PART 2 OF 2.

Find part1 here.

But if I rationally analyze the habit, it is only 30 minutes a day and they are exposed to age appropriate contents. The way I see it, TV and the Internet have become necessary evils in the modern world. The children are definitely going to be exposed to these mediums. I could either keep the children shielded and in the process shock them or give them the impression that they have to do things behind my back. So we like it this way in our house.

Anyways, now my amma is here with us and she has introduced her flavor to YouTube contents. The children watch old tamil cinema songs. They seem to like the songs in which there are kids dancing/jumping or songs with animals.

But YouTube is scary. We screen the contents completely before we show it to Chula and Mieja. This lesson I learnt the very first day while I was searching for jungle book video. Just because the title says Jungle Book, don’t trust the contents to be clean and child appropriate. The first click I landed from the search happened to have the title or a song dubbed over the original songs, ‘Jungle Book, how a bear molests a boy’…something like that. The second one I landed on was ‘Jungle book meets the saw’ where the animals were subjected to lot of violence. Even I got a little scared.

Without further ado, top hits at home,

Varavu Ettana, Selavu Pathana – Bhama Vijayam

It is sooo funny to see the two year old Mieja singing, ‘Kanniyaraga vazhanum yendraal pillagal yedtharkaga? Kaadhal seitha pavathukkaga, vere yedhuthaga?’ (Q:If you wanted to live a no strings attached life style, why did you have children? A:That is the curse of love making.) It is still in the stage where the adults find it cute. The fact that she does not have a clue about what she is singing adds to the cute factor. The little devil is such a joker. She knows this will make us laugh, so she uses this when she wants a laugh from us. She does something totally naughty, I am steaming, getting ready to unload a lecture and she would hit me with this song. Manipulatress.

Kanna Varuvaan, Kathai Solluvaan

Oodi Oodi Uzhaikanum, Aagattumda Thambi Raaja – Nalla Neram

Do I need to spell out the attraction in this song? The elephants and of course MGR with his orange kurta and orange payjama 🙂

Chella Pillaigalam – Yenga Mama

Nila Kaikirathu, Acham Acham Yillai – Indira

Anjali, Anjali, Anjali – Anjali

Natha Vinothangal – Salangai Oli

Janani, Janani – Thai mookambikai

Kurai Ondrum Yillai

Bhaja Govindam

A sample of Chula singing tamil songs.
Agattumda Thambi Raaja

Kanna Varuvaan

Kurai

And this is Mieja singing…
Varau Kannan

Saa Sing Nila

PART 1 OF 2

We have a giant monstrosity of a TV sitting in our living room. Our old 27 inch Sony is a trooper. Even after 12 years it is in perfect working condition. There was no need to upgrade. But the husband works in the field of Digital Video Technology and wanted a cool new TV. The guy hardly splurges on anything for himself, so I had no problems welcoming the TV with open arms.

Now, I am not a big TV watcher. When I was new to this country, most of the afternoons were spent in front of the TV. Then it came down to one sitcom a day and few movies over the week. Slowly over the three years other things started displacing TV time. Finally on the days, I do sit down to watch a movie, after the first 15 minutes, the TV is watching me. I am happily suspended in dreams lulled by the TV’s white noise.

The kids, used to watch PBS while we shoved food in to their mouth. At least that’s what Chula did. Now, Mieja being Mieja, NOTHING works with her. She would still watch TV without bating an eyelid and her hand would automatically swat the spoon that comes close to her. (I have a theory about her absorbing nutrients directly from air. Let me not digress.) Just around the time our ‘big giant TV’ entered our home, I was considering my options. For one thing I did not want to turn the TV on during every meal. The main reason is the amount of electricity it sucked. The second reason, I felt that the TV was simply too big. The children were getting mesmerized by the effect the big screen created and I could almost see squiggly, swirly lines in their eyes. I simply didn’t like what I saw. The third reason, if at all they watched something, I wanted them to watch something in their mother tongue. So I switched the kids to eating in the kitchen, while I read books. The children adapted well..err…Mieja was still swatting spoons, but hey it didn’t get any worse right?

But by the end of the day, I didn’t have the energy to work hard. So YouTube was introduced in to their world. I even remember how it all started. November 2007, Chula’s school had taken all the children to a special screening of The Jungle Book. I was very curious about Chula’s reaction to the experience. But the dame can be so tight mouthed. Even after endless pestering she only managed to say, ‘Yes’, ‘No’, ‘Uh-uh’. So I looked for jungle book clips in YouTube and showed it to the children, just to make Chula talk. Mieja was immediately hooked on. Then came a phase where we watched lots of Tamil rhymes on Youtube. Within a week the children memorized all the rhymes. They were greatly kicked when I was able to dig out some of their favorite books on video, so was I. Then came a phase where they started making specific requests on what they want to watch. The situation now got very interesting, because the computer had just replaced TV!

