Archive for June, 2007
Sign Language
Author: utbtkids29 Jun 2007
Long back I read this on The Mad Momma’s space. Now I have some information about it. Why this very late enlightenment? My simple brain was struck on interpreting, differentiating, comparing, analyzing and completely understanding physcho-analytical developmental theories from big shots like Freud, Piaget, Vygotsky and Bronfenbrenner. All the heavy stuff made me doze off and by the time I finally woke up, a month had passed. We all know the pace at which MM writes. She averages about 5 posts a day and this one, though was just 30 days back, is buried deep in her archives. So MM if you are still interested here is the information.
Signing, in the US, is no longer looked down as something that is restricted to hearing/speech impaired. Of late signing is catching on big time. Day care centers have signing as a part of their curriculum. People are paying tons of money to learn signing with their children.
Advantages of signing – do I have to spell it out? How many days, have I spoken through clenched teeth to toddler/infant in an ominous tone, “Yenna venum-nnu solen? Yen yennai paduthare?” (Meaning: Just tell me what you want. Stop taunting me. Oh – the translation simply does not cut it folks. It does not capture the essence of the dialogue.) So if the child is able to communicate, lesser number of tantrums and life gets simple for the caregiver.
Now to the controversy that clouds signing. Some argue that signing delays speech. That is absolutely right. If your child can satisfy its needs through signs, what is the initiative to make words and sentences?
Now comes the twist. Delay of speech is nothing to be alarmed about. Speech/Language development has always been associated with cognitive (brain) development. So a delay in speech is portrayed with a negative connotation. But language is not just making words and sentences. Language must be viewed as a means of communication. So, the initiative to communicate (in any way, not just through words) must be seen as a cognitive milestone. Otherwise we all have to falsely conclude that all hearing/speech impaired people lack severely in cognitive development.
When a baby is born, she has a few schemas/patterns in her brain. Based on these schemas they react, like they know to root when they are hungry, they know to calm down when they hear their mother’s voice/touch, they posses a sucking instinct. As they grow, as they experience new things, they compare it with their existing schema. For example, when you bring a feeding bottle to the baby, she analyzes with her sense of smell and sense of taste, concludes, “It is milk all right, just in a different form. I already know how to suck from breast. So if I do the same, I must be fine”. So she compares the new experience with her schema and assimilates the new experience in to her schema. When you start feeding the baby from a cup and a spoon, though it is the same milk, it is a totally new experience eating from a spoon. She compares it to her existing schema, gets confused that there is no match and evolves a new schema incorporating the new experience. This is adapting to the new experience.
At one stage the baby realizes that every object in her wold has a ‘name’. THIS correlation is a major milestone and her little brain is working hard, to rewrite a new, slightly complex schema that accommodates this new realization. This correlation occurs irrespective of words+object association or words+sign association. This association takes place much earlier in a baby who uses signs. Also the communication and the gratification because of the communication enriches her experience and her schema is getting more and more complex. On a two year scale, sign language baby vs non-sign language baby, the sign language baby definitly has the cognitive edge.
Sign language baby, after some time realizes that objects can have more than one way of representation – words and signs. Then she rewrites her schema and incorporates words in to her schema.
The flip side to signing is that not many people know how to sign. As MM has pointed out in her post, the baby does get alarmed if she is not able to communicate to a person who is not able to sign.
Are older siblings more intelligent?
Author: utbtkids28 Jun 2007
In comments to my previous post, S had pointed out this link about how research points out that first-born children have higher IQ. Well…. this post is not a rebuttal to that article, but I just wanted to point out a few things.
In one of the classes I am taking, the professor taught us to analyze research data. This is to teach us that we must take research data with a pinch of salt. Why should we do this? Because we must realize that statistics are statistics and they go only so far. So as long as we don’t put blind faith in to the numbers and are aware of other variables, we are fine.
