Colin makes Chantel cry

Chantel acts crazy whenever she is hungry or sleepy. Today afternoon, she complained that 'Colin says the whole bedroom is his and would not let Chantel to enter nor play'.
We both laughed and told her, Colin, being a 1 year old, cannot even speak and there was no way he could have said that.
Chantel would not take it. She said, "He spread his arms and said that I could not enter the room, etc." and ran into the room crying...

muezzin calling

Living in India exposes our kids to diverse things. Especially the elephant gods, etc. C made a wonderful card for her friend Gowri for Diwali and presented her on Diwali. There were non stop sounds of the crackers in the evening. Amidst all this, the banashankari mosque muezzin was calling the devotees for prayer.
While having dinner, C asked us: What is this sound?  The muezzin was poetic and flowy, but in an unknown language. We were not sure C knew about Islam yet, and I told her that was the prayer of the Muslims. She said, "Oh! to Ganesha?" We explained about this other religion, etc. C seemed quite satisfied with the answer. I was happy that she wanted to learn new things, etc.
After dinner, C was playing with her toys and then blurted out "I thought it was wee willy winkie!" Granma and D had terrified C into thinking WWW will come and disturb her, if C were not in bed by bedtime.
If I had known about C's thinking, I would have played along and made her go to sleep everyday around 8 pm! Golden opportunity lost!

Pigeon curry

Today I took C to the butcher shop. We were supposed to buy fish. That guy also had some really nice looking pigeons. C got very excited and wanted to buy the 'birdie'. I was not even sure, why that guy has those pigeons and asked him, if those were for sale and for human consumption. He said yes. Now that I cleared it up, I wanted to know if C knew the pigeons are food. I asked her and to my surprise, she wanted to cook and eat them! I told her that if she ate one birdie, the other birdies will come and trouble her at night and convinced her not to buy it.

On our way back, C started saying that she would still like to buy, cook and eat one. And she added further: if they come and ask me at night, I will tell them that my dad made me eat it!

Chantel's friend

Chantel goes to the Bishop cotton girls' school and is very proud of that. She also has a lot of new friends. She has been telling us about her friend called Daisy, about how they hang together, jump together and play together. Once in a while, she would complain about Daisy: "Daisy has joined with another girl and "doo vittutta" and so Daisy is NOT her friend anymore!"

Last week we had the opportunity to meet Daisy's mom at Church and she tells us: "Oh, we have been waiting eagerly to meet Chantel. Daisy has been talking quite a bit about Chantel. Unfortunately Daisy complains about Chantel once in a while that 'Chantel has joined with another girl and "doo vittutta"'!!!!"

Close up and sparkles

C wanted us to get her the close-up toothpaste instead of Colgate. She was v happy when I got her one yesterday. She brushed her teeth very happily. After sometime, she came to me very sad and told me: "Appa, the sparkles are not coming!!!?"

It was v difficult to convince her that it happens only on the TV ad.

touchscreen

Two days back, when someone was showing C their phone and was talking about it: C say: "My father has a touchscreen phone! He even has a kuchchi (stylus) to use the phone!"
(Dear Chantel: This is all I know. You mother, Mrs Daphne Henrietta, witnessed the event, but was too lazy to write about it. Your mother only gives me fragments of info, and I write from memory, which keeps loosing more detail. What to do? :(

laddu

The other day C pestered D to call me on the phone. C wanted to talk to me. It seems, C had tasted Indian laddus and enjoyed it a lot. Then C realized, I liked the laddus too and wanted to tell me her laddu experience.
She says: "americalae you would ask me to taste the laddus, but I would run away, do you remember?... I ate them, they are nice!"

மாடு வாங்கித்தாங்க

C plays all the time with the other kids in the apartment. She cries a lot when they leave at night to go to their home to sleep and looks at them longingly when they go to their school with their backpacks.
She cried and pestered D enough to find a preschool for her. The school is from 9 to 12. C is quite proud of this and was very excited the first few days. They she started complaining "the teacher does not allow me to do MY stuff. She wants me to do the stuff she asks me to do!" Whenever she throws a tantrum to bunk school, D scolds her, "if you dont go to school everyday, you will end up a cowherd!
So, the other day, when C would not get ready to school and when D scolded her, she promptly said, "அம்மா மாடு வாங்கித்தாங்க! நான் மாடு மேய்க்க போறேன்!!"

சீக்கிரம் வாங்க

Chantel has been expecting me to go back to India in a week and has been asking me to come back everytime I talk to her. Today, she got irritated and scolded me: "சீக்கிரம் வாங்கன்னு சொல்லிட்டே இருக்கேன் , ஏன் கேக்க மாட்டீங்கிறீங்க? "
She also has started giving me the list of stuff to bring and the barbie she used to take care while she was here.

Chantel wants to marry colin

Chantel told D that since Colin is a 'prince', she would like to marry him. D told C nicely that she could not marry Colin, but first C had to become a big girl, be nice and then appa and amma would find a good prince for her and C should marry only that prince and no one else! C didnt buy it but didnt argue.
Later, when they were outside, roaming around madras (while I am suffering here in this St Louis chill weather!) C got bored and wanted to return home. She requested D to drive her home in D's scooty. When they passed by the ragavendra kalyana mandapam, C realised that they were going home and got elated and told D: "Since you listened to me and are taking me home, I will listen and obey you and marry the prince you show me!"

Headache

C has a severe headache, it seems. She does not want to let D do anything. Gets angry with Colin for no reason (no surprise there!)
When I called her, she told me that she had this pain but dont want to take the 'blue' color medicine because it tasted yucky and added "மருந்து வேண்டாம், மருந்து வேண்டாம்னு அழுதேன்"
When I told her that she would be alright tomorrow morning, she seemed to be not convinced.

Bye bye chennai

I left around 5:30 pm. When I asked C to join me to USA, she bluntly refused. At the airport I carried CK over the security cordon railing and told C that I was taking CK with me. C didnt like it and started crying. Only after giving back CK, she calmed down.