Pesum Porchithiramae ! - #4

Maanasi is attending Tamil classes and the effect of tamil alphabets are catching up to her fast. Recently a fly got into our house. She was so excited and ran up to her mom, yelling - "Amma, ee vandathu - NEDIL -ee vandathu".  Now, that is what is called "dotting-the-i's-and-crossing-the-T's" - just to be sure !

Like in most preschoolers life, once we were talking about the day she was born etc. She found it amusing up until the point where her mom mentioned how she looked when she was born. An ever aware fashionista that she is turning out to be, she interrupted, "was I wearing diapers when I was born". The "cold truth" did not sit well with her. She got upset. After lot of talking, she got convinced only after learning her older brother was born the same way too - not wearing anything. As long as they both are even, she is fine.

A bunch of neighborhood boys who are friends of her brother were at our place for playtime. Her friends haven't showed up for the day. The little one's face was forlorn - priceless expression. My wife told me in Hindi, a language the little one doesn't know yet, to observe her expression. Though she didn't understand a word, the curious mind figured out my wife was talking about her. Scanning the words for any similarity with her vocabulary, she retorted, "what you said sounded like Kashta Kachori" - one of the few Hindi words she knew from restaurant visits. Sweet and not spicy !

Another day was Ramayana story discussion. My wife was quizzing her after that just to make sure she listened. When time care for the question on which animal did Rama encounter in the forest, without hesitation came the reply - "a golden REINDEER".  Not sure what would follow next in her version of Ramayana - a meeting between Santa Claus and Rama, perhaps. 

Pesum Porchithiramae ! - #3

When my "azhagi" was ~3yrs old, she was on her quest to learn letters. In their room, there is a name board with their names on it - ones that my wife and I painted from scratch. It read - Sanjay - in one, Maanasi in other. When she was 3yrs old, we called her "baby" and she liked being the baby of the house. So one day, she asked what was written there. I pointed to her brother's name plate, spelled it and said "Sanjay". She realized that her name is on the next one. So, immediately spelled out "m-a-a-n-a-s-i." and exclaimed "baby" !!!

Up until she was 3yrs old, our "kutti mooki's" animal world was as simplistic as it can be and everyone was happy - all birds that fly in the sky are "crows", all birds that walk are "ducks" and all insects are "bees". Right there, Carl Linnaeus would have taken her under his tutelage without hesitation.

One day Maanasi came back complaining about something that she didn't like in school . The school site had some construction work going on and there was a lot of echo in her classroom. The main complaint she had was the echo was copying her,  she did not have a good feeling of the echo copying whatever she saying. We didn't bother to explain her and ruin the cute disappointed expression she was sporting.

Maanasi's preschool recently got a new director for the school we were discussing about the director at home at that time she asked what the director does at school. We explained that she's the one who is taking care of all the schools activities and its working. She had a quizzical look on her face and with the extreme cuteness she replied, "I have never seen her doing anything. All she does is sit in a corner and watch". Sometimes you got  to leave it to a kid to call things as they are - things that we adults are socially constrained to speak out loud. Bliss of childhood !!

During her early preschool days, she was going through a phase that her brother went through as well - and that is - all things have a name and sometimes the name is written on it.  We drove past our grocery store complex and she knew the name of the store. Hence, equipped with her newly acquired wisdom and alphanumeric skills, from the distance she read out loud -  "V - ZERO - N - S.... Vons". Okay, the store people need to make some font distinction to help out a young learner here. Zero and O do look awfully similar.You can't blame Her Cuteness for this mistake.

Whose Line Is It Anyway -- #25

Recently, I was driving the 10 year old boy, who was sitting next to the driver's seat - never misses any chance to claim his privileges. We passed a gas trailer carrying petrol. He noticed the caution "No smoking nearby" written on it, he read it out loud then turned quizzical and commented "How Ironic they have the message there..". My simple brain couldn't immediately spot the irony. I replied that it's a fact that smoke will make the petrol explode etc etc. He corrected me, "that's not it. Petrol when burnt causes all the smoke. But they don't want smoke near by petrol itself". I was dumbstruck and proud at the same time enjoying his play on the word "smoke" and also his pro-nature outlook. 

Some more lines from an even younger Sanjay -

When Sanjay was 6yrs old, we did an allergy test on him as recommended by a dermatologist for a skin rash. The allergy result came back and everything was fine except that he is allergic to dogs. Suddenly his face brightened up, having got the answer to the one question that was troubling him so far. With a sigh of relief, he concluded - "So that's why I am afraid of dogs".

