Husband's birthday in words

I will put up the photos.

The girls got together and Anjali tried to browbeat me into putting 34 candles on his cake. As that was not very possible, she only accepted when I told her that people over 12 year old put only one candle.

Then i told the girls that we were going to Botanical garden to celebrate daddy's birthday.

"But daddy already celebrated his birthday mummy", says the little practical soul resting in our house.

So we went to have a picnic at the botanical gardens, where we fed the "ostriches" (a.k.a swans) with bread and lettuce.

Anjali touched nearly all the dogs in the garden and Sophia kept saying "touch touch, without really touching"

IT was dark, we rounded off our evening with a picnic dinner under the stars. Anjali took her kick scooter all around the park, outrunning the rest of the family to the entrance, and making Sandhya run after her. Sandhya will lose atleast five kilos in a couple of weeks.

The girls picked atleast 20 flowers and gave them to thattha.

We really should do these parks more often

Shapia want it

Overheard from Sophia - long sentence given in one breath

"Full of water take of jetty too much water in it now"
============

Sophia: Amma, bua bua. now!

Me: Sophia, what if i dont give you bua bua? What will you do

A beat, and then

Sophia: thiei (CRY)

========

sisters playing together

Some evenings, times which used to be rare previously but are getting more and more frequent, husband and I step back and see the beauty of the girls interacting with each other. Anjali, being the older sister, is usually more leading on the direction of the activity, and Sophia makes the choice of the activity.

Often, I would sit somewhere near with a book and watch the girls explore. Yesterday evening, the two of them played for close to half an hour in the bath, blowing bubbles and making "yo yo boat" with sticks. I actually had uninterrupted time to make a whole raspberry bread pudding.

After that, I got some noodles and they sat side by side, eating noodles and reading. Sophia chose the book and Anjali read the book, saying things like "Sophia, can you show me the scissors and can you show me the glue". This morning, Anjali had picked up the flap and tab bible and was telling Sophia "Sophia, this is a Jesus stoie, you know.", whereupon Sophia said "thank you thank you Jesus". Me, in the kitchen, mixing milo heard this and stuffed a laugh.

Even craft activities, they do, sitting together, heads bent and furrowed in concentration as they explore the materials in their own way - Anjali with her scissors and catalog papers and glue, and Sophia, with her glue, spreading it on paper.

"You girls are very lucky, you know", I said.

"Why mummy?", asked Anjali

"Because you have each other to play with and love. I dont have any sisters you know"

"I can be your sister", said Anjali wisely "I can be Sophia's sister and your sister"

"I think you can", I said. "I would love you to be my sister. But I am also Vishnu anna's and Sandhya akka's and Shree Valli akka's and meenakshi akka's sister"

"huh?" said Anjali, looking puzzled, but delighted by the news. "Why are you Vishnu anna's and Meenakshi akka's and Shree Valli akka's and Sandhya akka's sister?"

"Because Vishnu anna and Meenakshi akka have no sisters also and they asked me to be their sister"

"And Sandhya akka and Shree Valli akka also have no sisters?"

"No, they have no sisters either. They have a brother."

"Mummy, a brother is not like a sister?"

"Absolutely not", I said. "A brother is not like a sister"

"But I have a sister", concluded Anjali, turning to Sophia "Sophia, can you give me the glue and akka will show you how to glue everything"

Semantic cognition and linguistic abilities

If the title of that sounds a little strange, it has something to do with what i have been observing with Sophia.

Husband and I took the girls to the long overdue trip to the mannu playground. I have a dream of making a sand tub for the girls in the garden/ lift lobby - where they could play with the sand and then we could sweep the sand back into the tub for another day. ofcourse, the sand can be periodically washed to ensure that it remains relatively clean, but in the apartment, I guess it is sufficient if the washing is done every six months or so.

"You know," I was telling husband, "When Sophia talks, she says only the keywords, like 'Mickey Mouse take hand moon' or 'mannu plum going Shapia' or 'Mummy winniethepooh book ead'. The order of the words or the linking verbs are not important. However, when she listens, she listens for the whats and the whys and answers accordingly. What does that tell us about the process of understanding and generation? Is the first phase of learning simply an association of keywords or does semantics come into play?"

"For instance, if I make a story about a forest, you would think of, say animals"

"tiger!" piped up Sophia

"and tigers"

"Anai!", she continued

"And elephants. The point is that based on our experience, some words are more correlated with the context than other words and the story that we generate depends on them"

"The tiger ate Sophia", said Anjali

"Exactly. Anjali would make a sentence like this because of her experience with language. But an adult may not"

"Anai Anchaali eat!", countered Sophia.

Anjali gave Sophia a look, then turned upwards. The night sky was dark, as there were very little light from the buildings in the park.

"I see something blinking", said Anjali.

Husband glanced up.

"Its an aeroplane". He said.

"Aeroplane. blinking". repeated Sophia.

"Now see", said husband. "Blinking is a new word, and she remembers it with aeroplane"

"Yup. But she may not remember aeroplane with blinking", I explained - all the semantic cognition that i studied was being put into practical use.  "The probability of aeroplane|blink is higher than the probability of blink| aeroplane. Sophia, what does the aeroplane do?"

"bl... flying" she said.

"There you are" i said. We then got into discussing bayesian probabilities and such while Anjali poured water in the sand and Sophia helped me to pile sand into the drums that i had brought from home.

"What you guys are talking about?" asked Anjali.

"About mummy's work, and about you" I said. Because the two are so linked together.

