Wednesday, January 31, 2007

Imaginary Friends

All of a sudden my living room becomes a Zoo! There are elephants, giraffes, kangaroos, and "kola bears" roaming all over the place. I am given a job I never applied for -- the post of zoo keeper, and my colleague is a nearly three year old brat! I am then forced to feed and water the animals, and put them to sleep when its nap time!

The above scenario is just one instant where H1 uses her imaginary friends to play with. The most frequent visitors to her imaginary land are a dog and cat. She would play for hours with them; feeding them, bathing them and petting them. She would even read stories to them. I know she badly wants a pet, and I guess this is her way of filling the void. I have promised her that as soon as we go back to Sri Lanka, I will get her a dog and a cat.

Another imaginary friend is a bird. This fellow manifested after an actual minah bird paid a visit to us. The bird must have been an escaped pet, because it was so tame that it even came into the house and started following H1 around! Ever since that incident, an imaginary little bird would descend once in a while, and I or my husband would have to "shoo" it away. Only H1 decides when the bird would fly away. So, when we say "shoo", she would say "Ammi, it's still there! 'Shoo' it away, 'shoo' it away!"

Monday, January 29, 2007

A Question of Politeness

About three days ago, I noticed a red spot on H1's cheek.

Me: "What happened darling?"
Baby: "A mostiko bit me!"
Me: "Oh! you poor thing."
Baby: "And he didn't (even) say sorry!!"

Friday, January 26, 2007

Independent

Oh! My baby is growing up!!

H1 now wants to do everything by her self. And she can do most of the things by her self!
She can get dressed on her own (even put on her pyjamas), she can wear shoes on her own and she even elected to carry her bag (which weighs about the same as her) to school.

Of course sometimes things can go wrong, like the times she would use one of the leg holes of her pantie as the waist!

I actually am thrilled to see how independent my little girl is becoming. Just two days ago her teacher was telling me how well she is settling and adjusting in school. So, these days, I am quite a happy mom!

Tuesday, January 23, 2007

Words

For a two and a nine month old, H1's language skills are amazing. She can talk in full sentences even using phrases like "May I?" or "Me neither".

But she mispronounces some words in a real cute way;

Onjan - orange
jellow - yellow
pinjana - pyjama
mostiko - mosquito
comptiner - computer
limany - library
Milly goat - Billy goat

For me, the best one is the way she says Polar bear....she always says "Kola bear. One day, in an attempt to correct her I said "Its the Per sound love, say per per polar bear".
So now every time H1 sees a Polar bear on TV, she says "look! there's a Kola bear, a per per Kola bear!"

Sunday, January 21, 2007

Mummy Steps and Baby Steps

I can't imagine why I didn't think of this sooner. I finally figured out why H1 was so reluctant to walk when we go out. She insists on being carried. Not an easy task as she is now nearly 12 kilos!

It's just this....I took "mummy steps" and she took "baby steps" and I expected her to keep up with me! No wonder the poor thing was so reluctant. She had to either run or skip to keep up. And the situation was even worse with Hubs (Him being a six footer and H1 being a mere two and a half).

It beats me why I couldn't figure it out earlier, when I was going through the same thing! When I walk with Hubby it is so difficult for me keep up with his long strides that I have to run or skip to keep up!

So now problem solved. H1 and I both take baby steps. Only problem now is that it takes twice as much time to get any where! But I guess it is a small prize to pay for not having a backache!

Thursday, January 18, 2007

Oh Boy!

This happened last July when we were in Sri Lanka for a short visit.

H1 was having a bath with her cousin brother who is 6 months older to her. Now my H1 girl has never seen a....um.... naked fellow before, so she must have noticed something odd!

All of a sudden, H1 points to her cousin's....um.... private parts and exclaims "Oooooh look, there is an ELEPHANT!".

Well, you have to admit that she is pretty sharp to figure out the similarity between a trunk and a....um....wee-willy-winky!

All lookers on by now are laughing them selves silly when her cousin decides to turn away from H1 . My daughter who has a fascination for elephants was highly disappointed that it was taken from her view. So she exclaims again "Hey where did the elephant go?"

By now, as you can imagine, all on-lookers were rolling on the floor laughing!

Monday, January 15, 2007

Dora to the Rescue


Hooray!! No more crying when going to school! (I am still keeping my fingers crossed though) Thanks to a brilliant (ahem!) idea I had.


I thought of using a Rewards Chart, a technique I learnt from Super Nanny (God bless her!).
Since H1 is a big fan of Dora the Explorer and I had some Dora stickers handy I decided to use that as a theme for my chart.


The idea is to reward your child for good behaviour by setting a target. In my case I used a ladder rung to represent each day that H1 does not cry when going to school. She would place a sticker on a ladder rung each day that she doesn't cry. After ten days of not crying (I did not want to make the time frame longer as she would loose interest) she would reach the top. And when she does she would get her reward (in this case a toy camera, just like the one she saw Elmo having - I am praying that Toys-R-Us would stock this!)


Sunday, January 14, 2007

Classic Responses

Sometimes I wonder how to discipline a child that comes up with answers like this.....

Me : "Are you going to pick that up or not?"
Baby : "NOT!"

