I cyed becaushe

Sophia threw several tantrums on Anjali's birthday. After the third tantrum, I took her in the bed room, locked the door, got husband to stay with Anjali and kept her in my arms until she subsides, then got her to tell me what was the problem. The problem was that she wanted her own birthday cake.

After she had gotten it out, she was better and played fine. Here are some of the things Sophia wants and cant get

======================
"I want to stay with Anjali in school!!!"

Well she couldn't and we were registering her. She played happily in the office while we finished the registration formalities, playing in the rocking horse, pulling the baby chair, running all over the office, enticing sweets out of the staff.

Then she realized that she was still going home with us.

"I want to go to school!"

"You can go next year."

"I want to go to school now!!!"

"Physically, she is eligible. She seems ready for school", says the staff. "Maybe you can send her for the afternoon session from term three. But then she will have to repeat N1 again next year"

This ofcourse is not an option for us. 6 months more of school without any particular gain? No thanks.

But Sophia sniffled and snivelled while husband and i discussed the reasons why we sent Anjali to playgroup at 2 years old and why we are not even considering sending Sophia to playgroup. Then husband said that Sophia learns chinese songs even without going to school, whereupon the lady in question immediately began to sing

"tou fa cian pa shou shou shou"

what ever
===================

Later, after the S cake discussion, I asked Sophia why she cried

"Mummy...", she said. "I thew a tantyum becaushe...becaushe..."

"Why?", I asked her curiously

"Fisht I thew a tantyum becaushe Anjali take aay my blue coloy, then I thew a tantyum becaushe Anjali didnt let me open that thing, then i thew a tantyum becaushe Anjali hitted me"

Well, if she can list down her tantrums in order, i am sure she can work on them
========================

I enjoy very much Friday evenings and other playdate days with kiran and Shreyas, because it is interesting to see the dynamics of development and how the children learn from each other.

Thattha, ofcourse, has a blood pressure when he sees four kids in the house, but I quite enjoy it.

Kiran positively sits for stories about 10 percent of the time, and Anjali takes pleasure in showing her work to Kiran. She invites him to jump on the bed with her.

YEsterday Anjali took the pick up sticks to make a square. Anjali made a square with four sticks.

Kiran took the remaining sticks and started lying them around.

What are you making Kiran?

"I am making a big quire!"

It had six sticks and was a rectangle, but that is just the technicalities

And then the kids were painting with glitter. I had to be extra cautious there because of Anjali's new dress, but they were doing fine. Then Anjali and kiran squabbled over the silver glitter (There were six other tubes on the floor)

"Which color do you want Kiran?"

"I want this color!" (pointing to the one Anjali was holding)

But all in all, the two of them are learning to share and take turns. Guess they are learning. b

Celebrations for Anjali's birthday

Anjali has had something like fours celebrations for her birthday. Here is how it happened

part 1: Fidgets

Last week: Mummy, lets go to fidgets, please!! We have never been to fidgets in a long time!!

Incidentally Anjali's piano class this week got cancelled, and we decided to take her to fidgets instead. On Saturday, we packed lunch and headed out to Turf city, making a detour to Horse city. The girls are ofcourse fairly cool with the pony riding business. Here is Anjali on the pony



Sophia actually went first on the pony and showed her support for the activity thus : "la la la la laaa laaa"



Then we hit fidgets while husband went shopping to giant (The man takes it easy!) while I had to climb through squeezing contraptions and five storey slides and tunnels multiple times.

=======================
Part 2: Walk and brunch cake cutting

Swati: if you are reading this, Ananya's sudoku ball somehow ended up in my handbag. Will pass to you next time we meet. Do tell her.

Of course, Anjali woke up at 6.30 on the day of the walk, despite having slept late because of the ICC cricket match (India Won!!). Girls had matching dresses, Anjali walked four km with patti around the reservoir, Sophia rode on daddy's shoulders most of the time, and four girls (unless you count Ananya having two knives) cut the princess cake. No photos on that one. Anjali wore her white princess dress
======================

Part 3: Celebration at school

At first Anjali was going all out for buying a cake. But we discussed the cake husband made for Sophia and suddenly Anjali remembered the cake with Poseidon that she had picked out when we were doing Sophia's birthday cake

"I want the mermaid birthday cake" (three days before her birthday)

Ofcourse, i lost no time in telling her that she needed to give us a couple of weeks if she wanted birthday cakes like that (one for making the cake and one for mental preparation).

