His thoughts on privacy

Today evening hubby was changing into pyajamas in the same room where me and Betu were busy playing a game i.e. In our bedroom.



The moment he saw his papa doing that Betu goes "Ladies ke saamne change nahi karte!" (You are not supposed to change in front of ladies)



Me and hubby had such a good laugh and realised he is growing up and a sense/need of privacy is growing in him. He has to shut the door of the loo when he is doing the deed. He has to shut the door when he is taking bath. Who will say he is only 5? :)





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The birthday card

He made such an adorable birthday card for me. He drew 6 hearts to show how much he loves me and gave me 8 stars for being an 'awesome' mommy! :D

Isn't this just so awesome?

P.S. I forgot to write what those people and the numbers against them denote. Even I was curious and asked him who were these people. He told me that they are his cousins and the number is their age. He asked his dad for the ages :)

So 8 is Advik Bhaiyya, 5 is he himself, 11 is Prakhar Bhaiyya, 9 is Sowmya Didi, 7 is Pallav Bhaiyya and the last 6 he didin't remember :D

His writing redezevous

Now that Betu can figure out sounds and identify the alphabet accrodingly he sometimes tries to write the words on his own. And its really cute and funny to see him writing. Here is one instance of it. A friend of mine had come visiting and she was teasing him. This is what he wrote for her :

Amita = Spelled perfectly!

Noti = Naughty - I liked the way he wrote it..very logical.

GL=Girl - :)

"Aapne mujhe kanjoos kar diya!"

I was talking to betu and telling him some details about how babies are born. I think it got a little bit of overdose for him and after a while he said "Aapne to mujhe 'kanjoos' kar diya!" :D



I had such a laugh hearing it. He wanted to use the word 'confuse' and instead used 'kanjoos' which is a totally different word. :)



(Kanjoos=miser)





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Waiting for Mumma

Yesterday I was home with Betu as his bronchitis was acting up and he was running high fever.



Although fever was gone yesterday evening he wanted me to stay home with him today also.



I promised him I would come home after lunch and he agreed.



Around 10:30 AM he called me and asked "Aapne lunch kar liya?" I told him that I haven't. He asked me to have it quickly and come home as I had promised him.



:D



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His first experience with a 2 month baby

We went to meet a relative who had a baby boy 2 months ago. It was Betu's first rendezvous with a baby so young. He was quite small himself when Aryan was born so he doesn't remember that bit.

So when we were going I was telling him how young the baby Akshaj is and what he should not do since the baby is so small. It was really hard for him to believe that there can be a child who is not even 1 year old. He was asking me what all can he play with the baby and I was telling him the baby doesn't even sit right now. He cannot talk or walk or run. He was really amused and laughing as if I was telling all the wrong things. Or as if I was joking. But when he saw the baby he understood. He was trying to do things to make the baby smile. Clapping his hands. Brushing his hand on the baby''s forehead. Cooing with him. It was really cute to see him like this.

Later on the way he told me "Mumma, Baby kitna cute tha na?" and I just smiled and nodded. Here is the pic of him holding baby Akshaj in the lap. Sorry the quality isn't great since its from phone and the lighting wasn't proper in the room and I was trying to take without flash.

Who wants to be a 'good' boy?

Definitely not him.Yes, I'm talking about Betu here. He is in a very difficult stage right now. And I would definitely call it "early teens" . The defiance. The anger. "I just don't want to listen to you" phase. Bad behavior. Not talking to other/elders properly.

Yes..that's Betu. I'm surprised too. He wasn't like that 2 months ago.

Yesterday he told me in very clear words that he doesn't want to be a good boy. He wants to do all the bad things and that I can go ahead and punish him. In fact he wanted me to punish him.When I asked him why should I punish him he said because he has done a bad thing. On further asking if he thinks doing bad thing is right or wrong, he replied, its right thing. So when I reasoned with him that if he thinks its the right thing to do then why should I punish him. He responded that because he thinks its right but I think its wrong, that's why I should punish him.

I just didn't know what to say or do. I just moved away from him.

I've no clue what is leading to all this behavior change. One reason that I can think of is me not being able to spend enough time with him. Office has been too hectic and he is demanding attention by doing things which make me angry.

Betu, I just want to tell you that Mumma loves you and will do the best to spend more and more time with you. And that I don't want you to be a good boy all the time too. Just be yourself and be happy. I know you are not not happy too when you are upset and angry.

You are my jaan!

Kal 'parson' hai?

I'm sure the title must be sounding mind boggling to you. I felt the same when this question was put to me. It took me good 30 seconds to understand what it meant.



Is so happened that yesterday (Wednesday) I was telling Betu "Aap to parson Railway museum jayoge school se" as his school is taking his class for picnic and visit to the museum. And he was gettiing all excited and telling me what he would want to take with him for the picnic and I agreed.



And today when he woke up his first question was "Kal parson hai?"



I am sure now you understand what the question was :D



I found the way his mind worked amusing and funny at the same time.





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Its out!

Yes..his first teeth is out. I can't believe I'm getting excited about it :P
He was trying to open a packet using his teeth and it popped out. He didin't cry and there was no bleeding.

The other tooth has also started to come out and its growing quite tilted. So will need to take him to the dentist to see if anything can be done.

He is quite excited that his first teeth has broken off :)

The beginning...

...of falling of the first milk teeth. One of his front lower teeth has become loose and the new one has already started to peek in too.



