The Logical Princess

My daughter suffers from the ‘princess syndrome’! A desire to look, act and dress up like a princess all the time. I am sure it is the same case with many other parents who too have daughters at home and unintentionally must have inflicted this upon themselves. Even I am guilty of this, it all happened quite suddenly though for me. What had started with reading fairy tales, promoted to watching movies then further moved on to pretend playing and now has reached new levels – personification!

With Smera’s birthday around the corner, we decided to go for her birthday shopping yesterday and she would just not settle for anything less than a princess dress, sparkling shoes and a matching tiara to go with. I am told that it’s not just her, girls her, girls are age are naturally bitten by the princess bug. Last year it was the Frozen craze and this time it’s the Cinderella mania!

After we came back home from the not so productive shopping trip we all sat down to eat lunch, just then she goes back to the Cinderella conversation:

Smera: Mamma you know Cinderella’s mom tells her to have courage and be kind, when she is about to die.  

Corbis.com

Me: Yes, that’s how real princesses are supposed to be.

Smera: Let’s play after lunch you can be the step mother.

Me: Why? I am so nice to you!

Smera: But you are always asking me to tidy up and do all the work. Daddy can be the Prince, I will be fairy godmother with this magic wand and Abdu Haq uncle (my houseboy) can be the Cinderella!

Me: (Looking flabbergasted) How come Abdu Haq gets to be Cinderella and me the wicked stepmother?

Smera: Because you always ask him to do the dishes and mop the floor just like the stepmother in the story!

Now with that logic I couldn’t come up with something smart to answer back, so I decided to use my ultimate weapon, the puppy face. She instantly changed me to fairy godmother and she took upon the Cinderella part. Daddy continued to be Prince, which is always constant and so we played happily ever after.

Moral of the story is that if you cannot beat the child’s logic then play along, because their reasoning is really nothing but giving their intelligence a form! After all imagination is the spark to the endless possibilities in our thoughts.

Win some, lose some

Just as I was thinking of my next post, little Smera walks in with a grumpy face back from school. The expression was self-explanatory that her day at school was not very exciting. So I got started my interrogation, to better understand why her mood was off.

Me: How was your day?                              

Smera: Not good!

Me: Why not?

Smera: I was not the super reader in the class today.

Me: That’s alright, you were super reader yesterday and you will have chance to try again tomorrow.

Smera: But Hannan was the super reader and I did not like that. The whole class clapped for her, even I did but very slowly.

Me: Hmm and why is that?

Smera: Just because I was feeling angry in my heart!

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I was glad that I got the little one to talk about it. By the end of the day Smera felt a lot better after talking it out, but this incident really was meant to be a good lesson in her learning curve. These little incidents teach children that they aren’t always just meant to win. They would have to put it their best effort and the best effort would eventually get to shine. 

While Hannan got to taste success, Smera got to taste competition and which in my understanding was also a good lesson to learn. Every lesson that Smera learns, gives us also a revision in old lessons learnt and which is why something that I read a while ago made perfect sense to me today. Let our children know that is absolutely alright to come second or even fail for that matter, but what is more important is that we are there to help them when they do fall.

“It may be necessary to encounter the defeats, so you can know who you are, what you can rise from, how you can still come out of it.” - Maya Angelou 

Parenting is such a wonderful experience, lets you re-learn, re-inspire yourself almost everyday. I guess this is how we become more experienced and hopefully wiser in life!! 

Good ideas gone bad

Every child loves their mother for the food she cooks! Food is an irreplaceable connection between the mother and child that starts right from the womb. I am not planning a philosophical post on motherhood. Rather this post is all about challenges that mums like me face everyday with our mediocre cooking skills. By the end of this post I will be able to unload the heaviness on my heart, which I have been carrying around for the last few days. Beware this is post is going to take a melodramatic twist, so prepare yourself!

To start with I am not a great cook but I like try new things for my little one. I want her to eat healthy and nourishing food. Not just for her, I believe every child deserves it. I try to incorporate all elements of balanced food into her meal everyday.  Most mornings and nights are spent thinking what to make for the little one. And on a recent afternoon I made some rice along with her favourite chicken curry and carrot pachadi, a bit of carbs, proteins and good old veggies all packed in one meal.

