Archive for April, 2008
Riddle-me-Ree, Who can she be?
Author: utbt24 Apr 2008
EDITED TO ADD: If you are wondering what this is all about, check this out.
Greetings wonderful MTBs!!!
and good work to all of you!
For having solved the riddle before
I give you all this clue.
The letter ” T “
Write it down, add it on…
And let’s move on to the next little song.
“Her namesake searches for a mitr friend
She stays content with Baby Naren
Need to diet, ask her how
Tis easy come guess this one now”
Solve it and you get your lead
Misguess, and you lose your speed
Solve it slow but solve it now
And before you go, take a little bow
Go to ‘Comments’ and leave me a clue
Tell me which blog you are off to.
Good luck! Good luck! Be on your way.
You have your work, cut out for the day!
Calling For Your Inputs…..
Author: utbt17 Apr 2008
Folks, for a long time I wanted my own domain.
www.utbtkids.com (Powered by wordpress OF COURSE. Nothing else for me. No thank you.)
For one reason, it would give me lots of flexibility in terms of space, style, kinds of files I upload and share.
So suggest me cool, FREE(yes, important criteria) WP themes. I have been looking at stuff till my eyes have begged me to stop and came up with absolutely nothing.
My specs are:
I plan to move by the end of April – beginning of May.
You all know what this means right?! I will be putting up advertisements to break even with the cost of domain name and hosting.
Potty Tales
Author: utbt15 Apr 2008
Objective: To potty train Mieja.
Plan: Start on a weekend. She is not even two, so might take approximately the whole of summer.
Note to self: Be PATIENT. She is just a baby.
Operation commenced on: April 5th, Saturday.
Statistics at the end of the first day: The patio had to be washed at the end of the day. We ran out of all the 8 Gerber cloth training underpants. The clothes dryer had to be switched on as the sun wasn’t drying the clothes fast enough.
Mommy mood-o-meter: She is never going to potty train.
Note to self: Be PATIENT. She is just a baby.
Observations on day two: Candidate expressed interest to sit on potty for the sole reason of flushing, using the toilet paper and washing hands. The time she sat on the potty became a joke. It kept decreasing and by the end of the day, the bum would touch the potty seat for just one millionth of a second. She kept repeating the tear-wipe-throw-flush sequence till the toilet paper roll was over. Same with the hand washing. No significant improvement.
Mommy mood-o-meter: With all that paper the toilet is going to get clogged. She is never going to potty train.
Note to self: Be PATIENT. She is just a baby.
Results of observation from day3-present: Here by I present to you all a fully potty trained Mieja….TA-DA.
Every time she has to go, she goes in the pot. But every time she says she has to go, she does not go. On a good day, she says ‘pee-pee’ approximately 45 times out of which she goes 8-10 times. Add the fact that she says baby as ‘peepy’, which I end up thinking is ‘pee-pee’.
KEY NOTE TO JINX MONSTER: KEEP AWAY.
I have no idea how it happened. May be she has been observing her sister do it and was ready all along. The first two days were just initial novelty and then she was on track!
Anyway, she surprised me couple of days back. Both the bathrooms were occupied and she wanted to use the potty. So I strapped a diaper on her and explained that this is an exception. She can do her business in the diaper. She simply refused. She understood what I said, but refused. She said, ‘Peeee Peee. Only in the puuuty’ and with that resolution held on for a few minutes. Then she started running from this bathroom to that, knocking on the door, first demanding the people to come out and then she was in the verge of tears, ‘Peee Peee, peas. Appa peas.’ Poor thing. Finally after what seemed like an eternity in toddler time, she was able to get access to the pot.
Now, I don’t know if I am prepared to handle two girls who are fairly recently potty trained/training. Before every time we step out, we do a potty round. As soon as we reach our destination we do another round. In between that there are numerous false alarms. In the 45 minutes we are in a restaurant, we have to visit the restroom at least four times. 
Nooru * Hundred * Cien * Cent * Cento * Hundret
Author: utbt9 Apr 2008
All the words mean hundred in Tamil, English, Spanish, Italian and German.
That is the number of posts in my blog.
Yes, a celebratory post. 100 posts and the other thing I am celebrating, 10 days early though, is my one year blog-anniversary. 2007, April 22 was the date I published my first post.
As I am typing this post, I only have 98 posts in my blog and if I publish this particular post, it will be the 99th post. But today was such a nice day and I couldn’t contain myself. What the heck? I decided to type my 100th post right now and my 99th post a while later.
What was so good about today? I don’t know, some days just have the right feel about them. The kids still took their own sweet time to finish their breakfast and did have their little squabbles, the husband and myself did snap at each other a couple of times. But over all I feel pretty uppity today!