He is getting a bit excited about it and keeps asking what will happen when the teeth will come off? What will happen if he keeps touching the loose tooth? ..etc...etc



I hope I'm able to save the first tooth and not loose it.



Let's see :)

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Scared of white hair or scared of aging?

Betu saw some white hair in hubby's hair and in a shocking tone said "aapke kitne saare baal white hain!". Then he peered at mine and found some there too and repeated the same line to me as well. And then very proudly announced that he has black hair and he will never have white hair.



I tried to tell him that everyones hair gets white. It just depends how soon or how late they go white.



Pondering over it he asked me "Kya mere baal bhi white ho jayenge?"



I said yes and further added that if he eats healthy food and does Pranayam his hair will stay black for longer time.



Immediately he started doing Pranayms and all kinds of excercises and after 15 mins declared now his hair will stay black for very long time.



I couldn't help laughing at his reaction. The scare of aging has started early with him. Or is it just that he doesn't like white hair?





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It shows how much he loves his Ben 10 toy...

...when he clicked close to 60 pictures in less than 10 min yesterday using my Blackberry. Don't believe me?

Here is the proof:

And ore so I've been given strict instructions not to delete any pic from my mobile so that he can have a look at them as and when he wants :)

My skating star

Its been about a year since Anirudh has been learning skating thrice a week at his daycare. And now I can see the confidence in him and the also the ease with which he does whatever he knows so far. Since the timings are from 4-5PM, I had been unable to see him skate until few days ago. It really felt so good to see him skate so smoothly. I took some pictures of him recently which I will share with you. Although I had shot one video also, but its a little heavy to upload here.

 

My skating star

 

What a smooth sailing...err rolling!

  

Thoda style to banta hai!

Well done my boy! You are just so awesome!

He a godfather?

Yesterday when I went to pick Betu from Daycare, I met a mother of another child and was exchanging greetings. And then she told me that Anirudh is like a godfather to Samarth. I looked at her a little confused and asked her "I didn't understand.". Then she went on to explain that if Anirudh tells Samarth that Samarth is a bad boy, Samarth keeps sulking till the time Anirudh doesn't say he is a good boy. And then he is really happy and chirpy. She added that even if she tells Samarth that no, he is a good boy it has no effect untill Anirudh says that. I just smiled and didin't know what to say.

On the way back I was talking to Anirudh about it. I told him that "Samarth really likes you and thinks of you as a really good friend. So if you tell Samarth that he is a bad boy, he feels bad and if you say he is a good boy he feels happy."

Then I asked him "Aap Samarth ko bad boy kyun bolte ho?" (Why do you call Samarth a bad boy?). He said "Jab woh Mitr (Another friend at daycare) ki tarah badmashi karta hai to woh uska friend ban jaata hai. Isliye main usko bad boy bolta hoon." (When he does naughty things like Mitr, he becomes Mitr's friend and that's why I call him bad boy).

So I asked Betu "Aap Mitr ko bhi bola karo ki woh badmashi nahi kare. Aap sab saath saath khela karo. Isse sabko achha lagega na?" (You ask Mitr to not to be naughty and you all play toghether. This way you all will be happy. RIght?). As he nodded in affirmation I closed the topic at that.

But I must say that I felt happy at the bond between Anirudh and his friend Samarth when Samarth's mother told me the whole story. It gave me a sense of pride as well.

It shows...

...how much he loves me when he started to cry seeing me crying and got angry at the person becasue of whom I was crying. He told the person "Aap bahut gande ho..aap meri mumma ko rula rahe ho" (You are very bad. You are making my Mom cry) and started to softly wipe my tears with his hands.

I can't tell you Betu what I felt that time because I've just no words to describe...I just hugged you tight and asked you not to get upset.

I love you so much meethu..so so much!

His take on ATMs

You just put any card in it and take out any amount of money.



He was kind of zapped that we first need to keep some money in the bank to be able to withdraw from ATM. How I wish it was so simple Betu :)





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Now where did he learn this from?

Yesterday, after hubby gave Betu his bath, he wrapped Betu in towel with the towel reaching till his armpits. How Betu reacted to that neither me nor Hubby could have ever imagined. Can you guess?



He said "Aise to ladkiyan pahenti hain. Kya aap mujhe ladki banana chahte ho?" while adjusting the towel down to his waist level.



Me and hubby were totally zapped and didn't know what to say or do.





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His take on pregnancy.

Out of the blue, Betu asked me that he wants to have a sister. Not completely surprised, I started to explain him that when papa and mumma 'make' the baby they don't know if it will be a boy or girl. God wants to keep that as a surprise. It is much later when the doctor does the checkup that you can tell if the baby in Mumma's tummy is a girl or a boy and sometimes after the baby comes out only then we figure that out.



He kept listening with a complete bemused look on his face. And then he asked me "Aap baby apne tummy mein 'order' karte ho?" I had such a laugh at his innocence. When these kids see everything being 'ordered' on phone or on the internet, they feel babies also come that way :)



Sweet. Isn't it?





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Role reversal...

I went for a meeting leaving my phone at the workstation hooked up to the charger. When I returned I saw a missed call from Jaipur. I dialled and my FIL picked it up. He said Betu had wanted to speak with me and called betu over to the phone



Betu: Hello?

Me: Hi jaanu. Kya kar rahe ho?



