Post 7 - Logic

Over breakfast a few days ago, the daughter says:

Her: Mumma, you love Rusham and Pappa loves me. Right?

Me: I love both of you, Ruhi.

Her: No mumma, but you love Rusham more. And papa loves ME more.

Me: No betu. I love you both equally.

Her: It's not like that mumma. Because Girls always love boys and boys love girls. It's always like that.

Me: Who told you?

Her: No one. I just know.


Can someone please explain how a 4-year old can come up with such logic?

Cooker of the house

Yesterday morning, after Sukhi ben (the lady who comes to help me 3x/week in the morning) left, the daughter shares this gyan with me:

R: Mumma, I like Sukhi ben to play with me
Me: That's good. She plays with you after she is done with cooking
R: Mumma, I have idea. YOU cook and Sukhi aunty plays with me every day
Me: Why?
R: Because you are the cooker of the house (LOL)
Me: But Sukhi aunty also makes good food
R: No Mumma, I like YOUR food. You are the BEST cooker!

On one hand, it feels great that the kids appreciate all the time I spend in the kitchen. But on the other hand, it seems I never get a break which I sometimes crave for :)!

Happy Friday, and Happy Weekend! I have to take the kids to THREE Halloween parties - Wish me luck :)!

UBM Post 24 - Some more conversations with R

While driving to R's preschool, we drive by several traffic lights and a couple of stop signs. During summer, I keep the windows of the car open. R loves sticking her hand out the window and feeling the wind. She is still small and her carseat is not right at the edge, so only her palm sticks out (very safe). Every time I stop at the red light, she will say "Mumma, see, the wind is OFF. Now you drive mumma and the wind turn ON again. I love the wind.". It's okay that her reasoning is not quite there yet, but I'm glad she enjoys nature. She is always in tune with the weather, and notices when the wind pauses. She always talks about sunrise and sunset. She observes the clouds. And every single day, she will go out at night to see where the moon is and how big it is. Priceless indeed!

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At a birthday party last weekend, I was drinking Fanta. None of us consume soft drinks at home. So they are not found in the house. And R has never had them. She looked at my cup and said "Mumma what you drinking? I wanna try it". She took a sip. Hated it. And I asked her "R, how was it? This is called Fanta.". She tells me "Mumma I no like Fenta. It tastes like bubble bath" - LOL! Oh the analogy.....I would have never thought of that. But it made perfect sense.

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There are lots of friends who were recently pregnant or are currently pregnant. So the daughter now knows that when any aunty's belly starts becoming big, there is a baby inside. One day, I was explaining to her that she was inside mumma's tummy, and then she popped out....and then after her, Rusham was inside mumma's tummy and he popped out. So she tells me "Mumma, how bout I go inside your tummy again, NOW? I want to do it mumma, please help me" - LOL!

Everything needs to happen NOW - right there and then - in her view of life. It's taking the literal meaning of "living in the moment" and it always makes me pause and think - wish my thoughts were so pure and so simple like that. How stress free would that be? Forget practical or feasible, I'll take stress free instead.

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And this is not a conversation, but so much fun to watch. The son has mastered the pincer grasp, and loves picking up anything that we put on his high chair tray. The other day, he spilled water on the try, and immediately started trying to grasp it and was putting his finger in his mouth....after 3-4 tries, he realized it's not worth it, so dived right into splashing the water. Absolute fun to watch :)!

UBM Post 12 - Conversationing

It's been a while I posted all the fun conversations that happen with the daughter daily. She is at the most beautiful age of conversing - a phase I wish would never end. I cannot record enough of her dialogues and musings.

We will start in reverse order...from today morning....and if this post gets too long, I will continue in the next one...let's see.

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Today morning, she was on her potty while I went into the closet and changed clothes to get ready for work. When she saw me, she says "mumma, I like your dress sooooooooooo much. What color panty you wear for this dress?" LMAO - kiddo, now do I have to advertise that too to you everyday :)?

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At bedtime, she always says "mumma, pappa, and Ruhi three from them sleep" :). I repeatedly correct her to say "three of us, but nope, she prefers three from them. Bedtime is also a time where we routinely ask her how her day was, where we went, what she did. It's a great memory building exercise for her, and mostly fun for us :). Here's a short video from this week:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ooi3xubC18o

Ain't she just sooper adorable :)?

