the little bratty non listening thingies that i call my kids

Why do little kids, when they turn around two years old, take an insane pleasure in testing to see how far your limits go?

Why do we get a little baby standing near a dustbin, not only ignoring our nos, but also turning around and saying "Aaaah" before continuing to dig into biodegradable waste?

Why do we get a preschooler who, at ten in the evening, reminds us that she was good all day and that we should let her play with sparklers. And when she returns from playing with sparklers immediately throws a tantrum about not going to bed and wanting to eat peanut butter, drink milo, read book and then sleep?

Why does a toddler, who, six months ago, barely knoew how to say da da, say "stoie" and when you get a book, cries, takes the book back, and then comes back and cries "stoie" again?

Why does the same toddler ignore all the advice about hygene and pick up and examine rubbish that has been left in the elevator?

Why does the preschooler refuse to listen to advice about going to bed and hug the pillow in the morning when its time to wake up and insists on taking the pillow with her to thhe bathroom?

Atleast the guinea pig is predictable.

More bala gopala pictures

hamsters and god daughter duty

We were planning to go to Shree Valli's house and got sidetracked by hamsters. Says Anjali

"Lets go to Shree Valli akka's house. then when we come back we'll play with hamsters"

"the shop will close when we come back"

She stopped and considered.

"What time Shree Valli akka will sleep?"

"Quite late, but then you must sleep at 10. We can go on Wed to Shree Valli akka's house"

"On Wednesday, Shree Valli will still have a fracture?"

"I think so, yes"

""Ok. We will go on Wednesday"

rattle rattle

Mummy, do you want to talk about my Sandy Planty?

With punctuations from Sophia

My girl grows up on me

Bala gopala

Bala gopala: All dressed up. Anjali looks like the personification of naughtiness in Krishna

I make a fairly passable Yashoda

Just before the program

Andal and Krishna

Feeding an Elusive Krishna

Krishna ran away

Eating earth. Indiignant mother

Dancing around yashoda

Radha and Krishna dance

Krishna and Yashoda dance

Curtain call

Advance pretend play

Anjali and I were in Cinderella's cage, feeding corn stalks to the pig. Cinderella loves corn silks and the tender leaves that are inside the corn. He wont have anything to do with the tougher outer leaves. Sophia came into the cage and started putting straw all over my pants. When I told her off, she refused to listen, and put hay all over my hair. ("I wont get straw on me mummy!", said Anjali "because Bingo will protect me. ")

 

So I sent her away to play with chestnuts. She was putting chestnuts and transferring them with a spoon and everything for about fifteen minutes, and was so quietly working, saying things to herself like

 

"Cook… take out… pour, eat.. vei nishe! Pour! Mum mum!"

 

 

Later, we were in patti's room, and Sophia took a baby doll.

 

"Amma. Thish is baby"

 

"This is your baby?"

 

"mm. What called name?" (Sophia speaks English like those clerks in Indian movies, who get all the words right in the wrong positions)

 

"Is it sandy?" (from the sandy planty duo)

 

"no!!  Thish called name lava"

 

I was intrigued by the uniqueness of the name.

 

"where's Kusha?", Sophia continued

 

"Where's Kusha?" I repeated

 

"Anchalli take away Kusha!!" she cried.

 

Later, in the taxi, on the way to the kite festival, Sophia was playing with Kusha all by herself, feeding him, and giving bua and stuff

throwing the baby out with the bath water

Husband was in charge of cleaning the guinea pig cage in my absence. I was in the plane when I got a call - he had rolled the guinea pig together with the newspaper

The crazy cage

Husband built this over the weekend. I kid you not - its big enough to fit ten pigs and two girls. We thought that it was a good idea for Anjali - she kept getting Cinderella out of the small cage and trapping him between her legs. We really didnt want that. We also wanted him to run around, without worrying about him getting under furniture, chewing cords etc. The solution was to get a cage big enough for him to run around, and big enough for the girls to get in. Here's what we ended up with. 

The girls and the pig giving the cage a trial run when it was under construction

Cinderella's house. We have since then modified the house to several different hidey holes

The girl and her guinea pig. A love story

Sophia's hair cut

Sophia went to cut her hair yesterday. She stayed surprisingly quiet in my arms while the hairdresser chopped off her nice thick curls. Then she finished and we found out why she had stayed quyiet.

"Anchalli cut hair now!"

 

Luckily, Anjali also needed a trim

Cinderella Bingo

Cinderella joining our evening reading session.

In the morning, when Anjali wakes up, she makes a beeline for the guinea pig cage. She gets husband or muyself to take the pig out and she plays with him.Husband says that having a guinea pig makes her wake up early.

The pig, i think is more familiar with her than with others, climbing on her hand and eating hay from her hands. (her still refuses to eat hay from my hands, though i caught him sneaking corn leaves and carrot sticks into his house five minutes after I had left his cage)

Yesterday night, I left a snack of apples, and this morning, he had not touched the food. i found it curious and went to investigate. The apples had attracted ants over the night and our pig, i guess is mighty picky. So I washed out the plate and put fresh food and carrots.

