Granma arrival

C was all pumped up that Granma is arriving tonight. She knows that G had given her so many stuff and would bring a lots of gifts. I told C that G was gonna bring Theichi (Neem oil, which we used to apply to C lips to discourage from lip chappi.) C’s part of the plan was also to go and hug G at the airport.

However, when G arrived around 9, C got too shy for that. C would not even look at G (but took the murukku packet from her) C acted the same way she did when Cedric arrived.

Back at home, C got restless and was circling G’s suitcase, saying that G would have brought ‘presents’. When G gave all the gifts (we forgot to play the “surprise” game), C got so excited and was up until 1 am.

Appa we are cousins

C is still trying to understand the various relationships - brother, sister, mother, father, cousins, etc. She is quite excited to have jeya and jeevan as cousins.She thinks cousins are fun. And so, the other day, she told me that "I love you appa! we are cousins..." and tried to pattafy me. When I corrected her that she was my 'daughter', she said, "ooooook"

But today morning, just after waking up, and while playing on the bed, she said: "my appa brother, i love you"

Repeating game

C sometimes keeps repeating whatever we say. We didn't teach this annoying game, however, she has learnt it from some really bad cartoon!

Anyway the other day the conversation went like this:

n: "Pick up this toy and put it in your room"

c:"Pick up this toy and put it in your room"

n: "please cleanup"

c: please cleanup"

n: "dont repeat whatever i say"

c:"dont repeat whatever i say"

n: "Chantel is a panni kutty"

c: "Appa is a panni kutty"

C does not understand panni kutty is derogatory. But somehow she felt that it was bad and switched my name!

marrying

Sometimes C wants me to hold her hands when she climbs down the steps at home. She would also look at me while climbing down instead of looking at the steps. I didnt understand the relevance of this for a long time.

Yesterday while walking down the steps, holding my hand, she said, "appa we marrying"

I was not sure whether I heard it right. She explained: "naan princess; appa prince; we marrying!!!"

(Disney movies, princess movies, barbie movies are bad; Dora is good)

Diaper

Even though C is fully potty trained and out of the diaper world, she is quite excited about it. Last week she found one of her old (unused!) diapers and wanted to try it on. When we told her that C was not a baby anymore and did not need it anymore, C didnt believe us. C thinks it is a nice fashion accessory and wants to wear it!

Decorations

C likes the decorations during Christmas very much. She was all excited when we started lighting the tree. She wanted to help by coming into our way and also by carrying small items. Sometimes, she takes me to the guest bedroom window and shows me the ‘christmas lights’ outside.

Previously she used to think, any lit stuff is ‘christmas tree’ . We told her those were ‘christmas lights’. The other day at church, she told the baby sitter that “we had decorations at our house!”

Yesterday she told the nurse that we had decorations!

Fight!

TSM tamil muthamizh vizha was yesterday. C was generally having fun with other kids. It seems there is a set of two kids (girls – similar to C’s age) who bullied C and told her that C’s dress didn't look good and punched C in her face. (I need to trace these kids in the next vizha!) When C complained to D, D told C that ‘amma will take care and it was good C came and told D, instead of retaliating, etc.’

Later when we were walking down the corridor, C spotted those kids and told D, ‘amma come, lets go and fight amma!’

Surprise

In continuation to her ‘surprise’ game, every morning C tries to surprise me with the Christmas tree. Yesterday we bought some small stuff for C, like toothbrush, etc. and Daph asked C to close her eyes and ‘surprised’ her with all these small items.

C was very happy and was literally jumping around with joy that she got all the new stuff.

A variation on the surprise theme is to ‘not’ open your eyes when C yells “surprise”. C gets confused, because she expects us to open our eyes and act surprised! She knows to say ‘close your eyes’ but does not know yet to say ‘open your eyes’ and so, she patiently repeats “surprise!” until we open our eyes!

Tickle

Next to her favorite 'surprise' game, C likes the tickle game. She would go, "tickle, tickle..." and try to tickle us and expect us to laugh and shriek!

C has been watching D sending me off to the wild world everyday with a prayer + siluvai podal. C also wants to do that everyday. This has been going on for some time. C would also seriously do something similar to siluvai podal, etc. Yesterday when she did that she was also saying "tickle, tickle...".

I hope she does not think that she has been trying to tickle me all these days!

Snowman

It snowed 2 inches today. C was very happy to see the snow. C showed me that the snow has covered the grass, the trees and the roofs. She was quite elated. When we were about to leave for the church, we allowed her to touch the snow with her bare hands and play with it for a while. I threw a snowball at her and she quickly threw one at me.

Later D bought C a pair of snow gloves. I started to build a snow man for her, thinking that I was about to show her something new. After I rolled the snow and made it stand erect with C's help, C asked me to get the carrots for the nose!!!   It seems Caillou makes quite a lot of snowmen and C is well aware of them.

Even after we finished making the snow man with 'baby carrots' nose and 'grape' eyes, C kept packing the snow man. C kept her eyes on the snow man for the next couple of days and reported us promptly when it fell flat!

Surprise!

C's favorite game:

She would bring a cardboard box or something.  and say

"appa, close your eyes"

""

"surprise!!!"

When we open our eyes, she would hand over the box of nothing to us.

May be she does not understand "surprises" nor "gifts".

She likes this game a lot and plays this whenever I come back from office. She says, "surprise....  ta da..." and points to the Christmas tree, everyday!

PS. we have to act surprised everytime and thank her profusely, else she would reprimand us!

3rd birthday

In the morning, D wrapped c's gifts from relatives. C woke up as usual (around 8) and was very happy to see more gifts.

I had taken the day off and we went to the Mills mall to play. C had fun for some time.  When one of the kids would not let C use the Slide, C got upset and started crying! I told C to request the other kid, which C reluctantly did.

We were planning to go to Red Lobster, but ended up in panda express!

C Bday party

We had a small gathering at our place in the evening. C was very happy to cut the cake and would not allow anybody to blow the candle neither cut the cake. She said that it was her day! She got lots of gifts and became too hyperactive.

Daph decorated the house and also made a terrific cake. She also painstakingly attached embellished c's gown with beads.

imaginary camera

C likes to be photographed. C also has an imaginary camera and takes pictures of me sometimes. After clicking, she would show her hands and ask me whether the pics are good. After I say yes, she would give me back the imaginary camera and asks me to take a picture of herself and gives her typical eeeeee pose.

card swipe open

C is talking to herself quite a bit these days. She keeps narrating stories or singing something. She also has  a peculiar habit of trying to open the doors with an imaginary card swipe.

Whenever we stay in hotels, C would cry hard to get a chance to open the doors that have a card reader.

Recently at home, she has gotten hold of a trash plastic item, and go around swiping doors before opening them. If we open the door ahead of her, she would ask us to close it, swipe it and then open it majestically. Some times, after opening the door, she also swipes it to close it.

appa vs dad

Yesterday at the doctors, after C refused to take the toy from the nurse, the nurse handed it to me: "Ok, I will give it to you dad!"

C thought for sometime and was after the nurse that "This is appa" atleast 4 times to correct her.  I think C is getting confused with some other kids calling their dads "dad" and thinks that 'dad' are 'those kids fathers', etc.

However, at night, she asked me "are you sleeping, dad?". I tried to explain that appa is tamil and dad is english, etc.

Doctor Visit

Today we went to the doctors for C. She was coughing every two minutes. But no fever. In fact, she had fever last week for 2 days but didnt sneeze; cough or anything. Looks like the virus is behaving erratically.

At the clinic, C was quite apprehensive about the whole process. We pacified her saying "the doctor will only use stethoscope to check her. She was fine. She also behaved fine when the doc took checked her. Later the nurse came to give C a flu shot. C didnt realise it. C was very happy thinking the worst was over.

The nurse brought a fluffy toy and told C that C could have the toy only if she took the medicine. C was very happy. C thought she would be given a medicine like 'cough' drops or something, of which she is quite used to! So, C said Ok to the nurse. Nurse asked us to hold C's hands so that she does not scratch herself. Even at that point C didnt realise and then the nurse gave the shot. She jabbed the needle in C's thighs, however, it was so smooth, C didnt realise it at all! So no crying, nothing. We were all amazed.

