Imitating

C has started imitating other and seems to enjoy it. Yesterday, it seems, C was imitating Athai yawning and was doing it again and again.
Day before yesterday she was vaccinated and C was very sleepy and sluggish. It seems at the doctors office, she understood that she was going to be 'injected' and was trying to escape this by going to athai and then to daph and then to athai. In the end, both of them abandoned C and the nurse stuck the syringe into C. C became active again around late night.

Visiting friends

Last Saturday some friends had invited us for dinner. C was quite shy in the beginning. They had a small baby girl and C went over to the baby and was quite friendly.
During dinner C got quite excited and wanted to go and play with the Baby's swing. I thought she wanted to get into the small swing herself!
After dinner, C was in full swing - running here and there and examining the trash, shoes, CDs, etc. It was difficult to make her understand. She almost toppled over their Valentine roses!!!

Running away

Chantel used to understand the word "kiss" and would wet all our face whenever we asked her to kiss. During the last tamil meeting, she was accosting the twins to kiss them!
However, she has is quite nonchalant about any requests from me and she does not even bother. Begging and pinching her does not work. I am not sure who taught her this attitude!
These days she picks up the remote and brings back and hand it over to us politely. Sometimes she has something in her hand, which she does not want to give us. If said "Tha" to her, she would come closer to us and extend her arm, but would not give it away. Then she would start running. Atleast that is what she thinks! Her center of gravity is still not perfect, and she has to sway left and right to run, but she runs, hoping that she could escape from us.

Poodles of water

Yesterday night C indicated amma that her diaper was wet by saying "Kakka". After D cleaner her up, she let C run around without diapers. But in the next 2 mintues, C wetted again in the drawing room. Athai got angry and gave a scolding to C. C realized that she was in trouble, and looked sadly at the pool for sometime. You would think she would have learnt her lesson.
Today morning I was getting ready to office. C came around and stood close to me and gave a funny look. This funny look has been quite a trademark for her, whenever she is 'going'. But at this particular point in time, since I was more interested in my breakfast cereal, I didnt connect it. By then C had created two pools. This time though, when I indicted about the incident (and may have snapped her a bit) she started crying loudly and Athai came and took her away.

Athai arrival

Athai arrived Tuesday night. As usual we left home in the nick of the time to receive her, and missed the exit for the airport parking and then parked on the roof, but reached the baggage retrieval on time.
C didnt recognize her. Later at home, Athai started opening her suitcases and C had a field day. She was pulling and pushing things and didn't know what to leave and what to play with. She was running around and very busy.
Athai said that C looked small at the airport (may be because of C's oversize sweater?) but later at home said that C looked ok size wise but felt bad that C had become darker. D feels it is because of the dry skin.

Touch and go.

C has this habit of switching off the TV or the computers while people are watching / using it. Somehow she has figured out the on / off switch, and she keeps pressing it. Repeated request to not fiddle with the button has not given any results.
Yesterday she switched on the TV again and we gave her stern warnings and I even tapped her fingers. She looked at her wrist and must have felt the pain a bit, but cannot fathom that her appa would be doing this intentionally and so didnt show any emotion for 3 seconds. After 3 seconds tho, she thought I was playing with her and started smiling and yelling "Dho!" Both myself and Daph were trying hard to keep our stern faces so that she learned her lesson.
Later Daph was working on the laptop and C cried a lot to be picked up and placed on the sofa, so that she could access the keyboard of the laptop. We both guarded the laptop from her quite successfully but C kept trying to atleast touch the laptop by extending her arms, or by giving a flying kick or something. She would sit as if she were not interested int he laptop for sometime, but suddenly flay her arms towards it to touch it.
Granma is coming today and I hope C learns a lot from her.

Home town buffet

Yesterday we went to the hometown buffet after church. Food was different but nice. Chantel was not. She kept crying most of the time and was climbing onto the table to get a hold of the salt and pepper shaker or the spoon, etc. Daph was saying that C was behaving like that because she didnt sleep properly or something. Once we left the restaurant C became calm and went to sleep. We bought her a booster seat at the babiesrus store and she was asleep all the time.

