Happy to you

I sing: "Happy Birthday to you, Happy Birthday to you, Happy Birthday dear Mummu, Happy Birthday to you "

Mummu sings: "Happy to you, Happy to you, Happy to you, Happy to you"

I say: Happy Birthday my Mummu

She says: Happy to you (with loads of smiles)

Teary Eyed

...somethings well actually very few things...these days make me really teary!!! This is one of them!!

Yesterday, I reached home late (traffic jams at shil phata are horrendous!!). As I walked in I was greeted by a pair of hands (Champ!!) who wanted to be picked up and another pair of hands and eyes which were concentrating on completing their studies (Cuckoo, playing teacher teacher!!!).

I hugged and kissed and moved on to do my daily chores. As I sat down with warm food to feed the lil brats, there was a down pour of stories to be foretold ( I love listening to the constant rambling!!). So the brat was busy explaining what all his lovely drawings meant which included an Alien Generator(machine that builds/creates Alien), Cuckoo on the other hand insisted she wanted to continue with her teacher-teacher game with baba. That's strange!! as Cuckoo is the one with a large number of stories, ending with WHY-a-certain-person-does-something? eg., Why do big people fight? Why are you sad? Why can't we do this? why can't we do that?

Amma had her share of story to tell. Apparently, this morning - amma left some utensils unwashed in the sink and headed to the bathroom. In the meantime, Cuckoo saw that amma was struggling to do her chores. So cuckoo with her baby hands finished washing the utensils the way a baby could, left them for drying on the kitchen platform. She then headed to do another task. Whilst Amma sat down to rest for few mins, Cuckoo served her breakfast of rotis and bhaajis and water.
Amma was choked!

So was I, when I heard what cuckoo had to say "Mumma you do so much work, I thought I would help you."

My dearest Cuckoo,
Although, I am proud of what you did today - I would rather, you lead a carefree way of going about your life - like a child does. Only hoping to play, to eat chocolates, to have fun with friends etc.
I would want you to be a child first - a small baby butterfly.
Happy Birthday in advance baby!!!
Have a great year ahead!!!

God Bless!!
Luv,
Mumma

Shaken

Dear Cuckoo,

My darling cuckoo, I love you very much. A hell lot actually!!!
I can't begin to tell you how proud you make me feel!!!

Just this Ganpati, you along with your friend Lavanya decided to dance on "Kala doriya" and it was so amazing to watch you dance on the punjabi number. Your confidence and beauty is to die for!! and I feel immensely proud of you!!!
Though, I might scold you time and again for being so straight forward and taking decisions independently, the reason is I am worried that you will stop asking me for things like every child does. There are things that you do these days which leaves me happy at times and I worry at times that you have actually become too independent.

At almost 9 (yep just 9 days left for your birthday as I write this) you have already started making big decisions for yourself that you wanted to go tuition, may be its your fascination of going to a new place/teacher to learn. I can already tell that you are going to be a fiercely independent gal once you grow up and I wish I could stop the time and sit with you and talk to you and hold you and hug you.
I wish I could hear you sing all the tini tiny poems you used to sing when you were a toddler. Now you sing songs with an amazing class -
1. Let it go - Frozen
2. A thousand years - Christina Perri
some lovely hymns
3. Enna Kodupaen - Tamil
4. A gift to you

Your voice has this ethereal beauty that leaves anyone listening to you mesmerized.

We are seeing some tough times (as I write) and in all these days/months, I have seen you hold me more often than I have held you. My hugs to you have been more for myself than for you. You have sensed my disappointments and sorrows and have kissed me to wipe my tears away.

You have shown me amazing amount of strength!! I wish you wouldn't have had to mature so quickly.

You have already taken the ownership of guiding your lil brother while you yourself are so young and need guidance. I have seen you pampering the lil boy so much. He feels loved and cherished because of you. I have seen you group hugging when you are left out of hugs but never complain or cry for attention cos of the lil devil. You read to him and that's the most cherished memories he is ever going to have. You are nurturing a truly special bond and I pray to God that you both may continue to grow your bond stronger in his blessings.

I see you smile in the most difficult situation and I wish I could learn more from you. And then I feel how could I have landed you in a situation which tests your strength? You are still small, you are not even 10 years and you put up a brave face when the time demands.

You have been my strength and you continue to be stronger every day.
No matter what happens Mumma loves Mummu very very much.

God Bless my cuckoo.
Love always
Mumma







PS: This is NOT an attempt to join the bandwagon of the stardom like Narayan Murthy, Prakash Padukone etc.

PPS: If you google this time frame, you will find many celebrities have written letters to their lovely daughters.

PPPS: Their daughters are all grown up women actually. On the other hand, YOU my cuckoo are still a lil butterfly.

Attention

Attention, Attention.