Now who in the right mind would like a spicy chicken curry with a sweet and sour carrot pachadi? Carrot pachadi is wonderful of combination of freshly grated carrot, gently mixed with beaten yogurt that is tempered with mustard, onions, curry leaves and green chilies. At least that is what I was thinking until Smera took one bite and declared it “YUCK”! I was heart broken. This was the first time ever in 4.5 years that the little one had called something that I made for her as – yuck. I mean there have things that she has not appreciated before, particularly when it involves veggies but her reaction had never been so harsh. So I chucked away the entire thing and spent the rest of the day brooding over it!

After a day or two, a great idea popped in my head. To make something yet again with carrot that would win her heart this time and heal my wounded heart. So it was going to be carrot and it had to be something sweet. So I decided to pull out the trump card – Carrot halwa also known as Gajar ka halwa! So I spent Thursday afternoon, preparing carrot halwa while she was at school. I put in all the best ingredients and an extra dose of love too. To be honest the halwa’s idea initially came up for hubby’s cousin but then it seemed perfect for the both of them.

So in the evening after dinner when I gave her carrot halwa, she took first bite and thankfully didn't say “yuck” however she did go on to make the dirtiest face ever.  If that wasn't enough the hubby gave her the permission to spit it out too. 

Silly Saturdays: Daddy's beautician at work.

We always talk about the busy and industrious moms, who work day in and out. 365 days a year. However the daddies of the world are equally incredible! No one talks of their hard work. Call them breadwinners, head of the family or finance minister (as I do) they too are equally integral part of the family.

I have been instilling the virtue of hard work on to my little one, by holding up her daddy as an example. Thus this weekend when we were all home, Smera decided to take matters in her hands, I mean on daddy’s foot. Drawing inspiration from mummy’s visit to the beautician’s her artistic skills were woken up. Without wasting anytime out came the nail polish in ElePhantastic Pink. With an amazing dexterity to match an accomplished painter, she covered both the toes in no time.

CorbisImages

But there was a catch, the daddy was asleep when all this was happening, so he was in for a real shock when got up see the color pop pink on his toes. And to his bad luck there was no nail polish remover at home. I somehow managed to convince him forget it and anyway no one was going to know as he always wear shoes and socks.

Life wouldn't have been so interesting if all his problems were to end there. Shortly after this incident was forgotten about, few friends dropped for tea. After a few minutes in the discussing the day’s match suddenly everyone’s gaze shifted on to hubby’s shiny toes. The rest of the evening was spent laughing at daddy’s new pedicured toe nails and Smera accepting accepting booking from her aunts for their next pedicure appointments. 

Tough luck

A 4 year old boy was recently expelled from my daughter’s class in KG -1. The school was forced to take this drastic step against the child as he was continually disrupting the class. But what was more defeating in all of this is the fact the parents were in denial that their child could such a thing.

The problem started right from the very beginning of the class in September. The boy would bite his fellow classmates and occasionally push or kick them too. Smera too was bitten and we asked her to complain to the class teacher instantly. A month into the class this continued, so I spoke to the academic supervisor regarding the matter was asked to send a written complaint. The supervisor was asked to prove that the child really was biting by his parents. Forced to provide proof to the parents, she decided to urge parents to send in written complaints.

At first I refused to give in a written complaint. I wanted to give the boy a fair chance as I was not sure if Smera was exaggerating. As a mother I could understand another mother’s situation too. It is difficult to hear when our child does something wrong and I am really no one to judge about the little boy’s character. So as days passed on, Smera continued to grumble until one day when she came back home with a bite mark on her wrist.  And that was it, I didn't want Smera to think that it is okay to bite. So I finally sent an email to the supervisor, explaining the incident and hoping that this time the parents would not ignore the incident.

After the email, I very rarely heard Smera complaining about her friend. Though she would tell me of how her other classmates were bitten by the same boy. And then just this week I was informed by the supervisor that the boy has been expelled from school. The reason cited was that the boy was given plenty of chances to improve and the school no longer wanted to be held responsible for anything untoward happening to other students.

