Here comes Santa Clause

On Christmas Day H1 opened her eyes in the morning and looked around. She saw me looking at her and gave me her million dollar smile that melts my heart and whispered, “Do you think Santa came?”

I said, “I don’t know, why don’t you go and check under the tree.”
She ran to the tree and saw the present and said, “He remembered! He remembered!”

Just a few weeks back, H1 asked, “How will Santa know what I want?” and I said “Maybe if you shout out what you want he’ll hear you.” She shouted out “I want a scooter Santa!”

So that’s what Hubby…I mean Santa got her. A red scooter. She loves it.

Of cause being Buddhists we don’t do the whole nine yards of Christmas…maybe just one yard or two ;o) So H1 gets her tree and a gift from Santa every year. I think that’s the best way of creating mutual respect for everyone’s beliefs…by taking part in the celebrations in whatever small way you can.

Christmas deco @ Orchard Road

Took H1 to see the Christmas deco at Orchard Road. They have a different theme each year -- this year it was 'Candy Land'.

The tree at Takashimaya Shooping Centre is HUGE (almost four stories high)

Unfortunately H1 was in a bad mood right throughout. Maybe because of the large crowds and because it was closer to her bedtime.

Nethmi the Artist - I

Even when H1 was very young, she loved to draw. I think it's inherited from me because I too love to paint and draw. So we used to let her paint from about the time she was a year old. Initially it was just finger paintings...but she graduated to brushes when she was around one and a half (about the time these pictures were taken)

Unfortunately most of these painting sessions would invariably end in something like this:

I need to dig up some of her earlier paintings and post them here for posterity's sake I think. I have posted some of her white board drawings here and here.

Worm-de-da

H1 was scratching her bum frantically sometime last week to the point that it got quite embarrassing to take her out in public.

We thought it might be worms...so hubby was promptly sent to the pharmacy to get some de-worming tablets.

H1 having being told once-upon-a-time that sometimes she might see the worms in her poo wasn't too happy with the prospect of going to the toilet.

So when the urge did arrive she refused to go and we had to sweet talk her and tell her that it's no biggie. That seems to assure her.

When she felt the need to poo again she ran to the toilet with an exited shout of, "Here comes the worms!!"

...but there were none...

Spelling Bee

Hooty proudly announced, "I know how to spell video!"

Wow! We thought...and she goes, "It's spelt, D - V - D!!!"

Hooty and her doggy pals

Unlike Knatolee and The mad cat woman, we are not fortunate enough to be surrounded by animal love (sob sob). I’ve always had a dog and a cat while growing up and I am really saddened by the fact that poor H1 has not yet had the pleasure of a furry creature to love and hold (and squeeze, kiss and give belly rubs to…sigh). We can’t get a pet right now as we are hoping to go back to Sri Lanka soon and don’t want to put the poor fellow through all the quarantining and travelling in a plane business.

So poor Hooty has to be happy with her soft toy doggy pals, who, despite being stuffed with whatever they stuff soft toys with these days, have a heart and soul. They each have their very own personalities. Max is the clever one, while Rosy is a feminine and docile creature. Chooti (meaning the little one) is the latest addition (just 2 days old), so I am not too sure of what kind of creature she is. All three were named by Hooty herself by the way.



As you can see, poor Max, who is covered in band-aids, suffers along with Hooty whenever she gets a wound. (H1 and her wounds deserve a separate blog entry unto itself.) Rosy too joins the misery ones in awhile.





Yesterday, Hooty  having leant how to put on a hair band on her own, decided to treat her doggies to new hair styles.


I think getting me... I mean her, a pet will be one of the first things we’ll do ones we get back. I think I will try a little kitten first. If Hooty proves that she is responsible pet owner, we’ll get her a puppy as well (I can’t wait..I can’t wait…)

Dora the Sri Lankan

Hooty looked so exited and had twinkling eyes when she exclaimed, “Ammi, Dora is Sri Lankan!”

“Oh,” I said, taken by surprise, “how come?”

“See, she is brown, just like me. And she has brown eyes and black hair.”

A few months back Hooty was insisting that she was Indian as she has brown skin. I think all this came from that ‘Racial Harmony Day’ at school when teachers must have talked about skin colour.

If only all Sri Lankans thought we were just that – Sri Lankans -- without further dividing our selves, how nice it would be…

Sneaky Snakey Games

Hooty get’s insanely jealous sometimes. (OK OK..most of the time.)

Yesterday before bedtime, she chose to play snakes and ladders. I started to play with her, but every time I would move ahead of her or if my dice shows 6 and I get to play another time, she would get mad and whine and complain. It got so bad that I told her that I don’t want to play with her anymore. (yeah yeah…Mummy went off in a sulk.)

Then Hubby tried to play with her and since he was trailing way behind she was quite happy for a while. Then thanks to a long ladder climb there was Hubby ahead of Hoots. That’s when all hell broke loose. She started crying and whining. Then when she knew she was about to be beaten for sure she grabbed the board, folded it and says, “This is not a play board, see this is a book…you use it to learn numbers… see, you can count one, two, three, four,….nineteen, twenty!”

Can you believe how cunning this child can get?

We didn’t want her to get away with it, so Hubby and I tried to lecture, I mean explain, that you win some you lose some and since I was on Hubby’s side, there were loads of “I DON'T like Ammi…I DON'T want to play anymore.” And “You always win! I DON'T like you…sob sob…I DON'T want to play with you…Thaaththi is NOT nice!” (The words in all caps are said much louder than the rest.)

So, she was asked to go straight to bed…and from time to time we heard chantings from Hooty’s bed:
“I DON’T like you”
“I WON'T show you how to count!”
“I WON'T play with you anymore!”
And so on and so forth…..

Jingle all the way...