Here are more updates and pictures

Setting him outdoor from his cage

cinderella reading books

Cinderella climbing on Anjali

Anjali has to make sure she wears a jetti because he likes to burrow between her legs

We must be crazy, i guess

So, we got a guinea pig. Its currently housing in our living room, with a plate of carrots and hay, which it keeps munching.

Anjali first wanted to call it (him) Cinderella and eventually changed the name to Bingo. But husband likes Cinderella better. So Anjali wants husband and herself to call him Cinderella and Sophia and me to call him Bingo.

This morning, she woke up and was sitting next to the cage for forty five minutes.

The pig was a bit scared of his new home and people yesterday, but is better this morning. He let me and Anjali to stroke him, although I think it will be a while before we coax him out of his cage into our arms.

Museum of bio diversity research

Photo by our budding photographer

Another photo by our budding photographer

photo  by me

All other photos were by the budding photogrpaher

Anjali painting

Anjali and I went to the pet store in west mall to see what kind off guinea pig food was available, and the general cost of guinea pig maintainence. Then, on our way back, we passed the paint shop and Anjali wanted to paint. She chose a gingerbread man, and I was quite amazed by how far her painting skills have improved since we did this the last time. Nice features include - Symmetry and pattern generation (The left and the right cheek were both green, both legs had sandwiches on it etc). Also, Anjali has learnt to use her q-tip, push the paint around, and then to clean the q-tip with a tissue paper before taking the next paint.

I tried not to interfere (much) and just observed her painting, and I really learnt much

Sophia talking

It is a well known fact that Sophia talks two to a dozen

"She talks more in one day than you ever did in your whole life", I told husband this morning.

Not just that, she also knows all the songs ever in existence and has a perfect tone (I should try to put her in vocal or something)

She sings, some of which we know, some which we can guess, and some which we donot know. The trouble comes when she asks me to join her in singing those songs that I donot know. She would hum something, stop and then say "amma shing!"

=======

Yesterday night, Anjali had a sleepover at patti's house. Sophia, husband and i came back home and spent some time reading. SOphia's favorite bok, is ofcourse, brown bear brown bear. And now, she has added Lemons are not red to her reading list. We borrowed it several months ago for Anjali, but Anjali already knew her colors.  Sophia is just learning her colors and it is a perfect book for her right now, the die cut pages making reading a pleasure.

doll show at HDB hub

There is a doll show at the HDB hub where they are displaying dolls dressed in the costumes of different countries. We didnt spend too much time there, as we were running to the SPCA, but it might be a worthwhile trip to those who live nearby.

ToaPayoh has gotten a real facelift since we stayed there twelve years ago

So, we settled on a guinea pig

So, we settled on a guinea pig. We even found a very beautiful, very sleek black and white guinea pig at the SPCA.

We were at the SPCA on sunday afternoon after the walk. Sophia was very astounded by all the animals "Sho manny dogsh!", she kept saying.

After looking at all the animals, we finally settled on a beautiful guinea pig, which all of us, Anjali included, liked. It was black and white, with a very sleek fur, and liked to burrow and hide under newspaper.

Unfortunately, she was taken. Two families had already placed a reservation on her, and they were waiting for the vet to finish the sterilization procedures. Now, both Anjali and husband and (I must admit) me also, have fallen quite in love with the sleek rabbit like creature. So much that we are looking for another one.

Lets see where this adventure leads us.

Imam Bayildi: The best ever way of wooking eggplants

What is needed:
eggplants
A large baking tray or corningware which can be covered
Tomatoes
onions
sugar
salt
parsley
garlic
red bell pepper

How to do
1. The night before salt the eggplants (cut in half lengthwise), put in colander and let drain in fridge
2. Drain the next morning
3. Fry eggplants cut side down in oil for five minutes or so. take out the eggplants
4. fry onion garlic bell pepper in the same oil and then add tomatoes, 1tsp sugar, salt, papper parsley etc
5. Put eggplants in corningware such that the fried side is up and then put the tomato mixture on top of it.
6. Bake, covered at 180 degrees for half an hour

Heaven with a bit of crusted bread

Radha and Krishna

Sophia was Krishna and Anjali was Radha. Ofcourse, Krishna refused point blank to wear a band on his head with a peacock feather, although we tried multiple times, but he refused to take off his dhothi until after we got home from patti's house

Stay still Krishna and Radha, and let me take a proper picture

Finally, the proper picture

Isnt this adorable and the very picture of devotion??

Radha favored oma podi and Krishna favored - big surprise - aval

Krishna, donot stick your tongue out - its not becomming

Enjoying the food

Radha did spend some time praying

And enjoying the festivities

But Krishna was so focused on the food

And soon Radha too joined in

More aval for me!!