I love pigs!

The cleaners were here, and as usual I didn't have enough cash to pay them. I wanted to quickly run to the bank, and get cash out of the drive through ATM. I asked Nandu if she wanted to come for the ride, and she was super excited (she is usually excited about going out, but that day she seemed more than usual). She immediately found her shoes, said bye to Ammumma, and was at the door ready to go. I got her into her car seat and we were on our way. She immediately started her back seat chattering, and told me how much she loves banks(even though she has never been to one till then; in fact at that moment I wasn't even sure if she knows what they were, which she later confirmed, as you will see). Then she said something completely out of context (atleast in my mind), "Amma, I love pigs too". I didn't want to ask her too many questions then, as I was focused on getting back home quickly, so just said, "Ok, Sure". We reached the ATM, and I got some cash out, and all through, I was explaining to my curious little daughter, what I was doing. When she realized that we were not getting out, she was very disappointed and said, "but Amma, I love banks. I love pigs. I want to see pigs". Again with the pigs, now I was getting curious too, and asked her, what she was talking about, and where she saw pigs. She said, "Amma, Monkey George (Curious George) has a piggy bank. He has pigs in his bank. I want to see pigs too in the bank". Mystery solved! I didn't know where to begin. :)

Pink Starburst

I was up at 3:30am today, which seems to have become the norm these days, either because of Nandu's sleep talking or because of the million other things coursing through my head. Anyway, that prompted me to write this post to pen down what she said/did this morning. Whenever I wake up, and can't go back to sleep, I just lie down next to her, and watch her sleep. There were several occassions when I saw her giggle, there was one time when she was laughing out loud like she shared a good joke with a friend, she whines several times by saying things like, "I don't want it!" - I am sure she was dreaming that I was trying to feed her. This morning, she was smiling a lot in her sleep, she opened her eyes once, looked at me, smiled again, and then fell back asleep. After some time, she was dreaming about someone's crocs. Finally, she woke up after 6AM, and this is the first thing she asked me, "Amma, can I get candy, because I was such a good sleeper". I couldn't help laughing, and didn't respond. She asks me again, "Amma, yes or no? Can I have candy?" I distracted her somehow by playing our favorite games (hiding under the comforter becasue there is a tiger/shark/lion in the room, and then take the comforter off, and tickle the animal so that it goes away :) Then, we woke up, brushed, had oatmeal for breakfast, and just when I was thinking that I am out of the woods, I heard, "Amma, can I have a pink starburst because I was such a good girl". Understandably, I had to give in at that point ;)

I yelled at Ryan!

Yesterday, Nandu came home from daycare, and she told me that she yelled at Ryan, her classmate at school. I was concerned that she was getting too aggressive, and asked her why she yelled at him. She said she yelled at him because he told her that she doesn't have any brothers. I asked her what she said to him - A little flashback at this point might help: Nandu always asked me where her brother was, infact sometimes with that pitiable expression that melts my heart, she asks, "Where did my brother go?" like she had a brother and I sent him away somewhere. I think the need for a brother came from the fact that she had a lot of friends who had brothers. On those occassions, I used to be desperate to get her a brother even if I have to beg, borrow or steal. Anyway, since none of those options are appropriate by society standards, I would try to tell her that she has a sister, and it is Akka (Mohana). Coming back to the present, I was wondering if she told him that she has a sister, and it is Akka. She told me that she yelled at Ryan,and told him that she has 4 brothers, and they are, Nikhil (her little friend), Samyan and Mahitha (her cousins) and Akka :) I was thrilled that she no longer feels bad about not having a brother, and has made up her own brothers, although two of them are more like sisters.

You are beautiful, Amma!

A couple of weeks ago, Nandu and I were playing, and out of the blue (with absolutely no prompting from me), she said, "You are beautiful, Amma". I was so thrilled hearing that from her as its been a while (ages, more appropriately) I heard that comment from some people. I wanted to take advantage of that opportunity, and educate Jana. So, I asked her to tell that to Daddy. She turned to Jana, and said, "You are beautiful, Daddy!". Hmph!

My Little English Teacher

I was brushing Nandu's teeth one day, and as usual she was fussy and didn’t want to do it. I was telling her how her teeth were going to be dirty, and… she stopped me there, and asked me to say "dirty" in an American accent. She said, "Amma, say 'dirty'", and said that in an American accent. Of course, I couldn't repeat it the way she said it, and I just continued talking.

Another incident - she asked me for something, I think water. She asked me, "Amma, can you give me some water?". I said, "Ok". She says, "Amma, say Sure!, not ok".