Gaga

Ever since C learnt the word Kakka, she has been using it whenever she wanted to change the diaper, or whenever she wanted to take a leak. There have been many a times, she would utter the word, and we would carry her to the bathroom, and she would not do anything. But some other times she would actually do it. Also, sometimes, we would ignore her "kakka" warning (especially after a warning 5 minutes before) to find out that she has dirtied her diaper. C is also using the word to let us know that she needs to change the diaper.

Kissing others

Tamil meeting happened Saturday. C was running after other kids. Somehow she likes the twins and was trying to kiss them. But the twins were afraid and ran away!

Stroller

C does not typically like to sit in the stroller. But recently she has evinced lot of interest in this mode of travel. Sometime back we went to Galleria and Daph felt it would be nice to take the stroller along.
We could not put C on the stroller outside the building because of this cold weather. So, I carried C and placed Daph's hand bag and a secondary sweater on the stroller. After we entered the mall, I let C on the floor, so that I could remove the stuff on the stroller and put her instead. By this time, C got restless, and starting throwing away the stuff that was occupying her "seat" and started climbing onto the stroller. In fact, she would not let me gather the stuff she had thrown away before setting her up on the stroller.
It also looks like she likes the small stroller than the big one. She also tries to push the stroller around (even though the stroller itself is way taller than her!)

kakka

Baptism of the twins was held today (coming Sunday). As usual, we arrived late to the function and the baptism was already over and people were about to leave.
We had taught C the word "Kakka" in the hope that she would tell us before going potty on her diaper. It seems, she flaunted her newly gained knowledge to others at the party today.
Back at home, around 7 pm, she said 'kakka' and I took her to the bathroom to make her go in the potty. But she would not.
Again around 8 pm, C uttered kakka and was twisting and turning and Daph took her to the bathroom, and voila, in fact C was going kakka. That worked out almost pretty good and we hope she learns to say it in the future at the appropriate time!

New teeth

C has a lot of teeth these days. We were expecting that she would grow only the top 2 and bottom 2 teeth. But Daph noticed that C had a teeth sprouting way back. Daph tried to show that to me, unsuccessfully, because C would not open her mouth!
However, now she has around 8 or 9 teeth, including some kadavai pal.

Pissing game

Today morning C got up early along with us. While I was reading the newspaper on the computer , Daph tried unsuccessfully to make C go back to sleep. When I came up, C was still bubbly. There is typically an aura of smell around C everyday in the morning, because of the heavy diaper. Luckily NOT number 2, tho'! The diaper collects stuff from 10 pm to 6 am! Unfortunately (or fortunately) I am the only person able to smell this smell. Today it was not so bad.
However Daph, as usual, changed C's diaper in the morning and tried to make C 'go' in potty for sometime. C refused to go. Insead of changing C into another diaper, D said that C likes to go around without diapers, and is very happy about it, etc, and we took a chance. C was happy alright, running around, etc. But after 5 mins, we saw a pool of water around her! D got upset but would not spank her, because "C would not know what she did wrong" or something. However, I told C in stern voice that whatever she did was not fair, especially when amma had just showed her the potty. C listened to it with a sullen face.
After some time, C tripped while running around, and fell on the floor and hurt herself and started crying uncontrollably. Since D was preparing lunch for me, I carried C and tried to console her. I realized only after sometime, that C's dress was still wet (or she went pissing again!!!) and she had successfully transported some of that stuff to my office dress. I thought about changing the shirt for an instance but changed my mind. Incidentally, the trouser I was wearing also had been anointed by C two days back.
I told Daph, seriously, "What would people think of me, for instance, if someone comes and sniffs my trousers at office...?"
Daph resolved the issue quickly by asking, "Why would anyone come and SNIFF your trousers at office!!?"
I left home, in the pissed on dress, but thinking happily that the issue was solved! At that moment, it dawned on me that other parents might also be coming to office in 'this' condition, or may be worse, and it is not a good idea to shake hands / sit on chairs / etc of anyone that has kids at office. Hmm...I hope the situation is not exasperated by the closed air conditioned office environment...where we sometimes breath in the same air again and again and again.
So, may be, "konja onnukku kaanja pochu" (based on "Kondra paavam thindral pochu") philosophy does not work, after all.
:(

