can I help you?

Sophia: No. Anchaaali

Me: Anjali must put on your shoes?

Sophia (head and body nodding enthuisiastically again): hmm

Anjali came up in her bicycle. Now, Anjali is very good at putting on her own shoes, but she hasnt got the knack of putting shoes on a wiggling toddler.

Anjali: Ok Sophia, put your leg here. slowly... gently... like a snail...

I went up to help. Sophia snatched her foot away

Sophia: Anchaali do it.

it was another ten minutes before I lost my patience, got the girl, held her leg and put in the shoes

Talking and interpreting

We were at Rajah uncle's memorial on Saturday evening and husband was keeping the children in their garden while I was meditating. A couple of other kids, including lakshmi and Akash had joined in the games and they were trying hard to keep it quiet. The adults outside decided that in order to keep the children busy for about half an hour, they could have dinner. When I was in the room, i distinctly overheard

"Venda, venda"

"What is she saying?" (From one of the other parents who was staying outside)

"What is that Sophia?"

"Venda venda"

"Daddy, she is saying that she doesnt want"

"They know more tamil than me" :(

Later husband says to me "Sophia was eating noodles. She ate half a plate of noodles and gave me all the vegetables saying carrot venda, belew venda"

"What belew?"

"peas"

Painting buttterflies

Yesterday morning, I set up a butterfly painting station for Anjali. The primary idea is simple - put dollops of paint on paper, fold the paper, press and look at the nice patterns when they form.

I added anotehr bit of instruction. There was a wet cloth which she had to use to wipe each brush and spoon after using so as to keep the colors from mixing too much.

The paints were the usual flour, hotwater, foodcoloring mix, and I ha1d prefolded the paper to help her get the lines straight.

But I must admit that I was surprised with the results

Spooning paint on the paper


Wiping the spoon clean


At this point, Anjali's focus and concentration were so admirable, that I decided to switch to video mode



Anjali created tons of beautiful butterflies. Unfortunately flour paint takes long to dry and i had spread her creations on the dining table before going for work. They had gotten folded over the day before they dried and Anjali informed me sadly that most of the butterflies had "teared"

Only one survived the tearing and I put it up on the art wall, promising her that we will do another session soon.

Cloth painting

We did a bit of cloth painting the last time I took off from work. I had an old white duppatta which I had used for baby wearing which is not used anymore.

Here we are just starting up with the poster colors and palatte
Concentrating on the process

The final result.

I think I will let the cloth for a couple more paint sessions before either using or washing

Colors and numbers

too, yet, nine!!"" is the general exhuberent reply if I ask Sophia to count something.

Like Wolf puppies on a Dora book.

or to tell me the time.

Yesterday I gave her her pasta and stick kit to fiddle around with. she played with them for about ten minutes, pushing, poking, pouring, threading. Then with a flourish, she went

"two, yet, nine, chosh"

i looked up. She had counted the pasta and put them in the box, and yes, she had closed the box.

================

If you ask Sophia what color is something, she would say "Orange! purple!"

For a long time, i thought that it was the likes of Anjali, who would, at the age of 1.5, say that everything was blue, or Ananya, who would say that everything was green. However, husband pointed out that this odd pairing of colors can be attributed to our esteemable and favorite house monster whose eyes are orange and who has purple prickles all over his back. 

the Ramayana influence

it all began with that excellent picture book that thattha got when Anjali was less than a year old. It was a beautifully illustrated (i havent been able to find that kind of illustrations and believe me when i say I have looked) version - one illustration per page - rather abridged version of the ramayana. The words were not so poignant - but oh - what lovely pictures!!

Now, Anjali knows the story very well. I think Sophia does too. Ater all, when she is playing Ravana in our skits, and tells the story to her dad at the end of the day, there is a certain punch in her action at the name of Ravana and a certain softness at Sita's name. Ofcourse, the romance of the skit has been added upon by the pal pal hai bhari song, which Anjali sings so beautifully. its about the only proper movie song that she knows - although we play some bollywood music to the children of and on.

And who can forget the exhibit that patti and Anjali came with in india involving several old tamil songs woven into the story of the Ramayana.

Now, i am thinking what i can instill into the children using the Ramayana story. It is more than a set of characters, songs and skits. there are undercurrent themes there - heroic acts, faithfullness, the danger of strangers - all of which can be put into today's context.

Lets see how it shapes up

Some of the more unusual activities we did together yesterday afternoon

1. Playing in the sound garden - which most often than not evolves into a reenactment of Ramayana with Anjali under the plants as Sita in Asokavanam, Sophia as Ravana, and myself as Rama. The skit often ends with Ravana drinking booa booa

2. Painting on a big piece of cloth (my old duppatta) with poster colors. We'll probably create a large tapestry in a couple of sittings. painting was done with playdough

3. Reading Dora and playing bowling with kitchen rolls.

4. Eating and planting lychee seeds in the garden (I have serious doubts as to whether they will ever sprout), but Anjali wants lots of lycheee trees from which she can eat lychees everyday.