Betu: *ignoring my question and in a stern tone* maine abhi pahle phone milaya tha tab aapne phone uthaya kyun nahi?

Me: Betu main meeting mein gayee thi aur phone table par tha. Maine jaise hi dekha aapka phone aaya tha to maine aapko phone mila liya.



Betu: hmm..



*** Did you see how he scolded me?



Me: aapne breakfast kar liya?

Betu: Haan



Me: Aapne brush kara tha breakfast se pahle?

Betu: nahi. Main to bhool hi gaya. Kisi ne mujhe yaad hi nahi dilaya.



Me: Par yeh to aapko yaad rakhna chahiye. Chalo koi baat nahi. Ab kar lo brush.

Betu: Aap jaayo apni meeting mein. Bye. Bye. Bye.



So as you see, the moment I get into instructional conversation, he simply changes the topic. And I thought topic change and diversion was my role :)



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I'm missing you so much...

I didn't expect I would. But I am.



I wish I could be close to you and hugging you right now.



Mumma loves you a lot Betu.





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He is so funny!

These days he tries to mimic a lot. And it is really funny to see him doing that.



Just a while ago he was showing me the different ways people laugh. The loud kinds, the snickers, the kinds where people laugh with breaks in between, so on and so forth. I was laughing away all the time. And it didn't even strike me to make a video of that.



Must say that it shows he is very observant.



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What animal will you be?

Today is our company's annual day. As I was getting ready to go, Betu very earnestly asked me "Aap kaunse animal banoge?" It took me few seconds to understand where that came from. He had become a giraffe in one of his open day performances. :D

I laughed and told him that I won't dress up as any animal. A little perplexed he further said "Par aapka to aaj annual day hai na?" I nodded in affirmation and said" Haan. But hum log animal show nahi kar rahe."

But must say that I just loved the way his mind worked :)


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Feeling upset

Betu was really upset and sad when his Dadi-Dadu left today after staying here for a week.

He waved them bye with a smile but the moment he sat in the car he started crying really bad. Looking at him so heartbroken made my eyes water too. I sat there with him clinging to me and sobbing for good 5 min and we started back for home.

As we were taking a circle around India Gate we passed by "Children's Park" and I asked him if he wants to go to children's park since the weather was pleasant as it was 8:30 am only. He nodded with tears still streaming down his cheeks.

Luckily we even found a ball in the car and we took it inside to play with. We spent good 1 hour there and he was so happy playing on different swings. Here are some pics that I clicked while we were there.





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Cute little birdie

Betu drew this bird which I found really really cute.

Letter to dear brother Aryan

Anirudh wrote this letter and posted it to his younger brother Aryan on April 28 as you can see from the picture. I told him the spellings while he wrote the words down.

After he was done writing it, he took out his Mickey Mouse sticker sheet and pasted one sticker saying "Aryan ko achha lagega."

He is now eagerly waiting to talk to Aryan when Aryan opens it. But it will be another 3-4 days since they are traveling and shall be back only by Monday.

It reminds me of our younger days when we would also write to our cousins and post letters. I don't remember when I last wrote a letter by hand and posted it. It must have been good 4-5 years.

Question for which I've no answer...

Betu and me were doing numbers and I was asking him questions randomly.

Me: What is 2 and 5?
Betu: Twenty five

Me: What is 4 and 1?
Betu: Forty one

Me: What is 3 and 6?
Betu: Thirty six

Me: What is 5 and 0?
Betu: Fifty Zero

Me: Huh?
Betu: *grins and giggles* Fifty

Betu: Par agar 5 and 1 Fifty one hota hai, to 5 and 0 Fifty zero kyun nahi hota?

Me: *looks blankly and quickly changes topic - as usual*

Anybody, any answers?

On his first ever holiday without Mumma-Papa

Betu has gone on a 5 day holiday trip to meet his cousins along with his Dadi-Dadu. Its been 2 days since he has been gone and from what I know after my calls to his Dadi-Dadu and Bua, he is having lot of fun. He is being such a brat and not even coming on to the phone to talk to me when I call up.

It makes me sad and happy at the same time. Sad because it shows he is not missing me and having lots of fun. And happy because he is not missing me and having lots of fun. Yeah..we mums are crazy like that *wink*

Have lots of fun Betu. Mumma is eagerly waiting to see you on Monday night. Love you lots jaanu. Muaaaaahhh...

There has to be some excitement in life..right?

Now that the stitches have come off from the cut in the forehead from last week, life had become kind of boring so Betu decided to make it exciting by swallowing a Re 1 coin today afternoon.

We called up the doc and he said not to worry if Betu is not feeling any discomfort. And that it should come out in 2-3 days in the poop. We asked him if scan is required or not. He asked us to come and show him if we want to. So off we went.

As we entered the room, I told the doc that Betu just has to see you once a week and we both laughed. Then he proceeded to have one on one with Betu:

Doc: What did you have?
Betu: Coin *giggles*

Doc: What denomination?
Betu: 1 re *grins wide*

Doc: How was the taste? Was it nice?
Betu: Meetha tha *again giggles* (it was sweet)

Me: *rolling my eyes*

Doc: How old are you?
Betu: 5 years *still grinning ear to ear*

Doc: If you had been 2-3 yrs old I can still imagine. I didn't expect this from you at this age.
Betu: *keeps looking at the doc with the widest grin plastered on his face*

Me: Itne saalon se maine isko bacha kar rakha tha jab yeh chhota tha, par ab ho hi gaya.
Doc: Hmm..to tabki kasar ab poori kar raha hai :)

And then he proceeded to check betu. After he was done he turned to us and explained where all are the possibilities of the coin getting stuck and in which of those areas it gets a little dangerous and how they take it out from there. After examining thoroughly he asked us to give him soft diet so that no constipation happens and prescribed isabgol to be given at night along with a very mild laxative to keep the stools soft.

