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?