…Continued soon…

Me: Chula, today was amma’s last day in her school.
Chula: Huh?
Me: Yes, I will be working in a new place from June.
Chula: Huh?
Me: Let me see if you know MY new school is. The new school’s name is “{ Chula’s preschool}”…ta-da!!!
Chula: BUT…amma, that is MY school!
Me: Yes, what do you think, you and me in the same school?
Chula: No. NO. You can’t do that. You have to drop me in school and go…GO AWAY. You go to your college school, don’t come to my Montessori preschool.

So does it start this early?

Anyways, she will get used to it.

What say y’all?

PS: WELCOME TO MY NEW DEN.

Friends, thanks for keeping in touch. So many people regularly cheking for updates and enquiring why I went AWOL means a lot to me. I am grateful for all your support.

I am trying to move to a self hosted blog. The process is dragging on purely due to WordPress import issues supplemented by my inertia. Self imposed dead line to get the issues resloved – June 14th, 2008.

In the meanwhile, some updates from my side:

•  I started working in the new place from May 26th, 2008. To say that the new job is stressful would be an understatement of the century. It is physically intense, I do about 100 lunges and an equal number of squats in one work day. ( Two words – Thundering Thighs. Hulk image would go great with my banyan tree green 🙂 ) As a result of all this, I drop dead by the time the clock hits 8.30PM.
• Six weeks of intense summer school starts June 16th. 9.00AM – 1.00PM work all five days, 5.00PM – 10.00PM evening classes four days a week…..its going be one crazy ride. The sole goal for the next six weeks will be to survive with miminum impact on the tots I will be servicing…oh, and of course not to doze off in the middle of the class. I already have nightmares that I forget to turn in an assignment and the teacher makes me stand up on the bench in front of the whole class.
• The kids are doing great. Mieja turned two end of last month. She is one naughty bunny. Her latest trend is waving her index finger and threatening people around her, ‘Odhai koduppen’ or ‘amma kathuva’. Means ‘Be careful, I will hit you’ and ‘My mom will yell at you’ respectively. Chula is turning her tricycle 90 degress, turning the pedal with her hands and is claiming that she is recycling. The mothers and daughters lock swords every now and then. But what is life without all this? Huh?

PS: MNAmma, thanks for the award. Thats super nice of you.

As Tharini writes about the pain of a mother and child to bid adieu to a teacher, I am composing the complement to that post.

Today was my last day at this school I was working for the past 14 months. For personal reasons, I decided to quit this job. Where I will be working next is will be revealed in a future post.

Last day didn’t sneak up on me. I knew for the past one and a half months that April 30 would be my last day. I never gave it a second thought. I went about doing my things, giving formal resignation letter, complete formalities, preparing forms to be given in the new place…etc. Every thing felt normal.

Today morning as I was half-running-half-walking towards the classroom and I saw little faces peeking through the door. I quite didn’t notice it in my hurry to get in to the classroom in time. As I entered the classroom, all my kids yelled surprise and gave me hand made cards. The little ones peeping were scouting to surprise me. It was not just that, the kids had planned an ice cream party for me, which I found out later. The money for the ice cream party was from the bake sale the kids made last week. Parents dropped in to say bye. But I digress, the moment the kids yelled ‘surprise’… THAT was precisely the moment it struck me that the next three hours were going to be different.

Some of the kids, I have been seeing them since they were babies. I helped them transition in to school, by holding them in my lap as they cried their hearts out for their parents. Some, I hugged and comforted them as their little lips quivered with embarrassment when their bodies didn’t quite co-operate with the potty training routines. One of the dear girls, I have held her hands during every writing session, assuring that she can do it and felt so proud when she wrote her name all by herself, no mistakes, all letters present, no B->D reversals. I have taught them to spell, to recycle, washed their boo-boos, wiped their noses. Most of them, I have nagged endlessly to finish their snack and worn their ears out with my ‘no wasting food’ sermons. There is this little boy, when I tell him for the n-th time, ‘Eat, stop talking, its almost time to clean up’, stands up, salutes me and says, ‘Yes m’am’. Now, I am going to miss that or what?! I have taught these kids conflict resolution. To this day, they come running to me to when they get in to a row and say, ‘Teacher, we want you to meditate.’ 🙂 . These kids have teased me about my accent…more like rolled on the floor and laughed.

**Sigh**

This one day, I didn’t hurry to get out at my usual 12.15PM. I lingered just a little longer, precisely arranging their folders, sorting their homework, laying the mats for the kids who stay for the full day…..