"Can you make me a heart shaped cake with butterflies?"

Until Sunday afternoon, i tried various means of getting her to let me buy a cake from the shop like "Let's buy a birthday cake and make a pudding" to which she would answer

"Lets make a cake and buy a pudding"

Yucks. "anyone can bake a cake, but only mummy can make puddings that daddy likes to eat!"

To which her reply was

"Lets make a cake and a pudding"

Gosh!

on Sunday morning when we were going for the walk, I tried to worm out of it by telling her that we didnt have time to bake a cake! How could we because we had a walk

"Make it this afternoon", she answered. "When we come back from the walk, you hurry up and make it"

I gave up and decided that making the cake was sure to be faster than arguing.

First she wanted vanilla icing, Then I found a recipe for chocolate icing that seemed simple, but she wouldnt have any of it. So we went back to vanilla icing. And here is what we ended up with. Not half bad



On Monday morning, here is what Anjali wore


Here is what Sophia wore!





My heart shape M&M cake in school


All the kids wanted the m&ms. A fair number of takers wanted cake too.





Was Anjali happy? At some level, she felt something else was needed, so on Sunday evening she asked why didnt have a pizza party like Sophia. So we had one - a small one, with just Kiran and Shreyas and patti, but the kids made ad ate pizza, patti got carrot halwa and they had some craft games.


Somewhere in the middle of it all, Sophia had a tantrum of course, and claimed that she wanted a cake with only "S" and no "A", so i sent discrete messages to everyone who would call to speak with Sophia as well.

Cricket's in the air

So India won the world cup semi finals. And husband and I kept a very close eye on the scores website yesterday. the girls, who were busy outside playing with paper mache (Anjali's idea) got no more than cursory attention. To be fair, before husband came and set up the internet (The desktop is down and only husband's laptop can be connected), I worked with the girls to create two vases. But once the score was up I was flitting in and out of the house like the fastest bumble bee in the world.

Anjali joined me in some of my cheers and chants ("Wicket out!! Wicket out!!") but she didnt quite understand what was the big deal. So at night, when the score was something like 92 for Pakistan with only 2 wickets, I took them to bed, still going on with husband about the match and what the odds were.

So Anjali says "Mummy, are you going to talk about cricket all night, or are you going to tell me a bedtime story?"

==========
Deja vu.

Remember when you are young and you declare categorically that you will not be like your dad? And then you grow up and discover that you are morphing into a replica?

When I was young, my dad used to watch cricket. I remember the long matches where my dad and periyappa would sit in front off the tv, with my granpa joining - and my mom and patti making comments on the short skirts the girls in the stands wear. And, since I couldnt understand head or toe of the game, I used to declare it boring and that i would never watch it.

============
I told Anjali this while I cuddled up with her in bed, and husband popping in every five minutes with a score update and ensuing analysis.

"So maybe you will also want to watch cricket when you grow up", I finished

"What?" she exclaimed, quite outraged. "I will grow up and be a farmer and be good at Maths"

"Yes, and you can also like cricket", I said

"No. I will not watch cricket when i grow up."

We'll see Anjali. We'll see

Anjali and Dee 's birthday cake

Swati messaged saying that she has ordered a cake with three princesses for Anjali and Dee's birthday celebration at the brunch.

I tole Anjali so last night

"Who are the three princesses?"

"Swati aunty says that one of them in Cinderella"

"Who are the other two princesses?"

"I dont know. But you can imagine that it is you, Ananya and Sophia" (Swati and i had previously agreed that it was a good strategy, since Deepika was still too small to contest. But I had not quite anticipated the next question)

"Then why there are not four princesses on the cake, then me, Ananya, Sophia and Deepika can be the princesses"

Well... Its a bit late to modify the cake.

Deep questions

A few days ago, Anjali's bed time question was "How did god come"

Yesterday, her question was "How do people die?"

I said "They die when their soul leaves their body"

"But where do they go when they die?"

Luckily for me, I have been listening to some of Auroville Radio talks on spirituality and was able to give her a decent answer about how the soul looks for a suitable place and environment to be born.

I better update my knowledge of the world and times in order to answer the questions.

Integral Enrichment program game: Peace

Anjali invented a game yesterday and the girls had a blast with it. I was thinking that we could make it into an enjoyable game for introducing the concepts of chaos and peace in a  way that even the young ones can get.