When some one tell us that, statistics point out that children in the US cry more than children from other parts of the world ( which is a true statistic! ), what does that mean? Some thing wrong with the babies born here? The right interpretation of this data is that children all over the world cry the same amount, but in eastern societies we never let the babies cry. When we see a little crinkling of face, we immediately run to the baby and start pacifying the baby. Here in US, people believing in crying it out.
Another myth that really irritates me to no end is this. “In our times there weren’t so many miscarriages. Now you people are doing something wrong. That’s why there are so many miscarriages” and this ‘something’ might vary from computers to blasphemy. The logical interpretation of many miscarriages happening now might be
A decade back they found out that a higher percentage of women in Marine county suffered from cancer and people were intrigued. They started searching for hidden carcinogens in Marine county and weren’t able to find anything extraordinary. On a more careful analysis they found that the people in Marine county had really good health insurance and were visiting the doctor on a regular basis and their cancer was detected on time. In other parts of the US, because of insurance limitations, people weren’t getting health checkups and their cancer, if any, was not getting included in statistics.
Now that I have irritated you all with my futile knowledge, do first born really have an edge over their siblings? May be, but I don’t trust this article (not the research, mind you) because the target audience were all males. They were from one single country – Norway. Their age group is a specific age group – 18/19 years. This sex specific, country specific, age specific data cannot be applied universally. There is no mention if the siblings were tested at the same time or at the same age. We don’t know in what context this test was conducted. Last but not the least IQ tests are coming under heavy criticism now a day. I can write one whole post on “Are IQ tests real indicators of intelligence?”. In the article, the conclusion states that, ‘….says the greatest challenge is to find other large data sets to investigate other possible explanations for the findings.’ In my personal view, it looks like WebMD just pulled out a research article gave it a attention capturing title and used it out of context. Sounds like a sensational headline in a magazine, “Chiranjeevi and Rajinikanth butt heads”. On reading you will find out that they dropped something on the floor, reached for it and bumped their heads !
All those first-born folks out there – stop strutting around. Not yet, nothing is concrete!
If I had my child to raise over again
Author: utbtkids25 Jun 2007
If I had my child to raise over again,
I would finger paint more and point fingers less.
I would do less correcting and more connecting.
I would take my eyes off my watch and watch with my eyes.
I would care to know less and know to care more.
I would take more hikes and fly more kites.
I would stop playing serious and seriously play.
I would run through more fields and gaze more at stars.
I would do more hugging and less tugging.
I would be firm less often and affirm more often.
I would build self-esteem first and a house later.
I would teach less about the love of power,
And more about the power of love.
Ain’t this beautiful people? I am taking the “building self-esteem first and a house later” part VERY seriously and slowly letting the house go. The house is clean but not spic and span. Once upon a time I used to wipe the sink and the tub bone dry every time after I used it. Sigh….
I feel that I am lot more relaxed with infant than with toddler. Guess that’s pretty common. No wonder the tamil adage says, “Moothadhu mozhai, iilayadhu kalai”(meaning the second child is lot more confident the first one). Requesting a quick show of hands to let me know how many moms with two kids feel the same way as I do.
The Pre-K rhyme that always makes me cry
Author: utbtkids20 Jun 2007
This is from my kids’ Pre-K rhymes CD. It never fails to bring a lump in my throat every time I hear it.
I LOVE YOU, YOUR BUTTON NOSE
YOUR EYES,YOUR EARS, YOUR KNEES, YOUR TOES
I LOVE YOU UP TO THE SKY
PAST THE MOON AND STARS SO HIGH.
IF YOU FEEL ALONE AND SCARED
ALWAYS KNOW THAT I WILL BE THERE
JUST LIKE ONE AND ONE MAKES TWO,
YOU LOVE ME AND I LOVE YOU!