During our visit to the crocodile farm near Mahabalipuram, we were strolling along the exhibits. Sanjay, 6yrs old then, was studiously and cautiously looking at them. When we neared one exhibit, he pointed to the circular pond in the center of that and exclaimed - "there's an iPond there". We were puzzled and wondered if he is mixing it up with ipad/iphone related things. He clarified himself. The earlier exhibits had a mound of land in them middle surrounded by water and the beasts rested there for sun. His mom was explaining it as an "island" - land surrounded by water.  Now he say a circular body of water surrounded by land - so it became a ispond". How can you question that - after all English is a funny language !

Whose Line Is It Anyways ? - #24

The Hogwarts Candidate

Of late, my son is obsessed with Harry Potter phenomenon. He finished reading the first 6 books in no time - the first 3 or 4 books took only 2 days each that too non-holidays. I was so skeptic of his speed that I even quizzed him to see if he actually read it fully. Clean as a whistle ! From then, started his non-stop HP acts at home - make-do wands with straws and pencil, disarming spells and sometimes even "unforgivable" curse flying around in the living room, he even registered himself in the pottermore website, got sorted to Ravenclaw house, earned points for his house, made online friends, won duels with them, won the house cup etc etc. To cap it all, he also did a pretend-sort of his baby sister into "Slytherin" house which gave him immense satisfaction. The toddler girl though, who bothers him often, seemed to be happy with the sorting by running around the house babbling "Slytherin House".

When I thought this Potter mania was tapering off a bit, this past weekend I was down with cold and the elder one couldn't relish that. He wanted to make a "potion" to cure cold. He was asking me what all to add. I just played along to keep up his cheer - suggesting hot water, Halls, turmeric etc. He wanted to literally make it. I wasn't paying much attention to him when I suddenly found a piece of paper lying in the kitchen. It was his potion recipe. I was stunned to notice the level of thought and detail that had gone into that. See the attached pic. It even mentions what to do, when to do, how much to do etc. Dumbledore would sure be proud ! My bad, .. make that Severus Snape not Dumbledore :-) 100 points to Ravenclaw !

Whose Line Is It Anyway ? - #23

Amidst the struggle to balance life with two kids, there will arise an occasional instance which will make parenting worth all the trouble. Today was my turn to experience such an instance with my eldest one.

I was with my iPad trying to open a college savings account for my son. The 8 year old peeped into what I was doing. I made a casual mention to him "I am opening an account to save money for your college". Not expecting a reply anyways, I continued. A few moments later, he shot back - "Does that mean you will not be buying me any more toys ?".  I smiled at the curious mind and said no, he can still have his toys.  Relieved by my answer, he started showing more interest in the account opening process. He even entered his own name, birth date in the application. The next screen was bank fund information. I was entering the bank details and the amount. Out of nowhere, he volunteered - "I will also give the money the I am saving for putting into this". A home run ! I was stunned and speechless and I just let the moment to sink in.  Later on when I was sharing this with my wife, this young man was actually busy opening his wallet and taking out the bills - two $10 bills and some Indian currency. Apparently he had meant what he said. I told him it was okay he can keep all his money to himself. He retorted back - "I have $20. But I was anyways planning to give you only $10".  Another swing for the fence !

Picture of my kids taken using my cellphone camera at a Mall in the night. (Awesome low light performance from Nokia Lumia !)

Pixel Poems #12

Finally got the chance to visit Sri Swaminarayan Temple in Chino Hills. Beautiful creation. The inside of the temple was just fine craftsmanship on marble but no photography allowed. Also met some old college days  friends there by chance which made the occasion even better. The picture with the California palms in front of ancient Indian style wood work carvings on the front wall of the visitor center  provided an interesting juxtaposition of the cultures.

Whose Line Is It Anyway ? - #22

Innocence is a precious thing. From the time we are born, there is only one thing we can afford to do with innocence - Loose It. But the days of childhood innocence is very precious and memorable - particularly when the child is your kid. My elder one is a believer ! Though 7 years old, he still hampers hope for Santa. Even though his mystic tooth fairy turned out to be his dad, and even though, most of his friends have told him no uncertain terms that Santa is nothing but your parents, he is still not fully buying it. While this belief borne out of innocence is adorable, his reasoning for believing is personally troublesome to me. Last year, he asked for a "Ladder" from Santa. So the Santa in me got one from HD and placed near the fire place. He was so moved by this gesture and to this day firmly believes, it has to be SANTA as he does not think his DAD can afford a $40 ladder from HomeDepot !! So this year's letter to Santa is here. Well written. This year Santa has options to choose from. My son also claims he will be contend if he gets just one of them.