I like to narrate about incidents when I was growing up to Sandhya and Divya. They in fact like to hear those stories than the stories from books as I do spice it up when I'm narrating to them. I recently was telling them how I used to go to my grandfather's village during summer holidays when I was small when the talk about summer activities came up. I was mentioning how it used to be fun then running around backyards with uncountable coconut and mango trees, bating in the ponds where at one end of the pond buffaloes will be sun bathing too. They listened to me with beady eyes interrupting with questions like how far did you climb the tree to pluck the mangoes or did it itch when you played on the haystack like it does when we play on the lawn or how cousins you had or did you really catch fish with hands etc . As a year end project they did a model to represent a farm and all the activities in their class were based on learning about farm It started when Divya showed me her craft where she made a rooster out of a plastic cup with a string hanging and a small sponge tied at the end, she showed me that when you wet the sponge and use it to pull the string it sounds like a chicken clucking. Then she told me "this is how a chicken sounds do you know it". I smiled and said I know how it sounds , I have seen it ..paused a bit and asked them have you ever seen a rooster, they sadly nodded no, then my evil laughter sprung up, I midst laughing started playing it.."Oh not even once you have seen it...in your whole life , you have not seen a hen?" at first it was amusing to them with me laughing they enthusiastically nodded and said No for all my questions..it was fun..but soon Sandhya's face turned red and she stopped smiling. She went and sat at the corner of the Sofa and said "amma its all your fault, you should've shown us the roosters when we were in India last time, and now you are making fun of us"..
Sure enough we did not see a rooster or hen for the meager amount of time we visited M's grandfather's village during our last visit. With every body migrating to towns and cities villages are not anymore lively. Its like some zombie place. Its been decades since I visited my grandfather's village but the memories of my summer vacation are still sweet. We managed to see a goat and its 2 days old kid during that trip. It was an experience for the girls. they were really excited. Of all the things that attracted them there was one thing that Sandhya was really in to examining. It was Goats poop. There were of course lots around and she asked us what it was that's looking like black beans. She was not ready to believe that it was the goat's poop. We had to try hard to not make her touch it. She was keeping on coming back to it asking us was it really the poop :).
Thursday, June 11, 2009
Tuesday, June 9, 2009
Stubborn is her other name
Between Sandhya and Divya, the latter is known for her stubbornness in our household. If she had something in her mind and she is not seeing that happening she is a real pain in the B***. She throws tantrums, screams and cry non stop at least minimum for an hour. The problem is once she is upset she wouldn't want to change her mood even when she is offered what she was expecting or would not accept any deviation or substitute from what she was looking for in other words she is totally inflexible. So the usual reaction from us is to ignore her for that hour until she is tired of crying. With that pre text I chanced to experience an interesting episode with her character past weekend.
I usually keep some extra candys in one of top shelf of the kitchen cabinets believing that they won't be able to reach it even if they use a chair. Divya successfully had broken my belief. In the excitement that she was able to grab some candy she had hurriedly popped one in her mouth and ran outside to the backyard. On her way she had dropped one on the rug. Outside she did not expect to see Sandhya , and Sandhya seeing her chew something had asked her what she was eating, Divya as shrewd as she is said she was eating nothing. Suspicious Sandhya ran to me saying Divya is eating something yellow in color and that she is not sharing with her. The immediate panic for me was to search for any missing tablets and such and confirming that nothing like that were lying around I encountered Divya.
Me: Divya, what are you eating/
Divya: Nothing
Me; I see something in your mouth, tell me what you had , I want to know that its not something dangerous
Divya: No, amma , its not dangerous
Me: oh..so what did you have?
Divya: I don't know
Me: You don't know what you ate? then I think we have to the hospital to check it out.C'mon lets go..
Divya: No, Its not poisonous we don't have to go
At this point I saw the dropped candy on the floor and I guessed what had happened. She did not wanted Sandhya or me to know that.
Me: (continuing the conversation)so what shape was it?
Divya: I don't know
Me: did you atleast know what color it was?
Divya: I don't know
Me: Ok. was is tasting sweet?
Divya: No it was tasteless
Me: @#$%^!!!!
I frankly did not know how to pry out the answer from her mouth and make her accept that she indeed ate a candy. I wanted to make her feel that it was ok to have and that she should let me know so that I can watch out that she accidentally did not consume something else thinking it was a candy.