I get very few days of TV time. Shows that I like to watch, the surfing of channels and sweet sweet way of increasing and decreasing the volume.

So here I was staying at home cos Mumma papa was down with fever.
And we decided to laze arnd and spend time watching TV.
(Wow!! What an idea!!)

So here I was engrossed in what George was talking to Matt about the Blind tasting session and how Laura was reacting to Marco walking into the tasting area carrying his dish and there comes a tini tiny snap snap sound in my ears and 2 lil fingers snapping their way to glory, right infront of my big eyes.
I go "what?'
Mummu goes "Mumma I am trying to get your attention here. You are so engrossed in watching TV TV all the time."
I go stumped.

And you would think ONLY you try to get your kids attention ever, whilst they are happily watching TV.
 

This Summer

I have been too lazy as well as too many things have been cropping up for me to take chiku out to play, which is really sad (but can't help it baby). So Chiku is busy watching cbeebies. I would prohibit her from watching these channels, but after watching it myself a couple of times, I found that its interesting. Moreover its way better than Doremon and the tantrums Nobita throws, gosh!!!

So here we were watching Cbeebies and they were showing something about outdoors in teletubbies. I saw the hot air balloon and was so ready to impress chiku with my wee bit knowledge of the balloon. So I start with
ME : What is that??
Chiku(without a blink) : hot air balloon.
ME : and
Chiku : and it has fire inside and it flies high like an aeroplane and it has a basket.
ME : sigghhhhhh ( but I was glad she was watching the right stuff).

Besides this there are innumerable funny instances that have been having. Like the other day meme called Chiku to her room
Meme : Barbie tell mumma the washing of clothes are done, so ask mumma to get the clothes out of washing machine and then put them for drying.
Chiku (baiting her lashes and very sweetly and softly says) : My mumma is very tired and is sleeping now amma. Let her rest.
Meme  bursts into a huge hearty laugh.
Chiku (comes to  me) : Mumma you are tired na?
ME : ya
Chiku : and you are doing dodo na???
ME : ya

Chiku : you will not dry clothes na???
ME : what????

Chiku has some of her favs when she is watching TV. You keep yelling and throwing things she still wudn't get distracted. This one particular time I kept calling out to her and she just wudn't pay attention. So I went close to her and shouted so as to distract, she was stunned plus she got upset and in that sweet tone of hers she said:
Chiku : I am small na mumma, why you always shouting at me? I get scared na talk na softly and don't na shout.
Oh, how could you be serious after that, we broke into a smile together and I hugged her.

Senses

The other day, all of us were travelling in the lift, heading to the church. Us, means me, Su, Chiku and Sunny. As soon as we entered, there was this strong smell. The entire lift smelt like somebody had put ounces and ounces of 'Moov' cream. I thought something to myself and continued to stare ahead. At the same time, Chiku loudly declared "That's Ammas smell na".

How Sharp I must admit. Just like me, hope she grows up to be better than me.

Role plays

I didn't realise how important it is to have role plays. It teaches all the party involved a very important lesson on what can irritating and to what extent .

During the ritual night call to her father, after too much blabbering and her father torturing her about how was school, what did you study etc, Chiku decided it was time for role play.

So she says: " Daddy, now you are chiku and I am daddy. OK?"

Daddy: " Ok Chiku"

Daddy-chiku(daddy who is acting like chiku): "Daddy where are you?"

Chiku-Daddy:"Chiku I m in offish na."
Daddy-chiku: "You in poona? What you doing in offish?Come no here?"

Chiku-Daddy:"I am working na. Where here?"
Daddy-chiku:"Come na to daddy housh."

Chiku-Daddy: "No na chiku, I m working."
Daddy-chiku: "Coma na daddy I will be so alone. Come na daddy. Why you not coming?"

Chiku-Daddy: "I told you na one time. No." (Giggles)
Daddy-chiku: "But why daddy? come na I will be so alone?"

Chiku (the real one) decides its too much to constantly repeat the same answer so she says

"Daddy, now you are daddy and I m Chiku. Daddy, I want chocolate."

Daddy laughs.

Chiku says - @4 years and 5 months

And everytime she opens her mouth, I think she is gonna say something thats gonna make me really upset or put me in a split.
But on the other hand, for Meme, Chiku talking is like music to her ears. There is such a deafening silence when Chiku is fast asleep.

At 4 years and 5 months, she can really talk non-stop, so much that even if I want to ignore her blabbering and go on with my work, I just can't. And eventually I burst out with a ssssssssssshhhhhhhhhhhhh. To Mummu, sorry baby, you really can test peoples patience including your mums, well correction, especially your mums.
If I reiterate to meme, I only get a standard response, its in the blood. Ya right!!!