Props: Balls/ Balloons (Light weight balls work best), A long scarf, preferably chiffon. We used my old duppatta

The task is simple. Kids in small groups try to keep the ball in the duppatta and move it around from one person to another. It involves coordinating the duppatta and a good bit of concentration. Ofcourse, the younger kids will simply get a blast out of dropping the balls from the duppatta.

During reflection, we can bring in the ideas of harmony and working together.

Any more ideas for reinforcing the idea of peace to children?

Anjali and Sophia tie dye their petticoats

The tie dyed newspaper was a bit of a disaster. Not that it wasnt fun to make. I had mised up blue, yellow and red food color in water, and the girls had a good time dipping their tied up newspaper in the  coloring. And when that kind of had its limitations (small container, large paper sort of thing), they got scoops from the kitchen to ensure that their papers were covered.

But after all that, the letters and newsprint still showed through, and I guess I wont be using it for goody bags anyways.

When we ran out of scrunched up newspaper (I had made 8), we fell back to our old standby for tie dying - shimmies. The girls had a number of white - off white shimmies - plain stuff that they could wear at home. Sophia had tie dyed one before, to interesting effects. Ofcourse, that had been two months ago, and the shimmy had been washed to be white again.

This time we went all out. Sophia dyed one shimmy a beautiful yellow, red and rust color combination. Anjali stepped in and tried out the blues and yellows, and ofcourse that shimmy became mostly green. It would take a number of washes but eventually the shimmies would fade back to their normal colors. In the meantime, the girls can wear them.

In addition to the activity itself, I think Sophia learnt another important lesson.

She was dying. There were atleast four containers of colors. At some point ofcourse, the dyeing also involved some kind of mixing of colors. Sophia, at that stage, ended up with a gold color, which she liked very much, and which, at some point in the process, Anjali pored on the floor to facilitate her painting process.

Sophia ofcourse threw a tantrum. She wanted more golden. Goodness knows how to get gold, and I only had red, so I gave her more red. She took it, and in ten seconds ran back into the kitchen "This is not gold color. Want gold color!!"

What set me off was that she was throwing a tantrum and crying and whining.

I knelt down to her level.

"Sophia. I am giving you a warning. Next time you want something, you ask. If you cry, I will give you one more warning and then I am closing the painting shop. Ok?"

"Ok!". She was very cheerful about the okay. Especially since she had discovered that if she mixed the colors around enough she got the shade of gold that she was looking for.

And to give her credit, she didnt.

And then the girls took all the rubberbands from the tie dying and washed them in the bathroom. Ofcourse, at some point therein, they morphed the rubberband washing game into the soup making game and by the time they were finished, they were both happy and tired and it was almost time for cereal and bed.   

Tie dyed wrapping paper

I wonder if it would be a good project to do tie dyed wrapping paper to make goody bags for Anjali's birthday. I am sure that the tye dying process will be interesting and informative for the children. Whether they would be good for goddy bags is another question.

I would probably get the kids to help me to tie dye paper this evening and that would give us more time to decide for or against plastic goody bags

Tis the time of the year

Its Goody bag time once again, and patti was asking what i intended to put in Anjali's goody bag. Anjali had come home yesterday with a bag filled to the brim with junk - two packets of oreos (patti sneaked them home to distribute to after Shloka class), one packet of m&m (which I had to open, I gave each kid one m&m and promptly chucked the rest in the bin), a packet of crispies and some other mismatched random stuff which Anjali tried in turn to entice me with and that I turned down, none too gracefully, while i was cutting out a slice of my own pine apple cake for after dinner.

So i have made up my mind to make Anjali's goody bag this time round - Nothing complicated - a threading kit, a busy book and there you are.

Babies come from eggs and Shiva and Kailash

Sometimes Anjali and I have these crazy conversations, which make me feel good about how she is growing up. Here are some of them.

=======
We were discussing eggs one day and I remarked to her that she came from an egg.

"I didnt come from an egg!", she said

"Yes you did", I retorted. "Everyone comes from an egg"

"No. I came from mummy's thoppai"

"And before you came in mummy's thoppai, you were an egg"

She had just gotten up from her afternoon nap and the statement didnt sit with her. She began to cry "God put me in mummy's thoppai!!"

I let the conversation lapse. Evidently, i had upset her, but I brought it up again a while later in the library

"You did come from an egg, you know", I said, "You and Sophia, and Garuda and the Nagas"

"No". she said hotly "Only you came from an egg. We all came from mummy's thoppai"

But she must have thought about it, i think

Yesterday we were in the train to the SIFAS concert. "Commonwealth", says the announcer.