Yesterday, we were putting up the Christmas tree and Hooty started singing;

Jingle bells, jingle bells
Jingle all the way
Oh what a fight
It is too right
And one is shouting HEY!

Any attempt to teach her the correct version was vehemently turned down with a "Ammi is WRONG. My song is correct!”

The funny thing is her version rhymes as well :o)

Four Going on Twenty

Hubby had to work over the weekend and there I was with the mammoth task of keeping ze brat entertained.

With me having a horrible cold, my choices were limited but brain seemed to be working, blocked nose or not ‘cause ‘ping!’ I had a bright idea. I got my old bottle of nail polish (yep, the only one I have) and much to Hooty's excitement, she was allowed to paint her nails.

Once Hubby got home, she proudly displayed her painted nails and hubby goes, “Oh! You’ve painted your nails. I thought you are too small to paint your nails.” And Hooty says, “No. I am not! I am big now. See.”

“But I think you have to be at least twenty years old to paint your nails,” says Hubby. (Typical Sri Lankan father!)

“But I AM nearly twenty. I am nearly there now.” Says my daughter convincingly. :o)

Soothing Flu & Cold

Poor Hooty has the flu these days. Came across this great article on BabyCentre.com

Eleven safe home remedies to soothe your child's cold and flu symptomsby
Karen MilesReviewed by the BabyCenter Medical Advisory share

1) Honey (12 months and up)
2) A neti pot (4 years and up)
3) Nose blowing (2 years and up)
4) A bulb syringe (best for babies)
5) Vapor rubs (3 months and up)
6) Gargling with salt water (4 years and up)
7) Elevating the head (all ages)
8) Lots of rest (all ages)
9) Steamy air (all ages)
10) Extra fluids (6 months and up)
11) Chicken soup and other warm liquids (6 months and up)

Boring Concert

Off we went for Hooty’s school concert last week hoping for the same good dose of laughter that we got last year. Boy! Were we sooooo wrong.

The teacher’s had this ‘bright’ idea to do a drama this time around. A drama with two to five year olds??? I mean if it was in the lines of an animal story or something I’d understand, but guess what the story was—‘The story of Singapore’! Exiting isn’t it?

After the grand announcement of the title, curtain opens, and there goes a kid across the stage with the Singapore flag. Curtain closes. Curtain opens and walks in a kid who’s supposed to be the Malay prince who was supposed to have discovered Singapore. He apparently saw a lion and thus called this place ‘Singha pura’. So the kid points to the back of the stage and utters, “Ah! A lion!” (I would have been less irritated had they at least had a kid as THE lion.) Curtain closes. Curtain opens…walks in Sir Raffles and walks out Sir Raffles. Curtain closes. Curtain opens…in comes the ‘immigrants’ out goes the ‘immigrants’, curtain closes…you get my drift?

Then after a LOT of curtain openings and closings, in comes Hooty’s class to do a Malay dance wonderfully named ‘Kang Kung!’ How exiting is that? -- To watch a dance named after a mallung mitiyak! I nearly fell off my chair, ‘cause there was Hooty looking like a miniature version of my mom in law! Her hair was done exactly like her Aththama does her hair and she was wearing a long Malay dress that looks so much like the Kaftans my MIL wears.

Shouldn’t a children’s concert have little girls and boys just shaking their cute bums? (Don’t get me wrong here ;o)…I mean imagine how cute it would have been. It would have been great to see them doing their own thing while the music happily played on. That’s what would have made the kids seem like..well…kids instead of them walking so stiffly on stage.

What a disappointment. I wasn’t the only one feeling it. I could tell most of the parent’s were bored to tears. The mother next to me leaned over and whispered, ‘Isn’t so boring? I wonder when it will end.’

I hope next time around the teachers stick to good old singing and dancing.

Cranky-poo

Hooty gets into a really whacky mode when she is overcome with sleep....she acts just like a drunkard...only difference, she is drunk with sleepiness than alcohol. But the things she does are very similar to a drunkard. For instance, she would start singing at the top of her voice or start scaling the walls (literally, with the aid of the sofa) or she would go down on all fours and start going round and round).

So, yesterday, Hubby and I were watching a Bond movie on TV and we both wanted to see the end. It was way past Hooty’s bedtime and the poor thing was starting to behave like a drunken maniac. So I told Hubby, “Someone is becoming a cranky-poo!”

After a short while, Hooty pulls Hubby towards the bedroom saying, “Thaaththi, take me to bed, I am getting ‘crankier’!”
That child knows what she is feeling ;o)

A bag of Pee

Yesterday Hooty wanted to know how pee is made. So I tried my best to explain the process in a way a 4 year old would understand and said something in the lines of, “Well, when we drink water, our body uses it for things like digesting food, making tears and blood and getting rid of bad stuff for the body and all the extra water goes into a little bag called the bladder. And when it’s full, your brain says…hey Hooty…you better go pee now,..and so you go to the toilet.”

She was quite happy with the explanation…well for a while at least and THEN she asks me, “So, how many more plastic bags do we have in our body to fill up!”
And again after a while she says, “but Ammi, where is the opening to the bag?”…

I think I’ve made a mess of the whole thing ha?...but how do you explain about kidneys and bladder and the whole Excretory System to a 4 year old?

L of a problem!

Hubby took Hooty to work one day and as usual she started asking questions about so many things. As many parents know…some things are hard to explain to a 4 year old!

Hooty: “Thaaththi, what’s your office called?”

Hubby: (trying to get off easily) “Well, the building where I work is called Noel.”

Hooty: “Thaaththi, how do you spell it?”

Hubby: “N…O…E…L”

Hooty: “NO! NO! NO! You said No ‘L’!”

Hubby: “But darling that’s how the word ‘Noel’ is spelled.

