Rock on!

Unlike whatever ideas you may get from the topic, this post is far from that!. I have a zillion things to write about, but given he scatterbrain I am, cannot gather my thoughts in a consistent timely manner. This incident though , is something that I need to remind my daughter about, so here goes.
Sonali put a tiny stone into one of her nostril at school yesterday. Her teacher called me and said: " Sonali has a rock in her nose. We tried but cant get it out. She is fine and not complaining though". Of course I panicked, dint bother to register the : she is fine part and called my husband to meet me at the school. I also called her doctor and fixed an appointment. I already had plans to call 911 if I cannot get it out myself. My imagination ran wild with worry.

When I mentioned this to my coworker, she laughed and goes: " oh its the beginning" !! WHAT? You mean she'll stuff more going forward? Aren't they all supposed to get wisdom and understanding with age? ( minus one- for self).

I went to her school and saw my husband chatting away with the teachers and my daughter was finishing up her meal like she had not seen food for years. It was then that I relaxed a bit because I knew it was not too serious. Then I got her to sneeze by twisting the end of a tissue ( like we do with a handkerchief) and trying to tickle her other nostril. She dint quite sneeze, but since she tried to, the stone found its way to the entrance and I quickly got it out. Phew! What a relief

When I asked her that evening about why she did that, she said she wanted to bring the rock home. Simple compelling reason for her:) So the "Act like cool while bursting with anger" mommy tried to tell her all the not so good effects of sticking things into the nose and she promised she would never ever do that again. Just FYI, never ever can last anywhere between the next 15 min and 1 hour!

Apparently, she also told her rock story to her friends in class and told them not to do it. I am sure they all did the " never ever" promise as well:)

Ah! the joys of parenting!

Best friends

Sonali has been growing up so fast, I cannot believe she will be 3 soon. She is talking and behaving like she is 20:)

Here is how the conversation went with her last week:
ME : How was school sonu?
She : GReat!
ME : tell me more, who do you play with?
She : R. She is my best friend
ME : how about others? A? G?
She : A is T's best friend, G is A's best friend.
ME : !!!!!!!!!!!

How does she even know the concept of a best friend?:))) it was hilarious!

This week she seemed a little upset and kept saying she dint wanna go to school. So I asked her abotu it.

ME: What happened at school?
she : nothing
ME : Who is your best friend now?
She : nobody.
ME: why? What happnd to R?
She : She was mean to me . She is A' sbest friend now.
ME : hmm Why dont you playwith other kids in your class?
She : I wanna ONLY play with R

Of course I dint have much wisdom or advice after this. If this is a sample of parenting test, I am proud to say that I have failed with no hope of success:)

Sonali's moments

Have not blogged in a while and will update soon..
but I want to record priceless conversations I have with sonali these days:)

She is talking so much and throwing tantrums per schedule for a 2 yr old, so no surprises there. But what really surprised us is the inability to deal with it patiently.

Yesterday, after an exhausting evening with her, I was loading the dishwasher and cleaning up when she comes to me and says:
" Mommy , what do you want?"
" Peace of mind, sonu"
Thinks for a brief second, runs to her father and goes:
" Dada, mommy wants pess of mind, can you go give it to her? "

:)

She got her flu shot last week and was very concerned about it. She refuses to remove her bandaid, almost like its a prize for her shot.

" Mommy Dotor do 'chuk' for me"
" What?"
" I went to Dotor. dotor put Jection and do 'chuk' for me"

Interpret it as:
I went to the Doctor, I got an injection and the chuk was the expression of the prick:)

Many updates

Its been a long time since I took time to blog. Believe it or not, I have been busy even at work:) yeah yeah it does happen once in a while.

Sonali is into full blown long sentences and can communicate clearly and precisely about what she wants. If we dont understand something, she gives us the "look" and repeats it as many times as needed:) I really wonder what she thinks about us!

Here is a small funny conversation we had the other day
She( pointing to hubby) : mommy its my daddy. Is he your daddy ?
Me: No sonu, he is my husband
She : husband?
Me : yeah. Mommy's husband and your daddy
She : No No, my husband my husband. daddy is my husband!

I had to leave it at that to save further confusion and embarassment:)

Sonali also moved to a new pre-school this week and she is doing GREAT!. We got her excited about her new daycare for a whole month and I think she likes it there. So far so good. Every evening though, she grabs all her things - Blanket, pillow and change of clothes. For some reason, she does not want to leave them behind.