Daddy's doll

We read a book called William's doll yesterday. it is on the library's list of 50 top picks for young children. This conversation happened after we read the book.

Me: So William's grandmother told his father, William wants a doll to carry and cuddle and put to bed and take to the park, so that he can practice to be a good daddy.

Anjali: Mummy, did daddy have a doll like William when he was a baby so that he could have practiced to be a good daddy?

Me: I think so, yes. That is why daddy is a good daddy.

Anjali: No mummy, daddy is a bad daddy

Me: Why do you say that?

Anjali: Because daddy spanks me. So he is bad

Me: Well, but daddy buys you big icecreams and takes you on long elevator rides and everything.

Anjali (cautiously): Yes...

Me: So he is a good daddy.

Anjali: Sometimes he is good and sometimes he is bad.

I decided to go back to the spanking. In our home, i knew that spanking usually means a pat in the bottom.

Me: When did daddy spank you?

Anjali: That day, when I pushed Sophia

Then we went back to the hugging recipe.

Experiment, home painting, kick scooters and all sorts of things

On Saturday, Sandhya came. Anjali stayed overnight with patti and thatha, got up at 6.30 in the morning to go to the airport with thattha, and took very well to Sandhya in general. At ten, husband, I and Sophia came to say hello to Sandhya and to take the girls to the Science center for the Visualize show. We souldnt get a taxi, and so put the whole thing off to the afternoon.

Anjali agreed to stay with Sandhya while the rest of us went grocery shopping.
====================

At NTUC:

Sophia picks up all the avocadoes and puts them in her basket. We dont want more than three

===========
When we got home, Sandhya's report

"Anjali told me that her favorite story is the Jesus story (huh?) her favorite song is twinkle twinkle little star (what about the song that you sit under the tree and sing?) and then she did every single monkey business in the world"

=======
The next day I asked the girls

"Sophia, who will take care of you when mummy goes to America?"

"Anchaali", says Sophia

"Anjali, who will take care of you when mummy goes to America?"

"Sandhya", says Anjali without hesitation
=========

Girls enjoyed the visualize roadshow. The highlight of the show, for them, was when they got free balloons. And for Anjali,

"I liked very much when the aunty hit the uncle"
========

We went to the library and borrowed a score of books. I borrowed a lot of classics - among them, the living tree, and for husband, Artemis fowl. Sophia got her Dora book. I still havent started work on the bookshelf

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

When we got back to patti's house, Anjali threw a tantrum because the gollum pressed the lift before her. The gollum has a nasty habbit of pressing the lift, the buttons at the traffic light and such stuff. Either the gollum or Anjali must give way. We are still to see which force is stronger and will prevail. Anjali, in her tantrum yanked my dress and the kurta (one of my favorite) split at the side. It can be sewn up, I think

I hope

Daddy took Anjali aside and kept her down while I went to patti's house and changed
Veerappan uncle was coming to patti's house. and he reported

"Her daddy was sitting there behind her, quietly letting her cry it out. "

Crying it out calmed Anjali sufficiently and when I went down to get her, she came amicably and didnt throw tantrums around dinner

========

Sunday morning. Anjali peeled off a large chunk of brown paint from the bedroom door. She is making a habit of it. The chunk looked like an animal, so after a couple of initial scoldings, husband suggested that I hand her a marker to draw the animal.




Anjali says the resultant thing is a giraffe. Sophia says that it is an opunus. I think Sophia is closer to the mark.


==========

Sunday late morning. We went to the brunch at Rao uncle's house. The girls made a racket during meditation, so we were politely asked to take over Satyavrat's room. i had the catalogue of 50 best books from the library, and a pair of baby scissors. Anjali spent a happy hour cutting all the pictures from the catalogue. She's getting good at this. I should begin saving junk mail.

====
My handbag is a bottomless junk pit with straws and baby scissors and rough paper and a couple of crayons, a magnet, some clips etc. You never know when you have to entertain a couple of kids. Did you know that an 18 month old can spend ten minutes trying to take two straws out from each other?

==========

Saturday afternoon, we were at Xperiment. the girls liked the chromatography and the harmonograph, but they liked the slime the most, though Anjali got a kick out of the friction towel exhibit.

Mr Waterman at the Xperiment





Daddy then whisked Anjali off for a walk. They came back an hour later having an icecream longer then my arm, and coated with chocolate, which probably cost more than an hour's salary. They had climbed the top of the Pan Pacific and seen what Anjali called the tallest fountain in the world "sic"
===============

We had dinner and found ourselves in a bicycle sale. I have been asking for a bicycle for the past six months and no one buys me one. but Anjali asks for a kick scooter, and tries about ten of them, saying "this one is good", "this one slides away from me", "this one is ok, but a bit shaky" and stuff like that, and before you know it, husband buys her a kick scooter.

I should go on strike and say that I wont cook any lunch if i dont have a new bike.

They'll probably eat outside anyway, and get a stomach upset

The imp kicked her way through suntec city and then all the way to the MRT and then all the way home, from the busstop.

This morning, she kicked the scooter to school
========

Did you know that making a very disgusting mess of eggshells and banana peels in the blender and putting it at the root of plants makes them flourish?

Here we are, after three years

This is my 1000th post in this blog. Almost three years after the blog was started. It has so far been an excellent chronicler, a dedication to the children and a great reference. There were times when I had to refer to some instances of what happened on a certain day and I would simply go on the blog and check it up. One notable incident happened a few days ago.