The last few days have been a roll of some of the most funny things that chiku has said.
Yesterday, after Sunny did his potty, and his father gave him a wash, the father unknowingly picked the towel closest to the bathroom door and wrapped the boy in it and brought him to the hall, where our darling chiku was happily watching TV. After giving a look to the father and brother she went back to watching her favorite channel CBeebies and the father and son walked away to the bedroom. AFter a fraction of second, she runs to her dad and says " Why you using my towel?". Daddy "Is this your towel chiku? I am so sorry I didn't know. And I couldn't find baba's towel so used yours. Its ok na baby, baba is a small baby na? " to which she promptly replies "what you can't see? Baba's towel is right here on this door that much u can't see." Well, though the father did a double take, he couldn't help but burst out into laughter.

Last night, after clearing the vegetable stock and cleaning the kitchen platform at meme's place, I just didn't have the strength to do anything else. Just then, chiku decides to check on me, she asked "mumma are you gonna wash utensils?" And I replied "No baby, mumma is not doing bartan, mumma is very tired. I will just clear off few things and then we can leave for home" And I assumed chiku would be so happy to hear that, cos by the time I finish off doing bartan its late in the night. Guess what she says "Of all the things you could atleast wash the bartan for amma, no?"
My word. I couldn't believe my ears, these are the dialogues I give to Su when he hasn't met my expectations of household chores are concerned. Well nothing else could be done other than laugh.

She NOT only talks but understands as well. I got some stuff for Anne(well her own stuff). Looking at the sling, Chiku asked "mumma why you giving this?" So I said "This is Annette mummy's na, so we have to give it back" pat comes" then how will we carry Baba"
I said "its ok, baba is a lil bigger we can carry him in our hands or baba can walk".
Chiku " annette mummy has got new baby" to which I replied "No. Not yet."
and She thoughtfully responds "oh baby is still in Annette mummy's tummy."
and I just had to say a yes and distract her.

Chiku and baba share a great bond. And its absolutely amazing (touchwood) to see them. She keeps talking to him like a really big sister, sometimes when I hear her I feel I m listening to myself. When Sunny is notorious and not in a listening mood she would go on with "babaaaaaaaa eeh ehh ehh" a slow grunting sound to show authority and seriousness. And its totally different thing that baba doesn't care at all. Sometimes she says " Baba, don't do like this, you will get hurt na" and sometimes " Baba don't pull my hair, I am your big sister na I am didi na" and sometimes "adi veno" (you want beatings, with her small palms in action).

Amidst all this, her favorite thing to do so is sing bollywood songs, and these days are favorites are "dhunki dhunki lage" and "why this kolaveri di?" Beautiful thing is she knows to modulate her voice as per the song.

I must tell you chiku, though I am irritated at times, but everything that you say is really adorable.

Yet Another...

Openhouse in chiku's school.
There are 2 parts to it:
This is the first time I attended d 'sing along with mumma day' @ school. And also after this there was going to be a session of soft-blows.
As soon as Chiku n I entered d class, I saw that all d kids were sitting quietly with their mumma's n daddy's. When we entered, everything changed, chiku said hi to few of the gals and prodded everybody to come n play ' Ringa ringa roses'. The complete state n environment changed. Once quiet n passive enviro became all charged and excited and joyous and I was extremely happy that my baby was responsible for this. I thought to myself, well the soft blows are not gonna be blows after all (wait till I tell u more).

Part 2:
WE, the mums were handed over the so called 'progress report'. I didnt know how to react to it, I mean it wasn't that bad. But then what made me proud was the personality development section, which showed that the lil gal is actually a big gonda (like her teacher called her), well in a way it was nice to see that, she has grown to be a quite independent gal (tats what teacher meant). What happened after that was something that i didn't expect. All the parents (yes all the parents) surrounded the teacher and started asking her how her ward was performing? I didn't expect the teacher to go berserk and keep telling everyone infact every single person I heard was being told what their wards 'weaknesses' were. She doesn't concentrate, she doesn't speak, she doesn't do her homeplay, she doesn't talk, she talks too much, He know everything but when he asked he doesn't answer. Excuse me!!! so what are u teachers for???
Are we really talking about 4 year old people??? Come on !!! They have weakness!!! ARe these the same set of people who know how to surf channels on tv, how to switch on-off a certain electronic instruments, play games, unlock phones, give back some smart remarks. REALLY!!! If they have weakness, then what about us???
The teacher couldn't even pronounce few of the words. She was screaming at the top of her lungs to get her points across. Sympathise with the teacher!!! no ways. She handles a class of 43, so what??? There are children of different calibre, different mood, different background, yes there will be, won't there??? Didn't she study in a School??? She can't make a passive student start talking, I mean, hello, don't you do YOUR homework??? Aren;t there ways and techniques to get d child to improve, what are you for??? I mean, we have studied in a class where there were more than 50 students in the class, but don't you have that one teacher, who sort of inspires you and gets u interested in studies. I was lucky and I so wish my mummu would be lucky too(she had lovely teachers in eurokids, she still misses them). I promise to send her for diwali session to eurokids, just to meet her teachers again.
I don't what I m more upset about, for the teacher giving left-right-center to the parents in front of a whole junta or the teacher screaming poems infront of us. I so want to take back my feedback form n rewrite it all over agan. And the teacher telling me my childs weakness ( u don't know how much my blood was boiling :X). The teacher said, " your daughter CAN and does talk to anyone and everyone". My child talks, ya she does, she better talk, thats in her genes. Damn it!! I felt like scolding the teacher and telling her "Try listening to them, you never know what you might learn many many things, other than the water cycle ". The theme for this month is water-cycle. She was screaming her weaknesses from the roof-top. She made a statement "whenever I tell them about concepts, 50% of the class is just not paying attention but blah blah blah ..." I was like come on and that didn't bother you. I thought teaching was about holding hand of your weaker students and getting him to stand at par with the brightest one. But I believe this teacher will get even the brightest child to slip n fall.