Since I did not know how to proceed. I said that I know what she had eaten and that since she was not honest she has to sit on a time out. She to much of my surprise turned to the wall and sat down without a whine or a word or a sulk. She sat there until I called her get up which was close to 30 mts because usually timeouts in our house are not that strict, they fuss and probably sit for a minute or two and then run away so I forgot about the timeout I gave Divya and when I entered the room after 30 mts she was there still sitting facing the wall. I attributed that purely to her guilt :) I then did all the pampering and advised her to be careful in what she eats and be honest with amma and appa which will only help her. At the end she cried a bit and nodded that she would listen to me. Just before letting her go..I asked her one last time..."Divya, you did eat the yellow candy that I had from valentines day left over right, tell me I won't bother you again?" She stared at me for a moment evaluating and then nodded a big NO and ran out...
I usually keep some extra candys in one of top shelf of the kitchen cabinets believing that they won't be able to reach it even if they use a chair. Divya successfully had broken my belief. In the excitement that she was able to grab some candy she had hurriedly popped one in her mouth and ran outside to the backyard. On her way she had dropped one on the rug. Outside she did not expect to see Sandhya , and Sandhya seeing her chew something had asked her what she was eating, Divya as shrewd as she is said she was eating nothing. Suspicious Sandhya ran to me saying Divya is eating something yellow in color and that she is not sharing with her. The immediate panic for me was to search for any missing tablets and such and confirming that nothing like that were lying around I encountered Divya.
Me: Divya, what are you eating/
Divya: Nothing
Me; I see something in your mouth, tell me what you had , I want to know that its not something dangerous
Divya: No, amma , its not dangerous
Me: oh..so what did you have?
Divya: I don't know
Me: You don't know what you ate? then I think we have to the hospital to check it out.C'mon lets go..
Divya: No, Its not poisonous we don't have to go
At this point I saw the dropped candy on the floor and I guessed what had happened. She did not wanted Sandhya or me to know that.
Me: (continuing the conversation)so what shape was it?
Divya: I don't know
Me: did you atleast know what color it was?
Divya: I don't know
Me: Ok. was is tasting sweet?
Divya: No it was tasteless
Me: @#$%^!!!!
I frankly did not know how to pry out the answer from her mouth and make her accept that she indeed ate a candy. I wanted to make her feel that it was ok to have and that she should let me know so that I can watch out that she accidentally did not consume something else thinking it was a candy.
Since I did not know how to proceed. I said that I know what she had eaten and that since she was not honest she has to sit on a time out. She to much of my surprise turned to the wall and sat down without a whine or a word or a sulk. She sat there until I called her get up which was close to 30 mts because usually timeouts in our house are not that strict, they fuss and probably sit for a minute or two and then run away so I forgot about the timeout I gave Divya and when I entered the room after 30 mts she was there still sitting facing the wall. I attributed that purely to her guilt :) I then did all the pampering and advised her to be careful in what she eats and be honest with amma and appa which will only help her. At the end she cried a bit and nodded that she would listen to me. Just before letting her go..I asked her one last time..."Divya, you did eat the yellow candy that I had from valentines day left over right, tell me I won't bother you again?" She stared at me for a moment evaluating and then nodded a big NO and ran out...
Wednesday, June 3, 2009
Updates
Its been a while since I wrote any post. Sure there's a lot going on with the school year ending. Sandhya and Diva will be officially out K and entering first grade in a few weeks. I was busy with finding summer classes with suitable timings for them. Glad that their care taker is willing to shuttle them to and fro from the classes.
A few weeks back their school put up a performance of "The three Little Piggy Opera".The CDs congaing the songs were sent home well ahead like a month before the performance so that the children can practice through the spring break until the performance date. Of course we had 2 Cds one from each of Sandhya and Divya's class. I had one in the car and one at home. Soon before I realized I had all the songs memorized. I was singing 'em while cooking..working..you name it. Sandhya and Diva were catching up too with their favorite song being "I wanna big fat pig to eat..". They had a lottery in their class for the all the roles and the kids who were not offered any role supposed to be the chorus. It so happened that Sandhya was to be a brick peddler and Divya a mother pig.