When Sophia had a running nose and patti gave her a medicine called Bromohexene. I usually give her Alleryl and I didnt know what Bromohexene was for. All I had to go by was the date on the bottle (sometime in May 2010). Why did I acquire a bottle of bromohexene in May 2010? I quickly went back and checked the blog and discovered that it was the time when Sophia had been living off air and love and therefore concluded that Bromohexene was for a cold and loss of appetite.

There have been other times, like when husband wanted to put Sophia on a bicycle when she was ten months old and I countered that it is not good as Anjali had not been in it until eleven months.

So here we are, a thousand posts over three years and a diary maintained over time.

a (non) trip to the mannu playground

I promised the girls that we could go to the mannu palyground. They were looking forward to it. But last evening, Sophia was having a temperature, and I decided to keep her at home. husband and Anjali might still have gone to the mannu playground if it hadnt been for the fact that I decided to pack the baby in the stroller and take her for a walk. We caught up with husband and Anjali, crossed the road and it began to drizzle. While under normal circumstances, we would have let the girls get wet in the rain in the mannu playground, Sophia's temperature was a deterring factor.

That was how we found ourselves in the church yesterday evening. There was a special ceremony at church - a three day festival. A nice little congregative meditation. Sophia and Anjali sat in the pews. Anjali prayed when the prayers were said and when we lit the candles. Sophia sat on the pews, and began to take out hymn books and started singing "Thank you Thank you Jesus" at the top of her voice. The less said about it here, the better. When she began to point and go "Jesus cioss Jesus cioss", I knew it was time to take her out.

It turned out that we didnt have to take her out. The church had a sound proof room for parents to take children in, who are under two and have a tendency to point and sing at the top of their voices. (perhaps we should get one of those sound proof rooms for our center as well. Then I could attend all those talks hat I have been missing). there they sat for a few minutes and would have sat for more. However, sitting in the sound proof room is not as much fun as sitting in the congregation.

We got back directly home from the church, as the drizzle had not let up. In any event, it was half past nine when we reached home and I made a deal with Anjali that we could go to the mannu playground if it didnt rain today. if not, we could go to the library. We have finished the books that I borrowed in any case and there will probbaly be fun with tots

 

Scissor skills

Anjali's scissor skills are improving. I am not sure whether they get practice in school or something, because yesterday we were cutting handprints to make fish to hang on the walls. Anjali made some very good progress with the scissors and cut the prints very close. She also knew, most of the time when the scissors were going into the paint, at which point, she would give the scissors to me to cut around.

"I am only a little girl", she explained. "So I need some help cutting"

Well, the little girl keeps measuring herself at the MRT station and saying that she needs a ticket. I tried convincing her to wait till she gets to N2 before getting a ticket. She's not very convinced though.

Fairy garden updates

The fairy garden. Its still under development and continuous upgrading
A little shelter for the fairies to rest in. I cut up an old coaster.

These are supposed to be toadstools, but they look more like lollipops from outer space. So we'll have to make better toadstools when i get more time

A pond, now dry. We leave water for the fairies every evening in it, and the fairies come at down to drink up the water. I suppose that all the dancing around misshapen toadstools make the fairies very thirsty.

We should move some animals in the garden now - Anjali wants to move a pony in - I'll keep a lookout for a miniature. There are some miniature jasmine and monkey toys in patti's house and I think they will suit, and perhaps I can put wings on jasmine.

The only qualm that i have with our fairy garden is that it is really small. But our garden space is so limited. I could try to set up something in a water tub, that will be much more roomy, but there wont be enough elevation for it and where will I get sufficient earth to cover a water tub? Also likely as not, Sophia will pull out the plants before they even begin, as she tried to do with the mustard seeds that we were planting in our fairy garden. Now the fairy garden is elevated and Anjali has to pull up her blue chair to see the garden growing.

The other qualm is that the mustard seeds are planted too close to each other and I reckon that they wont survive long - probably a week or two at most. They were the only quick growing seeds I had at hand. This, I think calls for a visit to Thomson road to buy little terrarium plants and plants with small flowers. I am also looking for something to pave the garden with little paths - perhaps lychee seeds will be suitable? Lychees and longans are available a plenty in Singapore and their seeds are smooth. They wont show up against the earth though - so maybe we should look for glass pebbles and seashells.

Yesterday at the doctor

There was a long waiting line at the doctor last evening, but I really had to take the kids. Sophia had a rather bad cough, a temperature and it was troubling me.

I had, however, not anticipated the long wait and had not taken a change of diapers for Sophia. So, when she soiled her diapers, we had to take her to the bathroom and clean her up. There, Anjali threw a tantrum. I stood in the washroom with a (thankfully clean) toddler and a tantrumy preschooler who wanted to wash her hands, and a handfull of soiled diapers.

I threw away the diaper, turned to Anjali and said "Anjali, please stop crying"

And Sophia said

"Anjali trying no. Daddy taie Anchali take timeout!"

I laughed, and the doctor called us in. Anjali stopped her tantrum and everything was smooth

i can do it

We read Watty Piper's the little engine that could a few weeks ago. And ever since that Anjali is trying to make "I think I can" her motto.

On saturday, Anjali fell down on the way to ballet class and bruised her knee. She didnt want to dance that lesson and refused to take a bath for the next couple of days.

Monday was Gym in school. Monday night, I asked her

"How was gym?"

"it was fine mummy. I twisted my body like this and like that"

"Were you able to twist your body, even though you have a oua?"

"Yes. i was. "

"See. you can do it. All you have to do is to say "I think I can!". Isnt it?"

"Yes. i think I can, I think I can I think I can."