I LOVE YOU IN EVERY WAY
ALL YOU DO AND ALL YOU SAY
MY LOVE FOR YOU WILL ALWAYS BE
DEEPER THAN THE DEEP BLUE SEA
EVEN IF YOU ARE SAD OR BLUE
IT’S OKAY BECAUSE I LOVE YOU
JUST LIKE ONE AND ONE MAKES TWO
YOU LOVE ME AND I LOVE YOU
On infants birthday, I put up this poem and pasted around the poem, 12 pictures of toddler and infant (one picture taken every month since infant was born) hugging one another. It means a lot to me that they grow up to be good friends!
I am stressed, I am happy, I am ancient
Author: utbtkids20 Jun 2007
I have signed up for two courses this summer. The summer quarter is much shorter (6 weeks) as opposed to the regular quarter (16 weeks). So we meet twice a week, for each course and each session is typically 5 hours. We are covering about four chapters every day. I have to hand over twelve assignments, two group presentations, four tests, conduct four interviews, do four observations on young children, eight hours of community service and write two advocacy letters by the end of July. Sounds pretty do-able under normal circumstances. But throw in two toddlers, a four day language workshop (I have agreed to teach tamil for the Indian Community Center and they require me to take this workshop) and house guests coming weekend, there isn’t much time left for doing all the reading. So I am up till the wee hours of the morning trying to finish my assignments and catching up with my reading. The class starts at 8.00AM, which means that I have to leave home by 7.30AM, which means that I have to wake the kids up at 6.00AM and start the much dreaded feeding session. All this does not leave me much time to sleep. In a way, I am enjoying this time. There are no little hands touching me, I am not needed to kiss a boo-boo just when I am desperately trying to tie my thoughts together! All this blah-blah-blah does not form the stressed part. It is the happy part! I love to multiplex, and push myself absolutely over the edge. Guess I must under value myself and have to have some zillion things going on to prove to myself that I am doing something worthwhile with my time!
The stress comes from the group I am struck with for group presentations. Today was the first meeting. I am not bad mouthing them, but I am this high energy crazy lady and they are relaxed……too relaxed for my comfort. There is a temperament mismatch. One of the professors told us that if one person in the group screws up, then the whole group’s grade gets affected. This is driving me up the wall. This is where my stress is coming from.
Okay, to the ancient part. One of my group mates is a 1988 born guy. The kid is 19 years old. A whole 11 years younger to me!! I felt like telling, “Go hide your face some where cos I am going to start wailing” 
Infant decides to act up
Author: utbtkids15 Jun 2007
I am trying to get Toddler out of our bed and I am in the process of setting up her crib as a toddler bed. So I went to the store to pick up some fitted sheets and a guard rail to go with the new set up. While at it I also picked up some fitted sheets for the infant. Infant sleeps in her crib. She has thrown up in the crib whenever she is extremely congested with cold. Also she has the habit of pulling the sheets to entertain herself till she fell asleep. Me being the lazy person, got pretty tired of laundering sheets and making the bed three times a day and let things slack. Plus, I also started imagining that she threw up when ever I put new sheets on the crib! Long story short, she sleeps on her crib mattress, with nothing between the plastic of the mattress and her skin, hugging her favorite pillow and holding a queen sized comforter that is at least 10 years old. Why the queen comforter? Well it was very cold until very recently, even now it gets cold early in the morning and she just squirms out of her measly blankies. Anyways, digressions apart, the point I am trying to make is, her crib looks yucky.
So I vowed to dress up both the cribs and put some effort in making them look decent. We have a queen bed and two full sized cribs in our small bedroom. That means that I had to squeeze myself through three-inch spaces and set up the crib – new sheets, padding, two throw pillows, pretty blankie, baby sized comforters and a cute little teddy bear. Having done that. I stood back and admired the result of the effort. Looked wonderful, just like a place a baby would sleep in.