But when the nurse tried to hand over C the toy, C refused to take it! 

Thank you hands

The other day D caught C thanking her hand. I guess, D will write about this one day.

Cough

The other day, when C coughed, she covered her mouth with her palm. Being such great parents as we are, we dont spend time teaching her all these. So, D got curious and asked where C learnt this amazing use of hand.

C replied "from TV!"

Now, you know. I think, some cartoons are good (Dora, etc.) but disney's princess movies are not good. (I they are for adults like D!)

People get ready

Yesterday I was singing a song "People get ready" (youtube or wikipedia) and chantel joined me with the second line "There is train eh coming". I was shocked because I never taught her this song. I asked D and she had not taught her that song too. Somehow she has picked it up from me during many of my first-two-line-singing-of-songs.

Johanna bday

C behaved ok during most of the time. She wanted to blow the candle, but we saved it from her. While having dinner C wanted to eat the 'orange' cake icing. When I gave it to her, she would just eat the icing and none of the cake.

Later she got cranky and was crying for everything. (wanted to play with toys, wanted to fold clothes, etc.) While circling around the cake, C also wanted to lick the cake from the tray! Someone gave her a piece to lick - a plastic ornamentation on the cake. C promptly licked it and was about to put it back on the cake!!! Varna and myself asked her not to do it. But C went ahead and did it anyway and got a good scolding from V and ran crying to D!

Later C tried to patch up with V by trying to hug her, etc. but it didnt seem to work!

brown bedroom

We bought some bed sheet set with comforter for our bedroom. We also bought new curtains for the bedroom (at last...we can remove D's duppatta that we have been using as a curtain!)

C was very happy with the brown color comforter and curtains and was very excited. She would say "i like it so much"; "this is my favorite room" etc. etc.

She likes is so much, we even used it (like a candy) to lure her to go to sleep after dark.

Appa wont scold

Ever since, I heard the story about "appa thittuvanga" I have been telling C that "அப்பா திட்ட மாட்டாங்க" . D does not like this. So, whenever I say "அப்பா திட்ட மாட்டாங்க", D comes behind and tries to tell C that "if C does anything wrong, appa will scold!"

Other day C dropped some rice onto the carpet and D scolded C and then "if you dont clean it appa will scold!"

To which, C promptly said: "அப்பா திட்ட மாட்டாங்க!"

These days Jones has ben the only person C is afraid of. Whenever he says something she listens and obeys. C is also afraid of strangers in stores. Whenever she misbehaves in walmart, we tell her that 'that' aunty will get angry, etc. and C behaves alright at once!

அப்பா திட்டுவாங்க

During the New Orleans visit, C had been asking D, "When will appa come back?" everyday.

D started cleaning the car one of those days, and C was having a good time inside the car, pushing and pulling things. She also tried my cooling glass, tried to start the car with different keys.  After having all the fun, she told D "appa varavendaam?" because C thought appa will scold her for ravaging the car!

Pumpkin land

Kelly invited us to join them to the pumpkin land last saturday. It was a huge playground and even though the ground was a bit wet, C had a lots of fun running around. She was a bit afraid to go on the slide and the rope bridge. She climbed the ziggurat with D. But would not go into the dark, cavernous walk through into the ziggurat.

C also tried the maze. However the maze was punctuated with slides, and sliding poles which C particularly didn't like.

So, she shortcut the maze by climbing onto the maze walls!

Both C and D  got their heights measured. See, C is not 60% of her mother's height (10% of her mothers age!) At this rate, C should be 30' high when she is her mothers age? May be not.

We didnt get to go on the hayride with j and k tho :(

Bubbles

Here is an old picture of c and j and j playing. Jones is entertaining them with bubbles.

More than enjoying a flying bubble, C likes to go after it and burst it. She likes to burst bubbles so much, sometimes, she would do it even before the bubble is fully airborne. See says , "Gotcha" after bursting the bubbles. Again, we don't know where and how she learnt that word.

She is also slowly learning to blow the bubbles herself. Most of the time she blows too much and the bubble never materializes. Sometimes she tries to compensate that by blowing very slowly and the bubble never takes off.  At this point she says: chantelukku mataingela (ஷண்டல்லுக்கு மாட்டேன்கல (= முடியல) )

The Chair

2 days back, we were watching tv and i was sitting on the comfortable side of the chair (sofa). When I got up to get my second dosa, C sneaked behind me and occupied the spot. I asked her to relinquish the post after I returned back to the seat in vain.

So, I lifted her up, and sat on the spot and placed her on my lap. C would not have it. She wiggled away from me. Then she positioned herself in between the TV and myself and demanded that I leave 'her' spot. She even put her hands to her hip, like a typical குழாய் சண்டைகாரி.

I tried to pacify her. I gave her the spot next to me. The spot on the other side of the sofa, which had similar comforts. She still would not like it and went to D and started crying very loudly. D also took her side and argued that a 'spot' did not belong to anyone.

Neither of us budged. Only when we were about to leave for walmart, C became ok, thinking about the prospect of buying some stuff for her!!

Yesterday, when I went to get my second dosa, I made it a point to tell C that "I am sitting here. I am going to get dosa. and I will be back".  I think C understood it. Lets see how far this goes!!!  When we were kids, jones and catherine and myself used to fight like this for magazines... and news papers. (First reserved!)

Medcin

The other day the cricket match we were playing at the Hazelwood Cricket Ground got delayed. The more darker it got, more number of mosquitoes bit us. C was also there and mosquitoes had a good time.

When we returned home, both C and myself had lots of bumps - allergic reaction for the mosq bites. It was really itchy. C said that she had 'allergy' and wanted medcin. Daph applied some of C's dry skin cream on it.

During the same time, D had some vaai punnu, and was applying some medicine for it. C wanted that too.

D also amazingly encouraged C to have  sore throat lozenges somehow. Everyday C would come and 'cough' and say "Give me medcin". D would give the lozenges. C has become quite regular on this. I had to swap the lozenges with hard candies (which looked similar, so that C does not notice the difference) in the medicine cabinet.

When she comes and 'coughs', I ask her, "Shall we go to the doctor and get an injection?". She goes running.

Appa வேண்டாம்

Yesterday Jones and kelly visited our house. K brought coffee cake for us and C wanted to eat it before lunch. I told C that C could only eat it after finishing up her rice. C started crying. when I tried to pick her up, she wailed, appa வேண்டாம்!

Later everyone went to see the fall colors at the creve couer lake. C slept while coming back. When she woke up in the evening, Jeya and jeevan had left. C was crying quite a bit as she was climbing down the stairs from the bedroom. When asked for the reason, she said, Jeya and Jeevan had left and she wanted to go to their house. However, the moment she saw the coffee cake, she changed her tears towards that!

Tooth brush

Today C was chewing away one of her tooth brushes. She has been doing that for the past one week. I told her to take it away from her mouth. She said: நான் brush ஐ வச்சு சீவிட்டு இருக்கின் லா?

office picnic

C was very lively at the office picnic Saturday. She was very friendly with Claudia and asked her to show her house, etc. After the tour, we were standing outside and chatting. C wanted to go inside the house again to see something. We tried to discourage C by telling her that the thing she wanted to see was lost and could not be found. Then C told Claudia "dont worry;  i will help you find it!" and made Claudia take her into the house again

Bayam

C sometimes gets scared of stuff on TV. We sometimes tried to close her eyes so that she cannot see some violent scenes. She was afraid of the witch in the sleeping beauty (Or something similar) While watching another kids movie (night at the museum), she was very afraid to see the dinosaur and was shaking but when we tried to safeguard her, she would not have it and still wanted to watch it!

Some other times, she would tell us that she is scared and would ask us to close her eyes with our palms.

C getting lost

This happened long time ago.

The Tamil Sangam had a picnic at Vlasis park sometime back. We were picnicking on the western side of the park. C wanted to play in the slide. The slide was on the other side. D and kelly had to take C to the slide. After some time, D wanted to return to the picnic and brought C along. C was not happy.

Everybody forgot about the slide and was playing. Suddenly we realized C was not to be found. Luckily D saw the top of C's head vanishing behind the sloping undulating terrain of the park, way over on the other side, towards the slide play area. If D had not seen C, it would have been very difficult to locate C in that huge park!!!