"Commonwealth?? What is commonwealth". asks Anjali

"Maybe it is a place where the wealth is common?", I ventured

"What?" she asked

"It may be, you know", I said and explained a bit about Commonwealth nations. "So maybe they shared a common money"

"What?", she said again "Are you joking?"

"No. I am not", I said. "Just as I wasnt joking when I said you came from an egg"

A pause. Then

"Mummy, did I really come from an egg?"

"Yes, my dear. You did"
==================

On our way back, we had a very irreverant conversation about Shiva. Here's how it came about.

We had been watching a dance performance about Shiva. I pulled it into the conversation in the taxi.

"The girl who was dancing wanted to see Shiva. How do you think she can see Shiva?", I asked

Anjali: She must go to Mount Kailash. She must walk to mount Kailash

Husband: She must call a taxi to take her to Kailash

Anjali (laughing): Yes

Me: Will a taxi take her to Kailash?

Anjali: No. The Taxi will only take her half way up the mountain on the road. Then she must get down and walk and walk for FIVE meters up the mountain

Husband (muttering): This girl knows way too much

Me: Kailash is taller than five meters you know?

Anjali: Ten meters?

Me: I would say five thousand meters. You know every year people go on a pilgrimage to see Mount Kailash

Anjali: I want to go also. Can I go?

Me: When you are bigger, we will all go

Anjali: When I am five years old?

Me: hmmm

Anjali: Or when I am fifteen years old

Me: Maybe when you are about thirteen, and you are as big as Niharika. Then Sophia will be eleven and we can go

(Censored part of conversation here)

Me (Continued after censored portion): So people go to Kailash and then they take a bath in lake Manasvarovar. Then they go around the mountain

Anjali: To find a towel?

Me (laughing): No. They had better have a towel with them, otherwise they will freeze.

Sophia (digging her nose): When i go to Kailash, I will see Shiva

Me: you better stop digging your nose when you go to Kailash, or Shiva will ask you where the gleaming booty is. Who else will you see in Kailash?

Anjali: Maybe Parvati?

Me: Maybe. How about Ganesha?

Anjali: Maybe.

Me: She should be in Kailash, you know his parents live there

Anjali: Maybe he is all grown up and has gone to live somewhere else?

Me: Perhaps. What about Muruga. Do you think he will be in Kailash?

Anjali: Maybe.

Me: Or do you think he will be in palani? You know why he went to Palani right?

Anjali: Yes, because Ganesha took away his mango.

Me: So maybe Muruga will be in palani when we go to Kailash

Sophia: Want to shee Muyuga in Kailash!!! Waaaaa.

Me: Then before we go, we must write a letter to Muruga - Dear Muruga, We are coming to kailash to see you and your family. please come to Kailash from Palani. Ok?

Anjali: Ok. But you must sign - from Anjali, Sophia, Mummy and Daddy - except that you must not sign mummy and daddy, you must sign Krithika and Adi. Otherwise, they will think that it is from Shiva and Parvati. Ha ha

Science

The beans that we had make warm and moist under a blanket of cotton two days ago sprouted. I showed Anjali this morning the sprouts and how the root came out of the seeds.

We are reading Mrs Mc Bloom Clean up your classrom. i wish I were able to have a class room like that in our living room - fifty years worth of science experiments.

Well, we can dream, cant we. Oh, I I would love a tree, not necessarily an apple tree, to grow from the floor to the ceiling and for the birds to make nests in it.

Husband's trithlon photos and video

Photos of husband waving like a politician after 7 hours of gruel. i always knew that he was rather crazy and now it is confirmed

http://www7.marathon-photos.com/scripts/event.py?event=Sports/JRAU/2011/Ironman%2070.3%20Singapore&match=759

Anjali's sense of logic

Anjali has an impeccable sense of logic which she uses in argument.

For instance, yesterday night, as I was getting the children to bed, she said

"Mummy, Can i paint this now?" (holding out a painting sheet which, if we started on now, would take atleast half an hour to work on)

"Nope. You have to sleep. i will set out the paints before I go to office and you can paint in the afternoon when you return from school"

(High voice)"But you said that I could paint after we returned from the library!"

"I said that you could play after you returned from the library"

A beat

"But painting is playing mummy!"

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

Husband was making Anjali practice the piano.

