Silly Saturday: A hearty mistake

For a change little Smera is not my inspiration for this Silly Saturday feature, however it’s all about her Grandparents and my Dad and Mum. My dad is a really chilled out person. He is one of those guys who are always around to help, very easy-going, dad and I are similar in many ways – when it comes to getting angry or having fun.   

I called them this morning to check on how they were and just as we started speaking to mum happened to mention how a couple of days back she received dad’s message explaining why was running late. Here’s how it goes ..

Dad’s message: “Now I am at Metro Heart Institute hospital, Noida. In ICU, heart complaint. I will be late. Take care.”

Reading this sms my mum almost skipped a heart-beat. She desperately tried calling him back and mysteriously that very moment network started acting funny and declared him out of network. You could imagine my mother’s plight. Mum couldn't help wonder his thoughtful words of asking her to take care. Suddenly seconds felt like years with the phone out of network!

Thankfully a few minutes later he called her back on seeing her missed calls. Furious with the number of missed calls messages he asked her what was so important.

Mum: Are you ok? What happened? 

Dad: I am ok but what’s wrong with you? I just sent you a message, Saji is not well and I am at the hospital. He is in the ICU, with a heart complaint and that I would be late.

Mum: You should check you sms, it read that you are in hospital with heart complaint. You forgot to mention Saji’s name in it.

But as she mentioned this to us, we burst out laughing wondering how my melodramatic mum would almost experienced a heart attack herself too. And now I get it, it my dad’s genes that I have inherited too, even I end up eating up my words. Guess we both should work on our proof-reading skills.

With jokes apart I sincerely do hope Uncle Saji is feeling better! 

Echoes of my Grandma

Long back I lost my grandparents and there is nothing in this world that could replace that special bond. I have missed them for years but of late I feel can feel their presence around me. This is post is not about a mind, body and spirit connection, it is just that Smera sometimes reminds me of my grandmothers in her daily discourse.

Problem is that we both are currently at the receiving end of our very own Smera the granny. Our problem probably stems from the daily dose of lecture that she gets from me.  Whatever sermon she receives particularly from me has been coming back to us in some form of the other. The simple explanation to all this is the fact that she is only child at home. Her thought is process is more or less like ours I guess!

I am sure the grandparents in the heavens above might having a ball of a time seeing me getting tortured with the miniature sized dictator at home.

Just recently I was combing her and she was complaining about the knots in her hair to which I responded saying, “Don’t worry mamma is working on it!”. To this she adds, “you know there is something else you should be working on your yelling and shouting!” I was a little taken aback by her ability to blabber and just as I was going to scold her, the father walks and adds fuel to fire, “very well said angel, you got it spot on!”

What the very supportive father does not know is that the he will not be served dinner till he makes up for the not so necessary comment.

This was just a starter! She uses a variety of tools to achieve her objectives - threatening, sweet-talk, emotional blackmailing and if nothing works, the she resorts to crying and get her things done. She can negotiate just like a full-grown adult would. Every now and then when I scold her, I get chided for being rude!

If the above weren't enough, I've got more for you. But before that it’s important to mention that Smera is not a fan aerated drink as we don’t encourage it. Even we don’t drink, barring very rare occasions like pizza nights. Smera has been made to understand the bad aspects of drinking aerated drinks, as they are high on sugar and not good for health in the long run.

Getting back to the story, a few days back we were having a pizza party and of course along with the pizzas there were some aerated drink to go with. Little Smera sees her parents, uncle, aunt and her cousin sisters sipping on the drink. She gives us a big nasty look and says “You all are going to die!”.  For a moment I really felt like as my granny back from the heavens above to stop me from committing a heinous crime!

Right or wrong, she has an opinion, which in a way makes me a proud. She isn't afraid to stand up to what is right. One can occasionally hear her Smera in either mine or hubby’s defense, “Now that’s not nice of you!” or “I think you should be saying sorry now”. Sigh!

Times like these, I wonder if I should stop her to talk like an adult. But then I am left to wonder what’s wrong if she can systematically channelise her thoughts and create an opinion about different situations? Right or wrong is far away from the debate but at least she is not following the herd and has a mind of her own.

So with a little pinch of salt, I have decided to let her be for now and get entertained for the time being, until it starts bordering on getting-on-my-nerves mode.

Silly Saturdays: The penalty

For the last few days hubby has been working extremely hard and has been coming in quite late. Little Smera aka daddy’s girl has been missing her father and keeps asking for him all the time. So yesterday I decided to call the busy man and ask him to explain the little child what was holding him so long at work. And here’s what happened:

Smera: Daddy when are you coming?

Daddy: I’ll come in one hour Smera

Smera: But mamma and I are getting bored.  

Me: Alright daddy, we read some book but you must pay Penalty (i.e. get us some dessert)

Smera: No don’t bring Tea, I don’t drink tea, can you please get me a cake!

Phew !!! The little child had a little scare thinking Mamma was asking for tea, while her priorities were very clear, her Daddy must bring a cake to make up for the lost time! 

Thumbs-up to thumb-sucking? Now no more !!

About a year and half ago I wrote a post on how I was worried about Smera’s thumb-sucking habit. Well, now I am not! It’s been over 6 months that she kicked this habit, even more appreciative is the fact that she did it herself.  It’s true no medicine, no threatening, no time-outs, all it needed was some pep talk. Now one may wonder does pep talk with 3 something year old work? Without blinking an eyelid I would say yes and Smera is my proof! We all know, that kids these days are very intelligent and as parents it is upto us to use this intelligence wisely.

Ever since my last post on her thumb-sucking habit, I decided that I would not try anything drastic to get rid of the habit. I didn’t want to leave the little child with a scar for the rest of her life.  Instead what I did was, I kept telling her that sucking thumb is not nice thing to do. I kept on feeding this information whenever she would be at it or was thinking of doing it. Slowly I would start asking her to take it out. And each time she did, she was rewarded with words like “Good Girl!” or “Bravo”! She would smile and get back to playing.

She gradually reduced her habit during the day thanks to my constant pep-talk. But she still needed her comforting thumb to sleep at night. So one night I asked her if she was ready to sleep without her thumb. She agreed but it was not quite easy for her, the poor child tossed and turned the whole night, however with great effort managed to sleep at night.

The next morning as she got up we celebrated her big victory, got her a little cake, called up her grandparents back to make her feel great about her achievement. From that day on Smera has not gone to back sucking thumb at all. All said and done, thumb sucking is muscle memory for little Smera and at times at night she unknowingly puts it her mouth but once asked to remove even in deep sleep, she would pull it off.

In all of this I was reminded, what might seem like a small issues for us might be real big deal for a toddler and if we just try to put ourselves in their shoes, we might be able to understand them a bit.  What’s more important is the fact, if an approach has worked like miracles for most people, it would do the same for you too!

In my journey of motherhood I learnt that, a lot of our parenting challenges can be solved with just a smile and it works even better with a hug.