D ran after C and brought her back! (pic)

botanical garden

We went to botanical garden last saturday. C was very elated to see the flowers and was running around. C was afraid to climb some of the sculptures.

There was a set of water fountains and D changed C's clothes, so that C could go and get wet. C would not get wet in clothes and wanted D to remove her dress.

After D took C's dress, C had lots of fun in the water.

 

Barbie Q

C is crazy about Barbie, thanks to D and the DVDs she got from the library. C called her barbie que for some time until we corrected her. C is also craZY about princesses and sleeping beauty, etc. But we realized that we should not let her watch (even) these kinds of movies when she asked me to run my fingers through her hair (like the prince does it to barbie?) while kissing her!!!

Little Drummer Girl

We went to sneha/joel's house warming some weeks back. C was quite elated to play with their dog. After the ceremony was over, she also tried the drums a bit.

perfect fit dress

Athai sent this dress for chantel via Cedric. It was a perfect fit for her. But when we tried to take it off C, she got afrad that the dress would pull off her earrring, and made a huge hungama! Daph had to cut the dress to take it off from her.

Height

C has grown quite a lot. The other day D measure her to be 3'. That is more than half of my height! Most of her dresses have shrunk and C says "size illamma".  Her set of shoes have become small and we had to buy new ones. I also feel that she is getting chubby and have asked D to switch to 2% milk. D feels that she is ok. D also feels that we should switch to organic milk, so that, traces of unnecessary hormones (that were injected to the cows) won't get into our bodies.

Welcome

We were giving a welcome party for Ron's wife Catherine. Varna suggested we take a group photograph and I told her that we could (only) do it when ppl are ready to leave. Priya was getting ready with her cam. Chantel and Jeevan were trying to climb the handrails of the stair. I went up to C and admonished her for doing that and came back to my seat. Then C told Johanna, to climb the stairs. She also promptly turned towards Priya and said, "photo எடுக்க வேண்டாம்"

Sunday

After returning from the church, C asked if Jaya and Jeevan are coming. I told her that becuase she was not sharing her stuff, and was fighting all the time, they were not coming. C felt very bad and started crying. She said that she didnt fight and shared everything, etc. I pacified her that they were coming in the evening. And again C started her thing with all the balls, and balloons and other stuff.
On his part, Jeevan, was asking Jones, after the church, "Where is Chantel?" quite curiously and wanted to meet her. But when they met, Jeevan moved around as if he is not very interested!

Aggressive

C seems to be very aggressive lately. Whenever we do something she does not like, she gets violent and points the finger at us and says 'dont do that', etc. If she gets a chance, she hits at our face too. Her face also literally becomes long.

1...2...3...

C can count from 1 to 10 without any problem. Yet she does not understand 'quantity'. If asked to count 3 apples, she would keep on going till 10!
I was playing with her the "கும்மி" the other day (Of course without the கும்மி) and we were doing the strokes in a loop of 8. We were counting the strokes in English. I wanted to teach her counting in tamil (which she does not do yet) and we did two loops in tamil. After finishing the second tamil loop, C stopped and said, "ini spanish!" We both didnt know to count in S, but she seems to have understood S as a separate language from one of her toys that talks the alphabets and numbers in both Eng and S.

Tamil

C is slowly grasping the language differences and most of the time can differentiate between the two. D has been demanding C to talk in Tamil ever so often. Whenever D asks her to say it in Tamil, C takes ponders for sometime and then starts with "tamilla... tamilla..." and then completes the sentence.

Apple picking

We went with varna and jeev. Got the tomatoes. Were really stinky. C enjoyed it quite a bit. We also went to pick berries. C was very careful in plucking the black berry and starter accumulating in the box. (I had to hold her up to the berry) Later we went to pick apples. While getting down from the bus, C managed to pull Jeev's basket of tomatoes down to the floor!

D Birthday

Today morning, I told C that it was D's bday and asked C to wish D. C just stared at me. I told her today was August 29th. C Didn't budge. I think, she would believe only if she sees a cake! After sometime, during the group hug, she reluctantly wished D. When I asked C, where D's gift was, she கையை விரித்து உதட்டை பிதுக்கினாள்.  

Office Jolly and TV

D has been so excited with Disney movies and has started placing orders at the Library. Usually whenever I come home, C is watching something or other, and I had to fight with her to get the TV from her, so that I can watch comedies. I tell C that she can watch it whenever I go to office the next day.

We got the sleeping beauty the other day. The moment C saw the DVD around 7 pm, she wanted to watch it. But sadly I was watching TV. C fell silent for sometime. Then she said "appa jollyia office ponga, naan sleeping beauty pakkanum!"

We still dont know how she coined such a sentence. Once or twice, I have irritated C by telling her that I am going to office to have fun and she and D were stuck at the boring house... It looks like C remembered!

Zoo

The other day (Thursday) we went to the zoo in the afternoon. C was very pumped up and wanted to see the monkeys. We decided to see the Planet Earth 3D movie at the zoo (which we typically dont do) The movie was horrible and C didnt want to wear the 3D glasses at all.

C and D both wanted to experience the water mist. But when they came out of the water mist, it was more like, water droplets, and both became completely wet.

After we saw the monkeys, C wanted to see the elephant. When it was time to leave, C would not want to leave at all and was crying and screaming all the way to the car.

kalyaantom

In C's world, kalyaanam is equivalent to kalyaantom. She would say Jeev mama, varna athai kalyaantom; jones periappa, kelly kalyaantom; cedric mama, palin athai kalyantom; appa, amma, chantel kalyaantom!

C also realizes wedding or anything similar to that in the movies. Yesterday she say the little mermaid movie and said  there was kalyaantom in the end!

Water fountain

We bought this water fountain at Walmart. There was a huge hole in it and we could use this for only 2 minutes. C had fun! 

I wanted to return this at walmart but we lost the receipt, and so, it is still in the car trunk!

 

Wedding reception

C was sleeping during the reception dinner, which worked out fine. C woke up after the dinner and was running around. When they started to dance, C was all excited. But she would not come with me to the dance floor when I asked her. She wanted to dance off the floor next to our seating. After a lot of cajoling, she came and danced with me for 1 minute and then ditched me and went with Prisci. After this she didnt turn back. She danced with rosi, then prisci and didnt stop! She danced with D and would not want to leave the hall!

Posing

Recently I took some pics of D and this is the first time I asked her to pose in a certain way and she did.

டாப்னே திருவாய் மலர்கிறாள்

Chantel is doing great by God's grace. She is quite interesting. Sometimes she is the sweetest kid on planet earth. On Nicholas' birthday, after he cut the cake, C was pestering him to give her a piece in a bowl. When N gave her the cake finally and to everybody's surprise she started distributing it to all the guests....without even tasting it first!

Then again sometimes she behaves like the rowdi rakkamma of St Louis. The other day, she was colouring with some other kids. Most of them were bigger kids. She was pulling and distributing crayons to these other kids, with or without their consent. None of the other kids liked what she was doing. Finally she bullied everyone to give up their crayons and closed the big crayon box , while the bigger kids watched her helplessly. We had to pull her out of that place, kicking and screaming, telling her that that was inappropriate behaviour!!!!! (For a pic of this see here)

Written by D

Tamil comedy event

C was quite lively at the Tamil comedy event. She would not sit on the chair nor on her stroller. She was walking around and was clapping hands for the joke, etc. We had to take her to the back of the auditorium to cool her off. She joined some kids in coloring. She was bossing around even older kids and became the regulator of crayons - who has them and not, when the crayon box should be kept closed, etc. She was also trying to color the sheet of her neighbors. It the neighbors retaliated, she would give a dirty look (pictured!)

Really abhorrent behavior. I am guessing that she gets it from D and D says it is from me.

Hitting

Yesterday Jones, Varna and Duane had come home. C was fighting with Jeevan for toys and other things. C was also addressing Jeevan and Jeya, which Jeevan didnt like at all! In one circumstances, C hit Jeevan. D became very angry and asked C to apologize to Jeevan. C apologized reluctantly after a lot of hesitation. It looks like C is comfortable with Jeya, because of his age.