I know, I have to do 2 things:
Bring it to the schools attention.
Give closer look to whats being taught in the school.


PS: I wrote this in one breath, yes, one breath, when I was extremely upset and hence you can see amazing amount of grammatical mistakes, I m not gonna go back n correct it. My Weakness.

The hell...

Parents go thru ya...

20th Sept
Last weekend was very hectic, what with Su's cousin and her mum coming down to stay over for the night. I was happy in a way coz the cous and Mummu get along quite well (Cous is millions of lightyears elder to mummu, so don't get me wrong there). Mummu is totally smitten by the cous.
But yday a strange thing happened. Just when I was putting her to bed, mummu asked me:
Mummu : Mumma what is this?? (pointing at her belly)
Me : (these questions are tricky and sometimes I pause to see if she will selfanswer)What is what??
Mummu : look here na, what is this??
Me : Thats your tummy
Mummu : My belly. and Yes this is my belly button. Mumma when I become bbbbbbiiiiiiiiiggggggggg na one day, then baby will come in my tummy. Mumma when will baby come in my tummy???

Me stumped, no, wait, superstumped. I didn't know what to say. I thought it through and asked her "who told you that ?"
Mummu : Cous

Me stumped again. Who's the kid here??? Cous or mummu??? called up Cous threatened her (if u so much as breathe such things infront of my baby, all ur diamonds will belong to me and those 30-40 tolas of Gold you will hv to donate it to 'Mycharityfund')???
What should have I done (considering that I m so bad at taking suggestions)??
More than that, I was wondering, is it time already to talk about stuffs(birds n bees, no wait, about baby-birds and baby-bees)??? And who should I be having the talk with first the cous or mummu?? Should I discipline mummu??? For the time being, she wudn't utter this nonsense infront of me, but, I m sooooooo damn sure she will utter the same nonsense infront of Meme, and knowing Meme, by the time, I reach home(remember I have joined work so I leave at 7:30 in the morning and reach at 7:30 in the evening), I might find strawberries in place of meme's cheeks and meme rolling on the floor with laughter(God Knows what wud that do to Sunny???).

Expressions

As the time is flying by, mummu is filling my days with loads of dialogues followed by some cute expressions and gestures.

Scene 1:
I m seated on the sofa, watching (gaping) at my fav soap opera. Mummu, is playing and all of a sudden she runs to meme's room, picks something up, runs back to me. Kneels on one knee(a typical proposing pose) infront of the sofa where I am seated. There is a plastic flower in her hand. She poses as if to give the flower to me, calls me, smiles and says
'Mumma, yeh tumhare liye'
(Mumma this is for you)

Scene 2:
This Mummu generally does when I m really upset with her and she knows that if she upsets me more I m gonna scold her. She hugs me and says
'Mumma, main tum se pyaar karti hoon. Mumma I love you so much'

Dialogues

At a friends wedding:
Mummu always has been the types, when she sees people her own age she wud just run to them. We had been to a friends wedding in March, and luckily I was happy to see another gal (the Grooms niece, almost same age as Mummu) there. I was closely watching them. There was this girl AM, Mummu and another boy of the same age. In their playful activities, they had thrown the bride n groom off and occupied the sofa kept on the stage. Before mummu joined the gang, AM and the Boy, xyz, were happily running around. Once mummu joined, xyz started playing with her and wasn't following AM when she continued to run here and there. This I think bugged AM a lot, she called out for the boy. The boy meekly followed her, while AM pointed a strict finger at Mummu and said something, which seemed like ' u better stay here n don't follow us'. While AM and Xyz took one round of the reception hall, mummu waited patiently on the sofa. Xyz came back to her once he finished his running arnd and started playing again. AM called him the 2nd time for another round, the boy meekly followed her, while again Mummu was instructed to strictly sit where she was (atleast from a distant it seemed that way). AM and xyz ran and xyz again came back to mummu. The Third time, before AM called xyz to play with her, she shouted at mummu and I could clearly hear her say 'Don't play with us, sit here'. Mummu was burning with fury. I was on my marks, I handed Sunny to mum and was adjusting my sandal.