Of gods and other matters

here are some funny conversations with the three year old

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"Mummy. When i grow up, I want to be god"

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In the playground

"Mummy, come to my house. I will show you"

I go to her "house"

"This is my house. This is where I sleep. but some people died in my house"

"They did?"

"Yes"

"Then their ghosts will come. I am scared"

"No. They are friendly ghosts. you dont have to be scared"

We settle into her house and she turns off the light

"If the lion comes, wake me up. I will shoot it with an arrow"


=======

 

In the morning

"Mummy, I dont ever want to make pee pee"

"Ok. But are you sure?"

"Yes. I dont want to make pee pee for my whole life"

"Ok. But what if you need to go urgently"

"Then I will go in the cupboard"

"But the clothes in the cupboard will stink"

"Then i will go in the ceiling"

"How will you reach?"

"I will get a ladder, climb up turn upside down and go. "

====

Talk about logical solutions

Overheard

Anjali: I have a good idea. If that good idea doesnt work... I have another good idea

Me: And if that good idea doesnt work?

Anjali: I have another good idea

Me: you are full of good ideas arent you?

Sunday at home

We were supposed to have gone to Pulau ubin yesterday with the IEp outing. However, owing to a mild stomach flu virus that led to Anjali having a couple of dates with stone juice (one particularly memorable incident occurring on Saturday night involving husband's shirt), we decided to keep the girls at home on Sunday and give them time to recuperate.

Keeping the girls at home in the weekend is in itself sucha  rarity, as we are usually going someplace or another and trotting them behind us. This was a fantastic time for me to regroup my home and have meals at the table. The girls did tons of activities. Here are some of the things that kept Sophia busy

1. Colored pasta (penne) with pick up sticks. Sophia put the pasta in the sticks. It was excellent hand eye coordination exercise
2. Markers and paper to draw in
3. Grape skin (husband resprted to this when i was napping in the afternoon) that was, I think - spat out, floated in water - the water went in ziplocs
4. Playing with glue

Here are some of the things Anjali did

1. Hanging clothes. I had an yarn ties up across two chairs, and gave he a bunch of clothes and pegs to hang them
2. Tracing and dot to dots (while Sophia played with markers)
3. Collage (we did a leaf collage) that Sophia spreaded the glue until she kept saying sticky and got away, when Anjali continued to do the collage.
4. Jelly making

I recently discovered activity bags - bags where you put in a small set of playthings to give the child some structure in her day. We have, I'll put pictures up soon, two milk cartons hanging from the wall - one for Anjali and one for Sophia, with the activity kits. Anjali likes doing activities, as she calls them. Sophia also likes activities - though I dont think she knows what it means. Sophia was doing her pasta and pick up sticks activity when Anjali finished something else and snatched away one of the sticks. Sophia came running to me crying.

"what's up?" i asked

"Anchaali", she said, sniffing in her reproachful way

"What did Anjali do?" I asked her

"Anjali, actiyity pull!!" she said

In the evening, we took Anjali biking in the park connector. husband and I took our cycles too, and Sophia had the baby seat in my bike. Sophia didnt like the trip over much - we had to stop often for Anjali to catch up (though she bikes fast, we bike faster), and her feet kept getting stuck between the shopping basket and the baby seat, especially when I turned the bike. We biked through to the expressway bridge - probably a ten minute ride for husband or me, but a much longer one for Anjali, and then let the girls in the playground for half an hour, mostly for Sophia's benefit. Here's a conversation between Anjali and jainee

Anjali: Do you have beads? (Indicating her bead chain that she and I threaded together a couple of days ago and which she insists on wearing, much to thattha's - who does not believe in children wearing cheap beaded and hand made chains - disgust )

jainee: No

Anjali: I can make one for you, you know

We didnt stay much at the playground - it was close to nine and the girls were tired. So we gave them a bath and had dinner. I finally found the best recipe book - Sarah brown's cookbook. It has a fantastic collection of recipes. We had Vischyosse verte with apple. A great cooking experience.

An obsession with zero

Well, what can i say... Anjali has been rather obsessed with the idea of zero. Only that I am not sure she understands what it means.

Yesterday, she asked me

"Mummy, I want ice pops"

"Ok. how many ice pops do you want?"

"I want zero ice pops" (with the air of one asking for a hundred)

"Zero ice pops?"

"Yes"

"You dont want any ice pops?"

"eh?"