"Can you repeat Anjali?"

"There is no repeat sign in this page daddy. i dont have to repeat!"

Assertion

Anjali is growing very competitive these days. I am not really sure how to go about with it. On Saturday, i took the girls to the pool. After enjoying their pool adventure, they went to shower. I carried Sophia and dunked her, rather unceremoniously into the water spray. After making sure that she was reasonably rinsed, I towelled myself and towelled the howling girl (She hates having the shower on her hair)

Then Anjali said

"Mummy, who came first into the bathroom?"

"I dont know. Who?"

"I came first to the bathroom". her voice was a notch higher and a notch severe.

"Ok", I said cautiously, knowing where this was heading, but still not sure how to play it out.

"I came first to the bathroom mummy". Voice up another notch. "Then why are you giving Sophia a bath first?"

"Because you wanted to take your own bath?" I ventured.

"But why didnt you let me have a bath first?"

The thing about Anjali when she is in this mood is that she doesnt cry, but her voice goes all severe, rather like how I always imagine Professor McGonagal might sound.
==============
She is also not getting enough playground time. That concerns me. Last year, we used to be at the playground nearly everyday. This year, the playground time has reduced to once, sometimes no times a week. Perhaps it is my fault. Last year I always used to be home by six. These days it is often past seven before I return home.

Photos: Act3 international schildren of Asia

Coconut coir door mats


Getting started with looms



Boiling coocoons to get silk



Looms, Looms and more looms













Dance spectacle

The ant song

We are reading Doreen Cronin's "Dooby dooby moo". And ofcourse, I keep going "Faa laa laa la baa. Fa la laa laa la laa laa la laaaa"

"Dont shing like that mummy!" says Sophia. "Sing coyectly"

"Twinkle twinke little star", I would say

"No. Not that shong. Sing the ant song"

It took me a while to figure out what the ant song was. And here is Sophia singing it

"Where the deer and the antelope play!!"

paper beads

I made a pot of paper beads a week ago and left them around on the table. This morning, Sophia was threading them on a string of yarn while I worked out Anjali's loom. She's pretty good at it and threads fast. ofcourse, the chunkyness if the paper beads helps in the process.

ACT 3 international's children of Asia

One of the organizations that i keep a tab on is Act 3 international, where they organize good high qualitiy activities for children and families, many of which are free or very affordable. We have been to several - drama samplers, Beauty and the beast show etc, which the children really enjoyed.

The recent exhibition was called Children of Asia and it was on during the March holidays. We couldnt really go during the weekdays, but the exhibition ended yesterday, and me being the craft oriented person that i was, really didnt want to miss the traditional crafts that they talked about.

Husband was doing the 113km triathlon yesterday, so there was no way we could have him take us. We also promised the girls that we would go to the beach and cheer husband. However, husband would take 7 hours to finish his triathlon and I wasnt going to keep the girls in East Coast park for 7 hours.

So at 10am, I grabbed a packed lunch (pasta and pesto), a couple of packets of Milo, a change of clothes and set off with the girls.

We reached the exhibition shortly after eleven and i am glad that we made the trip. There were a lot of things to see. ofcourse, the camera is still out of battery and putting the photos from the phone will involve sitting at the console after getting home, something that I should do at some point of time. But even without transferring the photos, I could say that it was a time where the girls learnt loads.

So what did they learn? I think for the girls, two of the most interesting things were the looms and the silkworm boiling. Of course, she didnt quite know that silk worms were in the pot, and got a little surprised when the demonstrator cut open the cocoon to show the worm inside. the girls pocketed a cocoon each to show daddy.  They were in my pocket all day, which was fine, except that they smelled a bit.

The looms were another matter. Anjali learnt a good bit about weaving and didnt want to leave until I told her about the loom that we had bought from Romania two years ago and filed away because she was too young. And then at night, she got all upset because i didnt let her use the loom as I had promised but was asking her to go to sleep. This morning, I set up the loom pronto.

Sophia wanted to, ofcourse, try everything that Anjali did. Thankfully, most of the looms were quite friendly on her

I guess it didnt hurt either that they had short dance presentations on the hour. And ofcourse Anjali loves dances.

we finally did the masking tape bracelet

Finally, we did the masking tape bracelet activity that parents across the internet are blogging about. The concept is simple. A strip of masking tape, turned sticky side out and taped to the wrist becomes a storehouse for sticking things that can be found on the street.

