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!"