When they left, I closed the door too soon lest the pooochis get inside (also the city had just fogged the street with bug spray...which smelt like kerosene and I didnt want that smell sneaking into the house!) C started crying loudly, because  she could not say goodbye to the Js. She was crying for a long time till D told her that we would bid goodbye over the phone.

missing appa

Yesterday C missed me very much it seems. Mondays are hard for her because I am with her during the weekends. She became teary eyed in the morning when I left. Since then she has been telling everyone that called that appa has gone to office. She called me at office and asked me when I would come back.

She told D that she wanted to go and see fish at the Chinese store. Since that didnt happen, she asked me to get fist when I returned.

கண்ணா மூச்சிவிளையாட்டு

சாண்டல்  கொஞ்சம் கொஞ்சமாக கண்ணா மூச்சி விளையாட்டு படிக்கிறாள். ஒன்று முதல் பத்து வரை எண்ணி விட்டு, நாம் அவளை தேட துவங்கும் முன் அவளே ஓடி வந்து விடுகிறாள். நான் சொல்லிக்கொடுக்க முயற்சி செய்தேன். அப்பா 'turn', சாண்டல் 'turn',  என்று சொல்லிக் கொள்வாள். சற்று நேரம் கழித்து புல்லில் இருக்கும் பூச்சிகளை பார்த்து பயந்து வீட்டிற்குள் ஓடி விடுவாள். அப்புறம் 'microscopeல்' பார்க்கலாம் என்று ஓடி வருவாள்.
நேற்று திடிரென்று போய் படிக்கட்டில் உட்கார்ந்து கொண்டாள். 'Chantel is sad' என்று சொல்லி, மூக்கை உறிஞ்சினாள். என்னவென்று பார்த்தால், நடித்துக்கொண்டு இருந்திருக்கிறாள்! கார்ட்டூன் அல்லது மற்ற குழந்தைகளை பார்த்து செய்திருக்கிறாள்! 

ரயில் வண்டி

நேற்று நாங்கள் ஜோன்ஸ் வீட்டாரோடு பக்கத்தில் உள்ள நீராவியினால் இயங்கும் ரயில் வண்டியில் பிரயாணம் செய்ய சென்றோம். ஷாண்டல குச்சூ குச்சூ என்று கத்திக்கொண்டு வந்தாள். 12 இன்ச் தண்டவாளத்தில் சிறிய ரயில் வண்டி மெதுவாக காட்டு பகுதிக்குள் ஓடுகிறது. ஐஸ் கிரீம் வாங்கி கொடுத்தான். பின்னர், எல்லோரும் எங்கள் வீட்டுக்கு வந்தார்கள். வெளியில் விளையாடுவதற்கு மிகவும் வெக்கையாக இருந்தது. ஜெயா வீ விளையாடினான். ஜீவன் ரயில் விளையாடினான். எல்லோரும் பூரி கிழங்கு சாப்பிட்ட பின்பு வீட்டுக்கு சென்றார்கள்

This appa; this daph amma

C is growing up quite fast and acquiring quite a bit of social skills from cartoons and may be from other kids. Yesterday some intern girls form office had come home for dinner. Just after they had entered the house, C went towards and told them "this appa; this daph amma" They may not have understood, but it was cute.

She was also talking a lot of Tinglish to them and they thought we understood everything she said. No.

When we sat to eat, C was very adamant to sit on her high chair. I put her on it. But everybody else took their plate and sat on the carpet in the living room. C waited for some time (10 secs) and again demanded that she be let off the high chair and join the masses!

Sprinkler

Today we started the sprinkler and let C play in it.

 

She was very excited and wanted both of us to join her. We didnt join her and preferred to stay near the back door, far from the water droplets. C realized that went towards the sprinkler,

and got hold of the rotating head and aimed toward us

and was bubbling with joy once we ran helter skelter away from the water!

July 15th

C gave me a flower for the bday and she also left a message "Happy Birthday" on my office phone. Evening she was a bit afraid of the candles, however, she blew it along with jeya, jeevan and dalton. She also distributed Daph's date cake to everyone.

C also talked quite a bit in her english during the get to gather.

July 14th

Somebody rang our calling beel at 10 pm.  D got worried that there were some strangers outside and tried to look at them through the upstair bedroom window. I was not well and asked them to identify themselves else I would call the cops. I was really worked up by then and at that time they started singing Happy birthday. C got afraid and started to cry really loud!

It took 5 mins to calm her down. After the cake cutting, C came with a bowl and when we placed a piece of cake in it, she promptly took it to others and served everyone! That was real nice.

Poochi

C is quite afraid of poochi, ever since the retreat. We have a microscope at home and I started showing poochies (insects) to her through that. First she didnt know to see through one opening, but now she is ok. She is very excited with it. We started with the lyme disease tick that was removed from my body (!!!). After that, surprisingly, we could not get any bugs. I tried the whole house for it.

We got an ant from the hotel and C was very excited to see it too. Nowadays, whenever she sees a poochi, she says "microscopla pakalaama?"

Baby

I use the term 'baby' with her quite often like, 'lets roll, baby"; "Thats right, baby" etc. Even though she could not copy the 'kan adithal' she has mastered this. She even says this with the correct emphasis and time gap ...like "Thats right....1 sec...baby"

appa bday

D has told C that appa's bday was on July 15th. C has memorized it and is saying that she is going to give this or that for my bday. She already has candles for me and is quite excited about it.

Kan adithal

C has been practicing quite a bit to "kan adithal" I use that quite often with her, and she tries hard, but both her eyes close and open at the same time. C would say "Chantelluku panna mudiyalai!"

These days what she does is to use her hand / fingers to close one eye for an instant to mimic the kan adithal. Looks quite interesting... as long as she does not use the fingers while eating spicy food!

Sucking - part 2

C is still sucking her upper lips. The right part of the lips has swollen quite a bit and is quite evident in pics.
I asked her yester - why do u suck your lips? Do you like it so much? She promptly replied yes. I asked her to suck her thomb instead. She tried it and told me that it would spoil her nail polish!!!!!!

from HP iPAQ

Room

Before driving back to STL, we decided to visit to a Benedictine monastery because of their very nice church. We took the tour and then had lunch in the only restaurant in town. C wanted to go back to the room when we told her that we are going home (veetukku porom). She started crying. She wanted to go to the room. I told her that we were going to the room - chantel's room - in our house. C looked at us for some time, and started crying, "Hotel roomukku pohanum!" Luckily she fell asleep and we drove all the way back home. C didnt realize that we were going home till we turned into our street. When I parked the car in the garage, she started to cry. However, by the time, i retrieved the camera to take a photo of C crying for this blog, C stopped crying and became fine!

C on tour

C was very happy during the tour. She wanted to go to restaurants adn then back to the room. Inside the room, she was always running around and switching on the microwave, or turning the AC knob, etc. She took D's shoes and put it inside the wardrobe drawer. She pulled all the napkin from the holder and was throwing them around. (got a spanking for that!) She wanted to help us take our luggage back and forth and was actually pulling the backpack with wheels all by herself ("Chantel help panrain...please")

Geranium restaurant

We arrived in new harmony for dinner. D wanted to eat at the geranium restaurant. There were candles et al ... The costliest dinner we ever had.
The candles were enclosed with glass cover and I playflly asked c to blow them. (c was already excited that it was a bday candle) she tried to blow the candle once. Then she realised about the glass enclosure and so tried to blow the candle from top of the glass enclosure .
(the pics are from the cell phone in low light!)
from HP iPAQ

July 4th trip

We reached around five pm. C got a kizhu on the way for lips sucking. At the hotel c got settled watching tv cartoon. This photo was taken then.

Water

Coming back from the intl picnic experience, I turned on our sprinkler today evening. C was very excited. This is a stationery one and C kept running around it, chasing the water.  After some time, she turned the water jet and directed water at me! More than half an hour C was having fun.

International picnic

We went to Mariabelen's international picnic party today. C went and joined the other kids to play with them. She also ran around the special water sprinkler and had fun. She felt sleepy and wanted me to bring the stroller. When I brought the stroller, she asked for a pillow! Eventually she didn't sleep.

One of Mariabelen's cousins told that C was taller for her age!

Sorry sollu

The other day one of our friends had come to our house. C was playing with a glass of water and had kept it on the floor. Accidentally the friend tipped it over and the water spilt. The friend told C that it was ok and that C should be careful next time in English while C was telling her repeatedly "Sorry sollu" thinking that it was 'her' fault!!!