We have planned our first real vacation with sonali. FINALLY, we booked everything and it is for real. ( So far we have been talking about it for 2 yrs)! September, disney, here we come. How do I prepare her for the big giants of mickey and minnie??

Oh she loves to sing! Wants to sing all the time, so time to enroll her in music classes?? maybe too soon I think.

More updates to follow.

First real compliment?

The other day sonali's daycare teacher and I had this conversation, leaving me elated for a minute and back to questions the next.

She told me that she is expecting a niece and that she would like if that child was like sonali!!!!!!!!

I just stood in shock for a minute. then I smiled and said " Thank you that is sweet of you" and then grinned a whole lot and felt proud for another minute and then asked myself: " Really?? Is she sure?:)) "

Sonali is all of BRAT at home and is a cherub outside. There is a tamil saying: veetla Puli veliya Eli ( Tiger at home and rat outside). How do these kids distinguish between what is theirs and what is not at this age?! They do have more inside their little head than we attribute them to.

Well anyways, I have blogged her compliment so years later she can look at it and wow at herself:)

Is this for real?

Before I am jolted from my dream world, I need to write this.

My daughter has been sleeping all by herself IN HER OWN BED for the last 3 days... I am counting. Her eyes were wide open when I put her in the bed, I said Good Night. She asked for the blanket.. then stared for sometime while I kept pacing the room and finally fell asleep. Three days.. you hear me??

I am still counting.. the days and my blessings:)

Sentence list

I am trying to pen down a list of sentences that sonali goes through at every stage.. let's see how far I can sustain this interest.

Right now.. these are some examples.

" hey Guys,, Dont do that"
" Amma, be careful " - when we are driving
"Let's go Keezha/meela" ( Let's go downstairs/upstairs)
" I go kool " ( I want to go to school)
" Shall we spash? " ( Shall we splash)
" I dont know."
" Thank e" ( Thank you)
" Ur welcome"
" Sarry " ( sorry)
" Amma, pulease " ( please)
" its mine... my turn, my car, my clip..." --- this list is endless
" Shonu car - its white. Appa car - Its Red"
" Oh Oh, I go poopy. Amma, change diater, puleaase "
" Ebibody, follow me.. follow follow " ( Everybody follow me)

I'll keep adding to this list as I remember them:)

Where is my baby?

I thought I recently had a baby:)

Well, it turns out that I am quite slow in counting days!. It seems like I just held my little baby in my arms and wondered what I felt. She is now going to be 2 and I still wonder many things about her...:).. just not the fact that I am completely in love with this one!

Sonali has been talking forever now, so she has no trouble singing her own birthday song - only a million times everyday. She is very excited abotu the prospect of a cake and song.. and her favourite question these days is - : Who's coming? At this, I have to start listing down the names of all her friends and once she is satisfied with the list, she will grin and leave me alone , for about 5 minutes when she starts the birthday song again.

My little baby is growing....

She is very expressive and has learnt to make sentences to communicate with us. Although its fun to see her talk , we begin to miss the days when she would babble or just say a word and we would wait till eternity for her to repeat it , to make out what she meant:) I guess she figured that if her stupid parents cannot learn her language, she might as well learn theirs!

Kids are so attentive and listen to all that's going on around them. I am so surprised at some sentences and words she can pick up just being in the room and pretending doing her own stuff. All this means hubby and self cannot even have a decent fight anymore ! What a world I say!

Oh well, my little baby is no longer little:) She is growing.... I wish I could time again to my convenience!

My daughter's concern

A few days back, I asked my husband to give me a pressure punch on my back for my backpain.
I was lying on the bed stomach down, my husband started putting pressure with his hand on my back. My daughter was watching this from her crib.

Her spontaneous reaction was:

" Appa, NO, dont do that, paavam amma"

We both looked shocked for a second and burst out laughing and I was grinning from ear to ear all that day!!!!!

IT totally made my day. I love her so very much:)

Mom, I have a Val-day party!

I thought I would hear these words from my little girl when she would be not-so-little... around 28 maybe?. OK. how about 25? Oh well I give up... 24 it is!
Anyways, the point is , I really did not have to wait that long. Her daycare announced a Valentine's day party. Yes you read it right. Her class, which consist of about 9 midgets less than 2 ft tall are already hopping on the commercial brand wagon of Val day!.

I had 2 choices
- I could ignore the invite and act like my daughter wouldn't care less, so not make a big deal of it.
- I could give in, send snacks , send cards and let her know in a very weird and indirect way that I am a part of her party!

I chose the sensible thing.