We were not the only parents who had complained. But did the school do right by putting the child out of the school? In my opinion, maybe not! The child of course every child needs to know the difference between good and bad, right and wrong but not all children are the same. I think it was a very harsh decision on a 4 year old. Maybe they could have waited for few months for the year to get over, this way the child would have saved an academic year. I am sure the parents could have helped a bit more to help their child deal with his aggressive behaviour.

Discipline cannot be taught overnight and definitely not by punishing the child. What we must remember is that every child is different and a child needs our love the most particularly when he is not worthy of it!  

Suffering the Questionitis Syndrome

Do you get questioned often? I am bombarded by them everyday and most of my days, start and end with a question. Mostly asked to make me go crazy, but there are some real smart ones too I have to confess. There are some that put me in a tough spot, if I should answer the truth or cook up a story to support. Nonetheless I know it is good to encourage Smera and her is curiosity.

A few years back I read somewhere that it is scientifically proven that children who are naturally curious fare better at school, in relationships, at work, and end up being intelligent, creative and satisfied people. Right so this means no matter how tough it is going to find answers for her questions, I must persuade her to be a flexible thinker! However this responsive style of parenting, where we help the child to cultivate the habit of questioning has its own flip sides too.

And today I plan to write about the question that has been disturbing my little munchkin a lot, she has tried different ways find the truth but answer is still evading her.  The question was –“Why was I not there at you wedding?”. “Didn't you love me then?” she asked me once and I always tell her that she was with god watching the ceremony happen from the heavens above. Then the next question she would come up with is, “Really how come I don’t remember and why am I not there in the picture?”

Over a period of time, she has come to terms that she was not invited to the actual party and that she omnipresent from the heavens above. But the matter does not end there for me, just when I was thinking that the problems have solved, the little child asked me another bouncer of question. “Can you get married again? This time you can invite me too!”

Source: corbis.com

So as I am writing this post the little one is busy checking her wardrobe for a white dress that she plans to wear and along with her princess wings and tiara. Looking at her enthusiasm over getting us married again, I am wondering maybe it isn't really a bad idea and probably this time I could get married in jeans and t-shirt. 

School is Cool!!

I love to see the little children smile as they go off to school. My daughter started her big school this September. Going to school has always been an enjoyable experience for her. Be it back in Dubai at Blossoms or at Kids World here! Just as I expected her initial first week was great, I would take her to her class leave her in with a big hug and she would happily proceed . By second week we started sending her with cousin sister and our driver aka Salim Uncle. 

This transition wasn't so smooth, Smera was not quite happy about going with Salim. She being mamma’s girl found it difficult to let go, by the end of the 2^nd week slowly as she started getting used to it, the poor child fell sick with terrible viral and bout of wheezing. While it’s common for kids to fall sick when they initially start school, but in Smera’s case falling sick was not a big hitch, re-starting the routine was most complicated part.

As a mother it was really tough for me to send teary little one away, to school. I would spend my day restlessly waiting for her to come back and see smile on her face. This is one of the challenges I wanted her to overcome. Smera loves listening to stories and I would tell her about kids who are less fortunate, who want to go school but can’t make it as they don’t have the means to go to school. I would tell how I didn't realise as a child how important school was. As each day passed her anxiety was reducing but the tears still didn't go away!

Just then 17 year old Malala Yousafzai won Noble Peace prize, and this gave me a perfect story to tell Smera. I pulled “I am Malala” book and read the excerpts to little one, where she was shot on her way back from school. This story really moved little Smera, she asked me a lot of questions, “why did the bad men shot her?”. She had a lot of questions in her head, why girls can’t study? Why the bad men killed children who wanted to go to school. After satisfying her curiosity, I explained to Smera education helps us understand between right or wrong. Those bad men didn't want kids to understand that difference. I explained to her, how Malala’s parents stood as strength for her and encouraged her to study and live the life she wanted to.