Hooty: (Whimpering and mad as ‘L’) “But you said NO ‘L’ so no ‘L’ in the spelling!”

And on and on it went and Hubby finally gave up and thought to ‘L’ with it and said, “OK then, no ‘L’.”

Hooty the Flower Girl

A picture is worth a thousand words they say...so here's 5000 worth of words ;o)





.....tired after a day of posing for photos! (OK a few extra words for added value!)

In Sri Lanka

hoo hooo....we are in Sri Lanka these days...

Went off on a four day trip with Hubby's family and mine to Loolwatte in the Knucles Range. The beauty of the hills around where we stayed is beyond description. I'll post a few pictures here once I get back.

A few interesting remarks of Hooty's:

Hooty after taking a few sniffs of Sri Lankan air:

"Humff...Sri Lanka (is) very smelly!"

Hooty comparing Singapore and Sri Lanka:

"Thaaththi, Singapore (is) not nice. Sri Laka (is) nice.Singapore (is) just buildings, buildings,buildings, buildings buildings, buildings,buildings, buildings.........."

Hooty while trying to 'fly' kites with her cousin:

H: "I don't want to fly the kite. I want to keep it on the ground."
Cuz : "You HAVE to fly a kite.That's why it's called a kite.Otherwise it will be called a 'downer'."
Hooty wanting the last word, "No! This one is called a 'downer kite! So it needs to stay on the ground."

Hooty on Cuz:

H: "I am going to marry Imeth Ayya when I grow up."
Cuz: "Marry? Marry me? ha ha ha....OK"


Hooty on childbirth:

"How did Kiriamma have three kids? Did she go 'pop', 'pop', 'pop' and pop them out?"

There's much more to jot down...but so little time. Will be attending a few weddings in the comming days including my sisters! Hooty will be her flowergirl. Sooooo looking forward to that.

...issing iginnings

Hooty has a habit of dropping the beginning of some words,

“I am ‘ranging’ my toys.”
“It’s ‘ahind’ me.”
“This ‘alongs’ to me."
"When I 'come' big, I'll be a mommy."

And she would sing Duffy’s song – “I am begging you for mercy…why won’t you 'lease' me!”

Any guesses to what those words really are ;o)

A Strip-Tease

Brace yourself forks…we have a stripper in the family!!

Yesterday on ‘America’s Got Talent’ there were at least 3 acts with some kind of stripping going on…not the obscene kind you know…but the funny type…but yeah they were still stripping acts.

In the midst of the programme, Hooty stood up, and while gyrating to the music, she first took of her t-shirt. And then came the shorts. By this time I am sorry to say I was laughing hysterically while my hubby boy was giving me ‘don’t encourage her’ looks and trying not to laugh himself (and failing miserably). Finally off came her pooh bear panties ;o)

In 3 seconds flat there was my daughter dancing stark naked on the living room floor…

Time-Out

A long long time ago, giving Hooty ‘time-outs’ for bad behavior was as often as two or three times a day, especially during her ‘terrible-two’s tantrum’ phase. But as she grew older, and we were able to rationalise with her, they got far and few in-between. And for the past year or so, she has been a really good girl (‘touch wood ;o)’) that we have not given her any time-outs.

But lately, whenever we would reprimand her she would start being very rude and say ‘threatening’ remarks, like the following:

“When I grow up, I will NOT feed you!”
“When I grow up I will not buy you things!”
“I will NOT love you!”

I think she knows that when she grows up she’ll have more power ;o)
Anyway, yesterday she was very whiney during her bath-time and kept on crying for no apparent reason. Mind you, this was not real crying, just whiney crying just to get her way and she simply would not cooperate.

So, as a punishment, she was told that she can go straight to bed without a story. That led to more crying (real this time) and she started her usual rude utterances. We had warned her just the day before that if she talks to us that way, she will go straight to a time-out. So there she was…after a long long time…sitting on her ‘naughty-spot’ bowling her eyes out…

Odd Partners

I was so impressed by the teaching method Hooty's teacher used for teaching them odd and even numbers.

Hooty her self explained to me how she knows to differentiate them.

She said, "Even numbers have partners and odd numbers don't have partners."

And she drew four circles on the white board and showed me how they have 'partners' and said, 'so four is an even number.'

Then she drew five circles and said, 'five is odd because one circle doesn't have a 'partner'."

Isn't it impressive that four year olds can do such things?

A wish...

This post is not about my daughter at all…..

This post is a dedication, a wish, a hope for my two friends who lost their unborn baby at eight months.

Eight months is a long time to dream and hope and make castles in the air. I can barely imagine what they must be going through and I wish them strength, hope and love to get through this oh so difficult time.

I think only parents who have gone through this will understand, and parents to be, the whole emotional attachment to your child be it still unborn or born. I remember when I was pregnant with Hooty, I was so scared to hope for and dream of a healthy baby until the dreaded first trimester passed because that’s the period most miscarriages occur. And I was so scared of telling anyone in case I didn’t carry to full term. And I was counting the days…literally counting each day till I reached 24 months—as most literature on pregnancy states that if a baby is born after this period there is a chance that they will survive. And I remember me sighing with relief on the day I reached that millstone and thinking, ‘now my baby is safe.’ But knowing in your heart of heart that things don’t work that way and things can go wrong for so many reasons.

Even with knowing all this, you just can’t help dreaming about this little miracle growing in you. You can’t help planning out a whole future with this little being.

I hope and pray my friends will pull through this…..
I wish them joy, love and hope…..

How True!

Got this picture in an email. How true, how true!

The moment I sit down either to watch TV or read a book, Hooty would invariable bellow, “Ammi, I am hungry. Can I have something to eat?” Or she’d go “Ice-cube water! Ice-cube water! Ammi, ice-cube water,” until I get it for her.