With the biggest tears in her eyes, she slid down from the sofa, kept both the hands on the sofa behind her back, and to the trailing figure of AM she shouted something.

When I heard that, I broke into a laugh and a sprint at the same time. Grabbed her, brought her back to where we were seated and cuddled her, told her not to cry and asked her what did AM tell you
Mummu : ' Mumma she told me, you don't play'
ME : ' what did you say?'

Mummu with tears still rolling out of her eyes and a big smile (as if she won the battle with that just one word) : ' I said Kuttey' (kuttey as in dog).

How could you not laugh at such a sweet thing. I, ofcourse, disciplined her later once we got back home, no point scolding the child, when she was so upset.

F.E.A.R.s (August 11)

The latest addition to my list of fears:
1. PTM
2. Mummu
Fears of PTM's , I thought I had overcome, what with Mummu's eurokids teachers giving a good review everytime we went there. I never thought, dreamt it would come back to scare me again, and it did. Honestly, I had all but forgotten about it, when the circular came from her new school, the fear just came back to me, followed by sleepless nights. In the end, PTM was postponed to another month. Sighhhhhhhhhh, Phew, Relief.
In the meantime, there was the Independence day celebration, and I was hoping it would be a school event. Well, it was a class event, supposed to start at 8:30 and it did start, we reached at 9 am. We actually entered towards fag end of a performance, infact the only performance that was organised(and if the teachers are listening, please, I cannot write my remarks based on just one performance when the music player was getting stuck every 5 seconds and the children didn't know what to do. Plus, whatever comments I have written down its for the childrens performance and not really for what the teachers taught).

When we entered, the last piece of music(title song from 'Chak de') was playing, Mummu without any hestitation just joined the gang and started dancing, we were so happy to see that there was absolutely no hesitation.

After the performance, we asked her who are your friends? She pointed at them from far, named them, but just didn't go to anybody despite the fact that half the children were calling out to her. This made me upset, but I am assuming cos sunny was also with us, she was more interested in coming back n playing with Sunny than her school friends(keeping my fingers crossed).

WE were more interested in knowing few kids, especially the ones who Mummu was complaining about that they beat her, pinch her or push her(wait till I find them grrrrrr!!!Wat I m protective about my kid, so wat???). Thankfully, none of those guys had turned up(thankful for them).
A typical conversation after she is back from school:
Mummu : 'Mumma today na that big boy pushed me'
'Mumma today na that big boy na took my chair'
'Mumma today na that big boy scratched me'

Me : 'So what did you do?'
Mummu : ' I na told teacher, teacher teacher this boy beat me.'
Me : ' Did you beat him back?'
Mummu : 'no mumma, I am so small na.'
While this made me smile and I am so glad that she doesn't resort to any kind of violence, I worry about her, I do not want her to be pushed or beaten ever.

First day @work

and back home.
Yup m back @work, after exactly 6 months of leave(what Leave??? Maternity leave !!! ofcourse). Well actually a lil short of 6months. But thats not important. How do I feel?? Nothing new. Felt like I had never left the place. Felt like I was always working. Staying at home was way hectic than coming to work. I had b'fast and lunch on time and in peace with Anjie and Anklets (not a peaceful thing at home). I joined on Monday, so that meant both Su n Me had to leave from home, and that neither of us would be arnd the kids for the entire day. I would atleast return late in the evening but Su wud come only on Friday. So the kids were at Meme's place.

The highlight of the day was NOT being in the office n surviving (that was easy!!!) it was getting back home. The festival of Ganpati had already started and it was just the 3 days so loads of processions on the road and just when we were reaching the destination a huge procession just blocked us for a quite 15 mins or so. AFter I reached home( a lil later than the usual 7:30), both Mummu n Sunny jumped with excitement. Sunny was pulling himself off Meme's grip and Mummu she was one who ran and opened the door for me. While Cuddling and playing with both of them,
Mummu asked : 'Mumma, where have u been?'
Me : 'Office baba. Remember I told u in the morning that I hv to go to work and I will now meet u only in the evening'
Mummu : 'Mumma why do u have to go to office'
Me : ' Cos mumma has work na and how will she get money then if she doesn't go to work( :) some facts of life can't be hidden )'?
Mummu : 'but why do u hv to leave me and go?'
Me : 'Cos there is work na baba. Why do you ask?'
Mummu : 'Cos mumma when you go office na, (crossing her arms infront of her chest)then I was so alone' (gave a sad smile)

ME, I just bursted out laughing. Don't know where she learnt that from. These days I don't know whats the next thing she will say.