Shopping

D wanted me to get 2 packets of chappathi's from the Indian store. Jones and Kelly were coming tonight. I took Chantel along to the store. On entering the store, C took the basket and started walking inside, saying "2 packets of chappathi!" It seems, she had picked this up during our conversation and remembered it at the store!

Chantel with TSM committee

Today TSM committee had come to our house for a meeting and lunch last weekend. C was quite lively. However, she would not talk to them in Tamil and was using her English on them to no end. She showed her books, playing with them, and even invited to play tennis, but would not talk in Tamil at all.

A picture

Chantel Yazhini is growing v fast. Here is a pic of her taken on June 11th

Phone conversation

The other day when I was driving home, I called home. C talked to me for a while. She typically does not listen over the phone, but just keeps saying stuff. However, that day, I wanted her to get ready when I reached home, so that I could take her shopping. I repeatedly told her 'shoe', 'shopping', 'walmart' and she understood and searched for her shoe and started putting it on even without Daph being aware of the happenings!

Father's Day

Yesterday was father's day. The youth at STLTCF made all the kids say something about their fathers. When C's turn came, D told me that C was going to say "I love you too, appa!" This is a famous sentence from C but she you always say "I love you too, appa!" and never "I love you, appa" and I guess, she does not know the difference.

So, just to make it work, just before, C was about to say it over the mic, I shouted, 'Chantel, I love you' and she promply replied "I love you too, appa!", which worked great. C also made a card with her sketches, and handwriting and some stickers.

Shouting back

Yesterday we were about to watch a movie and I was about to switch on the DVD player. C came along and took a DVD and started playing with. When I told her not to touch the DVD she would not listen. But when I scolded her for that, C also raised her voice and said that the DVD belonged to D and I should give it to C and not put it inside the shelf!!!

She is not a baby anymore!

:(

Spell me

C has learnt to spell her name. C H A N T E L. Because the E sounds as a continuation of the T, some times she spells it as CHANTL. And some other times, CHAMTL. She also arranges the refrigerator alphabet magnets neatly and says that she has arranged it as "chantel". But in reality it is not. But she thinks so and it stays that way.

She also has learnt to spell appa, amma, abigail, dalton, jeya, jeevan, odile, jeff, daph, nicholas, etc. This is how she does it. She says: C H A N T E L ...(pause)... appa. Same way she spells daph, etc. Whatever the name is, C spells it as chantel. This is very cool.

Retreat - nail pinching finish

Just 30 minutes before the official end of the retreat, C went outside the prayer hall. I followed her to find all the other new moms relaxing in the sofa including D. I thought of joining them and sat with them. C veered off to the bathroom and was trying to open the door. Everybody was joking that i should go and help C. Suddenly, C started crying loudly. When I ran and saw, she had one of her fingers stuck in the door. When I took it out, the nail and the tip of the finger have been flattened. C was crying uncontrollably. Mary aunty came and applied ointment, and bandaged her finger. C was crying all the time. We gave her baby Tylenol. It must be hurting real bad and we didnt know whether we need to take her to the ER. Aunty told us that since there was no swelling, no broken bones. We were worried about the 4 hour drive back home too. C calmed a bit. D wanted to leave then and there, so that she can be home when C starts to cry again.

When we started driving, C was awake and was looking at the cows and bulls. Later, C slept some time but later, woke up and started crying. C said it was hurting, so wanted to sit with D. After a lot of arguing, C settled for some chips. It was quite surprising that C didnt cry too much. It sure seemed that the nail would have hurt more and C didnt show it much. Even after arriving at home, she didnt complain much, and slept thro fine. The next day her finger started looking alright, except for the nail. Hopefully it will become alright soon.

 

Retreat - Swimming

C didnt like water last time during the retreat. So, I was surprised when she said she was interested to go swimming! But once near the pool, C cried vehemently and would not go near the water. Even after a lot of cajoling, pushing, C would not go near it. C saw abigail, etc playing in the pool but still would not go inside. After some time, we thought of using the $6 swimsuit atleast for some time. D grabbed C and handed her over to me, while I am in the pool. C cried and said she wanted to go to amma. Both Felicia and Prisci splashed water on C to make her get comfortable with the pool. Slowly C loosened up and started splashing water on me and others. After some time, C even allowed Felicia to teach her swimming (flapping hands and legs!) However, C was not comfortable in the water and was very happy when we let her go out of the pool.

The next day when i asked her whether she had fun in the pool, she said, yes and wanted to go back there again!

Retreat - Poochi

C was elated to be on the Retreat. We arrived around 7:30 and I was worried that she would all get excited and come in the way of putting up the tent. But she didnt. The moment we arrived, C took off and started running around with the other kids. After we setup the tents, and were having dinner, C shrieked! She was afraid of the bugs that were around, and there were many. She would cry out loud even for a smallest one, even if it were 3 feet away. She would not stand on the floor neither sit on the benches! Shakila tried to trick C by washing C's feet off the bugs! When C was a baby, she would not be afraid of bugs, but would just stomp them!!

Luckily she didnt get afraid to go inside the tent. in fact she preferred it for the car. D was complaining all the time that we should have rented a comfy room rather than sleeping in the tent! Surprisingly C didnt make a big fuss when I took her to the potty, where there were a lot of bugs! (small kosu like creatures and some big ones, which didnt look dangerous or didnt look like they had 'stings'.

There was a huge thunder storm in the evening and we were really afraid that water would have leaked through, but later found out that everything was dry and clean!  Just before going to sleep, C thought there was a bug in her shoes and wanted to wash it off with water inside the tent!

Here is an early morning picture!

Swimsuit

We bought a swimsuit for C, thinking that she might need one at the retreat. She was very happy with the suit and wore it on the day we bought it itself. When I asked her to remove it, she would not and was wearing it the whole day.

Missed you

Yesterday when I returned from office, C came to me and told me that "chantel missed you!".  We still dont know whether she understands these things, but it was nice. Today morning when I was about to leave for office, she went to the closet and got her pink shoes and asked me to put it on her. After this, she wanted me to take her to the 'slides'. When i told her that i was going to the office, she said she was also going there! She started crying when I would not take her but later cooled down. She 'prayed' and 'crossed' my forehead and kissed me (a ritual she has been doing recently following Daph!) and told me 'pirahu parkalam!'

A Date with Yazhini

Yesterday D wanted to go and get some stuff. We went to the Mills. C wanted me to take her to the play area. First she wanted to play in the slides. then she didnt. She wanted to go on the train. When I took her tot he train, she was too afraid to go. So, we went to the play area again. On the way, C saw some icecream photos and started asking me for that. I told her that we would but those after we finished playing. After some time, C started enjoying the play area and started running around with the kids and was a bit reluctant at first to go on the slide. There was a dense diaper smell in the air, and some of the parents were sniffing their kids diaper area to make sure.

After some time, C got bored with the slides, and came out of the play area, but ran directly into the train thing, (they had just opened it) and went and sat inside a compartment. I was not sure whether she will be able to take it. However, she was not afraid and sat through the 5 or 6 rounds all alone in the train by herself. After this she started the ice cream drama again, but settled for a coin car. When the car started wobbling, she didnt understand what was going on, but i thought she had more fun just playing with the steering wheel of the coin car.

When D came back after some time, C ran towards her. When C asked for ice cream again, D knew exactly where to get it. By that time, C thought, I might sabotage her chance of getting the ice cream and told me "appa, nee inga iru!"

Pinch

Yesterday I was installing the ceiling fan in the bedroom. C was all over the place and would not listen. D put her a cartoon, which C liked, but would not sit for more than 30 minutes. C was picking up all the screws and washers and displacing it. After repeated requests, I got angry and pinched her. Whenever things like this happens, C does not run to D or myself, but would run out the room to an empty room and would sit there for sometime. She returned after some time. After we finished the installation, C came to me and started playing in the bed. She was all bouncy and didnt think about the pinch at all. I cannot believe any human being would forget (forgive!) such thing so fast and so fully!  I was overwhelmed that I told D that I would forgive / forget, if C does anything really bad when she grows up. (SO, if Chantel is reading this, she can use it as an excuse in the future!!!)