Just then I remembered what a little dude told me as he left… ‘You take care baby’. I sure will bud, I sure will…..

To new beginnings….

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. 🙁

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.

One of the courses I am taking this quarter is Child’s Ways Of Knowing and Thinking. Yes, I can interpret why a child is behaving in the way he/she does. So far the joke is on students like us trying to break the psyche of the young child. Out there millions of children are laughing their pants off saying, ‘Yeah, now you can use technical jargon to describe the basis of our behavior. So???? You still can’t do anything about it.’

Anyways, I am digressing. There is this wonderful book called Piaget Primer, that describes using simple cartoon from Peanuts, excerpts from classics like Winnie The Pooh, Phantom Toll Booth, Alice In Wonderland and The Little Prince to describe the way the child thinks. A wonderful book, so if any of you get a chance, do thumb through it.

The book had a piece about classification and this was the cartoon that accompanied it. Had me in splits.

And this piece describes what is happening at home.

And the other day, I picked up Chula from school, she said she drew a picture of me and handed me this. ‘This is you amma. I draw you’ she said with a big smile and gleaming teeth. Presenting me ta-da…..

Never mind if the picture says George Washington 🙂

Hello, hello , hello. I just have to take matters in my own hands, otherwise things never get done. Never, like in N.E.V.E.R.

Dear readers, I am 22 months old. My amma often forgets this. She is either stuck at me being 10 months old(and treats me that way, which I totally hate) or thinks that I am already two and a half, nothing in between for her.

I like to think of my self as a mischievous little monkey, like the Kapish in Twinkle or Meera monkey from Karadi Tales. My mischief will not make you mad, but will make you hug me tight and plant kisses on my chubby cheeks. Okay, just not kisses, I also love it you blow raspberries.

A sample of my mischief. The other day I was in the library with appa (father) and akka (elder sister). Appa was checking out some books. Akka was standing next to appa, with a mesmerized look( oh, she always gets that look when she sees books) on her face. I tried calling appa a few times and he continued focusing on checking out the books with an occasional ‘Hm’. I like to be given full attention, so what do I do? Do I roll on the floor and cry. Nah, that is so old school. I just pull Chula’s pants down to her knees and run away. That got your attention, right appa? (Sorry Chula, you were just collateral damage. Don’t take it personally, okay?) Amma couldn’t control her laughter when she heard about this, but she also secretly made a mental note, never to wear sweats when I am around. I could see that in her eyes.

You have all heard about my scream-mication (screaming to communicate). Though, I occasionally scream to inflict the right amount of terror in my parents, I have come a long way. I talk!….full sentences,….and…..*drumroll*…… make conversations over the phone * 🙂 *. Last week amma was changing my diaper and was talking to patti(grand mom) over the phone. I grabbed the phone from amma and said, ‘Patti, Mieja diapuul. Numeel four diapuul. Mickey moose diapuul.’ (Grand mom, I am wearing number four mickey mouse diaper.)

I am still a very persistent child. I like my mother’s school folder and cell phone. But amma makes a big fuss. Honestly I don’t see why? Amma any ways drops her cellphone, like a 100 times. Whats the big deal if I drop it a couple of times? Regarding her school notes, I was just trying to add a child’s perspective to her assignments on child development. Any ways, she over reacts, as usual, puts the stuff away, carries me, sings and dances and tickles me. This charade goes on for 30 min and I play along. After amma is done I go back to the place where I last found the object that attracted me and look for it. I give amma that famous smile of mine, extend my hands and say, ‘thaaka’(thaanga, which means ‘give’ in english). If I sense that it is that amma means business, I add a ‘peesee’(please) to the ‘thaaka’. It is so irresistible that amma almost caves.

I am a picky eater, just like my sister. But Chula gets easily distracted if amma reads books, but not me. If I says no, then it means N.O. You can sing, dance, read books, switch the TV on, it is still N.O. Amma failed to get the message, so I drilled it home by throwing the bowl of food at the wall couple of times. Now she doesn’t even try.

I love to dance. Especially for ‘thee, thee, thee, chakka joey joey’ or ‘vaadi vaadi cd‘. There is nothing like putting on a skirt and doing my famous dabanguthu moves. My other favorite songs are the Indian rhymes for Indian kids from Karadi tales.

I like singing too. My favorite used to be ‘Jinkuwawe, Jinkuwawe, Jinku-Waaa-Weh’(Jingle bells, jingle bells jingle all the way). Last Christmas Chula sang this song in her school performance (which was conducted in the church close to Chula’s montessori school). I tried joining the chorus, but amma shushed me so hard that I stopped singing. But me being the productive person, that I am, I had to do something. So I picked up an application for membership to The Central Church of Christ from the pew and filled it up. Still waiting to hear from them if I got in to the church.