So on our way back from patti's house, I stuck some masking tape to Anjali, Sophia, my and husband's wrists. And till the intersection, the girls were busy analysing and collecting. It became a journey off observation. There are many things, even on the mundane path, that you dont see every day but look out for when you have the added goal of sticking them to your bracelet. Here are some of them.

1. there are two kinds of grass - green and brown. They feel different
2. There are many different colors of leaves - we even found a red leaf.
3. Sophia plucked an ixora bud to stick to her tape and called it "mud". Incidentally she says things like "I am tired mummy. I am go homing", but thats a story for another day
4. The hunt was on to find the smallest possible pebble that could be stuck on the tape.
5. "Can I stick a snail on my tape?" asked the girls. After I had absolutely prohibited them from doing that, they contended with taking the snails in their hands and palms

Sophia took out her bracelet almost immediately after we reached home, since she wanted to play with the guinea pigs. But Anjali kept her bracelet on till bed time. 
 

pink paper

Husband called me while I was waiting for Anjali at the green cc.

"Can you tell me what is the pink paper?" he asked

"What pink paper?"

"Something that she can press with her finger"

"Is it the stamp pad that she can use to stamp her finger tips?"

"I'll give her the phone"

Sophia comes on the line

"HEllo mummy!"

"Hi Sophia. What are you doing?"

"I want the pink paper mummy."

"What pink paper?"

"That pink paper. If you pyess the paper with your finger your finger will come out. That papeyr"

"Is it the stamp pad that you use to put your finger and then stamp on the paper?"

"Nope."

"is it the toy that when you press both sides and match, the light will come?"

"Nope! Its the pink papeyr"

"Is it pink?" I asked, knowing that Sophia sometimes mixes bluye for yellow. But she is usually very sure about pink.

"yes mummy. It is pink"

I tried a different tactic.

"Did you play that game before?"

"Yes. i played that game before. I put my finger in the pink papeyr and the finger come out mummy."

"Right! Did you play it with Anjali?"

"YES! I played the game with Anjali"

Obviously, since Anjali was still on her way from Voyage de la vie, it wasnt much use to us. So I tried another question

"Did you play the game when mummy was there, or when patti was there?"

Sophia was getting rather frustrated at this point, as if she couldnt really understand how her parents could be so stupid about a pink paper " I played with Anjali when patti was there mummy!"

"Ok fine", I said. "I will call and ask patti about it and call you back ok?"



"Ok", she said, and hung up the phone. Immediately she threw a tantrum, earning herself time out and a blue heart.


I called patti and found out the whole story about how Sophia had been scribbling on a piece of paper with the red marker and how she had scribbled so much that there was a hole in the paper and how she put her finger through it and discovered that it came through. All this had happened about five days ago.



I called back to relay the update to husband, but apparently, Sophia had already found the pink paper.




"It's a paper with a hole!", he exclaimed. "I gave her all the other paper in the house and she only wants the paper with the hole!. I mean..."

Cirque du Soleil Voyage de la vie

Anjali went with the SINDA organized Voyage de la vie today. It is her first real outing and I was rather concerned. Here is the flow of events.

Last Wednesday:
Kala called to tell us about the event and to ask whether Anjali would be interested to attend. I asked whether I could attend too and received reply in negative.

"Want mummy" said Anjali.

Then we told her that Dheeraj would go too/

"You dont need to come mummy. I will go with Dheeyaj!" said Sophia

"I will go with Kala aunty and Dheeraj", said Anjali.

"I want to go also!" said Sophia, immediately starting a tantrum

Over the week, we have been very careful not to mention circus too enthusiastically in front of Sophia.

This morning:
Anjali woke up and got ready for the circus. I packed three buns and two packets of milo in her backpack. Sophia, who had taken the very same pink backpack for IEP camp last week was rather upset

"Why you putting Anjali's clothes and food in my backpack?"

After the morning breakfast of cereal, I took Anjali to patti's house. The last thing I saw as the lift descended was Sophia crying in husband's arms about wanting to go to the circus too.

Over the phone: 9am
Sophia and husband were in the playground.

Over the phone: 10am
Anjali was boarding the bus with Dheeraj and Pranav on either side. Patti had come to send her off. She had said that she could go by herself with Anita aunty and that patti need not send her off.

Over the phone: 11.15am
Sophia had hoodwinked husband into reading her twelve books by pretending to be sleepy. In revenge, husband had fried two eggs and made Sophia eat an entire one, including the white (husband was very proud of this.)