Me : "What will you have darling, an apple or an orange?"
Baby : "Nothing!"

Me : "H1 come and get dressed now!"
Baby : "I am NEVER gonna get dressed!!"

Me : "Will you come and brush your teeth now or are you going to sit on the naughty spot until you decide to do so?"
Baby : "Sit on the naughty spot!"


Thursday, January 11, 2007

A Box of Fun

Its amazing what joy a simple cardboard box would give a child.

Last weekend we were cleaning out the store room and out came an old TV box. H1 immediately claimed ownership and carried it away. For over half an hour we were not bothered by her as she was too busy getting in and out of the box or curling in it just like a little kitten.

After a while when I checked on her, she had emptied her whole army of soft toys from the toy cupboard (all twenty one of them!!) into the box saying that its their new home. H1 being "Mom" was sitting in the midst of them all looking like cute cuddly bear herself!!

Tuesday, January 9, 2007

A bed, a farm and a baby

As the new year dawned, we decided to make a big change in H1's life (or so we thought). After making a huge deal about how big she is now and how nice it would be to start sleeping alone, we separated her bed from ours and placed it in another corner of the room.

Then I decorated the wall against which the bed was placed with stars and a moon that glows in the dark. I also placed loads of soft toys on her bed. (all this was done while my little girly was whimpering and crying asking me to move the bed back).

That night I let H1 fall asleep on our bed and moved her to her own bed once she was fast asleep. Around six in the morning she woke up and jumped onto our bed and slept again till eight.

A few days later we added a railing to the bed (we've been using chairs against the bed to stop her falling!).

The moment the railing was done H1 jumped on her bed and claimed that it looked like a farm (i guess she meant a pen in a farm) and immediately became a Billy Goat (Milly goat is what she says) going "Baa baa". (Now when ever she is on the bed she says "Thaathi I am a milly goat, you be the farmer OK?" and my husband has to pretend to feed her through the railings)

So it wasn't a big deal as we thought it would be. H1 just fuzzed a little on the first day but seems to have accepted it as the way things are done. Now she falls asleep on our bed, we move her to her bed once she is fast asleep and she jumps into ours around six every morning and sleeps a little more.

Another thing is that now she takes less than half an hour to fall asleep. Thats one new year resolution I was wishing she would make! (One down and nine to go!! ;o)

Sunday, January 7, 2007

Fever

H1 has been having a slight fever the past couple of days. Although she has no fever today, decided to keep her from daycare. As you can imagine she is delighted with the arrangement!!

Right now she is driving me insane by asking "Is the school closed?" for the umpteenth time, I guess just to make sure that she is not going to be sent there today.

As the day progresses I am beginning to wonder how I managed to do all the housework while entertaining her without going totally insane.

I am now so glad that we decided to put her in daycare at least for the mornings. It gives me a much needed break after looking after her day in, day out. One thing is certain though, I will not put my self through this should there be another baby. I will then definitely go back to work or I am sure I'll end up having a never ending fever!!


Foot note (added: 08/01/07 - 9.00 a.m.)
After reading this entry H1's paternal grandparents were a bit worried and called to make sure H1 is fine. My husband reasured them that everything is quite alright. I know parents and grandparents all over the world worries a lot when a baby catches a cold or has a fever.

The information in the following links tells you all you need to know about colds and fevers as well as let you know when and when not to worry when your baby is sick.

Caughs, colds and sinus infections

Fever




Thursday, January 4, 2007

Oopsy, I did a Poopsy!

When I went to pick H1 up from daycare last Wednesday, the teacher came up to me and said with a crinkled up face "H1 passed a motion on the floor today!"
I felt like going through the floor my self, I tell you!

This is something she has not done since the day she started using the toilet properly, so I was very surprised. At home when the need arises, she just starts running towards the toilet, while pulling down her underwear, while chanting "I wanna poo, I wanna poo!".

When gently questioned she said "I told teacher I wanna poo". So my theory is that the teacher was too busy to hear and H1 was in too much of a hurry!

Both Hubby and I didn't want to make a big deal of it but just to remind her what to do, before bedtime we played a question and answer game.

Q: "What do you do when you want to pee?"
A: "Say I wanna pee and run to the toilet!" (And we all would go Yeeeeeeeeei!!!"
Q" "What do you do when you want to poo?"
A: "Say I wanna poo and run to the toilet!" (Yeeeeeeeeeei!)

I am anyway going to keep my fingers crossed!

Wednesday, January 3, 2007

Her Point of View

Yesterday, on our way to the library, the bus we were riding went over a series of road humps. H1 looks at me and says,

"Oh oh! Ammi I think the bus is having hiccoughs!!"

On our way back home, it started raining cats and dogs. The rain water was running down the shutters of the bus. To the amusement of everyone listening to her non-stop chatter, H1says in a very loud voice,

"Oh! look Ammi, the bus is having a shower!!"

Monday, January 1, 2007

Big Bad Wolf

One day, a few months back, H1 was being a little naughty girl. So her mother made her sit on the "naughty spot".

Naturally, H1 was not too happy about the whole thing and must have been contemplating things she can do to her mother! She was actually so mad that with clenched fists she yelled,

"I will huff you!"
"And I'll puff you!!"
"And I'll blow you down!!!!"