1st Monday of 2011

And I am feeling blessed today, why not? When your child is well behaved for the nth time you don't have to think abt all the right things to say or do, to get her out of the bed in a fraction of a second and get her bathed n dressed n ready for school in the next fraction.
The first Monday of this year started on a good note.
Mummu all of 3 years, 3 months and 3 days had been very excited about going to school. Mainly, cos the entire week that she had an off, we (Su is equally to be blamed for this) never took her anywhere except for circus that too on 1st Jan. So ya she was excited about going to school right from Sunday. Thats very unlike of her, mainly cos its winter, and for a change its quite cold, getting up in the mornings is a challenge for me, I don't expect mummu to be happy about it.What can excited her about going to school are her friends and teachers, which is really a blessing and I hope it continues all her life.
So Monday morning started with Su calling out to Mummu couple of times and mummu waking up with minimum resistance. She happily ran to the bathroom to be bathed by her dad, Wear the dress that her dad decided to put for her (white frock with blue dots on them and a blue collar) without any resistance at all. Su took her to amma house, where she happily lay watching TV, when I entered. She decided to have her milk, get her hair combed and tie 2 pony tails and the highlight of the morning, infact the highlightS were:
Mummu reminded me "Mumma its gym day today, so wear T-shirt and Track pants no mumma"Oh Jezz, I had forgotten completely mondays are gym day. I quickly got her changed into a purple tights and green T-shirt.
Just before leaving for her school and my office respectively, she told me "Mumma, time for in the name of the father"
So there standing next to my lil gal and infront of the alter,I prayed "In the name of the father..."
Mummu continued "son, holy spiri Amen.Our father who in heaven hallow be thy naim thy kinpdom come thy will be done on earth thy kinpdom come "
I joined in " on earth as it is in heaven..."Mummu took charge "give us today our daily bread, give us today our daily bread, and trespasses forgive our trespasses"Together the 2 of us " as we forgive those who trespass against us deliver us from every evil.Amen"
I thought that was the end of the prayers, but Mummu continued: "Hail mary full of grace lord is with you lord is with you"Together the 2 of us again prayed " blessed are you amongst women and blessed is the fruit of thy womb Jesus"Mummu continued "holy mary mother of God deliver us from evil amen."

I thanked the Lord.
What else do you ask from the Lord?

PS: The prayers mentioned here are mummu's attempt at learning them right, there has been no intensions of making fun or any pun intended

Chiku says

“Achcuse me mumma”. To distract me or just like that. She ones said “achcuse me aunty” to a hospital receptionist who was busy booking an appointment for a patient.
“I love u cho much mumma”. This is followed by a peck on the cheek, ofcourse my cheek. This is when I am angry and upset with chiku and don’t want to fall prey to her requests and demands.
“Mumma sit”. This is when I come back from office and Chiku eagerly points me to the sofa so that I can sit and she can sit on my lap and talk.
“Mumma, amma house jaana hai”. This is, as soon as she wakes up in the morning. Occurrence only on weekdays.
On Weekends, it is “Goo Morning”, which is followed by a tight hug. Something about Chiku, when she hugs, I feel so loved.
All her demands are followed by my stern command “what will you say”, and she says “please”.
"Please mumma I want Kaju(cashewnuts)” or “Please mumma, I want choice(chocolate)”.

One of the days when I went home early and was having lunch with Chiku, I was eating the normal rice and dal, she had a bowl full of chevda. Just to make my meal yummy, I put my hands in her bowl and took some chevda, to which chiku's reaction was "arey". I obviously ignored. Then again I repeated the same thing, put my hands in her bowl and took some more chevda, to which she sternly said "arey mumma ye kya kar rahi ho tum. Ye mera hai" (mumma, what are you doing. This is my chevda.)

