Anjali and insects

IT has long been known that Anjaoli is a whizz with Animals. From pony riding to cuddling and wanting to toush all the dogs in the neighbourhood.

 

Now, her animal loving skills have extended to insects. For about half the journey from Buzau to the delta - around 2 hours, She had a ladybug in her hand. It came out of some grapes that tata Sile picked out of a garden where we had stopped for a stretch, and stayed on Anjali's hands (and pant leg and hair) for the whole time. It only flew away when we left the car

 

On the trek up the mountains (8 or 9 hours, which Anjali walked the whole of by herself), she developed a new kind of insect affinity. The affinity to grasshoppers. For about half the trek, she carried a grasshopper of one kind or another in her fingers, leffting go when she needed the use of her hands to climb and picking one back again when she got down. Ofcourse, they hopped off when husband tried to carry them, or whenm Sophia trid to carry them, but stayed on for minutes at a stretch with Anjali. She even did tricjs with them, making them climb from one hand to another.

 

"Let it fly Anjali", I said, at a point

 

"Mummy. Grasshoppers dont fly. They hop. See their hind legs, they push on their hind legs and hop"

 

"You are too much of a city girl", says husband  smugly

 

Ofcourse I know that grasshoppers walked, or hopped or wahtever.  But I had been on the mountain for about 5 hours.

 

Later husband picked up another grasshopper for us to examine

 

"It is injured!" I exclaimed "It has only one wing!"

 

"Not wing mummy! Thats a leg!", corrected Anjali patiently. She showed me her grasshopper "See when I make it move, it stretches the leg. its a leg"

 

Turns out that the grasshopper was not wounded but simply another species. We found more of them

 

Anjali is well suited to be a farmer. She says that she wants to be have a grass patch in her farm for grasshoppers.

 

I am not sure, but arent they considered pests? I didnt tell her that though.

 

Anyway, she is well suited for vegetable husbandry, or whatever that is called. Yesterday, we caught her seamlessly transferring a bee from one flower to another.

Sophia's mathematical skills

Sophia is picking up seeds in bunica's garden and giving them to me.

 

"Mummy, this is for you, one seed.", she said, handing me four seeds.

 

"All the seeds are for me?" I ask

 

"No", she says "One for you, one for Andhali, one for daddy and one for me"

 

I stuck out two fingers - the forefinger and the tall man.

 

"You gaveme so many seeds?"

 

She looks at me as though she is sorry that she has a mummy who cannot understand simple arithmetic

 

"Put this up" (pointing to my ring finger), "Put this up (pointing to my pinkie)" "Dont put this up" (pointing to my thumb. )

 

"Ok. I give you so many sheeds. Ok?"

 

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Anjali and Sophia are playing in bunica's room

 

Anjali: You cant come in Sophia. This room is not for two year old babies

 

Sophia: Ok. Then Andhali, let us pretend that I am four years old and you are ... six years old. ok??

Photos from Danube delta: Anjali, Sophia, Andrei and Alexandru

Quotable quotes

Sophia to Anjali: They all are not naughty, onuly you are good.

Anjali to mummy: Mummy, I ate soup. But I just have some little space here for cereal.

Sophia to Alexandru: I can sing the whole new world you know.. you want me to sing?

from sophia to patti

Dear patti,

mummy give me milo in a purple cup. then i dink it up. then i walked to mummy.

patti... i saw dogs in the danube delta. pu[ppies also. some puppies have byoken legs. Some dogs fight and chew the puppy's legs so the puppies have no two legs again.

patti. i saw a small snake near the yestauyant steps. we said it can go back home.

when we was stopping our boat daddy picked some snake skin for us. I tyaed it up. I teared my snake skin into half and give one piece to anjali and lots of pieces for me.

the spider was a baby spider and it was cute and it didnt put me in a spider web. How many hand is this? two. with two hands it hugged me. with the yemaINING HANDS IT MADE TEH SPIDER WEB YOUND AND YOUND AND YOUND AND THEN IT kissed me. With two hands it kissed me.

patti. I fished for seaweeds. I fished anf sifhed and fished and anjali get the seaweed for me and I byoke it inside the boat. It was so funny.

Anjali said that the fish will die if you fish, We fished for seaweeds. fish for sea weed. Daddy onuly fished for fish. He needs to take out the hook and thyow it in the water. Daddy catch one onuly because anjali said dont want.

patti.. alexandyu fell into the bog. because alexandyu thumped into the bog. He was holding a rope and he walked on the shaky plank but he walked very fast and so he fell this way and landed in a bog. He was all muddy. So he was like a swamp monster and he went and explored the boat and he went back to change his clothes. He changed his clothes in bunica's room. and thats the end of the stoie.

the boat ride was bumping my head. it was bumping and bumping. (Anjali) It feels like going on a dinasoua. (Sophia) for me it was just like bumping my head.

Sophia and Arithmetic

Anjali ate a spoonful of egg before running away after the dog

Sophia: I will eat two spoons ok mummy

She ate two spoonfuls. I tried to sneak another spoonful past her.

Sophia: I said I will eat two spoons ondhuly. Dont give me more.

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Me: Sophia give me kiss

Sophia: No. I already gave you a kiss

Me: Give me another kiss

Sophia: I will not give you another kiss. I had enough kiss. I will give you ondhuly one kiss

A Day in the life

Anjali gets up in the morning, gulps down a pathetic excuse for a breakfast and hounds husband

"Daddy! Let bobby out!"

The hounding continues until either we give in or until the girls tgive in and eat a passable excuse for food.

Not that they lack options. Five star buffets would be ashamed before the choices bunica puts in front of the girls - eggs - cooked differently each day, bread with three different kinds of homemade jam, three different kinds of juices, two different kinds of cheese, and chocolate milk

But somehow, the dog is more appealing.

The kids stay im the garden up to well past 2pm, pausing only to sneak a bit of lunch. Husband and I roam around, alternatingly steeping back or stimulating the play. Today, I plucked a bunch of plums from the trees and cut them up, feeding the girls as they played.

The number of plums they ate highly improved their digestive system.

The first peach on the tree was ripe. We ate that as as we felt around for a second peach, saw two ladybugs doing unspeakable things on a third peach. We plucked a second peach and took the ladybirds for observation.

The girls took a bath and husband and I tried to make them sleep. It was no go with the nap, but they drank some milo and went right back to the dog and the garden.

I got a new toy

And I am so excited about it. And so are the girls. They read the Cat in the Hat on it before bed time. Who can guess what the toy is?

Photos from that world

Daddy, In this world everything is different. The birds are different, the grass is different, the trees are different, the people are also different. All the boys have long hair and all the girls have short hair.

-Anjali



Anjali: Daddy, you know, you can just bake the bread and the cut it with a knife and the bread will fly in the air and you can pour soup in it and then eat it.

Husband: Did you eat that?

Anjali: No. mummy ate it. i ate tomato pizza with garlic. I spat out the garlic and ate the tomato pizza

Sophia: I ate thair sadam. My patti give me thair sadam.

-On Boudin bakery

A whole new world!

Sophia singing

"A whole new world
Shining shimmering splendid
Tell me princess now when did
A whole new world
Shining shimmering splendid"

She can go like this for half an hour or until someone interrupts her

Anjali's poems

Please add the relevant tune

4am and a jetlagged girl in a dark bathroom

"Where's the toilet
Where's the toilet
Here it is
Here it is"

(Sung to the tune of are your sleeping)

Sometime at the evening while hitting a tune on husband's jeans

"Daddy's bum is a drum,
daddy's bum is a drum"

You must admit that the girl's got a sense of rhyme