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!