I sent a cheese tray, dressed her up in red, signed cards for a card-exchange and some chocolates for the teachers? Wait , was that not the sensible choice? please don't tell me so.

My daughter will have proof of this day and can you imagine what a strong weapon that is, if I protest to her parties later? This trend apparently does not stop with her oh-so-innocent toddler class. My friends tell me as they grow older, they have parties at school where they can bring their dad and dance with him. ( Ok, this one I need a recording of, for my own selfish reasons.. am totally laughing my ass off just thinking about it:))!

What next? They'd find you a good match to go out with? Well if that happens, I am sure I will find myself sitting and blogging about this again, but really doing nothing about it:(

I sure hope my husband has a plan in mind.

Did I skip a few years?

This morning, as I was getting my daughter ready for daycare, she started yelling when I wiped her face. She assumed her Pottu had fallen off and started crying : potoo potoo while pointing to a corner of her eye( she still can't point to the exact location on her forehead for it). Then I had to guide her little finger to it and tell her all is safe and well!.

Then, I took out a shirt for her , she looked at it and went " No". What?! " No" she said again. For a good 5 seconds, I looked at the shirt, then at her wondering what was going on. Then I pulled out another one and she again went " No". Not it was my turn and I went YESSSSSSSSSSSSing and dragged her to the bed and she was visibly upset as she looked at her dress. Then I had to distract her from the dress to pottu, while I slipped it on. As soon as I was done, she went " WOW" as she touched her shirt!. I believe she would have had the same reaction if I had gone with the earlier pick as well. So much for motherly instincts!

Then we go down to get shoes. She was very impressed with her socks and no problems there. As I am ready to slip her shoes on, she goes: NOOO. A very bold one this time. So fresh from learning my lesson upstairs, I decided to slip it on anyways. She just kicked them away , gave me a sharp angry look and pointed to the other pairs of shoes in her box. So then I took out 2 pairs and gave her the choice. I think I completely confused her, as she looked from shoe to shoe!. I was brimming with joy since I assumed this small gesture would keep her away from the NOs!... but a few seconds later, she pointed to one pair and asked for them.

Did I skip a few years? I thought this happened much later and i have much time to dress her up like I want to. ! It does not look like I can embarrass my daughter showing her these snaps later in life, like mom does to me now:)

On a related note, sonali loves to dress up, asks for hair clips, pottu and loves bangles and anklets. Her daddy is definitely happy with that and hopes she will continue to be so!. Secretly, I hope so too:)

Phase of Joy

When my little one was really little, it was very difficult to completely enjoy her. Don't contradict me unless you have experienced the endless cries for what seems like no reason, throwing up as soon as new sheets have been put on, giggling endlessly looking at the roof or daddy, not to forget those plots to not let you have a good night's sleep!!. If you still wish to contradict me, I am left to assume that you are the person I have just described.

Right now, my 16 month old is so completely different. She has graduated in many ways from what I have said - She is polite enough to give us some good sleep every alternate day, throws up after a couple of days after the new sheets, is much more verbal in her requirements. Seriously, its a much more enjoyable phase. She understands most of what I say to her. That she chooses to not listen or ignore is a different point:) but at least she makes an effort, unlike the other person in my house!

She has a good vocabulary of words - Nooo( for nose), Nooo( for NO), Na - na ( for NO) and so on. By far her favourite word has been Na-Na , accompanied by a virgorous nod of her head!. That's pretty much my conversation with her most of the time:
Me: Do you want your milk?
She : Na-Na ( headnod)
Me: How about some food?
She : Na Na Na ( head nod more)
Me: Ok, let's go and take a nap
She : na nanananana
On the days I feel like, I turn this to my advantage!

Me: Do you like appa more than amma?
She : NANANANA( headnod and hand gesture).
Me: Do you think we should let him sleep on the bed today?
She : na na na

Oh how much I love her on such days!

Her latest obsession , besides her dad is the youtube nursery rhymes. She actually pushes any of us inside the study, closes the door behind us so we don't escape, then points to the chair, climbs on our lap, then pulls our hand to the keyboard and goes : " ba Ba". She can actually say the beginning of a few words in the middle of a rhyme if we stop. Its really so much fun making her do that. She is completely in love with it and refuses to get up even after playing the set multiple times. It breaks our heart to see her cry every time we pull her away from it, but I know it would break our hearts even more to see her wear her first pair of glasses at 5!

Like my husband says: " Some have test-tube babies, we have a u-tube baby"

If I could, I would like to hold time for a little longer to enjoy this phase of joy with her!