Try putting your leg up and looking remotely comfortable, and she’d jump on you and treat you like a trampoline. (Just yesterday, she nearly strangled me and had me croaking for a while!

Ah! The joy of having a kid I tell you…

Oh No! Not Again!

Nope...she has NOT forgotton the 'S' word.

Today in the morning while getting dressed (have you noticed that we in this family have the most interesting conversations in the wee hours of the morning?), Hooty again mentioned the ‘S’ word.

H: “Thaathi, I won’t say ‘sexy’ OK. I will just say ‘sex’.”

My eyes shot up and I am thinking ‘OMG’ and Hubby looks at me with an amused expressions.

So Hubby says, “No darling, that’s not a nice word for little girls either, so don’t use it OK?”

And Hooty goes (while crying), “It’s not fair! Little girls can’t use ‘sexy’ and you use it. Grownups use it. I want to use it!”

Hubby says, ‘OK, we also won't use it OK? Ammi, let’s not use that word from today. How about that?”

And Hooty very reluctantly nods her head.

I am keeping my fingers crossed that she won’t go and tell her teacher, “Teacher Vivien, you are looking sexy today!! ;o)

Tricky Towel Game

Hooty came up with with this wonderful game that she plays at bed time now.(courtesy of Max apparently). Hooty/Max named it the 'Tricky Towel Game". Here's how it goes:

Hubby or I have to stand at the edge of the bed holding the towel open in front of us with both arms stretched out as far as possible. Then Hooty runs up and down the bed and if she comes close to us we are supposed to grab her with the towel and enclose her with it. meanwhile the other parent not holding the towel needs to hug and kiss her when she reaches him/her at the other end of the bed.

Quite fun and lots of giggling is guranteed. Must see if I can patent it ;o)

Who's Sexy?

Haven't posted here for ages....has Hooty become less interesting? ;o)

Actually, I think I've been so busy that I haven't been listening to her fully. Had a few guests over the last couple of weeks. First my cousin S dropped by on his way to Sri Lanka from England. I haven't seen the fellar for 7 years!!! Then M (Hubby's cuz) got sick and her dad came over pell mell.

Thanks to a comment my hubby made on one of my outfits, the following conversation took place.

H: "Ammi, what's 'sexy'?"
Me : "Oh! It's another word for 'pretty' I guess...but it's not a word that little girls should use. Only grownups are supposed to use it OK."
H: "Ammi, you look sexy!"
Me : "Why thank you, but I prefer for you to say 'Ammi, you look pretty!"

Hope she has forgotten the 'S' word...haven't heard her mention it after that. Note to self and hubby - Be very mindful of what you say in front of a kid. They have a knack for picking up all the 'sensitive words'.

It's so Real

Hooty has this huge doggy soft toy that looks a lot like a real dog. She named it Max. Sometimes Max becomes so real to her that she forgets it is make belief. Max talks to her, plays with her and lets us know what he thinks! (Yep, a dog with an attitude, just like my daughter with a BIG attitude!)

These days, usually while having dinner, we would catch the programme ‘Wheel of Fortune’, where contestants guess words or phrases. Hubby and I would sometimes shout out the answers, but most of the time Max would know the answer too! Hooty would say, “Max knew that!” or “Max already said the answer.”

Yesterday, while watching the show, I guessed out loud an answer, and Hooty immediately said, “Max said that too!” After thinking quietly for a while Hooty says in a small voice, “Max is so clever…why am I not so clever,” and she was so upset that she started crying!

So, I had to tell her, “Of course you are clever darling. You can sing and Max can’t do that. And you can draw such pretty pictures and Max can’t do that and you can read books. You read books to Max right? See, so you are clever too.” She looked thoughtful for a while and finally gave me a smile though her tears.

They are Medium, Thank you!

After her bath, Hubby walked into the room and declared, “I will have big kukki (breasts) like Ammi when I grow up!”

Suppressing a smile, Hubby said, “Yes darling, but not for a very long time. You need to grow up a bit for that and till then they will be small.”

Highly offended, Hooty replied, “These are NOT small, they are medium sized Thaaththi!”

Stuck

Hubby and I take turns putting Hooty to bed. After a story and lights out she tells the person who is not on ‘duty’ how long they should stay with her before saying goodnight.

Last week, on a day it was my turn to put her to sleep, she told Hubby he had to stay ten minutes before leaving. Of cause Hooty measures the ten minutes by counting to ten! So she started counting, “One, two, three, four, five, five,five,five…”

When Hubby and I looked at her questioningly, she says, “The CD is stuck Thaaththi!”

Book Worm

Hooty loves to read. It’s amazing how she picks up words. Her school adopts a great way to reading. The kids are shown the words and sort of make them familiar with it, so that the next time they see it they know instantly what the word is rather than use phonetics. It’s great that they are starting so young. I don’t think I was able to read until I was about seven!

Hooty can identify 1 to 4 letter words like: I, me, too, are, one, two, you, look, ball and so on. She loves to read so much that sometimes we have to tell her, ‘No! that’s enough” and sometimes she would cry and beg us to let her read more ;o).

Every time before bedtime stories we would have to tell her, “Hooty, we are going to read this book only so many (3 or 4) times. After that lights out.” Otherwise, she will go on and on reading the same story.

I’ve got her a few great books which have only 1 to 4 letter words and the school too sends similar books for them to read.

She also loves online books (high tech kids!). The National Library here offers lovely e-books which have read aloud features and animations, and Hooty loves going through them. She can fully control the compuer on her own--select the book she wants, turn the pages, follow instructions and even decide whether she need to "Play Again".

Being a bookworm myself, I hope Hooty keeps her enthusiasm to read as she grows.



Note: Just after posting this I visited one of my favourite parenting sites and guess what the topic was!