Parents Teacher Meet

Teacher : Hi Ma’am, (looking at Chiku) Good morning chiku
(Chiku is hiding behind me)
Me: (Prodding) Chiku ur teacher is talking to you no sweetie, say good morning
(Chiku is awfully meek today)
Su: Chiku say Good morning(with a stern voice)
Me: (before Su can go on with his “do this” “ do that” I Jump in. looking at the teacher) She is like this whenever we come along.
Teacher: (Affirms)oh ya, otherwise she is the first to say good morning and thank you and sorry. I think she is feeling extra coy today.
Me: Ya, we can conveniently blame it on her Dad
Teacher: Right, before I begin is this Chiku's Dad (My mind: is the teacher expecting a stranger to walk in with you?) and are there any specific questions you want to ask me?
Me: No
Su: (before I end my No, he starts) Well we just want to generally know how is she doing at school, is she coping well, is she good with the teachers and students alike?
Teacher: Well, like you both know, Chiku is a very SMART kid(bells tingling in my ears). She is very sweet and pampered child(louder tingling). All the teachers love her and pamper her (tingling again). She is very active and has a good retention power (Me going WOW. My Mind is talking to me: “What you didn’t know that”). You tell her something and after 10 minutes you ask her, she replies back promptly. She loves water. (Pause. My Mind: is she gonna add something scary?)
Teacher: That’s the good part about her, the complains. Hmm, well she is a big drama queen, if you take something from her, or ask her to do something that she doesn’t want to she will shed these crocodile tears (Shcuks, even in school) and the very next minute she will be laughing out loud. All the teachers pamper her so much, that sometimes she takes us for granted. She repeats everything the teachers says. If the teacher says keep quiet, chiku will repeat keep quiet. She throws attitude, if she doesn’t want to eat, nothing in the world can force her to do so (my Nose I think at that minute grew about a couple of inches long )or doesn’t want to do certain things u cann’t force her to(My nose was a Foot long then. My mind: “Your Genes right, did u ever doubt?”). She loves to dance and doesn’t take so much of coaxing to do that, so we have put her in 2 dances for the Annual function (My mind: is that a complain?). All in all no complains. (Bell tingling louder). She is a very positive child ( bell a lil louder). All in all Chiku ROCKS (Bell tingling loudest. My mind: Clap Clap).


When we left from the school, you wouldn’t have imagined my smile, it was from ear to ear, and my Nose a foot long. Knowing Chiku, a mummy like me (or a dad like Su) shouldn’t be agitated or tensed about meeting her Teachers, or receiving their feedback. But Just like any other parent you wouldn’t want to hear any COMPLAINTS or for that matter anything negative about your child, so my agitation was valid. Plus I wanted to hear the cooing of all her positives from her teacher. No matter how good ur child is, you always welcome more Praises from others wouldn’t you? You feel so proud.
I am so proud, so very proud. My Sweet child R.O.C.K.S

Talks

Children they surprise you with everything, their ways, their talks, their thinking, their logic and their TALKS. Why I say talks and that too twice? Well I have been trying to analyze how I feel when a certain child I know (or may be don't know) talks to me or talks with Chiku. Happy Sad envious Jealous or pure plain Angry.

Righto, so this story is about a lil boy, chiku and I meet every morning when I go to drop chiku down (ya the school bus time). The boys name is Sunny (and one day when he grows up I m gonna show this blog to him). Well the first time I met him, I thought he is the usual bubbly or overexcited hyperactive kid and I thought he speaks well. What do you say about a child who really speaks well speaks clear hindi sentences including Hindi terms(read slangs). Ya right (Eyes popped , Eyebrows twitched...exactly my expression). So here is the complete story.
Like every other day (once in a week) I went to drop chiku. I have heard Sunny speak so to avoid meeting him, I decided its best for me and Chiku to walk inside the complex passage. But alas, Sunny spotted us from afar, he came till our building and called out to Chiku. Chiku being this happy kid went behind sunny. We reached a common spot, close to a black SX4 which is equidistant from Sunny's and our building, there the children started jumping and running.

I still was controlling my urge to make sweet conversations with Sunny, knowing very well that the sweet conversations will turn Sour very soon. Sunny decided it was his turn, he started
Sunny: Aunty you know this is my car (pointing to the black SX4)
ME : (eyes popped, eyebrows twitched, gulps down the anger...how dare u call me aunty, so what if my hair are silver and they show) oh is it so now ?? (trying to sound sweet)
Chiku : (repeating Sunny) My car (smiles)
Sunny : Aunty you know I m strong like a Batman, I can punch like a batman (throws couple of punches in the air)
Me: (making some silent prayers for Sunnys bus to arrive sooner) oh are you now?
Chiku: Monkey
Me : no not monkey chiku, Sunny said Batman
Sunny : What did she say aunty?
Me : Monkey
Sunny : U r monkey, tu bandar
Me : what did u say Sunny
Sunny : u r monkey ( points at chiku)
Chiku : Monkey, me monkey
Me : No chiku u r not a monkey

I just turned around to stare at Sunny, he was least bothered.
If a stare could kill, mine would have fried Sunny today. I just felt like shaking Sunny's Grandma (who I thought had a smirk on her face) and telling her to mind Sunny's language. But then just at that moment I caught a glimpse of Chiku. She was wearing this dress a full sleeves a magenta shade with small prints (a lil faded), looking extremely sweet, a bright red Hairband with her hair curling around the band, giving her a divine look. I was wondering how can a child look so sweet in a faded dress? And a thought crossed my mind, my eyes twinkled and a smirk lurked on my face, I looked at sunny and thought to myself, well Sunny this is the ONLY time u will look cute, wait till you grow up and we shall see who looks like a Monkey.