Image courtesy:  www.malalafund.org

I am not sure how much of the story she understood, but there were two things that she took away from it, firstly education is a greatest gift that god has given her. Secondly, good education will help her become a good ballerina and super heroine girl! My child had such an impact that the next school, she was all smiles and it made extremely proud! 

Thank you Malala you have in many ways have inspired our lives and may god bless you girl! I wish more power to you girl and let there more girls who show the same courage and the determination as you to study. The great part of girls getting educated is that they would ensure the next generation of children would also study.

A frozen quagmire !!

Our lives have been changed completely ever since the day Disney released its movie Frozen. This has been by far her most favourite movie after Cinderalla and Mary Poppins. The love for the movie has turned into a craze and little girl has been heavily negotiating for a Frozen dress, shoes, doll and anything and everything related to it. Phew!! Now we managed to postpone all this for almost 11 months saying “we’ll get it for your birthday” and now the birthday is round the corner and I have a feeling we’re going to be in a soup!

She loves anything and everything related Queen Else and Princess Anna. Infact it is also her current ambition to become the Queen of Arendelle and make a snow man with her magical powers. What has been adding up to my problems is the fact, that she watches all the toy reviews too on the Ipad and has been keeping herself updated to all the new things that are available in the toy market.

Now birthday just 2 weeks away, our child has not forgotten our promises, that we had been making to her and I have a feeling that if didn’t do something about it we are going to have a mammoth confrontation. To save ourselves from a prospective ugly situation, I started scouting all shops in the city that could possibly have the Blue Queen Elsa dress, but soon I realised that I had bitten off more than I could chew. Now that not it, at this instant my task is to how convince the little child to change her mind on the dress. Being her father’s daughter that she, this too is no small challenge as she’s – a tough negotiator!

So lovely Friday evening, I summoned the little child and on sanguine note, I started the conversation talking about ballerinas and how wonderful they look, their costume is so pretty. Slowly Smera started looking a bit interested in the conversation entire conversation. Then I also confessed to in my most apologetic voice saying, “Darling, I have not been able to find the Blue Elsa Dress you have been wanting for your birthday. I am sorry can we please change your party theme to ballerina theme?” Smera was most understanding and said, “don’t worry Mamma, I know you can get it from Walmart, I am sure you will get it there, they say it on the Ipad!

Right to make sure she has her desired birthday dress, I will have a take trip to the US and visit the Walmart store! Thank you Walmart for giving me a new headache!

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. 

Italian Summer or Idly Sambar

Peppa Pig is a wonderful series of cartoon that my daughter loves. Secretly even I love watching it. But in the last few weeks it has inflicted upon us a serious headache. Before I start explaining about the quandary in our household, have a look at this 5 minute video.  

Okay if you can’t spare 5 minutes, then I would highly recommend you to watch the first 28 seconds of the video.

So if you have watched the obligatory 28 seconds you would have realised that Peppa Pig is on a holiday in Italy. And of course she eats pizza and pasta and now that Smera’s vacation is about to start, she has made it very clear her choice of holiday destination. While we were happier with a stayaction as we have just settled down in a new country and life’s getting back into track.

Every day the little child would convince us on how much fun it would be to go Italy.

Then on last Thursday we suddenly decided to travel to Delhi and the very excited Smera couldn’t contain her curiosity and wanted to know more about the trip.

Smera: Are we going holidays?

Me: Yes darling! We are going to Delhi to meet you grandparents!

Smera: Oh but I thought we were going to Italy.

Me: Darling we’ll go to Italy but for now let’s go to Delhi, your granny is waiting to see you!

Smera: But we can go to Italy and eat pizza and pasta just like Peppa!

Me: Or how about we go to Delhi and eat Idly!         

Smera was instant sold by the idea, as Idly with sambar happens to be her favourite food! Thankfully for now we are got away with a supremely inexpensive deal but going to Muscat I am sure her Italian raga would restart!!


Video: Youtube.com

Sometimes even love hurts

Motherhood has it’s own ups and downs. Mostly will be ups, when you see your little one smiles in the morning. God blessed us with a little chatter-box, and I am sure she can give any President a run for their money.  We are best of friends, when daddy works long hours, we joke, play and fight also.