Minority

Today I became the minority at home. We were getting ready to go to the ZOO with Jeev and varna. We were running late and D decided to give C a bath! (rather than just changing her into new clothes...;)

I told D that we wont be on time and we should not do that in a stern voice. C was standing near by and started saying, " appa, thittathey appa, thittathey!!!  it is ok!"

Nail polish

C is very excited with nail polish. She gets hold of a bottle from D's set and starts her own thing. Yesterday she had a lot of time to indulge in such an activity because we both were on the phone for ad infinitum. She first put it on her fingers (not just nails) and then her toes. After sometime, she went after daph and painted her toes. While I was busy talking over the phone, C also started on me (I was sitting on the bed) and finished my toes, before I realized. During the course of my conversation, C also tried to paint my finger nails...which I was smart enough to stop.

At the end of the day, the bottle was empty, d and c were fully painted, my toes and our bed sheet are pink. I am roaming around in socks!

exercise

C was in the basement with me while i was exercising. C jumped on the sump pump, then wrote something on the CD and then try to push the DVD player. Most of the time she was walking around wearing D's heel chappals. It was quite interesting to  know that she spend around 30 minutes by herself. When I finished excercising and walked up the stairs, C, as usual, picked up some unwanted stuff from the basement, and remarked: nalla chantel exercise pannal!

Vasantha vizha

  

Last weekend we had the vasanth vizha organized by the Missouri Tamil Sangam. Daph was busy with the fashion show and i was busy with the pattimandram. C never used to enjoy MTS events. She would not go away from us. However, last weekend, C was on her own and somehow gone and attached to one set of kids and started playing games with them. She was the youngest. I dont know how she understand the rules, etc, but she was playing ring-a-ring-o-roses (or something similar) with them. She does not know the names of any kids, (we dont neither!) but she was running around with them!

V or A

Today C came and showed the nut cracker (given to us by Duane/Treena) to D and told her that it looked like V. Then C held the nut cracker upside down and told D that it looked like an A. D thought it was pretty intersting. And I told her to blog about this. Lets see. ;)

Duane Treena visit

Yesterday Duane and treena visited us. D had prepared C for the visit and D was quite elated. She said Hi duane when he entered but became shy later. C was very active yesterday. When we sat down to eat, C wanted to join too. Then she would not eat but wanted juice. Then oranges and then biriyani again. She wanted her food tray to be on and then off and then on again. Then she wanted to take the chicken off my plate. C also was very eloquent with treena and was telling her so many things.  None of us understood. But when D switched on the cartoons, C was all set and very happy.

When they were about to leave, C was very busy with her cartoons and said "bye bye" even before they started to leave. However, when they left, C left her cartoons and came to the door to send them off. Around sleeping time, she didnt want to stop watching the cartoons and started to cry. However, in 30 seconds, she changed her mind and decided to go to sleep!

Painter

Yesterday when I reached home, C was crying. She told me amma thittitanga. I asked her why.  She mumbled for a long time, but would not directly answer. (takes it from D!)

Anyway, D explained that D had spend a lot of time painting a nice Jesus painting and C, in the last minute, has taken hold of the brown color brush and has scribbled on the painting.   It is really sad.

Sulky face

Apart from crying for anything and everything, C has mastered the art of the sulky face. This typically happens whenever, we should at her. Her face becomes very sober, and looks like all the charm is sucked out of it and looks at us pleading ("dont lose heart...be firm and stubborn" we tell ourselves!) If both of us are against her, she just walks away from the room (typically runs up the stairs!) and sits on the 7th step or something. I took a picture of this yeaterday, should find some time to upload that image.

Yesterday, while driving, i had to killu her for constantly chappifying the lips. She didnt like it and so would not talk to me. I called, cajoled at east 25 times, but she would not look in my direction. Later, I had to lie to her about something - candies, or something, to make her look at me!

Wall graffiti

Last Friday when I reached home, C came running to me and took me next to the backdoor and showed some scribbling on the wall. She was trying to tell me that D shouted at her because of those scribbling and expected me to side with her! However, after some time i realized that her blue crayon has left its mark on many walls in the house. She got a full shouting and ran to mommy this time.

Sunday, D was cleaning the bathroom. While D was not paying attention, C escaped with a spray cleaner and sprayed stuff on one of the walls and was trying to clean it with a cloth-washing-scrubbing-brush. At least her intention is good!

Killu and memory

Yesterday we went to the doctors for daph. Everything was normal. The doctor also said that the miscarriage was not because of low progesterone. C was quite restless in the waiting room. She was toppling the magazines and pamphlets. I told her to stop it but she would not.  I gave her a small killu treatment. C did some small muffled crying.

Later in the evening, when i returned from office, C came running to me and stood next to me with a somber face. I was not sure whether she remembered the killu and asked her if amma 'thittitangala'. She said no. They i asked her appa killitangala. She said yes. But when i asked her, 'where', she could not answer correctly. So either she forgets quite fast (whether we killu / thittu her) or she forgets the specificity of the situation. This should let us killufy her without feeling that 'she would not like me anymore!' (which is quite typical of D!!!!!)

Here is a pic taken in Jan 2008.

Sunday

Cleophus uncle's nephew came to our house with their kid Rachel. We told her she was the first thangatchi she has and C was very elated to play with her. They brought her a dress and a nice princess book. C was very happy. C kept referring to the chicken cutlet D had made as fist cutlet. She shared her toys with R and was pretty good at that.

Brushing teeth myself

We went to Job's house after the stltamilchristian mtg to watch the cricket match. C was running around till midnight. Jotham had gone to sleep even before we arrived.
Before she went to sleep, we thought of brushing her teeth. She would not allow us to do it but wanted to do it herself. We didnt want her to do it, because she would eat (suck) the paste. C Made a big fuss about it and started crying loudly. D had to close her mouth. (it was around midnight) I thought we should never go to somebody else house for a sleep over, because of this unruly behaviour!!! I went to sleep afterwards, and I guess, C was cranky till she went to sleep!
Next morning she sat with J and played some video games. When we were about to leave, she started crying again and wanted to be there but, we played abigail trick again, and it worked.

Bounce U

Last saturday we went to Bounce to celebrate one of our friends kids bday party. This place has lots of airfilled huge slides / stuff and all the kids were running around crazy. C was quite happy and liked the slide. She had to climb a set of steps like stuff - where she had to use both arms and legs to climb, C did pretty good in that by herself. She would climb all the way, but would hesitate to go down the slide (15 feet high) but she did it again and again. After 7 times, i did it with her, and found that to be really exhilarating...but I was surprised that she was not scared!
We had to leave early to attend the stl tamil christian thing. When C didnt want to leave, we told her that we are going to meet abigail, C was ready to leave at once!!!

Earthquake

Today around 4:30 am D woke me up and said that there was an earthquake and that we had to get out of the house! I thought it could have been a heavier than normal goods train passing by. D was quite disturbed and wanted to take C and go outside. She also told me that there were people out in the streets. I checked. None. So, I promptly went back to sleep. C didnt care at all!
Later we learnt that it was a 5.2 earthquake.
Around 10:15 am we had another tremor. I called to check D and C but they didnt pick up the phone. Daph's mom called me from India to check, because D didn't not respond for some time. I thought she ran out of the house and would not return till all the tremors subsided, and I called again. D didnt go out but had kept the door open, so that she can jump out if the tremors started again! When she tried to run out last time, C ran back into the house, and D had to chase her to get her. Later C said that she went inside the house to get her 'lipstick'! (lip balm actually - C does not know it yet!)

Doctor visit april 14th

C's behaviour at the doctors.
Starter crying after getting into the room. She would not allow the doctor to check. However we told her again and again that there wont be an injection today and she became calm after some time. She allowed the doctor to check her ear and mouth (would not open it easily!)
The nurse had marked C's numbers in the 2 year column in the graph and C was in the 90th percentile of somethings... but later when the doctor moved her back to the 28 month range, C was back in the 50th percentile numbers!

crying game

C has changed quite a bit these days. In the beginning she would not cry at all. Nowadays she cries for anything and everything...appa thittitanga; or if I closed the garage door (without letter her to do so) etc.
If we take her to any store, she would start asking for things to buy, etc.