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On making mango ras (pulp) for her brother one day with the hand mixer, she announces:

"Mummaaaaaaaa I make ras for bhailu. I'm misking it with the misker. Evvvvvvvverybody like it."

The sweetness sure went inside the ras - it was delicious :)

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One day, she was taking way too long to go to sleep. After about 45 mins, I was just tired. So I told her - if you sleep in the next 5 minutes, I will give you a surprise in the morning.

Bad, bad idea!

She immediately sprang up and asked me "mummmaaaaaaaaaaa what is in the box? what u got me for present" 

haha where was the box and where is the present, dear daughter? 

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Yesterday and tomorrow are both 'next day' for her.

She went to the children's museum one day with my dad and our friend A. The next day, while sitting on the potty (which is when most important conversations happen between us, go figure :)), she tells me "mumma next day I go to museum. I play with soooooooo many balls. And water. I do painting....white color on wall. Why u no come with me mumma? next day, please come mumma....I show u soooooooooooo many things".

Looks like I missed out :(

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If she bluffs something and you ask her "who told you?" She says "Ruhi" - LOL

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She fell down hard on the concrete one day and got two booboo's - one on knee and one on elbow. As they were healing, she says "mummua yook booboo wenting away" - I loved it so much that I made her repeat it thrice :P!

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One day I was leaving for work after lunch, and she puts two band-aids on my arm. Then she tells me "mummaaa you go Intel, you mane-ager see you and say 'oh you have booboo here, how come' he get surprise mumma" - LMAO!

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Anyone, someone, anybody, somebody - all are used interchangeably in the house.

So, "who rang the doorbell?" will be answered with "anyone"

and "who did we meet at the store" will be answered with "anybody"

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Her use of the word 'open':

"ooooooooh this light become open, who did it?"

"yook yook sun is open now, mumma pay with Ruhi peaaseeee"

From her high chair: "mumma please open me" "mumma I need to be open"

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One day, she comes and farts right next to me and says "oh, i do fart...excuse me. mumma sing that song fast, excuse me song please mumma please" and I oblige her with "excuse me, kya re, mera dil tere pe" and she completes it with "fidaaaaaaaaaaa re" - fun, eh?

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After her recent hair cut, one day: "can you please make me long hair mumma? please take it out short hair and make me new long hair mumma" - I wish it was as easy as she can say it :)

BTW, she LOVES her short hair, and keeps measuring her front bangs to see if their are covering her eyes. She is waiting for them to grow just a little bit longer so that she can go for a haircut again. She's obsessed with her hair dresser Jenny and loves the shampoo, cut, blow, style routine at her Salon. She even has an organic styling gel that Jenny has gifted her which she regularly applies to her hair after every wash!

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She still has those baby pronunciations for so many words. 

gongon bate bidge - for Golden gate bridge

gimme gimme - for give me

pay - for play

misking - for mixing

And soooooooo many more that I don't recollect now. 

One more loooooooooong video of her at bedtime, talking to me and singing songs :) - hope you enjoy it as much as we did!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y53421auLZc

That's my girl and me, practicing her latest acquired skill - winking ;)!

Have a good weekend everyone :)!

Conversationing

An attempt to capture some of our daughter's oh-so-cute-and-fun-conversations:

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R: mumma (or pappa or nana or nani) - wayyyyy aaaaaaaa you?
After finding us: "oh here it is"!

:) :) :) :)!!!!

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R: ooh what's that?
Me: Brushie
R: Ruhi do it
Me: okay! Be careful, don't fall down from the stool...you'll get booboo...
R: Ruhi put gheeeeeeee, gheeeeeeee  on booboo!

The kiddo loves ghee - eating it, applying it on her lips, smothering it on her booboo's - so she is always waiting for an opportunity to lay her hands on the ghee container - HA!

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R: Ruhi is very angry
Me: why?
R: Ruhi is veryyyyy upset
Me: why?
R: Ruhi is pissed offfffffffffff
Me: why betu? what happened?
R: Ruhi is veryyyyyyy happy {and gives a smiley face} :)!

She says this throughout the day....and has learnt it from me. If she misbehaves, I tell her I'm angry or upset. I don't use pissed off in front of her, but might have said it to someone else a few times and as it goes with every toddler, she picked that up too!

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R: mumma's bum is so big big!
Me: How is Ruhi's bum?

R: Ruhi's bum is so small small!