Yesterday we had a little fight, we went out for dinner, an excited Smera was a little too loud. So I kept telling her “be quite”, as I didn’t want her to disturb others enjoying their food, hearing a yelling child.  Just as soon as we reached home, I wanted to wash her legs, hands, face before going off to sleep. But the sleepy Smera was in no mood to wash up.

“I Hate you” came out of her innocent mouth. Even though I know she did not mean it, but the words really did hurt me. So after all the rituals were done, that she really didn’t want to do, I took her to bed. And I softly asked her, “don’t you love mamma?” and she said “No, because you kept telling to be quite, when we went out for dinner”. After that she added “I love daddy” turned to the other side to sleep.

I know none of this was said from her heart but she must felt insulted as I scolded her in front of everyone. That must have pricked the little one’s heart. So to hurt me she must have said “I hate you”. But I couldn't sleep at night, my heart felt so heavy.

However this morning there was a U-turn in the situation, she hugged me and I said sorry too and told her how I felt. After a hearty conversation with the three and half year old over breakfast all our problems were solved.

There will be more days likes these to come but I hope my Smera knows that her mamma LOVES her the most in life.  If ever mamma says something that hurts you, in advance I am saying SORRY! Nonetheless you will be duly compensated too.

When you become big you too shall understand our parenting style is just a hit and trial method. Sometimes even Google helps but not that too is not always right! Sometimes it works and sometimes errors happen, however thou too shall pass! 

Silly Saturdays: Weighed down by veggie logic

Getting your child to eat right is a very tough task! Sigh! I try really hard to make sure she drinks milk, eat fruits and veggies along with chicken and fish. Good thing is she likes milk, lentils, fish and chicken and few fruits too. The problem is really to get her to eat veggies. I have constantly come up with new ways to get her to eat veggies. 

After good 3-4 days of eating veggies, she asked me to make chicken for her yesterday. And I couldn’t refuse her for obvious reasons, so I decided to make her favourite chappati and chicken curry. Just as I started prepping for the curry, I took out the chicken curry masala packet. It’s an fragrant blend of all the spices that are traditionally used in a authentic Kerala chicken curry. Looking at the pack my little curious diva had a sudden urge to interrogate me.

Smera: Mamma what is this on the chicken’s tail? Hmm! maybe some beans and carrots. Do chicken eat vegetable?

Mamma: Yes they do and that’s they are so yummy in your tummy. So even you should eat them.

Smera: But I don’t want to be yummy, I want to be Smera only!

Mamma: Looking stumped, continues with the work!!

The point is kids these days are so observant and will not settle down for answer that does not satiate their curiosity. The only way out I guess is to learn to tap these qualities – attention to detail and the ability to think creatively without feeling silly.

 I have been looking at this packet for quite a few years but never really bothered about the packaging so much, until this day and that happened to be green and orange chillies on the chicken’s tail.

This time score is:  Smera- 1, Mamma- 0

Curry flavoured shampoo ... Anyone ?

I love to gossip and without doubt Koffee with Karan happens to be one of my all time favourite show. With the fourth season on air, either by hook (dish TV) or crook (you tube) I manage to catch the show every week.

Now that’s the factual part of today post and for the intriguingly silly part, and it certainly has to something with my little one and KK4. Smera is at a stage where this chat show is just not interesting or in her words, is not funny! But she loves to watch the ads that come in between the chat show. That too should be a no-brainer as that is really the aim every marketers want to achieve.

No matter how far she is or how engrossed she is in her play, she would run and come to watch a particular ad that comes in between show. The ad I am referring to here is Forest Essentials also happens to be one of the main sponsors of the show. If you have not seen the ad as yet, then this would just be right time to see and continue reading.

For the first few times, Smera watched this video with great attention. It made wonder what is about this particular ad that Smera is so intrigued about. After watching the ad over and over the last few weeks, she asked me a question

Smera: Mamma what are they cooking in the forest?

Me: Hmm (with great effort), maybe they are making a shampoo

Smera: No, I think they are making a chicken curry in the tree!