A long silent beat

"Mummy - zero means no ice pops?"

"Yes"

"hmm??"

The ability to induce and create

Creativity and induction is children are among the most studied mysteries in cognitive science research. As Anjali grows up, I have seen many bubbles of the two coming out (from wild imaginative stories of banana eating pirares, and teachers carrying other teachers by the arm pits). Yesterday there was one very nice induction example that happened that i had to write down.

We were returning from the library and at the train station spotted two children, an older girl, perhaps around 5 or 6, and a younger child, of maybe three years old, carrying and arguing about a bag. The younger child was wearing a very nice pink tutu, which i pointed out to my two children. Husband wanted to buy something from popular and the girls and I were looking at the several pooh books on sale. (We have stopped buying books at home for lack of storage space)

After a while, Anjali began a story

"Mummy, I saw two children - a big sister and a small sister. The big sister was carrying a bag. But the baby wanted to carry the bag. But there was some important things in the bag for their mummy, so the baby couldnt carry it. And so the big sister said no."

"And then what happened?", I asked, fascinated by this bout of induction.

"Then they snatched and snatched and snatched and argued about it"

And to think that psychologists are not able to develop models for anything more than categorization based induction

An evening at home with barf

Sophia has got a minor stomach flu and had been mostly on stone juice for the whole of yesterday. Barring one cupful of porridge, which patti gave her in the evening, she didnt manage to keep much down (the second cupful that i gave her at night came out after about an hour). We didnt take her to the hospital for two reasons. We had a lot of electrolyte solution left over from last time and she was keeping the electrolyte down atleast.

So around the time husband came back from work, i had both girls in the bedroom with two bags full of stuffed toys, entertaining them with a curtain puppet show of the three bears. Goldilocks had just gotten into the bears house and was looking for porridge to eat when Anjali, who had been sitting on a stack of three pillows, watching the show, said

"Mummy, I dont want to watch. i want to put up the show"

So Sophia and I perched on the pillow seat. I knew I was taking a risk. There was a chance of barf and maybe even more on the bedspread.

Anjali brought out the soft toys one by one over the makeshift curtain (a blanket spread across two chairs) and got them all to say hello. They did, and so did we.

Sophia began to wriggle.

"mummy.. Mummy"

Husband had just gotten home. He got his dinner and came to the bedroom. Knowing as i did what may lurk around the corner, i shooed him out to eat in the dining room.

"Mummy... mummy... taie"

Husband had finished dinner. Anjali had dropped waving all the softtoys from the top of the curtain and they were pretty much strewn across the floor. Now she was a monkey (She has been reading how Hanuman jumped across the ocean to the tree). The chair was the tree, and the bed, which happened to have a nice blue sheet on it passed off as a passable ocean.

Anjali requested for Sophia to be Sita, so Sophia and i perched on the bottom of the chair. Sophia became a little more lively for a few minutes, while she watched husband tie a tail on Anjali. Anjali jumped from one side of the bed to the other, her tail becoming entangled in some places and loose in others. A good twenty minutes passed.

"mummy...taie"

I carried her and was just out of reach of the softtoys strewn on the floor, of the mattress and the bed, and the mats surrounding it and Anjali's tail when it happened. Sophia barfed all over me.

She felt better after that and husband and I gave her a couple of helpings of stone juice, and a dose of smecta, and a dose of panadol.

This morning, she was up at 6am, together with Anjali.

"Do you want idli?" I asked her.

"idili", she replied and then

"dodurt?"

"ok", I said, giving her idlis with the tiniest spoon of yogurt.

Some amount of idlis went down, aided and abetted by Karadi rhymes and a small helping of stone juice.

I checked with patti and it has stayed down so far.

But all that barf has not stopped Sophia from asking for dodurt yice and manana and uigai from my dinner plate and throwing a tantrum when i refused to give them to her.

A tribute

When I was a child my mother always told me that still waters run deep. A pot that is full makes no noise. To me Mr Rajah was that sort of a pot - a hushed sancutary. This morning I received the news that he had passed away. The center has lost a pillar and a person who was so deep in knowledge and whose scholarly merit is known to all. I remember how mr rajah used to encourage my small surface level liiterary efforts to understanding the life Divine. I would read a chapter, gain some kind of superficial understanding, and then write something that tells a story. But he was always encouraging to the little efforts that we put in. We would be sorry to lose him

Tuesday evening at the playground

Playground time is always fun, and it has been even more so yesterday. Sophia climbed all the playground ladders, and the slope with very little effort. I was very proud of the way she grows up.

more rainforest

Canopy walk

Anjali in the cave

Anjali in the cave with the bats

Noisy grasshopper

This is one noisy grasshopper. Can you belive the sound it makes?