Over the phone: noon
Anita aunty was on the phone. Anjali couldnt eat the noodles provided because it was too spicy and therefore ate a bun and some milo.

Over the phone 3.30:
Sophia and husband had eaten mamaliga "I ate mamaliga mummy! I ate beans mummy! I made oosha in the bathyoom mummy! I ate tomatoes mummy!" said Sophia excitedly while husband yelled fromk the background "She put all the big chunks of tomato in my plate!!" and Sophia goes "I took the tomato in my spoon and I ate it and it tasted nice!" She had slept for half an hour from 2pm to 2.30pm.

Over the phone: 4.55pm
The show was over. Anjali was on her way to SINDA. Anita aunty said that she was frightened because there was a some noise (this is the girl who covers her ears and sits down when balloons burst) but that that acrobatics in the show were simply superb. i am going now to get her.

Houseplants Make You Smarter: Scientific American

Which is why, i guess many of the Emilio Reggio schools have plants in their environments. I really should restart the gardening efforts

Houseplants Make You Smarter: Scientific American

Smartphones, sleep, television and family and all sorts of ramblings

When Anjali was born, or somewhere around that, i read an articlee about how a good parent would not let her child exposed to television until the child was six years old. Ofcourse, I immediately determined to be a good parent

But it was not so easy. We probably got along fairly well until Anjali hit about a year old, and then we got her to watch home videos of herself doing stuff. Infact, until Anjali was nearly two, the home videos were about the only things that she watched.

We have generally made it a point to curb tv viewing and computer viewing at home, and sometimes I cringe when I hear parents giving ipads to their children to play games in. The recent podcast only reinforces our current take.

http://www.sciencefriday.com/program/archives/201103116

One of the things that they said was particularly alarming. Teenagers who have a tv in their room spend 8.5 hours a day in interactive media while teenagers who dont have a tv spend 5.5 hours a day in interactive media. 8.5 hours!! that is a lot of time that can be used in productive activity.

How can someone spend so much of time a day in front of tv or computer games and not realize that the time has gone. And do this repeatedly day in and day out? One possible reason is that the media is so engaging that it gives the illusion of doing something.

When I was in school, I was reading Sidney Sheldon. At one point, I read three of his books back to back in a single day (it was during the summer vacation). Somehow, after that binge, Sidney Sheldon lost his charm to me. Another time, I watched three or four hindi films back to back. After that binge, the hidi film watching too lost its charm and nowadays I am extremely selective about what I watch.

There is also a nice tip in the pod cast. Record instead of watching. And you will find that tomorrow, you have much more important things to do than the watch the show that you recorded.

Amazing how many nice things we can do with our lives if we are ruled only by common sense

the praise of a child

On a day when the world really gets to you, I was riding the bicycle with Anjali in the back and Sophia in the front. Both girls kept going on with encouragements like "Super mummy", and "dont cie mummy. You are good mummy!"

I guess that it makes a difference because you know that they mean it.

Group hug

On books and reading and pretending

Once in a while, we stumble in the library upon a book with just images, no pictures. Last week we found one called "A small miracle", about a homeless man and a lot of nativity statues.

One evening, Anjali read the story to Sophia. it was wonderful watching that bit of cameraderie.

I have begun to notice that Anjali and Sophia play for extended times together. Complicated games like cooking, and mummy and baby, and even dramatizations of their favorite stories.

"Mummy", asked Anjali yesterday after we returned from IEP camp, "Why does Shiv call Priyanka didi?"

""Because Didi means akka in hindi. And Priyanka is Shiv's akka"

"Sophia", she said immediately. "you must call me did ok?"

So for the next hour or so, Sophia was calling Anjali didi. And then they both got in the narrowest possible space in the house - behind the sofa and the wall, with a bunch of seashells that we had gotten from Sibu. There they played, god only knows what, while I mixed pudding and unpacked the suitcases from camp. Through out the period, i was hearing calls of "Shiv!" and "Didi". at one point, Sophia said "Priyanka!" and Anjali said "Dont call me Priyanka. Shiv never ca;;s his sister Priyanka. he always calls her didi". Whereupon Sophia went back to didi.

Things got a bit confusing to Sophia when i finished my work and tried to get them to take a nap. I refused to be Shiv's mummy. So Anjali, as usual had a solution ready. "You be Vrunda aunty ok?", she said. And then she spent the next ten minutes calling me Vrunda.