Sophia immediately started.

"I think I can, I think I can. bua bua"

A fairy garden

Anjali helped me, over the weekend, to make a fairy garden. We have set up fairy grass a few toadstools to dance in and a pond with water for the fairies to drink from. We are also going to set up a little wooden house for the fairies.

Anjali delights in the fact that the fairies visit every day at dawn. The water that we leave in the pond for the fairies always disappears and we are sure that the fairies drink it on the way to fairyland, after dancing among our toadstools.

Pictures will be up soon.

The story of our kitchen

A few days ago, i came across a post in Childhood 101 on a model of a kids' kitchen with recycled materials.

It seemed like a nice project to work on, for the children, and as there were plenty of cardboard boxes in our home, I thought it would be a frugal fun project.

Here's the model that I came up with. The idea is more or less similar to the one in childhood 101, but I am still adding features to it.

There were two boxes - one on the other, glued together. I used old lids for hobs and bottle caps for knobs (Though, at this stage, Sophia keeps pulling them off)

the sink is a cardboard box, instead of a bowl - as I was going recycled, although, as you will see later, a bowl may have been a better idea. The oven has been cut out in this picture, and there is a milk carton to serve as a tray. This morning, I shined the sink up and put tealight bottoms on it to make it more metallic, but the pictures for that will follow.

The whole thing has been covered with Mahjong paper. except the top, which is covered with contact paper. A kitchen tap is still pending. Husband suggests that i make it with toilet paper rolls. I am still thinking.


Anjali knew that I was working on a kitchen for her, but only on last Friday i put it out for the girls to play with. interestingly, it has not been a kitchen, so much as a tub for the animals. Sophia has been using the sink as a tub to bath all her animals, and Anjali has been holding birthday parties and putting all her guests on the hob, and baking a cake ion the oven (so atleast that bit is straight.)



One morning, Anjali told me

"Mummy, I have a beautiful princess kitchen"

"Yes Anjali, you do have a beautiful princess kitchen"

"Its all sparkly!"

"Yes, its all sparkly. huh?"

I turned and looked at the kitchen. It was covered with glitter - which, is ofcourse, the bane of my crafty existence. It gets everywhere and even after cleaning up, you can find traces of it in the clothes, mouths, faces and food for a week

"Where did you take the glitter from?"

"From the top shelf on the book shelf. I climbed it like a monkey!"

She was so proud that i didnt have the heart to scold her. I got the glitter cleaned though.
On Sunday morning, the girls did some painting. Anjali painted an old picture of a Zoo that i had drawn, and Sophia painted a cat. Then they made handprints and painted pista shells and egg shells and in general made a big mess.

Where does the kitchen figure into this story, you may wonder. After the mess was made, and because I was cooking, i gave the girls a small bucket, a mop, a couple of rage and told them to clean the floor. This they did, in good spirit, mopping, and wiping and cleaning the tables



However, at some point I came out to check on the girls, and happened to peek into the glitter filled kitchen, and this is what I saw



My dear little toddler had taken the sink at its word and poured water into the sink to bathe her rhinoceros and oponus (Hippopotamus). I screamed, but just a bit. Husband taught me that if we tilted the board and put it under the fan, it will (or should) dry out. And afterall, it was a sink, and so it is logical that it should get filled with water.

i remember when we bought the playhouse for Anjali when she was two and she tried to climb inside it.

At the restaurant

We were at Annalakshmi yesterday evening. After dinner, I had ordered some tea (I am partial to Annalakshmi tea) and we were showing the children the statues that adorn the walls of the restaurant.

After a minute, husband turned

"Where is Anjali?"

Anjali was not there, and a second later we heard a cry. Anjali's hands were wedged between the restaurant door. it appeared that she had gotten outside, and tried to come in and had somehow gotten her hand stuck. Husband carried her and took her up tp calm her and show her the toy cars.

"Anchaali!", called Sophia.

"Mummy, Anchaali tieing."

"Yes Sophia, Anjali is crying"

"Fall down Anchali"

"No, Anjali didnt fall down"

"Fall down Anchaali door ulla tieing"

"No Sophia, Anjali didnt fall down, she got her hand stuck in the door"

later, after Anjali had calmed down, we went out from the restaurant. As we passed the door, Sophia said

"Anchalli tuck door ulla"

New Family members

Several new members have joined our family. More than that, they join, stay and leave, and then come back. Prominent among the new family members are Sandy and Planty.

Sandy and Planty are, as reader would know, little fetuses that grow in the thoppais of my daughters, who practice a very technologically advanced form of surrogate motherhood, wherein the fetuses can be transferred from one thoppai to another in a matter of seconds and transferred back. i am sure that even Vyasa didnt think of techniques such as these when he wrote the Vishnu Purana.

The children are also full of plans about hat they would do with Sandy and Planty when they comee out. These range from "Taaie" to "leave with mummy while going to office" to "getting married" to "having ot of visitors when the baby comes out"

The exact species that Sandy and planty belong to, is also not clear. One day they are little babies and another day, they are dinosaurs. Yesterday, they were baby monkeys. Exactly how baby monkeys can be born from girls, I am not sure, but I guess the kids who have such advanced technologies for fetal transplantation can vome up with some sort of cross species conception and delivery. Afterall, didnt the wives of Kasyapa actually give birth to snakes and garudas?

Can i patent these technologies? I wonder

Londin brige falling down

Sophia was playing with legos. She tries hard to twist and turn and get the blocks in a stack. Sometimes she doesnt get it, but mostly she does and runs excitedly to proudly display the "tower" to daddy.