Termite trail. The forest was full of them.

Catching butterflies and watching monkeys

Boat ride to Taman Negara

piate toie

every time we got into a car/ taxi/ van, sophia would ask

"piate toie"

I would say "Ok. once upon a time, there was a"

"Ada piate"

"Ada pirate"

"Anchali piate"

"Anjali pirate"

"shapia piate"

"Sophia Pirate"

"Mummy pirate", Anjali would pipe up

"yes, and mummy pirate. And they all went in a"

"Boat!" (Sophia)

"In a boat. How did they go in a boat?"

"yo yo yo boat!"

"Row row row your boat. And they all went into a jungle. And what did they see there?"

"Lion"

"ok, lion. And then?"

"kiger"

"tiger and then"

"anai"

"And elephant"

And so the story will go on, for the duration of the journey or until the girls got distracted my something else.

"What do the girls understand by the term pirate?" asked husband "Other than it being a big word adjective that they can add to their and other names to look pretty?"

Once Anjali didnt want an "Ada piate, Anchali piate" story

"Mummy, I want a eal piate stoie", she said

"I am telling you a real pirate story"

"No. But I dont want the pirates to be persons"

"Ok. so once upon a time, there were five pirates"

"No. six pirates" (Anjali)

"I thought you want me to tell a real pirate story?"

"Yes. but I want to tell you the number of pirates"

Reading with Anjali

On the train back, Anjali slept from 3pm to 5pm and Sophia slept from 4pm to 7pm. As we arrived in Singapore at 9pm (as opposed to the expected 7.45pm) there had to be some way in which we could kill the intervening hours. We read karadi rhymes. One of the songs in karadi rhymes is the song of bhootaramji and the puppy's tail. Each time I opened the page, Anjali would ask

"Mummy, why bootaramji is here?"

So I made up a story about genies who lived in crystal palaces and how an earthquake came and shattered the palaces. The genies with their broken hearts stayed in all the nooks that they could find - lamps (like Alaadin's genie) and bottles (like bootaramji). I must have repeated the story about fifteen times so far.

We then read Valmiki Ramayana - a version from Amar Chitra Katha. I think Anjali enjoyed it. It was a rather comprehensive edition, and Anjali was already familiar with some of the short stories in it - like Surasa and hanuman setting fire to lanka, the kidnapping of Sita etc. We did the story quickly once and then some parts of it slowly.

Photos from Taman negara (with commentaries)

The bird that wanted to marry husband

The starved kid

The thing that the kids missed the most in Taman negara was the food. It was far from satisfactory and while travellers home was a very nice hotel in that we could make our drinks and use the kitchen as need be, the lunch and dinner were sadly lacking in vegetables and fruits, which they made up for in the amount of oil. Husband felt it most acutely and by the second afternoon was sorely missing my cooking (which says something)

But no one missed patti's food more than Sophia who, when asked for what she wanted to eat, kept asking for "idli and dosai"

On our way back, we took a number of sandwiches, packet soup and milo for the girls on the road. Now, Anjali is perfectly happy with sandwiches and currant buns. She takes after husband, who, in the absence of good food would simply eat bread and milk. Sophia is a little more hard to please.

Our train was delayed for a couple of hours due to some fallen log and by the time we reached woodlands, the last sandwich had run its course. I was carrying Sophia in my hip and holding Anjali's hand while husband grappeled with the luggage while we entered the immigration.

"Here is the queue for Singaporeans and PRs", I said, pointing to the signboard. 

"Mummy! Pulau! eat!" Said Sophia.

It took me a while to understand that she had misheard PR to be Pulau.

"Sorry baby. Its not pulau, its PR"

"huh! Mummy, idli, dosai!!"

"You poor starved baby!" Luckily patti had arranged for idlis to be on teh table when we got home, so Sophia had her idlis before bed. i suppose she will have dosais.

Anjali wanted mushroom soup. I gave her some instant cambells soup in the train which she didnt like at all.

"Mummy, I like your mushroom soup. can you make me some?"

So this mornign, i made up some mushroom soup. She would have it for dinner.

Swimming in the river

One of the activities that the girls enjoyed very much in Taman Negara was river swimming. They got around an hour of river swimming every afternoon that we were there.

I loved swimming in the rivers. It is so different from swimming in the sea. Tembeling river was a paradise - calm waters, very little current and shallow waters with gently sloping beaches. Bathing in the sea makes you feel dirty after that, and itchy. But bathing in the river is wonderfully refreshing.