So now its a wait and watch game for us. It might take 2-3 days for it to pop-out and till then he will be called as a "living piggybank" as Itchy called him when I was talking to her about this incident :)

The journey of 5 years

Apr 1 2004: Just 4 days young and you would look at everything so curiously.


March 29 2005 : An year young today and your lovely smile and giggles would enlighten any heart!


March 29 2006: On your 2nd birthday. You had started to become a bossy little man but still as adorable as ever.


March 29 2007: 3 yrs and you would amaze us with little little things that you would do.


March 29 2008: By 4th birthday you had become a total brat!


March 29 2009: 5 years today and you have already started giving us threats of leaving us ;) but then Mumma Gogi bestest!

Happy birthday Betu!

It seems so unbelievable that it has been 5 years since you came into our lives. Rather 5 years 9 months as I would rather count from the time I concieved you. And what you have been for us ever since is just too difficult to explain.



You made us smile, cry, jump up and down with joy and at times made us angry too. But whatever we love you so much!



Happy birthday our little baby! *muaahh*





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Why are you not a kangaroo?

I was reading a story to Betu from one of the books that his chachi had got for him last year. The book had lots of animal stories. He really likes that book since it has a huge variety of animals in it from elephant to walrus, anteater to flamingo etc



So as we were flipping through the drawings/sketches of one story he stopped me short and asked in a very thoughtful tone "Aap kangaroo kyun nahi ho?" I didn't know what to respond and looked at him in a confused state of mind thinking now where does this come from?



He probably guessed that and said "Kangaroo ki pocket hoti hai. Agar aap kangaroo hote to main aapki pocket mein baithta. Kitna mazaa aata na?" :D



I just hugged him tight and kissed him on the head. Such are the simple hearts and simple desires of these little ones.





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Braveheart - thats my little boy!

Yes..that's what I called him when I saw him being so brave after he got hurt on the forehead which required suturing up. This happened on Mar 23 late afternoon around 3:30 PM. He was playing with another boy who was pulling his t-shirt from behind while Anirudh was trying to run forward. Suddenly the boy let Anirudh's t-shirt go from his grip and Betu lurched forward with the impact of sudden release and bumped his forehead on the wooden chair close by.

I reached his daycare by 4:00 PM and by that time he had been bandaged up by the supervisors there. They told me how brave and strong he has been throughout and how he didn't cry at all minus the initial tears at the time he got hurt. And that was not all.When I took him to the nursing home nearby, even at the time of stitching and cleaning up of the wound he did not shed a single tear. That is why I called him a brave heart while I was going weak in the knees, heart, hands, head...weak in every single part of my body.

While I was still shaken up throughout the rest of the day, he was up and about like any other day playing and talking and laughing. I was also trying to smile and laugh and be normal but I knew it wasn't coming naturally to me. Every time I would look at the potato sized bump on his forehead I would get so uneasy.

After we came back home me and him played with his newly bought wooden building blocks, our gift for his 5th birthday a week in advance of his birthday. The mother of the boy who he was playing with at the time of injury and the little boy dropped by our house as she was feeling a bit apologetic. Somehow I never even developed any ill-feelings towards them as it was a just-by-chance accident. They are kids and they will play. Sometimes wild and sometimes not. However I did pull up the daycare people to be careful so that the wild play doesn't go out of hand to this extent again. They were feeling quite sorry too and I knew I didn't need to drive it in their head any further.

Mar 23: Few hours after the injury. Notice the bump on his forehead just above the right eye?

Mar 23: Playing with the wooden blocks.

Mar 26: The stitches (in blue colored thread) all dried up.

Today on the 3rd day post the injury we went for a checkup and his pediatrician said its healing up well. He removed the bandage and asked us to leave it open. When I showed this pic to Betu he was actually excited to see that the stitches have been done in blue color :D

These kids I tell you...

Mera Pappu pass ho gaya

Today I went to Betu's school to collect his report card. It was nothing more than a formality. I knew he was doing fine and I knew very well what he had been doing throughout this year because he would come home with bits of assignments which we would do together. So to cut it short, I was happy with how he was learning and growing in terms of his vocabulary, English conversational skills etc.

So with a brief interaction with his teacher wherein she said all the good things she also mentioned one thing where she felt he needs to focus on and improve over a period of time. And that being conversational skills. I was actually taken aback. Him and conversational issues? I could have agreed if it was not listening to instructions or not doing work. But this surely was a surprise. I asked her to tell me in detail. And then she told me when she asks them questions in a group, turn by turn, he invariably fumbles and ends up doing "umm..." and not responding at all.

After I heard her in detail, frankly it doesn't matter to me. Some are comfortable speaking in front of a big group and some aren't. Its just OK.I will try to tell him to not be nervous but I am not going to do any bit of pushing. I'm going to let him be.