"Daddy see! Daddy see!"

One tower was misaligned. Sophia lifted it up and exclaimed.

"London Bridge falling down like this!!!"

Once she didnt get the top block to fit properly and bang! the meticulously consructed tower crashed to the floor. Sophia began to cry

"What happened?" asked mummy and daddy

"Fall downing!!" she exclaimed, morosely

National harmony day

Anjali wore, after much deliberation, a yellow pattu pavadai and green top. According to her, Naomi wore a green pattu pavadai, Kiran brought sweets, Mikeala brought no thing and Tricia brought jelly and wore a red chinese dress.

Some children wore uniforms and some children wore national harmony clothes.

Caps for sale

"Anjali", I said, "can you go to the table and find a book called "Caps for sale?". I borrowed it from the library for us to read"\


"Mummy, can you come with me and help me to find the book?", asked Anjali.

"You try to find it Anjali. It has a picture of a man sitting on a tree"

Anjali turned to go, but turned back almost immediately.

"mummy, the home book is matching with my school book."

"What do you mean?"

"My school book also has a man sitting on a tree, and it is called Caps for Sale"

"Really? Well, then see if you can find the book in the table and bring it here"

She went to the living room and returned shortly with the book

"Caps for sale! Caps for Sale!"

"Is this the same book as your school?"

"Yes"

So we read the book and she proceeded to tell the story and all the actions very nicely. I wrote a note to Mrs Arul about it.

Sophia's learning

On Saturday, we were waiting at the busstop for a taxi. the grass behind the busstop were mowed and there were piles of grass everywhere. Sophia and Anjali decided that playing with the grass clippings was an excellent way to pass the time while waiting for transport. Sophia took some grass and strewed it all around the pavement.

"oshtich!" she said "make oushe!"

Husband was astounded. I wrote about the ostrich nests, but other than that, no particular reference was made to the episode at home. Yesteday, when we went to westmall, the grass clippings were still there are Sophia still continued to make oushes for the oshtiches

===========

There is a magazine shop in Bukit Batok interchange that Sophia calls "Bumble bee shop"

Neither thattha, nor daddy could figure out why

i understood why, the name of the shop is "buzz" (i told her that last week when taking her to patti's house and she has been calling it bumble bee shop ever since)

======
At the doctor, there was a computer

"Mummy... champooter... lmnop" (there is writing on the computer)

Voices

Yesterday I took Sophia and Anjali to the doctor. The doctor examined Sophia and declared that she has rarely seen a kid under 24 months talk as much as this one.

"How come she can speak so much?" asked the doctor
"She learns from her big sister", piped up the big sister

===

The doctor examines Sophia, took off her diapers and checked her privates, then put her diaper up

"pee pee place chodathai!" says Sophia

Somehow I dont think I need worry about this girl too much

(For Bunica, thodathai means dont touch)

=========

Yesterday evening, thattha and husband went to get some shhirts for husband's birthday. Anjali and Sophia went along. Then thattha took Anjali exploring west mall. They came back and it was time for us to go home

"Mummy, but I want to first go to the shoe shop and buy slippers"

Anjali had lost her butterfly slippers in the taxi about a month ago. She foorgot about them for a long time until now, when she wants the slippers.

Sophia was very tired, having been vaccinated and not having had enough nap in the afternoon. So it was in my interest to get the girls home. Anjali ofcourse had the beginnings of a tantrum

"But Anjali, why didnt you ask daddy or thattha when you went to west mall with them?"

"I asked thattha, but he didnt listen!"

Thattha, however, claims otherwise

"She just wanted to go to the fourth floor (timezone arcade) and then wanted to paint. But I told her that i had no money, just a credit card, so she said ok. She didnt say anything about shoes"

Anjali made no comments, but this morning, before going to school, she tells me "When you come back from office, let's go to Mr West mall, do painting and then buy slippers"

A visit to bollywood veggies

It was raining on Sunday when we went with the kids to bollywood veggies. Husband was amused by what the trip offered. He had imagined walking with the girls and explaining the plants to them, but the children had good fun dragging umbrellas and getting wet. Perhaps it was the rain. But atleast they know what a banana plant looks like.

We combined it with a trip to the goat farm, but the goat farm is not worth more than 30minutes, as we cant really touch the goats. Then there is no possibility of a taxi back (even a call taxi is not possible, and the bus has a duration of 1 hour 30 minutes). The goat milk is delicious though


The farm was beautiful though, rather back country and very scenic.

pista shells and scratch art

Pista shells maks a good substitute for coins in scratch art projects.


Here is the final project. Sophia calls it the rainbow. It is made by putting different colores crayons as a base and coloring it over with black crayon on top. Then we can use shells to scratch off the black and get the underlying rainbow of colors.

The cake and pizza makers

I dont often get pictures of the girls helping me cook, as i usually have my hands full. However, these days, i get a better time, as they, especially Anjali, holds her own in many parts of the cooking process


Transferring batter from the mixing to the baking bowl is one of Anjali's favorite jobs, especially as it involves licking the batter afterwards. Here's a mocha pudding we made one day

Another day, Anjali and Sophia helpied me to knead pizza dough. I thought that given the chances of a mess, the dining tabe would be the best place for the kneading process.

Here is Anjali, the next morning, putting topping on the pizza



The pizza in the oven

It tasted divine.

When i really want Sophia occupied What do i do?