Anjali enjoyed swimming in the river. The first day, she was playing in the shores mostly with her feet in the water. The second day, she wanted to learn to swim, and after spending a some time in the water, she went to playing with the sand and river rocks with another young boy who was also playing there. By the third day, she was unstoppable, running along the beach, unmindful of the other swimmers, and of the various obstacles, Splashing all the other children and also our guide - with whom she was fairly comfortable - enough to be left alone for a few moments with him. Six months ago she would have raised a holy tantrum to be left alone with a stranger. But the lure of a cave adventure was too strong.

Sophia also loved swimming. As she is competitive and wants to do everything Anjali does (unmindful of the fact that she is half of Anjali's size and that she cant sit down in deep water). As a result, she swallowed several mouthfuls of river water before conceeding that she could not really go by herself in the river and allowed husband and me to help her. Sophia has a preference for Self initiated and independent exploration and holds a grudge against people who dont let her do this. 

Kutti obeler

We just returned from Taman negara. it was a wwonderful 4 days, and the girls really learnt a lot. Husband feels that we ought to go back again (an organized IEP trip perhaps). The photos will follow shortly, but here are some anecdotes.

Anjali, owing to the many hikes to Bukit Timah hill and in Yercaud, has developed a nice passion for monkey like exploration. She was in her element in the forest - unafraid of the night walk, bravely climbing up the staircases made of roots, balancing on the canopy walkway, swimming in the caves and the hightlight of the exploration was a dark cave which Anjali had to frog march (husband had to slither through like a snake) and mummy and Sophia had to stay behind as it was way to complicated for Sophia. She earned her title of explorer.

As Anjali walked, we would praise her efforts

"Anjali, You are a big explorer"

Sibling competitiveness would kick in

"Shapia!!"

"What about Sophia?"

"obeler"

It took us a while to figure out that Obeler means explorer.

"What kind of obeler are you?"

"tutti obeler!"

 

A sheep made a wish

Last night i was reading to Anjali a story about a sheep having granted a wish from a fairy. I told her

"if I had a wish, I will wish that i am always happy. What will you wish for"

Anjali thought a moneht

"I will wish for...."

Her answer was not unexpected, but took me by surprise that it comes from such a young kid.

"I will wish for that my mummy will not scold me anymore"

Snail trail

Encouraged by a post in Filth Wizardry, the girls and I tried snail painting yesterday. We took some food coloring with us and, as it had just finished raining, found a large bunch of snails in the grass. We took about four of them, dipped them into colored water and left them on paper.

We waited about five minutes, and the snails didnt move. Anjali and Sophia began to paint with the remaining food coloring for about ten minutes, coming up with a marvellous watercolor. The snails still didnt move. I looked and saw that they were just coming out of their shells. We went for a couple of rounds, up to visit the hansters and then to the playground for a bit. After that, we went home to take a bath before coming out again to check on the snails.

They were still sitting put. Husband had several theories (he was not very supportive of the snail painting in the first place because he felt it was a sort of snimal cruelty - though the food coloring is non toxic). one of husband's theories was that the paper absorbed the moisture that was in the snail shell and therefore the snail couldnt move. As it had been over half an hour, we took the snails out and pt them back on the grass.

Then we noticed something strange. Where the snails had been, there were holes on the paper - rather like burn marks (but without the brown).

"Why are there holes?", I asked

"Maybe they secrete something toxic", husband said

"but we let the girls carry them around", I said, a little concerned

We didnt say anything for a bit but watched while Anjali "rescued" the snails by taking them out of the pavement and putting them back on the grass.

"Snails cant be toxic", I said. They are supposed to be friendly to farmers.

We looked agian at the holes on the paper. Then husband exclaimed

"They have been eating the paper", he said. "Its cellulose, you know". They have been going round and round and eating the paper. thats why they have not moved.

Interesting. maybe we'll try it again at some time. I wonder however, how the guys in filth wizardry got such a beautiful line though

Girls evening out

The girls and I had a perfectly killing evening out yesterday. husband was a mite late from work, and I had several errands to run. Anu and her parents were visiting, but they were not to be expected until half past seven. Anu's clock usually runs a bit late, so I felt it would be safe to run errands till around 8pm.

We went to West mall. Sophia needed a pair of shoes for the upcoming trip to Taman Negara. I still needed several miscellaneous supplies (milo, baby cereal, more cambells soup, incase the food at the chalet is not suitable for the girls and we had to resort to pasta). We stopped at the shoe shop, where, while waiting to be served, the girls amused themselves by trying on the various flipflops and shoes (even those that were three inches too big)

After the shoe shop, we stopped at udders for icecream. A lady at the next table had triplets (three year old triplets). My girls and her boys were doing some sort of interactive parallel play, while we stayed for over half an hour eating one small scoop of icecream. Sophia then decided it was an amusing thing to do to take everyone's handbags. The girls set up a kind of game where Sophia would take away the handbag and Anjali would return it.