So to conclude "Pappu pass go gaya" and shall be going to KG now. Yippee! Good job Betu. :)

"Disney Cars" pasta

Thanks to Ruchi Mausi, Betu got a box of car shaped pasta few days ago. It was only today that I finally was able to cook it for him and but obviously he was ecstatic.

But after 10 min I was ready to tear my hair out because he would look at each piece for 2 minutes by turning it left and right and only when the full inspection was done that he would eat it. He did this for the first 10 minutes and then I asked him to finish eating it or I shall take it away. Call me a meanie mommy or whatever..I don't care! :D

Our contribution to recycling

Betu and me are helping towards the cause of Global Warming by doing our bits in recycling/reusing stuff. This is one example of it -
Using Surf Excel Matic boxes in which we get the washing machine powder as toy storage boxes. I had thought of covering them up with some paints etc but now I'm just leaving them like this.
What says you guys about this?

Treasures from the pocket

Couple of lil Kitty picture cutouts that I found in his pockets yesterday night while doing the laundry. Yup. After a long time I found something in his pockets:)

Annual Day at Betu's School

Anirudh's school holds a separate Annual Day for Nursery and KG kids. I really liked the idea of a separate one for such small children.

He was part of a play where he was supposed to play the role of a granpa. He told me about this play about 15 days ago and said "Pata hai. Main dadu hoon!". I looked at him a bit bewildered wondering what he meant. Later he explained me that he is in a play where there is a boy Ken who doesn't take care of his toys and his dadu helps him fix his toys. He then proudly told me that he is playing the role of Dadu.

As per Swati, he was just perfect for the role looking at his bossy nature. She has also written in detail about his cute bossy nature in a guest post on this blog :D

Coming back to his performance, after the experience from the open day and also from one of the rehearsal sessions I attended, I was not sure he would say his lines. But the moment he entered the stage, it didn't matter to me if he would say it well or not. Just seeing him on stage made me feel so very proud of my lil guy. But then today he said them just perfectly making me even more proud. Its another story that after saying his lines, he was standing with his back towards the audience (as you can see in one of the pictures below) and playing with the other kids on the stage.

Now I leave you with some pics from his Annual Day -

Thanks Dear Anirudh !

Hi Everyone, I am Anirudh's chachi and Aryan's (of Times of Aryan frame) mother.

I am here to thank dear Anirudh for all the parenting lessons that he has given me to help me raise Aryan into a good boy. NO , I am not here to thank ~nm. I am here to thank Anirudh.

He told me that , I should teach Aryan to pee in bathroom and not in diaper. He taught me that I should make Aryan wear sweater ,when its cold. He taught me that I should not let Aryan walk bare foot. And I even got scoldings (with frown and lines on forehead) for letting Aryan do his Big Job in diaper once. Where do I get just advices from a little wishful thinker.

I would also like to thank Anirudh for being a responsible big brother that he is to Aryan. Witness this :

Scene : Aryan gets extremely angry and starts hitting me in fit of anger at a public gathering. All the other cousins of his left from the sight like I told them to (till Aryan becomes calm), since I did not want them to be the victim of Aryan's anger. But Anirudh being Anirudh stays and goes like this , with finger up and a frown on his face and lines on forehead :

"Aryan !!!! Aaapne Mumma ko kyo maara ???? Aaapko pata hai na , ache bache Mumma ko nahi marte??? Gandi baat."
The !!!! , ???? in the above sentence denote the stress on the words.

He looked so cute that I felt like leaving Aryan to hug him. All the irritation that I was feeling that moment because of Aryan's behaviour just flew away.

And another one :

Scene : We are at ~nm's place. Anirudh just started his dinner , having dal roti and subzi. Aryan attempts to get hold of the spoon in Anirudh's bowl to have a spoonful of daal. At this Anirudh reacts :
"Aryan !!! Yeh Bhaiya ki daal hai !!! Isme bahut mirchi hai !!!"The !!!! in the above sentence denote the stress on the words.

His tone was a mix of anger and shock , it was like a mom would react if the kid is about to touch a hot vessel. He looked so very adorable.

But the funny part was that Anirudh does NOT eats mirchi and his dal had NO trace of mirchi. He was just behaving like a grwon up big brother.

So here I am thanking dear Anirudh , for being such adorable teacher and guide to me and such a responsible bro.

Love you Sweetheart !


Big Brother feeding the younger one with ice cream!

The cutest panditji ever

Ain't I right? :D

My cute little Giraffe

The play titled "Blue Elephant" was staged on feb 14, 2009 where he was supposed to say the lines "I've never seen an elephant which is blue in color". After initial hiccups of making him learn the lines since he wouldn't accept as he had seen a blue elephant. So when the final show day came, he was very excited since the morning.

I sent him off in the same brown dress which I used for the goat activity. I just didn't have any other dress at home which could be brown or yellow in color from top to bottom. Betu did question me saying "Yeh to goat ki dress hai" but I somehow managed to convince him that lot of animals can have the same color.

They were to perform twice and the parents were given time slots to come and watch the show. Ours was the second slot.

I did a mistake here. I forgot to tell Betu about the slot business and when he didn't see us but saw the parents of all his friends he started bawling away loudly. He didn't say his lines at all and was crying in the top of his voice. So was I told from a mother of his classmate, called me to ask where was I when she saw him crying, with whom I'm pally with.

So when I reached he was in a really off mood and it took a lot of cajoling to agree him to speak his lines again. But when the second replay happened he spoke only half of his line "I've never seen a blue elephant which.." and he broke off. It was obvious that he was still not OK.

