Tuesday, June 19, 2012

Mowglisms

'Dada, Mowgli superman aano?'
Puzzled dada."athentha Mowgli?'
'Athile.. Nandita paranjello Mowgli Superman aanennu. Appam Mowgli Superman aanu'.
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'Mama, Bambi touched my pramates'
'What?'
'Yes. She touched.'
'What????'
'My pramates.' pointing to his bum.
Oh. Privates!!! ( after the good touch bad touch talks, i hear this all the time)
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'Mama, Mowglinu standardizer venam'
That was sanitizer!
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'Mama, you want to buy for me C.H.I.J.K'
'What is that?'
'Mango bar'
!!!!
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Sternly to us:
'Mama, you want to share your compooter with me.'
'Dada, you want to share your phone with Mowgli. '
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Wednesday, June 6, 2012

Dessert

After lunch, the baby girl pretends to play with her toys while her mother cleans up. Making sure that nobody is watching she slyly walks to the balcony. The array of choices there are overwhelming. English Ivy, variety of ferns, succulents what shall it be today? She peeps into every pot unable to decide. Once the decision is made, everything happens very fast. Before her mother notices that she is missing, one stubby hand goes into the pot and she quickly crams the mud into her mouth!

P.S. the balcony doors are always kept closed now!

Tuesday, June 5, 2012

Mr.Mowgli unlimited

After opening the gate for my father in law umpteen times ‘Uma, nammukoru sekoority ne veykaam. Gate open cheyan’
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To my mother in law who is trying hard to finish her cooking before the little imp gets up. “Uma.. ella doosam ivide idli aano? Nammal different different things eat cheyanam. Ennale big and strong aavu”. Flabbergasted MIL makes different things only to have all of them rejected!
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When my aunt offered him a piece of cake, he declined it saying” ithoke junk food alle. Nammal rice chapathi polathe healthy foods kazhikanam.” And then goes on to have two slices of cheese loaded sinfully junk pizza!
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Rejects the custard made by my mother saying he is not hungry. Later on he takes a small spoon to taste and then finishes off two bowls in no time. When asked why he said he didnt like custard, his explanation was " athile.. Mowgli vicharichu mammammade custard mamante custard pole taste alla. athu konda" His mamamma growls at him " I only taught your mama to make custard! "
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The car stereo is not working and we are singing (screaming!) 'DK Bose' and 'Rock On' and 'Sadda Haq'. I tell him 'Lets sing a soft song now'. Ókay Mama'and the he starts to whisper 'sadda haq aithe rak'!
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Unable to lift Bambi, he looks at her tummy and says " mama.. she has become one big fat pussy cat ! ini doodhu onnum kodukanda"
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And the sweetest. "Mowgli oru secrud parayatte". He then pulls you towards him and plants one big kiss on your cheek.

Thought for the day

“We’ve begun to raise daughters more like sons…but few have the courage to raise our sons more like our daughters”: Gloria Steinem

Monday, June 4, 2012

On vacation for the first time


The first two weeks in May had Mowgli and Cocoa in Kerala. The original plan was two weeks at both sides, but as always we propose and Mowgli disposes. Tears, tantrums etc etc cut short the trip to one week at both his grandparent’s. Though he did settle down after a week, we missed him a lot and brought him back.
How was it? Q.U.I.E.T.
The BH was on tour for a whole week. Maid was absconding. It was just me and Bambi. After Bambi, I’d really forgotten how it is to just have one child. Half the work, less running around, less shouting. And SO easy!!! Normally it’s a mad rush of activities with everything overlapping and chaos, but with just her it was as if I had all the time in the world (I know it was not like this with just Mowgli! It was chaos. Maybe this is the learning and calm from having two babies!)
Bambi enjoyed this break the most. She has always tagged along behind Mowgli, going wherever he wants to go, doing whatever he wants to do. The bane of every second born. For her having us entirely to herself was a big deal. She loved it. It was as if she came into her own suddenly! Sole focus of our attention, being made a fuss of, taken wherever she pointed to, her wish was our command. She had a gala time playing with all of her chachan’s cars and toys though that did wear off after some days. Then she started missing him looking for him throughout the house  calling out ‘Atho, Atho’. 
Cant really understand how we can have two kids that are so different. Mowgli is the tender hearted one, quick to cry, quick to make up, lavish with his kisses and hugs, scared of the unknown( it could be the dark, experiences that he has not had before) while Bambi is the stubborn one, does not waste her time crying but instead figures out how to get what she wants ,extremely stingy with showing affection and not scared of anything. I have stopped comparing milestones coz they are so different. Mowgli would love to sit with me while I read to him whereas she wants to tear the book apart. In a couple of years I’m sure that she will be the one looking after him in spite of being the younger one.
Funny how things turn out. When Mowgli was small, around Bambi’s age, every time the BH used to go on a  tour he would wake up crying in the middle of the night. I would walk him through the entire house and finally he would go back to sleep around 5/6 am. Bambi never had this problem and it used to hurt her father that she was not missing him. But the two weeks that Mowgli was not here, she woke up every single night crying! And it was the same pattern.. walk in the bedroom.. walk in the drawing room… swing for some time… walk walk walk and  finally around 5 am she would drink milk and go off to sleep leaving me hopelessly tired and cursing the BH and Mowgli and the Universe.
And when Mowgli came back, I thought that he would be all over me. But no sir, he first ran to Bambi hugged her, pulled her, kissed her and general goofiness and then remembered to kiss me!
It was such a blessing having a clean house for those two weeks.There was just one small basket of Bambi’s toys that were taken out every day and put back every evening. I don’t know who makes the mess- is it Cocoa or Mowgli. It was so soothing to the eyes to see the living room cushions in their proper places, rugs straight and all dusted and nice. There is something about a clean room and fresh plants that make me happy.  As I write this, the cushions are scattered all over the room with not even one on the diwans where they should be, the swing is full of cars and there are books and random stuff everywhere. Mowgli is squeezing Bambi and she is retaliating by running off with his precious cars when he is not looking. Decibel levels are really high with mine topping the charts. An outsider if he comes in right now might just run away fearing for his life. Aah well, it’s a nice kind of mess though…