This happened while by back was turned for a minute when we packed up the left over icecream.

In a way the outing was significant because it is my first real proper outing alone with the two girls without husband or patti helping out. I think it marks some responsibility defining moment in my maternal career, though I cant really articulate how. 

Sophia reading animals

Sound garden progress

This was sort of inspired by Filth wizardry's Sound wall

I wanted something for the girls to beat and drum, after Sophia's enthusiasm with the playeum's percussion, and I didnt want it to be a toy that we had to put away. This set up was ideal. Here are the components

1. old tins to bang/ beat
2. Set of lids glued on cardboard (also for banging)
3. A cookie tin filled with nose makers
4. Old wind chimes
5. A holder to hold chopsticks that the girls can use for the beating process

i have some coconut shells, a jingle toy, an old drum and some maraccas that i want to add to it.

Colourful journeys: Monkey see, monkey do

perhaps, the highlight of the day was the show of the capseller and the monkeys - a story time interactive puppet show that was put up by two very gifted young men (Reuben and Mark). With a combination of sing along and story telling, they brought the children into a very absorbing world of stories. We met Ohviya at the story time. They hadnt realized that it was for babies and hadnt brought Vedika along.

The girls were extremely taken in by the show, and if I am not mistaken we will be keeping an eye out for following this pair of artists in their journeys.

As part of their story, the monkey, who would at some time in the soty be stealing the capseller's caps, was looking for friends.

"Those who want to be the monkey's friends, please put up your hands"

Anjali put up her hands and got picked up by the monkey!

The monkey made her do several tricks - scratching, jumping etc, before giving her a pair of ears





Here are some videos (though the camera ran out of batteries, as cameras are often apt to do.)






Anjali was thrilled at being chosen to be a monkey. She came back to me after the show, all excited

"mummy!, The monkey put a hat on me when i was sleeping!!"

Patti says that she is so thrilled to be a monkey that she has been climbing the furniture all morning, saying that she is a monkey

Colourful journeys: The interactive story land

The story land was an area with a huge feltboard and lots of characters, blocks and puppets for playing. I loved the costumes (Can i design some for the girls?)

They had a good time, barring the time when Sophia's diaper leaked.

The problem with me is that whenever I see something interesting, I want to do it myself for the kids at home. Ofcourse, some things like the tunnel and teh sound garden are easy to do. But a costume and puppet theatre, especially one involving a giant felt board will be a heavy tradeoff for the time consumed. And then what puppets should I put there and what story would they enact?

More importantly, which part of the house will the theatre be, and which wall will need to be transformed? It will be dinteresting, no doubt - but such an activity requires planning.

Colourful journeys: The national museum part 1: Shiro and the cherry blossom

The national museum has a set of exhibitions for children over this week and next weekend. We happened to visit there yesterday, after the brunch. Dhana accompanied us. Dhana was having a rare bout of free time given that Vishnu was overseas and Ramesh was working and she wanted to relax the time off by spending it with the girls. Ofcourse, doses of the girls can be extremely relaxing.

We decided to watch Shiro and the cherry blossom. It was a nice show and Sophia, who was sitting on my lap really enjoyed the cat in the show, and kept calling it meow in very loud voices. i think Anjali enjoyed the show as well, though she was a bit let down as we couldnt get tickets near each other and she had to sit with husband. She was a bit upset about it as the story was a little emotionally charged and she prefers holding my hand during such scenes.

box house puppets

On Saturday, we were at the vivo city, where there was a show called the hood. It was a sort of interactive puppet show, with the puppets in a miniature theatre (see the house in the background. The audience are to put their heads through the holes in the houses and see the storyteller picturizing the stories)

It was a free show and since the girls were so crazy about puppets, we felt it was a good idea to take them. We sat through two stories - one was a interpretative rendering of the queen of hearts from Alice in Wonderland. Anjali didnt like the story too much, though I liked it. This was because the queen of hearts kept crying and ordering people's heads to be cut off. She also wanted to take my nose - at which point Anjali began to cry.

I convinced her to sit through another story where we sat through a telling of hansel and gretal where gretal ate a candy witch. Anjali liked that one very much.

As for Sophia, i asked her

"Did you see a puppet show?"

And she said

"isa, biny, chico, dora dora, boosh, thofolo, pooh, pidet"

These are, ofcourse, the puppets that we feature in our home theatre

Vivo is itself a nice place because of the rooftop piha beach

Husband and the girls apparently saw a real pirate ship with pirates on top, but ofcourse no one invited me to take a peek

Powder fun

On saturday, Anjali discovered the stash of dusting powder that patti kept for the kids. I dont keep powder within the reach of the kids, as I seldom use it for them. patti uses powder often, adn she had a big box of johnson.

