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


~~ Keep Smiling! ~~

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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.

~~ Keep Smiling! ~~

Sent on my BlackBerry®.

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??

Aap meri step mom ho?

This is the question I was asked couple of days ago by my dear little son Anirudh. Surprised? Even I was. So I asked him why do you ask this? He had a very simple answer to it "Kyunki aap mere se itna kaam karati ho. Aur step moms bachhon se bahut kaam karwati hain."

I was initially a little aghast at this statement but the moment I realized why he asked me this question I was really laughing away. It so happened that I was making him clear the mess of his toys when he made this statement in full seriousness.

But I didn't leave it there (but obvious..isn't it? :D) and I asked him who told him about step moms.

It seems in the school that day the story of Cinderella was narrated to them. And that story has a step mom who is very cruel to Cinderella and makes her work really really hard. And because of THAT story, I was asked THIS question.

Sigh..what do you say to this question and more so to this logic!!!!

As per his logic...

...I must have been very naughty and would not listen to my Mumma, so I got scolded by my Mumma a lot and that's why I came to the house in which we are living currently :D

~~ Keep Smiling! ~~

Sent on my BlackBerry®.