All About Me!

Fuzzy has tagged me to write 5 unknown things about me. Unknown? I tried to rack my brains about what facts about me would be unknown – and yet probably be interesting reading about me.

So here goes:

1. I come from a really conservative family. So much so that – my parents insisted I wear only salwar khameez when I went to college. Make-up was a no-no and friendship with guys was frowned upon. And after all that – I decided to make advertising my chosen profession where I spent 6 years.
2. I just cant remember numbers – telephone, sales figures, you name it.
   
3. I curse people who deeply hurt or offend me. Nothing big time (at least that’s what I think) – but stuff like – I hope she looses her credit card or I hope he gets no sex for a full year. And this regard, I consider Phoebe (from Friends) my soul sister.
   
4. I didn’t utter a word till I was about two and half years old. And I haven’t stopped since then :)
   
5. When I was in college, I wanted to adopt 2 little girls. I even had names for them – Mehek and Muskaan. I wonder what happened to that!

I tag art, TAP, iz, @ and tharini

Books are your best friends

I've just read 2 very inspiring posts by Orchid and Tharini - on reading. And it set me down memory lane as well.

I don't remember being read to as a child. But I do remember lots of books in our house. And my fav elder cousins reading books. Probably that set me off on the reading road. A road well taken. Of course my mom was always around to help me through with meanings and pronunciations of words I didn't get.

When sonny was born I was determined to get him into a reading mode too. When he was 6 months old - I first ventured into our local library to get books. Thanks to the local government rules - we soon found out that we had been moved to another library much further away - and so sonny's reading sessions stopped. We bought him some picture books which he just loved. Very often I would feel a tug on my pants and would turn to see sonny clenching a book, demanding to be read to.

But that seems to be the extent of his patience for books. He just wont sit still while I read out a story to him. He seems more interested in turning the pages all at once or tearing it apart. I have often wondered, if this is because, the books are in English and we don't speak English at home. Or maybe they just aren't the right books. My mother suggested, I tell him a story at bedtime or at dinner time, sans book, just so that he gets the idea of what a story is. Have tried that too, albeit half-heartedly.

While we have carried his picture books with us to India, they seem to languish in the corner all the time while sonny runs in the lawn like a mad banshee. Forced sessions with books mean that pages get turned furiously and book gets shut.

Anyone out there with suggestions, advice, anything on how I can encourage sonny to sit down with me and a book. May be book recommendations?

Monkey Business

As I stood staring out of the kitchen window - I saw a fully grown monkey sitting on the gate of my parents-in-law's house.
"O dear God! there is a monkey outside" I told ma-in-law
"o no! I'm going to loose more potted plants today" she said

More thumps on the ceiling indicated more monkeys running around.

Turns out every few days, a huge bunch of monkeys hits this recently settled residential colony where my parents-in-law reside. They pluck out flowers and buds from plants, remove plants from pots and generally leave devastation in their wake. Ma-in-law has lost several pots and more dahlias and chrysanthemums than she can remember.

Normally, I am quite a live-and-let-live kind of person. But monkeys! Running around in residential areas! And my sonny plays in the yard all day - except for the time he plays on the terrace. What if a monkey bit him??

"Why doesnt someone fire an air-gun or something to scare them off?" I ask.
"What if they hurt them, by mistake? Monkeys are revered in these areas to be incarnations of God (Hanuman)"
O shoot ! I didnt think of that!

"Why not call the forest reserve guys and have these monkeys sent back to the forests?"
"Where are the forests? These areas where we live now - used to be guava groves and monkeys roamed freely here. Now that we live here - where will they go?"
Good point! When man encroaches on animal land - animals have a right to fight back!

So now I'm really stumped! I keep scanning the horizon for impending monkey attacks - while sonny plays outside!

TV or no TV?

One tends to raise one’s first born with a lot of idealism. Strangely enough, you make the most mistakes with your first-born. Before sonny was born, I had read up a lot of books, scanned the internet for issues, problems that new parents face and the solutions that “experts” offered. For all that reading, my 21 month old still co-sleeps with us and cant self-feed.