So Anjali opened the powder box, put a bit of powder on herself and a bit on Sophia and went around. I was doing something else and by the time I got back, Sophia had gotten her hands on the powder box. This is what the floor in patti's house looked like

We decided to let the girls play a bit with the powder, and this is what they looked like

Even thattha was not spared

he is trying to have a serious conversation while (cant say which imp) is puttiong powder on him.

milk paint

when Sophia knocked over husband's cup of milk last wednesday, we decided to let the girls play in and with it first before cleaning it up. I put some red and blue colors in the milk and the girls painted a bit (We took their clothhes off so as not to stain them). They also painted me and husband and ended up being very sticky when all was said and done.

I gave the girls some old towels and a bit of water to clena up - which they did enthusiastically. Atleast Anjali did. Sophia discovered that the towel absorbed water from the pail and she made me squeeze water about a million times to discover absorbtion. 

Imagination, creativity and solutions

Some of us spend all our lives figuring out the mechanisms of creativity and imagination. Here are some examples of how they are generated in a three year old. Does the SIAM model explain these?

At night

Anjali: Mummy, I dont want to sleep

Me: the lights are off, its past ten O clock and you must try to sleep.

Anjali: Mummy, the lights in the hall are on mummy.

Me: Thats because Anu aunty is packing to go to Malaysia.

Anjali: I want to play with Anu aunty

Me: Anu aunty will come back on Sunday and then you can play with her.

Anjali: Why Anu aunty will come back on Sunday?

Me: Because Anu aunty's mummy and daddy will come with her and stay at our house.

Anjali: Why Anu aunty's mummy and daddy will stay at our house?

Me: Because they need a place to stay and our house is big.

Anjali: Why our house is big mummy?

I wanted to say "because daddy wanted a big house". Then i reconsidered

Me: Anjali, look at you - see how you are growing. You will soon be as big as an oak tree. Ad then you'll need your own room. And Sophia will be as big as a maple tree and she'll need her own room. So we need a big house.

Anjali: But me and Sophia will cuddle up in the same bed. And percy will cuddle up with us. Because percy will be cold!!!! heee!!!

===================

Anjali: mummy, i want yakult.

Me: There is no yakult in the fridge.

Anjali: Why mummy?

Me: Because you finished all the yakult yesterday.

Anjali: Mummy, can you buy me more yakult?

Me: Ok. Tomorrow I'll buy you more yakult.

Anjali: Can you buy me more yakult now?

Me: No Anjali, the shop is closed.

Anjali: Why the shop is closed mummy?

Me: Because the shop uncle has gone to sleep.

Anjali: Then we should call a fairy to get us yakult

Me: How?

Anjali: The fairy will open the door.

Me: How?

Anjali: With a wand mummy!!

Me: But who will we give the money to?

Anjali: To the fairy

Me: No Anjali, the shop uncle will be sad if we go and take yakult from the shop when he is sleeping.

Anjali: Why mummy?

Me: Will you like it if a fairy came to our house when you are sleeping and used a wand to take your garfield away?

Anjali reflected: No.

Me: Thats why.

She seemed to accept it, though she asked for yakult again first thing in the morning.

When mangala came yesterday

Mangala and Michael were over last evening. I hadnt seen Mangala in over five years, since before husband and i got married, and it was a pleasant surprise to see her. I was also surprised at how much Anjali took to her and Michael. She was looking forward to the visitors all evening, and a few minutes before they were due to arrive, she asked me

"Mummy, where is my gruffalo mask?"

Accordingly, the gruffalo mask was procured, and Anjali stood at the dorway saying

"I am going to scare everybody"

I was holding a puppet show for the kids with Julia donaldson's soundtrack running in the background (Sophia goes crazy every time i do O a funny face) when they arrived. Anjali immediately tried to scare them with the gruffalo mask.

So, we served cutlets and dips and badham kheer and Sophia sat on my lap

"this"

This, turned out, after many trials and errors, to be badham kheer (which she doesnt usually drink but wanted when she saw the guests drinking it.)

Then it was
"dodurd"

which turned out to be yogurt dip. So Sophia ate dodurd. After that, as we were sitting on the dining table, she went

"manana"

"Mummy, I also want a banana"

I opened up the two last bananas on the table. Sophia ate half and Anjali ate a quarter.

"I am the dustbin, you know", I told Mangala, as i finished up the two bananas.