Me: Yes that could be, looks like these tribal girls are making chicken curry!

Maybe they aimed at making this as an extremely exotic and natural product but to a three year old, it came across as some girls in the jungle making chicken curry in a tree.

Good or bad, it did leave an impression and here I am talking about it, a classic case of a imperfect recall value! 

Silly Saturdays: Of opportunities and prospects

I keep thinking of writing Silly Saturdays without having Smera on my mind. But guess it’s tough when that’s the only thing I do, being a stay at home mom!

This week while getting out of school I saw Smera trying to catch hold of the magnetic door before it would close. The motherly instinct was absolutely sure that her fingers would be clasped between and I dashed to save her fingers. I couldn't save it, but in the process I dropped my phone. Forget the phone, I had a crying child to pacify, and thankfully she didn't get that badly hurt.

On reaching home I realised that my precious phone’s screen had broken. Devastated to realise that, I felt all the more bad, as I couldn't save her getting hurt and moreover the phone was broken. My Samsung Galaxy Note II, a gift from hubby was wrecked. I started crying, and I can cry even for no reason, but my little one felt really sad looking at me.

She put her little warm hands on my teary face and wiping them and saying in her gentlest voice, “Mamma don’t cry, it’s ok and you read a book and daddy will come soon!”. I was taken back by her maturity at the age of just 3, pacifying her silly mother. This was also the very first time I heard that gentle voice, I am by and large tuned to a lot of screaming and no’s in our usual conversations. Just kidding!

Feeling a little better, we got on with our usual stuff and then the door bell rings. It was hubby on the door, just as I opened the door and even before he put a step inside, she blurts out, “Daddy, mamma broke her phone, can you please scold her?”.

Call it being an opportunist or unscrupulous to get me into trouble, simultaneously trying to score some brownie points in her dad’s good books. Though I have to confess, it did lighten my mood a bit more.

That evening as me and the hubby sat down talking, we ended up discussing Smera’s career options. We mutually concluded that she could really have a good shot at Indian politics and maybe could even start a toddler’s wing of some political party! And for starters I have a name for her political party too SDP or Smera Dalbadlu Party! For those who do not understand Dalbadlu means one who deceives by double dealing! 

P.S. – The phone is fixed and was done in flat one hour thanks to the Samsung’s one-hour express service! 

How to get into trouble with a toddler?

Parenting is all about raising your kid while you try to diplomatically you pick words. Every parent goes through this especially if you have a 3 year old at home. From time to time, I am reminded of this with Smera around me. I chronically get into trouble publicly when the little one blurts out words she is not supposed to.

So when we started talking potty training with Smera, I told her big girls wear panty not diapers. The concept we came up was to make her feel now the she is big girl she needs to graduate to panty. Just like everything has to go wrong, we got into trouble at a family get together when the little one asks us “Mamma and daddy can you show me your panty?”.

Image: gettyimages.ae

That night was just the beginning, recently at my cousin’s wedding, the day before wedding at her place, we were all enjoying traditional Kerala sadya- eating on banana leaf. Smera hops on to my lap gets on eating on rice with her, dropping half down on the floor and rest in her mouth.

As you would expect any parent I too said, “Smera don’t drop your food”. I thought this is what I good parents are supposed to do, correct them if needed. Suddenly she blabbers out in anger “Mamma I am not going to listen, because you don’t listen to me. Don’t fight me”. Leaving me feel embarrassed and got an earful from my uncles for scolding her.

Now that Smera is growing up the obvious question will be how do babies come? So I was mentally preparing myself for that day, praying that day that doesn’t come soon. After much deliberation, I was planning to tell her - I prayed to god and then an angel came and put you in my arms and that’s how you came to me.

But life is always not what I plan particularly when it comes to Smera. An ardent Peppa Pig fan, comes one day with something stuffed in her tee and says “Mamma I have a baby in my tummy”. Mortified to hear this I was left to guess where she learnt this new information. Eventually I learned that Rebecca rabbit in Peppa pig was having a baby and that is how Smera learnt all about babies coming from the tummy.