A painting that Anjali wanted to do

New indoor playground

There is a new indoor playground at the CSC, and Anjali insists on a few minutes after ballet everyday

A large painting

We did this one using mixed crayon cakes and colored with watered down food coloring. One of the first introductions to crayon resist.

Looking Duty in the face

Patti was suddenly hospitalized for a couple of days and on Monday I had the task of taking care of the children. It was the first time, since Anjali was born, that i had the task of taking care of the children was a whole day, something patti does day in and day out. It was the mother's duty, one I had always copped out of, and never looking at.

on Monday, it was the inevitable task, and I looked it in the face and found it to be a friend, as duty always is when we look at it honestly. Sophia and I read, drew and played until it was time to fetch Anjali from school. Then the girls and I had lunch and did a number of activities. I ttried to make them sleep at around three, but as it was a no go, asked them to help me bake bread instead. When, after kneading the dough, the girls were full of dough, I dunked them in the bathroom while finishing the cooking. They played in the bathroom for an hour, with the faucet on small, and making toilet paper sculptures and cake.

At 5, I took them to the playground and stayed there for an hour, bringing them back home for dinner. When husband returned around 8pm, they were both fed. Sophia fell asleep soon after, but Anjali played on till around 10pm.

Yesterday, it was husband's turn to take care of the children in the morning. When i returned from work in the afternoon, he had both children eating and playing. Kudos!

Sophia's words

Yesterday, husband and i took the girls to the market. There is a playgound there and Anjali has been bugging me for a tingaling for her bicycle for nearly three months, I needed to buy paints -  I was low.

After buying the tingaling, husband agreed to watch the girls for a bit while I went to the dollar store to buy paints. I came back after about ten minutes. The girls were exploring the playground and around.

"Sophia talks in full sentences", said husband. "she talks about everything as she plays in them"

This was not news to me. I know that Sophia talks in full sentences. She would say things like

"Shapia do it. Anchali also. Baby shark sad.. wuh wuh. gasha book. shapia eat ice pop " etc

I then realized (it comes to me suddenly sometimes) that Sophia is barely one year and a half. I went back the blog - thats the nice thing about having a blog, that we can go back and see. Around december 2008, I was posting a lot about how Anjali was talking two world like daddy change shirt, anniya mop etc. About how we were so excited and how I reproduced entire conversations of two syllables in typewriting.  I dont reproduce conversations with Sophia (well, not very often), but all the talking she does really makes me marvel.

The other day, Anjali was standing at the kitchen counter helping me make cake and Sophia was carrying garfield in the kitchen.

"Mummy taie", she said

"Why do you want me to carry you?" I asked

"Baby see Anchali mix take", she said.

I was left mouth open. She wanted me to carry her, not because she wanted to see the cake mixing, but because she wanted her baby to see Anjali mixing cake. That is very advanced, i think.

Mrs Arul

We were at the shop a couple of days ago to buy barley. I found a nie recipe with barkey, cheese and sour cream, that I thought husband may like. The shop keeps a lot off junk sweets near the cashier.

Sophia picked up a sweet.

"Mrs ayu, feed me this"

I am sure that Mrs Arul has never met Sophia, much less fed her with junk sweets from the shop, but I was surprised that she picked up on a long ago conversation with Anjali (before Mrs Arul became her teacherl) about how her teacher gives her junk food. Then, ofcourse, Sophia knows that Mrs Arul is Anjali's teacher.

Smart of her to put it together.  

national harmony day

Anjali's school is celebrating National harmony day on Wednesday. I received a note from her teacher asking for her to be dressed in traditional clothes and wear traditional tidbits . So i asked her

"Anjali, you can wear traditional clothes on National harmony day and take some food. What do you want to wear and take?"

"i want to wear pattu pavadai and take mamaliga"

"Anjali, would you like to wear a beautiful Romanian costume?" i was wining it a bit, as the Romanian costume is too short now

"No mummy, I want to wear a pattu pavadai"

"But all the Indian children will wear pattu pavadai. If you wear a Romanian dress, you will look different"

"No mummy."

I let it pass, then said, "Anjali, you know Mamaliga is a Romanian dish. If you want to bring Mamaliga, it is nicer to wear a Romanian dress"

Anjali paused and considered.

"Ok. i have a good idea", she said. "I will wear a pattu pavadai and take pulau"

Introduction to chapter books

After the success of the Shapia do it book, I wanted to make another book for Anjali. Since I have been trying a couple of times to introduce chapter books - I tried the magix treehouse series, but didnt like it too much, and nor did Anjali. So I wrote a book for the girls, adapted from some of the nicer posts in this blog. The girls, especially Anjali, loves it, as it details their adventures, statements and misadventures. Here is the word document of the book.

Like the Shapia do it book, I sewed up A4 paper in hald like a book and bound it with cloth. A red construction paper served as a binder and yellow paper as border. The printed pages were stuck inside and I also added some simple hand illustrations. Anjali knows of the book and she makes me read a bit from it. Since they are about her, she knows, or can predict what comes with a fair accuracy.

I'll take care of you

When mummy came back from office on Thursday, Sophia and Patti were sitting in the garden. As mummy parked her bicycle, Sophia came running up.

"Mummy, Mummy!" She exclaimed.

"Hello Sophia!", Mummy said

"Mummy, mummy! Anchali akka sheed me!" said Sophia

"Anjali Akka fed you?" asked Mummy

"hmm", said Sophia, nodding vigorously.

"What did Anjali akka feed you?"

"paata!" exclaimed Sophia.

"Anjali akka fed you pasta? Did you like it?"

"hmm!" exclaimed Sophia, nodding again.