As we were talking, Anjali and Sophia did cutting, taping (at the playeum, the girls obtained a nice tape dispenser with a plastic cutter and baby scissors)

As Mangala and Michael left, Anjali demonstrated her bicycle. Husband then carrie dher to show how she could swim (I think it had something to do with her pretending to be a fish - when I was showing Mangala the house she went around, carrying a lion and shouting "I am a lion" and then she went into the bedroom and reappeared carrying a scissor box and shouting "I am a baby scissor box!"). Sophia immediately said

"amma taie"

whereupon it turned out that she too wanted to swim. 

homemade magnetic ball tunnels

The girls were at the science center last Friday. they were very impressed by a set of tunnels that they could make (large tubes with magnets attached on either ends that they could link up in whatever way). I thought it was interesting.

For a long time, i have been meaning to make a water wall. A few factors have detered me from it. Firstly, it has to be made in the bathroom or outside. Putting the water wall in the bathroom means confining playing in it to  bathtime alone. Putting it outside would mean lugging bucket fulls of water outside when the kids want to play in it, and also to sweep the water away after the kids finish playing so that no one will slip on it.

I still havent given up on the idea, but need time to consolidate and come up with a plan.

However, in the meantime, the magnetic ball tunnel boards gave me an excellent idea for the kids to explore how objects move in tunnels. So I worked on it and this is what we came up with.

Everything is attached by magnets to the fridge door, so the kids can move them around. There are holes cut at the bottom of the paper cups, and the little red cup at the bottom is to catch the ball.

Anjali has a good time engineering the balls to flow through the "tunnels", but the problem is that we often dont catch the ball and it rolls under the fridge. I want to sort of get over it by making several small balls out of playdough/ aluminium foil. But the problem with these balls is that they dont roll. The best bet for balls that i have currently is the little plastic easter eggs that Anjali brought back from school. We have some marbles, but I am worried that they will get all over the floor, and also that they are heavy. I tried an avocado seed, but it was too heavy and when it fell, the force of the fall knocked over the little red pot.

Maybe I should do something like the science center and put a longer container at the bottom for the explicit purpose of catching the balls. But what do I use for it??

Sunday at the playeum

We organized an IEP trip to the playeum. It was a great attempt by the southwest CDC to get children to explore. Here are some of the activities that the kids participated in

Exploring the water bowls at the start of the path

Making a headdress

Anjali's headdress (Sophia had a blast moviong the collage materials from one pot to another and pouring sequins all over the place - but refused to wear her headdress in the end)

Sophia and patti explore the percussion section, which was a lot of pots, pans and drums. Sophia enjoyed the drums. Even after we got home, she kept enthusiastically miming drumming. I guess I can set up something like this at home. For a while, i have been inspired to create a sound garden where the children could bang and toss to their heart's content. Now may be a good time to scourge out old pots, pans and cups.

This is one of many cardboard houses. Sophia promptly got in to play her favorite "house" game

Ramya plaing in the giant soft blocks

That sure looks bulky!!

Drawing on the hourses

More decorations

Bharat and Dheeraj exploring the percussions. The boys were happiest in the music making area, while the girls were more crafty. This was a general; observation, though it falls cleanly within sterotypes. Dheeraj wanted to do the clay, but unfortunately the clay session closed before he got there. This is another thing I could do at home - the kids made playdough clay and then painted it with glitter. Glitter is something that I use at home when i am in real desperate need for quiet, or when Anjali asks really many times. It gets everywhere and stays for days. However, the playeum people had mixed glitter with paint. Thats a nice idea to control its spread.

More house play

When the children needed a break from the craft, there was always the sand pit to explore

The boys, especially appreciated having the opportunity to play outdoors. jayanthy and some of the parents set up a frisbee game going which the boys keenly enjoyed.

One of the day's highlights - movement painting. Getting started

The children take up their positions

Ofcourse, Anjali began painting before the instructions were given

the job was to draw using wax or make lines using tape, then paint on them to see how the wax resisted the paint. According to Art experiences for toddlers and twos, many of the younger children wont be able to appreciate a crayon resist until they are nearly four. However, they had a good time painting.

How would it be if we did this as an activity - As a preparation, I could get large mahjong papers and make wax/ same color crayon drawings on them, a scenery, a cartoon character, or something. Then I could give gigantic amounts of paint to the children and ask them to paint the whole sheet and discover what is hiding under. I wondr if this could be an activity for the IEP camp. I have done some mini crayon resists of her favorite characters with Anjali and she generally likes to do them. The trick ofcourse will be to use some very thin colors. Tempera paint needs to be watered down or else the crayon wont be able to resist it sufficiently. This, I think was a mistake made by the playeum people, their tempera paint wasnt thin enough, and the kids had to wipe it a little.

Origami

After all the exploration, we came back again to work with the percussion instruments. The boys and Sophia joined in to have a great blast.

We rounded up the day's activities in a typical IEP fasion with circle time. The reflections were rather short, and the kids were busy eating, but we did feel that it was an afternoon well spent