When bed time came I sang my usual song, kissed the children good night and moved out of the room. Infant started screaming her head off. Sometimes she does this, but after she cried for a couple of minutes and blew some steam off, she would go right back to sleep. So I dismissed her wails. But the kid kept screaming for more than 10 minutes. So I picked her up, hugged her, consoled her and put her down again. The minute I walked out of the room there was more crying. I tried everything, making sure her diaper was fine, her clothes were comfortable, we cooled the house by switching the A/C, gave her some water…etc. I suspected that she might be coming down with something, but again no. Whenever we carried her and bought her in to the living room, she started squealing with delight and was keen on watching X-Men. So hubby and self concluded that this is just a playful child who is throwing a tantrum because she is not feeling like sleeping. Not wanting to encourage her any more, we put her in the crib and walked away.
By now Toddler was intently observing hubby and self, walking in and out of the room, carrying the infant and (according to her) spending special time with her. So Toddler decided to throw a tantrum. She cried her heart out and came out in to the living room, found out that there wasn’t anything particularly interesting going on told us, “Okay amma, I want good night sleep tight” and went back to bed!
All through this time the infant was standing in her crib, and crying her lungs out. She was going strong and steady for 15 min now. Hubby and self decide to let her cry. 10 more minutes and we hear throw up (Hey, what about my theory about new sheets and throw up?! I am not lazy, I have a vision ). We did the usual soothing, cleaning routine. But nothing calmed her, she bought the roof down when ever we put her down on the crib.
Suddenly it struck me. We put her on the naked crib mattress and thrust the ugly, huge green comforter at her, she clutched it, gurgled and went right back to sleep. So all this fuss was for the stupid comforter.
Boo and Kodi’s mom had left surprise comments about the preferences of a 2.5 year old after reading my post about the car seat fiasco. What do you say about this?
Carseat
Author: utbtkids15 Jun 2007
She was waiting for her younger daughter to turn one. Now she can legally switch her baby from the infant car seat (stage one car seat) to the front facing car seat (stage two car seat). She was so looking forward to this day. From now on, when she is driving, if she tilt the rear view mirror ever so slightly, she can see the beautiful faces of both her darling daughters. No more wondering if the child is awake or asleep or worrying if the child had spit up. Also once when she was negotiating a tricky curve to enter the highway, the infant car seat, for some reason, had tipped. The baby was still secure, but the shock from the movement had set the baby in to a frantic wail. That gave her quite a scare. Ever since she had been very conservative in driving and was looking forward to this day where she can move her baby to a new car seat.
Finally the day arrived and she went to the store to get a new car seat. She wanted to get something similar, if possible the same, front facing car seat her elder daughter uses. She knew how children are and she wanted to avoid preference conflicts that might show up in the near future! But much to her disappointment, that particular model, she had picked up one year earlier, was not to be found anywhere, not even in the manufacturer’s website. After analyzing and over analyzing, in the best interests of her daughters, she decide to buy a booster seat (stage three car seat) for her elder daughter and put her younger daughter in her elder daughter’s car seat. So she came home with a new car seat for her elder daughter!
She knew how children are and how they hate surprises. So she prep-ed her elder daughter for a day, showing her the new car seat, speaking to the child in high pitched voice full of enthusiasm and heavily marketed the new car seat. She put the new car seat in her pooja room, asking the good Lord to bless the car seat, and to protect the precious commodity it is going to carry from now on. All the rituals done with, she installed the car seat and was looking forward to start using it from the next day onwards.
The next day she woke her children, telling them that today’s ride to the day care was going to be different because they are going to sit in new car seats. They all left home in a hurry, but happy – a mother and two happy children, all smiling and waving good bye to the father who was also leaving for work.
As soon as the van’s door opened her elder daughter ran to the car and stopped short. The child was puzzled that her car seat was missing. The child was even more puzzled to find the car seat on the other side of the van where her baby sister sits. So the child ran to the other side and tried sitting in HER car seat. But her mother gently stopped her from doing it and put the baby in HER car seat. The child started telling the mother, “Amma, my car seat. This my sit down”. The mother was not yielding, she was smiling and pointing to a different car seat. But THIS was HER car seat. The new one had a different belt system, it was nothing like her usual one. The child had just learnt to wear her seat belt all by herself. The child wanted to get her point across, she started crying, and screaming, “This my sit down”. The child tried telling her baby sister to get down, but babies…bha…they never understand anything. So the child tried moving the baby so that she can sit in her car seat.