Winery and chocolates

Most of the tamil christian fellowship people (young) went to a winery from job's house. C wanted to sit with Jotham and would not even sit on the car seat.
At the winery she was playhing and fighting with Jotham. She had her first fizz drink (grape juice). When we left their house, C again starter crying very much. At walmart she was still crying and wanted Daph to carry her. We both were very tired, so when C wanted to buy a chocolate, I told C that she can have the Chocolate only if she walks by herself. C walked the whole walmart (around 40 mins) with a packet of unopened chocolate in her hand!

J K departure

C was quite shy with Jones and kelly. She took some time to start playing with them. When Jones said no for something to Chantel, C went around to Daph and complained that Periappa thitittanga! When they left of saturday, C starter wailing and starter really crying aloud. Jones had to come back and pacify C. He also told her the they would bring Jeya and Jeevan next time.

Chaptain

When I returned from office, C came running and then took me inside (vanga!) and showed me her chicken chappathi she had been eating. She was very excited with that mexican roll.
Yesterday I taught c about windows and doors. She already knew the word door. So, I taught her kathavu. She also learnt "ithu namma veedu, tv" etc. She already knew 'sofa' and 'carpet'
She played with me the "chaptain" game for some time. she would act as if she is taking my ear and eating it. I would typically have to retrieve it from her stomach and paste it back onto the original location of the ear. Yesterday she would eat my ear, and then cover her belly with her hands, so that I cannot take it. Then she said "azhu appa" and when I 'cried' that C took my ear and would not give me back, C would say "Its ok appa, dont cry" and imaginarily paste my ear back...

Why not!

I was pouring some cereal today into a ziploc bag to take it to office. Somehow C realized what I was doing and started crying that the cereal jar would become entry and started asking me NOT to empty it!!!
The previous night, C had somehow wet the bed and there was lot of liquid in there. WE had been careful for some days and she had not done it for sometime. Anyway, I was angry and shouted both at Daph and C. Surprisingly, C started asking "why not?" which she must have learnt from one of the tamil kids, and was very irritating. I am not sure whether she knew the meaning but she kept saying and got a spanking from me.

Car pannu

We were leaving from Dr's house on Easter around 6:30 pm. It was snowing lightly. It was not cold. This allowed us to experience the snow a bit. C caught the falling snow and had little bit of fun. She also "boldly" walked on a small sheet of snow and was quite happy. After I put her on the car seat, she started crying "amma car pannu" We didnt understand at first, but later realized C was asking D to drive. I dont know why she did that. (i have been asking D to drive the new car so that she can get used to the car to drive alone to places, etc.) Once D started driving the car, C became happy (amma otna jaali ah?) and didnt fall asleep during the 25 mile drive!

Easter

We went to celebrate Easter at Dr's house. We were late and arrived for breakfast. C started playing with the kids rightaway. After, we decided to go the church around 9:30, I chased C around to take her along. C wiggled away and ran down the steps and help onto Jebha and told me that she was not coming! We had to leave her with Jebha. On our return, J told us that C didnt search for us at all. (which was understandable) C also participated in the egg hunt and ended up with 2 baskets. We tried to find the owner of the other basket, but could not. WE had to confiscate the basket from C after some time, because she started eating too many chocolates. When I told her that we will take the basket and keep it in a safe place, so that we can eat the chocolates tomorrow, C was very obliging and didnt cry. After all the play, C came to D and slept on her lap and slept for 2 hours non stop amid the movie sound and other kids chatter!

Good Friday

We had a good friday meeting at our place. D has been emphasising C that she should share her toys with other kids (Abigail, etc.) for more than a week. Every evening C would come and tell me "Toysa share pannanum!" I was quite intrigued by this experiment and wanted to see the outcome. When kids started pouring in, the complaints from C also started swelling up. Everytime we tried to remind her about sharing - C would reluctantly agree sometimes or not. Sometimes, I had to force her to giveaway sometimes. I felt that I am forcing C to share too many times and NOT asking the other kids to do the same with Chantel!
Anyway, after everybody left around 11pm, C came and sat next to us and said "Chantel share pannall, eh!!!"

Walmart

Yesterday we went to walmart. Daph and myself we in different departments and c was with me. I took some stuff and we both were waiting near the registers for daph. C took the stuff from my hand and placed it on the floor. I asked her not to and she repeated did that. She would take it off my hand and put it on the floor. I scolded C for doing this and grabbed the items off the floor. C got angry. So she walked away from me and stood 10 away from me. She would look around, and surreptitiously make sure I was still standing there, but kept her distance. There were so many people in the store and some passers by looked at us questioningly (both of us were waiting!) but C would not come to me. After some time, I showed C the cafe area of walmart and asked her whether we could go there and sit. C happily agreed thinking that we were going to eat out!

Eat food or no TV

C has been quite excited to watch cartoon on TV. D lets her watch once in a while. Yesterday night, C didnt eat at all. D tried to put on the cartoon TV and tried to make C eat. She said that rice ball was 'monkey egg' (dont know why!!!!?) or something, but still C would not budge!
I thought I should try and tried to feed C. Whenever she would refuse to eat, we would say that we would switch off the TV! C didnt want the TV to be off, so she would take a bite. She would close her mouth while taking the bite and so only the least amount of food from the spoon would enter her mouth. That was not good. So, we threatened again that the TV will be off. She reluctantly took on spoonful. When I was becoming ready for the next spoon, C got down and picked up the remote and gave it to me and said, "off panniko" and walked away! The food was so horrible, she could not take it anylonger!!!!
(yesterday's food, to be fair, was ordered from a chinese takeout, and was the worst chinese food I ever ate!)

Potty

C does not know the difference between switching the light on or off. D has bought C a small stool. C puts it close to the light switch in the bathroom, switches it on before going potty. She also uses the stool to climb onto the potty. She does not use the portable potty or the attachment we had bought for her (she splashes all over) and so she uses the regular one now. She just holds onto the sides of the potty rim, so that she does not fall inside!
After going, she flushes sometimes. But mostly does not clean after no 2 but just pulls up her panty and up she goes. D has to run behind her to clean her.

Tent

C likes to play a tent game with me. Before going to sleep both of us would get inside the bedsheets and raise the bedsheet and imagine it to be tent. C would shriek whenever the tent fell down! When she had fever, she asked me to go sleep early (around 9) and played tent for a while. I was quite happy that i got to go to sleep so early. However, C got enough of the game after sometime and wanted to go to the living room and eat!

Fever 1st day

Chantel had a little fever day before yesterday. She didnt let daph sleep at all. I blamed the fever to the tamil mtg - both daph and C had attented the previous evening. When i returned home from office, C looked bery tired and was watching TV. I tried to attract her attention to no avail!
So many times C would come and 'expect' attention (especially while I am working on a 'very' important thing!!) I would feel guilty that I could not give her enough attention. But tonight, I understood that whenever people are absorbed in their own thing (TV program / internet) etc, in our house, they dont give attention to others. I guess, this is a valid point for discussion later.
However, D gave montrin to C and C started playing fine with me.
C had fever the next day too. D ran out of montrin and asked me to bring some. D also told me C had been clinging to her the whole day and would not let D do anything.
When I returned home, C was all happy and was playing with me normally. She had running nose and her nose was 'bubbling' once in a while. She came down with me to the basement and stayed there while I exercised.
While she slept, her breathing was hard because of the stuffy nose.

Potty training 3

We have been diligently taking C to the potty every 2 hours. So far so good. the other day we had gone to W Abraham's house for the lenten service. After the service, Daph joined the choir practice, while I started playing pool downstairs with the other guys. C was playing with the kids in the basement.
After a lot of fun, someone told me that C was crying. C was sitting on the top stairs (the door was closed) and was crying. I went up to her and asked whe she was crying and why she didnt come to me. She got up. I saw that she has wet the top stair. It was sad. It looks like C had realized she had to pee, and went up the stairs, but because the door was closed, she could not call amma or hold it any longer!
Daph cleaned up the piss and we felt very bad to tell about this incident to W Abraham. However, Abraham took it very lightly, and said it was ok!