Kissing

These days C understands the meaning of the word kiss. Whenever I tell her "appakku kiss kudumma" she comes towards and touches her mouth with my cheek. And whenever she does that, Daph and I say "Chantel, good girl!" This prompts C to clap hands. C thinks, whenever she is a good girl, she has to be acknowledged with clapping!
She still has not learnt the flying kiss thing. May be thats a better thing to teach her. Daph has also been trying to teach eye blinking (?!!!), pointing the nose, etc to C. C seems to understand it but forgets it after sometime. Daph also taught her Twinkle, twinkle little star, with full actions, and all. C managed to do the last action (wonder) for the song. C also has a very good full laugh at us, whenever we complete the song with action.
D also bought her a small baby book with animal pictures in it. D also made a 'mistake' of telling stories from the book and making lot of funny sounds. (chick, chick, chick sound for the page that contained three chickens) C really likes the book and the sounds, and laugh uncontrollably at the end of the last chick sound. She would often search for the book, open it to the chicken page and bring to us and make us do the chick sound. Again and again. Hmm...I thought, kids would do / make all these sounds, and we can sit back and relax and enjoy. Looks like we have to do all the hard work, and she would sit and clap hands and enjoy!

walking down the aisle

Yesterday we went to the Grace church. It was really cold yesterday 20 deg F (must be around minus 10 degree centrigrade) C cannot recognize me when I have my cooling glass + head band (for the chilly weather) on. She looks strangely at me, until I life the sunglasses to show her my eyes. They she becomes very fascinated with the head band / hood, sunglasses, etc.
C was unusually quiet and well behaved. She didnt want to go down the aisle, didnt have any offering envelopes to throw around, didnt start crying, etc.
At the end of the service, we thought of letting C walk, rather than carrying her. C does not like to hold hands yet, and wants to break away running. But we did hold her hand firmly. The sight of a small girl walking step by step, in her nice traditional indian dress, seemed to be too cute for these American ladies to handle, and so they started remarking "ooh" and "aah" and started saying "so cute" etc. C made more than 10 people to notice and comment on her before she walked out of the hall. Once outside the hall, she started wiggling off from our grip and started running towards the stairs, etc. At that point we had to carry her back to the car.

normal again

C has become normal again. Daph says C is very hungry and wants to eat lots of stuff.

Loose talk

C is doing fine as of today. Yesterday she had loose motion and D was very much worried. She called the doctor. The nurse said that if C eats and drinks regularly, we didnt have to worry. Surprisingly, C became normal after the motion, and was playing, etc. The nurse also said that if C has more than 4 loose motions in 6 hours, then we have to bring her to the ER. Looks like kind of too much for me. But luckily, yesterday night C was fine and today too. My stomach is also upset, both yesterday and today and milk gives me nausea. Milk has been stopped for C.
C got up early again today, but didnt cry too much. She was playing with herself. But when I woke up and got up, she wanted me to pick her up, come with me to make coffee, etc.
These days, in the evenings, she comes running to the stairgate whenever I come home from office. She waves and makes sound when she sees me down the stairs. But the moment I actually climb up the stairs and open the gate, she turns back nonchalantly, and goes about doing her business. Previously she would beg to be picked and would not leave my 'madi' for atleast half an hour (while I was scared about her wetting my 'office' outfits or make them dirty by rubbing all the stuff she has been eating or by applying the dirt she picked up from the dish washing machine (or recently, vomitting!!!) !!! (Incidentally D says that 'mothers' dont bother about these stuff at all and their 'thaai paasam' is too much for these ephemeral things like vomit, dirt, 'echam', urine, etc.) Office outfits need to be pressed (ironed) and it not dirtied, I can wear them 2 days!!!)
Anyway, when I come home, she does not come running towards me anymore, but if I go after her and pick her up, she condescends to sit with me for sometime, which I think is a very good thing.