The best part of the day, the kids did some gardening with their dad – all the summer vegetables are now planted. Hubby toiled, gave instructions and managed the little critters pretty efficiently. Chula did followed directions really well. Mieja walked behind hubby and engaged in pulling out the plants that were just planted. Some how we gave her a small, empty watering can and asked her to water the plants. So she walked around all the plants talking to them, ‘Hele, WAADEL. Paant, hele WAADEL’. I just hanged around shooting pictures and videos. So we all did our part 
Now to some stats.
Number of posts = 100
Number of comments = 875
Total views = 34,805
Views today = 172
Best day ever = 393 views, Mar 27, 2008, Thurs
Top three posts
Indian Mythology – A Child’s Perspective – 698 views
(Also my very first post and my favorite post.)
Sexualization Of Young Children – 635 views
Surviving Chicken Pox – 561 views
BTW, people who come to my blog using these google search terms, you scare me.
I would elaborate on certain questions I have about these search terms, but thanks to Google(!@#$%^%), I would attract more of these people like a magnet.
Its been a great ride so far guys.
Oh, you know what this means right? Lurkers leave a comment and identify yourself.
The Magical World Of Princesses
Author: utbt8 Apr 2008
Chula: Amma, I want to be a princess.
(Meaning, she wants to wear her silk skirt – pattu pavadai)
Chula, looks at me wearing a yellow saree and exclaims, ‘Wow amma. You are a yellow princess.’
Chula: Amma, I am a princess.
Chula commenting about something: Amma, this is so beautiful, just like a princess.
At school, Chula’s friend’s mom says ‘hi’ to Chula. Chula shyly moves away, she wants nothing to do with this lady, she is hiding behind me with her face stuck to my back. But the minute the lady remarks, ‘Wow, look at you. You are all dressed up, just like a princess’, she immediately gravitates to the lady, sits on her lap and starts a conversation. The transformation was so abrupt that it made my jaw drop in shock.
Even little Mieja uses the P-word frequently. “I want pisses”. (Pisses = Princess)
All this is troubles me. In the past, I have ignored it, I have acknowledged it, I have denied it. I have no problem with princesses/princes/fantasy play/fairly tales. I believe that the purpose of fairy tales is to provide children with emotional sustenance. The original stories have messages about valor, values and highlight the qualities that bring an individual close to greatness. What I don’t like is today’s trend of throwing the original message in to dumps and focusing only on the external appearance. Most young girls are strongly attracted to qualities like fair, pure, serene. So today’s princesses commercial market projects ONLY beauty.
I know that hate is a strong word, but I have no qualms using it in this context. I hate the way the princess image is plastered in to these little minds. I hate the way so much unspoken message is given through these blond hair and blue eyed princess. I strongly hate the pathetic attempts at cultural sensitivity by introducing Jasmine, Pocahontas and Mulan. They are as inappropriate and out of context as the tan skinned, saree-wearing Barbies that are marketed in India. Have any one read the capsule version of Snow White/Beauty And The Beast/Cinderella? In order to present the story in a jiffy, most of the essential symbolism is trimmed down and the end product is five pages of absolute injustice to children’s literature, which sabotages the minds of young girls in to thinking that they ‘need’ prince charming to save them.
Some one needs to tell these kids that appearance does not make a princess, but it is the great human qualities and inner beauty counts. How about telling these kids about Joan of Arc or the Jhansi Rani Lakshmi Bai?
So in the past I have ignored the P-word. I have also denied it. But now, I am slowly learning to accept it. The reason is, the more I resist it, the more enticing it is going to sound to Chula and Mieja. We have princess stuff in moderation at home. (Okay, okay, we have one princess lunch bag and one Snow White storybook. Well, something is better than nothing.) Whenever they want to play with the lunch bag or the story read to them, I oblige. But the Snow White story I read to them is MY version. Where Snow White’s ‘happy go lucky/making the best out of the situation she is in’ attitude is highlighted. And Chula strongly believes that ‘the prince’ who saves Snow White is her father. (‘Amma, appa is taking good care of Snow White’. Yay! Sexist message is taken care of.)
Any ways, when ever I hear the P-word in association with external appearance, I keep reiterating that princess-ness (my audacity for coining new words is purely derived from my inability to pick the right word from the million words that already exist in English language) does not come from the clothes, that she is a princess all the time, because she is loving, lovable and intelligent. And that’s what makes a princess.
Edited to add: United they stand, Divided they fall. Thanks Balaji making me put my finger on something that I have started doing subconsciously. I break the princesses by names. It is Cinderella, Snow White..( and others…Dang, I first need a princess101 ). It gives the ‘Princesses’ certain human-ness. The generality just gives them more mystery and unapproachability. Reference by name gives the message that they are human beings, fantasy but still human.
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