Hello from ParentCenter!Ready to Read?

Your 4-year-old now: Preschoolers who read independently are the exception. These early readers use picture clues and have learned to match letters to sounds and words. They may have longer attention spans and have memorized a few sight words. (Sight words are common words like "and," "the," "her," and "there" that can't be learned through pictures.) If your child is an early reader, you don't need to do anything more than offer encouragement and provide plenty to read.

If your child isn't on the fast track, don't give it another worry. At 4, many children just aren't ready to sit still and focus on a book for long. Others may learn the mechanics of reading but aren't cognitively ready to comprehend the words. Reading is truly one of those skills that children acquire when they're darn well ready, no matter how much their parents or teachers coax. In fact, too much prodding can turn your child off reading.

Right now, it's most important to get your child excited about books. If he loves stories and language, he'll start putting the basic elements together on his own when it's right for him. That happens at age 5 for some kids, 6 or 7 for others.

Comparing your child's abilities to his peers' is an irresistible impulse that persists long after those infant developmental milestone charts have been left behind. Among parents of 4-year-olds, reading is a topic that can cause a lot of anxiety, especially when those first few kids start reading. Whether you have an early bird or a kid who's more on track with his age-mates, what's important now is to keep the books coming.


Also check out these from the same site:
How to choose books for the beginning reader

When is my child going to learn to read

B'day Wish

Yesterday was my sister’s birthday. So I got Hooty to call and wish her in the night. She took the phone and sang “happy birthday” in Chinese and my sister was thrilled. The rest of the conversation went something like this:

Puncha : Thank you my love. That was sooooooooooooooo lovely. I miss you so much.

H: But tomorrow (anything from the next day to infinity) I am coming to see you for your wedding.

Puncha : Yes, and you’ll be my flower girl and you’ll wear a pretty dress and have flowers on your hair.

H: Yes. Because I am special!

Puncha : Oh yes! You’ll look sooooooooo pretty.

H: When you get married, you’ll have a husband and then you’ll get a baby in your tummy and then the baby will come out.

Now we are quite used to this blabber of Hooty. Most of her stories end up with the princess marrying a prince, having a baby in the tummy and going to the hospital where the doctor will take the baby out. But my poor sister has never heard this before and I can hear her going into a totally shocked silence. Then I hear her stammering and saying, “umm..yes darling..but not for a very long time!”

And when I took back the phone from Hooty, my sister was laughing her head off saying. “Oh my gosh, did you hear that? Did you teach her to say that? Oh you must put this in your blog!”

What Are Friends For...

Today in the morning, while trying to get Hooty to get off the bed, I told her, ‘Oooh Ammi’s tummy is hurting.’

She immediately got up and gave my tummy a kiss. So I said, ‘Thank you my love, I feel better already.’ To which she replied in a sing-song voice, ‘That’s what friends are for!’
;o)

What a Disappointment

Hooty’s daycare asks parents to put in two extra underwear in the school bag each day along with the afternoon change. Since Hooty likes to be in charge, she chooses these in the morning by herself and leaves it on the bed for Hubby to put in her bag along with the rest of the stuff like towels and change of clothes.

Hubby had forgotten to put in what Hooty chose on Monday and had put in two others instead. So on Tuesday morning she walks upto Hubby with her choice and says, “Thaaththi, you didn’t put in what I chose yesterday. Remember to put these two panties in my bag or I’ll be very disappointed!”

We both couldn’t help bursting out with laughter.

Hooty at the Movies

We took Hooty to see Kung Fu Panda yesterday. She has never been to a movie before and we thought she’ll be all excited about it but for her the highlight of the whole experience was undoubtedly the popcorn!

Because she is scared of loud noises (though Hooty is known to generate more noise pollution than most four year olds!), there were instances where she whimpered, “I want to go home..”, especially during fight scenes.

I heard her explaining the whole thing to my mother on the phone as, “It’s a big, giant and very noisy TV.”

Oh well, I guess kids nowadays are so used to all kinds of media, that it really doesn’t impress them anymore. I remember how trilled we were to go to a movie when we were young. We considered it a treat. But maybe, Hooty is too small to really appreciate a big screen and surround sound ;o)

Art Attack

Some of Hooty's wonderful drawings on the white board.

Flowers

Luggage

Plane - where all the luggage would go

Family - From left to right; Thaaththi, Hooty, Ammi, Nanna, Puncha, Muffy and Kitty (the two little blobs), Muththa, Kiri amma, and Kiri aththa. Note that all women have long hair (not affected by gravity ;o) and.....

...Aththamma - at the far right

Here We Go Again

Today in the morning Hubby called me and said that he had a talk with Teacher Vivien about Hooty. The teacher has said that Hooty no longer pinches her friends, but she is still very bossy and rude to them if they don’t do as she pleases.

Oh dear! So we decided that we will praise for the not-pinching part and reward her in some way for it, but make sure to have a talk with her about being bossy and rude. We did ask her several times about how she is doing a few days back
and she always said she doesn't pinch anymore and we did praise her for it. and since the issue seemed settled, we forgot all about it.

Not an hour went by before my hubby calls me again to say that teacher Vivien had called again to say that Hooty’s friend Esther just told her that she pinched her face yesterday!

Poof! So there goes the tiny relieved feeling I had about the not-pinching thing! Back to the drawing board I guess. But apart from us handling this, I don’t think the way the teacher is going about this thing is too great. I feel that she should be able to take control of the whole situation and handle Hooty better.

Maybe Hooty misses having a sibling to vent out all her frustrations at ;o)

Shameful

After having her bedtime wash, Hooty ran over stark naked to the living room where the windows were open and exclaimed, “Ammi! Close the window. I am shameful!!”