Sometimes my love for singing transcends the time factor. I wake up at the wee hours of morning (5.00AM) and sing at the top of my voice, ‘Isabella, Isabella, ISABELLA……Alara, Alara, ALARA’* and wake up all the sleepy heads in my house.

Though I like my sister when she gets all dressed up, I hug her and kiss her all over her face, I consider the few minutes before bath time as a special bonding time between us. Amma takes off all my clothes except my diaper, I run to Chula demanding that she strips down to her underpants and we make circles around the house, Chula singing, ‘5 little ducks ran up one day, over the hills and far away…..’ and run behind her shouting, ‘duckie akka, duckie akka.’

Okay, that’s a long time sitting in one place. Got to go and do some mischief. See yaa later.

Runs off singing,

‘Monkeys, we are the monkeys.
We like to sing, we like to jump
We like to romp around……’

* – At Chula’s school, they have a cool routine at circle time. They call every child’s name with music from keyboard starting from the lowest note to the highest note. This introduces the differences in the ‘do-re-mi-fa-so-la-to-do’ notes. Mieja listens to Chula singing this song at home and repeats it often.

Discussion I
Background information: I am now in the process of motivating Chula to eat well. So I picked up books from library on nutrition. The food pyramid, 5 serving of fruits and veggies, 16-24 oz dairy…the whole works.

Me: Do you see what the book says? We have to drink two cups of milk a day. That make your bones happy. Otherwise your bones will break. Ok?
Chula: Ok amma.
Me: (Trying to quiz her) What happens if you drink two cups of milk every day?
Chula: Your bones will break.

Discussion II
Background information: I am driving Chula to school and we pass a recycle truck.

Chula: Amma, is that garbage truck?
Me: Looks just like the garbage truck-huh? Do you see that the truck is green in color? That means that it is a recycle truck. The things that can be recycled goes in to the green recycle truck.
Chula: Ok, green garbage truck.
Me: No kannamma. We don’t put garbage in to this truck. We put things like paper, bottles and milk cans in to this truck. This is a recycle truck. (Quizzing her), what are the things that can be recycled?
Chula: Trucks, green color, garbage, dinosaurs, elephants, lions, my baby sister, diapers… Did you know that my friend D bought a cupcake for lunch? Lunch bag, white car, orange car. I play with R on February too. Crayons, big giant TV …Let us just say that this went on for the whole 7 minute drive to school.

Discussion III
Background information: Hubby is trying to give Chula lesson in oral hygiene.

Hubby: You have to brush your teeth properly. Otherwise you will get poochi(roughly translated to insects) in your mouth.

{From the next day onwards, Chula refuses to open her mouth claiming that she has lady bugs and butterflies in her mouth.}

Chula: I have lady bug in my mouth amma. No brush, no paste. I don’t want no more poochi to get in to my mouth

PS: This happened almost three months ago. Now Chula is an expert in brushing her teeth. She has a bit of starting trouble, but once she starts she does an awesome job.

Discussion IV
Background information: A discussion about (Boo’s) Ashu came up when I was getting the children ready for bed tonight.

Chula: What is Ashu’s thatha’s name?
{I tell her the name.}
Chula: What is Ashu’s patti’s name?
{I tell her the name.}
Then there was a sudden light bulb in my head and I thought that this might be a good way to introduce many to many relationship.
Me: Hey, guess what? Ashu’s thatha and patti are Yaadayaada aunty’s appa and amma.
Chula: Huh?
Me: Yeah!
Chula: No, Ashu’s thatha patti are Yaadayaada aunty’s thatha and patti.
Me: No. No. No. {Begin a complex lecture on relationships and how many people are can be related to many more people}…..
Chula: Amma, stop. I know. Ashu’s patti is Yaadayaada aunty’s amma and Ashu’s thatha is V uncle’s appa.
Me: No
Chula: {Cuts me off my placing her palm on my mouth}, I think it is time to sleep.

Discussion V
Background information: The contents of the lunch box is pretty much the same at the end of the day, a very irritated me.

Me: Chula, what did you do during lunch?
Chula: I was talking to A. {Smiles so wide that her ears are about to fall off her head.}
Me: Talking? You are supposed to eat at lunchtime, not talk.

{Taking time off and counting to 10, to control myself. Hey, some of her teachers were watching, I didn’t want to blow my top in front of them 🙂 }

Me: {in a sarcastic tone}What did you talk about, that was so important and made you miss your lunch?
Chula: Peace.
Me: Huh?!
Chula: {in a matter of fact tone}World peace amma.