I didn't say anything to him but just said a "good job" when he came back to us. here are some of the pictures from the show

Drawing Sea Animals

I found this drawing in Betu's school bag yesterday evening. When I said "Betu. Wow. Yeh to bahut achha banaya hai.", he started to tell me in detail as to what all he had drawn very enthusiastically.

On the top, the pink one is a jellyfish, the green one is an octopus and the blue one is a crab.

He then pointed to the yellow colored sword fish in the blue water and said "Woh bahut daynjrus hoti hai." :D

And the brown one below the swordfish is a star fish.

Well done Betu. It looks very pretty.

His first letter

After a visit to the post office in December 2008 from school, Betu was quite upbeat about writing a letter and posting it in the letterbox. But slowly over the time he forgot it. He would talk about it once in a while and we lazy parents didn't do anything about it. A week ago, when we saw a new letterbox being installed just next to our society entrance, we decided that we should stop being such lazy parents and help him write a letter and also to post it.

Today we finally managed to do it. He wrote a letter to his Dadi-Dadu and then I put a stamp on the envelope and wrote the address. Off he went with his papa to drop it in the letter box on the way to school.

I forgot to click a pic before sealing the envelope but this is what he wrote:
---------------
DADI - DADU
I LOVE YOU SO MUCH.
MISSING YOU.
ANIRUDH
---------------
Since he is not very comfortable with lower case letters, he wrote it all in uppercase. I was telling him the spellings and he kept writing them down. But for his name, I didn't have to spell it out. He knows how to spell his name just perfectly.

Now I'm just waiting to see the excitement of Betu when his Dadi-Dadu will call up to talk to him when they receive the letter.

Goat says...

I'm sure all of you would have already read about the whole goat mask making exercise and the activity at his school.

So when I asked him what did he say when his turn came.

Betu:
"Thank you teachers.
Thank you children.
I'm a Goat.
I say woof-woof.
I give milk"

Me : Goat says what??
Betu: Woof woof

Me: *slapping my forehead* woh to Dog bolta hai. Goat kya bolti hai?
Betu: After thinking for a few seconds "baaa"

Me: Fir aapne woof woof kyun bola?
Betu: *looks blankly at me*

Me: Fir Ma'm ne kya bola?
Betu: Sab hasne lage

Me: *in a disappointed voice* koi nahi..next time theek se bolna

And I left it at that. I know I should have at least praised him for speaking up in front of all but I was quite disappointed. He was saying it so well at home.

Today he had to go and say these lines as a part of a small skit "I've never see an Elephant which is blue in color".

So over the weekend I practiced it with him. But he rehearsed these lines with a lot of reluctance. Every now and then he would say "Par maine to blue elephant dekha hai. Dumbo!! cartoon network mein aata hai." :D

Now I wonder what will he say during the skit. Will he be able to say the lines properly or will he add these lines of seeing a blue elephant? :D

It shows how much he loved...

...his earlier daycare "Pink Elephant" when



- he doesn't let me throw the old envelopes of the old daycare.



- he remembers the route to the daycare even now, almost 2 years after he last went there.



- he was in tears to see a new building in place of the old building.



- he says "mujhe Pink Elephant ki bahut yaad aati hai"



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Chand taare tod layoon...

It could very well be my son singing this song for me :)



Betu: "Aapko moon chahiye?"

Me: "par moon to bahut door hota hai. Aap to wahan tak pahunch nahi sakte."



Betu: "main ja sakta hoon"

*made a funny sound and said*

"yeh lo. Moon"



*again made the same funny sound*

"yeh lo star"



*again made the same funny sound*

"yeh lo ek aur star"



:D



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His summary of the Manali Trip

On the train from Chandigarh to Delhi (Shatabdi Express), our seats were right in the center where we get a table. So the crayons and paper that I had carried came to the rescue and I managed to keep the kids busy for good 1 hour.

There was another kid besides Anirudh and Prithvi and I'm sure his parents must be thanking me in their hearts too :D

The first thing Anirudh asked me when get got paper and crayons was "Main kya banayoon?" I told him if he wants he can draw whatever he saw in Manali. The idea really appealed to him and he got down to it. And this is what he made -

There is the sun, the clouds, the mountains covered with snow(blue bit on top of mountains) and with fir trees growing on them.

He drew a horse (pink one) and a monkey (blue one). he also drew the big boulders he saw near the mountains and in the river Beas (black and brown ones).

I think he did a splendid job of drawing a summary of his Manali trip. What says you all?

Craft time - Making a goat mask

On Tuesday evening I got a note in Anirudh's school diary that we have to send him dressed as a farm animal on Friday, Jan 30. So I asked Anirudh what he wanted to go as. Pat came the reply "Goat" along with the baa sounds. :)

So I started to think of the various ways I could manage that. The first thing that came to my mind was to make a goat face mask. And for the rest of the body I thought I can send him dressed in white or brown. Since I didn't have anything brown, I decided to go full white way. But by Wednesday morning the whole dress up activity was out of my mind until yesterday evening. And then I was kind of stuck what to do with so little time on my hands. I started to search the internet for goat masks outline. I managed to find only one decent mask but that was way too small. And then Photoshop came to the rescue and I enlarged it and did some tweaking and lo and behold I had a face mask which I could use for making one of my own. But somehow it wasn't looking good enough to me. And then I suddenly remembered Rohini's trysts in dressing up her son as a goat for his school activity. And there I found another goat mask which she had put together wonderfully by taking bits and pieces from 2-3 goat images off the internet. So when I saw this mask, I was sure I want to use this one and not the one I had found.