Miss Pinch-A-Lot

Yesterday when I went to pick Hooty up from school, her teacher told me, “Hooty has started pinching her friends. When she can’t get them to follow her, she pinches them to get her way. When they complain, she immediately says ‘sorry’. So I told her saying sorry means that you should not do it again, but she does.”

So, on our way back home, I asked her about it, and my cheeky monkey says, ‘But I say ‘sorry’ all the time!”, as if that would rectify her hurting her friends! So I explained that that’s not the case and made sure she understood that it’s wrong. All the while she was glaring at me with her arms crossed. Only when I told her that I am ashamed of her and that it made me very sad did her tough stance break and she began to cry. And she promised that she won’t do it again.

She usually doesn’t break her promises so I am hoping this is the last I hear of Miss Pinch-a-lot.

Repeat After Me!

I am sure most of you who are mothers (or fathers) go through this—having your mother come out of your mouth!

I find this happening more often now that Hooty’s no longer a ‘baby’ and tend to do things that make me…um…mad. And oh boy! There goes me scolding her in the exact same words my mother used that it scares me, because I remember thinking that no way am I going to say these things to my child when I have a baby of my own.

Just last week I found myself saying all of the following: (they are in our native language, Singhala – I’ve tried to translate as closely as possible.)

“Ayyo! Dahasarayak kiyanna epa me lamayata ahanna.” (Oh No! I have to say something ten times for this child to listen to me.)

“Ke sarayak kiyanna oneda oyata?” (Just how many times do I have to tell you?)

“Kochchara kiwwath ahannane. Epa kiyana eka karalamai nawathinne.” (No matter how much I say not to do something, she will end up doing it.)

And it makes me understand what my poor mother went through, the frustration of trying to get your child to listen to you. But it makes me smile too when I think that indeed what goes around comes around ;o)

And I am sure Hooty too will repeat the same things to her kids...and I plan to look on and thoroughly enjoy my self at her expense!!

Ammi is Sick

Groaaaaaaan, moaaaaaaaaaan..caugh caugh caugh....

Yep folks...I am sick. I don't know how the hell I got it but been having pneumonia!

So, will post something more interesting than me being sick once I am fit and able.

She's FOUR!

Hooty is FOUR years old!!

What a hectic week it has been.

Monday - It all started with Hooty having a fever last Monday night.

Tuesday – Hubby had to stay with her on Tuesday. We were a little worried, what with all the buzz about Hand Foot and Mouth decease that’s going around these days. Hubby took her to our GP who said that it’s just the flu and that it’s OK to send her to day care even.

Arrival of first set of guests from Sri Lanka – Hubby's Akka (Nanna) , his cousin Namali and two of Namali’s friends.

Wednesday - Since the fever would only go down with regular doses of paracetamol, I decided to keep her from day-care. We had however ordered a birthday cake for school. So, I called Hooty’s teacher and asked if it’s OK to send Hooty over just for tea time to cut her cake and give out the goody bags to her friends. Since the doctor said it’s OK for her to go to day-care, the teacher was OK with it. So went along and she had a whale of a time celebrating her birthday with friends.

Thursday – My best friend Manju arrived with her husband and baby around lunchtime from Sri Lanka (on her way back home to Australia.) Namali and friends left to stay over at a hotel. Took Manju and Family out to dinner to Cleark Quay.

Friday – Totally forgot that I gave birth to my baby daughter on this day until my mother called to wish her! Well, in my defence (and my hubby’s – he forgot too!) I can say that it was because we planned to celebrate on Sunday, when everyone’s at home and relaxed ;o)

Saturday – Manju and family left for Australia in the evening. Took them out to lunch before that. Namali and friends came back to our place.

Sunday. – Hooty had loads of gifts (send through Nanna by everyone back home in Sri Lanka) waiting for her when she woke up. Had a small dinner party to celebrate.



Namali and Co left early morning today. Nanna will be with us for about a month. We are all back at work and Hooty went to day-care. Phew!

A Scolding

Hooty, with hands on her hips, scolding me for not coming to bed immediately with her at nap time:

“Ammi, how many times do I have to tell you something?” (direct copy from me!)
“I told you one time. Did you listen?
I told you two times. Did you listen?
I told you three times. Did you listen?
I told you five...no..four times. Did you listen?
I told you six times. Did you listen? (well, I don’t go to this extend ;o)
NO!
It’s your problem! (No, I don’t say this. Don’t know from where she picked this one from.)
Why didn’t you listen?
I will not come to the supermarket with you tomorrow. You will have to go all by yourself.
Now say ‘sorry’ and ‘I won’t do it again.’”

After listening to this whole speech, I said, “I told you to give me a few minutes because I was still cooking. All you had to do was wait a little. So I don’t think you should talk to me like that!”

She says, “No. I was not naughty this time. You were naughty. So it’s your problem, (Here we go again!) not my problem! Huh!

The long and Short of it

While having a conversation about school last week, Hooty had said the following to my highly amused husband:

“Taaththi...Joel, Euan, Dong Dong, Oochia and Ryan have long wee wees. Me, Smita and Esther have short wee wees!”

Weekend Swim

Took Hooty swimming yesterday. She used to be able to 'swim' with the aid of the tube and kick and float for awhile. But a few months back she sort of panicked and wasn't able to get her head out of the water for a few seconds. I think it gave her quite a scare.

Now, though she loves to just be in the water, she refuses to try to 'swim'. I am slowly trying to build her confidence. Yesterday I got her to float while I held her hand. Hopefully, she will forget her bad experience and start enjoying swimming as before.

Double-Decker-Click

Hooty loves using the computer now that she can follow instructions and can handle the mouse quite well.