Just at that minute Sunny's bus arrived, my smirk turned into a smile and I happily turned to Sunny
Me : " Here comes your bus, Sunny boy. Chiku, say bye to Bhaiya."
Chiku : Bye bye Bhaiye

2.2.2 (2 point 2 point 2)

There is NOT a single day that I thank God for having blessed Me and Su with a wonderful child.
She never ceases to surprise me/us.

WEEK ONE OF PLAYSCHOOL
Day 1 of her playschool, after she came back from school and we had our lunch she started with this
"Minke minke lil star hob i wonder bot you rrrrrrrrrrrrrrr
up above world so highhhhhhhhhhhiiiiiiiiiiii lik a diamond in d kkkkkkkkkyyyyyyyyyy"
no points for guessing that rhyme. Well the first time she sang, I really wasn't paying attention to her. Why cos I and mum spent 2 months repeating twinkle twinkle and hoping that mummu would recite it once atleast once and voila she did. She chose the first day of her playschool.



Day 2 of her playschool, I come home and find her happily going about humming something which is similar on the lines of
"Johnny yes papa, eating shugaaaaaa noooooooooo papppppppppppppaaaaaaaaaa, lelling lies nooooooooo pappaaaaaaaaa" a very prompinent and long pause and I say "open your mouth"
she says "hahaha". How do you think I felt, "Aaaaaaaaaammmmmmmmmmazzzzzzzzzzinnnnnnnnnnnggggggg people"


Day 3, I come home and can't smile in the anticipation that there is another poem waiting for me, and ofcourse there is this time it is "chubby cheeks roshie lifs teeth withi curly hair very fair eyes are blooo lovoly too teachr's pet is that you" "yes yes yes"(shouts out loud)


Day 4 nothing day 5 nothing.
End of Week one

WEEK TWO

Day 2
COUPLE OF DAYS in week one just passed by without any new addition/s. Well then I thought what the heck, the teachers are doing a good job as it is teaching her english rhymes, lemme start with some hindi ones.
So I did teach her one, complete with actions and expressions (lot of my friends will vouch that I m good at it).

Day 3
Late in the evening I am busy watching TV, and Mummu comes to me and says
"Machi jal ki rani ye, ja ki rani pani hai, haath lagao dar jaaegi, bhar nikalo darr jaaegi" corrects herself and says "baar nikalo marr jaegi" and then she adds "goo girl"
Wow it just took her a day to memorise and recite the poem.

Day 4
I call up her playschool teacher
Me "Ma'am I am really sorry I couldn't make it to the PTA"
Teacher "No problem maam, Mummus progress is GOOD infact VERY VERY GOOD"
Me "Really, so what do you teach her, I believe poems"
Teacher(dumbfound...I could actually see her face through the phone) "No maam, we just have activites and this month we are teaching her colors, we are teaching her blue color"
Me " Really no poems no ABCD"
Teacher "well ABCD yes, but no poems she is still quite young for that"
Me "thanks" my turn to be dumbfound, my lil gal all of 2 years 2 months and 2 days, has all grown up. She listens to the poems, remembers the actions and spills it out when you least expect it.

I do not know

Sometimes when we promise Mummu that we are taking her on the bike, if we then do not take her out,
I do not know if mummu will yell or be coaxed by some other incentive that she might get

Sometimes when I am busy with my laptop,
I do not know if she will ask me to “show photo” followed by “pleash pleash” (read please) or just yell bringing an angry expression on her face and then tears will follow

Sometimes when I am hugging her
I do not know if she would say “huggy huggy” and hug me back or she would turn around and scratch my face cos she has got irritated

Sometimes when I say “gimme muchi”
I do not know if she will say “muchi muchi” and gimme a peck or she would be just stuck to my face like bee to the honey

Sometimes when I say “eat chochi” (eat your food)
I do not know if she will start with “poon poon poon” and eat with a spoon or she will just start eating with both her hands

Sometimes when me and Su are holding hands
I do not know if she will just say “hand hand hand…” and be happy when I hold her hand or be happy when Su holds her hand

Sometimes when I call out to her
I do not know if she will come running to me or look at me and just go back to watching her “gaana”

Sometimes when Su calls up
I do not know if she talk to him and tell him “dadchi, mummy achi, amma achi, papu achi” (implies dad mom beat me, granny beat me, papu beat me…so much for being honest) and wud giggle or she would just say “ No No No”

Sometimes when Mummu see babies
I do not know if she is just gonna say “baby baby baby” and leave the baby alone or just hug and kiss and not leave the baby alone

In all this I do not know
If she is adorably sweet or sweetly stubborn