With the mask ticked off the list, now it was the turn of the dress. After humming and hawing I thought I will just send him in regular clothes. And then I remembered his dress from his annual day function at his earlier daycare "Pink Elephant". But that was 2 years ago. Since the dress was quite big (read that as 'QUITE BIG') for him that time I thought I will give it a try anyhow even if the chances of it fitting him were not even 5%. But the biggest hurdle was to find it. I vaguely remembered putting it in the loft of the guest bedroom. So when I reached home, I searched for it there and actually found it there!! I quickly undressed Betu to try on the dress and it was short at the legs and the arms. It was fitting just perfectly on the rest of the body. I heaved such a big sigh of relief.

So with everything in place, me and Betu went to the local stationer and got white ivory paper, traced the mask outline, cut it up and then colored it. This is how it looked once done.

And this is Betu err..a little cute goat today morning :D

When I was done coloring up the goat Betu said he didn't like it. I was pretty upset hearing this and said that he cam make his own and sat holding the mask with a pout. Within seconds he came to and hugged me and said "Yeh bahut achha hai. main isko hi pahnunga." Par main bhi kum nahi hoon. I told him "Nahi aapko pasand nahi hai ko mat pahno." but he insisted and we both smiled and hugged each other.

These are the sentences that I taught him to say

I'm a goat

baaaa..

I eat grass

I give milk

baaaa..

I kept telling Betu that he can slide up the mask a little up but he was adamant on wearing it on the face so I let him. I just hope he remembers to say these lines when his turn comes.

Here is the face mask that I used to make one -

And here is the other mask that I got from the net and modified to fit my requirements -

Reading sentences

Now that Anirudh's school is coming to the end of the nursery session and he knows the phonetics pretty well, he is able to read some basic words that they have been taught. The school calls it "sight" words. And now he can read sentences using these sight words. I didn't know this till I got this sheet to practice with him on a long weekend and he read them all correctly minus a few mix-ups. I was feeling so proud of him and rewarded him with a KitKat chocolate for reading so well.

Here is the picture displaying some of the sentences that he got as holiday homework. There were 20 sentences like these that he was to practice reading.


I can't describe how elated I was thinking "My son can read!!" :D

Marriage talks

We were discussing about our marriages with a friend of ours. And discussing how long it has been since we have been married when Betu suddenly pipes in "Meri shaadi kab hogi?" leaving us laughing out loud.



Betu, your time will come soon :)

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Imagine this

Imagine two 4 year olds singing the song "Talli..main talli..main talli ho gaya..."

Anirudh and Prithvi, his daycare friend, were singing this song enroute to Manali. The most inapproriate song they could have chosen. :D

Jan 24, 2009 8:25 am



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Amused

While driving on the way back to Delhi from Jaipur on Jan 19, Betu saw these buffaloes being transported in a truck. Our conversation:

Betu: "Yeh buffaloes truck mein kyun ja rahi hain?"
Me: "Kyunki jiski buffaloes hain, woh unhe kahin le ja raha hoga."

Betu: "Par truck mein to samaan le jaate hain. Inko kyun le ja raha hai?"
Me: "Truck mein saman ke alawa bhi le ja sakte hain."

Betu: "Hum logon ko bhi?"
Me: "Haan bilkul. Log bhi ja sakte hain"

Betu: "Par woh truck mein kyun ja rahi hain? Chal kar kyun nahi ja rahi?"
Me: "Unko door jana hoga isliye."

Betu: *no response and with the same amused expression on his face looking at the truck*

Bagawat

..abhi se.



A while ago hubby was telling betu about some rules because he was behaving badly.



After listening for a while he goes "No Rules!!"



Looking at him I worry about his teens. What will happen then if this is how it is now?





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All this just for not wanting to go to school

Yesterday morning Betu didn't want to go to school. He was cribbing and fussing about getting ready. When I made him stand at the basin to brush his teeth, he finally said, "Main ghar chhod kar chala jayunga. Fir aapko meri yaad aayegi, main fir bhi nahi aayunga."

So you see these threats start so early in this generation. Sigh. Anyways, hubby got angry hearing him say all this but I talked to him very calmly about it

Me: Ok. Par aap kahan jayoge?
Betu: Kahin bhi. Aur aap udaas hoge, par main fir bhi nahi aayunga.

Me: Its ok. Aapko jane ka mann hai to chale jayo. Par aap jayoge kahan?
Betu: Main prithvi ke ghar chala jayunga.

Me: Ok. Par Prithvi ki mumma to usko pyaree karengi. Uske saath cuddly karengi. Aap kya karoge?
Betu: Nahi uski Mumma sab bachhon ko pyar karti hain.

Me: Haan. Woh sabko pyaar karti hain. Par raat ko to woh apne papa mummy ke saath soyega aur aapko aapi aapi sona padega. Fir kya karoge?
Betu: *ponders for a minute* chalo achha..main yahin rahunga. Aap udaas ho jayoge na isliye nahi jayunga.

Me: Nahi. Aapka mann hai to chale jayo. Mujhe koi problem nahi hai.
Betu: nahi par aap udaas hote ho to mujhe achha nahi lagega.