She loves browsing through sites like Sesame Street, Nick Jr, CBeeBies and many more (see a list of good sites on the right panel of this page). She can follow the instructions so well and click away on her own that I can leave her all by herself for up to half an hour or so.

Of cause we only let her ‘play’ on the computer only during the weekend and that too for less than an hour or so.

We also have a few educational software (for pre-schoolers) installed on the computer. Once, when I double clicked on one of the icons to load it, Hooty asked me why I clicked it twice. So I said, “You have to double-click to get it started.” And I went on to explain, "It’s called so because I click two times. Anything that has two things can be called a ‘double’ like the Double Decker bus, because it has two levels.” She nodded to show that she understood.

So, another day she tells me, “Ammi, I want to play the Disney game. Can you double-decker-click it please!”

April Fool

Yesterday while trying to get Hooty ready for school, I told her, “It’s April Fool’s Day today,” just to carry on a conversation. So she asked me what it was and I told her that people tried to play jokes and make each other laugh on this day.

She immediately started tickling me and tried to make me laugh!

I think the whole April Fool’s Day thing left an impression on her as she had tried to make Hubby laugh by tickling him and going “Boo!” when he was not looking.

So Hubby had tried to explain to her that it’s not exactly that kind of tricks people play, but they sometimes might do or say something silly. Hooty had immediately attempted to make Hubby laugh by saying something ‘silly’ – “Gabadabaduba goobadoopagiba gobbygabbydoo!!

Budding da Vinci

Hooty loves to draw. Before bed time she can choose what she would like to do - read a story, play a game or draw and most nights she would choose to draw. She would take her box of crayons and drawing books on to the bed and draw all sorts of things.

Because of her love of drawing, we've set up a white board with markers for her. Lately she has started drawing rocket ships, complete with people inside and stars all around. I personally think it's a masterpiece considering she is just reaching four. (But don't all mothers think their kids are the best no matter what ;o)

Turning the Table

Hooty was being very fuzzy and was refusing to brush her teeth. No matter how many times or in how many ways we tried to get her to listen to us, she stood her ground. As a punishment, we told her we would not take her swimming as planned before.

After a few hours, Hubbs filled up the tub for her to have a bath. And the brat that she is, Hooty said the following.

“This is fun Thaaththi. No need to go swimming, this is like the pool too! I can still have fun. I can have fun having a bath, I can have fun going to the park, and I can have fun playing. So no need to go swimming Thaaththi.”

Can you just believe the nerve of this child?

Modest

Hooty has a new fashion fad. She doesn’t want to wear anything short. She doesn’t like to wear pants and she doesn’t want to wear anything that shows her shoulders! She also doesn’t want to wear anything blue because ‘it’s the boys’ colour.’ (Don’t ask me where she gets these ideas, definitely not from Hubs and me!)
She loves to wear dresses or skirts that are long. And she would ask for T-shirts that would ‘cover my arms.’

How ironic life is…come teenage years and I’ll be the one begging her to wear long dresses/skirts and long sleeved things while she insists on wearing tank tops and micro minis.

Tickled about Nipples!

There was a programme on TV about breastfeeding. Hooty who is a huge fan of the whole thing (she still talks about it, even after two years of stopping) got highly exited and started talking about it in a such an animated manner.

H: “Ammi, you used to feed me when I was a little baby!”
Me: “Yes, yes…I did.” (Groaning inwardly and thinking here we go again.)
H: “Ammi, I drank it from those black coloured straws. What are they called?”
Me: (trying to stifle my laughter) “Oh! They are called nipples darling”
H: (Happily with a dreamy look on her face) “Yeah! I used to drink from those!

Dessert Storm

Over the weekend, I made a very sweet Sri Lankan dessert. Hooty loved it. (No surprise there as she has the biggest sweet tooth I’ve ever seen on anybody!)
So, after lunch on Saturday, both Hubs and Hooty were enjoying their pudding. Hooty quickly gulped down hers, calmly walked over to my hubby with her spoon and bowl and scraped half of Hubby’s pudding in to hers. Then she calmly went back to where she was sitting and started eating what she got from Hubby, while my poor bewildered husband looked on. After a few minutes Hooty stopped eating, looked at Hubby and with a very sweet voice said, “Thank you for sharing Thaaththi!”

I think the saying “Like taking candy from a baby” should be changed, because kids now a days are crafty enough to take it from the adults!

Green Eyed Hooty

Hooty has sudden bouts of extreme jealousy sometimes. Especially when Hubs and I would hug or kiss each other without hugging or kissing her first. She would immediately start pouting and crying and would rant on like this:
“Oooh nobody loves me…nobody loves me..nobody to hug me.”
“No one kisses me….”
So we'll have to reassure her and say, “Of cause we love you, but Ammi and Thaathi love each other too. We all love each other because we are a family.”
Then we will have to shower her with hugs and kisses ;o)

Tall Story

This is how Hooty narrated yet another one of her ‘fairy tales’ at bed time yesterday:

“Once upon a time, there was a Adeline (She can’t say Aladin ;o)…Ammi, what’s the name of the princess? OK….Once upon a time there was a Jasmine. She met Cinderella. Jasmine said, ‘Hello, I am Jasmine. Who are you?’ Then Cinderella said, ‘I’m Cinderella. Who is this?’ Then Jasmine said, ‘This is …um…um...Ammi, what’s the name of the fish?…OK…then she said, ‘This is Flounder.’ And they ummmmm...went to see Adeline. They saw a pond and…and...they went swimming in the pond. They met Ariel in the pond. Then ummmmmm...they all went to see their parents. The End!”

Little Miss Grumpy

Hooty was being a little whiney and clingy last Sunday. At one point she became very rude to Hubs and he told her not to be so.

After a while Hubby asked her, “Are you going to be rude to Thaaththi again?”
H: “Yes, Sometimes.”
Hubs: “Why would you do that?”
H: “Because, I feel grumpy and mad!”