Now the mother was starting to get impatient. She had so dilligently explained the change because she wanted to avoid what was going on right now. And it was getting late. So she grabbed the sobbing child and thrust her in the new car seat telling through clenched teeth, in a stern voice that this is to be the child’s new car seat from now on. The child started crying louder. She, as a mother, could almost understand the unspoken words the cry meant. “When you told me about this new car seat did you ever see me acknowledge it? Didn’t you get the message when I turned my head and walked away pretending that I didn’t hear you? You adults expect us, little children to be flexible. But you never practice what you preach. Can your hypocrisy get any bigger? Is it because we are little and helpless that you try to enforce such great control over our lives? For the past one year I have shared so many things with my baby sister. Now my stuff is being snatched from me and given to her. How much more do you guys expect me to put up with?”
A change now would mean pulling out the infant seat from the garage, installing it and reconfiguring the old car seat to accommodate the bigger child. But it was getting late. So she decided to go on as planned. Yes, the child was crying, but she thought playing her child’s favorite nursery rhyme CD would calm the child. The idea was a flop, the child’s wails drowned the nursery rhyme. The child was squirming wildly and attempting to get out of the harness.
Within a matter of 7 minutes, the smiling happy family that left home reached the day care in an angry, distraught, tense and stubborn condition. She tried to kiss the child good bye, but the child just pushed her off and ran in to the day care, hugged a three- year-old who happened to open the door. The child complained to the three-year-old, “M, M, that is my sit down, that is my car seat” and ran and hugged her day care provider and just sobbed uncontrollably. She left the day care a very hurt mother.
Disclaimer: All the characters and incidents depicted in the story are real.
Cast and credits
Self: Hurt mother
Toddler: Upset child
Epilogue:As soon as I dropped her in the day care, I drove to the store, returned the booster and picked up a stage two car seat for infant. Did all the adjustments, readjustments and put everything back in place. The booster used the regular seat belts and though toddler was not able to unbuckle herself, she kept tugging and pulling and had the belt wrapped all around her. It made me uncomfortable. For now, I think a five point harness will be a better choice a squirming toddler.
Toddler refused to smile at me when I went to pick her up in the evening. She came to the car, inspected everything, made sure that what ever was done was duly undone and then ran to me and gave me a hug.
Lesson learnt: You guys tell me.
Co-sleeping and No-sleeping
Author: utbtkids15 Jun 2007
I used to be a legendary sleeper. Once when I was in my tenth standard, my parents left me alone at home and went out for a couple of hours. I did what I did whenever I had some time to spare. I lay down on the couch and started sleeping. My parents came back home and rang the bell…and pounded on the door…continuously…for 15 min…and I was there lying on the couch which was exactly 2 feet away from the door…and I didn’t hear a thing. The neighbors gathered, every one shouted my name. Some were trying to break the door, just like in movies. One went looking for a saw, the grand plan was to saw through the dead bolt. My father was flying in to a rage fueled by embarrassment and my mother was imagining that I might have electrocuted myself or slipped and fell and cracked my skull open and all the other unimaginables. The neighbors were concocting their own stories that involved a teenage girl and academic pressures…even better…. boy issues. Then one of these nimble neighbors, jumped from the patio on to the sun shade, peeked through the window, found me lying down on the couch and proceeded to prod me with a stick. Five minutes of continuous prodding did the trick, I woke up from my slumber and opened the door. The circus had lasted for approximately 30 minutes. This is how I used to sleep. This trend continued well in to college.