This was back in February, she is not even 3 yeas old, and she is already correcting me. Wonder where all her English knowledge goes when she says:
1) "Amma, I waked up".
2) Gotfor for forgot – "Amma, I gotfor my toy at daycare"; "I gotfor to drink my juice"
3) Words starting with s - she puts the 's' at the end of the word – "tars"; "piders";
4) "Amma, My leggo broked"; " You broked my spoon".
5) Or, when she used to say for Thanks, "Thanku Welcome".
6) "Strawl" for straw – "Amma, I want an orange strawl for my orange cup"
7) "Daddy, I want ethukulu", when she wants to be picked up.
8) "Its mines" for mine.

My Daddy is a Cowboy!

Last weekend, Jana and Nandu were in the garage, Jana inflating her pool and Nandu just playing around. Thank god for summer, I can have them both out of the house (and out of my way) all the time. Out of the blue, Nandu said, "Daddy, you are a cowboy!". Jana was very flattered, and responded very enthusiastically, "Howdy Partner!". Nandu, very innocently, asked, "Can you say Moo, Daddy?". Did she think a Cowboy was a boy Cow? :)

Nandu's Birthday!

Nandu turned 3 on May 24, 2009. She picked ChuckECheese's (CC) for her birthday celebration. She had a blast there thanks to all her little friends, thanks to the cake, thanks to everyone singing "Happy Birthday..."to her and thanks to all the fun stuff at CC. She had the most fun in the Skytubes, running or crawling around, with her friends Nikhil and Ravi. That fun came with an expense to me as I had to crawl around with them, and I certainly don't have the energy that they have. I was tired and my knees were hurting like crazy by the time I forced them to get out of those tubes (after about a 1/2 hour). Overall, it was a lot of fun.

Amma is a Witch!

Yesterday, I dressed up in a black chudidhaar to go to my friend's (Remah) dance performance. The dress was black top to bottom (with some gold print). Nandu saw me and said "Amma, you are a witch!". When I asked her why, she said because I am dressed in black. I wasn't flying around the house on a broom, she made the comment based purely on the color of my dress.

Caterpillar

Nandu drew a caterpillar all by herself on her new board. We asked her teacher if she taught her how to do that, and she said she didn't. Not sure, where she got that idea from, but looks very realistic. I know that because I feel like something is crawling on me everytime I see this picture.

Ammumma called

A few days ago, Amma called home in the morning, when I had already left for work. Jana was getting ready upstairs, and Nandu was in the high chair having her breakfast. So, no one answered, and it went to the answering machine. Amma left a message. Jana came down and asked Nandu who called, and she said, "Ammumma called. I talked to her. I told her I was having my dinner". She thought she was talking to her when she heard "Ammumma's" voice on the answering machine.

Nandu is so used to seeing me receiving calls from Amma that, everytime the phone rings, she tells me "Ammumma is here" :)

Who is the baby?

Nandu was making a fuss about something, and she was saying in that squeaky tone, "No, I want it now, now, now!". I made fun of her by repeating what she said in the same tone she did, hoping that would teach her not to be fussy. She looked at me and said in a perfectly normal tone, "You are not the baby, Amma, I am the baby!".

how does our eye work?

Last week, Jana was trying to explain to Nandu the concept of vision (they came across "eye" in her picture dictionary for body organs), how our eye works when we are trying to see something, how the light rays travel from an object to the eye etc. He used a picture of a ship as an example, and drew the light rays from the ship to the picture of an eye with his finger, and said "this is how you see the ship". She gave this very puzzled expression, and asked, "Why would you put the ship in your eye?". The eye lesson ended quickly after that as it looked like Daddy would have to answer more questions than he was prepared for!

Grass for Dinner

I was making chaaru, and Nandu came over and asked me what I was doing. I said I was making dinner. She asked me to put her on the kitchen counter top, which is her favorite thing to do when I am making dinner (sit on the countertop so that she can see what I am doing and grill me on everything I am doing). I did that. I was chopping coriander at that time. She asked me if that was her dinner, I said, "Yes, and Amma's and Daddy's too". She laughed aloud. I asked her what was so funny, and she replied saying, "that's funny because you are making grass for dinner!" :)

Nandu's comment on my blog

As I was bouncing ideas for my blogaddress off Jana, Nandu heard me saying "nandu everywhere", and she immediately said, "I am not everywhere, Amma". That was enough for me to finalize my blog address.
Keep checking to find more of Nandu's antics.