Thailand

Our trip to Thailand was good (Chiang Mai, Chiang Rai, Hua Hin and Bangkok)
Because Hubs’s cousin D joined us with her daughter L (8 Yrs), Hooty had a great time. L girl proved to be a good ‘big’ sister, giving into Hooty most of the time, so conflicts were less. During the last few days however, they both had mild fevers, so both were not their usual bubbly selves, and mostly kept to themselves.

Story Queen

My daughter has such a lovely imagination. It’s just pure joy to listen to her make up stories during bedtime. Yesterday, she narrated quite a lengthy tale. I hope I can recall it somehow (how I regretted not having a tape recorder in hand).

The story went something like this:

“Once upon a time there was a girl called Cinderella. She had five uncles. One named Joel, one named Uchia, one name Ryan, one named Dongdong, one named Euan (all names of her school friends).
They all were Power Rangers. Cinderella was a beautiful, pink power ranger. Then Cinderella said she wanted to read a bedtime story. So her Mommy said OK and the Mummy said ‘Once upon a time there was a tiger….(No matter how much I try to wrack my brain, I can’t remember the story of the tiger.) :o(
And then Cinderella said I am sleepy and said, ‘Good night everybody’.”

She switched the lights off and was ready to settle down to sleep her self.


Note:
I won't be updating the blog for a couple of weeks as we are off to Thailand (Hooray!)

Another Poo Story

Please don’t think I am obsessed with poop. It’s just that my daughter seems to be, so I find my self blogging more about them!

Yesterday, after she was done with the job, Hubby asked, “Did you have a good poo?”
To which my daughter replied;
“Yes! It was a BIG one!”
“One was a Daddy Poo, one was a Mummy Poo and all the others were baby poos!”

I just couldn’t help laughing so much to think of the whole family of ‘Poos’ ;o)

Powerpuff Power

How violent little kids’ world is these days. I don’t ever recall saying the kind of things my daughter utters when she is mad with us, when we were young. Then again, I don’t think we were exposed to TV and such media at such a young age.
Following are a few ‘interesting’ threats she uttered recently:

“I will throw you out, and you will die!”

“When I grow up I will throw you out!”

“I will put fire on your wee-wee and you will die!” (This was said to Hubby and I can almost see him shudder at the thought ;o)

“When I become a Powerpuff Girl, I will push you out!”
To which my husband replied, “Naughty girls can’t be Powerpuff Girls. Only good girls can.”
Hooty retorted, “No! I will be a Naughty Powerpuff Girl!”

Should we be worried? I don’t know. But I think she learns it all from her peers and I feel it’s a passing phase, as my friends recount similar stories of their young ones who are around the same age as Hooty.

Good Girl

Now that Hooty has become a ‘good girl’, I think she realises how pleasant things are, and strives to keep it that way. In the earlier days we were just so tensed about when the next tantrum would occur that we forgot to have fun as I think most times we spent together were spent ‘problem solving’. I don’t know where to begin even about the changes – how pleasant things are. Now we spend more time having fun together, hugging her or playing with her – We did all these before, but there was always an undercurrent of uneasiness at least for Hubbs and I.

Now, whenever she does have a small ‘disagreement’ with us (she is still stubborn as hell!), halfway through, she sort of realises that her misbehaving doesn’t get her anywhere. She would suddenly turn about and say “Thaththi (if he’s the one disciplining her at the time) carry me…I don’t want to be naughty. I don’t want to be like that.” And oh! how it melts our hearts.

So the bouts that used to last almost an hour in those days that Hooty was going through the “Terrible Two’s” are now over in a few minutes, and with hugs and kisses all around, we are all happy. Of cause her terrible two’s started quite early –when she was about a year and a half – and ended quite late – when she was about three and a half!

I can’t now recall a time we put her in the naughty spot for the past few months. But mind you she still screams enough to wake the devil when she is mad! But no complains…right now I like her just the way she is :o)

New Year Resolutions - Revisited

I can’t believe I’ve kept this (blog) up for one whole year! I remember writing a very frustrated entry on the new year resolutions that I wished my baby would make last year.

Well, she definitely is no baby anymore and I must say things have considerably improved over the year.

So, let me revisit those resolutions and put into perspective the changes in Hooty. Whether this is due to age, fish oil or both, I don’t know.

1. I will not cry for every single thing. – Well, she does cry, but not for every single thing. We can now actually reason with her

2. I will not have tantrums. – No more tantrums!!!! Well, at least not rolling on the floor, screaming her head off ones. And not that often. I don't think I would even call them tantrums anymore.

3. I will not say "NO!" when asked to brush my teeth, get dressed, eat, clean up my toys, etc. – Hmmm..a tricky one...she no longer says “NO!” But she might say a tiny “no” or better still, she will try to worm her way out of it by giving an excuse or try to divert our attention or use all sorts of prolonging tactics.

4. I will not fuzz every single day about going to school. – She loves school!! (Phew) It’s now like a second home to her and she is very happy being with her fellow playmates and teachers.

5. I will fall asleep in fifteen minutes instead of the one hour I take. – Yep! Still takes one whole hour!

6. I will learn to fall asleep alone. – Nope! Still yours truly needs to sleep with her.

7. I will stop being a fuzzy eater and eat up everything that's put before me. - Nope! Still the same old fuzzy eater.

8. I will sit still in one place when asked to do so. – I think we are there….well at least halfway…

9. I will not scream. – Still going strong! Her lung capacity seems to grow by the day!

10. I will behave my self in public places. – Actually she does! Hooray!


So all in all, not bad ha? But you know what? She is growing so fast that I want to hold her tight and say, 'Please stop! Slow down. Ammi needs her baby!'