Later, Anjali, Sophia, mummy and daddy went to the swimming pool. Anjali and Sophia had a lot of fun in the swimming pool. This is what they did in the pool.
1. They played in the wave pool
2. They splashed each other
3. They played in the Jacuzzi
4. They slid down the big slide
5. They put leaves in the water and let it float.

Anjali was getting very good at swimming. She was even able to swim in the jacuzzi using a swimming noodle. Mummy was very proud when Anjali did that.

After swimming, Mummy took Anjali and Sophia to the shower. Anjali did not want to leave the swimming pool.

"Anjali, after we change, you can show Sophia the new playground", mummy said

"Which new playground?"

"That playground which is near your ballet class", said mummy.

So Anjali and Sophia took a shower. During the shower, Anjali asked Sophia

"Sophia, do you want to go to my ballet class playground? Yes?"

"Yes!", said Sophia. It is one of the few times that Sophia says yes.

But the ballet class playground was closed and so they had to come back home. At home, Anjali and Sophia ate some chocolate fudge. THen they talked to bunica and went to bed.

In bed mummy asked Anjali,

"Anjali, Sophia told me that you fed her this afternoon. Did you feed her pasta?"

"Yes mummy.", Said Anjali. "Sophia is my sister and I will feed her and take care of her"

"When mummy goes to America, will you feed her also and take care of her?" asked mummy

"Yes mummy." said Anjali. She then turned to Sophia. "Sophia, when mummy goes to America, I will take care of you and patti will take care of me. ok?" she said. "When mummy goes to America, you will not see mummy anymore."

"No, Anjali", mummy said. "I will be back in a week"

"In a week?" asked Anjali. "A week is a long time mummy?"

"Its a bit long, yes", explained mummy. "But I will talk to you on the webcam"

"Like Bunica?" asked Anjali

"Exactly like Bunica" I said.

Anjali thought that it was very funny that I should speak to her like bunica on the webcam.  So she said to Sophia "Sophia, you can talk to mummy on the computer like bunica when mummy is in America. She will come back in one week! In the meantime I will take care of you. Ok?"

"Bua bua Now!" said Sophia

Princess Anjali

Anjali simply refused to wake up this morning. Both girls had not slept till late laast night. The lights were off, but they simply couldnt sleep. Sophia was up all night and this morning had a running nose.

"Anjali, so you want to be a princess this morning?"

That woke her up. she came into the bath with me

"How do princesses take a bath mummy?", she asked

"Well, they wash their arms and legs and their thoppais and ears and face", i said

"Then they wash their hair?" Anjali asked.

I considered. "Yes".

Anjali washes her hair three times a day, under various pretexts.

So she washed her hair and wore princess uniforms and princess socks and princess underwear. She ate princess noodles (Princesses eat by themselves, but we were running late, so they let the queens feed them)

We went to catch the elevator. Anjali pressed the button.

"What did you call Anjali?"

"the lift." she said

"no. its a carriage to take us downstairs"

The school bus was yet another carriage and when i put her on it I said

"Look out for the horses"

and she nodded gravely

Anjali's poem

(With actions)
I have ten fingers
I can make them do things
I can make them go up
I can make them go down
I can make them crawl
I can make them walk
I can make them hug mummy
I can make them hug Sophia
I can make them love myself!

"Mummy, I love myself. Do you love yourself?"

"Yes I do. Anjali, you say a lot of nice poetry. Adi, Anjali will be a poet when she grows up, like Shelley and Keats"

"No, mummy, I want to be a mummy when i grow up"

"You can be two things you know, a mummy and a poet"

"huh?"

"Yes, Mummy is a mummy and a toy maker and a researcher. daddy is a daddy and an engineer and a runner"

"Ok. In that case, i want to be a mummy and a.... a tortoise. "

Anchali akka

At the playground there were lots of children. Sapna wanted to carry and cuddle Sophia, but Sophia didnt want to. She kept wanting Anjali to help her, carry her and take her on pony rides. And she kept calling Anjali "Anjali akka".

Anjali is also very proud of being called "Akka". Thats my baby sister, she tells all the children in the playground - the new children whom she doesnt know. 

When Sophia walks, Anjali ggoes up to her and asks, very nicely

"Sophia, you want to hold akkuchi's hand?"

"Anjali, why do you say Akkuchi?", I asked her. I remember that Chandru periyappa used to call Akila "Akkuchi" when we were both young, but to the best of my knowledge no one used the word Akkuchi in front of Anjali.

"Because I love my baby sister, and if you love your baby sister, you must say Akkuchi", said Anjali.

That reply doesnt quite satisfy my curiosity, but i suppose it will have to do, since no better reply can be gotten.

The chinmaya Shloka book

padmini aunty had compiled a shloka book and cd that she passed for the kids. For a long time, it was sitting untouched, and one day patti and I decided to play it. the children didnt really pay much attention.

On Sunday morning, I found the book on the table and was singing aloud some of the songs in it. Sophia was toddling around playing. She came up to me, looked at the back of my book. Then she want away. A minute later, she was back.

She had gone to the cd case, looked inside and found the cd with the same cover as the book.

"Well done Sophia", i said.

Even husband was impressed.

thoppai babies

Anjali was telling us about her babies and asking me to take care of them when she went to office.

"Shapia!" said Sophia

"What about you?" I asked

"Baby thapai"

"You have babies in your thoppai?"

"hmm" (vigourous nod)

"How many babies do you have?"

"On"

"Mummy, I have two babies"

"You have two babies?"

"Shapia two babies!"