One issue that most groups are very vocal about is TV watching. The American Pediatric Associations recommends no TV before age 2 and thereafter only for 15 mins at a time, not more than 2-3 times daily. We’d met a couple who very proudly told us that their son (who was about 15 months then) had no attraction for the TV. Their secret? In the first 12-15 months or so – they didn’t watch any TV in his presence. So now, when the TV was turned on, he found nothing interesting about it. As a brand new mother – I was most impressed and I vowed that we would watch no TV with sonny around – because we didn’t want a TV addict. For some months it worked fine.

Once my in-laws left us, the technicalities of this working left us floundering. Besides winter was upon us – and who the hell wanted to go out when it was minus 20C. So it began with an odd episode of Friends here and there. And slowly it grew.

Once sonny turned about 1 year old – we started getting Zee TV. I cant tell you how much I was pleased to hear programming in Hindi. So all TV watching guidelines went flying out of the window. Sonny too enjoyed some ads and would come running out to watch them. I found sonny too had likes, dislikes about certain songs, title tracks, etc. But no major love for the TV yet.

Friends and relatives told me of how – just to get a break – they would sometimes turn on a favorite cartoon show for the kids. Of how the kids remained glued to the show, till it was turned off. And I thought – hey that’s not a bad idea – a show here or there – just “so I get a break” cant hurt, can it? So a few evenings, I would turn on PBS and sit and watch Clifford with sonny – explaining things to him in Hindi (since the show was in English). But within a few minutes, he would run off, leaving me watching the TV alone.

I even lamented to a few friends about it. We were pretty sure that once we got to India, sonny would get hooked onto the TV – plethora of Hindi programming, plethora of channels with the latest songs, something was bound to connect with sonny. But what do you know, he still doesn’t give it more than a cursory look and then runs off outside. Except for maybe a song here or there (and Don tops the list) nothing on TV can hold his attention more than a minute.

And as I write this, I am wondering – what the hell is wrong with me? I didn’t want sonny to get the TV habit and I did everything about it for 1 year to make sure TV stayed off his list of fav things. And now here I am wondering – why cant he sit still to watch any cartoon? Any one got any ideas to keep an active 21 month old busy for a while, while mommy checks out her blog-pals?

Changing Times of Sonny

Before we embarked on our India trip, we were hopeful that sonny would open up and expand his vocab beyond the few words that he babbles. While talking still seems some distance away, sonny has learn t this:

• He grabs his grand-father’s hand off the computer mouse and marches off with him outside the house for a stroll.
• No matter how long we are outside the house – he wants to go out again
• Just the sound of the door opening, is enough to get sonny from any corner of the house running to the door.
• He bats his eyelids, pulls onto her kurta and generally follows the house-help around the house. Mind you, this is the same house-help, who, he was petrified of, when we got here.
• The mirror is his new friend. He can spend many minutes smiling at his image, making faces and licking the mirror (yeah go figure that one)
• He is fascinated by the fan. Just the sound of the fan whirring is enough to get him all excited. He’ll stand under it and stare at it non-stop.
• Stranger anxiety is a thing of the past. Lil Master Flirty bats his lashes and offers a hand-shake at anyone who proffers a smile.
• He just has to get into corners – the dirtier the better.
• He’s learnt to lock the door (o dear god!)
• He loves kids his age – he can play catch till he drops down completely tired.
• He seems terribly interested in what we're eating - and will take a bite no matter how full he is.
• He's realized that he is an individual too - so temper tantrums and digging heels into the ground are fairly common
  

And some things are still the same:

• He is still afraid of water being poured on his head during a bath.
• He still wants his Ma to feed him and put him to sleep
• He still cant self-feed.
• He still babbles - a lot more than before - but still no clear words.
  

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S2S AWOL?

I know, I know...I've just vanished from the face of the earth. Fuzzy logic, Alan, Kodi's mom - thank you for checking up on me. Your concern really touched me :)

Where was I?
I am in India....yipeeeeeee... after 2 and half years - I've come back to Bharat ma!
And jet lag hit sonny so hard - he just wouldn't let go of me for a minute - for a full week!!!
And then of course - the mandatory relative visiting session happened. And to top it all, sonny
decided to sprout a new tooth and kept us awake half the night.
So I have yet to catch up on everyone's blogs - and give my vishesh tippanis and I promise to do that soon.
But right now - I am enjoying ma-in-law's delicious food and lazing around :)

But I'll be back soon. Watch this space!!