I took the day off as the performance timing were different for both of them planning to be present for both of them ( oh yeah ..of course I was looking for reasons to take off from work). I dropped them at school and the plan was that I will be hanging around their class helping the teacher until the performance and then M would join me with camera and stuff at the hall. So far so good..10 mts before Divya's performance M called me to say that he was stuck at work and won't be able to make it and asked to get the camera from his car parked at his office. Now his office is close by but I had doubts if I can make it, that is go pick up the camera and come back within 10 mts. I calculated that it will take sometime for them to set things up on the stage and that it wouldn't start exactly at the said time what with excited 5 year olds lining up I thought. I took a risk and I badly lost it. By the time I reached the hall Divya was already done with her song. What shall I say except to curse myself for running out to pick up the camera, if not recorded atleast I could've watched her sing.
I have the consolation that I was able to take some pictures of her in the costume. She without failing asked me "Amma how did I do?" and I without any hesitation said "It was wonderful Divya". She continued to say that she did well because she could not see me in the audience so she did not feel shy !!!!..
I had ample time before Sandhya's class performance so I took a front prominent seat set myself ready with the camera. I thought of recording the whole thing instead of just Sandhya's part. The moment when Sandhya went to stage for the brick peddler scene the camera shut down as the memory was full. Since we did not have time to charge our video camera I was using the photo camera, the idea was to replace it with extra memory card which I conveniently left it in the car..duh!! I cannot say how stupid I felt at that moment sitting there, but yeah at least I enjoyed watching her who after all those practice stood there until her partner, another girl, started off with wrong lines. It was supposed to be Bricks I sell, Bricks I sell...instead the girl started off like I sell Brick, I sell bricks..Sandhya realizing the error instead of correcting it turned around to look at her partner held her arms tightly and was pulling her arms down. Thankfully her teacher prompted with the right lines and then they completed singing the lines with a big smile and laughter from the audience..
ahh.. well of course its just the beginning I have another 12 years of school performance/concerts may be to attend, I will make it up with the next one.
A few weeks back their school put up a performance of "The three Little Piggy Opera".The CDs congaing the songs were sent home well ahead like a month before the performance so that the children can practice through the spring break until the performance date. Of course we had 2 Cds one from each of Sandhya and Divya's class. I had one in the car and one at home. Soon before I realized I had all the songs memorized. I was singing 'em while cooking..working..you name it. Sandhya and Diva were catching up too with their favorite song being "I wanna big fat pig to eat..". They had a lottery in their class for the all the roles and the kids who were not offered any role supposed to be the chorus. It so happened that Sandhya was to be a brick peddler and Divya a mother pig.
I took the day off as the performance timing were different for both of them planning to be present for both of them ( oh yeah ..of course I was looking for reasons to take off from work). I dropped them at school and the plan was that I will be hanging around their class helping the teacher until the performance and then M would join me with camera and stuff at the hall. So far so good..10 mts before Divya's performance M called me to say that he was stuck at work and won't be able to make it and asked to get the camera from his car parked at his office. Now his office is close by but I had doubts if I can make it, that is go pick up the camera and come back within 10 mts. I calculated that it will take sometime for them to set things up on the stage and that it wouldn't start exactly at the said time what with excited 5 year olds lining up I thought. I took a risk and I badly lost it. By the time I reached the hall Divya was already done with her song. What shall I say except to curse myself for running out to pick up the camera, if not recorded atleast I could've watched her sing.
I have the consolation that I was able to take some pictures of her in the costume. She without failing asked me "Amma how did I do?" and I without any hesitation said "It was wonderful Divya". She continued to say that she did well because she could not see me in the audience so she did not feel shy !!!!..
I had ample time before Sandhya's class performance so I took a front prominent seat set myself ready with the camera. I thought of recording the whole thing instead of just Sandhya's part. The moment when Sandhya went to stage for the brick peddler scene the camera shut down as the memory was full. Since we did not have time to charge our video camera I was using the photo camera, the idea was to replace it with extra memory card which I conveniently left it in the car..duh!! I cannot say how stupid I felt at that moment sitting there, but yeah at least I enjoyed watching her who after all those practice stood there until her partner, another girl, started off with wrong lines. It was supposed to be Bricks I sell, Bricks I sell...instead the girl started off like I sell Brick, I sell bricks..Sandhya realizing the error instead of correcting it turned around to look at her partner held her arms tightly and was pulling her arms down. Thankfully her teacher prompted with the right lines and then they completed singing the lines with a big smile and laughter from the audience..
ahh.. well of course its just the beginning I have another 12 years of school performance/concerts may be to attend, I will make it up with the next one.
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