Potty training 2

Chantel is almost potty trained now. 99%. She is doing everything right. But occasionally she gets pissed of and pisses on the carpet. The other day, she started going on the carpet but stopped and walked 2 feets. I saw the puddle and dropped the phone and asked her whether she was going. She said no. But wet the carpet again. I grabbed her and ran to the bathroom. She dripped all the way on the stairs, etc.
I was very upset, especially because daph was taking bath and I had to clean up the mess. I started shouting at c and told her that she had to tell me if she felt like going. C listened patiently for some time. Then she came closer to me and then patted me and said "It's ok appa, paravaillae, it's ok!"

Ithu ammavudayathu

C is slowly trying to understand the owner / user terms. She thinks, because Daph uses the laptop a lot, it belonged to daph and would not let me touch it. "Ithu ammavudayathu" and will try to take it from me.
I made her sit and tried to explain that laptop appavudayathu, ammavudayathu and chanteludayathu etc that it belonged to all of us. C didnt get it first, but later, started saying that for many other things and was willing to share.

Chappi kutti

C is still chappifying her lips. It sometimes looks really swollen. Yesterday we threatened to "thaichi" She cried and said "ini chappa matain" But promptly started again. Whenever daph chundu her, C would start to cry loudly and complain about it to me. (C also started crying for anything and everything these days, which is very different that 6 mo back, when she would try hard to control her cry...)

verbal diarhea

Sometimes C keeps talking, mixing english and tamil words and some more chantel words. Yesterday C just finished her onku and started on her charade. We both were waiting for her to finish but she would not. Daph said that "this is called Verbal diarhea"
C looked at us for sometime and then started "berbal diaggea xlkh adsk jadf" and went on for another 2 mins!

Bum

Daph had taught C the word "Bum". Dont ask me why. However, C and D, play a popular game where, one would chase the other with a clothesline clip to 'killi' the bum of the other. C would get smart by running to a wall and then stand backwards to the wall so that other cannot killu her bum. She does that by climbing on to the sofa and sitting on it.
The other day, after her potty, she tried to pull her panty and run away. I caught hold of her and told her that she has to wash her buttocks before pulling on the panty. She didnt understand and looked at me. While cleaning, I showed her her bum in the mirror reflection and told her we need to wash her buttocks before wearing the panty. She seemed to understand it.
Later when daph came into the bath room, C told her, "amma...en bummukulla buttocks irukkuthu!"

Daph interview

I dropped daph at the interview. C and myself were waiting in the car. We went to niblic and showed the house to a prospective tenant. C started saying that she wanted "amma kitta". I told her amma has gone to "office" and will come after some time.
We came back to Daph's interview place but didnt go in. I thought of letting C play in the car and she wanted to be in the front seat. She starting pushing things, taking in and out the eye glasses, switching on and off the light. She had lots of fun. She also accidentally pressed the horn and was a bit afraid. But was mostly happy to hold the steering wheel. (the ignition key was not on / in during this time!)

The Lord is my...

D taught C "The Lord is my Shepherd". C says it ok. But when we tried to record it, C does all kinds of antics and acrobatics, it is very difficult to record it. D also taught her Psalm 1.1 and baba black sheep and twinkle, twinkle.
C likes them very much and refers to them as baba padalam or twinkle padalam. She runs around the house with an unplugged mic and sings a lot. She also sings many other unpublished songs in her own tunes and gets really excited seeing people in the Bill Gaither video.

Dupatta

C is very excited with duppatta. It seems she asked a salesperson whether a dress came with a dupatta while shopping in India!
She is also very dexterous with the dupatta and puts it around the neck, takes it off, then make it flow from one side to the other, or hang it evenly on both sides, etc.
She calls my tie or the winter muffler dupatta sometimes. The best part is when C goes and asks Daph, while others (like the tamil group) are standing by, "amma, where is your dupatta?" Daph feels quite embarrassed because she does not wear them all the time and says even her mother in law didnt ask like this!

time

She does not understand naalaiku, nethukku, etc but keep using them to denote some sort of time....- "onku irunthiya?" "aama...naalaiku..."
We also have been trying to teach her to 'wait 5 minutes" She does not like the word wait. But would use it in her conversation. The other day she told us "chantel thoongittu varain" and asked us to wait for some time!

Gnabhaham irukka

Daph and myself show pictures from Cedric's wedding and ask C whether she 'remembers' the person in the picture. C mostly got it right. (We dont do that these days... so may be C will forget about you when you meet her again!)
After some similar lessons, C started asking us "gnabhaham irukka' while showing some pics or talking about keethan / kiran, etc. Was funny.
Last month, during the Pongal Vizha, Santosh saw C and asked her "Gnabhaham irukka?" C just smiled. But later, C went around asking other kids (total stranger kids!) , "Ennai gnabhaham irukka?"!!!

Calling chantel

While in India, C surprisingly remember who called her how. Whenever we asked her, she would say
amma will call her: chantel
granma - kutti
bapu thatha - kutti mottai
Sam mama - Yazhini
Pauline - "thangamnnu koopiduvanga!"

Enna venum

C found a basket. Everyday whenever I return from office, C would bring the basket to me and ask “enna venum?” when I say “idly” she would put her hand inside the basket and give me the fake idly and I had to eat it. This game will go for ever till we both saturate all the edible items she knows. I am surprised to find “onion” etc are included in her list of edible items. Whenever we ask her “enna venum” she would think for sometime, always, and then say “soru” or “chocolate” etc. Yesterday I told her, if someone asks for dosai, don’t just give it, but act as if you are making the dosa, before handing it over…we have to see if she learnt it. Also, if we say something that is not edible, (like Chantel!) she does not understand the joke but asks us “ungh?”

sorry

Yesterday D was correcting C for something and C got angry and went to D and hit her. D told her that was a bad behaviour in a stern voice and fake spanked her. C starter crying and went to the sofa and lied down. Her crying sound diminished a bit, but she pulled a shawl over her and made a grim face. I told her that she should not do it again and asked her to apologize. She wouldnot. Then I told her to apologize and come and play with me “enna venum?” She jumped from the sofa and ran towards D and said “sorry” and came running towards me to play.

Yellow puttu

Today D tried a new recipe for puttoo. She baked the flour and added jangari paahu. It turned out in yellow color and was tasty and sweet. I thought it tasted like laddoo. C looked at it and said, “kesari!” We were surprised because she remembered that word and that her description was better than ours!!

daph and onku

We went to apply for daph’s social security number sometime back. The process didn’t take much time and Chantel was fine overall. Then the lady asked daph to come inside the office and left us both outside. C started crying and and tried to follow daph. But the officer closed the door behind Daph and so C could not get it. She came running to me and started crying loudly. There were others in the waiting room and so I told C the thing that came to my mind first: “Amma has gone to onku”. C looked at me and was satisfied with my answer and started eating the fruits and chocolates and cakes and kadalaimuttai that were brought by daph. After 5 mins, C told me that “Amma onku poitu, varuvanga”. Daph came back after 5 mins. C ran towards her, and asked her loudly, “Amma onnukku poitiya?” We were happy we have been teaching C only Tamil and not English!

Dubai visit

C didn’t cry at the madras airport. She said that she would not stay with Granma and came with us very happily. C was very fine during the flight to Dubai. We reached Alok’s house safely. C spent sometime playing with Kunaal. In the evening after nap, C started crying and said that she wanted to go back to our veedu and see grandma etc. I was afraid that she would not stop and create a big hungama. However, daph handled it well and made C play and diverted her attention.

The next day when we dressed her up to go to a nearby shopping mall (all of dubai was closed and a national holiday was declared because of US President Bush’s visit) C got very excited that we were going to see Varna. (During this whole trip C was eager to see Varna and that was her only consoling thing!) We told her that we were only going shopping and we would have to fly (vroooooooom) again to go and see Varna.

C also tried to play with Kunaal, who wanted to play with us. When kunaal asked for his toy with which C was playing with, C said “no” two or three times but later, was very nice and said “ithu kunaal bhaiyya toy. Avungakitta kuduthiralam” and returned it to him. I felt really bad and wanted to just bring her home as early as possible.

Varna and Jeev came to pick us up. C was happy and recognized varna. When we came home, C thought it was varna’s home. Even after varna had left, C thought Varna was somewhere in the house and would not let us use our chappals, saying that it was varna athai’s!!!