Me: How about Rusham baby's bum?

R: Rusham baby's bum is veryyyyyyyyyyy small!

She's figured it all out :)!

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R: {playing doctor-doctor} mumma Ruhi check your ears
Me: is there a ladybug in my ear?
R: Nooooooooooo! Ruhi give mumma a shot!
Me: ouch....big booboo...it hurts!
R: soddy mumma soddy....{gives me a kissie on my booboo}....
Me: Thank you Ruhi
R: mumma Ruhi use monitor (for thermometer)
Me: what does it say?
R: Mumma is veryyyy sick! (her pretend-play thermometer has a setting for sick or healthy)
Me: oh oh mumma is sick....Ruhi give medicine!
R: Here it is (she brings an imaginary medicine and a cup of water for me)!

After her recent bout of illness where she got antibiotic injections and had several doctor visits in a row, I bought her a doctor role-play costume set and a supplies kit. She is enjoying it a lot. When she is wearing her coat and we ask her name, she says "Dr. Ruhi  {last_name} " :)!

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Her varied responses when you ask her where she wants to go:

R: Ruhi go hotsipal (for hospital)
R: Ruhi go muzuem :) (for museum)
R: Ruhi go seemeetee park (for Yosemite park)
R: Ruhi go seeming pool (for swimming pool)
R: Ruhi go laabaadee (for Library) - {cutest thing to listen to!}

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She is now tall enough to reach all the switches in the house....and it's a mammoth task trying to ask her not to keep flipping them. All day, you can find her saying:

R: Ruhi ON it
R: Ruhi OFF it
R: Ruhi tain on the light
R: Ruhi tain on the fan
R: Ruhi broke it (if she flips a switch which is not connected to anything and nothing happens)
R: Nana fix it (it seems her nana fixes whatever is broken in the house :))

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Me: Who is gogu?
R: S maamu
Me: Who is gegu?
R: Ruhi
Me: What is Rusham bhailu's new name?
R: bebu

She has come up with gegu and bebu as their funny pet names in the last week. They keep changing though....so not sure how long this will last :)!

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Conversations with an 8-year old

So my sister-in-law is visiting us from London, UK with her 2 kids - a son who is 13 and a daughter who is 8 years old. Today, my hubby n I had to step out for some time in the evening to run errands, and we took our 8-year old niece N with us.

I love being with kids....pretty much any age. I consider my time very well spent when I am with them, because I always learn something new and I always find something to be happy about, something to laugh on, from the conversations. Today was no different.

One of the most touching things N said today was: "I want this to be Ruhi's best birthday ever". She is in love with my daughter, kisses her zillion times a day, wants to hold her, hug her, feed her, bathe her - she showers all the love she has on the little one. I cannot express in words how good it makes me feel. She has prepared a surprise tap dance for Ruhi's birthday party and I can't wait to see her perform. She wants me to give her measurements of the room where the party will be held, so that she can make all the decorations at home by hand. She has been asking me about Ruhi's favorite toy, favorite spot in the house, etc etc and I am sure something cool is cooking in her mind from the answers she is getting.

We asked her if she would like to take Ruhi with her back to UK. She said it would be the best thing ever to happen to her :). We asked our nephew too, and he also said yes, but he was like it would be better if Ruhi was a boy :). He wanted a baby brother as his sibling but got a sister instead :).

N found a piano book from Ruhi's pile of toys and books, and she started playing nursery rhymes for Ruhi. She is so innocent and selfless. I wonder why we can't be like this all our life. There is so much purity in the way the kids live their life.

As soon as both the kids arrived at home yesterday, they gifted her with a set of gold bangles. Both of them took a bangle each, and made Ruhi wear it. My daughter is so lucky and blessed to have cousins like these.

I asked N what she would like to be when she grows up, and she said she wants to be an optician. She said she loves to look into people's eyes.....paused for a bit....and then said eyes are wonderful and I would like to look after everyone's eyes. I find her thinking so profound.

When I asked her what movies and music she likes, she responded in a detailed manner. And when she was done, she asked me what movies I liked and why. I find her so sensitive at such a young age....all the time while talking to her I kept imagining how wonderful it will be when Ruhi grows up and talks to me like N is doing right now.

They will be gone tomorrow for 3 days to visit Yosemite and San Francisco, and I am already starting to miss them, and want them to be back soon......