Yes, used to, in past tense. After I got married, some one cast and evil eye on my precious ability to sleep and I had to work to sleep. I needed my space, my quite and my blankie. Some time in the middle of the night I would get up disturbed by the rhythmic ticking of the clock and would lay awake for the rest of the night counting how many times hubby rolled over and how many times he ground his teeth. But still I use to make up for it in the early morning, sleep in late and wake up feeling better.
Then came the children. Toddler did not let any one in the house sleep for the first few months of her life. Then the pattern stabilized and I would say things were still better, as she was sleeping in her crib and I had at least my space.
Troubled started when she decided to sleep between hubby and me. I would say hubby is the real culprit. When infant as born I was in a bedroom with the infant, hubby and toddler were in another bedroom. Whenever toddler woke up from her sleep and cried looking for me, hubby used to pick her up and put her next to him and both father and daughter would go back to sleeping peacefully. So when we all moved in to the same room, toddler refused to sleep in her crib. Even if I put her in her crib, she learnt to jump out of the crib. But she went off to sleep by herself, no more sleep time dances and routines. So I compromised.
But this little demon, would toss and turn, slap me on my face, pulled the comforter away from us and pushed it of the bed. She insists that she lay down perpendicular to hubby and self (forming a H pattern) and push us both trying to roll us down from the bed. Hubby has no care in the world, he can sleep with a road engine rolling all over him. But my precious sleep was lost forever. In general I am not the kind of parent who can proudly boast that I have never hit my children. So far infant has escaped the wrath of my fury, but toddler has been on the receiving end a few times now and I have no qualms about it. I don’t hit for no reason, if I do then there is a very very very good reason for it, and mostly its just a one sharp smack on her diapered bottom and if I am really mad on her thighs. 90% of these thigh smackings have been delivered by me in the night when she has mercilessly jolted me out of my dear dear sleep. But she never even knows that I hit her. She has her father’s genes as far as sleeping is concerned.
Only few days back, I commented on Poppin’s blog that every parenting style is different, one has to pick their battles and I have decided not to pick my battle over co-sleeping. Yesterday night I REALLY needed, not wanted, I needed, to sleep. I don’t sleep in the afternoons and I don’t drink coffee or tea (Well, I am not so strict about tea. I do indulge in tea, may be 3-4 times a year. But after every cup of tea, I get very hyper and I can’t sleep for about 3 days) and I was blanking out when I was driving, which scared the hell out of me. And this girl tucked her knees in to her stomach and then plummeted her legs, landing her feet with full impact on my spine. THAT’S IT. I am at the end of the rope now. Now it is war time.
After a sleepless night imagining what will happen if infant also decides to move in with us in our small queen bed, I woke up totally fatigued and craving for sleep. So here I am sitting on my couch, finished a full packet of Swiss chocolates, high on sugar, blogging away.
I have decided to convert the spare crib in to a toddler bed and lure toddler to sleep on HER OWN MAGICAL BED. Will keep you all posted on how that goes.
Infant tid-bits
Author: utbtkids13 Jun 2007
One small step for mankind, one giant leap for infant.
Did I tell you folks? Infant took her first step, all by herself, without holding on to anything last Wednesday (May 30, 2007). She is discovering that she can scale new heights and I am realizing that I can’t keep calling her infant as is pitter pattering to toddler-dom with those little feet.
I am daddy’s girl.
She seems to prefer her dad to me. You must look at her when hubby is in the house. She just trails behind him wherever he goes. I am noticing this preference only in the past two months. Before that both infant and toddler used to compete for my attention. But of late, looks like infant has given up and switched loyalties to hubby. This is so not fair.
Keyword activated….
She has been waving goodbye and has been clapping for quite some time now. But it is all keyword activated. I would be on the phone talking to some one and I would say ‘bye’ and hang up. Infant would be around me sitting and playing by herself, her radar will pick up the word ‘bye’ and automatically she would start waving her hands. She did the same for clapping. Whenever she heard some one clapping or the word clap uttered anywhere in her vicinity she would start clapping. Now the recent action is for kissing. When she sees/hears smooching, she takes her right palm to her mouth, sucks a big gulp of air and pulls her hand away from her mouth and smiles a big smile.