And the topic got closed as he went for his bath. But did you see how he very cleverly I was made to be the reason he was not going :D

Aajkal ke bachhe, baba re baba...

My sweet little guy

He packed me 3 of his chocolate creme biscuits saying "Aap office mein kha lena" :D

I love you jaanu!

Making Pop-out cards

Me and Betu made these pop-out cards recently using rough paper. Betu was mighty thrilled while making these and even more thrilled to see how they finally turned out.

I would draw the outlines and he would color them up. And then it was my job to cut at the right places. I did get a good scolding when I didn't cut the aeroplane properly and actually snipped the plane.

We first made the Christmas tree and then all sorts of ideas kept popping in his head which I was totally incapable of making. His ideas included a frog, a a crocodile, a ship and this aeroplane also. ALthough I was not sure if I could make an aeroplane one but still tried. Although it didn't work out as expected but it was good enough to make him happy. Here is the pic of the ones that we made -

Next in our to-do list is to make a rocket and a dolphin. I will have to wrack this rusty brain of mine to figure out how to make these.

Tryst with numbers

Teaching needs LOTs of patience! And apparently I don't have enough. I have written about it earlier and here I'm writing about my trysts in teaching some rudimentary stuff to Betu.

Yesterday I was trying to teach Anirudh the counting in tens - verbally as well written.

He could recite it upto 80s if he started from 1. It was kind of learnt by rote. However, when I asked him what does 3 and 0 or 6 and 0 read as? He would look at me blankly.

So that's how we started with the number practice session. Somehow I was able to make him understand how to figure out 60. I told him if its a 2 digit number, and 0 is in the 2nd position it makes the sound of "tee". He caught that concept after trying for 30 min. Then I stared to focus on the first digit and how to recognise and read the tens. If the first digit is 6, pronounce it usually way and add "tee" in the end. It works well for all but for twenty, thirty and fifty. Even though forty also doesn't work exactly the same way but it makes quite a similar sound.

Anyhow all went well except for these different sounding numbers in tens. This is how the rest 1 hour proceeded. I would say the number first and then he would repeat.

2 0 - twenty
3 0 - thirty
4 0 - forty
5 0 - fifty

After we did this for 5-6 times I asked him to recite it himself. But he would keep getting stuck at pronouncing 'thirty' and 'fifty'. I kept helping him but after trying for another 30 mins trying to make him remember to say "thirty" and "fifty" I had started to lose patience and was getting quite angry.

This is how it went
Me: 3 0 - thirty
Betu: 3 0 - thirty

Me: 4 0 ?
Betu: Fourty

Me: 5 0 - Fifty
Betu: 5 0 - Fifty

Me: 3 0?
Betu: *looks blankly"

Me: *after waiting for 1 min" 3 0 thirty
Betu: 3 0 - thirty

Me: 5 0?
Betu: *looks blankly*

Me: *again wait for 1 min" 5 0 - Fifty
Betu: 5 0 - Fifty

Me: 3 0?
Betu: *looks blankly*

Again I tell him and he repeats after me

Me: 5 0?
Betu: *looks blankly*

Again I tell him and he repeats after me

This went on for full 40 mins and I was at my wits end by this time. I ended up giving him a tight slap and sent him off to bed. He cried really hard for good 5-10 min. I don't know if I should have felt bad for slapping him but the truth is I didn't. I was way too angry then. Hubby tried to intervene but I told him to just go away and not interfere.

About 15 min later when I joined him in the bedroom to read my book, I could hear him talking to himself in whispers. I ignored it and went on with my reading. He was facing the opposite direction all this while. After about 5 mins he turned towards me and said -

Betu: *in a whisper like tone* 3 0 - thirty *paused for a while for my reaction*
Me: good!

Betu: 5 0 - fifty
Me: very good! *hugging him tight*

And at that point my tears started to flow because of happiness mixed with a bit of remorse. And we both dozed off hugging each other.

Next day morning while we sat drinking milk and tea, hubby asked him -
Hubby: 3 0?
Betu: *after thinking for 2 secs* thirty

Hubby: very good. 5 0?
Betu: fifty

Hubby: very good!!

The happiness, the jubilation we both felt that time is beyond words. It was actually a feeling of a battle won!

And now the situation is that since he has figured out how to read 2 digit numbers, he randomly asks me to practice counting with him all through the day :D


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Scenes from my childhood...

As I am writing this, Anirudh is listening to a story from Amma - my dadi. Just the way I used to when I was smaller. And I just smiled looking at this scene playing in front of my eyes. It is giving me a strange feeling of happiness.



But there is a difference between those days and now. As Amma finished just now with her story, he asked her if she wants to listen to a story. She said yes and now he is telling her a story. And he is making the story all from his mind at runtime. :D



I was not as creative as Betu is when I was his age. And that is a big difference now and then.

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Shaitani dimmag!

Yesterday morning I went for my bath after Hubby had given Betu his bath.

The moment I reached the bath mugs I let out a big gasp. WHy? Because this is what the sight was...
Can you guess what it is in the those bath mugs? No? Look closely and see whats similar in both the things. Yeah..may be you are getting an idea now :)

Those are his pair of socks. The ones that he was wearing when he went for his bath. Both socks have been duly thrown into each mug.

Sigh...main kya karoon is ladke ka??