My cute muse

My daughter - my muse - my oober-sensitive soul - is SO full of cuteness these days. Almost every word out of her mouth is like a gem....so pure and precious (I say almost coz she screams a lot too, and that is best forgotten ASAP).

I've mentioned before, that I loved the baby/infant stage. I had 9-10 months of leave during her first year, and I made the most of it. But I'm loving this 2-year stage as much as the infancy, if not more. Ofcourse it helps that she prefers me over any other person in the house.....and because of the baby in the tummy, I get the most hugs, cuddles and kisses as well :)!

It's mostly her non-stop talking/blabbering/singing that keeps a 1000-watt smile on our faces all day.

She LOVES to read the Big Sister book, especially before bedtime. I melts my heart to hear her say "I'm a big sister now". The book illustrates how we all care for the new baby - changing diaper, feeding milk bottle, making the baby smile, etc....and she understands all those aspects. She is a very caring and loving soul, but in reality, the situation is going to be very difficult for us in the beginning. Over time, she will fall in love with the baby and show her good side :).

She will come running towards me, hold me very tight, give me a kissie, and say "love you mumma" - or - she will cuddle with me while going to bed, and kiss me so many times all over, and say "love you mumma" - the spontaneity of her acts makes it truly precious!

She LOVES to sing. The few moments during the day when she is playing by herself, or when she is on the potty - you can find her singing "ek biladi jaadi" or "A B C D" or "twinkle twinkle" or "humpty dumpty" or "way up high way down low that's the way the scoopers go" or "goodbye song" or "san sana na na" or "dhinka chika" :).

She is starting to learn the numbers beyond 10. Her counting goes something like this: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 13, 14, 19, 20 :). She knows all the numbers between 11-20, but conveniently skips them. She did that with the number 8 for a long long time, but now she finally decided not to skip it.

There are some words which she cannot pronounce properly, and I love her pronunciations so much, that I make her say them several times through the day:

Everybody = ABD (Hi ABD, Bye ABD is something she enjoys saying a lot)
Umbrella = Ammonia
Aquadoodle = Aakadoodoo
Thokamthok = Tok Tok
Fatafat = Phat phat
Understand = yundersand
Parita = Paita
Deepika = Peedika

Also cute is her accent. The best is when she says her own name. She used to say "oohi" but now she has learnt how to pronounce R so she says with an accent "Rueeeehi". Another word she says with an accent is "coooooooooozy" which comes a couple times in the big sister book that we read multiple times a day. We have also taught her our house number, street name and city name. It's so cute to listen to her saying her full name and home address :).

Story before bedtime - this is another one of my dreams come true. Right around the time she turned two, she now wants either mommy or daddy to tell her a story before she drifts off to sleep. The lights are off.....she has cuddled me tight.....and one of us cooks up a story based on what happened during the day, or something else. We may need to brush up our skills in this area to keep it interesting for her long term, but for now, she really enjoys whatever we narrate to her. It's quite a peaceful and magical time for the three of us - I look forward to it and cherish it!

The kiddo's obsession with blue color continues. We took her out for an ice-cream for the first time last week. She walks into the store and samples pink and blue ice-cream and demands a cup of the blue one. I had never tasted it before...it's called Cotton Candy flavor, and it tastes pretty good actually. She loved it so much, that we decided to go again earlier this week. This smart cookie blurted out "oooooh blue ice-cream" right when I was making a turn into the complex where the store is located (and she was not told we were going there). She behaved like a pro at her second outing - walked in, demanded a sample spoon, asked daddy for a cup, took it outside and sat on the same table that we sat earlier, and patiently waited for all of us to join her before she dug right in! It's amazing for us to see how quickly toddlers learn these things - from directions to manners!

We rearranged our bedroom furniture to make space for the baby. We have a crib attached to our bed on one side, and a toddler bed attached on the other side. The kiddo is supposed to be sleeping on the toddler bed, but when told that this is the baby's bed, she has hijacked it, and has been sleeping on the attached crib since the last couple days. I really want the baby to be in there, so we will transition her back to being in between both of us if she continues to refuse using her toddler bed. The main thing she needs is her mumma's tummy and touch several times during the night, and she gets frustrated/worked up if she does not get it right away. I was the same with my mommy (no surprises there ;)) so I can relate to this very well.

Her nana-nani are here from India, and it took her a few days, but she is now hooked to them. She insists nani sit with her when she goes potty (it's a huge relief I don't have to squat down in those cramped quarters and entertain her), she insists nana take her for a long walk in the morning, she wants to play blocks and playdough with them all day, and she always wants them with us wherever we go. Hubby and I both get to sit in the front seat of our car coz she loves to be flanked on either side by nana and nani. She is particularly fond of nani - she sees her cooking in the kitchen and demands food from her...she surprises nani with hugs n kisses through the day, and she even roughhouses with her on the floor. Nani is our savior when she is going through her cranky terrible two phases. I feel we are just so blessed to have them around during these early years, and I cherish these times!

Here's a recent picture from her 2-year photoshoot - I love this cutie pie so so much!!!!