Lovely things about being a mother

I was getting ready to go to work. Sophia was sitting on patti's chair.

"Bye Sophia!", I called. She turned towards me, gave me a brilliant smile and a wave.

I pulled my bicycle out.

"Bye mummy. want to give hug", she said, clambering down from the chair and coming to hug me.

"Ummah", she said, giving a huge bear hug.

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

Sophia had apparently hit Anjali, whether accident or on purpose, i cant remember. While Anjali was sulking next to me, Sophia comes up.

"Soie!" she said "Anjali. soie!"

"Sophia, you cant hurt others and just say sorry", I told her. And then to Anjali "Is it ok for you?"

Anjali shook her head. "Still hurting", she said.

"Hug Anjali!" said Sophia. going for the all out bear hug. "Hug Anjali. Ummah!!"

X marks the spot

I arrived home last evening, bone tired, after a particularly long day at work. There was soup for dinner, and some fresh parmesan and herb bread that i had popped in the bread machine in the morning before work. It went down well enough, together with a large quantity of apple pie.

Trouble is - the girls dont like soup no matter how good it is, unless it is some fancy thing out of the recipe books - like mushroom soup or broccoli soup. Yema generally doesnt make that sort of stuff. Its the kind of thing I dabble in.

So after plopping them both in front of the computer (watching very silly you tube cartoons), I tried to shove some soup down. Anjali ate several spoonfuls, and Sophia ate about four, before saying "Had enough!! Want thair sadam!"

So I had to mix up thair sadam and give it to the kids.

Sometimes, i am very glad that husband takes over the girls. While I was contemplating how early i could actually put them in bed and sink into the blissful oblivion of sleep, husband was hard at work pretending to be an elephant for the girls to ride. I do have a video of that which will be up shortly.

Then Anjali came up. "I want to play a treasure hunt!", she said. "Can you hide a treasure and draw a map?" "X marks the spot!" The girls have been reading Pirate Pete and have been particularly impressed by it.

So we hid treasures and read maps till bed time.     

Reading Chinese

Yesterday, Anjali's school sent back her term portfolio returning all the paperwork they did this term back to us. Part of the port folio were two chinese books and one English book as part of her reading program.

So Anjali takes the Chinese books and starts to show us how to read them. She reads something that sounds like Chinese but ofcourse, neither of us can check it out, so we listen politely and appreciatively. Atleast we learnt that kule means cry. and Fish means something that only Anjali can pronounce.

But before Anjali could read the book, Sophia snatches it away.

"I want to read this book", she says

"Its Chinese", I explain

"I can yead Chinese", she counters

And then she opens the book. "Tou fa chian pa ching kai chia"

(For those who dont know, that is head shoulders knees and toes in Chinese and Anjali sings it off and on at home)

I tried a number of times to get the book off Sophia, to see how Anjali reads. She didnt let me, but kept snatching the book away saying "I can yead mummy! tou fa chian pa ching kai chia! tou fa chian pa ching kai chia!"

"Ok Sophia", said Anjali. "YOu read. When you finish reading, you give the book back ok?"

"tou fa chian pa ching kai chia" one last time, and Sophia returned the book and continued drawing on the floor.

Why do we need to occupy our kids

Its everywhere... and it is the vogue - occupying your child. "What does your child do after school?" asks a colleague when i told him that Anjali goes for three hour school. "Play all day?"

Exactly what does "playing all day" mean in Anjali and Sophia's terms. It means a multitude of experiences where learning takes priority over all other things.

For Anjali, it may mean grabbing a workbook from the workbox and tracing it or sitting on the bed in patti's room, mothering her dolls, or taking a multitude of pourers and stuff into the bathroom and pouring and measuring, or riding a kickscooter or bicycle in the lift lobby.

For Sophia, it means drawing on the floor with markers, babbling, singing, dancing etc. It may also mean playing with her sensory materials- cooking with pista shells or sea shells

For both of them, it means taking a book in hand and either attempting to read it, or making up their own story based on the book or asking one of the adults to read it. Occasionally it may also mean structured piano classes with husband.

Therefore when Anjali's school sent out circulars regarding whether the children wanted to attend holiday enrichment programs - globe trotting or pirates based on crafts and activities, we decided to opt out. We also decided to opt out of her school's weekly enrichment classes of ballet and speech and drama.

But we have decided to send her to the SINDA cirque du soleil Voyage de la vie program.