Five teeth and counting
I can see four in the upper jaw and one in the lower jaw, all this is in 2-3 weeks. I think there is more coming because she is itching to chew on something all the time.
And the drool….oh. May be I will rename her bubbles or bubbli from now on!
Books
She loves them, can’t get enough of them. Don’t jump to conclusions that she is a huge reader, she like the way books taste. In tamil, they have a term, “Karachu kudikaradhu” (literal translation – to dissolve and drink, meaning with refernce to context – to master something), that’s what this one is doing! If at all she reads books, she insists that the book is upside down. If we turn it the right way for her, she gets mad. She waves her hands wildly, utters a loud ‘mmmmmmmmm’ an turns it back upside down.
Quotable quotes from the toddler
Author: utbtkids13 Jun 2007
Good thinking amma.
All my stories start with, “Three weeks back”, so does this one. Three weeks back we went to a friend’s house for dinner. They have a baby girl, about a year older than toddler. Toddler was pretty kicked on seeing new toys and wanted to play with everything. Predictably there was the issue of establishing territory. In the middle of one heated fight where hands and legs were about to be used to make a point, I pulled toddler away and lectured her on the lines of how nice it will be if they take turns. She listened to me intently, shook her head up and down and with a straight face she tells me, “Good thinking amma”. What?!!!! Girl, enough of the appreciation, step on the implementaion part!
Amma, you go make pasta.
Toddler is in the “I want to do everything by myself” phase. It takes her 20 minutes to wear her shoes and at the end of 20 minutes, she discovers that the shoes are in the wrong legs, so another 20 min to wear them the right way. Add another 20 min to stop and smell the roses while walking to the car. And 20 more minutes to sit in her car seat and wear her seat belts. I usually stand next to her to make sure that she wears her seat belt properly. She hates it. (May be she does not like begin watched when she is intently doing something. Just like her mother!). She keeps telling me, “Amma you go that way. You go sit in your car seat and do round and round”(Meaning: Move away from me, you go sit in your seat and start driving). Anyways…she was trying to do her puzzle and was struck at some place and was getting impatient. I tried helping her and she tells me, “No amma, no. You go to the kitchen and make pasta.”. Talk about gender typing!!!
Appa you are making a big mistake.
We have a vague division of labor at home. In the mornings, I feed the kids and hubby gives them a bath. Last week he was trying to drag toddler, who had her eyes glued to the TV, to give her a bath. She protested quit a bit. When she found that hubby was not yielding, this 30 month old, mischievous, naked child standing in the bath tub, tells him in a very menacing tone, “Appa, no appa, you are making a big mistake”. The next thing we know, she will be making us an offer that we cannot refuse!
The master story teller
Her vocabulary is increasing by the second. An average 2.5 year old is supposed to know 1000 words on the average. But this one knows at least 10,000 words, I suspect. Okay enough blowing my trumpet, the point I am trying to make is, her expanded vocabulary combined with her photographic memory, she can now repeat a whole story. Yesterday she said the story of the Lion and the mouse(the lion getting caught in the hunter’s net and the mice chews through the net to free him) verbatim.
There is a flip side to this. Sometimes she blurts out things. Even though thats what children do, it is pretty embarrassing to us as parents. The other day we were standing in a store. A cyclist walked in. He was wearing biking tights, a hip pack, a back pack, thick sunscreen and had bronze red colored hair. Our little chatter box looked at him and screamed at the top of her voice, “Amma, look clown”. I just went all red, as red as our man’s hair!
Lispick on toes
She saw that I have nail polish painted on my toes and told me,
“Amma, pretty toes. I want lispick(lipstick) on my toes.”
And many more to come…..
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