Moving from there, the Halloween celebration has not helped me either much this year. One morning while taking her school, she messed up her hair and I just happen to say, “look what a mess you've made out of your hair?” The little girl feeling offended says, “no you look like a scary witch”, now how can I blame her since the Halloween costumes and themes were being discussed at school and at home.

Kids are much smarter than you think, especially mine is surely is, so right after the panty incident, learning from my mistake, bra is referred to as vest, hoping that would save me from embarrassment publicly.

Coming back to the moral of the story is not to under-estimate your child even if they are just 3.  Parenting is all about is all knowing when to speak your mind and when to mind your speech. A wise lady I met recently told me the ultimate truth of life – Children and pets always let you down in front of others!

Silly Saturdays: The Emperor's New Clothes

This morning I was reading a free-copy of the Good Taste magazine with Deepika Padukone on the cover. Smera takes a look at the magazines decides it looks interesting with for her to flip through. 

Smera: Mamma I like this girl! (Deepika on the cover)

Mamma: Really ?? (as I don't)

Smera: Yes mamma she is wearing red lipstick, I like it, will you buy it for me too please! 

Mamma: Sure kanna! 

Image source: Good Taste

Just as she was flipping through the pages she see a picture and says, "mamma look aunty with her daddy!". I was little stunned thinking she could recognise Mr. Praskash Padukone, so I left my phone aside to have a look at the feature and this is what I see. 

Source: Dailymail.co.uk

Need I say more? Take a cue Mr. King Khan from an almost 3 year old!

P.S. - If you have not read the fable then you must read,The Emperor's New Clothes

Silly Saturdays: Toddler’s food for thought

Smera usually gets lecture from me when she says no to eating vegetables but last evening was a little different. The scenario was - Smera’s baby-sitter was giving her dinner when I overhear this conversation.

Smera: Aka you must eat lots of vegetables then you will become big and strong like me.

Aka: Ok Smera!

Mamma: (hearing her lecture) Smera would you like some more vegetables?

Smera: No mamma, you can give it to Aka, she needs to become big like me. I am already tall.

It’s not just Aka’s food she is concerned about. She also loves to talk to toys every now and then, telling about eating healthy, just as a mother would tell her kids.

That brings me to man-eating crocodiles, Smera has a crocodile and she love to feed him and this morning she brings the crocodile to her daddy and says, “Daddy, look what my crocodile ate?” and here’s a picture of that for you guys to see it for real.

Smera goes to work !!

Smera’s school is a wonderful in many ways, but I will write about that in separate post. However this post is all about one of the activities Smera’s class was participating in last week, knowing about “Community Helpers”. The class discussed about different people that help keep our community safe and clean. Some of the professions discussed were about – doctors, nurses, firemen, police and paramedics etc.

At this age kids want to learn and experience new things. I love to take Smera to show how a tailor stitches, how construction workers help make buildings and road or show her cookery show to how much efforts goes into making a meal. This is a wonderful age she loves to emulate these experiences when she is playing herself.

So last week Smera was a nurse, a little tribute to her Granny and my mother-in-law, who worked for a little over 30 years as a nurse. On our recent trip to Muscat we drove to Sur to meet one of mom’s friends, who had such wonderful things to tell about her. Of course we know she is wonderful, but it made us proud to hear from someone else about her.

With that fresh memory in my head, I thought Smera could be a nurse in the dress-up as community helper day! So I went ahead and got her a doctor set, made a little badge “Smera George – Nursing Assistant” and my hubby wrote a little note, for her teacher to read out to the class.  

She was so excited that when we went to pick my mum, her other granny she checked all her colleagues and those unwell were given gummy bear medicines to get well. The best part is we all love to play the part along with her, re-living childhood days.

Once she was bored of the doctor play, she decided to open a store and put all the new clothes on sale on table, selling us her new clothes that my mum got her. It was so much fun to see her, negotiating the price with us and then when she would get bored she would ask us to go away and come later!

Smera has a lot to thank both her grannies for such a wonderful last week and for all the fun she had while playing the part of a nurse and a shop-keeper.