"You have two babies also?"

(More vigorous nods)

"What are your babies' names?"

"Anchaali"

"Your babies' name is Anjali?"

(More nods)

"My babies are called Sandy and Planty"

"Shandy planty Shapia"

"Your babies are also called Sandy and planty?"

(Many many vigorous nods)

A sewing activity

I have been reading the montessori book for writing and there was a lot of emphasis there on threading and sewing as fine motor activities. I lost the pink plastic needle somewhere so I needed a nice cloth for embroidery. I looked into teh discarded clothes bag and found one of Sophia's old tops - the market sold these tops at 3 for 5 dollars. The fabric has got some really small holes. I cut up the fabric and traced Anjali's hand on it. I also gave her some yarn to go at it.As the needle was lost, I just glued the edge of the yarn to make it more straight. To make sure she has a frame, I staples the cloth onto a cut out cereal box hoop. (i should put a picture to make this clearer)

Sophia, ofcourse, is too young for threading, but I punched holes on a side of a postcard and put yarn all around it incase she wants her own sewing piece. More seing updates in time to come.

God in my heart

Anjali was making towers with her wooden blocks on Sunday morning. At some stage, the blocks collapsed and landed on her.

"I didnt get hurt mummy", said Anjali. "Even though the blocks fell on me, i didnt get hurt"

"Thats good"

"Jesus is in the blocks' heart", she continued. "Thats why I didnt get hurt"

She brings God into almost every other conersation. We have gotten a book on Ganesha out of the library and Sophia is very fond of the story. its the idea of Ganesha, together with the fact that there are elephants in the book, that makes it appealing to her. She takes the book out very often and says "anai toie, gasha toie" and when we are reading, she would go "Gasha charanam ganesha!"

When we were reading the story i read "Parvati thought that Shiva was the most wonderful person.

"mummy, Krishna is also the most wonderful person"

"Shiva had seen the world", I read on

"Krishna will also see the world when he grows bigger"

Some overdue pictures

Sunny and Alfred were over for dinner last weekend - a reunion eight years after graduation. Here are some pictures. Alfred took more, but we'll have to wait for those

Sophia showing her favorite activity to Christopher
I never knew that pista shells were so popular, Anjali draws on them sometimes.

Little baby stella.

A conversation on scolding

Once in a while, I have conversations with the children that I never want to forget. On Friday evening, we were getting ready to go to the playground. Anjali was waiting at the door

"Mummy, why you are always scolding me?"

"I dont always scold you Anjali."

"No mummy, you always scold me."

"Do I?"

"Yes"

"Can you tell me when I scolded you?"

"you scold me when i push Sophia"

"Anjali, Pushing Sophia will hurt her. it is wrong. So I scold you. When children do wrong things, the parent can scold them"

"No mummy. When children do wrong things, the parents should not scold them"

"What should they do then?"

"They should hug them"

It took me a while to digest this.

"Ok. Next time you do wrong thing, I will hug you and then you dont do the wrong thing anymore ok?"

"Ok!"

"But sometimes, mummy may forget to hug you and scold you, because i am so used to it. If I scold you, will you tell me to not scold you and to hug you instead?"

"Ok!"

So over the weekend, everytime Anjali did something naughty, i asked her to give me a hug. if that bit of naughtiness involved Sophia, she would give me a hug and blithely say "Sorry, Sophia!"

Only once I scolded her. Last night, she was helping me make a chocolate cake and was standing on her blue chair. I warned her to not climb on the kitchen counter, as there was a slow cooker full of hot beans and a kettle that i had set with boiling water. She tried to scramble again on the table, as she wanted to sit on the table and watch the cake process. I raised my voice.

"ANJALI!"

She stopped a beat before bursting to tears. I was not bothered so much by the bursting to tears, i know I can handle it well enough. I was bothered more by the pause. It was as if she was waiting for the hug that never came. Husband was in the kitchen and hugged her instead, but I am still a little overcome with the guilt

Imitation

"Mummy, here - Chocolate cake for you", said Anjali, holding her hand out

We were at the playground and Anjali was doing one of her favorite activities - chocolate cake making. This was a rather interesting affair, which involves taking sand from near the tree, shaping it to a cake and putting candles on it for someone's happy birthday. The candles were flowers.

"Mummy, its your happy birthday today"

"thake", said Sophia. "tuni sella tuala!"

Anjali went around the tree, getting more chololate to put on her cake. Sophia took chocolate from Anjali's cake and began to make her own cake. (Sophia couldnt reach the earth on the other side as there was a barrier over which Anjali could reach but she couldn't.) Anjali got more earth and put mounds of earth on the little platform. At some point she reached the mound that was Sophia's cake. She took it to add to her own mound. At that point, Sophia had gone around the tree to search for more earth. Anjali had left her nest and Sophia took her chocolate. They went like that - Anjali taking Sophia's earth and Sophia taking Anjali's for over ten minutes before they met at a station. There they had a nice little fight. One of the two had begun a chocolate cake on a piece of paper, which the other tried to snatch. The chocolate cake fell to the ground and the girls were left holding either end of the paper.

"Mummy, see! Sophia is snatching my chocolate cake!"

"Go make more chocolate cake!", I said, trying to be diplomatic.

Anjali went off to make more cake, and the process of making and taking continued for a while more. but it was a lot shorter, as both girls were aware that the other was taking their cake. Another fight begun.

"Mummy! Anchaali. take thake" (take cake), "wuh wuh, shapia thake do it!"

Then they ran off to play in the swing and all was sunshine again.